Quoth.Web

The new PC - The Omnissiah!

2009-06-19T22:02:00.004+10:00

The post below made me realise I hadn't informed all the non-readers out there what my new machine was, so i will re-post a thread i made in my Clans forum, DOA

http://dead-on-arrival.roflforum.net/forum.htm

yay! my new machine finally showed up today! The last machine I bought was 7 or 8 years ago, and it was pretty crappy. I hadn't played CS before, and didn't until a few years later, after getting bored playing MOH, lol. Its specs were:
p4 1.8Ghz
1gb ram
radeon 9550 SE GFX card
100GB of HDD space (over three drives, lol)
all in a tiny tiny case.

It started giving me the shits a couple of years ago, and due to USB port failures, it would drop out random hard drives, and the mouse would disconnect randomly by the end. My laptop is also failing, and as I do web development from home, I decided I needed a much stabler machine to work on, before all the site backups were lost, and I couldn't update them anymore.

So I bought a new machine

This ones:
Case: 1 x ThermalTake M9 Midi-Tower Case - 430W PSU

Motherboard: 1 x ASUS P5KPL-CM Motherboard
LGA775, G31, 1333FSB, 2xDDR2-800, PCI-Ex16, 4xSATA-II, GigLAN, 8Chl, VGA, Firewire, mATX

CPUs | Processor: 1 x Core 2 Quad Q9400 (2.66GHz) - LGA775, 6MB Cache, 1333FSB

Memory - RAM: 1 x 4096MB (2 x 2048MB) PC2-6400 800MHz DDR2 RAM (Dual Channel)

Hard Drives - Internal: 1 x 1000GB 7200rpm Serial ATA-II-300 HDD
1 x IDE connected 40GB HDD

Video Card: 1 x Gigabyte GeForce 9800GT - 1GB DDR3
256-bit, 2x DVI, HDTV - PCI-Ex16 v2.0 (700MHz, 1.8GHz) - OC Edition

Keyboard: 1 x Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard (Refresh) (Keyboard Only)

Mice: 1 x Logitech G5 Laser Mouse 2007

Operating System: 1 x Windows XP Home Edition (32-Bit Inc. SP3) ( I am too paranoid about vista, even now)

Also have a 22" samsung widescreen LCD monitor and some crappy DVD burner.

I was getting 9 - 12 FPS in GG, and now am getting three figures (Though will drop to 80 ish in a big server when all the action is happening.) Still got to tweak and tune all the gear, especially the g5 and g15.

I was starting up windows, and getting a browser open in 11 minutes and 34 seconds on the old machine, this one took 1 minute and 16 seconds, lol. (though its all uber fresh)

So I was wondering, what do you guys have as settings and macros for the g15 or g5? going to play with them over the next few days

Cheers

Problems with Logitech G5 mouse and DPI settings in CSS

2009-06-19T21:50:00.004+10:00

Since I bought my new computer, I had been experiencing a strange problem when I was playing Counter Strike: Source.

I have the blue, 6 buttoned one, and I use the two extra buttons (button 4 and button 5) for binding keys to voice chat, and for the !give command for the Gun Game ( GG ) mod for that game, because I belong to the Aus. DOA clan for GG and have loved our server for over a year now.

When I would press the button 4 on the mouse (for voice chat) it would reset my DPI to the lowest setting, and only give me 3 options of DPI to choose from, instead of the normal 5. It was effectively blocking the DPI setting I had set in Setpoint, the software you get for the mouse. This was strange, because i could still use the buttons for voicechat and to !give a weapon... so not all the functionality had been removed. I could also still adjust the DPI setting with the two buttons provided to increase the DPI (but only on three settings instead of 5)

I have googled this problem on a number of occasions, with a number of different search strings, and never been able to find anything that matched the issues I was having.

coming upon this thread, with this rediculously simple search string ( " g5 logitech button 4 resets dpi "), I came upon this thread:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=787871

I found that turning off the Game Detection setting solved my entire problem with this game, so I offer this post up, to be referenced by search engines in the hope that it may help someone else!

New Computer

2009-02-26T22:14:00.004+11:00

The desktop computer I am writing on now is about 8 years old or more. It has been slowly dying for the last two years and I have been keen to get a new one that is a little more up to date.

