Monday, 07:35 pm, 16 August 2004

If you search online for Kev Adams, this is the best article I have found so far. It comes from White Dwarf 79 in July 1986;

http://goldendemon.org/EavyMetal/'EavyMetal.html

Kev's article is taken in two page scans. You'll need to click the associated link. I don't like to deep link. Looks like the commission could be on track. Good evening.
Sunday, 11:03 am, 15 August 2004

Sometimes things just fit together. I have found that with my somewhat obsessive miniature collecting.

A few months ago I bid on some figures on eBay and they turned out to be Fred Reed's first commission work that someone was selling online without even mentioning Fred Reed. Yesterday morning the latest Harbinger magazine arrived and I noticed a small ad for Dark Orcs. I have quite a large orc collection ranging the early Citadels and BTD. Some of these are shown through the Log.

It turns out, as I found yesterday, most of them came from the same sculptor. A fellow by the name of Kev(in) Adams. Kev Adams seems responsible for most of my favourite figures through a thorough investigation online including the Chaos Renegades - a Citadel range in the late 1980s where the weapons were melted into the flesh.

So I found a special collector box set of 'Da Court of the Goblin King' through a site and emailed the UK contact person who turned out to be Kev Adams. Amazing. It is funny that I have, without knowing it, collected a substantial quantity of his work purely on how much I like the look of the figures. I have a Kev Adams tuned aesthetic.

Watch this space for more information. I'm hoping to get a couple of commissions of originals. Fingers crossed.

Good morning.
Monday, 09:43 pm, 09 August 2004

I promised some stunning Fred Reed. Here are two figures collage from images he sent me today. The subtle work is particularly good although the standard/flag is great too.

Good night.
Saturday, 11:26 am, 07 August 2004

Working for Da Man - Now Is It Billy G or Mridul P?

Mridul P emailed me during the week. MS has removed #if CONSTANT support in VC .NET 2003.

So I promised I would troll the current source code - formerly known as the active source code - and remove any such imperfections. I don't miss CVS at all. The FTP source repositories work quite smoothly. A beautiful day outside too. But I will get the #if gumph done first then spend some time in the garden. Good morning.
Friday, 10:03 pm, 06 August 2004

Putting Blocks Together

Good progress with Noble Warfare in the past couple of nights. Putting in the evenings adds up. I'm working on medium sized armies to test the speed bottlenecks. It is hard creating coherent armies from scratch.

When you play a game, typically the army lists or the unit types are precreated. So the choice is about putting together existing blocks into a coherent force. Noble Warfare doesn't offer that currently. I was planning on releasing the beta with only two armies. It seems more practical to release at least four, if not six or more.

So the shortlist is;

Romans
Orcs
Undead (aka Skeletons, Zombies et al)
Medieval Force - probably Teutonic Knights

Then probably;

Barbarians
Elves

Speaking of Teutonic Knights

From the Armies of Chivalry book, I thought about getting a selection of Teutonic Knights for a Fred Reed commission. You'd think a relatively major chivalry order like the Teutonics should be easy to find.

I ordered roughly equal sets from the Foundry and Black Tree Design. My means of ordering came through the images online. There was little information online about which company made the best Teutonics and aside from Essex Miniatures. I discounted Essex early on because their bodies and faces are noticeably deformed in the gallery painted shots. This should be a clear indication that the general figures should be 'as good' or worse.

The Foundry is mentioned in the back of Armies... so I thought they should have the upper hand. Boy was I wrong. I suspect BTD and GW have a long history as BTD produce a very similar fantasy range. In fact, Fred Reed noted that their fantasy figures appear almost identical to second edition Citadel particularly their Orc/Nightling ranges. Say no more.

I think BTD has put quality figures up for all the ranges I have purchased from them. The start contrast between Foundry and BTD on every level was mere reinforcement of this view. The Foundry figures were more expensive, postage was more expensive and I got far fewer figures for a higher price. The figures were poorly cast. Lots of flash. And some bits which appeared to be breaks in the moulds. The figures looked 25mm or possibly even 20mm and nothing like the robustness I had come to expect with BTD or Citadel figures.

The Foundry range also didn't fit the Teutonic requirements at all. If I put them to the Armies... rules, I would have to field all their knights as crusader knights. Disappointing.

In contrast, BTD were well cast. Good detail. Lots of them. The weapons were a little bent, but easily straightened. Everything was in place. Aside from the bent weapons, the only other problem was the small selection of different figures. Really this wasn't a problem because the figures were clearly Teutonic Knights. Right weapons, right armour and on the money.

I was hoping to have a couple of Fred Reed shots for the Log this evening. Instead, a special treat for WeFunk cruisers of the net.

WeFunk In Memphis

WeFunk played in Memphis a couple of weekends ago. From Montreal to Memphis? They went to bring the Montreal flavour to the people. I tried to find images of the event with little luck until I mentioned it in passing in an email to Prof Groove.


Good night.
Monday, 07:40 pm, 02 August 2004

The first entry of the new month. Always nice to start on a clean page.

I received an email from my friend, Alex Brooks, about my last Log entry from last month. He made the point that musing wouldn't produce music. I wholeheartedly agree and put a couple of hours in over the weekend. To have a coherent album project could motivate a lot of music development but I am still trying to come to terms with the Noble Warfare beta.

Last month's mailout talked about the 'fun adventure' motivation in development. As the Noble Warfare development continues - dare I say drags on - the original motivation still seems very real. The difficulty is maintaining momentum through exhaustion and small segment development. The ebbs and flows of developing something afterhours is as much about self motivation and reading oneself as it is about coding.

Good night.

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