Category: Blog Page 1 of 21

Streaming Schedule Finalised

By

On 20th October 2020

In Blog

So this week I finally sat down with Lindsay and Megan and worked out my schedule.

I need a schedule to try and get myself back on track personally and give me some structure.

I am using streaming as something to do, to keep me motivated and on track.

So here is my schedule for Monday to Friday

Monday

  • 2000 – 0000 – Minis Painting

Tuesday

  • 1100 – 1300 – The Witcher III on Xbox
  • 1400 – 1600 – The Witcher III on Xbox

Wednesday

  • 1400 – 1600 – Minis Painting

Thursday

  • 2000 – 0000 – Minis Painting

Friday

  • 1100 – 1300 – BioShock: The Collection on Switch
  • 1400 – 1600 – BioShock: The Collection on Switch

Weekends are being left free to do stuff, I may do ad hoc stuff but nowt scheduled in.

I started tonight with my first stream, which you can see below.

New CPAP Machine

This week the NHS sleep clinic gave me an upgraded CPAP machine, following Covid they figured they need to keep a closer eye on my sleep apnoea.

The new machine is a ResMed Airsense 10 Elite, which is a lot smaller than my old machine and a lot fancier.

For one, it’s got a built in 4G modem so it uploads my sleep data each night direct to the sleep clinic, so if I don’t use it, I get a telling off.

It’s also got a built in humidifier which really contributes to the smaller footprint and allows you to actually control it. So I have been able to set the level to humidity to one I am very comfortable with.

Overall it’s a very compact machine and is far less complicated to set up and use than my old one.

And obviously very glad that we have the NHS because if I had to buy this privately, well, it costs more than my PC!!!

PC Cleanup & Graphics Card Dilema

I took a bit of time to tidy up the PC interior and fit the Wi-Fi antennas.

I rerouted the cables for the CPU cooler to go behind the motherboard and just about was able to get them into the headers, but the fan cable required an extension cable.

I also removed a 2TB HDD which wasn’t working, and did a general tidy up of the wires.

The target for saving for a graphics card is currently £200, but I may end up bumping that up to £250.

I am currently thinking a GTX 1660 Super is about what I want, but with the unveiling of Big Navi later this month, it may result in price drops to the RTX 2060 and the 5600 XT to be in my budget.

The headline is, I do not really need to go to anything beyond 1080p. It would be nice to eventually get a 1440p monitor, but that’s a long way off.

So the question is, do I stick to my guns and hope the GTX 1660 Super also benefits from some price drops, or do I perhaps go bigger and try and grab a better card to future proof and make 1440p gaming a possibility.

Either way I am not going to be making a decision until I have hit the £200 in savings and the Big Navi reveal.

All things being equal, I hope to have about £175 by early November so it’s likely I could be able to make a purchase in the Black Friday sales.

New Addition to the Studio

Megan has cross stitched for me this wonderful piece featuring all the lead characters from the main Star Trek series and their ships.

Looks fantastic on the wall of the studio and really helps complete the place.

What I Am Modelling

I started the week by building the Ambots for Necromunda, and then I built the Palanite Enforcers and Subjugators from Dark Uprising.

Whilst playing Star Trek Adventures on Wednesday night, I finished off painting the Palanite Enforcers Patrol, and then got transfers on them Thursday morning.

I then placed a T’au Stealth Team and Commander in XV86 Coldstar armour on my painting table, along with the Marketlight Drone and Homing Beacon from the Stealth Team.

These were finished surprisingly quickly, I think the wet palette had really helped when painting T’au.

Next up were the Hellblasters for the Blood Ravens, two squads of them. One squad of ten, containing the five from Dark Imperium and five multipart ones, and then a squad of five with Heavy Plasma Incinerators.

Going forward when it comes to Hellbalsters, I want two more boxes of them, one to make into a squad armed with Assault Plasma Incinerators. And the other to split between the Blood Ravens, with five bulking out the squad with Heavy Plasma Incinerators.

I tonight started on Grashrak’s Despoilers from Beastgrave which is on the Twitch stream above.

So what’s coming up in my painting plan then?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Grashrak’s Despoilers x 6 & Skaeth’s Wild Hunt x 5
  3. T’au Strike Team x 10 & Sniper Drone Team
  4. Death Korps of Krieg Engineers x 10 & Hades Breaching Drill
  5. Secret Heresy Project Unit
  6. Nighthaunt Dradscythe Harridans x 20
  7. Space Wolves Swiftclaws x 3
  8. Palanite Subjugators x 6 & Enforcers x 5
  9. Stormcast Eternals Lord-Aquior, Lord-Exorcist & Gryph-Hounds x 6
  10. Blood Ravens Intercessors with Stalker Bolt Rifles x 10

What I Am Reading

I finished Doom of Fallowhearth, and you can read my review here.

I started on The Last Ritual by S A Sidor, which is an Arkham Horror book.

What I Am Playing

A bit of Star Wars: Squadrons which I am really enjoying, even been streaming a bit of it too.

I joined the Mills brothers for the conclusion to our Star Trek Adventures game on Roll20. We saved the planet and didn’t destroy the Cardassian Space Station in the process.

It got really tense and came down to the last rolls of the game, we needed four successes with four dice, and we just pulled it off!

What I Am Backing

No projects in the pipeline at the minute, but I completed the survey for

I also finally got my transfers for Forgotten Chapters, these are really lovely and I can’t wait to get them onto my Sisters of Battle models.

What Am I Cooking

On Thursday I made burgers, but in a nod to depression era recipes, 25% of the meat was replaced by onion.

This makes them very flavourful, although Megan hates the idea of them and had a vegan burger instead.

What I Am Spending

I didn’t go mad on Prime Day, mostly because I am saving towards a new graphics card.

I did pick up an Echo Dot 3rd Generation for Lindsay’s Office, but she took over that and paid for it, so I didn’t spend the money.

And for myself I got a third party dock for the Switch, so when streaming from that I don’t need to take down the main dock from upstairs.

In the Sega 60th Anniversary sale on Steam, in indulged and bought the Sega Mega Drive Classics collection of 57 games and Sonic CD, which cost me a bit over £6.

