Quickest Update Ever?

In short, the latest Windows 10 update has screwed with my computer and I can no longer use system restore or windows repair. Gratz Microsoft, you can't do a single Windows update without stuffing something up can you.

Anyway, found episodes of The Legends of Treasure Island on the net so am watching through them. With luck I may do an Animated Reflections on it and have it up and the next week or two (the temp will be cooler so I hopefully will have the motivation to work on it).

Slowing Down Again

Believe me, I'm just as sick of seeing these posts as you are.

As mentions multiple times before, my mental health isn't great and it seems we are going to have some hot and humid weather for a little while so as such, things will slow down again. Actually, I have got stuff done, but given my lighting solution hasn't been solved, I have a bunch of stuff to photograph and no proper set-up to still do it. Just know things have been done and they will appear some time over the next few months.

I've also been wondering what to do with Animated Reflections. I have completely stopped and it is not due to a lack of shows to look at. Far from it, there are a massive amount, it's just that I need to use my computer to view the shows, take screenshots and write down thoughts (for some reason most of my collections don't work on the T.V so I have to use the computer to view them). This one I can blame on the heat and humidity as all my stuff is in a tiny concrete box that is my room and this place heats up badly, so it limits my ability to work on any computer related projects (or even gaming). It's a shame too as due to the state of my health and how long things take to get done (seriously despise the word patience right now), now would be an excellent time to get back into it. Alas, Fate is against me.

With any luck, might get a cool change in the next few weeks and hopefully I can take advantage of. Well see.

GW Miniature Update 2

So finished re-basing the 20 Clanrats with Spears and I just need to do a few updates to finish the Doomwheel and Warp-lightning Cannon. That just leaves another 10 Clanrats with Hand Weapons to do, but they are also from my unfinished pile, meaning they are only part painted and need to be finished in order to be complete.

As for the rest of my Skaven, I am unsure what to do with some of it, but have begun re-basing a bunch for a Skirmish option. While the Forge-Master leads his raid for supplies, Snikkitch will be re-designed and lead a small warband in search of rare artifacts of power. As such, I've picked a bunch from my collection and made up around 90 Renown (100 is the maximum, so still looking around, but the Chaos Spawn will cover that gap until I make a final decision). As such, it will look something like this:

- Snikkitch (Warlock Engineer - General)
- Clanrats with hand weapons x8
- Stormvermin x4
- Rat Ogors x2 (these are my old Mordheim Skryre Rat Ogors, keeping with the theme)
- Warpfire Thrower Weapon Team
- Poisoned Wind Mortar Team

One one hand, it looks like a strong force, but on the other, clearly means I could be overwhelmed by numbers and easily crushed. Who knows? Who cares?

All that said, while I'm placing everything in containers for both easy storage and project categorizing, I notice that I actually had 8 Globadiers and not the 7 that I thought I had. This means I could just get two more and I have the minimum required Battlelines for a Skryre theme force. This would mean that that by removing the two 20 model Clanrant units and the 10 model Stormvermin unit from the list I previously posted, leaving around 290pts. Now I am kinda confused as to what to do with this gap. One idea is to throw in Snikkitch (a warlock engineer), which leaves around 190pts. At this point I'm stumped, not sure if I should add allies, but have come up with several options:

Option A:
-20 Clanrats and a Warpfire Thrower

Option B:
-10 Stormvermin and a Chaos Spawn

Option C:
-3 Jezzails and a Chaos Spawn

Option D:
-Warpfire Thrower, Poisoned Wind Mortar and a Doom-Flayer

Option E:
-Warpfire Thrower and 2 Doom-Flayers

At the moment I feel like I'm leaning towards the options of D and E as I feel both using Skryre Allegiance or Chaos Allegiance abilities would work great with them (something I may get into in a later post). 

As for the other stuff, I think I have all the stuff I need to convert a rather wild looking Huntmarshal, using the old Necromunda 'The Caller' on foot model that was left over from my Skrag the Gatekeeper conversion. Going to try to carve out the mask to get a face in, replace the arms with those from my Archers, green stuff a uniform and bow cover (so I can carve in runes or make it look more like some enchanted branch given to him by the Sylvaneth as a gift). The rat skin head cloak thing could be shown that he hunts the various large creatures there as part of a great hunt and adds to the monster hunt theme of his rules. I'll also re-base the Archers to go with him as well. Beyond that, the rest will have to wait.

I am trying to get containers to store these unfinished projects in so I can better manage myself in this regards. Summer makes life difficult with heat and humidity, which negatively effects both my physical and mental health, plus limits my ability to work on projects. With GW, Malifaux and a collection of other miniatures that need to be done, these separating and storing idea should help me better focus on getting smaller projects done faster.

We'll see how that goes down the long road.

