Once upon a time ago..

So I am back again

This time round I decided to show you a few pics on what I have been doing on my last holiday.

2 months ago or so, have been using some of my time by embarking a SHORT holiday trip to another place away from Singapore. Just that only this place is online. I decided to go on a short stint run of an awesome RVR (Realm vs Realm) online game known as Warhammer Online or WAR in short. (Yes, THE WARHAMMER online)

Decided to be a Dwarf and chose the class of Ironbreaker. While much of the concept of fantasy MMORPG is pretty much the same. The PvP (Player vs Player) system is well formulated and because it was Mythic Entertainment (Makers of Dark Age of Camelot), you can't really go wrong in terms of PvP MMORPG. it uses a realm or zone versus zone system where its a free for all against you enemies in these zones around the world. Furthermore, certain zones are restricted to certain level range to keep a balance of play and also provide the atmosphere that it is a world of constant war and battle.


"HARLoee There, I am Handsomekia" (Kia being guy in a Chinese dialect)

What I really like the most is that the world was pretty accurate in its depiction of the old world and the people involved. (No Bretonnians. :( but there were all sorts of other races and familiar units that Warhammer gamers can relate to). In fact, I did take some time during the game to check out all the people and places that made the Warhammer World for what it is. Like a tourist, I stumbled across many of the races like..


OGRE and his master


Halberdiers of the Imperial Guards


Knights of the Blazing Sun, an Imperial Knightly Order in Altdorf



Me and a High Elf Hero in Ulthuan


All in all it was a fun time and I manage to get to level 25-26 "pwning" the Forces of Destruction (Well, most of the time at least :S) . Max level for WAR is 40 so I am not far from it.

However, I must add that this is a more PvP orientated online game. Don't expect it to be similar to World of Warcraft. Furthermore, it isn't a game that is a grind quest type of Roleplaying game but involves lots of teamwork. WAR doesn't have the same graphics or interaction and options that can make it better than World of Warcraft. It also lacks the PvE and Guild Raiding experience that World of Warcraft provides. But it makes do with the RvR and PvP system. From raiding castles to plain Battlefields, WAR can be a real fun game to play, especially when your efforts of killing your enemies and capturing places are benefiting ur side in the overall War between both sides.

In all honesty though, It will be hard for WAR to compete with the giant machine that is Blizzard. As they lack many interactive features, abilities and the fan-base to compete However, if you want to try it out, it is free till Level 10 so have a go and take a holiday trip to the Old World. Its especially fulfilling for Warhammer fans

Not sure when I will return to the WAR but check out my Screen-shots on my album in
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34381734906&ref=ts#!/album.php?aid=198891&id=273964222832

You'd get to see familiar faces of Lords and Characters that you would recognize from the Warhammer world.

Till next time, CHEERS

HMS Trafalgar

Facing the Trafalgar.

The Trafalgar Submarine is the current mainstay of the Royal Navy Hunter Killer Nuclear Submarines. Not until the introduction of the Astute class submarines, The Trafalgar is the most advanced nuclear submarine that the Royal navy had to offer.



The Trafalgar like all nuclear submarines can remain submerged for long periods on ends. Of which, the Trafalgar Class Submarine, HMS Triumph had perform the longest submerged voyage to Australia, spanning a total 41000 miles.


This submarine has 5 tubes capable of arming and firing 21 inch Spearfish wire-guided torpedoes. It is also capable of carrying Harpoon anti surface missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles.



All in all, this submarine is a capable formidable sub that has seen a few action in the Gulf. Furthermore, it will remain in service till 2022 when it will be totally replaced by the Astute Class Submarines.

While the Royal Navy in my opinion is still one of the most advance navies in the world today and they have been upgrading their fleet. They are not their former self. Approximately 200 years ago or so, The Royal Navy was one of the most dominant naval force in the world. Now they lack the weaponry and strength in numbers to even be dominant in Europe. Will the RN ever rise back to former glorious time?

Sidenote: Been base coating and starting to paint my Russian Fleet with the Help of my girlfriend. (Thanx a lot dear :)) On top of that, I am progressing well in constructing my Aircraft Carrier. If all goes smoothly and swiftly, I should have my US Fleet done for photoshoot time.
So stay tune!

DE: Black Guard

Hey All!

