Just a quick one. I did a little carpentry for the computer.
Not up to professional standards, but the more I do the better I get. The scanner shelf used no nails or screws so I was quite proud of that.
I carpentered
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Tag Archives: Austria
Puter
This is something I keep meaning to post for several weeks. Motivation for anything is hard. I have my journal where I set myself daily tasks and that can be struggle at times. There is no sat around moping, I am constantly busy, but it seems so pointless. Mostly I have set myself the task of going through various projects which have been started and the abandoned as I get distracted by something new and shiny. Generally they seem to be scattered around in various boxes, so I have been compiling them into one box or actually trying to finish them. One project, some Ork barricades was started twenty years ago. I have now started slapping some paint on them. I need to reduce my clutter which can seem overwhelming at times.
Back on topic, my new computer. It was a budget build and some mistakes were made. But lessons were learned.The reason I needed a new computer was that my old iMac died (again), it was the graphics card. A known problem, Apple had used a cheap solder which degraded over time. I could have bought a new card for about 200 Euro but there were two problems. Firstly my clever neighbour who has helped me over the years with technical stuff had died. And secondly the iMac really struggled with with anything processor intensive like Blender or BambuLabs slicer.
In all I ended up spending around 1600 Euros, this included several bells and whistles. Knowing what I know now I wish I had saved up a bit more and bought some more advanced parts to future proof. As I said it’s my first time.
On to what I ended up getting.
I bought two parts second hand. The first was this case. The NZXT Phantom full tower. Originally from around 2010. I now regret this. It looks lovely but it is huge and not really up to the job with modern components. It cost just over 40 Euro, with P&P, another 30 or so and I could have got a modern case.
The next second hand part was a BeQuiet! 750W Gold PSU. It arrived boxed as new and at half the price I would have paid if I had bought it new. No complaints.
For the monitor I chose the ODYS i27 monitor with a fancy Monitor mount.
Motherboard is an ASUS TUF Gaming B550 with wifi. Processor is AMD Ryzen 7 5700. 32gb of Crucial DDR4 ram. 1tb ssd. The GPU is NVIDEA GeForce RTX 3050. I got roasted so badly online when I had posted my build spec. When I had been researching it had been recommended as a decent budget GPU. So I am not quite sure where all the hate is coming from about this.
I did spend, probably too much, a bit on a keyboard. An Epomaker Leobog Hi86 mechanical keyboard with a solid aluminium body. It weighs a ton and feels so lovely. This I do not regret.
A Samsung Galaxy Tab 6E was bought for use as a graphics tablet. So far I have spent over five hours with Technical Support trying to the registration sorted out. It requests that a verification code is sent to my phone. No problem. However the code takes upto twelve hours to arrive. The verification window is two minutes. The helpdesk people haven’t been able to sort it out. Maybe there is a problem with my network? Well how come we are communicating almost immediately? They refuse to stray outside their script and when I request an upchain I’m told that there are no supervisors. I can’t request an escalation as the ticket is open. I am promised call backs which never happen which means I have to repeat the problem again to another person. GRRR!
My old scanner finally gave up the ghost. It was an Epson with the ability to scan negatives. The replacement cost was eye wateringly expensive. So I have gone with a Canon.
Money was spent on various USB cables, velcro strips for cable tidying, desk light Mouse, Mousemat, influencer lighting strips and a USB hub.
For sound I dug out my old speakers.
Once it is dark I will attempt to take some pictures so you can see it in all it’s influencer glory.
Was Geht
This was written a few months ago and a few things have changed which I will update in another post.
What’s going on? Well a few things actually.I have been seeing a Psychologist on a weekly basis, which has been helpful. Sadly this has finished due to cuts in Government spending. It did involve some art projects, which was nice. And to make a YouTube playlist starting from depressing to uplifting.
Originally it was supposed to have nine tracks, from a low mood, to middling and on to happy. But me being me stuff had to be added.
Health wise still pretty much the same. The Doctors at the Hospital still don’t know what caused the thrombosis, so I have to continue taking blood thinners. One of my cancers has to be biopsied and that resulted in another operation. When the results came back the tissue was precancerous. I had an all clear on the other one and having checkups every six months.
I did write a long piece on dentistry, but it was long and boring. I will just say I have ongoing dental problems.
Kids, go for regular checkups, worth it when you’re older. Damn my fear of dentists.
