Hey kids, the latest craze is to stack your (toy) animals. Well it keeps us off the streets...
Very True Mood: 
silly
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Very True Things
He talks to himself sometimes because he's the only one who understands
24 December 2008 @ 11:15 pm
Starting in 15mm, Splintered Light Miniatures have a range of animals including terror birds, wolves, boars, komodo dragons and others. Oh, and Giant Weasels.
In 28mm, the beastie featured here is one of two packs available from Gary Hunt Miniatures in New Zealand (but priced in US Dollars). Very drool worthy.
Moving onto cavemen. No web site yet for Forge of Ice, but see TMP for details of their Primitive Tents.
And finally, if dino fans put their money where their mouth is then Wargames Fcatory may create some plastic figures for us, on the suggestions list so far are Tyrannosaurus Rex and Small Carnivorous Dinosaurs. I think I may do a little research and suggest a small herbivores pack to give those meat eaters something to chase other than foolhardy time travellers.
Very True Mood: 
chipper
chipper09 November 2008 @ 11:21 pm
Last week I was introduced to Playfire - a social networking site for computer gamers. It got me wondering why there's no equivalent for wargamers.
There's BoardGameGeek but (a) the interface sucks and (b) its remit is so much wider than wargames. TMP and Frothers are fine places to come together and talk about games but that's all. Where's the site where I can catalogue the games I play and the miniatures I own and connect with other players?
A lot of the functionality that the knitters have on Ravelry would be great - a flexible but standardised way of listing "projects" - which minis, which paints, which TOE, WIP photos, etc.
Considering how geeky and techie a lot of wargamers are, why has no one created the site? Is it simply because the idea of social networking isn't really our thing?
Someone will now pop up in the comments and tell me about a site that I should have known about all along.
There's BoardGameGeek but (a) the interface sucks and (b) its remit is so much wider than wargames. TMP and Frothers are fine places to come together and talk about games but that's all. Where's the site where I can catalogue the games I play and the miniatures I own and connect with other players?
A lot of the functionality that the knitters have on Ravelry would be great - a flexible but standardised way of listing "projects" - which minis, which paints, which TOE, WIP photos, etc.
Considering how geeky and techie a lot of wargamers are, why has no one created the site? Is it simply because the idea of social networking isn't really our thing?
Someone will now pop up in the comments and tell me about a site that I should have known about all along.
17 August 2008 @ 06:05 pm
HLBS have released some new additions to their dinosaur range - mostly smaller critters this time, some, like this bone headed chap, never before done in this scale.
22 June 2008 @ 04:10 pm
On the dino pages I've updated the lists to include the latest releases from Fenryll, some very old Metal Magic caveman now available via Mega Minis and a general update of the Jeff Valent listings.
As promised only two and half months ago I've now upgraded the blog to use the standard WordPress sidebar syntax which makes it much more widget-friendly. I've also converted what little JavaScript I was using to use jQuery as part of my ongoing learning process.
I've added a few new plugins to the mix: Sociable, Better Blogroll and MyTwitter.
As promised only two and half months ago I've now upgraded the blog to use the standard WordPress sidebar syntax which makes it much more widget-friendly. I've also converted what little JavaScript I was using to use jQuery as part of my ongoing learning process.
I've added a few new plugins to the mix: Sociable, Better Blogroll and MyTwitter.
Very True Mood: 
productive
productiveVery True Music: Cheap Honesty - Skunk Anansie
28 May 2008 @ 10:06 pm
Richard Deasey of HLBS/DZ/DeeZee fame has sculpted a new range for RLBPS in the States: Dazed Miniatures.
On the other side of the world, Gary Hunt has some very nice looking feathered raptor greens.
Back in Blighty, Magister Militum have posted some new pics showing painted examples of their DinoMight range.
And finally, Jeff Valent Studios are offering their T. Rex at 33% off.
27 April 2008 @ 06:39 pm
Dinosaurs in Miniature has been updated with all the latest releases: Some cavegirls from Reaper, some running dinos from Hasslefree and a Megatherium and Smilodon from Rattrap.
And at long last someone, Amazon Miniatures as it happens, has made the killer pig itself, an Entelodont:
Very True Mood: cheerful
cheerfulVery True Music: Teenage Kicks - The Undertones
09 March 2008 @ 06:52 pm
As a lad my, (um, and mustn't forget that, okay) third favourite toys were Action Force. (What do you mean you've never heard of them?)
Imagine my nostalgic glee when I found that Soapy was doing a year long project to build Action Force and the Red Shadows in 28mm - Action Force Wargames Project 25th Anniversary.
