Tag: Scenery

An Exceptional Swimmer

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On 22nd March 2022

In Blog

So I am gonna write about something, controversial, well I don’t think it’s controversial personally.

I want to write about the US swimmer Lia Thomas, whom you may have seen featured in hate filed articles arguing that as a biological male, she has no right to compete against cis women.

I saw a meme that made a big deal about the fact that in the 2020-21 season, she ranked 462nd amongst males.

But you see that got me wondering, she had to be on oestrogen for a full 12 months before she could compete as a woman. So that means in the 2020-21 season she was competing against cis men whilst on oestrogen.

Oestrogens biggest impact on a person assigned male at birth, is the extremely quick reduction in muscle mass, it drops off you very quickly.

What this means is that you have a denser bone structure that you need to work harder to make work, so against cis men, and even against cis women, you would find yourself at a disadvantage.

So how did Lia perform in the last season she competed in, prior to oestrogen treatment.

Well the answer is available for all to see, she was in the 500, 1000 and 1650 freestyle events, number 1, not simply good, she was the best amongst men in the entire US.

Her times when she swam before her transition were exceptional, I mean they were incredible.

She was an exceptional swimmer when competing as a man, and is an exceptional swimmer when competing as a woman.

What this says to me is that it’s not about her being a mediocre man who changed sex to win medal, but that she is simply a good swimmer no matter how she competes.

It reminded me of a US army study that looked at trans women in training. After being on oestrogen, they did have an advantage over the average cis woman, 12% to be precise.

However, the average elite level female runner is 29% better than the average cis woman, and none of the studies participants even reached that level.

Now I conceded, the research done into trans woman’s participation in sport is limited, and the conclusions are not quite conclusive either way.

But so far the evidence suggests that trans women are less likely to be as good as other cis athletes in their ability level.

But contrary to what people say, trans women aren’t dominating woman’s sport, far from it.

Lia Thomas is simply an exceptionally good swimmer, she has demonstrated it in both gender categories by dominating them.

So frankly I think it’s more likely that like Michael Phelps, she may have genetic differences that simply make her better at swimming.

What I Am Modelling

I painted the Pathfinder Team for my T’au Empire.

After that I finished Darkstrider.

A Thermo-Exchanger Shrine got bought earlier in the week and painted up on Sunday night to add to the Company of Legends terrain.

After this I competed a unit of Deathmarks for my Necrons.

I then turned my attention to the Skitarii Rangers that I needed for a battle report.

Currently on my painting desk are some Primaris Suppressors for the Ultramarines.

So what’s coming up next week?

  1. Ork Kommandos Kill Team x 12
  2. Corpse Grinder Cult x 15
  3. Blood Bowl Referees x 2
  4. Blood Angels Primaris Lieutenant, Librarian in Phobos Armour & Assault Intercessors x 8
  5. Orruk Weirdnob Shaman
  6. Death Korps of Krieg Medusa x 2
  7. Morg n Thorg
  8. T’au Breacher Squad x 10
  9. Fafnir Rann
  10. Ork Terrain

What I Am Reading

I published my review of School of X which you can read here.

And I also finished To Chart the Clouds by Evan Dicken, a review of which you will find here.

I am currently reading Reign of the Devourer by David Annandale.

What Video Games Am I Playing

Not much, but I did play Horizon Zero Dawn for a couple of hours on stream on Thursday.

https://youtu.be/ZhuDqER_R7A

Other than that it’s mostly been Halo Infinite, been playing Ranked Area games to get an achievement.

And some Forza Horizon 5 here and there.

What I Am Creating

I published the issue 20 Imperium Battle Report.

What I Am Spending

I did grab a Thermo-Exchanger Shrine to add to one of the Company of Legends table, one of the Sector Mechanicum probably.

I bought the Itch.io Ukraine bundle, it’s an awful lot of stuff, but the donation is the best but about that.

To help with the vlogging for Company of Legends I grabbed a Mini LED video light.

I wanted the one recommended by Randomfrankp, but that particular model isn’t available in the UK, so I grabbed this one as it’s pretty much the same thing.

A Long To Do List and a Birthday Party

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On 8th February 2017

In Blog

It’s less than four weeks now until the Heresy Weekender and I have lots of scenery left to do, so I really need to get a crack on with it.