The Employment Service have enrolled me on a German course. Apparently my age and lack of German are the two big hurdles to me getting meaningful employment. After roughly thirty minutes it all starts to go “Blah, blah, blah” as my mind starts to get overwhelmed. I just forget everything and I feel so stupid. But I have to keep reminding myself that compared to some members of my classmates I am not that bad. It has been stressful and as a result I have had some spikes in blood pressure, giving my blurred vision in one eye and headaches.
My plan this year hobbywise is to finish off some projects. I get excited about things, start a new project…..
Oh look a squirrel!
….and then get excited about something else and this has left me with quite a few unfinished projects.
What I want to finish this year is Bloodbowl and HeroQuest. I also need a way of storing the components. I also have two unfinished armies from Dragon Rampant, Elemental and Undead, which would be good to have finished.
There are also plans to go through my stuff and try and de-clutter and sell surplus bits. And some work in the house.
Don’t worry there will be more hobby updates coming.
A bit of a photo dump
As, somewhat belatedly, promised here is a photo dump of painting from 2024.
As you can see a bit of a mish mash. I am trying to get get various projects into a state of completion. My focus is Bloodbowl and HeroQuest. I do want to get my Mighty Fortress parts assembled and painted. The problem I have is that I get easily distracted and move on to another project.
Slow Return
It’s been a while and still a long road ahead in terms of health, physical and mental.
One day at a time.
I kept up my painting. It has been a chore at times and I don’t take the same pleasure in it as I used to do.
One change I did make was to move my painting area upstairs. I used to paint in the cellar and that time was used to escape the clamour of daily life. Now I find it too isolated. Whereas upstairs I can hear voices and not feel so lonely. Plus I have cats sleeping in the window, drinking my tea and I have a view.
Having a view is nice. I didn’t realise I missed having a window until now. I used to have a view in London and it is good for the eyes to change focus every so often.
My lighting set up is still downstairs as it would be a mammoth task to unwire it all.
I didn’t realise that it had been over a year since I last posted. There are going to be posts covering this period. Yes with photos! One thing that did throw me a bit was my computer giving up the ghost. Yes I know one can still post on a mobile, but it isn’t the same.
I made a thing!
And technically it is the third iteration!
I was browsing through various woodworking tools online, as you do, and came across a centre line marker. It is probably not something I would use frequently, if ever, but I looked at it and thought, “I can do that!”
I replaced the side guide bolts with dowling to reduce the wobble following the adage, “Keep It Simple Stupid!” I wish I had discovered woodworking forty years ago rather than recently.
Don’t worry dear Reader I will be returning to the Hobby. This Blog needs a bit of a refresh and I plan to make some changes. My catalogue of lasercut bits needs a lot of trimming. I would like to start photographing my figures properly and make the gallery images standardised. And as the Mancave has stumbled to a halt I want to delete it and start a page focussing on the tools and equipment I use.
Physician Heal Thyself. Or. Third Time’s the Charm
I am trying to reverse engineer my way to happiness despite the best efforts of my lovely Wife. This is the philosophy I am attempting to use.
“Retrophrenology:
It works like this. Phrenology, as everyone knows, is a way of reading someone’s character, aptitude and abilities by examining the bumps and hollows on their head. Therefore – according to the kind of logical thinking that characterizes the Ankh-Morpork mind – it should be possible to mould someone’s character by giving them carefully graded bumps in all the right places. You can go into a shop and order an artistic temperament with a tendency to introspection and a side order of hysteria. What you actually get is hit on the head with a selection of different size mallets, but it creates employment and keeps the money in circulation, and that’s the main thing.”
― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms
Quote and image used without permission
I can gauge my mental state by my surroundings. The tidier and more ordered it is then the better mental state I am in. So I am attempting to reverse engineer a better mental state by organising my environment. Having a now fully functioning laser cutter has been a huge mind saver.
The third time is the charm. There are boxes of tools that I have inherited from my Father and Grandfather, and from my Wife’s Father and Grandfather. I have been sorting through everything, getting rid of any broken bits and setting up tool boxes for my Boys with any duplicates. What I have left has been slowly organised.
Had I enough wood I would have attempted a third go to correct those mistakes.
The corner is gloomy no more.
I have started painting a bit but the joy has been stolen and I am finding it hard to get my mojo.
This guy is going to be part of an Empire Mercenary band. Based for Dragon Rampant.
I must mention the competition being run by Old School Miniatures to design an Orc War Machine
https://www.oldschoolminiatures.co.uk/blog/design-a-war-machine-for-the-osm-mean-green-challenge
A little update on the painting
I have a few more pictures to add, since May. May? Where did the time go?