Wyrd's Monday Preview: Bayou Bash

Oh boy, am I excited for this (well, as excited as I can be at any rate). So now we are starting to see some of the character art and box art for this game and it looks just as much like I expected it to be. Obviously there is little information beyond what Wyrd has told us as those play testing it are under the NDA and can say anything.

We know it's a racing board game where the objective is not so much to pass the finish line, but rather to have as much fan support as possible. As such, I expect there will be a lot of combat, cheating and trickery involved with it. The game is apparently up to five players, though I think I'll struggle just to find someone else to play it with me. Other then that, it looks like it will have some great miniatures to paint and very much be alternative models for things like Warpigs or Rooster Riders. Not sure if they'll have the same bases as there appears to be some confusion in the forums, so may need to look at pinning or magnets if it turns out that the bases will be different from those of similar units in Malifaux.

Still, liking the look of it so far.


Update:

OK, so maybe not as difficult to find as just google searching for the art images they had already released, I stumbled upon this pictures (big shout out to whoever took these):

Damn that Gremlin riding that massive Gator is awesome. We also have the Pig ridin Gal from the art above, the Gremlin riding the Rabbit, the Gremlin riding the Rooster, a Gremlin riding a modified bird carcass? a drunk Gremlin riding a Whiskey Gamin? and what looks like a Gremlin riding a tree?

Arrgh! I don't know who I'd play as.

Talk about a bizarre cast of characters. Honestly, I love it. This is certainly something that looks to be a lot of fun, even if it's painting the miniatures (but damn that Gator is a biggin). 


Update 2:

So the next Monday preview is now up and it is quite interesting.

So we get the art of the tree riding Gremlin and I find it an enjoyable piece (am a little confused as the things carved on it makes me wonder why it didn't attack the Gremlins for this instead of letting one of them ride it, but then again, it does work with the comedic look).

We do get to see that each rider has a set of abilities and some have coin symbols on them, so my guess is you will need to spend coins to take advantage of those abilities. It also has things called Stagger tokens, which I assume must have something to do with slowing you down or effecting certain rolls. It also tells us that the track will feature obstacles on it that will have some kind of consequence to them (so in the case of the card shown, a rock space must cause the racer to end their turn on it, showing that they've been slowed down by it or have simply hit it dead on and come to a halt).

Obviously more will be revealed about the game as they show off more preview art, so I'm looking forward to what comes next.

Re-evaluating My GW Miniatures

Speaking of Skaven, I've been feeling like I need to sort a lot out and one of those things have been my collections. Depression hasn't helped and the fact that I've become more isolated lately and don't play games much, if at all, I need to re-evaluate my miniatures. I feel I will probably get rid of most of my 40K stuff (not the Inquisition stuff though), keeping only a few favourites like some conversions. Fantasy will be harder to look at. I have a bunch of Fantasy, including my Skaven and the various unfinished work on my Empire painting challenge that I started years ago. I have decided to work a few things around, moving stuff into Age of Sigmar, while putting other stuff into storage until I know what to do.

Skaven so far will be a mix of working some into a 1,000pts to 2,000pts force, with a second group designed for Skirmish. As such, I'll have the Forge-Master working his mass raid for collecting resources, while Snikkitch will lead a Warband (in Skirmish) into areas to seek artifacts of power. For the time being, I'm re-basing 1,000pts based on the Pitch Battle Points system:

-Arch-Warlock (General)

-Clanrats with Hand Weapons (20)
-Clanrats with Spears (20)
-Stormvermin (10)
-Poisoned Wind Mortar Weapons Team
-Ratling Gun Weapons Team
-Doomwheel
-Warp-lightning Cannon

If I was to just use points, I would probably replace one of the Clanrat units with a Warlord (who will act as General for his obvious tactical advantages with the Clanrat and Stormvermin units) and a Chaos Spawn (cause I just love the model and it's effective & cheap). I'll get around at some point to converting a new Snikkitch model, re-base some Clanrats and Stormvermin to add, along with the Skryre Rat Ogors (the old Mordheim ones) and a Warpfire Thrower (a.k.a My Cheesybite Thrower) which will function as my Skirmish force.

As for the other factions? Well, since I have now scrapped my Skavenslaves, I have a bunch more Moonclan grots for Destruction, so I can do up a Skirmish Warband (perhaps bring back Glibbins McGibbinz now we are getting that Shroom-Shaman guy?) and could probably do a 500pt Moonclan force. Not sure if I'll go beyond that.

Death is a mixed bag and I won't truly know what to do until the big Death releases this year (will wait and see if there are releases that would suit my theme). I'm still going for the rebellion against Nagash force, focusing on a Skeleton and Bat themes.