At some point I plan to play though the 3 Mega Drive Sonic games and Sonic CD, my only disappointment is that Knuckles Chaotix has yet to be ported to anything at all.

I also managed to grab a Servants of the Abyss sprue to complete my Blackstone Fortress collection.

  • Mood:- Satisfied
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed:- 5
  • In My Ears:-
  • Tabletop Game Last Played:- Star Trek Adventures
  • Video Game Lat Played:- Star Wars Squadron
  • Book Last Read:- The Last Ritual- S A Sidor
  • Movie/TV Show Last Viewed:- Glee
  • Current State of Projects:- Grashrak’s Despoilers 50 % done, Mekboy Workshop 10% done, Ork Nobz and Warboss primed
  • Graphics Card Fund:- £40– 20%

Project Big Picture

By

On 13th October 2020

In Blog

I don’t often talk football, beacuse whilst I love the sport, I am not the most knowlegable about it, and when I talk about it, I tend to make a fool of myself.

But Project Big Picture makes me want to break that habbit, beacvuse I have feelings about it.

Simply put, I think that many of the proposals are good, the 25% of money going to the EFL is a great start, but the power aspect I utterly disagree with. Placing power into the hands of the nine longest serving members of the league is not a good thing, and allowing them the power of veto over takeovers and other issues is a bad road to go down.

If we take the aborted Saudi takeover of Newcastle United, we know how that would have played out, the big six would have all said no to the possibility of a club with the ability to disrupt their dominance of the league. How is that fair, it would essentially create a closed shop at the top of the league.

These proposals would lead to stagnation in the league and a loss of competition and excitement. And the abolition of the League Cup and reduction of the league to 18 teams robs other teams of much needed match day revenue.

As I said before there are good aspects, the 25% of TV deals and abolition of parachute payments will make the EFL much healthier and better positioned to survive, but the special voting rights are bad for the Premier League, and bad for football in general.

In this instance, if the big six want to form a breakaway league, I say let them, the pyramid is bigger than six clubs mostly owned by billionaire’s, and I think the other clubs need to be prepared to jetision the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United if they want to use the Covid-19 crisis to make such an audacious power grab.

So that’s my biannual football post done, but in all seriousness, I think that the state of the game in this country would be infinitely worse off if these proposals were accepted in their current form.

An Early Post

By

On 9th October 2020

In Blog, Uncategorised

Having an early post this week as I am headed off for a short weekend holiday for my birthday.

I will put out a post about the trip away once I am back and recovered, rather than trying to squeeze everything into one long post.

For my birthday I did get a few nice little things from loved ones.

Megan and Lindsay paid for the trip away, and Megan made me this amazing Carcassonne cross-stitch which is now hanging up in the studio.

Paul and Mary bought me this awesome little modelling tool kit, which is very timely as my hobby knife is on its last legs!

And Jane and Geoff gave me some cash, so I have added that to my graphics card fund.

What I Am Modelling

I started off the week by continuing with the Stormcast Eternals Vanguard-Hunters, this completes the four units of Vanguard-Hunters I own, and gives me two each units armed with either a Shock Handaxe or Storm Sabre.

Whilst doing those I also painted some Spirit Hosts I got from Mortal Realms on the side, these were super easy to do so I just kind got one with them.

I then built and primed a T’au Stealth Suit Team and Strike Team, along with the rest of the models for the next 10 projects.

I then painted a base coat of XV-88 by airbrushing the T’au Strike Team, Stealth Team and the XV86 Commander. I also airbrushed on the main red armour colour of the Blood Ravens Hellblasters.

After that, whilst waiting for the dishwasher to finish, I knocked out the last of my UCM ships for Dropfleet Commander.

For the weekend away, I took with me the Palanite Enforcers for Necromunda. The paint scheme I have come up with for them is heavy in use of Contrast, but I think it works quite well.

So what does my painting queue look like now?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Palanite Enforcers x 10
  3. T’au Stealth Suit Team x 3
  4. Blood Ravens Hellblasters x 15
  5. Grashrak’s Ravagers & Skaeth’s Wild Hunt x 6
  6. T’au Strike Team x 10 & Sniper Drone Team
  7. Death Korps of Krieg Engineers & Hades Breaching Drill
  8. Secret Heresy Project Unit
  9. T’au Commander in XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit
  10. Nighthaunt Dreadscythe Harridans x 10

What I Am Reading

Not much chance to get more than a few little bits read here and there, must do better.

What I Am Playing

Mostly been playing Star Wars Squadron, high has been a lot of fun, although I kinda wish I got more options to play as the Empire in Story Mode, although to be fair I have just finished the second mission.

Nowt played Tabletop wise but this weekend should see plenty played.

What I Am Backing

Not backing anything right now and no updates on existing projects.

What I Am Cooking

On Wednesday night I made my attempt at Posh Dogs.

I took some normal bockwust, in a part baked roll, in which I spread Dijon mustard, and packed in some caramelised onions.

On top of the bockwurst I then melted some Gruyère and we served them with some red potato wedges made by Megan.

What I Am Spending

For my birthday I treated myself to Star Wars Squadrons. I was torn about getting it for Xbox or PC, but it was in Argos on a great deal, so I spent my Nectar points on it.

With Lindsay moving upstairs we decided to grab another Dolce Gusto machine, the new one is a Lumio and was half price at Curry’s PC World and has an auto shut-off function and a slightly bigger tank.

It means the one I grabbed her last month is moving upstairs to her office, so she doesn’t have to go up and down the stairs every time she wants a coffee.

Because I got a refund from a few things I had to send back to Amazon as a gift card, I decided to spend it on a new power brick for my Xbox One.

I want to do some streaming from it and realistically that means I need it downstairs So rather than pulling a power brick out from behind the TV each time I want to use it, I bought an extra one to keep downstairs in the studio.

The Studio Reborn

By

On 6th October 2020

In Blog

Early last year I relocated my desk downstairs to share the office with Lindsay.

She has worked from home for over about 13 years now and it’s not always plain sailing for her, she can get very lonely. And the depression was really eating away at her during work hours on her own.

So I packed up my upstairs studio and moved down to keep her company.

Unbeknownst to me, that arrangement has not been working for Lindsay, she finds me an annoyance and a distraction, stopping her from working.

