Boy, I keep hitting end of the month in my posting. I've got a couple of things I should post about at some point, but I want to wait a bit 'cause there ain't much to say about them. But I will tell a story. A story of hope, then woe, then searching, then rejoicing, then trepidation, then acceptance, and finally of compromise.
The Hope:
You may remember from previous posts my desire to build a gaming table for me to keep ongoing games in as I tend to life in between taking turns.
Well, I helped out with a little demolition project at the village skating rink and took home some of the discarded 2x6 planks that I thought would be useful for making a table. I switched up the design in my head again (and then again, and then another time) for how I am going to build my table.
On Friday, I decided to do it! I went out to the shed, pulled out those boards and started measuring and marking and cutting.
As the boards still had white paint on them or were fuzzy and uneven where there was no paint, I laid them out to go over them with a belt sander.
The Woe:
Sanding away and I start seeing green parts where I have gone over with the sander. Little patches of green are appearing all over the wood. Oh no! Is it pressure treated wood? There's no little holes, but that doesn't always mean there's no chemical. I've heard it's no good to use treated lumber indoors, it's toxic or something right?
The Searching:
Then I think, it can't be that bad can it? I go to Google. There's some woodworking sites and house inspection company sites weighing in on the question of using treated lumber indoors. Turns out...
The Rejoicing:
...it's not that bad! As long as you aren't eating off the surface or burning the wood and inhaling the smoke, there is no danger! Especially if finished with a good penetrating stain! I planned to finish it anyway. Yay! I can still use the wood! But I'll buy a mask for sanding it!
The Trepidation:
But there's still the green colour. I won't like that on there, and what if it remains more or less visible, even after staining? What if I decide to sell or give the table away? I might be okay with what I found out about the wood treatments, but others won't be. I'd feel bad giving someone something they didn't agree with without their knowledge.
The Acceptance
I don't want to use treated wood to make a table. Not knowing if the green will be covered adequately, or knowing it's treated but just not telling people who I know would not want to use it, even if their fears are unfounded.
The Compromise
So, hey. It's pressure treated wood. Good for using outdoors. The concrete flags at the bottom of our entrance stairs are all wonky and pose a tripping hazard. I'll use the wood to make a stair to cover up those slabs and reduce that risk. I, guess I can wait a little longer for my table.
Saturday, 25 March 2017
Tuesday, 28 February 2017
Star Wars: Silent Death - a build-up
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| Let's get off of Hoth! |
The sudden surge in star fighter construction was indirectly triggered by (but directly related to) an impulse purchase of some Star Wars Micro Machines that were on sale at the grocery store I frequent. Today I saw them putting the toys into a clearance bin, meaning I may be tempted in the future to get some more, if the prices go down even further.
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| What I bought on sale, grouped by pack. |
My justification for a purchase I'm currently not so sure was well thought-out, but which I do not yet regret, was to use the miniatures in an X-Wing Miniatures style of game. X-Wing is based on a miniatures series I already own parts of, and have also carved my own models for, and that is Wings of Glory (previously Wings of War). The two games have much in common:
- simple unit movement using pre-set templates,
- simple method of firing and damage allotment,
- high quality, pre-painted minis
- an element of collecting (base games are only enough to whet the appetite)
- small scale, thus as a miniatures game, it is accessible to miniatures noobs like me
In my opinion, it is the Star Wars franchise that is the main factor driving X-Wing to edge out WoG in what I perceive to be a greater level of popularity. Another factor may also be the use of cards in X-Wing that represent special weapons, droids, and characters from the galaxy far, far away that are used to beef up a ship in-game, making it more deadly or harder to destroy or whatever. Now, there are fans doing the same for WoG, but it's a tacked on addition and I think it takes a while of getting the hang of playing the game as is before people want to tackle that additional complexity. I think it just works better in X-Wing because fans of the Star Wars movies and books recognize and want to use their favourites. I could only name one fighter ace of World War II, and that only because I played the heck out of the air combat game he endorsed and read his autobiographic works.
For all those reasons in my list of bullet-points, I would love to own X-Wing too. The thing that keeps me from making that purchase, besides the fact that I know I would end up wanting to buy more ships (an expensive proposition), is the idea of the pre-game mixing and matching of ships, pilots, special weapons, etc. to get to the point value decided on for a match. I don't feel like I would enjoy that very much.