I finally bit the bullet today and ordered a new computer that should have no problems running the multiple media applications I need to work.

This old thing has served us well for a while, but it is starting to really give me the shits. The mouse will fall out at random times, and the PC will note that an USB device is unrecognisable.... It's a frigging mouse! I can tell it is! ARGH!
Also, this computer did not run for 6 months, I would turn it on, but nothing would hppen, it would power up, the screen was on, but nothing was displayed... I finally realised that the front usb ports were messing with the system, and when I disconnected them, everything came back to relative normalcy. I do find that random HDD's (I have three) will fall out at different times. If I want to play games, the game HDD will fall out, if I need to work, the work HDD will fall out, and etc etc.

Well, an end to that (when the new one is delivered) It should be new enough to last a couple of years without being ancient, and stable enough to last a little longer.... touch wood.

This machine is a P4, 1.8Ghz with 1Gb RAM and a total of 100GB HDD's over a 20, and 2 40's. Its also got a 4 or 5 year old gfx card in the form of a 256Mb Radeon 9550 se.

The new one will times all of that by 4 :D with a new Quad Core 2.66 Ghz processor to run it all.

I wish I had it now :(

2008-11-11T23:00:00.006+11:00

The Alt text for this strip is so exactly how I feel when I met new people, that I was shocked!

The alt text for this strip is:

I'm always so happy that I successfully navigated the introduction that I completely forget to pay attention to the name the other person told me.

If you think about it like that, yeah, sleep is strange

2008-11-11T13:00:00.002+11:00

I only just found xkcd.com, and finding it quite hilarious.

Can't argue with logic...

2008-06-30T10:48:00.003+10:00

We have been meaning to take our daughter up Mount Wellington to see the snow some time this winter. On Saturday morning My wife and daughter went outside to see if there was any snow up there. There were a few patches of snow up there, but not a great deal. Being able to find a spot with enough to play in would have been impossible, as it had nearly all gone. My wife explained to our daughter that there were only small patches of snow up there, and it probably wasn't worth going up to see them. Our daughter says, "But mum, when we get up there those patches will be much bigger".

Magical Bricks

2008-06-15T19:36:00.002+10:00

My computer died about 3 months ago. I'd turn it on and nothing would happen, no bios screen, nothing, just a black screen. It is about 6 or 7 years old, and hadn't really been looked after very well. It had so much dust caked in it over the years and vacuumed and brushed back out again, I just figured it had given up the ghost. It had turned into an expensive brick, in the flash of an eye.
I got frustrated with not having a desktop the other day, and decided I would try and figure out once and for all what was wrong. I eventually just typed into google: "turn computer on nothing happens". I can't say I was particularly hopefull of much to come up, but a couple of old forum posts gave me two things to try.
The first thing was resetting the BIOS or the CMOS. This is apparently done by switching off the computer, and touching the wire connector to the reset thing for 5 - 10 seconds, which resets it, and this had fixed numerous computers for numerous people that seemed to have the same problem. I couldn't find the "reset thing" or the wire to connect it to, so I didn't bother with that for now.
The other thing that had come up was a totally unregarded post (by the other people posting in the thread) by someone saying "This is definately a USB port conflict...". So I pulled all the cards out of the computer, and the front usb port connection, and all the hard drives and DVD drive, and presto! We had a start screen. I plugged the GFX card and the Hard disk that had the operating system on it, and we had lift off!
Now, during shutting it down, the hard drive "fell out" and we ended up at the screen saying the disk configuration was changed, and there were no connected hard drives (apparently), but it was better than a blank screen.
I have since added the three HDD's and the DVD drive, and cranked it up again. After playing Medieval: Total War 2 for a few hours, it hasn't yet crashed again.... yet.
I think my hard drives (or two of them - the oldest) are a bit unsteady and unreliable, but I am at least happy to be able to bash and shoot things with games again, and utilise the space on the drives, as this laptop is very short on space.
(By the way, I just have to make note of this stuff somewhere for my own reference at a later date, and also because of the fact that I get so much of my PC problem solving from off the net on sites like this or on forums.)
So now I have a magical brick, that will at least work for a little while, it's just a matter of how little a while I get out of it.

