DIY Sternguard Veterans

I have a unit of Sternguard Veterans in my April challenge list. I own the new Sternguard models from the Space Marine Spearhead, but I decided to convert/paint some from existing plastics rather than paint the metal models. The primary reason was that I didn't want a power fist in the unit and wanted both a combi-melta and a combi-plasma. The combi weapons from the Space Marine Commander box work very well for this. Just clip a left hand from a standard tactical marine arm (you should have tons of these) and glue it to the hole where the Black Reach marine bolter/hand bit pegs in. The commander's combi weapons have the right hand included, and it works well on the Black Reach models. I'll post pics of that as I continue.

In the photo I have a standard tactical marine (speed painted for a "Black Reach in Four Weeks" contest) and the same model as a Sternguard Vet. In addition to the white helmet, the right shoulderpad has a Rosarius icon from the Terminator sprue to indicate his veteran status and a gold plate on his bolter. The lighting washed out the gold more than I would have liked.

Modeling a Mark 1 "Stronos" Razorback

Ever since I read the new Razorback options in the new Codex: Space Marines I've been wanting to model one of these. Since this is supposedly the oldest Razorback variant I wanted to make it look a bit different than the box kit looks. I had modified a Razorback to be lascannon / heavy bolter interchangeable, so making the Mark 1 turret was just a matter of building a small "cap" of styrene to fit on the turret mount. Since I had already removed the elevation pins from the mount, this was fairly easy.

The lascannon is a Predator sponson lascannon, and the plasmaguns are just Marine hand held guns with the stocks removed and enough of the bottoms cut flush so I could easily glue them together. The optics on top are from a Land Raider Crusader hurricane bolter. The conduits in the front are from the original twin-linked lascannon that comes with the Razorback. I had trimmed mine down as part of the interchangeable conversion.

I can't wait to try this out in battle against some foul traitors!

Hooray for AB40k.org !

If you've never tried ArmyBuilder, I recommend you do. It eases the creation of army lists for GW products immensely. It's primary strength/weakness is that it relies heavily upon a user community committed to creating the data files that allow legal lists to be created. The initial purchase of ArmyBuilder comes with a finite timeframe license in which the softwrae will automatically detect that updates are available for the games data files you have installed. After that you either renew or download them manually. I have chosen to let me license expire and install manually.

Enter the good folks at ab40k.org, who faithfully produce a data file for 40k each time a new codex/rules edition is released. Yesterday they released version 1.01a of their 40k 5th edition data file. I just want to thank them publicly for all the work they put into the product.

Dangerously Close to 1500 pts Painted

The current challenge recently written about is actually closer than I had previously thought. After making a 1500 point list, I compared what I had painted to what I planned to field, and they aren't that different. I had forgotten how much I painted of the Assault on Black Reach box.

1500 Pts - Space Marines Roster - Blood Ravens

Painted:
HQ: Space Marine Chaplain (jump pack, plasma pistol)
HQ: Space Marine Captain (terminator armor, power weapon, storm bolter, hellfire rounds)
Elite: Dreadnought (heavy flamer, multimelta)
Elite: Terminator Squad (3 x power fist/storm bolter b, sergeant w/ power weapon/storm bolter)
Troops: Tactical Squad (7 x bolter, 1 x missile launcher)
Troops: Tactical Squad (7 x bolter)
Troops: Tactical Squad (sergeant w/ bolt pistol, chainsword)
Fast Attack: Assault Squad (4 x bolt pistol, chainsword)

Need to paint:
Elite: Terminator Squad (1 x power fist /storm bolter + cyclone missile launcher)
Troops: Tactical Squad (1 x meltagun, 1 x plasmagun, 1 x heavy bolter)
Troops: Tactical Squad (finish sergeant w/ pf/bpistol in previous post)
Fast Attack: Assault Squad (Sergeant w/ Melta Bombs; Storm Shield; Power Fist)

2 x Rhino w/ Storm Bolter
Land Raider Redeemer w/ multimelta, storm bolter

Army Total: 32 infantry, 4 vehicles

Painted: 26 infantry, 1 vehicle
To Paint: 6 infantry, 3 vehicles

That's it? 6 infantry and 3 vehicles? Could this possibly mean I'm going to get 1500 points on the table painted for the first time ever? ... don't hold your breath.

