Originally Posted by CHolgren
So...
DOES THIS GIVE ME AN IDEA OR WHAT???
DOES THIS GIVE ME AN IDEA OR WHAT???
I certainly hope so!!!
DOES THIS GIVE ME AN IDEA OR WHAT???
If my son had a $ for every time I called with a problem, he could buy Ares.
Last edited by Gunner; 04-26-2013 at 18:04.
The number of times I've tried to print out board wargame counter variants onto sticky label paper and got
- the wrong size
- the wrong colour
- run out of one colour during printing, making the counter prints unusable
- had the label paper jam in the printer and had to spend two hours getting all the bits out
- printed on the wrong side of the label sheet....ugghh
are we having fun yet?
Idea, Richard... doubt there were a lot of Roman-style buildings still occupied even in Napoleon's day, but maybe some SLP'ed ruins?
Last week I was back home in Chicago, and I was in a cafe working on my laptop. A woman stopped at my table and asked me a computer question. I looked at her and thought, "Lady, if only you knew whom you were asking."
Ain't it positively annoying how just 'cause you have a laptop everyone thinks you're free tech support, or thinks you should let them borrow it to check their email or look up scores or weather?
I can't tell you how many times I've had to greet people with "Like your hands? Then keep 'em TO YOURSELF and OFF MY CRAP!"
Are you one of these people where Tech Support has a marker next to your name labeled "Send this person to Tier 3 immediately"?
When I started bringing my computer to class, my students laughed. Fortunately, I have always had knowledgeable students to help me through. One thing I can say for sure, one should never mistake familiarity with technology for the ability to think.
Land Ho!
So Cory's comment/question got me thinking about this idea of paper models a bit.
DOES THIS GIVE ME AN IDEA OR WHAT???
My 3D fort and HMS Surprise virtual models are off at the printing bureau for that part of the development process so I had a bit of SGN development "down time" there.
It has probably been 25 years or more since I did any paper modeling, but I thought it might be worth a shot.
The initial project idea was to make a set of modular coastline pieces as 3D paper models that could be mixed and matched by the person assembling their coastline (as opposed to me) to come up with unique costal designs.
That was my project for the weekend. It has included learning a new piece of software along the way which is always fun for me.
The first step was to design the concept for the pieces so that a limited number of modular paper model pieces could build varied costal designs.
What I settled on was coastal component pieces that were 2 inches wide and from 1 to 6 inches long. Some of the components have square coast profiles, that is, the pieces are the same length on each side. Other components have angled coasts. That is, there is a 1 inch differential in coast length from one side to the other.
I built two different 6 inch long pieces. The shorter side of the angled 5/6 inch pieces have the same profile, but one of the square 6"ers has a sloped terrain while the other is a flat bluff/cliff design (where a fort could live).
The longer front to back pieces also reach a higher elevation. The angled coastal pieces are also used as the height transition pieces.
A view sighting more or less down the coast.
Realize that the square coastal pieces can be added in quantities of 0 or greater at each transition.
(But wait, there's more to come in a bit on this flexibility)
A view from "behind" the pieces showing the elevation changes a bit more.
The 6" long pieces are about 1 1/2" tall.
From here, there object files were exported from the modeling software and imprted into my newly purchased piece of software that lets me "unwrap" the geometry to flat surfaces. This is Japanese software with only marignal english translation directions, but all went rather smoothly.
All of the components including mirrored angle coast pieces in my favorite vector graphics package ready for final cleanup.
The dotted lines on the top surfaces will be removed and replaced by actual grass/rock type image texturing.
Fold instructions will be recreated as arrows and moved off the edges of the top pieces so as not to be visible on the final components..
In total, there are 18 pieces.
In the above image, these are arranged left to right from longest to shortest.
The top row contains the square coast pieces, the second and third rows contain the angled coast pieces in each direction.
It turns out that because of the left to right side angles present in the elevation changes, the top surface sides of the angled coast pieces are not completely straight.
This can probably be seen most clearly in the lower left components in this last image.
The elevation topology of any of the pieces of a given side length will match that of any other of that side length.