She says she can’t get any office banter with me because I am doing one thing and she something very different.

We tried everything we could to make it work for her, offering to give her complete control of what we listened to, so she could silence it when she had a phone call or needed to concentrate etc.

But alas, its just not worked for her at all, so today, as she prepares mentally for a return to work after a few weeks off, she decided to move her desk upstairs to my former studio and turn it into her office.

Which leaves me with the bigger room as a new studio, I do share it with Megan of course.

I was literally just getting comfortable in the downstairs room, I had put up shelves, and all sorts to organise my space and make it manageable, so I guess it was easier at this point for Lindsay to move.

We have decided to take a short bookcase from upstairs and put it where her desk was and we visited IKEA to pick up an armchair to go next to it. This creates a little reading/relaxation area for Lindsay to chill out in, or for myself and Megan to just sit and read in.

I have moved a bunch of books around, including most of my war games books and RPGs and placed them in the book case and will be relocating my “small” electric guitar there.

This has allowed me to relocate my Warhammer Underworlds core games and a few boxed games from Games Workshop to my top shelf and thus freed up some room in the board games shelves.

But the final step has been taken and the upstairs studio had now been renamed in Alexa, The Office, and the downstairs office, The Studio.

Today was my birthday, it was very nice, Megan made me scrambled eggs on dinosaur toast and we had southern fried chicken for tea. Megan also made me an amazing birthday cake.

The girls let me spend our Nectar points on Star Wars: Squadrons for Xbox One and they are picking that up for me tomorrow.

This coming weekend, we are off to the lakes for a weekend in a hot tub and playing board games.

What I Am Modelling

I started off by painting a bunch of UCM ships for Dropfleet Commander. Four Cruisers, a New Cairo, Santiago, and two Madrid’s, two Destroyers, both Kievs’s, four Frigates, two Toulon’s and two Taipei’s and six Santiago Corvettes.

I then got round to putting the transfers on my Titans, and I am currently debating doing some weathering on them.

I then finished off a Command Squad for Nikkis Death Korps of Krieg, along with a 3D printed Primaris Psyker and Sniper.

Drop Force Imperator was up next, along with two flamer armed Scions that I had sitting around spare.

I am now working on some Vanguard-Hunters for my Stormcast Eternals.

I also built some bits for a special thing I am hoping to have finished in the latter half of October, but more about that when they are done.

So what’s on my list to do right now?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Palanite Enforcers x 10
  3. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard-Hunters x 5
  4. T’au Stealth Tram x 3
  5. Blood Ravens Hellblasters x 15
  6. Grashrak‘s Ravagers x 6 & Skaeth’s Wild Hunt x 5
  7. T’au Strike Team x 10 & Sniper Drone Team
  8. Death Korps of Krieg Engineers x 10 & Hades Breaching Drill
  9. Secret Heresy Project Unit
  10. T’au Commander in XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit

What Am I Reading

I haven’t really picked up any books since last time I posted.

What Am I Playing

A game of Carcassonne on the PC but that’s it.

What Am I Backing

Nowt at the minute.

What I Am Cooking

On Saturday Megan was supposed to make a stirfry but she wasn’t feeling very well, and so I ended up making a Cajun Chicken Gumbo, which was really nice.

We served it with rice and onion rings, and I think I will make it again one day soon.

Sunday morning it was my turn to make breakfast, so I made burgers, with emmental cheese, mushrooms, turkey bacon and a fried egg.

What I Am Spending

I spent a few pounds and bought myself the One Special Day Humble Bundle, which got me 8 new games and one new expansion. I have given Ogre to Graham and Talisman to Misha.

I also had a voucher for some money off a Fanatical Bundle of my choice, so I picked up the Reaper Bundle 6 as well as a bargain basement copy of Warhammer Quest and Space Wolf plus a few other little bundles too.

I need something to better organise the charging cables on my desk and so I grabbed this set from Amazon, and they have worked out quite well.

I also grabbed myself the current hotness of Among Us too as a birthday treat!

And to make the office work better for Lindsay, we grabbed an IKEA Trådfri colour bulb which has been added to the Hue system and works quite well with that.

September Resolutions Update

By

On 1st October 2020

In Blog

So this month I got to 989 models painted, but I didn’t get as much painted as I wanted to do, which is annoying.

I really much redouble my efforts in October.

I did find the joy of painting with a wet palette this month, and its a bit of a revelation.

Finish The Blood Ravens I Own on 1st January –

I haven’t gotten any of these painted this month 🙁

I still have to paint:-

  • Intercessors with Stalker Bolt Rifles x 10
  • Hellblasters x 10
  • Hellblasters with Heavy Plasma Incinerators x 5
  • Inceptors x 3

Finish The Death Guard/Paint Mortarion for Everchosen – Complete

I finally got round to painting Mortarion, and I couldn’t be happier with how he turned out.

I also got the Space Marines Heroes painted as well, so that is the Death Guard complete, and both resolutions competed.

Paint 2000 Points of Stormcast Eternals –

No Stormcast were painted this month ;-(

Still left to paint are:-

  • Lord Arquilor
  • Vanguard-Hunters with Storm Sabres x 5
  • Gryph-Hounds x 6

Paint 2000 Points of T’au –

I first started by pointing the next Strike Team, a Cadre Fireblade and Devilfish, which means I now can field a battalion detachment for the T’au if I so wish.

Left to paint I have:-

  • Commander in XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit
  • Strike Team x 10
  • XV25 Stealth Suits x 3
  • Sniper Drones x 4
  • Barracuda AX-5-2
  • KV128 Stormsurge

Other Resolutions

  • Complete 2000 Points of Orks
  • Rebase the Orks

Completed Resolutions

  • Paint 867 Models
  • Rebase the Blood Ravens
  • Finish the Death Guard
  • Paint Mortarion for Everchosen

So heading into October, what does my painting queue look like?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad x 5
  3. Millitarium Tempestus Drop Force Imperator x 5
  4. Palantite Enforcers x 10
  5. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard Hunters x 5
  6. T’au Stealth Team x 3
  7. Blood Ravens Hellblasters x 15
  8. Grashrak’s Ravagers & Skaeth’s Wild Hunt
  9. T’au Strike Team x 10 & Sniper Drone Team
  10. Death Korps of Krieg Engineers x 10 & Hades Breaching Drill

The New PC

By

On 30th September 2020

In Blog

So I bought a new PC, well rather Megan lent me the money to do so, well half the money!