Imagine my nostalgic glee when I found that Soapy was doing a year long project to build Action Force and the Red Shadows in 28mm - Action Force Wargames Project 25th Anniversary.
Very True Mood: excited
excited26 November 2007 @ 09:48 pm
I've just updated the Dinosaurs in Miniature pages with the latest releases and re-releases.
Wargames Illustrated have finished re-releasing the DZ Miniatures prehistoric mammals. They're also selling a set of rules called Tooth and Claw to tie in with this range. Written by Chris "every other set of rules out there" Peers who has pedigree on this area with Saurian Safari. My copy is in the post, so with luck I'll be able to post a review soon.
There are also new rules out from Magister Militum called DinoMight and MM continue to expand their range of 10mm figures, now including some non-dinosaurs.
Finally on the pre-historic front Reaper have released a "Jungle Girl with Sabre Tooth Tiger" which is okay-ish except for the huge mold line in the photo and the fact that it's an idea that's been done several times before. Very nice cat though.
Meanwhile... It was only a matter of time... Pre-painted, collectible (i.e. random sealed boxes) miniatures for Doctor Who (via Forbidden Planet). They're by Character Options which is a good sign (they make the very nice DW action figures) and the price is the same as for the Star Wars minis. On the downside (apart from the collectible nature) is the scale, 35mm, and the lack of anything from the classic series. Will I be buying them? They're Doctor Who miniatures!
Very True Mood: excited
excitedVery True Music: Slow Burn - Dvivd Bowie
07 September 2007 @ 05:03 pm
So I've managed to have two weeks off work and not make a single blog post. Okay I was out of the country and off the www for three days but still, it's shocking.
Have I turned into one of those bloggers who only posts to talk about how they're not posting? Oh dear.
The world cup starts today. Wales don't really stand a chance. Fingers crossed that they don't fuck up the group matches and finish second behind Australia. Then it's England or more likely South Africa and that's probably that.
I'm not sure about the new White Stripes album.
I fixed the broken shower. This makes me feel all manly and capable and productive. :-)
Amsterdam has a ridiculous number of shoe shops - be aware of this fact if you plan to take your wife or girlfriend there. Also, as everyone speaks English there are a number of English language bookshops and even the Dutch ones have English sections, and apart from Waterstones (which presumably is supplied and priced like a UK branch) the prices are good.
Speaking of books, I attended the launch for Stuffed and Starved by my old university mate Raj.
A war between an authoritarian government and a set of independent planets. The central government wins. Our heroes were amongst the fighters on the independent side. Meanwhile a remote planet is devastated by a chemical that causes the population to become wildly violent. Not actually a summary of the background to Serenity but actually the background to the old roleplaying game Living Steel that I picked up from eBay recently.
Oh, I'm flogging some stuff on eBay. Only Star Wars miniatures at the moment but I hope to list a few books and vids plus some other miniatures over the weekend.
Have I turned into one of those bloggers who only posts to talk about how they're not posting? Oh dear.
Things I'd like to write
- A collection of the things I discovered during the site redesign project - mostly new (to me) IE bugs and Ajax gotchas and XSLT moans. This is started and every so often I open up the draft and a stare at it a bit.
- The tutorial on HTML tables in the CSS age that I mentioned mumble months back.
- All about my holidays - Lettice and I have managed long weekends in Dublin, Dover (don't mock, the castle is amazing) and Amsterdam (see below) this summer but I've hardly said a word about what we got up to.
- My continuing investigation of social networking sites. I've reviewed Bebo and Friendster and have Orkut, Yahoo 360 and probably a few others to come. (I'm not doing MySpace and FaceBook beacuse I was already members there and it wouldn't be a like-for-like comparison). Also something about Rapleaf/Upscoop.
- Um ....
- ... the rest of this list...
Some quickies
The world cup starts today. Wales don't really stand a chance. Fingers crossed that they don't fuck up the group matches and finish second behind Australia. Then it's England or more likely South Africa and that's probably that.
I'm not sure about the new White Stripes album.
I fixed the broken shower. This makes me feel all manly and capable and productive. :-)
Amsterdam has a ridiculous number of shoe shops - be aware of this fact if you plan to take your wife or girlfriend there. Also, as everyone speaks English there are a number of English language bookshops and even the Dutch ones have English sections, and apart from Waterstones (which presumably is supplied and priced like a UK branch) the prices are good.
Speaking of books, I attended the launch for Stuffed and Starved by my old university mate Raj.