Which brings me back to my purchase of Micro Machines models to build an alternative.
As I said, I wanted to use them in a table top star fighters game. Once I got them home, I was scouring the Internet for rules I could use my newly acquired spaceships in and came across Star Wars: Silent Death Starfighter Combat Game. This is a Star Wars adaptation of an already existing game called Silent Death. Well, the problem I quickly ran into was the the need for more ships to fill out the scenario rosters included in the rules. This naturally led to a desire to build up a squadron of TIE fighters, which is actually rather difficult to do with without acquiring a glut of X-Wings and a bunch of unwanted miniature models.
So I started searching online again, only this time for collections of one type of fighter, i.e., a squadron of TIEs. Tried eBay, only to find that it would be just as expensive as building up squads by buying all kinds of vehicle packs for the one or two ships I might want from each. Then I came across some pictures of papercraft fleets. There are a number of files available for download that you just print the patterns on card stock, cut out and fold/glue the bits together and get any number of nice-looking miniatures for pennies apiece. After the ensuing downloading spree, I printed A-Wings and TIE Fighters so I could build them and play the first Scenario included with the SW:SD rules: 2 A-Wings vs. 3 TIEs. (Battle report next post.)
I have a number of other papercraft models downloaded that I have never built (mostly 28mm scale buildings), maybe I'm a little intimidated by them, maybe I didn't know where I'd keep them, maybe I just wanted to have some for the future possibility of wanting to build them. Likely a mixture of all three. But I wanted these ones and I dove right in!
Building is taking me a little longer than I had imagined, maybe 30 minutes per ship if I am "in the zone." But building 1 or 2 each day, I am now up to the following paper ship collection:
3 TIEs (foreground; one "Big Gun Prototype"? not familiar with where that comes in) and 3 TIE Interceptors (background; again, one is a prototype with some kind of rocket launchers mounted on it, which I am also not familiar with).
In the end, the building is so fun, I want to do more! Originally arranged to be of similar scale to Star Wars Miniatures: Starship Battles, these turned out smaller than Micro Machine size, but Micro Machines aren't known for sticking to a certain scale, so that's okay. Maybe later I will worry about that, and maybe not.
It may turn out in the end that the greatest enjoyment I'll get from the money I spent on those toys will be from turning them over to the kids, maybe as a reward for doing something hard. Or maybe just because I want to!
Tuesday, 31 January 2017
Islands of Fun
There's too many fun things to work on! At the rate I'm going of adding a little bit here and a little bit there to my ongoing build-a-game-at-home projects, I don't know if I'll ever finish one enough to play!
Okay, it's not that bad. I could play Full Thrust right now, I've got enough scratch-built vessels and stands for it, bits to use for counters, dice, and a star field battle map with hex-grid (optional). It's just that can't feel like it's finished enough to play until I've played it. Other games I've built for a set of downloaded rules I have played solo to get a hang of how it's played. For some reason, I keep balking at setting up FT to do the same, even with the modification I use to get around the secret movement orders aspect.
Recently, I added another title to my list of games for which I have rules, but for which I need to gather/build components. This time the game is called Silent Death, only what I downloaded was a special Star Wars themed version of the rules that was originally printed in a magazine. This I did after buying some packs of Micro Machines Star Wars star fighters that were on sale with the sole intention of using them in gaming. There's a few more things to be done to make it playable (some stands for the models being foremost).
No real update on Pulp Alley. I think my daughter would like it, but I still wait.
Mostly I wait for the time that I have a table where I can leave a game set up. I've got lots of wood (from the dump) with which to build a table plus a piece of MDF for the playing surface. I no longer have a nicely heated and wired garage in which to run a table saw or work in after the daylight is gone. I also have had, and now have, other projects to finish first. It will happen, though.
But, enough of that. The real reason I wanted write something, besides the fact it's been a month since my last post (Happy New Year, by the way), is some inspiration I had from a video I happened across. I happened to have some styrofoam, not the kind he used in the video, but the kind more commonly used for packing. Also had a couple game boards from games that were picked up especially for their components only. Of course, there's all those craft paints from my sister too.
