Ramblings #3: or, an excuse to procrastinate

Hey. Let’s just cut to the chase, shall we?

We’re growing.

A couple of weeks ago I was ecstatic to have gathered around nine followers for this blog. As of this writing that number has nearly tripled to a healthy 26, which is about as large as a small classroom. If you ask me, that’s pretty damn awesome.

A lot of the feelings that I’ve had since writing that article still hold today. When I say “thanks for reading”, I really do mean it. Thank you.

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Battle Sisters: “I really ought to stop hyping this up because I will inevitably lead everyone to disappointment” Edition

Good news: my miniature paints came in this week!

I also bought the handle because investing into ergonomics is a good thing.

I’m excited and terrified at the same time, mostly because of the discrepancy between what I want my Sisters to look like and what my non-existent painting skills will likely accomplish, but hey, that’s the emotional cost of trying something new (I think). I’m tempering my expectations and focusing on two goals while painting these minis:

1. Decide on a final-ish colour scheme for my Sisters, not as a list of hex values, but as a list of paints that you could go to GW and buy yourself. This is going to require a bit of experimentation.
2. Practice basic painting techniques! If I can basecoat one of my Sisters while keeping the coats thin enough to preserve her detail, I’d say that’d be an accomplishment.

I’ve spent a really long time on goal #1 already, to the point where I’ve created mockups and drafted lists of what I think would make a decent paintjob:

This is a long document, much longer than what you would expect.

Unfortunately I’ve kept tinkering with them even after I placed my order, because I have a talent for over-planning. Here’s a prime example: did you know that Battle Sisters have robes?

Whoa, who would have thought?

Of course you did. Here’s the thing about robes– I just know that painting under them is going to be a pain in the ass for me. I’ve spent days trying to devise a strategy on how to tackle them, but I came up with a perfect solution:

“If I undercoat the entire miniature with black, then I won’t have to worry!”

~Node, who was going to paint the undersides of the robes black anyway.

There are two problems that come with this, though:

1. I only have Corvus Black, which I’ve discovered now is more of a really dark grey. (This is a good thing, since another problem I’ve been trying to solve is figuring out how to achieve a really dark grey. I considered something like Mechanicus Standard Grey drowned in however many coats of Nuln Oil initially.)
2. By the time I figured this out, I’d already placed the order for my paints.

So now I’m buying even more stuff, this time from a reseller, so hopefully they’ll get delivered slightly faster. Hopefully. Maybe we’ll even get to painting this year.

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In the lore department, the dedicated page for the Order of the Mourning Veil is apparently live now. I meant to publish it later, but the scheduling exploded when I tried to change the date the first time and now it’s in some weird purgatory where it’s published and not published at the same time. Thanks, WordPress.

As for what I think about it… I don’t know, I feel like I’ve spent too much time on it without adding very much value. It’s definitely not a comprehensive document, which is a choice I made early on after writing out a “brief” synopsis of their origins (which turned out to not be brief at all). I’m also writing in a tone much more fitting for the 40k setting, which I’m only beginning to sort of feel comfortable with. In its current state I just don’t feel confident that I’m doing them the justice that they’re due. Oh well, it’s not like I can’t edit it later anyway. I’ve still got the origins to finish and publish too, so that might help contextualize a few of the elements that I’ve added on that page.

Regardless of how I feel about my Order, I hope you guys enjoy reading it, and I hope you’ll join me when the time comes to jump headfirst into an acrylic nightmare.

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FFXIV: Art, and other things

I got some art commissioned for one of my alts in Final Fantasy XIV:

Her name is Mae; she’s an engineer from the frigid highlands of Ishgard who maintains an Allagan power suit as a hobby. I don’t have much lore thought up for her, since she’s actually just a mirror of a World of Warcraft character that goes by the same name.

This piece was done by @Jgmo_Ksh on Twitter (NSFW link), who’s a total blast to work with. If you’ve got money to spare and enjoy anime tiddies, I’d highly recommend commissioning them!

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Since starting FF again I’ve inevitably resumed my browsing of the Tales from Duty Finder subreddit, which is more or less a collaborative effort to document the game’s worst players. Either because of their technical skill or because they’re just unsociable pricks, their exploits are captured and posted for the enjoyment/horror of Redditors around the globe. FF is notorious for enabling a caustic hyper-positive environment that protects these players from criticism or– God forbid– advice, so I consider it a sort of a bastion of light in the murky depths of the worst community MMOs have to offer.

I’ve seen it myself, either through lurking in Twitch streams or by simply just encountering them “in the wild”. When you find them, the game immediately transforms from a fun casual MMORPG to a sadistic endurance test that can be compared to sticking hot needles under your fingernails. This is why I’m considering using this blog to throw a fit about it; shine a spotlight on the shit play of these people and use it to score some article views.

Though, I don’t intend for these hypothetical articles to be a call to witchhunt people– I want to actually break things down and thoroughly explain why someone’s play is absolutely revolting, and then I want to give advice on how to correct those problems. It’d be a constructive learning experience for everyone (hopefully).

Maybe I’ll follow through with this idea one day. Still not sure.

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That’s all the stuff I’ve got. My work schedule has changed slightly, so that may or may not affect the frequency of my posts going forward, but I don’t think that’s likely. I kind of like the weekly posts that I’ve been doing up until now, so I’m trying my best to maintain that schedule.

Anyway– as always, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next time.