It’s now been 3 years since we moved to Hartlepool and since then we have had Virgin Media, which has been extremely reliable and much better than what we used to have in Pelton.
But with our current deal coming to an end, we were being offered a price of £78, which is much higher than the £36 we have been paying for the same deal, which got up 1Gbps.
We thought we had sorted out a new deal with them, but Virgin never bothered sending us any confirmation of the deal, so we handed in our notice, and decided to move to Grain, an altnet, who had installed their infrastructure on our street last year.
We are paying £34, which is getting us 900mbps both up and down, which is perfect for the server, which is running PLEX and AudioBookShelf.
The router is wall mounted, and it’s quite interesting, does WiFi 6
And we also have a static IP address which is very handy and will hopefully let me sort out a proper web address for my AudioBookShelf server
So far, really happy with the service and it’s been amazing being able to upload videos to YouTube so quickly!
What I Am Modelling
I started off by doing some weathering to my 3D printed artillery carriages using some Contrast paints, and I am rather happy with how that turned out.
I did a lot of damage to his army, but failure to secure some objectives and Battle Tactics early on, cost me the game!
What Video Games I Am Playing
I have started playing the Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster, I am a couple of hours in and it’s quite different to the previous two with managing my magic being quite difficult so far
So the Switch 2 Direct happened, and I am gonna be frank, not entirely impressed.
First off, whilst it was expected that it was going to use older technology, it’s quite a bit older than I would like, but I mean it’s still PS4/Xbox One level.
I mean it’s decent tech, but it’s gonna have to rely on DLSS a lot to hit that 4k, but then again, it might actually be capable of running Breath of the Wild without dropping to like 15fps in busy scenes.
Then there is the battery life, it’s worse than the original Switch, which isn’t exactly the best in the first place.
I get why they haven’t gone with an OLED screen given the already increased price, more on that in a bit, but it’s still a disappointment to not have there there.
As well as the lack of Hall Effect sticks, because the stick drift issues with the original JoyCons are huge and I am massively disappointed that they haven’t been bothered to give us JoyCons which would have avoided these issues.
And then that takes us to the cost.
The actual cost of the console, I get it, the bill of materials isn’t going to be cheap, TSMC have been raising wafer prices like crazy since 2020.
But the tutorial being paid, the paid upgrades for OG Switch games being quite high and the cost of new games is just crazy.
Nintendo have always charged as much as they can for games and it’s very irritating that Switch launch titles are now just as expensive as they were when they first came out.
Look if you work it out, pound for pound gaming, even on the Switch is going to be not that bad value if you play for a couple hours a week and have the console for say six years.
But man it’s rough, I get it, devs need to be paid, and being a poor person, I usually wait for a game to go on sale a few years later, I rarely buy the latest games because I just cannot afford it.
But I feel like this time, the lack of first party titles, which has always been Nintendos strength, most of the third party titles being older titles that run better on my other gaming devices, it’s just not doing it for me.
Oh and out of principle, I will never subscribe to Nintendo Online, I am sorry but putting the backup of saves behind a paywall if frankly ridiculous, especially on handheld device which is more likely to be lost, broken or even stolen, I mean it has an Micro SD card slot, why can I not backup my own saves.
Look maybe in a couple of years, when decent first party titles start filtering through, I will feel different, but right now I can’t see myself getting one.
What I Am Modelling
I started off the week with Swampboss Skumdrekk for the Kruleboyz
Which also completes all my current models for the Gitz
Followed an Imperial Fists Command Squad, this one is seven man, cause I 3D printed up some extra bodies to take advantage of the bits on the Command Squad sprue
I finished Straight Silver by Dan Abnett in The Saint, and yeah that was a good one, it felt like it was going quite slow, and woah, it sped up and didn’t stop.
I listened to Assassinorum: Kingmaker by Robert Rath, which not only was the best Officio Assassinorum novel thus far, it’s also the best Imperial Knights novel so far.
I also listened to Three’s A Crowd by Colin Brake which was rather fun and as someone with a bit of agoraphobia, I really understood how the characters felt.
What Tabletop Games I Am Playing
Had a game with Graham at Durham Raiders on Tuesday, in which we both tested out our Heresy Camp lists.
My Solar Auxilia did ok, but BS3 combined with my dice rolling was pretty frustrating when in turn 3 I just couldn’t hit anything for toffee.
We enjoyed the mechanics of Hogwarts Battle, but sadly the IP is tainted beyond redemption by the bigot that created it.