Flash Kraken - Complete!

Okay, goal #1 for Open Source Flash development is complete.
Behold a single SWF file that shows a picture and plays a song when you click the play button. It will take a minute to load, since it's 6MB or so.

I used swfmill to capture the assets in a swf file, then compiled onto that using the FAME combo. Big thanks go to Kevin of http://open-actionscript.blogspot.com/ for providing the resources for the button logic. Flash can be a little esoteric for the traditional C programmer sometimes.

Source, including assets and xml file for swfmill here.

Blood Ravens veteran WIP... I painted!

After a four month hiatus, I have painted! He's not done, and I think he looks better in person than in the unforgiving context of macro photography. All in all, not bad for an evening of painting.

The important thing is... I painted. And I enjoyed it.

My friend Mark and I have a 1500 point game lined up for sometime in the future. Basically as soon as we each get 1500 painted we're going to roll dice. I've never had 1500 points of my own models painted in my life, so we'll see what happens.

Today is the Day I Paint

I've been away from painting for a while. During my little mental hiatus I just had no desire to pick up a brush. In fact I remember picking up the 40k rulebook at one point during the whole ordeal and asking myself, "Why do people consider this fun again?" The last time I painted something was October 23, 2008.

Even though I am feeling a lot better I still have not started painting again. I really want to, but I can't seem to decide on how to actually start. Last night I dug through a bunch of miniatures just to figure out what to paint. I didn't actually decide, since the hunt turned into an exhaustive search for a box containing particular Space Marine sprues which I may have taken to work. The end result is that I've gone through just about every miniature I own and today I am going to paint something. I need to get a brush in my hand again. It's been too long.

I will post results here. Please verbally abuse me if I do not. The internet is my accountability group.

Micheal != Michael

What kind of idiot misspells his own name, you ask? This one. I just corrected my name in the (c) footer of this page. I am Michael, not Micheal.

In other news, I was at work until 2:30 AM last night trying to dig myself out of the volume of work I had committed to. I think I might be over-promising lately, but I've always struggled with that.

Next up: fully painted armies and fantastic games programmed in Flash! Plus advanced degrees and career upgrades, martial arts ranks, self-employment and ... well, you get the idea.

That Crucial Moment

There are few experiences in life that can rival awaiting the reading of a jury verdict. I got that experience Wednesday as I sat in a courtroom with a friend whose fate lay in the hands of a jury of his peers. For days we had heard testimony and arguments. Sure, I was biased by friendship and the experiences of knowing this person for the last four or so years, but even imagining myself as an impartial listener the evidence seemed so strong for the defense and the prosecution witnesses contradicted each other repeatedly.

The court officer called us back into the courtroom.
heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat
The jury oozed into the courtroom in slow motion.
heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat
The foreman of the jury stood.
heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat
Guilty.

It's like getting punched in the gut with a pillow. Guilty.
The feeling is utterly helpless. My mind was frantically racing for some way to change what was happening, all the time knowing I couldn't. Wake up. Go back. That didn't happen. Guilty.

I sat there not sure what to do. It's over, but as long as I sit here it's not really over, is it? The sentencing date was set and the next case on the docket began and I was still sitting there.

Even now I still have that sudden urge to change things somehow, knowing I can't. I feel helpless. I couldn't stop it. I can't stop it. It's going to happen. I can feel my stomach clench at the thought. I know it wasn't me in the defendant's chair, but it feels like I was.

It feels like I still am.

Flash Kraken

Behold my first app written in open source Flash development tools.

Okay, it's not much but it demonstrates a few things I wanted to do, namely a progress bar that fills up as the image loads. The image is located remotely, and I need to figure out how to make libraries of resources that can be embedded in the flash app.

Project source: CTD.zip

The name of the zip and the swf file indicate my intended first game in flash, Coin Toss Dungeon. Coin Toss Dungeon references a "What's New with Phil and Dixie" cartoon from the early 80's that I originally read in Dragon magazine in my greasier teenage years. Through the magic of the interwebs (and Mr. Foglio's generosity) I present it for you here.

