[Hackaday] A Rope Maker You Can 3D Print At Home

A Rope Maker You Can 3D Print At Home

Convergence Hobby Update - Speed Painting CoC

One of the theories I had about owning a Convergence of Cyriss army is that it would be very easy to paint quickly.

I am not a particularly skilled painter, though I truly enjoy it when I have a fully painted list on the table. I paint to a standard that I can look at the model from 3 feet away and be happy with it. Not what the crazy painter friends I have are happy with, but what I'm happy with being on the table. This is important as a standard because painting is about time and I don't particularly have a lot of it.

A large part of my enjoyment comes from the idea that once I have a faction fully painted, I can just put it on the table and play and not have to think "damn I need to get to painting this."

So the theory about painting CoC is that you can prime the models with a metallic spray paint, add in a few colors, apply a wash, and then be done.  Turns out this is actually true!

Since my last post about CoC spoke about how the bulk of the models I received were in really bad shape and I highlighted obnoxious the paint jobs were in addition to the fact that most everything was in pieces when it arrived, compare this to what the Monitor looked like before it was primed and painted:

That's quite a transformation! So how much effort was put into this from a painting perspective?

• I based the model with sand/aquarium gravel.
• I spray painted the model with some metallic spray paint, though I did test on the extra armless Axis model that was sent with my lot to make sure the primer wasn't going to be too thick. 
• I spent roughly 2 hours or so applying the colors and washes to the primed model.
• I also had to repaint the base and basing material black instead of silver, which was odd but worth it for how much time the whole process saved me.

I didn't get any fancy primer either, just some Rust-olium at Home Depot:

I should put a few notes, since it was slightly jarring with this as a primer.

The model will look almost comically silver when primed. In fact it was left slightly sticky, despite drying for nearly 24 hours after being primed. In fact before I started I was afraid the entire project was going to be a failure and I'd have to just prime everything black like I always do.

Luckily the washes came through for me in the end.  It's amazing what that did when combined with some gold and bronze paint on the model.  Everything turned out about as I'd have expected it in the end, and I'm at a point where I think I can really hammer out my CoC army probably well ahead of my Trolls.

As a point of painting comparison, I spent about two hours painting that Monitor. I spent about an hour and a half just touching up the base painting on my first Longrider unit, and I still have to finish painting the metals on it before I can apply my wash and then go back and hit a highlight to get the skin on the trolls the way I want it.

Perhaps it's because I'm pushing the Trolls to be painted to a much higher standard than what I think the CoC should be, but man does it just feel nice to be able to knock out a model and have it come out looking good enough for me to be happy with. For my Trolls I feel like I need to put in all this extra work to get it to a point where I'm happy. I suppose that's the difference between having models of something organic like a beast or a infantry with lots of exposed flesh vs. robots. Here's an example of what I paint my Trolls to:

Right now I have to admit it's almost tempting to just try and get the CoC going. I did get lucky and have my wife agree to let me play in our local Scrum League (think a Steamroller with 1 game a week), and lists are due Friday. I was very likely playing Trolls in it, though after last night I admit that I've had some thoughts about playing CoC instead. I have two days to decide!

WW1 Naval Campaign - War Is Declared !

It's that time of year again, Easter always heralds the start of our annual Naval Campaign and this year we are focusing on early WW1, which is a great excuse to get Project Jutland out of the boxes again and of course add some new ships to the collection.

Thankfully this time rather than doing a load of prep myself prior to the Campaign I am using the book below to guide us through our journey.

The book was a download from Wargames Vault and is highly recommended, it has two levels, the tactical tabletop based element (report below) and a higher level Campaign Event element. I have decided to introduce the world to T'Yarkshire Ferret Newspaper, this esteemed publication will bring you the gossip and tittle tattle of the Campaign Events whilst the more traditional blog format below will bring you the blow by blow game reports. Make sure you have a good look at Ferret for the latest stories.

The Könign Luise (or as close as I have in my collection)

With the game reports I will be reporting what happened in our games, if you purchase the Campaign book you will find that each game has numerous potential paths that are determined by dice rolls or Campaign Events so each time you play the scenarios they have the potential of being different.

Game 1 - Chasing Königin Luise - 5th August 1914

In early August 14 with war imminent Jellicoe and the Grand Fleet put to sea, encouraged by the King with the following message, (they were of course further moved by the message from The King in the North Geoffrey Boycott see the latest edition of T'Ferret)

"At this grave moment in our national history I send to you, and through you to the officers and men of the Fleet of which you have assumed command, the assurance of my confidence that under your direction they will revive and renew the old glories of the Royal Navy, and prove once again the sure shield of Britain and her Empire in the hour of trial"

The Könign Luise was a liner that had been hastily converted to a minelayer and she had been out at sea around 30 miles off Harwich laying mines when she was sighted by two RN destroyers who were on patrol HMS Landrail and Laurel and the chase was on. I gave the Könign a couple of deck guns to liven things up.

The game starts at 11.00 am, the two destroyers are heading East 10,000 yards behind the Könign Luise. With a top speed of 30 knots to 16 in the Destroyers favour the boilers were stoked and the game begins. Visibility is 12,000 yards but there are a number of squalls in the area where visibility is as low as 2,000.