On Sunday I built the new machine, you can check out how I built it later in this post with a video we made of the build.

So let’s take a look at what went into the machine.

  • CPU:- AMD Ryzen 5 3400G
  • CPU Cooler:- GameMax Gamma 500 ARGB
  • Motherboard:- Asrock X570 Steel Legend
  • PSU:- GameMax RGB 550w Modular 80 Plus Gold
  • Memory:- Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 2 x 8GB DDR4 3600
  • SSD:- Crucial P1 1TB x 2
  • Wi-Fi & Bluetooth:- Intel 7265 M.2
  • Case:- Kolink Aviator Gunmetal
  • Case Fans:- upHere PWM 120mm Rainbow x 5

A few compromises were made, the PSU was a little less powerful than I wanted 750w was my target to give me room to get a powerful graphics card eventually, but the budget restricted me to 550w. But given the kind of graphics card I am initially thinking of getting, this should be plenty powerful enough.

The case fans are set to a simple rainbow pattern, but that’s cool, they cost me £34 for six, so I am happy with that. Eventually the plan is to fit a proper controllable Corsair system in to the machine, but these will be perfect for now.

Because I do a lot of media heavy stuff with the podcast, I had wanted to go with 32GB of RAM, however the budget didn’t allow for that, so I have gone for 16GB now, with a plan to upgrade within the next year.

But these are all things are either purely cosmetic and are easily upgraded or added to in time when budget allows, in the meantime it’s gonna do me awesomely.

They memory was originally going to be Adata XPG Spectrix D60 RBG 2 x 8GB DDR4 but delivery turned out to be an issue and despite it being next day delivery when I ordered it, it would actually be mid October before I got it, so that was cancelled and a replacement ordered.

The case was picked specifically created because it had a 5 1/2 inch external bay, which is use for my Blu-Ray writer, and I actually still need that.

A salvaged windows key was purchased which was nice and cheap. And due to an ordering mixup, I have two NVMe SSDs instead of a single one, so plan is to use one for my O/S and most used programs and the other for games.

A couple of bits were taken from my old computer a 1TB HDD which contains my documents and stuff I am working on, a separate 2TB HDD which currently is used as a game drive, and the BRD drive of course. I also took the 2TB external HDD which is used to store my music on and plugged it into this.

The first lot arrived on Saturday, over five separate deliveries all from Amazon, three came with Amazon delivery folk, the case came with DPD and the CPU cooler came with the dreaded Hermes. Because our Hermes man doesn’t like ringing the doorbell, I ended up putting a sign in the door asking him to make sure he rang. As it was I was lucky as was loading the dishwasher when he pulled up so was able to grab it off him quickly.

The motherboard arrived on Sunday after taking a trip from Spain, along with the memory. I must admit to getting very worried as the memory took until 5am to ship, but luckily it just shipped from the Darlington fulfilment centre.

I did forget to order a set of antennas for the Wi-Fi adaptor and ordered them early Sunday morning.

The Build

The build took place on Sunday evening, the original plan was to prepare the case with the PSU and case fans the night before, but alas, my hands were not cooperating with me to do that!

I started off on Sunday morning by preparing the case, so I fitted the case fans, installed the PSU and moved over the drives from my old PC to this one.

The first thing we discovered, is that the interior has been significantly redesigned, it now has a PSU basement and the wiring for the USB sockets and case functionings is a lot better and no longer looks like it might get in the way of any ports on the top right corner of the motherboard.

It did mean that I was losing out in the RGB aspect of the fan, but it does mean that I was going to make sure it was pulling cool air from outside the case into it, thus making sure that it lasts longer. The original spec had no filter at the bottom so it would have had to drawn air from inside the PC.

Once the motherboard and memory arrived, I was able to crack on with that, and it was very fun.

First things first I fitted the CPU, being very careful with it, then I installed the memory, M.2 SSD and M.2 Wi-Fi module.

Lastly on the motherboard I fitted the cooler, the reason I did that last was because it’s fairly big and bulky and I didn’t want to have to work around it when fitting the other stuff.

Then I slipped the board into the case, and screwed it in, followed by attaching the necessary power and data cables.

Initially it didn’t POST, turns out the PSU isn’t capable of supplying the extra 4 pin CPU power supply. I know this is only really needed if I plan to seriously overclock the CPU, which I don’t but it was annoying.

So after removing that power connector, we were able to get the PC to POST successfully, and it runs very nicely. I did take the opportunity to turn the CPU cooler round so that we could see the lovely RGB lights.

Windows was installed via USB media, which I smartly prepared the night before. And when that was set up, I then connected up the extra HDDs one of which I smartly downloaded all of the drivers and other software I wanted as well.

But you can take a look at the build process hopefully later this week as I did video it all.

I did my best to make this the most attractive PC I have ever built, and with actual cable management to minimise dust issues.

The second M.2 drive arrived Monday along with the Wi-Fi antennas, so they were fitted then and as such are not on the video. I also had a spare 300GB HDD which I normally use as a scratch drive, I struggled to figure out how it went in the case on Sunday, but figured it out on Monday.

I also had a 2TB HDD, which I tried to fit, but it seems the drive is knackered and the PC refused to POST with it plugged in.

Future Plans

Short term, I need to make a couple changes to the desk, first, I need a under desk keyboard tray, because I use so much of my desk space for painting.

Medium term the plan is to add a discrete graphics card, I only need something that can handle 1080p gaming with a little streaming, so current thinking is something like an XFX Radeon RX570 8GB, MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Super or perhaps a MSI Radeon RX5500 XT 8GB or similar, that would do me just right, but if budget allows, I will spend a bit more.

This will then allow me to upgrade the processor to something a lot more powerful, which will be nice. The current processor was picked to allow me to initially go without a discrete graphics card.

The memory is gonna go up to 32GB , might seem overkill, but I want to do a lot more video work for the podcast. And I also want to add a proper video capture card as well to make streaming from consoles a lot easier, as well as making it so I can grab a DSLR for making video content.