Farewell to Corinthian Leather

As a child, I remember hearing of famous people dying and wondering, "Who is this person, and why is everyone acting like it's a huge tragedy?" Today, I experienced this. Upon hearing of the death of Ricardo Montalban, I made an audible "awwwww." My younger coworkers on the other hand said, "Who is this person, and why are you acting like it's a huge tragedy?"

For the edification of the public, I present my first memory of Ricardo Montalban.



Wait... I thought it was rich Corinthian leather. Huh?

Slowly Reconnecting With My Life

Hmmm.... how to start. The past 90 days or so are among the strangest times I've ever experienced. I was prescribed some medication that had the effect of making me lose all interest in my own life. By that I mean I completely lost interest in both the things I previously enjoyed and lost interest in the consequences of actions in my life. As a result my online business has officially failed and is closed, I haven't picked up a paintbrush in months (missing promised deadlines without so much as a twinge of guilt) and my work at EMU has suffered. I spent money frivolously that I did not have.

I've always been a solitary sort, but this was a new extreme. I was trying very hard to disconnect with everything in my life except my family. Every time the phone rang I would say, "I'm not here." The only way people could contact me was to show up somewhere that they knew I would be (home or work) and confront me there, which annoyed me greatly. I found myself avoiding email, knowing that people would be trying to contact me. My mobile phone was commonly set to vibrate and left (accidentally, of course) in my coat pocket in the closet.

I think the word we're looking for here is depression.

Somewhere in this time frame also came some medical tests. My liver enzymes had been wonky for a while and my spleen, already 30% longer than normal range, was getting larger according to an ultrasound I had. I was bouncing between my primary care physician, a gastroenterologist and trying to schedule with a hemotologist. Oh, and lots of blood draws. An abdominal CT scan showed no abnormal growths in my liver despite is being lit up on the ultrasound consistent with fatty liver infiltration. Hooray, I just won a liver biopsy.

Biopsies are fun-on-a-bun. Doctors numb your side, jam a needle the size of a ball point pen in between your ribs, and grab a chunk of your giblets to gawk at under a microscope. In truth, it wasn't as bad as it sounds. After the burning zap of the local anesthesia I didn't feel anything. I was surprised to hear the snap of the sample being taken, not realizing they had actually pierced my abdominal cavity I expected to go back to work the next day, but was ordered to take the next 48 hours off. Whee. Here's a little glimpse of my happy-fun-time.

After looking over my innards, the verdict is apparently good. I suffer from "nonalcoholic steatohepatitis," a fibrosis or mild scarring of the liver. It can lead to cirrhosis if it gets a lot worse, and the treatment is to lose weight, eat a more balanced diet and exercise more. Imagine my joy.

Okay, so back to the reconnecting/depression thing. I talked to my doctor about what was going on and she altered some dosages. About a month later I can feel the fog lifting, and I actually returned a couple calls to people. I'm thinking about painting soon too, but we'll see on that. I'm not used to conditions that are not either on or off. This mental state is a continuum and it's hard to say where I am at any given moment. I like data. I like to be able to measure things. This is not really measurable. Even during the darkest time of it I wasn't entirely sure if something was wrong with me. I was fairly certain that I "wasn't myself lately" but I couldn't define what "myself" actually was, and was obsessed by the fact that if "myself" wasn't how I was acting at the time then how is "myself" even defined? Yeah, I know. It sounds pretty stupid in retrospect. My thought process was tainted. I wasn't suicidal, but my thoughts would be... I guess dark is the best word I could use. The idea of bad things happening was no concern to me. The idea of bad things happening to me actually held some appeal. The fact that the liver biopsy had a fatality risk gave me a sick sense of satisfaction.

Anyway, I'm feeling better. I managed to not alienate my kids or Stef. My friends are either oblivious to what happened or are somewhere between concerned and irked. My customers are enraged, and with good reason. The mere fact that I'm blogging about it is a major step toward normalcy for me, and I actually want normalcy now. That's a big change.

