Horus Heresy

Greetings Everyone

Hope you all have been doing well and regularly indulging in geeky nerd-dom. Diablo 3 has been out for a week and I must say it has affected my real life unfortunately...the addiction has slowly passed as I've gotten my fill of Sanctuary stomping, I think.

One thing I love about sci-fi and fantasy is reading books. My favorite series is George RR Martin's The Song of Ice and Fire, and one thing bad about it is that the books are slow to come out. A Dance with Dragons was released 6 years after the previous book, and I am itching badly for the next title in the series: The Winds of Winter. Interestingly, you can read a preview chapter from GRRM's website, and the man himself also narrates another preview chapter on Victarion Greyjoy. As usual...don't read it if you haven't caught up with the series yet.

To sate my thirst for sci-fi and fantasy books, I've begun to read Warhammer 40k novels and they're pretty good reads. I'm particularly interested in the Horus Heresy series, as I always have a thing for good guys gone bad and it fascinates me how heroes fall from grace in very human terms (which also means I have a budding interest in Chaos Space Marines).

Right now I'm in the middle of Graham McNeill's False Gods, which covers the time period where Horus the Warmaster is slowly being influenced by the dark powers of Chaos. It's a very interesting read, as the solidarity of the Luna Wolves is tested upon meeting Chaos, and loyalty to the Warmaster is weighed against that to the Emperor of Mankind.

The one thing that makes W40k novels (at least the ones I have read) intriguing reads is that the protagonists are almost always anti-heroes, who are not pure/perfect heroes that possess unparalleled skill. They are very human characters who navigate through challenges from both friends and foes, and not to forget the inner demons they face within themselves. Morality in the 40k universe is a very grim grey, and be prepared to let go of your preconceived perceptions of popular 40k characters.

Cover of Dan Abnett's Legion, a novel of the Horus Heresy series.

If you're looking for a sci-fi novel series to indulge in, the Horus Heresy itself is a good bet. Personally, Dan Abnett is probably the best writer for W40k novels, and I've heard his Eisenhorn series is a worthwhile read too. His writing style is dynamic in terms of plot and character development, there's rarely a dull moment in his books. He also injects some unique angles into his novels, such as describing the process of framing pictures with a camera, and the use of ancient Greek medicine humors (or "elements") to describe emotions of the Luna Wolves space marines.

Do you have other recommendations for sci-fi and fantasy books? I'd love to hear what you have been reading, as I'm always game for a good read :)

Updates!!

Good Day to all!

Always great to see our regular readers and newcomers alike taking interest in our blog. Josh and I are always giving it our best to keep giving you all great blog posts and it gratifies us to see stirring discussions on our post.

I must apologize for my long absence as I had lots on my hand. On the hobby front, I have been busy doing lots of stuff and I will give you a brief rundown on the updates. As for now, Josh has been preoccupied with much work but will be coming back with more great post inclusive of figures, model stuff and thought-provoking geeky/nerdy issues.

Recently, The Avengers movie hit the big screen and it has been the culmination of a string of Marvel Heroes' Movies that have been featuring along the years.

It has been close to a week or more since its release and there are so much reviews and rave about it. My sentiments are pretty much the same as the rest of the cohort. Being a Marvel fan myself, I have always been quite meticulous on how Marvel brings the stories out of the comic books and into the movie screen. More often than not, they never fail to disappoint. The Avengers is no exception. When I initially saw the trailer, I thought it was just so insanely great and the hype was so mindblowing that there was a sceptical part of me that thought it could be a  big underwhelming experience in which the good parts would only be what I saw in the trailer.

To my delight, not only did it meet my expectation and blow my mind away, the trailer was but only the tip of the iceberg to a very highly intensive action pack movie filled with great action sequences and an exceptionally directed show that focused on the synergy between all characters. The best of all was that this show was a great depiction of what I viewed the Avengers to be like.