2008-06-13T10:55:00.002+10:00

Well, the travelling circus is back from rosebery. I love moss and fungi, so sought out some examples while I was in a rainforest-y area and got some photos. Unfortunately they are all a bit blurry, and thats why I ended up making them so small. I really like the white mushy's I found in a man fern, and also the long pale green ones, I also found in a man fern.

The mutation of pink skin

2008-05-20T16:55:00.002+10:00

My daughter and I catch buses to and from school. I find it interesting to note the dour faces staring blankly back at you on the morning commute, people trying desperately to not make eye contact while throwing sidelong glances. I am sure there is a thesis in social study waiting to happen on every crowded, near silent trip. Whenever I am on a bus, if I am not trying desperately to stave off a panick attack, I ruminate.

It has come to my attention that my 6 year old daughter does likewise. She is a little more vocal with her questions though, still barely in the unshakable faith that the universe has an answer to every question, and her dad must know them. Because of this, I am bombarded with some of the most uncomfortable questions, and being highly sensitive to what others percieve of me, make me very nervous about answering when I would not be uncomfortable talking about if we were at home. One pearler of a question was "will it hurt when I have a baby?" (oh, by the gods... couldn't we have this discussion somewhere other than a very public place?). I just know I am going to have to explain sex on a bus between Glenorchy and Hobart... but I digress.

One day when there were a lot of dark skinned school children on the bus, she has asked why they have dark skin. A very reasonable question when they are learning about themselves, emotions, feelings and therefore the the things that make all people different. My best answer at the time was simply that it is common for people to have all sorts of different coloured skin, in the same way that people have different coloured hair and eyes. "Your mother has darker skin than I, and you have slightly darker skin than myself - it's simply one of those things that makes everyone different, the same as some people like some things, while other people don't". I said it's like me asking her why she has pink skin. She said she didn't have pink skin, but I pointed out that our skin isn't really white, its a mixture of pink, yellow and light brown.

This is where our conversation pretty much stopped, but it did make me think about the colour of my skin and its origins. I can't help but think white skin, or very pale skin is a mutation or error of some sort. It burns and browns easily, an I can't think of where this might have a genetically usefull application. Even in snow bound climates, sunburn is a massive issue because of the reflection and magnification off snow or ice. I don't know when the Inuit people arrived in what is considered their homeland, but they have darker skin than your average skippy or white fella.

Rather a long post for a silly and insignificant idea...

My dear girl passed away :(

2008-05-19T10:08:00.002+10:00

8 and a bit years ago, my wife bought a beautiful German Shepherd Bitch, who was named Ashka Xilversee. Once we got her home, she decided to adopt me as her friend, much to the disgust of my wife.

Unfortunately she had a rapid decline of health over the last two weeks. I had barely been home last Monday morning from dropping my daughter at school, before she came and found me, and passed away while recieving her favourite scratch behind the ears.

That seemingly human need - to have someone with you to love and care for you at the end - brings me to tears even as I type this.

Ashka - About three years old

I Love you baby girl

Black Templar's Assault Squad - Oz Golden Demon 2007

2008-04-24T19:44:00.012+10:00

I have finally taken the time to get photos of my 5 man Black Templar Assault Squad Australian Golden Demon entry for 2007. That there is a mouthful, but it sums it up in a sentence.

I have actually avoided taking photos of these, because they ended up being rushed at the last minute, and there is so much I am disappointed with. I have heard people speak about how helpful it can be to have these older efforts kept around to show you where you need to improve, and later on, how much you have improved on things that were giving you trouble before. I don't really want to go back there though, to fix them up. I'm a bit over the project, but it has been long enough now that I will try to view them with a freshened perspective.

When I look at them as a whole, there are some things I like, and that stand out to me. (but I converted and painted it, so...)

I think the red armour sections came out ok, and I dotted the blood specks on, and I am pleased how they turned out. This was just the GW flesh wash, undiluted.

I also like the bases. This is the first time I played with the bases of my models properly, and as the models were raised above them, I had a lot more freedom. I started by tracing a pentacle from the Key of Solomon onto a peice of that GW rock base-ey stuff. Good fun to carve, actually, and am planning on using it for Dark Elf sorcerers and the like. Some of the others I just made up runes in verticle lines. then I scattered bits of spare Chaos Marines I had lying about, and included some miscast Thousand Son marine bits. I tried to make it look like ash had flowed from the wounds in contrast to the yellow sand.