Well, I've been traveling around the states and soon I will be settling down for college...which explains the irregularity of my posts and I will try my best to update the blog. Also I have most of my collection sitting in boxes right now, so I will be covering those that I am keeping around with me for now. New photos have been made as promised, and here they come!

For this post, allow me to introduce to you...the feared Black Guard of the Dark Elves!



Trained to kill since young, recruits are put into groups of 20, and placed into a tower...only for Battle Royale to break lose and paint the walls of blood shed in hatred. The sole survivor will be chosen to train as a Black Guard, barring death during the training. Wielding a halberd (aka 'great weapon'), the Black Guard are the trusted bodyguards of Malekith, and are warriors of martial renown, perhaps equalled or surpassed by their hatred for everything else.



In actual fact, these minis were bought on ebay, only slightly above the combined price of the minis w/o painting, which smelled like a good deal...funny thing is, compared to paintedfigs, the price is lower than what painting services charge. It came from a bloke in the UK who painted them perhaps on a small scale, as he was selling a few painted units and a lot of unpainted ones. If you look at the right time, you'll find some well-painted minis going at a good price, especially with the downturn making some sell their armies to hobby stores or online. For this particular regiment, the painting proved to be pretty well done. Of course, the downside is that we don't get to customize the minis as we would like to have...

I have a few dark elf units lying around, but I haven't had the chance to play them against anyone yet. JQ, WT and I are planning to play some WFB battles at the end of this year, which will feature conflicts between High Elves, the Empire and Dark Elves. Brets (to my knowledge) are also a possibility. On those battles, we will surely provide commentary once they are conducted and concluded.

Games Galore.

So I know this is pretty random and we hardly review much games for quite some time.
But just decided to do a one amidst all the models and collectibles.

So here are in my opinion the 3 most anticipated or must get games for now.
(It also means that you got to be a real fool to not know the titles of these games)

Firstly, Out in stores right now and conjuring a storm of buyers and slowly but surely will become the mainstay of Sci-Fi RTS

Starcraft 2


This trailer pretty much says it all. For years, Starcraft fans have waited and it has finally arrive. However, this time around, each of the races campaigns will be sold seperately. The first release is Wings of Liberty, which would be the Terran Campaign.

Starcraft 2 is already out and while I am craving to get my hands on one. My damn laptop is not powerful enough to give me the best experience. :/ However, I do very much want to start pwning in Starcraft 2 War and Tactics.

But won't be getting a new CPU anytime soon :[

So I guess playing my favourite race of the Protoss would have to wait. :/

Female Zealot Concept Art. If only there was such a unit. :S


ENTARO TASSADAR!!!

And yet Another Blizzard that should be killing the market of PC Games is

DIABLO 3



Ever since I started on the Diablo, I have barely cease playing that game. As long as i remember having a CPU, i was playing Diablo. From Diablo 1 to Diablo 2. It has been a decade plus of awesome fun and terror. from playing co-op with friends to going online and participating in ladder matches.

Diablo has brought me Third Person RPG that is freaking action pack and fast paced compared to many of the DnD counterparts. With the third installment coming soon, I have nothing more to say but BRace urself.

Red Dead Redemption



The last game that I want to recommend that is out in stores and platform is Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 8s none other than the highly rated Rockstar game called Red Dead Redemption.

Set in the West, Rockstar has taken a different era to put a age old concept that never fails and mash it into one really awesome game. While it has many traits that are similar to Grand Theft Auto. its refreshingly appealing to play Cowboy in the West.

Will definitely get me this one when I got the Moo lah.

Speaking of which, $$$ the green bags are no where to be found as I am dead broke. But always have been so no biggie this time round.

Till next post. SEE ya soon!

Random Vids from Marvel and DC

So a while ago, I stumbled upon this random CGI movie of three iconic Marvel Heroes on a short clip. Pretty need stuff with Spiderman's Quirky Humor, Iron Man's Bravado and Hulk simple mind. Its a short film of them fighting evil robots. Pretty cliche but a great CGI film nonetheless.

CGI short clips and films have always been a real eye pleaser for me. From the most famous games like Starcraft 2 to Marvel and DC heroes, CGI clips are what really thrills the crap out of me everytime i play a game and adds real value to a games storyline. The best psrt of CGI clips though, is that while the game may not be epic, it still can tease people into digging the whole story concept of the clip...