Yes, I made islands for use with the sailing ships acquired in April! And here they are! Enjoy!
The sandy bases are cut out of a game board. The back side is facing up, which has a texture that shows through the paint, looks a bit like sand. The rest of each island is made of the styrofoam. Dark brown or black was used as an undercoat all over. Then paint layered and dry-brushed: two or three layers, dark to light, for the rocks, grass, and sand. Worked out pretty good though!
Okay, it's not that bad. I could play Full Thrust right now, I've got enough scratch-built vessels and stands for it, bits to use for counters, dice, and a star field battle map with hex-grid (optional). It's just that can't feel like it's finished enough to play until I've played it. Other games I've built for a set of downloaded rules I have played solo to get a hang of how it's played. For some reason, I keep balking at setting up FT to do the same, even with the modification I use to get around the secret movement orders aspect.
Recently, I added another title to my list of games for which I have rules, but for which I need to gather/build components. This time the game is called Silent Death, only what I downloaded was a special Star Wars themed version of the rules that was originally printed in a magazine. This I did after buying some packs of Micro Machines Star Wars star fighters that were on sale with the sole intention of using them in gaming. There's a few more things to be done to make it playable (some stands for the models being foremost).
No real update on Pulp Alley. I think my daughter would like it, but I still wait.
Mostly I wait for the time that I have a table where I can leave a game set up. I've got lots of wood (from the dump) with which to build a table plus a piece of MDF for the playing surface. I no longer have a nicely heated and wired garage in which to run a table saw or work in after the daylight is gone. I also have had, and now have, other projects to finish first. It will happen, though.
But, enough of that. The real reason I wanted write something, besides the fact it's been a month since my last post (Happy New Year, by the way), is some inspiration I had from a video I happened across. I happened to have some styrofoam, not the kind he used in the video, but the kind more commonly used for packing. Also had a couple game boards from games that were picked up especially for their components only. Of course, there's all those craft paints from my sister too.
Yes, I made islands for use with the sailing ships acquired in April! And here they are! Enjoy!
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| Searching the islands for pirates. |
The sandy bases are cut out of a game board. The back side is facing up, which has a texture that shows through the paint, looks a bit like sand. The rest of each island is made of the styrofoam. Dark brown or black was used as an undercoat all over. Then paint layered and dry-brushed: two or three layers, dark to light, for the rocks, grass, and sand. Worked out pretty good though!
Friday, 30 December 2016
Time to hit the slopes!
I like being out-of-doors, but not so much in winter-time. While I generally just dislike the cold, I also don't have any winter hobbies that one would normally do outside. I don't ski or snowboard and I don't want to pay for the equipment. I can't skate. And with that, there's only one affordable conventional winter sport left that I can pull myself into the cold air for.
We went sledding last week near my parents' place. Dad has a small wooden sled and a crazy carpet. They worked great. The little kids each got to hit a little jump at the bottom in the little wooden sled. We also had our little foam sled that you need to push all the way down the hill. I needed to push the foamy one all the way down the hill.
None of these sleds had steering. I like steering on a sled. It got me thinking again about building sleds and stuff. So, the last few days I've been looking at sleds and other hill-descent contraptions and came across something that I had the necessary parts for.
Today, I had the itch to make something, so make I did! I have a scooter with no wheels that I picked up at the dump. I also picked up some old skis someone was throwing away. In fact, I think just about everything I used on this project was from the dump.
I made a ski-scoot! Or whatever it can be called. A scooter with skis instead of wheels.
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| It's my ski-scoot. |
It was a rush to get it done before I lost daylight, but I did. Excited to try it out soon.
Monday, 7 November 2016
Heroclix Modification No. 2
I cracked open some paints again and went to work on one of my Heroclix figures. I should maybe start with saying that I de-based a few Heroclix figures: the ones that I thought generic-looking enough to be used in non-superhero themed games.
