Monday, February 18, 2013

Miniature Monday post......
I did not get too much done on the minis this weekend. I had to work Saturday, and was getting frustrated with the update tool we use Call BigFix (IBM tools suck). They updated it, and now it crashes every time I create a update project in it. So a wasted day of work, and no minis to show for it.

So no Play time Saturday, but Sunday I got some good Play time in. Before Church I was able to get mug shots of most of my minis for card creation.
Photo Album

And then ended up with a hole bunch of 1.25" mug shots.
Small Images Photo Album
These photos do not look so hot untill you view then in the slide show, as they will be at their normal size.

I created the mug shots in this size for two reasons, 1 is for the new Gruntz army builder, and 2 is for the power point template I use for my USE ME cards. The power point requires the photo be 1.25" square to fit in a box section.

I took the photos using my old Blackberry (image of model below), then ran them through Picasa to clean them up.

Next to make them small, and place a border around them I used Irfanview a free fast photo viewer, editor. Irfanview has a batch editor so I was able to resize all the photo in less than 1 minute, then add the border in the same time.
This ends the miniature part of my Sunday.

Then comes a new PC game. I remember getting the very first Tribes release back in 98, and could not put it down. With out a doubt my favorite PC game ever. In 2001 Tribes 2 was released, a bit darker but still great. In 2004 Tribes Vengeance was released, and it SUCKED!!!!!! What a waste of a game. There was a free game like Tribes, I think it was called legends or some thing like that. It was an ok game but did not have much of a following. Also two of the guys that were behind the first Tribes created a free web based game, again not many followers. Now last year Tribes Ascend came out and it was very good, till I had to buy items to stay alive, so I dropped it. Yesterday I got an email from Steam stating they are releasing a game of the year edition. I picked it up as it was on sale for $29.00. I should only have to level up to get addons now.
https://account.hirezstudios.com/tribesascend/
I know there are other great FPS but I can not run them on my computer as I need a new video card. I want BF3, but the will have to wait, and I am now very happy with Tribes.

I wish I could run Tribes 1 under win 8, but it will not run. T1 is a great lan party game, and is free to download. You can get Tribes from Tribesone.com and they do have a patch for Tribes to run on win7 so I may try that on my win 8 machine.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Weekends Work.

This weekend started with a Snow storm, that left use with 10" of wet heavy snow. So what better time to hit the paint desk. I first worked on my Squats, then quickly move to the forward outpost building. I am also trying to get used to using a real camera, and some of the shots are just blah.

All miniatures are by.

  • Khurasan: Mid Tech troops.
  • 15mm UK: Space Pirates (Squats)
  • Orc: MJ miniatures
  • Praetorian Guard: Old Glory 15s
  • GZG: Trikes, and heads. 


First up here is the outpost. I am very happy with this, but I need to touch up the dry brushing  as it is a bit heavy in places. The Squats are blurry, sorry better photos of them  later in the post.





Next up are the GZG trikes. I painted these up last week, but finished the bases this weekend.


Here are my first two head swaps. I used GZG heads and they a tad big, but I think they worked great. Also a crewed weapon.


As dawn breaks over the outpost, with Khurasan troops.

The outpost maned by Praetorian Guard, on the look out for the green skins. 



Here the squats have found the green skins or the green skins found them. Better shot of the Squats.







Monday, February 4, 2013

Sunday a day of Tinkering!

I spent the day tinkering around, I needed to fix up the molding for my windows, and I wanted to do some minis as well. So I started to paint up the GZG trikes. In the back you can see my Orc Boyz on their bikes, looking for a fight.

Then I got the idea of working on some terrain, and want to copy others with the electrical box buildings. The only problem is I have no bitz to attach to them. So I was off to make me some building bitz.
First I needed a door, so I made a door, then a mold, then a copy of the door in the mold. I used plastic card and made the door in three layers. The door is in two parts, I did that to make it look more real!

Then I needed more bitz, and got to work on them. So I took a turret hatch put some screen in it and I have a vent. I also did the same for a shield. The last bit is a hatch cover, I am just going to use as is. I did not make molds of these yet, but will. I have one more hatch cover that I forgot to take a photo of.

So Next I got to work on a building. I placed the door on, a left over radar thingy, some card stock around for texture (yes it is crooked), a drinking straw for a vent pipe. You can not see in the photo but I put some screening over one of the wire inlets in the back. Also the light blue circle on top of the photo, is a water bottle cap. I put some putty in the center, then pressed screen in it for texture. I want to cut it out for another grid cover.

That is it for now.

Noel.

PS, I filled the holes, sanded and primed my window molding too. They are ready to be re-installed on the windows.





Saturday A Busy Day for Me!

A co-worker asked me what I am doing this weekend, and I told him I am installing windows. As I am the IT support at work, he turned to me and asked if it was windows 8? That was a LOL moment. My day started at 5 with my F'n dog decided to bark out side my bed room door. So Now I am up what to to??? Oh yea base all of the minis I got over the last few weeks. Off to my coffee, maker to get a fresh cup, and go down to my painting desk. I pulled out all of the new minis I got and a pile of pennies, and got to work. Here is what I was able to get done. Two packs of GZG mercs, 4 trikes, 2 gun track trikes, three packs of 15mm UK Dwarfs, 2 packs of the new Orc types, and some odd few minis I had lying around.

OK now it was time for Window 2, I mean I need to install two new windows in my bed room. Let me just say this, my wife and I have been in this house for 12 years now and we never got around to out bed room. It was the same way it was the day we moved in, yuck!!!! So my wife can stand it no more. To get started I need to replace the window, and here is the work I have done today. First I removed the trim, and the wall paper around the windows.

Then pull the old ones out.

The I had to remove the storm window frame from the out side, but I can not use a ladder as it is like 10F out side and I will crack the siding. Oh and it was 20F in the room with the windows out.
Then I put in the new windows.

Now I used spray foam and will finish the trim tomorrow. I am reusing the trim, and the need to be sanded and the holes filled.

Time for dinner.
Noel.