A war between an authoritarian government and a set of independent planets. The central government wins. Our heroes were amongst the fighters on the independent side. Meanwhile a remote planet is devastated by a chemical that causes the population to become wildly violent. Not actually a summary of the background to Serenity but actually the background to the old roleplaying game Living Steel that I picked up from eBay recently.
Oh, I'm flogging some stuff on eBay. Only Star Wars miniatures at the moment but I hope to list a few books and vids plus some other miniatures over the weekend.
Very True Mood: 
pensive
pensiveVery True Music: Burst - Magazine
15 August 2007 @ 03:05 pm
I saw this Build Your Own Stonehenge kit in the shop yesterday. A miniature Stonehenge. How Spinal Tap is that?And on Amazon: "20 used & new available" ... does anyone want a second hand Stonehenge?
ObWargames: Not sure of the scale but I suppose it would work quite well with 6mm or smaller figures. Or with a 28mm rock band...
Very True Mood: amused
amused20 April 2007 @ 10:17 pm
Firefly
The miniature in some shots is Captain Nathan from Heresy Miniatures (adds to potential shopping list foir Salute tomorrow) and he's "heroic 28mm" scale, so 30-35mm tall. That makes that paper model of the Serenity quite big.
The miniature in some shots is Captain Nathan from Heresy Miniatures (adds to potential shopping list foir Salute tomorrow) and he's "heroic 28mm" scale, so 30-35mm tall. That makes that paper model of the Serenity quite big.
Very True Mood: impressed
impressedVery True Music: Twist In My Sobriety (Extended Bumps Fluidity Mix) - WTF?
14 January 2007 @ 03:45 pm
Ragnarok is the journal of the Society of Fantasy and Science Fiction Wargamers. The latest issue, the first with John Wilson as editor, of Rag has been published and is in the post to members.
- Saint Snatch - Relic steaing in Dresda
- In the Dog House - Strontium Dog in Inquisitor
- Crimson Twenty One - Crimson Skies in Air War C:21
- Ottomania II - More Turks in Aeronef
- The Rules of War - Reviews of Space Vixens from Mars and Battlestations
06 January 2007 @ 09:11 am
Well, a little bit moany, by comparison with some people[1] I've really got nothing to complain about, and what I have is largely self inflicted.
There ought to be a law against it.
I'm waiting for a furniture delivery. It's coming sometime between 7 and 6 today. Getting dressed before 7 on a Saturday? When you have no plans to go further than the local shops[2] today? It's just not right.
Seeing as I haven't posted all week...
Happy New Year
I have foolishly gone and made a bunch of resolutions, and told people what they are (so I can't conveniently forget all about them), so I might as well post them here:
- Give up alcohol for seven weeks. An odd length of time, but it means I can start drinking again just in time for Lettice's 30th.
- Give up soft drinks, sweets and crisps. Yikes! All in one go.
- If I buy breakfast on the way to work then I must buy a cheap lunch. Kind of vague this one, but I know what I mean.
- Pay at least £100 into my savings account every month. Standing order now set up to transfer the money the day after I get paid, so I don't need to do anything else for this one.
- Limit my wargames/role playing games spending. I did a little experiment a while back and the results were a bit scary. I'm aiming for a lower figure this year - £500 total, so I have a limit of £100 per quarter and an extra floating £100 for magazine subscriptions and similar costs.
- Get a hair cut at least every two months. Lettice may want me to go for "the full Tom Baker" but there were some very frightening photos of me taken at the Christmas party and I think short is better.
Five days into the year and I haven't broken any of them. Though the fact that alcohol free lager tastes even more revolting than regular lager and that alcohol free bitter doesn't seem to exist, may be my undoing.
[1] Lawrence Miles has dumped his diary/blog for November and December online in one big splurge. It's not easy reading. This guy is one of the most talented writers to ever touch Doctor Who but he's got some serious issues - I really don't want to say anything trite like "tortured genius" because that turns a person into a cliché.
[2] More importantly to the Farmer's Market - West Norwood is moving up in the world!
Very True Location: SE27 0HS
Very True Mood: 
irritated
irritated29 November 2006 @ 09:05 pm
The reason I don't post so much at the moment is partly that my brain is a bit frazzled at the moment and partly that when I write a long post (like version one of this one) it get's eaten by the computer-interweb-monster.
Anyway, here's some of what I wanted to tell you all.
Wordie "Like Flickr, but without the photos." Silly but funny.
A Preacher TV series? OMG. How fucking cool would that be if they did it right?
Speaking of TV (oh I'm smooth I am). Is Robin Hood the gayest programme on the box at the moment? Can you point at any one of the regular characters and say "Yes, they're 100% heterosexual"? Let's look at them all:
Built my first AJAX powered web thingy. It's very Web 2.0 - even got popup message box things with semi-opaque backgrounds.