Maybe I'll even post some painting news here eventually! ...but not quite yet.

Untitled Poem

I dreamed of a girl
with dark skin and bright eyes
long hair and long neck
and warm copper lips
willing with chaste kisses
their taste the promise
of youth fulfilled
Out of place among us
in the midst of our filth
her royalty was unmarred
She gave me a gift
of gems and precious metals
but when I looked at it later
it was a simple thing
a child's thing
of bright colored clay

This poem is the direct result of a very vivid dream I had. The setting is an idealized evocation of warm summer nights in my teenage years. I loved the ambiguity of the symbolic gift.

Dreaming in Poetry

Okay, bear with me. This came to me fully formed in a dream while I was feeling quite poorly, and most likely feverish.

my attendants array before me each morning
in uniforms chosen through assessment
and reassessment
and as they diminish in service to me
throughout the month
until they are nearly spent
REBIRTH!
like the invincible moon
made full again

It wasn't quite as vivid as the hallucinations I had when I had meningitis, but it's still pretty cool for something that I didn't consciously write. When I woke the memory was vivid enough for me to quickly jump to the computer and write it down. Apparently I had gone to bed early (no recollection) because the time stamp is about 10:00 PM.

Staying on your Talking Points

This made me laugh.

My Contribution to Democracy

I stood in line for about an hour and a half to vote this morning. I'm glad the eather was nice. The people behind me passed the time by blathering on about anything and everything. The fellow who asserted (multiple times) that election day should be a national holiday almost made me laugh out loud.

Guy: Election day should be a national holiday. Everyone should just get it off work to vote.
Girl: I'm surprised the line is this long.
Guy: Yeah! And it's going to be like this all day!

So, I'm curious. If the line is going to be long all day, how would getting the day off work help? I guess I can see it if there were huge lines/waits early in the day and late in the evening, but if the line is long all day it doesn't make any sense. Also, I don't know if this guy works for a bank or something, but how many of us get national holidays off work? I don't know about you all, but I am here at my desk on Presidents' Day just like every other weekday. I honestly can't see Cracker Barrel or Kroger closing up shop on election day either.

So who did I vote for? The ballot was confusing... I think I may have voted for Buchanan. I'll just claim I voted for whoever lost. That gives me license to complain for the next four years about everything I don't like about the new administration no matter who wins.

Open Source Flash Development

Who says this blog isn't multi-interest?

I have decided to do some Macromedia Flash development, and in my usual frugal vein I am using open source tools. Here is what I am using:

• Eclipse IDE v3.3.2 (Europa)
• Motion-Twin ActionScript 2 compiler (v1.14)
• ActionScript Development Kit (ASDT)
• Flashout (Eclipse Plugin) (v0.2.1.6)
  

Making this all work together is all nicely written up on the communitymx website here.

I encountered some problems, mostly version based, with getting the HelloWorld example to work.

• The "New Folder" right-click command is apparently not enabled by default for the ActionScript perspective in Eclipse 3.3.2. To fix this, customize the perspective, choose the "General" shortcut category and check "folder" (and probably also "file".)
• The "core" linked directory in the example will not be created. A newer version of Motion Twin uses "std8" instead. No biggie, but a difference.
• And speaking of std8, the Eclipse preferences for Flashout want to know the "Directory of Macromedia's core classes." Give it the sdt8 subdir of the Motion Twin installation dir.
  
• The Flashout.as file required for compilation contains code that is not compatible with the newer version of Motion Twin. The "TRACE" function is now "trace", and no I don't know why. Open Flashout.as with a text editor and replace every instance of TRACE with trace. I recommend Wordpad if you use windows, since it has a replace function and treats the carriage returns in the file with respect, unlike notepad. For future covenience (read: laziness) I put it in the std8 directory in the Motion Twin install dir.

One issue I have not gotten to work is the suggestion menus for the Flashout class while editing the ActionScript class files. I'm afraid that when I move to multiple class files that one won't recognize the classes in another. It seems to compile and work okay, but it would be nice if the compiler gave some indication that it knows what I'm talking about. Yes, I've tried putting it in the source directories for the project.