As such, it is no wonder that the Avengers is currently top spot in many countries' billboards and hitting over $700 million in revenue so far. It is the fastest film to reach over $200 million, beating the Dark Knight, and setting a new record for revenue in opening weekend beating Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows Part 2. I will not be surprise if overall revenue would beat the Dark Knight's $1 billion dollar mark. Latest report has shown that The Avengers Movie is the first movie ever to post back to back weekend of $100 million plus sales. So much ownage.
SPOILER ALERT: Unlike the grittiness of Dark Knight and the whole in-depth complex story which was THE money maker for DC, Marvel did do it right by following the theme and atmosphere that makes the Avengers..THE Avengers. There were many breath-taking awesome action scenes that were well compose and the real wham bamming moment of the show was the ending credits revealing the next villain who turns out to be Thanos! As a Marvel fan, it was shit awesome to know that one of the biggest badassery of a villain would be featured in the next film. And truth be told, the Avengers are truly screwed if Thanos were to face them. Been speculating all week with fellow buddies of mine on how could they even stand up to Thanos. Obviously, i am hoping that Avengers 2 would give the same impact as this show and won't come up with some lame ass method of defeating Thanos (This is totally based ont he assumption that Thanos is the main villain of course)

Lets look again at this badassery of a trailer.


Onto the next topic,

It is nearing the mid of May and I am pretty sure one game is on everyone's mind. By this Tuesday this week, many shall once again travel to Tristam to do some badass killing of monsters. After 10 years of waiting, Diablo 3 shall return...

Just a heads up information, Diablo 3 has broke several presale records and became the most pre-ordered PC game of all time on Amazon.com and Blizzard. What's more, with this new hardcore mode in which your character can only die once, I can't wait to see how "extreme" have they made Diablo 3. Hopefully, it isn't dialed down from the previous prequels. I did get a chance to play the beta and I must say I am impressed by the graphics. The gameplay is relatively the same, but I do hope that it would be a great game that doesn't disappoint or underwhelm me.

Truth be told, I cannot wait to play with my friends....And as such, I have pre-ordered my Collector's edition through Joshua. With this game coming, I was inspired to give a few touches of Warhammer painting to these figures...

They are none other than the Boodletters. From head to toes, these daemons of chaos has a slight resemblance to Diablo.

It will be awhile before I can feature these guys as a regiment but I hope this psykes you up to get ready for some demon-killing time.

Onto the topic of Painting and Wargaming, a few weeks back, I believe I have mentioned in my Samurai Post about a Tabletop game I have stumbled upon called Bushido. It just so happens that they have recently posted up a campaign to raise money for their new faction on the website Indigogo.

If you had liked what you saw in my previous post and would want to get some really cool perks from this newly-established tabletop game, do contribute to funding their game.

This is the link: http://www.indiegogo.com/bushido

For more information and review of the game "Bushido", check out their website at www.Bushido-thegame.com

I will promise more post soon and apologize for the multitudes of delays. I have been neglecting much on the posting and also the painting of my miniatures and model kits. Been to caught up in The Avengers and Gaming. By the time, I have doen all that, I do not ahve any spare energy for anything else.

However, I promise you that there will be lots in store soon so stay tune! Gotta run now!

Cheerios!

Sorry for the Delay...

Hey Everyone!

I must apologize that the posts on toyconstruct have dried up for the past few weeks...graduate school caught up much faster than I expected. I am in the middle of my final exam week, and I will be done with them in a week's time and good to go with more posts! (JQ also got a new job and he's adjusting to the change too)

But I wanted to share something I spotted just the past week. Ever wonder why games nowadays are so generic in feeling? The sense of innovation and originality of today pales greatly in comparison with the past. I hope I'm not the only one, but I feel so much more attached to games in the past...even though the graphics were crap compared to today, I feel that games at that time were more like the games we wanted to play.