And Order? I'm stuck with what to do. I actually want to do a mixed bag group, with a converted Huntmarshal from the Empire PDF with the Freeguild Archers I have, a unit of Sisters of the Thorn and a bunch of Sylvaneth units like a Treelord, Dryads, Branchwych and a converted Branchwraith to look like a more anthropomorphic Jackalope (because I have ideas for something else and wanted to start visualizing some of them through test conversions. Consider her to be a magical creature or forest spirit. A kinda cute, but very vicious one at that). I'd keep most of my old Empire, but they would be used as more as an Outpost extras or Skirmish. Not sure yet. Either way, I'm going for a Northern Valley theme, so lots of forests, mountains and snow, using cool colours while keeping the colour scheme of my old Empire forces.

Beyond that, I really have no other plans as I still have plenty of Malifaux to work on and beyond a few of the ideas I've stated above, a lot of it is really just re-basing and paint touch ups.

Thoughts On Tretch Craventail in Warhammer 2

So it has been confirmed that the next Skaven lord will be Tretch Craventail....and I'm not happy by this. While I understand the game mechanics behind the decision, most Skaven fans like myself feel there were many other better choices (beyond the fact he is a Hero, not a Lord and wasn't well known or popular among Skaven players). I'm personally disappointed that Ikit Claw or Thanquol were not options, but as far as someone starting North on the map, my choice would have been Throt the Unclean who has traveled far north and into the Chaos Wastes itself and would take any opportunity to seek out new creatures for his experiments.

Perhaps we'll see what they have planned in the future, but this felt disappointing.

Heat Wave

I know I've used this image before, but damn does it feel like summer today. Thank goodness I only have one more day of it to deal with (according to the weather report anyway), but it will also be one of the worst to experience.

Also, as I've mentioned a million times, I hate the heat.

Why do I live in Queensland again?

More 'The Other Side' Previews

So, let's look at a few more shall we.

I really like the look for the ECB Black Ops character, definitely gives off that Steampunk vibe. I particularly like the weapon and arm device. This only reminds me of how much I want to create a costume that is a mixture of this Steampunk and that of the Midnight Stalker outfit.

Now this guy seems to be a cross between their sea monster designs and some kind of bug man. As a monster design, I think it works well. They seem to be very much a hit and run style unit and I could see these things terrorizing coastal lines across the world as part of an imminent invasion. The more I see of these Gibbering Hordes the more I love their visual appearance.

Next Vegemite Test....Pie Format.

So I've had various Vegemite related products, like having it in chocolate, in ice-cream etc. So imagine my surprise when I found it in a Pie. Obviously, I just had to check it out and I can now state that it tastes....

...absolutely foul. OK, so it's the Four 'N Twenty brand of pies and it is called 'Beef, Cheese and Vegemite'. Probably should have known better, but you know what they say, curiosity killed the cat (or in this case, good taste). Vegemite has a unique taste and its flavour is something that needs to come out slowly when used in other products. This product, just made me feel sick after the first bite. Beef and cheese is one thing, but the cheese does nothing to hold off the taste as the meat and Vegemite flavour kicks in at the same time.

Have we run this idea into the ground? Have we gone too far this time? I love Vegemite, but this is an excellent example of a good thing finally crossing the line.

A Slender Man Movie?

Really? Are you serious?

OK, so this is a thing. Don't get me wrong, I really liked the Slender Man back when he was first being a thing on the Internet, but that was like what? 5 or 6 years ago. Why bring out a movie now? (I also criticized MLP: Friendship is Magic for bringing it's movie out 3 years too late and I was a fan of that franchise too. Why do they get movies out always after the craze has long died down).

Hell, the trailer doesn't look scary, it looks irritating. The Slender Man himself barely makes an appearance and even then, it just feels odd. I doubt it will be anything like the source material and for a fictional character that hasn't been around and is already considered obsolete by the Internet, I feel this film will not help in bringing his popularity back. Many have said the trailer shows all the generic horror tropes and I'm incline to believe them. Could a good Slender Man film be made? Sure, but so far I feel this isn't even remotely like it. I'm more confused that it isn't done in the form of a found footage movie as given how all the games revolving around this character were done, this style would make the most sense for the stalking character of the Slender Man.

Worse still, Little Kuriboh isn't even voicing the Slender Man (lets face it, that might possibly be the only thing that could save the movie). I doubt they'll throw in the 'Give me $20' thing in too. Very disappointed indeed.

So This Unexpected Malifaux Release

So looking through the upcoming miniatures list for Malifaux and saw this:

Flying Piglets? Gotta love those Gremlins.

Update 4/1/18:

OK, so they updated the upcoming section and it was not at all what I had expected.