Land Raider Redeemer Re-assembly

Last night I broke out the airbrush to start the Land Raider Redeemer base color. I've never built a Land Raider before, and apparently I fell into a classic assembly error. My error: I didn't sandwich the doors/control panel in between the body halves. I don't feel too bad, since I didn't have instructions. A few bonesaw swipes, some superglue and a wasted evening later, the pieces were back together and waiting for paint.

I'm excited to paint this, even though it's only for eBay. The priming has gone fairly well, with no discernible texture resulting from the spray can. The Iandan Darksun basecoat will make a nice undercoat for the golden yellow I'm making it.

One interesting Land Raider observation... if I put a pilot on top in the hatch and stick a pintle mounted Storm Bolter in front of him, it can still be fired by the Machine Spirit, right? It's odd to think of being there in the hatch and having the vehicle just wrest control of the gun right out from under you so it can shoot at something the rest of the tank was ignoring.

Codex: Space Marines... am I missing something?

Codex: Orks was filled with "huh?" moments. Are dakka-guns on bikes twin linked? What is the actual profile of a dakka gun? Can Stormboyz Waaagh? Can a mob of boyz with shootas have a Nobs with a power klaw, etc.

Codex: Space Marines is starting to cause me some head scratching. First up is the ubiquitous Signum, a sensor previously used by Techmarines to improve shooting of the squad to which they are attached. The rules for the Signum have been changed to prevent it from being used as "Gets Hot! Insurance." Instead of rolling misses (and 1's are misses!) it improves the ballistic skill of a squad member. Great! The only problem is that nobody can take one. The Techmarine doesn't have a signum in his wargear anymore and he can't buy one. In fact, no model that I can find has an option to take a signum now. Did I just miss it?
EDIT: Devastator squad sergeant gets a Signum by default now.

Next, the Razorback! First off, I love the option to have different weapon options than the heavy bolter/lascannon of the last edition. The one that I wonder about is the lascannon/plasma gun combo. In the roster entry, the upgrade specifies a single lascannon and a twin linked plasma gun. On the main page describing the Razorback a variant is described that includes a single lascannon and two twin linked plasma guns. Based on the Ork FAQ using the description page over the roster page I'm guessing it will end up as two twin linked plasma guns, so I'm going to delay modeling one of these until I know for sure. The twin linked assault cannon would use the same turret mount as a Land Raider twin linked assault cannon, but I don't know if the regular Land Raider box includes that particular bit or just the twin linked heavy bolter. The new plastic Crusader / Redeemer box has a twin linked assault cannon bit, but both variants use it. Any Land Raider owners out there want to help me out with this info?
EDIT: I completely misread this. It's "single lascannon and twin-linked plasma guns." One twin linked gun, just like it says in the army composition page.

Honor guard / Command Squad / Servitors: Both the Honor Guard and Command Squad have text that indicate that their inclusion does not take up an additional HQ slot. The servitor squad entry does not have similar text. Does that imply that servitors will take up an elite slot? I hope not. Also, am I missing something or do the independent characters no longer have to be attached to the squads they allow? Text seems to imply that the servitor squad can exist without the techmarine; there are even rules specifically based on the techmarine not being in the squad, and I'm guessing that's not just a "techmarine dies" rule.

Donut Cake Redux

Today is my department's staff picnic thing, and I (was) volunteered to bring a dessert. The coffee/donut cake a couple posts ago was a trial run for what I wanted to bring to the picnic. I made a few changes to the process, as follows:

Make the cake as per the directions on the box, substituting strong coffee (or espresso) for the water in the recipe. It's only 1 1/4 C, so it won't overpower the cake with coffee taste.

Use all large, round donuts (torus, not sphere shaped, would be more accurate I suppose.) Donut holes just didn't work out well. I might try using a chocolate covered cake donut in a future iteration. Try stuff out and tell me how it worked.

Glaze Topping:
1/4 C melted butter / margarine
2 C powdered sugar
1/4 tsp Vanilla extract
mix well, then add 2 Tbsp milk

And remember, it's better to be fat and happy than just fat.