And a big possibility for me is the addition of a soundcard. I know that soundcards are kinda redundant these days but I am a podcaster, and I need good sound quality. If the sound on the motherboard is good, I will stick with that, but in the back pocket the possibility of upgrading to a decent Creative soundcard is there.

But What About The Old PC

The old PC is well, a bit sore and sorry looking, but I have replaced the BRD drive with a plain Blu-Ray drive, cleaned it out, cleared it off and reinstalled Windows and a few other bits of software and it’s going to go be used by Megan’s mum for her paperwork. And being an early learning practitioner she has a lot of complex paper work to do, and my old machine will be perfect doing that for her.

So on Sunday morning before touching the new build, I took that apart, cleaned it out, put it back together in a much tidier set up. I then formatted the OS drive and gave it a clean install of Windows 10, along with giving it a Charlie Bears wallpaper for her.

As I had a spare RGB fan from my build, I decided to give her that, so I fitted that to the front and now she gets a lovely little light show when it’s in use.

What I Am Modelling

I started by having a little rest after the long hard job of painting Mortarion, and built the two starter warbands for Beastgrave, Grashrak’s Ravagers and Skaeth’s Wild Hunt.

And I also built the Azyrite Ruins from Warhammer Mortal Realms plus a set of Spirit Hosts I got with them as well.

The first models I painted were the Nighthaunt character models that come with Soul Wars, although these were actually from Mortal Realms.

I painted up a Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed, a Spirit Torment, Guardian of Souls and Lord Executioner. My Nighthaunt scheme isn’t particularly sophisticated, but I am happy with it.

I then began work on the Adeptus Titanicus Titans, doing a total of five of them. A Warbringer Nemesis, two Reavers and two Warhounds, along with a Vulcan Megabolter for a Reaver.

Was very slow going but I managed to complete two Reavers Titans early Wednesday morning.

I was also finally able to finish off the priming of the Zone Mortalis terrain!

Be Wednesday night I finished the Warbringer Nemesis Titan and the two Warhounds.

So what does this leave my painting plan looking like for this week?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. 2. UCM Ships (4 Cruisers, 4 Frigates, 6 Corvettes, 2 Destroyers)
  3. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad x 5
  4. Millitarium Tempestus Drop Force Imperartor x 5
  5. Palanite Enforcers x 10
  6. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard-Hunters x 5
  7. T’au Stealth Team x 3
  8. Blood Ravens Hellblasters x 15
  9. Grashrak’s Ravagers & Skaeth’s Wild Hunt
  10. T’au Strike Team x 10 & Sniper Drone Team

What I Am Reading

Been giving The Doom of Fallowhearth by Robbie MacNivan a read, and I am rather enjoying it.

What I Am Playing

Tonight I got 6 games of Coup in with Lindsay and Megan when we went to Meeple Perk for our tea, we each won two games each.

Video games wise, I had a little play on a Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and a quick game of Carcassonne but that’s about it.

What I Am Backing

Just the Remebrancers of the Australius Ultima Sector which features me as a card!

What I Am Cooking

For Friday wing night, I made Whiskey BBQ wings in the slow cooker. I had intended to make them bourbon wings, but we were mysteriously out of bourbon.

The accompaniments were not great however, Lindsay experiment with the mash, making it in the microwave, it was not very nice if I am honest.

And the other side was courgette fries, which I really disliked due to the big differences in texture, my autism reared it ugly head big time!

Megan did thicken the sauce the wings were cooked in as a sort of gravy, which was really nice, but it’s not pictured here.

On Saturday I made Smoky Pork and Boston Beans, was very nice, but next time I am going to make the beans an actual mix of beans rather than just cannelloni beans

And I cooked it in the Dutch oven covered, but the sauce was quite thin, so if I leave it uncovered next time hopefully the sauce will thicken a little.

We served it with corn bread for the real American taste!

What I Am Spending

Obviously all the gear for the PC build!!!

My foam for Beastgrave arrived, and well ahead of schedule, so that allowed me to build the models from the core set at long last and add them to my painting plan.

I also picked up a cheap set of bookends, just to secure the books on my top shelf in the office and stop them falling down all the time.

I won something, a copy of Legends of Zelda: Links Awakening for the Switch, but I already have a copy of this!!!

But that’s alright as I traded it in and bought Super Mario 3D All-Stars instead, which is brilliant as I have been wanting to get that. That was delivered on Monday.

I also did a swap with my pal Kev, we wanted each other’s tin plates from our Warhammer Mystery Box that we got from Half Moon Bay, so I sent him mine, he sent me his!

I also saw a killer deal for a pack of four smart plugs on Amazon, normally I go for TP-Link Kasa, but these had a £25 off voucher allowing me to pick them up for just under £15.

This allows me to smart up the bedside lamps and fan in mine and Lindsay’s room, leaving one spare for the Christmas tree, because that season is close approaching.

Be Prepared

By

On 22nd September 2020

In Blog

Not much to say this week, things have been quiet, just worried about what’s going to happen in regards to the virus, but then again I think every body is.

Living in the North East I am now under tighter restrictions due to the high R number. Tuesday night I was supposed to return to Durham Raiders for the first time since February for a game, but that has now obviously been cancelled.

We just gotta do as they say, wash out hands, wear a face mask, where we can and keep to social distancing.

I think I am better prepared for a lockdown than I was last time, and tomorrow I will be doing a paint inventory to identify any that need a spare purchased.

We have, and sensibly I think, purchased a few extra things for the cupboard, basically some extra tins of beans and chopped tomatoes and are buying a few extra little cupboard things in our weekly shops, just in case.

We aren’t panic buying, don’t want to do that, just instead of a packet of custard, we might grab two, and a slightly bigger bag of pasta than normal.

But this is something we have kinda been doing since the first lockdown, sounds daft, but it’s reassuring to know that we have enough to get by for a least a couple of weeks if the shops experience huge shortages again.

I wasn’t a Boy Scout, but right now I think the mantra is , Be Prepared.

So guys I guess let’s just be ready to bunker down if we have to, trust me, you don’t want to catch this virus, it’s horrid, and we most certainly don’t want vulnerable people to get it.