And this next clip just wow the shit out of me!. I'm not a DC fan. In fact, I barely take interest in many of DC Comic heroes other than its iconic main figures. But this CGI Short trailer of DC Universe just blew me away. Especially the whole concept of not holding back the limits of what each iconic hero can do.



DC Universe Online is a MMORPG. While I am skeptical on how this is going to pan out as Superheroes/Super Villan Online game. But it is not known that such an online concept can beat mammoths like World of Warcraft or EVE Online. Besides, DC Universe can't be hailed as someone who has made a new concept for MMORPGs as City of Heroes and City of Villains were the first movers in hero-themed world for online play. However, it has a DC fan based which could play the critical role of gaining massive subscribers. Furthermore, the hero-themed MMORPG, City of Heroes and City of Villains have been fairing well. As such, it could be a lucrative business venture for DC.

Have your say on this article.
Other than that, Enjoy the DC Universe Trailer. 6 mins of pure action!

Maschinen Krieger

Like Battlestar Galactica,

There some works of fiction and alternate universe that really intrigues me. One of these happens to be Maschinen Krieger (Ma.K). You probably might be wondering what in the world it is. I had that very same thought exactly when I stumbled upon it.

So i thought, why not intro what it is on top of showing the figures.

Taken from Wikipedia:
"Maschinen Krieger (Ma.K ZBV3000) originally began as the science fiction series SF3D which ran as monthly installments in the Japanese hobby magazine Hobby Japan. To develop the SF3D storyline, Kow Yokoyama collaborated with Hiroshi Ichimura (story editor) and Kunitaka Imai (graphic designer). The three creators drew visual inspiration from their combined interest in WWI and WW2 armor and aircraft, the NASA Space Program and films such as Star Wars and Mad Max 2: Road Warriors."


Just for your info, Maschinen Krieger is a rarity. While there are an increase more model kits of Maschinen Krieger. It wasn't a mainstream hit in Japan, Let alone the world. I picked this out from a Anime store and the only reason they have it is because they got it from some convention. It cost quite a bomb too. At close to 80 dollars, its not your typical type of model kit toy.


Inside the box, it shows the various personnel, their ranks, and the weapons that accompany their armoured suits. The storyline of Maschinen Krieger is very vague but the highlight equipment of the story is mainly focused on its Armoured Suits. Maschinen Krieger or Ma.K is based on the Earth year 2880, in which a nuclear war lays waste to the human population and makes the planet uninhabitable.

50 years later, the Earth becomes habitable and Colonist of the Galactic Federation come back to form a new haven for themselves. They are soon threatened by criminals of all sorts that are deviants from civilised society. So as a preventable measure, they form the Strahl Democratic Republic (SDR) as a governing body to restore order. However, the government that is formed becomes authoritative and results in a conflict between Colonist that declare independent from the Republic and the Republic itself. War eventually breaks out between the SDR and the Colonist Independent Mercenary army. And pretty much the story continues on...


Here we see a Member of the Squad of Armoured Mobile Suit. The whole colour code, right down to the skull cap the guy is wearing, does give a sense of WW2 aura in it. Even though he is in a armoured suit of high tech weaponry.

From the looks of it, it doesn't look comfortable or even mobile for that matter but I am assuming it packs a heavy punch of weaponry and armour compared to your normal infantry men.


Here we see the whole squad. What really appeals to me the most about this Ma.K armoured Suit is the shape and design. I like the eggy shape of the armour suit. it looks cute, yet hi-tech and rustic all at one. It is definitely very iconic and I have this funny feeling that in the AniMatrix Rennaisance Part 2 where they show the battle between Man and Machine, that the Sentinel armour suits had some sort of Inspiration from Ma.K.



I might be wrong, but I know Ma.K is an old old concept from the 1980s, so it would be unlikely that Animatrix gave inspiration to Ma.K



If this is the first time you have seen Ma.K though, I do not blame you guys. These guys are pretty "indie" or not really mainstream stuff. While they were created a long time ago, the story never got the popularity it wanted. Furthermore, the storyline diminished from the magazine it came from. Much is not told about the ending or continuation of the conflict and it didn't take off in Japan.

This is largely due to the time it was launched. During that time, another concept of Armoured Suits got so popular, it has become an icon of Japan like Godzilla is.