I also think the eyes worked out well, but I would like to have had a cool green glow around them. (it seems to be in fashion, what can I say)

As for the rest of them, it was all an experiment, as far as I had not tried these techniques before. That goes for converting too. I had done the monks in arches before, but the repositioning of the arms and the straightening of the feet was something I hadn't done before. I hadn't used the glazing technique to lighten black before. (Wish I had of had Matte Medium then...)

I had trouble with highlighting the black armour. Untill these models, I had only ever given a cursory nod to the armour on my templars. I found I had to highlight this, especially because I wanted to do scratches and chips on the armour as well. To allow for there to be enough difference in the colour between the dark edges of the chips, I had to lighten the armour area before-hand. With this squad, I lightened the parts I wanted to be weathered with more importance than the areas the light would actually fall. This leads to a somewhat inconsistent lighting effect, and especially as a squad. I plan to do a chaplain with a jump pack to accompany this squad, and I will experiment with this technique on him next. (I am trying green skin tones and metallics at the moment... Link)

Each marine is a patch of a bunch of concepts I did over about a year or more. Each marine has a unique jump pack and harness, greaves, left shoulder plate, and each weapon configuration was converted in some way, with repositioning or adding purity seal 'chains'. (with exception to the power fist guy) The arches come from an initial concept I went with for my close combat dreadnought I did years ago, but nearly everything else is a rendition of the concept art that Mark Gibbons created for the Black Templar release. His work on the chaplains and the Black Templar weapons and shoulder plates was very inspiring. So there you have it! - Squad Gibbontz.

Below is one of the first characters I converted and painted about 6 years ago (?) I thought it was pretty good at the time, but It is a good example of how much my painting style has changed :D

Painboyz Assistant

2008-04-23T17:55:00.002+10:00

Below are some pics of a gobbo I have been experimenting on. Hes a painboys gobbo, so he's used to being being eksperiment'd on. I am particularly playing with metallics, green skin tones and weathering. I will probably have to paint lots of these little buggers for my ork army (and Gorka Morka), so I need to figure out how I will paint them differently to my Orks.

With the Orks I have been painting, I am trying to get a few more tones in there by using browns and reds on the knuckles, lips, nose, ears and elbows. I figured the concept is the same with gobbos, but they tend to be brighter in color to their larger cousins, probably mainly to do with their shorter life spans... Orks who live older get bigger and darker green. I also just lightened up the extremities with lighter green and pink, instead of brown. I want to do some scars as well, maybe using a pinkish yellow. The problem with this is that Ork physiology (such as it is) infers that ork blood would be green, or of at least some greenish tint, as they have algae running through their blood that gives them their skin color. This is a problem when you want to paint green blood. I imagine the gobbo carrying theis tray of utensils, brimming with the blood of it's past 'patients'. The green blood I tried to paint looked ridiculous, so I have to go back to the drawing board on that one. Any ideas are welcome.

The metalics looked good until I weathered and spattered them with (the wrong colored) blood. The rust I had hoped to just seep into the recesses, but I wnt over and tried to stipple a stronger mix on top to highlight it, and it turned out splodgy. The blood didn't streak as I had intended either - I should have just dotted it on like with the bandages. I still haven't managed to get the hang of chips either. I think the concept is right, but it doesn't come out in execution. I start with the white line to mark the highlighted edge on the opposite side of the light source. then I black in the chip area, towards the light source. Then I add the color of whats under the chipped paint, leaving a black edge on the light source side (and on the other side if I can).

Still have to finish the wooden knife handle (woods something I always have trouble with too), belt, scars, and a cool industrial base (on which I can eksperiment with more metalics)

Wireless networks and ancient Indian Battle elephants

2008-04-23T17:18:00.006+10:00

What do these two things have in common, I hear you ask? well, let me explain...