So stay safe guys!

What I Am Painting

Might sound like total common sense, but whilst I have been experimenting with airbrushing, I haven’t been using gloves.

Well Lindsay and Megan kept having a go at me about it, so I relented and when putting the first paints on my T’au Strike Team, Cadre Fireblade and Devilfish, I used gloves.

Of course they were right, it was far easier and far cleaner. I guess I like the look of hands covered in paint, but it will be better if I keep them clean.

So I tried a slightly different method with the T’au this time to see if it works better.

On Tuesday the fates aligned and I was able to get about 50% of the Zone Mortalis stuff primed, at long last, but I lost the daylight before I could get the last of it primed, plus I didn’t have enough gunmetal spray so had to go to Wilkinson’s to get some more.

I was quite unwell for a couple of days so no painting got done for a couple of days 🙁

First model I got finished was a Devilfish for the T’au Empire Strike Team, so much better now I have figured out getting the base colour on with an airbrush.

The T’au infantry give me a lot of bother, I really struggle to get smooth coats on them, so I kinda did some research and ended up putting together a wet palette, and oh my god, it literally transformed my painting!

Was so much quicker to paint and a lot easier too, I will never go back to not using one!!!

I then kinda worked through late on Friday and into Saturday morning to finish the rest of the Strike Team and the Cadre Fireblade.

I also started and finished Mortarion for the Horus Heresy, very proud of him and can’t wait to get him on the tabletop, so he can reap some men!

I then moved on the Mortarions Daemon Prince form, along with the seven Space Marine Hero Death Guard Models.

The Space Marine Hero’s were finished first, these all felt like unique character models in themselves, I mean I guess they are actually!

But so much detail in them that required a lot of attention to detail on every model.

I then finished Mortarion for 40k, and what a job that was!

A solid 23 hours of painting over three days, finally finishing him at 0030 Tuesday morning!

I am so so very proud of this model, utterly amazing but now I am knackered from all the concentration!!!

So how does my painting queue look going into next week?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Nighthaunt Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed, Spirit Torment, Guardian of Souls & Lord Executioner
  3. Adeptus Titanicus Titans (Warlord x 2, Reaver x 2, Nemsis Warbringer)
  4. Dropfleet Commander UCM Ships (4 Cruisers, 4 Frigates, 6 Corvettes, 2 Destroyers)
  5. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad x 5
  6. Millitarium Tempestus Drop Force Imperator
  7. Palanite Enforcers x 10
  8. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard-Hunters x 5
  9. T’au Stealth Suit Team x 3
  10. Blood Ravens Hellblasters x 15

What I Am Reading

I read Curse of Honor by David Annandale, it’s at times difficult because I don’t get in the best with David’s sentence structure.

But once I got into it, it was difficult to put down, I got it finished in the wee hours of Thursday morning, and you can read a full review here.

I then moved on to The Doom of Fallowhearth by Robbie MacNivan, a novel set in the Descent board games universe.

I finished listening to Saturnine by Dan Abnett, blown away by it again and picked up so many more things that I missed first time round when reading it.

What I Am Playing

We had a session of Star Trek Adventures on Thursday, we boarded a damaged Cardassian space station to try and prevent it falling to the surface of a planet and causing an extinction level event.

Some mild torture of a Vorta was involved, and we will be picking up the game again in a fortnight.

What I Am Backing

Calico arrived, although it did so whilst we wet out shopping and thus we had to take in trip into town to grab it from the access point.

It looks really good and hopefully we can get it played soon.

What I Am Cooking

On Friday I made Indian Spiced Chicken Wings, which were lovely but a little bit spicer than last time.

But I think that’s because I didn’t toss them in the spice and sprinkled it on instead.

What I Am Spending

I got a £10 Amazon gift card from a competition, so put that towards a foam insert for Beastgrave, which is coming from Feldherr so will probably arrive early October going on past orders from them.

I did also buy a 24 pack of Carabao Sugar Free Green Apple, as I said a few weeks ago, I am struggling to make it through the day with an energy drink mid afternoon.

I know I need to get something like Sneak or Razorwire, but they are a big outlay initially.

Planning a New PC

By

On 14th September 2020

In Blog

The loss of Misty has hit me hard, she was such a big personality that our home feels, empty without her, which is unfair on Bonnie, Gandalf or Jenny, as they all have fairy big personalities themselves.

The house just feels less full, Megan was upset when she got back from her nanny’s as normal Misty would make a big fuss over her.

She was a real bright spark in our lives and we are going to be coming to terms with her loss for a while.

So the main thing I have done this week is plan my new PC! My current one cost a grand total of £150 about 4 years ago for a motherboard, processor, SSD, memory and case, with some parts scavenged from my previous PC

Those components were brand new, and so you will understand, they were massively underpowered, and now they are really struggling to do anything, and editing the podcast is getting more and more difficult with each show.

So it’s time to upgrade, but I am going to spend a bit of time and money to get one which will be capable of more and not spend my time with it getting very frustrated.

I want a PC that can handle audio editing I’m for podcasts, streaming, gaming with some video editing.

But I have to keep it affordable too, as my money situation is always precarious.

I am starting with a motherboard, I am absolutely going down the AMD Ryzen route, and if I were to buy a processor tomorrow, it would be a Ryzen 5 3400G. Simply because it means I can get it up and running quickly with graphics, and get a good graphics card later on.

So I need an AM4 board, and I want to be future proofed, so it’s gonna be an X570, so it can handle the next generation of Ryzen processors, offering me an upgrade path.

I had initially considered the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4ATX AM4, but this month my money situation may allow me to get the much better Asrock X570 Socket AM4 ATX.

Both offer an M.2 WiFi socket, which leaves a PCIe slot free for a good soundcard, something all good podcasters need, and two M.2 slots for SSDs.

The Steel Legends is more attractive because it has better sound capabilities from the get go, allowing me to forgo a soundcard until a bit later on, plus it has some RGB components built in which is cool.

Either way, end of the month I am buying a motherboard, it will be one of these two.