HMS Fearless to the rescue

11.15 following a radio message from HMS Landrail the nearest supporting unit, a Active Class Light Cruiser Fearless appears out of the gloom 12,000 yards East of the Könign.

11.23 First shell hit of the war as the front gun from HMS Landrail lands a hit on the deck of Könign.

Strike One to Landrail

11.37 The Germans haven't been asleep though and 5 Torpedo Boats V1,2,3,4 and 6 appear at full speed 12,000 yards West of Könign heading towards the Minelayer.

German reinforcements arrive

11.45 A squall settles over the table reducing visibility to 5,000 yards, initially leaving only the two destroyers and the Könign in sight of each other, shot continue to be traded, the Minelayer is struck a couple of times but without any critical damage. HMS Laurel is unlucky though as one of the shells from Könign finds the base of her funnel reducing her top speed by 4 knots.

12.00 visibility increases to 7,000 yards bringing the German Torpedo Boats into visible range of the British Destroyers.

First blood to the Germans

12.07 The Germans sink the first ship of the game as V1 puts a round into the Magazine of the Destroyer HMS Laurel, without warning the ship explodes sinking rapidly.

12.15 Visibility increases to 9,000 yards.

12.23 further German ships arrive in the shape of the light cruisers Breslau, Regensberg and Rostock 10,000 yards South of the Könign.

British Light Cruisers

At the same time 12,000 yards to the east of Könign two British Light Cruisers in the shape of Lowestoft and Southampton steam into view.

12.30 Meanwhile it's all getting a bit messy in the middle of the table as the close range destroyer action continues around the burning wreck of the Laurel. It's not all going the Germans way as a hit on V1 from HMS Fearless starts a fire on board the German Torpedo Boat.

12.37 in the general Melee in the centre there is a narrow miss as the leading German TB narrowly misses HMS Fearless only for the next in line to strike her.

12.45 The fighting in the middle is getting nasty as the photo below shows, V3 has a none exploding magazine hit whilst V6 stumbles ahead blindly with her Bridge destroyed whilst the Germans pour fire on the slow moving Fearless who is getting underway post collision.

12.52 Torpedoes are in the water and heading towards the slowly accelerating Fearless, she is a small ship combing the tracks so all the odds are in her favour.

13.00 in what turned out to be the final turn as Visiblity drastically reduced again due to a Squal and the Germans took their first loss, the V3 was unable to extinguish an on board fire which raged out of control.

But at the same time even with all the odds in her favour Fearless was struck in the rudder by a torpedo causing massive damage and flooding she too quickly sank.

But it wasn't all good news for the Germans as they lost a further two Torpedo Boats in the post action phase, one failed to deal with damage sustained in the fight, the other had sustained so much damage that she was unable to make it back to port and had to be scuttled by her crew.

So in a quite bloody first encounter the British have lost a Light Cruiser and a Destroyer whilst the Germans have lost three Torpedo Boats, next time will see us cruising round the sights of Heligoland Blight.

Intermission

Today I gave my brain a break and used my free time to get a few more units onto their bases and to do a bit more of touching up of the 4" grid.

The Rebel brigade has two units deployed (representing a typical 1870's heavy skirmish line with supports with 2 units formed in column in support.

I did run my brain over some rules ideas though, helped, as so often, by some of the thought stimulating comments on the last couple of posts. Thats one of the reasons I enjoy getting comments in addition to the confirmation that someone is indeed out their.

I'm almost ready for another test game but Saturday Jeff is running another group 15mm Nappy's battle and my old Cossacks will be expecting me!

Seven Game Design Mistakes To Avoid

One awesome video from the Ask Gamedev channel. Seven important points to pay attention during your game designing process explained in a very fun (and didatic) way.



Great content for classes.

#GoGamers

Dead Island: Definitive Collection Free Download

Dead Island: Definitive Collection - is a collection of survival horror action role-playing video game developed by Polish developer Techland and published by German studio Deep Silver for Microsoft Windows.

Featuring: Definitive Collection contains Dead Island Definitive Edition, Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition and a brand new stand-alone 16-bit game Dead Island Retro Revenge. Dead Island Definitive Edition and Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition are fully remastered versions of Dead Island and Dead Island Riptide including all released DLC and patches plus Dead Island Retro Revenge: A brand new stand-alone 16-bit game set in the style of a classic side-scrolling action/endless runner within the Dead Island universe.

..:: Purchase the game here and support the developers ::..

1. FEATURES OF THE GAME

• Plus caught in the Midst of an Epic Zombie Outbreak on the tropical island of Banoi, your only thought is: Survive.
• Featuring epic Dead Island: Smash heads, Crack skulls, and Slice up with the visceral Astounding Melee Combat.
• Contains Dead Island & its Undead successor, Dead Island: Riptide Bundled with all the previously released DLC.
• Brand new standalone 16bit game set in the style of a classic sidescrolling action within the Dead Island universe.
• Introducing: Welcome to the Epic Zombie apocalypse experience of a Lifetime plus, now more Beautiful than ever.