Currently left to do I have:-

  • 3 Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Lines
  • 2 Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Emplacements
  • 1 Firestorm Redoubt
  • 1 Void Shield Generator
  • 1 Imperial Bastion
  • 2 Munitorum Armoured Containers 
  • 1 Shrine of the Aquila
  • 2 Haemotrope Reactors
  • 2 Sanctum Imperialis
  • 2 Manufactorums
  • 2 Basilica Administratum

So it’s a big list, all I have managed to do so far is a single Wall of Martyrs Imperial Bunker.

I think I need you guys to wish me luck!

In the meantime it was my local Warhammer stores birthday party on Saturday and I went down to join in on the festivities. I managed to forget my case of models, curse you brain damage, so was unable to enter anything into the painting contest, or take part in any of the games. But that was cool I hung out with the guys and just chatted, and drooled over the stuff coming out of the Weekender down in Nottingham.

I had a KFC for lunch which was a nice treat and voted for my favourite model in the cabinet, which was of course Grahams Vampire Lord!

Martin and the gang put on a fun day with lots to do and it was a lot of fun, can’t complain at all. I did have 21 tickets for the auction at the end of the day and had hopped to get myself a framed picture of a Stormcast Eternal, but that ended up going for a lot more than 21 tickets. In the end I gave my tickets to a kid so that he could outbid a fella on a picture of some 40k battle brothers, and ended up encouraging others around me to do the same, as it’s always nice to see a kid walk away with a prize.

Oh and The Mighty Zugband my Word Bearers dice from Forgeworld arrived, quite early which was nice.

What I am Modelling

Not a lot had been done, just haven’t been able to get the time in the studio that I would have liked, but I have done a little work on my Word Bearers Tactical Support Squad, and they should get finished up tomorrow.

For the store birthday party I was going to take along my Stormcast Eternals Errant-Questor for the Bloodtide game, but Megan wasn’t doing so well on Friday night and needed my company, so I didn’t get a chance to finish him off, but when I got in after the party, I went and finished him off and I am quite proud of it, we’ll sort from the sword that is, ruddy hand tremors mean my highlights are utter pants.

I did build the Khorne Bloodbound side of the Age of Sigmar box up today, which I ended up using in my first ever game of Age of Sigmar, but more about that in a bit.

What I am Reading

I finished up listening to Vulkan Lives and I have to say, it made a lot more sense listening to it than it did reading it. 

I have started on the audio book version of Leman Russ: The Great Wolf, and it has so far been quite good. Although Dan Abnett certainly gets the credit for how the Rout is portrayed in the Heresy, Chris Wraight has really fleshed out that portrayal quite a bit, and here we get to see a bit of the Wolves in the immediate aftermath of the Heresy which in itself is really interesting.

I am about halfway through now, and so far got to say that Leman is about as much as I would expect him to have been during the height of the Great Crusade, I am looking forward to getting into more of the book tomorrow.

What I am Playing

I have actually played quite a bit recently, so let’s give a brief overview.

I played Grant at Blood Bowl at the Raiders on the 31st and I drew that game with my humans against his Orcs, but I think I need to get an Ogre to give my humans a bit more punch, but I have Grak and Crumbleberry so they will be getting integrated into the team ASAP. It was a really tough game and I lost 3 players to KO during the game.

On the 1st I played Smash Up at home with Lindsay and Megan, I was playing Changerbots/Time Travellers which was an interesting combo. Unfortunately Megan got a headache so the game was incomplete, though I was on 14 points Simone away from winning. Me and Lindsay then had a game of Ticket to Ride using the India map, where I beat her 177 points to 96 points thanks to getting all my routes on a Mandala.

On the 3rd I played Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary Edition with Lindsay and Paul, it’s a rare treat that we get this set out and I am always the Hobo Express, Lindsay got to play with the circus trains which megan normally plays, anyway I couldn’t repeat my success of a few days earlier and only scored 105 points to Lindsays 136, but I was ahead of Paul’s 79.

On Sunday we cracked our Sentinels of the Multiverse, and I don’t know what it was, but I just didn’t enjoy it all that much, probably didn’t help that we got so many of the rules wrong, either way I just found it dull, so will have to change it up for our next play of it, especially as it’s part of the 10×10. We then finished up the day with a game of Firefly Fluxx which was won by Megan.

Today I had my first game of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and I rather enjoyed it. I played David at the club and in our short game I had a unit of 20 Bloodreavers, a Mighty Lord of Khorne and a Khorgorath against his 16 Dryads, Treelord and 3 Kurnoth Hunters with greatbows.

The game was a tad unbalanced and I got ripped apart quite quickly, but I had fun, the game was quick, interesting and simple to pick up, but next time we should use points to ensure a more even game.

