The Liebster Award

Hi all,

For today, I would like to give a big thanks to my dear fellow blogger friend Sean from Sean's Wargames Corner for having nominated Toyconstruct for the Liebster Award. This would be the first time Toyconstruct has been nominated. It has been almost 5 years and we have come along way. It is good to see us progress in whatever manner.

For starters, I shall answer the same set of questions that were posed to Sean on his blog.

1. Why did you start blogging?

I started this blog on 24 January 2010 with Joshua with the sole objective to share our collectibles, model kits and miniatures with the blogger-sphere. While improving our photography skills, we wanted to interact with the hobby crowd of a wide genre with a slightly larger focus on modern military, fantasy miniatures and comic book hero action figures.

2. If you could change one thing about wargaming hobby, what would it be?

Always take in the fun in the game and the good companionship of playing with friends.

 3. What is best in life?

To have a good drink with friends looking at your array of collectibles, model kits and miniatures.

4. Fame or Fortune

Fame can ruin you more than Fortune. So I am taking the latter.

5. What miniatures are you most proud of having painted.

I am so happy to have made them all. Each one of them has provided me with joy and pain but the outcome always gives a warm glow of happiness in my heart. Each of them has made me improve in my painting skills. But alright, If I had to choose one, I would say my Dwarven Thunderers, as they mark the point I have increased dramatically in painting skills followed by my GHQ Arleigh Burkes which showcased my ability to convert miniatures and paint small things in detail. Lastly would be my T-80B and F/A-22 as the first models in which I use Airbrush.

6. How do you deal with a burnout?

I stop for a long while. Play computer games or spend more "outside home" time with friends. It is the best way to recover.

7. Why is a Raven like a writing desk?

Your guess is as good as mind.

8. Star Wars or Star Trek?

Can I say that I enjoy both thoroughly? I love Star Trek for its exploratory plot and Star Wars for its political intrigue and massive space battles.

9. If you could only buy from one miniature company from now on, which would it be?

As my primary hobby interest is Modern Military, this easily goes to GHQ Miniatures for their wide range of modern military warfare miniature.


10. What is your favourite takeaway?

My favorite takeaway food are the local food that I can buy from the hawker centre nearby my place.

11.What do you like most (or least) about blogging?

I like interacting with my readers and doing up a good post for everyone with the motive to foster and create a larger community. What I like the least about blogging is that I am not able to post as much as I can or gather a larger following but I shall persevere and keep on trying.

Next are my 6 nominations of blogs (I don't have as large a network of bloggers compared to Sean) that are under 100 followers that I feel should be nominated for this Liebster award too. So here are the few I manage to pull out that qualify for the condition of the Liebster Award. Please check these nominations out.

1. Jacksarge's Wargaming Ramblings : A WWII and Fantasy Miniature Blog by Jacksarge with Painting Services and Great Painted Miniatures.

2. My Tiny Things : A Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Historical Miniature and Wargaming Blog by Jonathan

3. 1/72 Multiverse : A Modeller's Blog by EY that talks about his progress on his building projects. Great Blog that showcases model kits and miniatures.

4. The Games We Play : A blog by Martin Rapier featuring WWII Wargaming Miniatures and Napleonic Miniatures. Great Wargaming Feature Posts.

5. Imp552's House of Wargaming : A Fantasy Wargaming Blog by Dave H featuring Reaper Miniatures and other fantasy paint projects by him.

6. World War II Central : A WII Miniature Blog featuring GHQ WWII miniatures painted by the Blogger WWIICentral. Fantastic Miniatures and Great Paintjobs.

To those who got nominated:

The Award conditions are as shown below:

• Link back to the blog that nominated you.
• Nominate other blogs with 200 or less followers
• Answer a couple of questions

 So feel free to increase the exposure for all budding hobby blogs starting out in sharing war-gaming matter, model kits, miniatures and other collectible!

Till next time,

Cheerios guys!

WFB: Empire Steamtank

Hey Everyone

Today we will delve into the world of WFB, a realm that is about as consistent as the Sun has been rising all this time - in terms of price hikes. But it is also a place of dreams and memories, as our minds bring the miniatures to life, and battle tales are traded between commanders. I hate the price hikes and new editions.

The Empire of Men is made up of pretty average people. It continually faces enemies who naturally possess the strength of beasts, reflexes only matched by lightning, and even tough hides that readily double as armor. And all the poor humans have are St3, T3, W1. The world of WFB is indeed a harsh place for all humankind (I'm not forgetting about the Brettonians).

However, the Empire had one massive ace (or gameplay mechanic) up its sleeve - invention. The Empire also have the dwarves as erstwhile allies, and their combined efforts have created feats of engineering: cannons that blast holes past most armor, handguns that send volleys of death. Perhaps one of the most fearsome creations by the Empire is the gigantic steam tank.

The steam tank is a rare sight on the battlefield, with only 8 in service (out of 12) and unlike their real-life counterparts, lack a running factory. Leonardo of Miragliano invented and built the steam tank, but passed away in a tragic engineering accident and all knowledge of making another steam tank disappeared with him. Two of the 4 steam tanks lost were salvaged by non-Empire forces, namely the Skaven with their Rat-Tank, and the Halflings of Mootland with "Kathleen."