My wife gets annoyed that she has to connect to the internet with masses of cords from her laptop. this is made especially frustrating as our desktop has blown up, so we don't have a normal hard wired connection to use. Her solution was to buy a wireless router, so that both of our laptops could connect without crap running all over the house. (and she bought new furniture - cables do not complete the look)

We bought a D-Link wireless router, but it would not talk to our alcatel speedtouch 530 modem, so we took it back and got a D-Link Wireless Modem instead. I've heard D-Link are the cheap affordable type of brand, but I am still annoyed the router didn't work properly.

Even setting up the wireless modem was annoying - here are all the cords I needed to get it going:

It took an evening and a day of frustration - trying to get the two infernal devices working in tandem, trying to trick them , and outright abuse, bribery and sorrowful coaxing... nothing worked. My Wife got sick of my pitiful whining and went and got a new modem while I sullenly refused to admit defeat.

While I was chucking the shits and throwing things around in my study, I knocked off one of my macedonian phalangite front rankers from my workbench, and, unbeknownst to me, proceeded to violently squish it under a box of computer cables. When I found it the next day, I decided to turn it into a casualty marker - and by the look of him, he was squashed by an elephant in one of Alexander the Greats later campaigns :D

Said Elephant

Things to do when your bored: #437. Reply to your SPAM mail...

2008-04-11T10:57:00.002+10:00

From: Stefan Mischook - stefan@killersites.com
Sent: Tue 4/8/2008 12:47 AMTo: @netspace.net.au
Subject: Killersites.com - Web Design Leads
Hi,
It is not often that I send out an email to directory subscribers ... actually, this maybe the second time in 2-3 years. That said, please accept my apologies in advanced if this email disturbs you.
-
I am writing to announce that I am now offering our exclusive web design leads at a discount price of $20 - they typically go for $25 each.
The leads are unique, screened and any bad leads (where people are not reachable) will be replaced. To be clear, we sell our leads exclusively, meaning that once you buy a lead, we do not sell it to anyone else.
If interested, please contact me for details at: stefan@killersites.com
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
-
Sample lead:
Client information:
Contact Name: Curtis ******
Company Name: ******* Tanning
Email: *****@hotmail.com
Phone: ************
State: ca
City: santa barbara
Country: USA
Current Website:
Users IP: 71.6.21.2
Project specs:
Number of Pages: 1-5
Budget: $ 500-1,500
Project Type: Informational Website
Project Description: I am going to buy a tanning salon and need a very interactive and attractive web site. Above is the web site for my other business. This one will need to have a different vibe, but I like the layout of this one. What can you offer me?
Quality Needid: High Class
Website Style Match: www.**********.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------

My reply...

Dear Stefan,

"It is not often that I send out an email to directory subscribers ... actually, this maybe the second time in 2-3 years. That said, please accept my apologies in advanced if this email disturbs you."
I am sorry, but that is, quite simply, bullshit.
By sending this SPAM you are in violation of the terms of service of dailyrazor.com, and are likely to have your web hosting services withheld. In fact, there are lots of interesting things that can be done to spammers and their operations by someone like me with too much time on their hands. Most people give up on the red tape that's involved in proper reporting and logging through official channels. But that depends on wether you are doing it because you have to, or wether you are doing it for fun...

cheers.

Brandubh - The Raven Game

2008-04-07T09:04:00.003+10:00

Many years ago when Bec and I were reading Caiseal Mor's "The Wanderers" Series, we were introduced to the game Brandubh. The rules were briefly laid out in the novels. It is not complicated to explain how the game works really, but the possibilities in the game whilst it is being played makes it a very interesting.

It is of Ancient Celtic-Gaelic origin, apparently pre-dating the viking Tafl game by many centuries. The rules that we are using come from here:
http://www.mahjee.com/pages/brandubh.html

about 6 or 7 years ago, you could not find anything on the net about it, but now a search comes up with some more relevant links:
This is a boxed version for sale with different rules.
http://chrisvnh.bizland.com/BrandubhGame.html
Another variant:
http://www.pbm.com/pipermail/hist-games/1998/001533.html

and so on and so forth. So now I am making a board, and we shall experiment with the rules to see what is the most comfortable and makes sense.

Red Faery real apple cider

2008-03-28T22:56:00.003+11:00

Jason and I made Cider today :D This is to be the start of our great and illustrious brewing career! I have been interested in making mead for a long time, though I have not found many recipes. Along comes Jason with a big shiny book full of all manner of great recipes for Meads, Cysers, cordial, Metheglin, Hippocras, Melomel, Pyment and beers, and .... well. You get the idea.