Avatar is far nicer and far more wholesome.
And it only cost me 70p and its worth it for the LOLs, but I got The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, which I am sure may be hilarious to play given its many many issues!
Since I got the 3D printer in August, most of my prints have been infantry, with a few Rhino sized tanks
But this project is the biggest print so far, and required 3 full to the brim plates done!
It’s a proxy for the Macharius Heavy Tank called the Lupercal, and it’s a beautiful model.
The first plate which had on the turret, sponsons and part of the tracks, took just shy of 9 hours to print
The second which had on the sides and engine block was a chew on to print. The first attempt failed at 77% done, which was fine for the engine block, but the sides were partly completed. The printer appeared to have crashed, which was annoying.
The second attempt was just the sides, plus the Heavy Stubber Sponsons which I had forgotten was the only configuration the Solar Auxilia version could take, and that didn’t print at all.
Once it was all printed cleaned and cured, it was then time to put it together, as you can tell I decided to print the parts for all three weapons that can be swapped in and out,
Those being the standard Battlecannons, Vanquisher Cannons and a Rotary Bolt Cannon (used to be a Vulcan Mega Bolter and that was much cooler)
This has a base of Mechanicus Standard Grey (AP Deep Grey), then the camo pattern using Thunderhawk Blue and Abbadon Black, with a recess wash of Agrax Earthshade then a Dawnstone dry brush
When it was finished I coated the tracks in Stirland Mud and added some static grass for texture after which I drybrushed it with Gothor Brown and then Screaming Skull.
I am pretty happy with how this turned out and it’s adding a decent big tank to the Solar Auxilia even though it’s pretty pointless for its cost, and a Leman Russ Vanquisher is far more points efficient.
So what have I learned from this project, well if I want to tackle anything bigger, I will need a wash and cure station, a Stormhammer is something I want to do, but would have issues with the processing of it due to size
And to be honest, it’s given me a lot more confidence to run longer prints, which is something I have tried to avoid in the past cause I didn’t like being unable to monitor them.
But here is the thing when it comes to my 3D printing and Warhammer, I don’t want to be the guy who 3D prints everything. For the Solar Auxilia, so much stuff is still in very expensive resin, or just not in production, even in resin, that I found myself needing to 3D print a good ton of models.
I want to support my FLGSs, but at the same time, I enjoy the hobby of 3D printing, especially tanks, for my Krieg I want to print some Chimeras and Hellhounds for example.
I guess I am just trying to find that middle ground, where I am trying to 3D print some stuff but also making sure to buy actual plastic models for others.
It’s an interesting balancing act.
Website Update
I have added a new page to this website, its a list of the armies I own and a link to a Google Doc for each of them, listing what I have painted and ready to play with.
Its only partial, I am expanding it slowly as I catalogue what I have and get NFC tags attached to the boxes, which allows me to pull up the lists easily if I want to know what in the boxes.
What I Am Modelling
I started out with the Terminators for the Ultramarines Combat Patrol
It was a much closer match, but I struggled to score in the primary mission because the Necrons are quite slow, I think I really need some transports for them
And finally I went up against the Chaos Space Marines of Ian, and for the first couple of turns it was reasonably equal, and I thought I might stand a chance at a close loss
But losing a couple of my heavy hitters really turned the tide, as the much faster Chaos Space Marines utterly trounced me
So what have I learnt, well the biggest is that my Necrons need transport, so I think I need to invest in some Ghost Arks at some point soon, because I am finding they struggle to get Warriors on to objectives
But regardless of the outcome, I had fun and well, the wooden spoon is what I live for!
On Tuesday I played a game of Age of Sigmar for the start of a local escalation league, with the first games at 750pts
My first game was against Michaels Nighthaunt and oh it went badly, the buffs and rebuffs from his characters just really stopped my Ironjawz from getting enough attacks to hit home and as a result they crumpled pretty easily
Ah it is what it is, but it was none the less a fun game!
What Video Games I Am Playing
Still plodding away at Assassin’s Creed: Unity, starting off by concentrating on collectables and clearing stuff area by area
What I Am Spending
I got some Tempestus Scions to add some of the models I need to get myself to have the new Scions based Kill Team, I need some Tempestors and Scions with Grenade Launchers
Video game wise, I picked up Red Dead Redemption 2 on sale at its lowest ever price on Steam, and Rogue Trader too, based mostly on the recommendation of Graham