This allows for the coast you build to snake in and out.
There will be notches in the bottoms of the pieces so that they can be connected with paperclips.
The top surfaces are really all that need color printing, so the pieces will be arranged on the pages to group the tops together to minimize color printing costs.
I will build out the prototypes so that I am sure that all of this works before turning it loose on everyone, but all that should be complete by next weekend.
Very nice design work Bruce, the Japanese software to unwrap is particularly impressive. All those years of development of origami put to good use no doubt.
Impressive Bruce. It is special being able to read how the work is actual done - much more meaningful and increases one's ability to appreciate the finished product.
Seriously, well done.
No doubt.
What do color (or colour) copies go for in your part of the world?
Will most shops print to card stock?
Not sure I do my own colour printing (usually badly).I know onto A4 paper in colour about 10-20cents a sheet depending on volume but that probably doesn't help much
This is actually coming together quite quickly.
It looks like all parts of all 18 land chunks will fit into 15 spaces of 7.5 x 10 inches.
I actually squeeze in one extra 4" straight coast object, so we get a total of 19.
Of these, the top 5 have all of the ground surface segments and would be suitable for printing in color.
I will be adding painted grass, rocks, sand and such and removing the dotted lines on those.
The other 10 could be printed in black.
It may make sense to distribute these as image files as well as Word docs or pdf's so that the user can scale them as desired more easily.
I know that A4 is just over 8 1/4 wide, so this may be a tight go.
I will work on narrowing the chunks down a bit, but those bluff/cliff top surfaces are pretty big.
When I build out a set of these, I will add a second layer of card stock on the parts of the sides where the paper clips will go as reinforcement.
I did not create cutting templates for those on the plans but may.
I will definitely be adding the notches for where the paper clips are to go.
A paper model fort of any size will require two of the bluff/cliff sections to sit on, so I may make some changes to this page layout for that consideration.
Bruce, that is fantastic work. I love the modular aspect, as opposed to other papercraft terrain I've come across in my search, where it's an entire hill, rock, etc.
Nice work, Bruce.
Nice job! Very cool.
Super stuff, Bruce.
Nice game room Gunner. Looks like a nice dart board and pool table. Hope you have a bar so you would have a nice pub. Serve food and have to get you on Dinners, Drive-Ins and Dives of the food channel.
The barcame before the table.
Looks like you've got your priorities in order Ed.The bar
Enjoying a fantastic sunny Sunday afternoon for a change. Playing Kubb with the family and over serving my wife and myself on my Saison de Noel and La Petite Orange Blanche.
Not sure what Kubb is. Nice picture of libations. Hope you had a good time, which I imagine you did.
Speaking of taking pride in beer, today I tried two homemade brews - one from a kit and one that is a first time self-generated recipe. I am not a beer drinker, though I have tried 250-300 types of beers from around the world. Never cared for any of them other than cooking with - but not for lack of trying; I'm always willing to taste and see. Today was a bit of surprise - I enjoyed Mike's first time recipe. An Irish red I believe he classified it.
I hope your Kubb arm is better than the Cubs pitchers arms.
Management should issue shovels to all the players to help dig their way out of the cellar.
But I'm still a fan.
Why do you tempt me?
Ha,ha,ha.
I tried many times. But couldn't shake it.
Love it Bobby...translates across all cultures and languages.
Kubb( pronounced Koob) is a lawn game, obviously, also referred to as Viking Chess. Comes from Gotland in Sweden. Essentially each team has 5 knights and you have to knock them down with batans thrown underhand and then kill the king.
Maybe you haven't come across the right beer. I love the variety a small country like Belguim produces and most have a good kick as well.
I'm a fan too, unfortunately. Well my Kubb arm was doing well, but them my wife insisted we all throw with out left hands. She has a tear in her left elbow tendon and wasn't able to throw with her proper hand. At that point I resembled Cubs pitching.I hope your Kubb arm is better than the Cubs pitchers arms.
Management should issue shovels to all the players to help dig their way out of the cellar.
But I'm still a fan.