Back on Web 1.33333 I've updated the Dinosaurs in Miniature web pages. Added 10mm and 6mm listings and updated the existing lists.
Oh, and that fuckwit who thinks MI5 are stalking him through the telly has spammed radw, presumably thanks to some cross posted threads from a uk. group. Still it makes a change from the normal moronic trolling. Why do I still read? Must be some form of masochism.
Going to see Mitchell and Webb tomorrow. In Cryodon, but it's okay - I've had my innoculations. That's the start of a long weekend and we have big plans. Take in a film or two, do the Christmas shopping, visit the British Museum, giroscope's birthday curry, clean the flat from top to bottom. Come Tuesday I'll be glad to be back at work.
Anyway, here's some of what I wanted to tell you all.
Wordie "Like Flickr, but without the photos." Silly but funny.
A Preacher TV series? OMG. How fucking cool would that be if they did it right?
Speaking of TV (oh I'm smooth I am). Is Robin Hood the gayest programme on the box at the moment? Can you point at any one of the regular characters and say "Yes, they're 100% heterosexual"? Let's look at them all:
- Robin - ran off to the Holy Land rather than marry Marion; homo-erotic wrestling match with Guy last week.
- Much - follows Robin around all the time making puppy dog eyes
- John - left his wife to live in the forest with a bunch of men
- Alan - did you see him trying on the women's jewellery a couple of episodes back?
- Will - claims to love Djaq, who...
- Djaq - man's name, men's clothes, short hair
- Marion - creeps out of the house at night disguised as a man
- Guy - all that tight black leather and generally being the Sheriff's bitch
- The Sheriff - has a gimp called Guy; seemed equally interested in the nun and the serving boy
Built my first AJAX powered web thingy. It's very Web 2.0 - even got popup message box things with semi-opaque backgrounds.
Back on Web 1.33333 I've updated the Dinosaurs in Miniature web pages. Added 10mm and 6mm listings and updated the existing lists.
Oh, and that fuckwit who thinks MI5 are stalking him through the telly has spammed radw, presumably thanks to some cross posted threads from a uk. group. Still it makes a change from the normal moronic trolling. Why do I still read? Must be some form of masochism.
Going to see Mitchell and Webb tomorrow. In Cryodon, but it's okay - I've had my innoculations. That's the start of a long weekend and we have big plans. Take in a film or two, do the Christmas shopping, visit the British Museum, giroscope's birthday curry, clean the flat from top to bottom. Come Tuesday I'll be glad to be back at work.
Very True Mood: busy
busyVery True Music: Suzanne Vega - No Cheap Thrill
21 August 2006 @ 08:35 pm
Very True Mood: content
content26 July 2006 @ 08:32 pm
Dinosaurs. Small ones, not big ones. More stuff to spend money on. Sigh.
Very True Mood: chipper
chipperVery True Music: The Ramones - Now I wanna sniff some glue
11 July 2006 @ 10:24 am
As if I didn't have enough to read, here are a few more blogs that I've been looking at lately.
Darren Naish: Tetrapod Zoology - Incredibly fascinating science stuff.
Yours in a White Wine Sauce - Military History that never was.
Too many Ideas - SFSFW stalwart Mark Caldwell's computer art, writing and other stuff.
ThePickards - some northern bloke who's related to some other northern bloke that I work with. Web accesssibilty and football rants.
The Flogging Will Continue - Daniel James, aka Captain Cleaver, the head of Three Rings on MMORPGs and the future of entertainment.
Darren Naish: Tetrapod Zoology - Incredibly fascinating science stuff.
Yours in a White Wine Sauce - Military History that never was.
Too many Ideas - SFSFW stalwart Mark Caldwell's computer art, writing and other stuff.
ThePickards - some northern bloke who's related to some other northern bloke that I work with. Web accesssibilty and football rants.
The Flogging Will Continue - Daniel James, aka Captain Cleaver, the head of Three Rings on MMORPGs and the future of entertainment.
Very True Mood: pleased
pleased24 April 2006 @ 11:06 pm
So here I am admiring the free Arthur and Mordred figures from Salue on Saturday and I see that there are already three for sale on eBay.
Very True Mood: cynical
cynical09 April 2006 @ 10:09 am
Amazon Miniatures have joined my favourite bandwagon and started a range of Prehistoric Animals.
( Details )
Anyway, I know where one of my first stops at this year's Salute will be.
Very True Mood: cheerful
cheerfulVery True Music: Born to be a Dancer - Kaiser Chiefs