It seems the Taxidermists have been going off the deep end as this is complete madness. That said, still going to go for it as at least one or two might go well for a pig themed army. I could greenstuff them a bit if I wanted them to blend in more and look less Undead, though that skull head one seems a lost cause. Should get a Taxidermist set to work with them theme wise perhaps. Actually, from what I've heard, they are better off being summoned then purchased, so perhaps a Taxidermist would be useful. Then again, they are said to be not that useful, but since when has something being useless stopped me from using it. I play for fun, not power gaming. Piglet's away....

There was also a few others that caught my eye.

Despite us Gremlins getting ripped off in that last world wide campaign (actually, we get ripped off in every world wide campaign), I feel that the three characters transformations are a great example of what being in the world of Malifaux does to you. That said, I do like these two characters and will consider them as possible additions further down the path. I wonder how well someone like Vogel will work with a Marcus crew, but I feel adding Marlena to my Outcasts would be most amusing.

And finally, these little guys feel like something that is both silly, yet somewhat disturbing. I would be interested in their rules to see if it would be worth it adding them to my Colette crew or if they would work well with say, Ramos and his crew.

Beyond that, I guess the Bone Piles look pretty awesome as well, though since I don't have a Resurrectionist crew, I don't have much reason for getting them (you know, other then getting some nice mini's to paint).

So yeah, they seem to have a few things here and there I like, but not sure what (if any) I'll get. That said, perhaps I could grab a few things to stock up and do an Undead display piece (say, that skull head pig, bone piles, night terrors, graveyard spirit. Hell, little gassers are Gremlin corpses filled with toxic gas, could add them in too). Don't know if they should be glued too it or if they should be on bases and have slots for them to sit into. Either way, could be something fun to do.

Sorry

So just deleted my twitter rant over this whole thing. Its hard living with mental illness, the depression and anxiety working with each other to bring you down and question everything you do. When I said I didn't have faith in 2018, I was really hoping that I'd be proven wrong. As such, things like this trigger me emotionally and after spending some time walking, the anxiety got the better of me and I deleted my twitter posts.

Sadly, this is how my life goes. You put something up, anxiety kicks in, followed by depression, which strengthens anxiety's point-of-view and so I end up removing things. What happen on Youtube today was a tragedy and the backlash the guy got was well deserved, but it is just another thing to throw on the pile, one massive pile of why these conditions are never taken seriously or people with them are attacked and discriminated against. One of the hardest parts of these conditions is getting people to understand it and to treat it with the seriousness and respectfulness it requires and this guy's actions have now made it all the more harder as his influence on his younger and impressionable viewers will make them treat things like suicide as more of a joke. Today we went backwards as a society, what he did was disrespectful to the victim, the victims family and the families of all suicide victims. At least the number of people calling him out on it and showing their outrage and positive support for helping those with mental illness and who might be suicidal still leaves me with some faith left in humanity.

Today has upset me deeply. I have struggled with suicidal thoughts for some time, but the last few years have been the worst. What happened today has brought back those thoughts again. It's not what I wanted, so I'm just going to leave this whole thing alone for a while and return to it when I'm more in control again (and I'm damn sure I'm not the only person out there who would be experiencing these negative emotions as a result from this mess, so I hope they are getting the support they need as well).

Going to find some cute kitten videos to watch now, need to distract myself from these thoughts.

Update: As if this shit couldn't get worse, it's the next day and now there are an amount of offensive people out their defending this guy and it's just sickening. The stuff they are posting might even be considered worse then Logan's own actions. What he did was opportunistic without thinking, clearly ignorant of the situation he was in via his own arrogance. These people on the other hand clearly full on believe the shit that they are spewing out, not holding back in just how messed up they sound. What the fuck is wrong with the world today. This whole thing just makes me feel sick, so very sick.

2018....Well, Screw You

So if there was any thought about this year starting well, you can leave it up to some asshole to ruin it for everyone. This whole Logan Paul thing just shows how little people understand the state of mind of someone with mental illness or perhaps they just prefer to just remain ignorant on it. Mental illness is a very real thing, depression and anxiety can change a persons views and way of thinking. Suicide is a tragic consequence that can result from it and sadly, people still have this ignorant view on it.

And what happened today was just that, ignorance. Someone who thought they were helping by showing and talking, but without actually thinking. It doesn't help that his Twitter apology fills hollow when you compare his words to his previous actions. It's quite clear he has little understanding on the subject and it appears that this was an opportunity rather then anything with substance or meaning. As such, the backlash appears well deserved, though I urge people not to keep pushing this hate run and instead focus on educating yourself and others in learning more about mental illness and showing your support for those who have it.

As someone who has experienced the lows that such a condition can bring, I highly recommend seeking help if you experience such terrible thoughts and if you are someone a family or friend has come too seeking advice or help, then please be supportive of them. Remember, it is easier to help others then it is to help yourself and that there is nothing to be ashamed of if you have it. Seeking help is the right thing to do and having people who understand and are supportive of you is greatly beneficial to your health as well.

Please, take care of yourself and others.