BAM: 1/56 Warlord Games Cromwell

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So I recently picked up a Warlord Games Cromwell, which is 1/56 scale. I honestly prefer 1/48 scale more, that’s a nice size and feels right next to 28mm infantry, but Tamiya 1/48 Cromwell is rare and I’m basically just trying this kit out to see how it works out.

Short form? It’s not terribad. But I have issues with it. Warning: Long article.
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BAM: 1/48 Lysander, In Progress

So yeah. I’m still alive. Work is on the upswing but the real reason I’m not posting as much is that I’m taking a module in school that is being unreasonable in workload. It got so frustrating about the hideous amount of time it soaked up, that I just had to get one kit done just to blow off steam. So you get this: BAM: 1/48 Lysander, In Progress:

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I picked this up at a charity auction a few months back, because it’s in 1/48 and I wanted one for an objective marker for BAM. This kit came out 20 years ago, for the then 50th anniversary of D-Day. Frankly, this kit didn’t age well.
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Loot: WFB LE Nagash

So I put down money for some loot: WFB LE Nagash books basically. Figured Nagash was so central to the WFB world that it’ll be worth it.

So what’s in it?

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The package came with a nice flyer for the Nagash event, where they try to get you to sign up for one side or the other. Also, a small notebook in the style of one of Nagash’s books. Not sure what that is for…

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Baby Steps into 3D printing

So with the printer ready to go, I start with baby steps into 3D printing. Well actually I started with cubes, and I’ve started to amassed a collection..

Started with off-the-shelf models from Thingiverse, and the first I tried was a Halo-style sniper rifle. Aside from getting surprised at how small my print was — wrong setting — it also confirmed my suspicion that the models on Thingiverse are not always meant to be printed out right — you need to do some tinkering in some places.

Moved on to a second model, one of a Space Marine Dreadnought backpack. This is the result:

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Doesn’t look too bad.. at first, but closer inspection showed terrible flaws in the cable and stacks. The basic model just doesn’t have the supports necessary for a good print, and things just float in the air and crumble away. No surprise really, just means you have to build your own library.
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Upgrading in Progress…

So, last few weeks had been spent doing upgrading to various things. Some still in progress…

  • Upgraded my Raspberry Pi collection with a Pi Model B+, plus various casing, camera, WiFi dongle.. The B+ is earmarked to become a development platform to tinker with my Spark Core and Arduino stuff if I ever get around to them. But yeah, essentially is I have more capability now. Still looking to update the B+ with another camera plus a NOIR set, just to experiment, but that’s not an urgent use case. Now that the initial test is done, I’ll probably shuffle this to the back burner again.
  • My old Raspberry Pi Model B has undergone a OS re-image and is now re-tasked for a very, very specific project. A second round of upgrading gave it a VESA mount to go behind the monitor it’s now attached to, plus a 24″ ribbon cable for the camera to replace the default 8″ ribbon.. very happy to have over-bought the ribbon, because 24″ isn’t a lot once you have to route it. It’s now humming along happily.
  • The very very specific project suffered a setback when I accidentally broke a sensor cable that rendered it quite useless. After a bit of email back and forth, the supplier was happy to send me a replacement part. Once that’s in, I’d be able to get that back on track, and it’d definitely feature here. It’s a huge jump in my capabilities, just hope to get good use out of it.
  • A second component — Part II if you will — of this project has reach fruition and a hardware/ capability upgrade should be on its way. But to be honest I’d probably be too busy with Part I  to make immediate use of this.
  • On the modeling front,  another particular project has finally got to the point where it can begin final build/ assembly. Hopefully I can spend a bit more time at it and get it finalized. It’s a long build, but quite worthwhile in the learning process.

Overall, it’s been hectic and confusing, but capability increases are upcoming. Feel good about it. 😉

Relic Knights Black Diamond Starter

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Just a quick update. Just put together the Relic Knights Black Diamond starter I got from retail, plus Sophia Drake. Modded Sophia a bit.

Didn’t like the “plastic” these came in.

Work was crazy last few months and I was working on another project. Need to find time to blog more.

Imperial Knight

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So yeah. 3 months passed since “I’m not dead yet”. Sigh. Combination of work, school and life just decided to beat me senseless.

Not that I didn’t get hobby stuff done, of course. I picked up an Imperial Knight when it first came out.. well actually I picked up a damaged Imperial Knight at a discount and continued to further damage.. eh. Convert it. Since I took some pics along the way, you guys get to see what insanity goes through my head.

Such as the somewhat over-firepowered Knight on the left…

Warning: Pic heavy after the jump.

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A New Beginning…

Well actually not so much a new beginning, but new enough for this blog. 😉

With my Brits “officially” finished — we all know armies are never finished, but at least I hit a target… — I’ve since started on my Germans. I’ve been busy over the last three weeks, but I’ve more or less put together the minimum minis needed:

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A Leutnant 2 squads of 5 Landsers each, with a MG-34 in each squad. Works out to be 190 points, still short of my target of 250 points before starting to paint. That’ll give me two base squads of 8 Landsers each.

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Kickstarter Roundup: Week of 07 Jan 2014

Ok, the new year is officially beating me into the ground. But still.. time for a bit of Kickstarter round up.

Frankly, the tail end of 2013 and the start of 2014 is a bit of a yawn where KS are concerned (for me). The quality of projects have dropped a bit, and I guess the really interesting people are busy trying to fulfill their existing KS, so not much interesting stuff. Anyhow..

I’m always a bit of a sucker for kinky dice, especially metal ones, and these definitely fall into that. Well not the top variety; that takes forever to resolve dice rolls and actually needs a hard surface to spin on. Normal dice can do on carpet, soft surface, etc.

They do have “normal” metal dice, but since I’ve already threw in money for some other KS that did the same thing, I don’t exactly have a great need for it now. Those dice cups do look nice though.
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