What I am Backing

Sliced Quarterly has come back to Kickstarter and my old school pal Ken Reynolds has put together a nice campaign for it.

There are 14 days to go and as I write this they are £106 from funding, so if you like experimental comics go take a look and if you like it, back it.

What I am Spending

Well the store birthday party saw me get into the spirit of things, mostly cause I wanted a messenger bag!

But in all honesty, what I got was mostly for the Heresy Weekender, and those were scenery, I picked up a Firestorm Redoubt to go with the other Wall of Martyrs stuff I have and a Void Shield Generator, so I think we are going to have a pretty cool board with those bits together.

I also wanted to grab a boxed game, I went in with the intention of getting Gorechosen to add to my Khorne Bloodbound, but ended up getting Gangs of Commorragh because Megan loves her Dark Eldar, though I am kicking myself as that’s something I should have gotten her for her birthday instead of letting here know I had got it!

I also picked up a few pots of paint and a Golden Daemon bag label and I also got the free messenger bag, blue mini shopping bag and a bunch of other promo stuff like badges and wrist bands.

Gearing Up For The Weekend

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On 11th March 2016

In Blog

I write this as I am lying in bed shattered and a bit nervous about the forthcoming weekend.

It’s our Horus Heresy weekender and if all goes well the past five months of planning and work will result in an awesome weekend.

I started the week off with a trip to Costco to grab the pop and sweets I am going to be selling (trying to raise a little bit more cash so the event is not a financial loss for me), and we got a lot of stuff, ending up spending £90 on 168 cans of Pepsi Max, 12 cans of Monster, 40 packs of crisps, 32 Twix and 48 Mars Bars.

 With that done I set my mind to finishing off the last bit of terrain I had to paint, this time it was some stuff from Secret Weapons Minitures, three Imperial Generators and a Control Panel. The terrain is lovely and detailed but sadly Royal Mail got me on the customs and took £13 as thier ransom to let me have them.

They weren’t as big as I expected, for some reason I thought they would be twice the size, but they are lovely none the less, and I am very happy that Secret Weapon Minitures helped us out with this little bit of scenery sponsorship.

 I managed to get them painted up today, not my best ever paint job and I think a better painter would have got much better results from them, my biggest mistake was using too much Gulliman Blue on the plasma parts as I was in too much of a rush to finish them off.

I also received some aquarium plants that I had ordered quite some time ago not realising they were coming from China, anyway they were supposed to be 5 packs of 10, but what I actually had delivered were 5 individual plants, an eBay case was opened as soon as they arrived as I feel pretty ripped off and think a substation so refund is justified.

But the five plants I have will need to be put to use as Adam (writer of the event pack) has his heart set on a jungle table, luckily we have son coloured aquarium plants that were meant to go alongside these ones. Plan is that they will go on a green mat alongside my LotR terrain, which is painted up in a sandstone effect to try and stimulate a long abandoned settlement that the jungle has reclaimed.

Sadly we had one player drop out of the event this week, so I had to quickly press gang my friend Harry to play with his Knigjts, some borrow off a friend and a Warhound Titan to give him a nasty Questoris Knight army!

The weekend will be his first ever games of the Horus Heresy and I am playing him first, so should be interesting to see how it goes, I mean he has played his Knights in local 40k tournaments as an army and not performed fantastically so will be interesting to see how they play in 30k.

A Week With Scenery and Looking Forward to the Weekender

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On 6th March 2016

In Blog

In preparation for our Heresy Weekender, now less than a week away, I have been working on some scenery.
Our good friend at Amera Plastic Mouldings, a rather excellent North East company, gifted us some scenery. We got a Z250 Battlefield Crater Set, a Z230 Redoubt and a Z211 Bombed-Out Building.
So I took a day to get these painted up, they do require cutting off the plastic sheet but that’s nothing major, and once off they took primer nicely and were very quick to get painted up. I mostly used washes and dry bushing, keeping the scheme very simple overall.

I also got painted up a set of Promethium Relay Pipes, again keeping it rather simple, I painted it with Warplock Bronze, Balthasar Gold & Leadbelcher, then washing it with Agrax Earthshade then dry brushing it all with Necron Compound, which I found gives them a nice weathered look.

Other Models I Got Painted

I did manage to get a few more models painted up this week starting with some Corpuscarii Electro-Priests, meaning that for my escalation league March list I need to now paint up 10 Skitarii Rangers, so that’s something for me to start on this week.