This is some armoured centaur legs, from the Makers Cult, scaled up from AT scale to 40K scale. The top half is an Armiger. This was a test of the livery I am using on my Titan, sat in a box awaiting paint. The lesson wot I did lern is to not apply gloss varnish until all the armour is painted. The gold was very problematic because of this. My next big print project is a Reaver Titan mounted on the Makers Cult 40K scale centaur legs. Warlord might be a bit much.
This is from the Tesseract Tomb Patreon. I have wanted a train set for ages and he is going to be producing parts over the next few months.
This is the Marauder Giant which is now starting to fetch eye watering prices on Fleabay. Many thanks to the Delta Squad who made this possible. First rule etc.
Finally a Spaash Mareen. Number One Son and I have been taking advantage of the 9Euro German rail tickets and have been travelling to Munich for lunch, As you do. I thought I would pop into WARHAMMER! and try out this newfangled Contrast paint that all the cool kids are using these days. The Red Shirt gave me a figure to try it on. While I was slappinig paint on he was inanely chatting to me in English, but in German was really (like really) pushing the hobby onto Number One Son.
One of our lunches. Nothing too extravagant, just a pork knuckle, potato dumpling, dark beer gravy and sauerkraut.
BUT as a result of the trip to WARHAMMER! Number One Son has expressed an interest in gaming. So now the modular table is getting some use, perhaps I need to get on and paint it? We are using our own version of One Hour Skirmish.
A system which utilises playing cards instead of dice which can make the turn system chaotic and fun. Highly recommended.
I also have been distracted by kittens, we are helping a neighbour rehouse kittens. Her farm is used as a dumping ground for unwanted kittens and she finds it a bit too much at times.
We also have been having family days out.
Display cases
Dagger and Brush wanted to know what my display setup was. Here is my response.
You will have to excuse the poor lighting, a project for this year. This is the current state of my hobby room. it tends to be used as an overspill while we organise the house.
This was my first display case, from Ikea about twenty five years ago. I thought that I would never fill it. Little did I know.
After moving over here i got these two from a second hand store.
I have recently just got these two. I should really have been a bit more patient because the shelves are only just bigger than A4. Holes have been drilled to add more shelves. The cabinet on the left has nine shelves from its original four and the cabinet on the right has (or will have) twelve shelves. As the bottom shelf was directly sat on the floor and I have built a plinth to raise them up. I have to admit to some pleasure in being able to go to my workshop, cut some wood on my circular saw and make it there and then. Trips to the local recycling are called for to get glass for the shelves. Again (thanks to my Post Grad in Glass) I have the tools and experience to cut the glass to size and linish the edges to make them safe. Illuminating the shelves will be another project for this year.
I’m not dead!
Image
Isolation
Unless you are living somewhere remote it can’t have escaped your attention that we are living in the times of a pandemic. Austria, like most of Europe, has told everyone to stay at home and only go out if it is strictly necessary. Schools have closed and gatherings of more than five people have been banned. England, however, has told everyone that they can, “Take it on the chin” and to be prepared to say goodbye to loved ones. After years of Tory austerity the hospitals are going to be hard pressed to cope.
Welcome to the Isle of the Damned.
It is day two of the lockdown. Luckily we have a garden to escape to and the weather has been rather pleasant. I have drawn up a list of little jobs that I have been putting off for, in some cases, years. There is no clear end date in sight so let’s see how long I last before going stir~crazy.
Two knock~on effects of the plague have been HappyLab closing and the cancellation of the Austrian Salute. The cancellation of Salute will affect me financially. I will be better off! Going always costs me money which I never recoup.
I had made a little freebie for the show. Hopefully It may get rescheduled for later in the year.
I had started making my annual freebie for this year’s BOYL event. Bring Out Your Lead, the annual gathering of the Oldhammer community.
https://www.bringoutyourlead.co.uk/
I hope it goes ahead. One year I will attend.
Painting progress, I have finished off the twelve skeletal archers for my Dragon Rampant Undead army.
As a bit of a palette clenser I am painting this figure, a Fattie from Judge Dredd.
I originally got into Toy Soldiers via Judge Dredd and 2000ad. I got the role playing game and started to get the figures that went with it. This was one figure and I had pledged to myself that I wouldn’t buy any more figures until I had painted it. After thirty five years I am making a start.
My next project is a bit of fun.
This goes with my Weird War Two ideas. I have the Doctor, Tardis and two “Ironclads”. I have Hitler and Churchill and a nazi film crew. I have managed to locate a model of the Ark of the Covenant. It should be a relatively quick job, chrome underneath and German camo on top. If anyone has a couple of Balkenkreuz going spare let me know.