But on with the painting. One of the de-based heroes that needed painting. It was called Martinex. I had never heard of Martinex and had to look him up to know anything about him. Should have taken a before picture, but I didn't. The sculpt wasn't really going to lend itself to conversion to a regular-looking person very well, what with a number of not-very-natural-looking angular features all over his body like all-sticky-outy and square-shaped abs and pecs and rather pointy knees. I considered taking a knife to the sculpt to round out the angular parts, but I couldn't bring myself to do it like I did to thin down Mr. Hyde, So, having been eyeing some futuristic minis lately, I decided that I could make Martinex into a guy with some futuristic body armour on so that I wouldn't have to cut anything away. One attribute I took away from looking up the info about Martinex character was he was of African descent, so I painted him accordingly to keep that connection between his former life as Martinex and his new life as an as yet unnamed man sporting body armour.
It was a couple of hours painting, but I think it turned out rather well. The light green undercoat - supposed to be his beneath-the-armour suit - doesn't show up too well in the picture, but if one squints and holds their tongue the right way...but that's okay.
Anyone interested in the 'before' can Google "Martinex Heroclix" and you'll get a number of images.
But on with the painting. One of the de-based heroes that needed painting. It was called Martinex. I had never heard of Martinex and had to look him up to know anything about him. Should have taken a before picture, but I didn't. The sculpt wasn't really going to lend itself to conversion to a regular-looking person very well, what with a number of not-very-natural-looking angular features all over his body like all-sticky-outy and square-shaped abs and pecs and rather pointy knees. I considered taking a knife to the sculpt to round out the angular parts, but I couldn't bring myself to do it like I did to thin down Mr. Hyde, So, having been eyeing some futuristic minis lately, I decided that I could make Martinex into a guy with some futuristic body armour on so that I wouldn't have to cut anything away. One attribute I took away from looking up the info about Martinex character was he was of African descent, so I painted him accordingly to keep that connection between his former life as Martinex and his new life as an as yet unnamed man sporting body armour.
It was a couple of hours painting, but I think it turned out rather well. The light green undercoat - supposed to be his beneath-the-armour suit - doesn't show up too well in the picture, but if one squints and holds their tongue the right way...but that's okay.
Anyone interested in the 'before' can Google "Martinex Heroclix" and you'll get a number of images.
Sunday, 2 October 2016
(Almost) Quarter Mile Championship: Section 1
Lawrence and I started the grand tournament today. I listed off all the cars we could find for the big showdown. Of course, there are more that will have to be added as they are found or, if we finish racing the bulk of the racing, they can challenge the winner.
The first section consisted of Pixar cars, which do not fit on a Hot Wheels track, by the way. The winners in each race were quite apparent, so we only did one race per pairing.
The racing was very exciting for Lawrence. Of course he was cheering for Lightning McQueen. We have a number of Lightning cars, but could only find the one with the World Grand Prix kit from Cars 2. Also challenging were Francesco, Doc Hudson, Sheriff, Mater, Mack, Red, Sarge, Chick Hicks, the Leak Less car (52), one of Chick's pit crew, Guido, Tex, Ramone, and the Official Piston Cup Pace Car. Also racing were Chug, Mayday, and two of the smoke-jumpers from Planes 2. Since that only added up to 19, we added a road grader by ERTL to round out the group.
There were a couple of surprising upsets, the big one being Lightning losing his first race to the great green fuel truck, Chug! A minor upset was the Pace Car beating out Francesco, who Lawrence was rooting for after Lightning was eliminated.
And the results?
Third place went to Chick Hicks. Will he ever win anything? At least he went further than McQueen this time!
A solid effort by Leak Less (52) earned him second place.
The big winner? The Official Piston Cup Pace Car! I guess the race cars are all too used to always staying behind him!
The Pace car will now wait for the winners of the rest of the sections, when we will run a contest of section winners. The next line-up, chosen at random by Lawrence, consists of 26 Hot Wheels cars, 5 Matchbox cars, and 1 Motor Max car.
Second thoughts:
I think I might just keep reporting to this post as I've realized that unless one is showing video of these races, it just isn't that grand. Maybe, if we do actually find out, I'll post on the fastest car in the house. I'll even include a picture of it. Besides, in a couple or three weeks, I'll hopefully have something more exciting than Hot Wheels races to post about!
The first section consisted of Pixar cars, which do not fit on a Hot Wheels track, by the way. The winners in each race were quite apparent, so we only did one race per pairing.