I have tried many Belgium beers. Actually, I have tried more types of beers than many of my friends who a serious beer connoisseurs. At this point, I think it is physiological, having to do with taste buds. It is a bit surprising given my enjoyment of all types of foods from around the world. Thankfully, I enjoy wine.
I'll have to check out Kubb.
"It's like a curse your parents put on you when you're a child" - Joe Mantegna, "We Believe: Chicago and its Cubs"
Crafts, Hobbies & Home books
1/1200 too small for you? Perhaps the grown up version might be more to your taste. here is a nice list I received from Amazon today for modelling period ships. Enjoy
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Very nice list Daniel. Thanks.
Cool list, Daniel!! And you're going to buy, or have already purchased all of these?
And there are tools just for the hobby:
http://www.micromark.com/model-ship-...cessories.html
Almost makes you think it might not be too hard to construct them? Almost, but not enough, space being a big issue for my various hobbies these days.
So most, I see, play historical war games, but does anyone play anachronistic/steampunk? By that I mean Dystopian wars, Leviathans, weird war two, Tannhauser, Incursion, secrets of the third Reich?
My older son enjoys Tannhauser and if I play that he'll indulge me in a game of incursion. Any other games out there of interest?
Funny you should ask, Cory. I started looking, the past few days, for a steampunk RPG system. I thought the time period could make for interesting scenarios and game sessions. I am open to any recommendations.
I looked at Leviathan recently, but I am not sure I want to start another mini series beyond the historical ones I am building. However, David Manley's pictures of War Rocket ships has me intrigued, or should I say tempted.
As for "other" games, we have been playing a lot of coop games lately, and have been enjoying them. We are now on Letters from Whitechapel: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5...om-whitechapel
Eric, I've never really done much RPG. I think the savage world's system has a few steampunk things you could try. I agree with Leviathans, I think Jim has said there's not much activity in that area. I have all the ships available for them but it's hard to get my kids to play that, so it doesn't see much light.
The closest we come to rpg is mice and mystics, you don't gain experience but you can modify the team and character equipment t to match the scenario objectives. Tannhauser is like that as well, just weird war two setting. Both these games come with the miniatures so your not putting out money for minis right away. Tannhauser has a lot of character expansions and factions to add if you want. Tannhauser is also pre-painted so no time added for that.
My personal preference for weird war two is incursion. The first edition game came with stand ups and optional metal figures to buy. I was able to collect one of each figure and actually got them all painted. They re-released on kickstarter last month with plastic figures included in the starter box. Anybody who backed that got three Times the number of minis I have for a third the price, I'm not bitter, much, but I backed them for the new minis that were kickstarter exclusives.
I'm actually interested if anyone has played Secrets of the Third Reich? I've seen the minis and they look interesting for weird war two, just not sure about the rules and how the game plays. My wife not being a game is due to be thinking, "great, more little men around the house".
Hope that helps give you some ideas.
I still like the concept and game Leviathans, but locally the game is pretty much ignored and not supported at the stores. Catalyst Games hasn't exactly done a great job on continued support either. They're talking about another Kickstarter this Fall to help bring out a new set of factions (Germans and Italians), but their track record on KS isn't inspiring. Looking forward to the Firefly board game at the end of the month. I demoed it at GenCon and enjoyed it (75/100 on some reviews). Also played Pandemic, which was an awesome coop game.
Saturday past I went to "jocktoberfest, and drank "Black Isle Blonde".
Organic beer at a local music festival at a brewery, 12 hours on the beer epic... Don't try this at home kids
http://www.blackislebrewery.com/
http://www.jocktoberfest.com/
Only one of those I've seen played locally is the first one. _Leviathans_ is too complicated, and requires too much "bespoke" kit. The rest are either long-OOP, or get even-worse support.
I must confess to being tempted by _War Rocket_, if for no other reason than: Finally, a space combat game which *doesn't* use the Naval aesthetic....
I must confess that I am tempted by their look alone. See David's blog entry and pics - really cool stuff: http://dtbsam.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/War%20Rocket
The ships remind me of Wizkids Rocketmen, with the exception that these are three dimentional and Rocketmen were plastic card stock you had to put together.
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