After this I am prepping another unit of Gnome crossbows, kindly donated by
https://www.oldschoolminiatures.co.uk/
Movement tray from MicroArts Studio
Sheet metal from Saint Martis
Scenic bases fashioned from cork
That is the plague update.
A reflection on life
Going off topic. Again. I thought I would post this little nugget while I think about what to post next.
Living a little higher (read what you like into this) means that you are in the sunshine whilst everyone else is in the mirk.
Transport skiff
This model was loosely inspired by a model I saw in the Trash Bash Bits group on Facebook. The original was made from a fly-swatter. It wasn’t quite what I had imagined but it sparked an idea.
The first iteration looked like this.
There were some issues, some of which I addressed in the next iteration.
The next iteration was like this.
Correction required.
Comparison shot of the two. You can see I have added some extra detailing to the cabin roof.
Iteration two with cargo and kitten for scale.
Iteration three will elimate these issues and hopefully be the final model.
Arsie’s Painting Toolbox
Now I have successfully trashed my following I can get back on track.
Confession time, I love painting books.
From G’Dub to Kevin Dallimore to CMoN via Angel Giraldez and Picca and Lappat. They are on a shelf above my painting area and frequently beside my bed for late night perusal. 
This book was recommended on the ‘Eavier Metal painting group on Facebook. I ordered it, it wasn’t cheap, a bit out of my current financial comfort zone.
The book arrived fairly promptly and I sat down to study it. People say that first impressions count. I was hugely dissapointed and I have had great difficulty picking it up again to look at. I’ve had several attempts and each time is the same.
In his defence Javier Gonzales is a hugely talented painter as several Golden Demons and Slayer Swords attest.
So what is putting me off this book?
It is a combination of small things, the sum is greater than the whole.
The paper it is printed on feels cheap, slightly rough. All my other books, with the exception of the early G’Dub painting guides, are printed on coated stock. They have either a satin or glossy finish. They feel pleasant to handle. One factor in the perceived value of the book.
The next item is a design oversight which should have been picked up in the proof stage.
In the corner of each page is a little black paint splash which is intended (I think) to have the page number in. What really annoys me is that this is the second edition of this book and this should have been picked up. Numbers have been added at the top of the page but they feel just like an afterthought.
The type has been set Justified and leaves too many widows which makes for hard reading.
Text aligned left and less leading. Much easier to read.
Visually there is too much leading, the space between the lines, dropping down a couple of points would have helped.
It definitely would help with the next problem, the layout of the step-by-steps. Less line spacing would have freed up more space to enable better layout.
If you look at the other layouts you can see that every picture clearly references a corresponding block of descriptive text.
ON THE SAME PAGE!
No flipping back and forth between pages to read about the techniques applied in the image. This really disrupts the flow of the tutorials. The Author references other instructional painting books yet fails to apply what makes them so good to his own work.
In chapter two, “Preparing the Figure” the Author has a picture of the various tools he uses. 
Underneath is a numbered list of tools. But the numbers don’t refer to the picture which is unnumbered and some tools are missing. A couple of page later he refers to using a brass disc with a hand-drill to polish the surface of the model. What does this brass disc look like? How does he hold the model?
I wish I could read Spanish. Miniature painting is a subject the Author knows well and he has a passion for it. I think the translator has done him a disservice as at times the text is stilted and at times hard to make sense of.
Some of the images are out of focus and some diagrams are pixelated.
Is this book worth buying: No.
Would I recommend this book to other people: No
BUT with some work, noted above, the third edition may be worth considering.
“I’m not the messiah!”
“Hello” to my new followers, or rather I should say “Hello” to my new random followers. I’ve visited your blogs. We have nothing in common.
I am a curmudgeonly old git with no social skills or graces. There are no pearls of wisdom to scatter before you. If you think that using someone elses quotes and random unattributed stock photos is going to set the blogosphere alight. well ….
Somehow I don’t see myself ever being an “influencer”. Already that word is starting to have negative connotations.
If you take the trouble to examine my site stats you can see that I barely have a handful of followers and lurkers, hello Ruth. I am certain that there are a couple of bots and one is a dog. Добро пожаловать мои верные товарищи-роботы! И собачий приятель.
I blog to keep sane.
I blog, badly, about a very dull niche topic.
I blog about nothing that would help you raise your blog profiles. In fact linking to my blog would probably kill your traffic.
So please
Feel free to unfollow.
Images are Copyright their respective owners. Used without permission.
genuine grumpy old tin 