The racing was very exciting for Lawrence. Of course he was cheering for Lightning McQueen. We have a number of Lightning cars, but could only find the one with the World Grand Prix kit from Cars 2. Also challenging were Francesco, Doc Hudson, Sheriff, Mater, Mack, Red, Sarge, Chick Hicks, the Leak Less car (52), one of Chick's pit crew, Guido, Tex, Ramone, and the Official Piston Cup Pace Car. Also racing were Chug, Mayday, and two of the smoke-jumpers from Planes 2. Since that only added up to 19, we added a road grader by ERTL to round out the group.
There were a couple of surprising upsets, the big one being Lightning losing his first race to the great green fuel truck, Chug! A minor upset was the Pace Car beating out Francesco, who Lawrence was rooting for after Lightning was eliminated.
And the results?
Third place went to Chick Hicks. Will he ever win anything? At least he went further than McQueen this time!
A solid effort by Leak Less (52) earned him second place.
The big winner? The Official Piston Cup Pace Car! I guess the race cars are all too used to always staying behind him!
The Pace car will now wait for the winners of the rest of the sections, when we will run a contest of section winners. The next line-up, chosen at random by Lawrence, consists of 26 Hot Wheels cars, 5 Matchbox cars, and 1 Motor Max car.
Second thoughts:
I think I might just keep reporting to this post as I've realized that unless one is showing video of these races, it just isn't that grand. Maybe, if we do actually find out, I'll post on the fastest car in the house. I'll even include a picture of it. Besides, in a couple or three weeks, I'll hopefully have something more exciting than Hot Wheels races to post about!
Sunday, 25 September 2016
Quarter-mile quest
Hey hey! I found a post that didn't get finished and posted! So without any further delay, from some time in the past:
I've been planning and thinking about it ever since I took delivery of my BluTrack (recall: a dual-lane Hot Wheels track alternative) and now I've built it. A portable and relatively easy-to-store ramp with built-in starting gate.
BluTrack comes with a plastic plate at one end which has a hole in it for hooking onto things. There is also a big suction cup that fits into the hook-hole to suction it to a window or other smooth surface. There is also an adhesive on the plate in case one buys a second track and wants them connected permanently, but I don't think I'll be taking that route as I want to turn my attention back to games if I can, plus the 18' starter track is only a couple feet short of a quarter-mile at Hot Wheels scale (20.6') and that's fine by me.
The suction cup method is what we have been using 'til now. But there were a couple of issues that just bugged me. One issue was that the suction cup didn't stay stuck to some of the surfaces we were using - desktop, metal fire place - the cup would lose suction and after a few runs the track would slide forward and sag. When we used the suction cup on a window, it stayed stuck, but the second problem was still present; without a support underneath it, the flexible track would hang down as vertical as is could get and since the window we used was right over the couch, the track followed the contours of the couch on the way down. Because the track followed the contours of the couch, the cars would go flying off at the seat, rarely landing back on the track.
I needed a solution. Some kind of ramp that I could set up anywhere, that would hold the track up so it didn't slide forward or cause cars to leave the track nine times out of 10, would be high enough that most Hot Wheels/Matchbox type cars would actually run the entire length of the track, and easy to store in the house or shed.
As I was thinking on this problem and surveying my dump-run finds, I hit upon an idea. A section of old crib railing would be my medium! I used the top and bottom rails and four of the twelve or so vertical bars. I now have a completely portable starting ramp custom made for the BluTrack. And a plus, it's light-weight and folds up for easy storage!
Simple, no?
But I couldn't stop there! I have a two-lane track. That means racing! That means I need a way to start cars evenly with each other. So a piece of plexiglass and a length of dowelling later I had a simple starting gate to ensure one car isn't slightly ahead of the other at the start. This is important if the kids are cheering on different cars.
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| 1962 Corvette (Matchbox) and a 1955 Alfa Romeo BAT (Hot Wheels) waiting on the green light. |
Since the move, we now have space long enough to set up 18 feet of track without being in the way of much. Also, shortly after the move, we found a 4-lane Hot Wheels race ramp with a finish-line indicator! I'm very sure I can rig up some way to merge the two so that close-enough-to-quarter-mile races can be had and a clear winner chosen every time. I haven't found the fastest car in the house, but one of these days, the kids and I will hold a race day. I look forward to reporting on the excitement!
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| They're off! |
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