So then it’s a case of getting memory, I am gonna be a child and get RGB memory, an M.2 SSD, power supply and a case. As well as some case fans, this new computer is gonna run hot, may as well make them RGB too

With the last two the plan is to make sure I am future proofed as much as possible, so the power supply will have to be planned to be good enough to handle a decent graphic card. The case needs to have two 5.25” drive bays to house my Blu-Ray Writer and a USB front plate, because you can never have enough USB sockets. And of course it needs a transparent panel to make sure I can see all those fancy RGB lights!

The general plan is to get the motherboard first at the end of this month as I said, then the power supply.

The very last component to purchase will be the processor, as a new generation of Ryzen processors will be coming out, so it may push down the price of the processor I want, or indeed offer better options in that generation.

Once it’s all done, hopefully it will make life a little bit easier when it comes to my PC.

What I Am Modelling

I finally got Ragnar Blackmane finished. I ended up having a long painting session until 2am on Monday and got him finished, and the base was completed the next morning.

I am not the biggest Ragnar fan in the fluff, but I have always loved his model, and my Wolves belong to his Great Company, because I loved his old model.

It may have been very dated and lacking in dynamism, but there was just something about it, probably because it was the first 40K model I was ever given as a wee 12 year old boy.

I never painted him back then as Fantasy was my game as a child, but this was the single model that was left when my parents moved house about 10 or so years ago (maybe more) and thus was the only thing I had left from my boyhood collection.

I painted that model up a few years ago, and as soon as I saw the release of a new Ragnar model, I had to have it, he is so bloody awesome.

I have seen better painters than me do wonders with him, but I enjoyed painting him an awful lot, so much detail and at times I felt a little overwhelmed.

I still love the old model, and that will still be selected to play with now and then, but this one is really nice.

So anyway, that means all the SpaceWolves from Prophecy of the Wolf are now painted, not that there were many!

I then moved on to a squad of Death Korps of Krieg Infantry for Niki, and doing these I am thinking about how I am eventually going to do the ones I have sitting up stairs unbuilt.

I kinda fancy the same scheme, but I am not going to, so if I ever played Niki with mine I can distinguish whose are whose.

I have a scheme in mind, and am considering doing some test models soon.

Anyway Niki’s models got finished in Friday, I did actually do some of the painting on a Twitch stream which you can see here.

Next was a secret Heresy project, that I can’t tell you about because I am waiting until it’s done.

But it’s a squad of 10 men and was very quick to paint! I really want to share them, but I am not going to because I said I would share when they got to a certain point.

Much of Sunday was spent getting models built and primed so that I can actually paint them. I normally like to have my next ten project ready but I have let this slip as of late.

So I built Mortarion twice, once for 30k and once for 40k, I also built the Death Guard Space Marine Heroes, a T’au Strike Team, and some Death Korps of Krieg lads.

I actually built the T’au on stream, well actually two streams, because my PC died in between sessions!

On Monday morning I built the Nighthaunt characters, and the Palanite Enforcers, which brings me up to my next ten projects built, followed by an afternoon of priming.

It was good weather, but there was a possibility we were going to pop out to Costco, and so I decided to not prime the Zone Mortalis terrain, but I will try tomorrow.

So as we head into the next week, lets see whats on my painting queue, I am still missing my chance to get the Zone Mortalis Terrain primed but I hope to rectify that this week.

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. T’au Strike Team x 10, Cadre Fireblade & Devilfish
  3. Mortarion x 2
  4. Nighthaunt Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed, Spirit Torment, Guardian of Souls & lord Executioner
  5. Adeptus Titanicus Titans – Warhounds x 2, Reavers x 2 & Nemesis Warbringer
  6. Dropfleet Commander UCM Ships – Cruisers x 4, Frigates x 4, Corvettes x 6, Destroyers x 2
  7. Death Korps of Krieg Command Squad x 5
  8. Millitarium Tempestus Drop Force Imperator x 5
  9. Palanite Enforcers x 10
  10. Stormcast Eternals Vanguard-Hunters x 10

What I Am Reading

I started on the Saturnine audiobook, and it’s an amazing book, I already read it, but I like to listen to them soon after to pick up the bits I missed.

I have started in earnest on Curse of Honor by David Annaldale. I have a review copy from Aconyte and need to crack on so I can review it.

It’s difficult because I really don’t get in with David’s sentence structures, I find them too short, but so far the story is interesting.

What I Am Playing

I am pretty much all set for streaming now and plan to start doing it on a regular basis.

I did a number of test streams last week, not scheduled or anything, I just jumped on and did stuff.

The first of those was to test the HDMI Capture card, which I did by playing Street Fighter II Turbo Hyper Fighting very badly on the SNES Mini. You can watch my over view of the device and no an unboxing below.

My first stream went quite well, I played Super Mario Kart and it worked really quite well, now it’s just a case of refinement and figuring out what I am doing before putting in place a schedule.

The second stream was Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting, which went very badly!

I then streamed a bit of painting to test that out, but more on that later, and I also streamed an attempt to play Super Mario World!

Sunday myself and Megan tested out the capture cards ability to do the Nintendo Switch, which it did amazingly well at, we just recorded that.

And on Monday I actually streamed from the Switch to Twitch, playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the video for that will be on YouTube tomorrow.

What I Am Backing

Again nowt this week, money isn’t there and there isn’t a massive amount that is catching my eye right now, but there is one forthcoming project I can’t wait to share with you when it goes live!!!

In the meantime Calico which Lindsay backed has shipped and is due to be delivered on Tuesday from the EU distribution centre in Greece, it should be delivered tomorrow.

And Steve Jackson Games delivered some more of the GURPS 2020 PDF Challenge this week as well.

What I Am Cooking

On Tuesday I made good old reliable dirty rice, Paul was round for tea and he is not very tolerant of spice, so I made a smaller pans worth for him, which didn’t include spice or mushrooms.

I love this dish, it’s packed full of vegetables and flavour, a real favourite of mine, I sadly forgot to take a photo of it.

I experiment on Friday with the air frier and made some Cajun Fried Chicken, it was ok, but not all the flour cooked, so next time I think I am gonna spray a little oil on it.

I would rather it had been southern fried, but I used my own Cajun seasoning to make it quickly.

In all honesty it was more a proof of concept that I could actually do it.