The other model I managed to get round to finishing was my Spartan Assault Tank, now I didn’t have the best cast for this and as I bought it online from a third party, I was unable to go to Forgeworld and ask for replacements, but using lots of forum posts I was able to figure out how to best build it. I will say however that putting the tracks on was a right faff on and I am glad that Forgeworld now send it out with them already attached, so when I go to them to purchase  another vehicle in this class I can avoid that palaver.

Annoyingly the round bit of the hinge on one side of the assault ramp broke in transit, so I had to glue the doors shut, but I am glad I got the Ultramarines Land Raider Doors, they really do add something to the model. I still have to decide on what transfers if any I am going to put on the model, but at some point I will be adding the obligatory Heavy Support symbols.

Audio Book

This week I have been listening to Thousand Sons by Graham McNeil, which is frankly an amazing book, although it does fail to explain a few little things, in particular what the Tutelaries are, my own theory is that they are minor daemons of Tzeentch, the perfect sleeper agents ready to help drive the Sons of Magnus into the arms of Tzeentch. The Thousand Sons come across as very arrogant in the book and their downfall feels almost inevitable though out the entire book.

The only real criticism I would have of the book is that you don’t really get to see much of the non-psychic Thousand Sons, the ordinary bolster wielding line troops, and that would have been nice to see. My main Space Marine army are Blood Ravens so I do have a soft spot for crusade and heresy era Thousand Sons fluff.

Am about halfway through it at this point, not sure if I will finish it before the weekender, but who knows.

Gaming

I got in agave this week against Christians Mechanicum army, we took the game quite slowly as we were double checking rules to make sure we are 100% ready for the weekender. It was a very enjoyable game however and I surprised myself by having a humble Assault Squad Sgt with a Power Fist take down a Cerastus Knight-Atrapos, after a good number of its hull points had already been whittled down by the Fellblade of course.

From that game I learnt a lot of things, my Invictarus Suzerains need a transport to get them into combat, I need to remember my FNP rolls and to take advantage of the Interlocking Tactics.

As the game ended at turn 3, as I said we were taking it slow, the game was beginning to turn in Christians favour. He was using the Onslaught detachment so he had two Lords of War, in this case a Knight Errant, which managed to finish off my Fellblade which had been ravaged by the Conversion Beamers of his Myrmidon Destructor. Both warlords were dead, and I still had a full tactical squad in a Storm Eagle, but the high wounds of his units was really pushing my ability to deal with them, so although I had a great start to the game, I think it was going to end up as a loss for me.

My wife picked up a new card game on Saturday in Travelling Man, my FLGS, called Elevensies, now she is a bit of a tea drinking geek and she basically picked up the box, said “ooh its about tea”, and promptly bought it.

So today we gave it a go, and you know what its quite a good game, the idea being to prepare the best morning tea, you get 11 cards, each with either 1 spoon or 2 spoons, the aim is to have the morning tea with the most spoons. You get bonuses for placing down the 1 spoon cards, and you give bonuses to your opponents with 2 spoon cards, its a very tactical game, and for a completely random purchase its a pretty decent addition to my games collection.

Heresy Weekender

So next weekend is our Horus Heresy Weekender, myself and 17 other guys are taking over Moor House Adventure Centre and having ourselves a little narrative campaign, don’t worry there will be lots of photos and updates for it, and it’s also being covered by The Dark Artisan.

I did the first game draw earlier and if you are interested, here are the pairings.

  • Table 1. Jens Träff – World Eaters vs Arran Morgan – Salamanders
  • Table 2. Gareth Wilson – Night Lords vs Oliver Anderson – White Scars
  • Table 3. Philip Sanderson – Solar Auxilia & World Eaters vs Richard Slee – Ultramarines & Imperial Fists
  • Table 4. Graham Mills – Iron Warriors vs Martin Swaffield – Raven Guard
  • Table 5. Aidan Connor – Sons of Horus & Mechanicum vs Chris Mills – Imperial Fists
  • Table 6. Christian Preston – Mechanicum vs Adam Sellars – Raven Guard
  • Table 7. Mark Pears – World Eaters vs Graham Campbell – Salamanders
  • Table 8. Connor Mark Pears – Mechanicum vs Michael Botterill – Ultramarines
  • Table 9. Steven Henry – Sons of Horus vs Harry Scarr – Mechanicum

Don’t worry I fully intend to keep people up to date with how the weekender goes with plenty of updates both here and on Facebook.

So until then have fun guys.

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