It is none other than GUNDAM.



Gundam swept the nation around 1979, 1980s.. and it has been spreading across the world like hotcakes. During its earlier years, it foreshadowed Ma.K and it can be said that its correlation to the demise of Ma.K is evident to a certain extent.

As for the history of Gundam and more. That will be another story.

Till then, hope you guys keep reading up ;)

Faceoff

Hey Everyone

I've been doing some traveling lately, which affected how many posts I can put up so far, hope you guys would understand. JQ has been busily painting his figs, and I also have some figs in store to shoot with...so expect a much larger variety of units/minis in the near future...

In particular, this post will feature the last shot from our batch of warhammer photos and hang on tight to see new ones flood this blog soon! This time, we have another shot by WT of a Chaos and Bret/Empire faceoff that signals impending doom and a glimpse at glory for members of either side...which is more or less determined by their survivability (which Chaos has more than an average human).


I'm probably stating the obvious that wars are a gamble. With so much death going on in wars, isn't it unsettling that campaigns can turn out to be frankly useless? In any armed conflict, from medieval times to modern warfare, we are witness to seeing soldiers dying in vast multitudes by following orders from above, even as the commanders themselves cannot be fully sure of the necessity of the benefit of victory in their campaigns. Thankfully in WFB we're only rolling dice and dealing with the fictional...imagining campaigns or even participating in GW campaigns (eg. Storm of Chaos), and only losing miniatures vs. being responsible for human lives.

I've been reading a magazine called WWII Quarterly, which (of course) featured articles on various conflicts during the war...and one of them was Peleliu Island (which was featured in CoD:WAW). During this campaign, the US forces (Marine and Army) met the fury of a dogged Japanese defense that ate through the Americans as they formed a beachhead and advanced into the Island. The fighting was so fierce that the battle had the highest rate of US casualties of the Pacific theatre.

1st wave of LVTs arriving at Peleliu.

The US commanders intended to neutralize Japanese presence on Pereliu to prevent interference with MacArthur's planned invasion of the Philippines, as Pereliu geographically flanked the Philippines...but it turned out that previous intelligence assessments were right: the Japanese on Peleliu lacked amphibious/aerial ability to effectively land soldiers on the Philippines to be of any threat to MacArthur. In consequence, the Americans did not achieve significant strategic importance from a campaign with such high costs of lives and equipment. It's pretty evident that commanders have a whole load of responsibilities especially with the lives of the soldiers they command, whose death cannot be reversed. Personally, a true realization of this responsibility can only come from war, and not in peacetime armies (such the Singapore Armed Forces I was in).

Although it maybe unsettling that we all are also liable to invest so much in something that turns out to be useless, we hopefully become wiser and always know that in life (or at least in wargaming), there will be always another day to keep rolling the dice...

Half-Baked Men-At-Arms

Good day to all again. I apologize for the really late entry.
Its been a long and occupied week that I had to attend to many stuff in life and as such, I am overdue on the entry.

Nonetheless, here are a few of the assembled Men-at-arms that I have taken. This is the continuation to what I have been working on in terms of the Bretonnian Men-at-arms from the last post.

What you see are just a small part of whats left to be done, on top of the basing of these figures.


Here we have the Men-at-arms amidst the stormy clouds.



And now, its clear skies again. HAHA


CLOSEUP

After painting these models and comparing them with the older more expensive Men-at-arms models, I must say, while the older one looks more smaller and clean cut and cute in a way, these new Men-at-arms follow their new Bretonnian Theme of being more grittier and more rough cut. Furthermore, with the advancement in technology for cutting and molding plastic, these figures had more definition and I could play around more with the contours than the old ones.

But it isn't just Games Workshop that has improve in its plastic mold cutting. Many tabletop games have really high end detail plastic molds. Even my new model kits today are vastly improved compared to its predecessors. And this doesn't just apply to Plastic; Metal castings have been way better and more detailed then before too.

One thing that still bothers me though, with the advancement in technology and the increase in precision details of figures and kits, Why does GW still raise up their price extravagantly while other competitors of similar correlation don't?

On a side note, Other than Warhammer and Military Models, I have been doing other types of model kits and figures, so there will be more variations soon.

Once again, I apologize for the slow posting, But there will be more to come on a regular basis.

Stay tune and cheers :)