On Sunday, myself and Megan made some Coca-Cola Chicken Wings for our tea, along with some Sesame and Peanut Noodles.

Couple of things, I forget to plan a vegetable side, which isn’t good, and we ran of paprika so I substituted cayenne pepper, so they were a bit spicer than planned.

Every Sunday morning we try as a household to have breakfast together. In the week this doesn’t often happen as Megan is an early riser, Lindsay eats at her work desk and I am a late riser.

But for the past year we have been trying to make Sunday breakfast together an event. This week it didn’t happen as Lindsay was unwell, so we did it on Monday instead.

Inspired by a random Buzzfeed video on Facebook, we made fried chicken and waffles!!!

A bit weird, but it actually works, and it works really well! We served it with maple syrup and a glass of apple juice and it was bloody delicious.

What I Am Spending

My HDMI Capture Card arrived, along with the HDMI Switch and I also at the same time bought some thumb grips for the XBox One and the Nintendo Switch JoyCons.

The thumb grips are needed because our bunny is a pain in the bum and if he ever gets near a controller, he nibbles the thumb pads, and he has now taken to eating, yes thats right, you heard me, eating thumb grips.

So I need to be more careful about where I leave the controllers.

My order from Battle Bunker arrived, Jus did me good and sorted me out with Morgwaeth’s Blade-Coven for Warhammer Underworlds, a set of Escher Gang Tactics Card and Zone Mortalis Gang Tactics Cards and a pot of Leadbelcher (to get me over the free shipping limit).

My dry brush from Element Games turned up as well, which was a pleseant surprise!

The House of Blades dice set I ordered last week turned up, along with a fee paints I needed.

We did spend a little money on the car, we got a Groupon to have the air conditioning recharged at ATS Euromaster for £38.99 rather than the £60 they normally charge.

Unfortunately during the work they found a leak in the system, so we got the money refunded, which is a shame, but looking at the options for repair, it might be uneconomical.

Didn’t actually buy this next item, but we got a new dining table from our friend Kris and Kim.

Our old one was a hand-me-down from several generations of Megan’s family, it’s really good, but annoyingly it’s very narrow. Which means most board games and miniatures games are not able to be played on it.

The new table is 3ft wide, so we will at long last be able to minis games on a minimum 3ft x 3ft table!

I was going to build a table topper, but this eliminates the need for that!

Last week I ordered some new Horus Heresy dice, four sets of them, and they arrived today.

Got a set for my Death Guard, Ultramarines and Word Bearers, plus a fourth set for my secret Heresy project!

For streaming from the Switch, I didn’t know that you needed a specific type of USB-C power adaptor, so late on Sunday I ordered this one from Amazon Prime, and got it this afternoon.

Cause hell no am I going behind the TV unit each time I want to bring the Switch Dock downstairs to stream from. Long term I probably want a second Dock for downstairs.

Misty, Goodnight My Sweet Kitten

By

On 9th September 2020

In Blog

This is a really hard blog post to write, my beloved cat Misty has crossed the Rainbow Bridge after 17 wonderful years.

She has been with us since she was a kitten and her and I have always had a special bond, we always made time for each other and our cuddles were amazing.

She has always been a troublesome little minx, she got this reputation by being very bold about stealing food from you, especially Tuna.

When she was six months old she managed to steal my entire fish off my plate without me seeing her do it, and I couldn’t have a tuna Mayo sand which witch out sharing it with her. Megan had the joy of having Misty stick her paw in her mouth to take out chicken she had just put in there!

We all love her very deeply, she always was a sprightly active cat, to the point where when she was younger she would never keep weight on as she was far too active, meaning the vets were reluctant to spay her until she had her third litter due to her weight.

She was an awesome mother to her daughter Jenny, they often would curl up together in Lindsay’s bed, I am sure Jenny will be lost without her.

She used to love to jump on the table and interrupt our board games, and when we were in bed she would love to crawl under the covers with us to get hugs from both of us and purr her head off.

Sadly a few months ago, she developed an eye infection, we later discovered that this was because her immune system was fighting a cancerous growth under her tongue.

This made her drool a lot which was getting all matted up in her fur, so Megan and her mum made her some wonderful neckerchiefs of absorbent material for her.

She had made improvements when prescribed a painkiller and was eating properly again, although she could only manage pates.

The past couple of days she hasn’t been able to manage even that, we have fed her tuna mayo, which she struggled on to eat, but last night she couldn’t even manage that.

She wants to eat, she is hungry and wants to eat, but she was no longer capable of doing so.

My options were to feed her baby food. by syringe, which she hates, just keep trying to make her eat and she gradually starves to death, or put her to sleep.

I hate myself for having to make that decision, but it’s the right one for her, I don’t want to see her suffer to the point where she gives up.

So I called the PDSA as she is registered with them and we took her along. She had an appointment at 2:50 and they were very caring and wonderful with her.

They examined her and agreed that now was the right time, she was so wonderful and gentle with the vets, and they shed a little tear as well, it makes me realise all too well why suicide rates amongst vets are so high.

She went very peacefully being comforted by the nurse, I wasn’t allowed to be in the room with her, but I could see her through the window.

I hate myself for this, she still felt so alive, but I know if I had selfishly tried to keep her around it would have been awful for her.

The worst part of this, is that Megan, who utterly adores and loves Misty, is away so she doesn’t get to say goodbye, I know when we lost Sweep last year and I was away for the weekend, that Megan must really be hurting over this.

I am going to miss her cuddles, the sharing of tuna mayo stotties, her getting up to mischief.

She was always very special to us, and had dozens of songs sung about her antics by Lindsay and Megan.

I know we did the right thing, it hurts like crazy and I have a hole in my heart that will be impossible to fill.

Tonight I intend to eat Chinese omelette and ice cream, diabetes be damned, eat something nice for tea and watch Star Trek IV, because she always wanted to go time travelling.

Cheap HDMI Video Capture with Loop

By

On 9th September 2020

In Blog, Reviews, Videos

I got a cheap £13.99 Video Capture with Loop from Amazon, it cost me £13.99, but will it work and is it any good??? I unboxing and give it a try playing Street Fighter II Turbo on the SNES Mini. Available here from Amazon.

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