This example was bought from a second-hand store. It was well-painted and with a price tag a little above the price of a new kit, it was an offer I couldn't resist. The top section is removable and allows you to look into the inside of the steam tank. The person who owned it must have put a lot of time into painting it, an effort that has my admiration.

The steam tank is a behemoth on the battlefield. The typical version is armed with 2 cannons, a hull-level steam-powered cannon, and a turret mounted steam gun. While the steam cannon has less firepower than the wheeled great cannon, the combination of solid armor (I heard it's reduced in 7th edition) and mobility allows the steam tank wreck havoc across the battlefield in ways a static cannon cannot.

6th edition rules limited it to 2000pt armies, and I haven't been able to field one due to the small size of my army :( From what I've read, the steam tank is a double-edged sword. While super-powerful and super-tough, it is highly unreliable and requires strict control. The steam engine can overboil from unspent steam points, and the misfire table has terrible consequences. Misfires have a 1/6 chance of happening, which translates to about 16%, which is a pretty high risk. But hey, nothing beats terrifying the crap out of your opponents and blasting holes through them...if it all works out!

Just imagine the possibilities...

Hope you all enjoyed this post, and JQ and I are thankful for your continued support.

Cherrio!

Kirov Battlecruiser

Hi and we are back to Modern Military!

Today I shall be featuring my biggest completed Modern Warship to date. It is also the Biggest Cruiser or Battlecruiser in the World. Previously, I have shown the GHQ Micronaut 1/2400 scale version of it. This time round, I give you the Kirov Class Battlecruiser that is 1/700 or more than 3 times bigger than the last one shown.

 Kirov cruiser on the Sea

 The Ship is huge. It is so big that I do not have any diorama set or background that could be use in conjunction with taking the full picture of the Battlecruiser.

 Pyotr Veliky Kirov Class Cruiser

With a little bit of imagination, I used a blue cloth and some haphazard photo-editing to showcase this model in its full glory with some semblance of a diorama.

 Back Side of Pyotr Veliky

Acquiring this Model Kit from a local hobby store a long while back, I never really had the time to actually build it. Eventually, I got a local painting service to do the honors and help assemble and paint this Giant. I did contribute to doing some major a touch up and extra paint on certain details of the ship.

Side view of the Behemoth

The Model Kit is from Dragon which still produces the best Modern Warships in the market. The model truly showcase the naval power of Russia.

The Icon of Russian Naval Military Power

Speaking of Russian Naval Power, it is quite known that the Russians have been flexing their military might with recent events in Ukraine. The conflict between Pro-Ukraine and Pro-Russian groups have been an issue that is laden with complexities. Over the months, even with the supplemental knowledge given by news reports, it is hard to tell whether majority of the populace in contested regions are for annexation to Russia or more believe in a United Ukraine.

Anyone has any theories and views on this matter? One thing is quite clear. In the most unlikely event that Ukraine were to go into an all out war with Russia, they would be out manned, out gun and most definitely out matched. However, guerrilla warfare in urban areas would tip the advantage slightly back to Ukraine. Fortunately, the situation does not look to escalate to that point.

In any case, I do hope you readers enjoy the post and like the model kit pictures. There are more in picture of the Kirov class battle cruiser in the album here. Lastly, stay tune for more Modern Military Models to come!

Cheers!

BMO (Beemo) from Adventure Time

Greetings fellow friends!

The weekend is around the corner and if there is one place I wanna go to on a weekend, it would be the Land of Ooo from Adventure Time which brings me to today's feature, BMO!

Offline Mode in his package

BMO is the trusted, loyal and helpful friend of the two main characters, Jake and Finn in Adventure Time. 

"Football, I will teach you all the things there is to be a real boy"

This cute little fellow has its weird quirks. While the main plot focuses on the main characters, you can't help but be curious as to how BMO sees the world and what it does while Jake and Finn are off adventuring. There are a few episodes which focus on the half-Macintosh half-Game Boy Color Robot which are just as entertaining as the other Adventure Time episodes.

BMO Chills

Aside from helping Jake and Finn with the household chores, BMO also serves as Finn and Jake's Video Game console.

 BMO isn't too happy with falling down

While BMO is a Robot, it does show many signs of emotion and has great feelings of care and love to Finn and Jake. It also has a great imagination and has its own adventures within and outside of the treefort.

BMO and the Tree Fort

While it has taken me quite some time to feature stuff from Adventure Time, I have been into the Cartoon Series since the start of 2012. The Adventure Time Story created by Pendleton Ward is definitely an animation series that has reignite my days of loving action cartoons from the 90s. While it has a very different feel and touch to the action cartoons of yester years, there's a nice combination of zaniness, childish fun and a subtle maturity in plot that really gets to me. There is a faint semblance of the Never-ending Story in Adventure Time that draws me but it is but one of the many factors that makes this show so awesome. I do not know how to explain this but this show connects to me more than the modern action cartoons that I see on Cartoon Network. And while Marvel still produces pretty neat cartoon series and animation, Adventure Time is one of its kind in our post millennium era of cartoons.

For those who like Adventure Time, Pray tell what draws you to this show.

Till then,

Stay tune as there will be more Adventure Time Stuff and more Toyconstruct Posts!