So we acquired a verified recipe, with no weird stuff for starters. Heres the recipe:

Crush the apples & extract the juice.
To each 5 litres of juice add 2 crushed Campden tablets & let stand for 12 hours to kill the wild yeasts.
Add 1/2 teaspoon(tspn) each of Pectic Enzyme & Yeast Nutrient per 5 litres, plus a General Wine Yeast.
Fit an air-lock & allow to ferment right out.
At this point bubbling will cease through the air-lock & the hydrometer will show a reading of 1000.
Leave it to stand a further 2 days to clear, then bottle, adding one tspn of sugar to each bottle. Make sure that you place it in a cool spot like under the house!
The cider will be ready to drink in 3-4 weeks, but will be better if left 3-6 months.

We were also told it was permissible to add a litre of cooled boiled water, for every four litres of fresh juice.

So Far we have squeezed 6 litres of apple juice from 10 Kilos of apples. We bought 6 kilos of Golden Delicious and 4 kilos of Jono golds, quartered and cored the apples, and then crushed the shit out of them in a food processor until it resembled a sloppy puke like consistency. smelled great though!

Then we got a few squares of muslin cloth and squeezed the juice from hand fulls of the pulp at a time. Larger portions in the muslin just seemed to make it harder to get out the last of the juice.

We then strained this six litres of juice into a giant beer brewing barrel (a bit overkill, but it was handy...) and chucked in three of the campden tablets. We added a litre and a half of cooled boiled water. Now we wait until I can throw in the champagne yeast, and give birth to this baby!

Gardening: next season

2008-03-17T20:30:00.002+11:00

My Wifes Father was kind enough to give us some seedlings. I had pretty much missed planting this season and thought I would have to spend the time getting the soil in the garden beds ready. (They sorely need some good yummy... shit)

I put in some cauliflour, broccoli and spinach. That fills up all but two beds. Those two I might start creating beautiful dirt. I will have to get some piccies, just so I can remember where everything was planted in a season or two :D

My fingers are sore

2008-03-13T20:59:00.002+11:00

My wife bought me a shiny steel string acoustic guitar for my birthday. The resonance is amazing in contrast with the classical nylon string guitar I have had for about 20 years.

Since I now have this beautiful sounding instrument, I decided that I should really learn to play properly. My daughter also got a guitar for christmas. She is six, and quite interested. If I can teach her properly, now, while she's up for it, then she will get along with it really well if she wants to continue.

I have decided (probably much to my chagrin at a later date) to learn finger picking style guitar, and to experiment with scales and tunings. The finger picking gives me posture and right hand work, while the scales give me left hand work, and an ability to improvise simple melodies just for fun.
I was lucky enough to find some good theory for finger picking, so I am progressing slowly, but surely. I was surprised how easy it was to find the strings, and the speed you can accomplish, with even the easy excersises.

While it is probably silly to try, I have also started learning Mist, by The John Butler Trio, and Winter Solstice by The Tea Party (though more the Jeff Martin Live version, for a reason I will explain properly at a later date). I have managed to learn most of mist, but my speed is only half at most, and I have got the first 2 bars of Winter solstice over the last few hours, though it is also slow, and sloppy as I hit way to many strings with the pick (that I don't hold properly...).

Anyway, my Dad used to say when he was learning he played till his fingers bled, which I can well imagine. The steel strings are rough on my fingers and keep cutting off the callouses that are being built up! Though I should just quit whinging... it's great to hear how much you can get out of an instrument when you learn a bit about it.

Wow, it's been ages...

2008-03-13T18:40:00.002+11:00

three months since my last post? oh dear...

My home computer has blown up :( it was a 7 year old (or more) pentium 4, 1.8 Gz machine made by acer. I guess I am surprised it lasted as long as it did. So now I need to get it replaced.

The worst I could do (I think) is to spend $890 to get a new case, power supply, motherboard and cpu. I can get better from www.techbuy.com.au for $390, delivered. Still, I don't know any magic to conjure up $390 anyway, and so yet I daydream...

