Looking back on July 2020

As announced in the last weekend update, on my prolonged wargamer's dad weekend, I switched from weekly to monthly sum ups and this being the first monthly review, starting in July.

Speaking of wargaming dad, 2 years ago I enjoyed my parental leave, and what can I say, the curly little big adventure that made me a wargaming dad has grown quite a bit, and enjoys visiting me at my desk.

I am currently participating in the summer project on TabletopWelt, with the 18 miniatures in 3 months challenge. And I'm very well on target, with the first two blocks already done (Hooves and Fur Pt VI and Part IX), and now having almost two months for the last batch, that I'm already working on.

As a counter part to this small warband, I'm already gathering a few Warhammer Empire miniatures from my collection, only missing a few rank and file units (when I began those were released in plastic, but I'd like to use metal). I used to have 22,000 (!) points of Empire, but sold all the regiments and only kept the characters and interesting individual miniatures. But second hand prices one some ranges are absolutely insane or bonkers (30 GBP for an empire command miniature from 4th edition is no where near reasonable... and I have no idea what's going on in Italy with second hand pricing). I already have the characters, elite units and such, I am really just missing a few guys with swords and shields and muskets, I am looking at Wargames Foundry's Landsknechts. Those are a bit smaller, but work quite well with 4./5. edition WHFB empire, the most prominent reason is that they were sculpted by the Perrys as well. With the bits I have from the classic state soldiers I'd be able to make it more than just suitable.

Now I just have to wait for a good opportunity to buy some from Foundry. I'd have put them on my wishlist for The Tinsoldier's Crisis and bought them in Antwerp in November, but you know ... it was the reasonable thing to do to cancel the events.

The 2020 edition of the Great Wargaming Survey started. Please take your time and participate. You can take a look at the polls from the earlier surveys on their blog.

I upgraded the lighting situation in the studio. For multiple reasons. I just wanted to recommend my LED panel and was looking for the link, as I saw that it was on sale, so I got myself a second one what I had in mind for sometime.

They can be charged with a micro-usb cable, so when I'm on the road I could even charge it with a power bank or in the car. What I like about these, they are compact, cheap (around 35-40 EUR), dimmable and provide cold and warm light (second and third picture), which is perfect for scenic pictures. And they do make the difference.

This will improve the reviews and coverage quite a bit. And on top of that, I got a new Lightcraft triple LED work lamp, as I'm in the 20th week working from home and my regular desk lamp just isn't for that kind of permanent use (the trafo casing broke and the arm just didn't stay in place anymore, so I had to improsive a quasi-substructure). And as I'm parcipating in video calls and meetings from home, this new one is a much better and professional solution for lightning, as my current setup is meant for macro photography and not for office use.

As for streaming, I had my eyes on third seasons this months. I watched the third season of Babylon Berlin, which took a bit to take up speed, but entertains quite well. The third season of Norsemen is on Netflix, with 6 episodes just way to short and it is worth mentioning it's a prequel, as they didn't provide a recap on Netflix and I was a bit irritated to sort out the story. And Comedy Central is back with Corporate. Dark humor from the realms of the corporate work environment - highly recommended.

On my queue for August are these movies and shows on Netflix and Prime, Extraction, 6 Underground, Spectral and the second season of SIX. Voyager is rather slow currently and after TNG and DS9, I'm rather full on trek for the moment.

I listened to a few pod casts as well, Joe Rogan with Oliver Stone (Episode #1511) was quite interesting, a good insight on the director and his motivation. The episode with Russel Peters was m'eh, and I watched my first episode of 2 Bears 1 Cave with Segura and Kreischer ... holy shit that's weird. And I'm looking forward to listen to the latest episode of Krauthorn.

As I'm quite confident to finish the third block of the summer project in the next week and a half, I'm already taking a look into the next project to keep the paint flowing. So much said, I'm switching from fantasy to scifi and into a much different scale. Stay tuned.