Game is updated to latest version

Included Games

▪ Dead Island Retro Revenge - Updated to version 1.0
▪ Dead Island Definitive Edition - Updated to version 1.1.2
▪ Dead Island Riptide Definitive Edition - Updated to version 1.1.2

2. GAMEPLAY AND SCREENSHOTS

3. DOWNLOAD GAME:

♢ Click or choose only one button below to download this game.
♢ View detailed instructions for downloading and installing the game here.
♢ Use 7-Zip to extract RAR, ZIP and ISO files. Install PowerISO to mount ISO files.

DEAD ISLAND DOWNLOAD LINKS

      

PASSWORD FOR THE GAME

Unlock with password: pcgamesrealm

4. INSTRUCTIONS FOR THIS GAME

➤ Download the game by clicking on the button link provided above.

➤ Download the game on the host site and turn off your Antivirus or Windows Defender to avoid errors.

➤ When the download process is finished, locate or go to that file.

➤ Open and extract the file by using 7-Zip, and run 'setup.exe' as admin then install the game on your PC.

➤ Once the installation is complete, run the game's exe as admin and you can now play the game.

➤ Congratulations! You can now play this game for free on your PC.

➤ Note: If you like this video game, please buy it and support the developers of this game.

Turn off or temporarily disable your Antivirus or Windows Defender to avoid false positive detections.

5. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
(Your PC must at least have the equivalent or higher specs in order to run this game.)

• Operating System: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows 8, Windows 10 | requires 64-bit
• Processor: Intel Core i5 Processors GHz or higher for better gaming experience
• Memory: at least 4GB System RAM
• Hard Disk Space: 26GB free HDD Space
• Video Card: Geforce GTX 560 Ti or AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB VRAM or higher graphics

Supported Language: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Czech, Polish and language.
If you have any questions or encountered broken links, please do not hesitate to comment below. :D

Pinkie (Amiga) - Guest Post

This week on Super Adventures, it's guest poster mecha-neko's turn to play a game! I can't be expected to write about all the games all on my own, there are about 10,000 of the bloody things... added to Steam each year. Plus if anyone can find the good in an old Amiga platformer starring a naked pink worm man with no teeth or elbows, it's him. I hope.

Developer:

Data Designs, Scott Williams Games

|

Release Date:

Winter 1994

|

Systems:

Amiga

---

Hello everyone! How are you doing?

I love a good mascot game, don't you? I'm in the mood for an obscure-as-heck Amiga mascot.

Say 'Hi!' to Pinkie, a brave new kind of hero!

Don't you just love him? Look at this happy guy! He's bounding from a platform, cheesing all the baddies off and having a right ball. We're sure to be having some good times jumping around on things together!

Ready?
Read on »

Brave Browser the Best privacy-focused Browser of 2020

Out of all the privacy-focused products and apps available on the market, Brave has been voted the best. Other winners of Product Hunt's Golden Kitty awards showed that there was a huge interest in privacy-enhancing products and apps such as chats, maps, and other collaboration tools.

An extremely productive year for Brave

Last year has been a pivotal one for the crypto industry, but few companies managed to see the kind of success Brave did. Almost every day of the year has been packed witch action, as the company managed to officially launch its browser, get its Basic Attention Token out, and onboard hundreds of thousands of verified publishers on its rewards platform.

Luckily, the effort Brave has been putting into its product hasn't gone unnoticed.

The company's revolutionary browser has been voted the best privacy-focused product of 2019, for which it received a Golden Kitty award. The awards, hosted by Product Hunt, were given to the most popular products across 23 different product categories.

Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt said:

"Our annual Golden Kitty awards celebrate all the great products that makers have launched throughout the year"

Brave's win is important for the company—with this year seeing the most user votes ever, it's a clear indicator of the browser's rapidly rising popularity.

Privacy and blockchain are the strongest forces in tech right now

If reaching 10 million monthly active users in December was Brave's crown achievement, then the Product Hunt award was the cherry on top.

The recognition Brave got from Product Hunt users shows that a market for privacy-focused apps is thriving. All of the apps and products that got a Golden Kitty award from Product Hunt users focused heavily on data protection. Everything from automatic investment apps and remote collaboration tools to smart home products emphasized their privacy.

AI and machine learning rose as another note-worthy trend, but blockchain seemed to be the most dominating force in app development. Blockchain-based messaging apps and maps were hugely popular with Product Hunt users, who seem to value innovation and security.

For those users, Brave is a perfect platform. The company's research and development team has recently debuted its privacy-preserving distributed VPN, which could potentially bring even more security to the user than its already existing Tor extension.

Brave's effort to revolutionize the advertising industry has also been recognized by some of the biggest names in publishing—major publications such as The Washington Post, The Guardian, NDTV, NPR, and Qz have all joined the platform. Some of the highest-ranking websites in the world, including Wikipedia, WikiHow, Vimeo, Internet Archive, and DuckDuckGo, are also among Brave's 390,000 verified publishers.

Earn Basic Attention Token (BAT) with Brave Web Browser

Try Brave Browser

Get $5 in free BAT to donate to the websites of your choice.