Funny thing is, it had been going quietly insane for months. I did a reformat and installed windows xp again, but it did not help at all. Most of the time it decided to die in the arse, it was when a friend was using it. I am sure he thinks he has cursed my computer, but perhaps he is not to know what a fickle creature your average pc can be.

The problem I have found with having to replace my desktop is that so much has changed since I bought my last computer. Now, for example, cpu's are created by mashing two chips together. Ok, whatever.

Basically what this means for me is that I cant play with my bigger applications, (because my laptop is quite old now too), and I can't play games. Or access my music. Or access the mirror files for my websites, of which I thought the ones on my laptop were current, but they weren't.... and so on, and so forth.

I am sure I will be very excited when the day comes, but untill then I want to concentrate on php - yfying the Area 52 Website. At least I can do that with minimal cpu brains on my laptop :D

Lotsa Gunz! Gargant Supa Shoota WIP

2007-12-20T12:24:00.000+11:00

The datasheet for the Great Gargant at Bell of Lost Souls gives the option for a Supa Shooter arm, and a Titan Close Combat Weapon. I chose the Supa Shoota because I couldn't be bothered with the Supa Lifta Droppa thing. Too much to remember during a game! Also I like the thought of billions of shots going off at once. With 6d6 Shots per turn, that equatesto a potential 36 shots. I figured I needed at least that amount of barrells to ensure enough went off to warrant the amount of shots, taking into account the Orkish un-reliability. I could have mage a giant gatling gun type thing, but this seemed more fun. LOTSA GUNZ!!! I think there are around 50 - 60 barrels in the muzzle. The concept drawing here:
also details a number of various shaped ammo belts feeding into a conglomerate of ammo hoppers. I am still trying to figure out a good way to make these. If I dont come up with anything I might just make a number of big funnel type things piled full of loose bullets in different sizes.
I don't know that I will be able to create the flood of expended shells being spewed out the back, but it woud be cool. I could make huge piles in the wake of the Gargants tracks.
The scope was added today, to act as a targetting and sensor array. I decided my Mek was a bit more swanky than just gawking out the grimy bridge windows to see if 'Fings was piontin da roight way'.
Here is progress so far:The gun mount screwed onto a wooden brace across the shoulders to take the weight of both arms and aid balance:
The muzzle:
Need to add the ammo feeds and armour plating, add some glyphs, rivets, and lots of pipes, wires and gubbins!
Still need to finish the track section so I can put the rest of the hull on to widen it.Need to mount the gut busta so I can attach wires and support machinery.Need to figure out how the hell I am going to mount the close combat arm!
I am finding some cool gargants around that people have scratch built though.

Matt Cleaver's from Area 52 Forums:
Lemmingspawn's from Oz Painters:

All things great and shooty...

2007-12-20T08:58:00.000+11:00

I have been looking around for super scaled 40K scratch build models after starting work on my gargant. I stumbled across this mad, mad creation: A 40K scaled Imperator Titan, based on the old Epic design, and standing at (by the looks) about 4 feet tall. droooooool. Be a pain to paint though, I'm sure, lol.

http://z24cala.blogspot.com/2007/11/apokaliptyczny-teren.html

I wish I Knew what language this was in so I could try and get it translated.

Gargant Wip shots

2007-12-14T12:27:00.000+11:00

I have finally been able to take some photos of my ork gargant, and also scanned through a couple of the concept pictures for the Warboss, an Ork Trukk and the Gargant pits and pieces. (I'll post the Warboss and Trukk seprately to talk about them.)

My camera is very old, and about three months ago it broke. Now it doesn't turn on and off properly, and will only come on if you hold it a certain angle! how Orky! but it is possibly better than nothing.

In production at the moment are the tank track assembly, the head and the Gut Busta. I am finalising plans on how to attach the arms properly, and then I will move onto the close combat weapon and the Supa Shoota.

The Head.

Down to adding details and filling in the armour bits. gluing on extra armour plates from old vehicles and other bits and peices. I will be adding the shield from the GD 07 Orc Miniature to the officers cap as a badge, and filling in the band with side sections from the mordhiem treasure chests. I have to fill in around the door with green stuff to make it look like it is embedded properly.

I figured that I hadn't seen many Gargants with ears on the head, and I think it helps to make it definitively Orky. I decided to make these a sensor array full of arials and dishes.I have considered opening the hatch in the cap lookout (on the floor at the top) and having an ork kicking a grot down the stairs.I plan on making the Kaptain of the Gargant standing atop the cap, one foot up on a box, holding onto a banner with one hand and pointing forward with a ferocious expression. I'll have him dressed in a mock Princeps uniform. I'd like a big shoota or some other kind of weapon mounted on the rail aswell.

Tank Track Asssembly.

I have to put the tracks on before I can attach the armour lates that are going to widen and bulk out the base. Firstly I am putting in supports between the track frames I have glued and taped to the hull. Then I will make the tracks out of plastic card or cardboard. I am considering making them of welded together Ork Glyphs from Green stuff.

Once the track supports have been put in I can mount the Gut Busta on the front, as I want some pistons and wheels underneath the gun between the tracks to give the impression of the Gut Busta being able to adjust range vertically. After this I can mount the side armour plates to the hull and bulk out the shape of the gargant so its not so gangly. This hull section will have bannisters and fire ports along it.

The Gut Busta.

The main shape of the Gut Busta is there, but now I have to glue on some gubbins to make it look evil and techy. I want to dremmel out holes into the fat bit in the end of the barrel, and put on lots of cables and supports. I'll probly need green stuff to meld all the bits together and not make it look like junk stuck together. (even though it is supposed to be junk stuck together!)

After all these sections I will work on the arms and the exhaust/engines, then add balconies and the Shoulder Pauldron fire posts. Finally I will have to neaten up by edging all the cardboard edges and adding hundreds of hand made rivets!

I plan on setting the peice on a wooden base for ease of handling, even though the Gargant is comprised of four sections: The hull/tracks (these will be glued to the base), the main body section, the shoulders and arms, and finally the head.

The base will have two rocks set on the edges diagonally opposite eack other. These will act as hand holds. I hope to make the front track of the gargant crumbling through/over the front rock to show its mass and weight. There will be a squad of Grots in front of the Gargant fleeing for their runty little lives, with one or two being squished in the front of the tracks and others leaping out of the way or running pell mell. On the back there will be great tank tracks, and flattened into these will be squished little grots who were unforunate enough to have not gotten out of the way or fallen off the Bohemoth.

Oh dear. Lots and lots to do....

A foray into the world of 'Manyoofaktchoorin'

2007-12-11T12:17:00.000+11:00

I mentioned to someone the other day that I thought I had grown up enough to not have to take my 40K seriously anymore, and I am throwing myself into making a giant Ork army.

I dont have the money for models at the moment, but the great thing about Orks is that I can start building all sorts of stuff out of junk before spending a cent!

I love the epic scope of Warhammer 40,000, and the size of the conflicts. With the new Apocalypse expansion, I am looking forward to using huge armies and imposing warmachines. I am going to make this army with Apocalypse in mind, so the centre of my army is going to be a Great Gargant! I found home made Datasheets here at Bell of Lost Souls ( a very dedicated little site!), and they include some of the tastiest and weirdest things from Epic days of old. Check out this link and download the datasheets, worth a read even if you have no plans to take these things in your army.
http://belloflostsouls.blogspot.com/2007/11/play-aid-lords-of-battle.html

I wish I had a camera so I could take some WIP shots, but I'll sort something out soon, and post the sketches for the concept :D

I am giong for a bit of a world war 2 theme with the army, so the gargant is on tracks.
I have made up a frame for the base and have to fill it out, but the shape of the base is there. I think I will have to make it bigger though!
The Shape of the head has been done, I just have to put on details. Its got an armoured officers cap, which also serves as a platform for the Boyz.
I have started a balcony around the head also, and will probably attach the arm weapons to this. Now I just have to find some gun shaped junk!

Based on the datasheets I found, the gargant will be armed with the Gut-Busta, a SupaShoota (6d6 shots!), Titan Close Combat Weapon and a mega scorcha :D BOOM! so this sounds sufficiently tooled up with big noisy guns and smashy stuff :D

I am also tempted to make a Manyoofaktchoorin Plant where the gargant is made, with lots of scaffolds and stuff. Should be fun!
Wishe me luck!