Today's game publishers are mostly listed publicly and have shareholders to please. Business-wise, they need to make profits every fiscal year in a very competitive environment that's saturated with others who want to make the gaming buck. Upside to this is increased production values and good variety of games to play...but there's lots of downsides too. Rushed games with tons of bugs, boring mechanics, and sequel-itis are some that come to my mind. Just as an example...Call of Duty used to rock my world and reached its pinnacle with CoD 4, and it became the "Madden of FPS" with yearly releases :/

Unlike most game publishers, Valve has something really good going on. For one, they're known to consistently release blockbusters of games, Portal 1&2, Left 4 Dead, and Half-Life come to mind. So how are they able to that at this age?

Recently, Gamespot found out about Valve's new employee orientation manual. It captures the culture of Valve pretty well. And if you have the time, I highly recommended reading through it.

There's no strict hierarchy of employees, the company has kept itself privately funded, and employees get to decide what they want to work on. And it appears that their corporate culture is very different than that of its competitors, and I feel that they have kept true to their passion of making games...encouraging creativity and camaraderie among its employees. They may not be releasing a ton of games, but at least what they release is quality.

Dang reading the employee manual makes me want to work in Valve!

And the elephant in the room: WHEN IS HALF-LIFE 3 COMING OUT???

Cheers :)

Game of Thrones Season 2

Hey Everyone

Hope you are doing well and JQ has been delivering great stuff onto the blog! The Leopard 2A6 is also one of my favorite tanks of all time, it's power and sheer maneuverability make it a force to be reckoned with.

I am slow on this, but man is HBO's Games of Thrones awesome! I do not have HBO so I have settled for (painfully) waiting for each season to finish and be transcribed onto blu ray/DVD. Right now I am in the middle of season 1, and while there are no spoilers since I read the books...it does remind me of parts that I have forgotten over time. Like those of us who have read the stellar books, I can wait for this season to pass....I hope :P

It's a sure bet that many of us are aware of the trailer for Season 2, and I've just added it and the soundtrack below for our enjoyment. One of the best trailers I have seen in my life.






And for those interested, there's a well-written article from Foreign Affairs that explores the many themes/theories that The Game of Thrones explores, on how it is radically different from the LoTR archetype, and the powerful lessons it holds for its readers, both political and humanistic. Also, there's another erudite article that examines the historical setting of The Game of Thrones and finds that George RR Martin's imagination trumps historicity, which then becomes the ingredient for the compelling narrative of the series (real life medieval Europe was boring apparently, battles lasted roughly 30 minutes long).

Just curious, do you all have houses that you "swear" by? Whenever I read the books, I find myself rooting for House Stark and imaging myself as a part of them...and yet have my dreams shattered by the heaps and mounds crap they go through LOL. There's a fan-made quiz on finding what House fits you, and yes...mine is unsurprisingly House Stark. But I find myself rooting for Tyrion and Daenarys (who is super hot) too.

While the TV series is widely acclaimed, particularly for Peter Dinklage's Tyrion, the same can't be said of the video game side...yet. A Game of Thrones: Genesis was released a few months ago by Cyanide studios to a mixed reception, and it makes me wish how awesome it would be if they went to The Creative Assembly and did a Total War take on GoT (I really hope someone out there is making a mod for it!).

And there's another RPG coming out soon, Game of Thrones - The Game, which again features Cyanide Studios making a RPG set 1000 years before the books. One thing's for sure, George RR Martin is involved in its creative process, and if he's happy with it so far...I guess that should at least be good enough for us. Looks-wise, it may not be a work of art...but I am hoping that its dark storyline will shine.





And just to cap this Game of Thrones post...here's something for laughs:

Leopard 2A6

Its Modern Military Time Today!!

Today I shall be featuring the Leopard 2A6!


The Leopard 2A6 platoon rolling out of a Town!

The Leopard 2A6 is the by-product of modification throughout the many years since the Leopard 2 was first manufactured in 1979.From the sloping armor improvement made after the Leopard 2A4 to the new Rheinmetall 120 mm smoothbore gun L55 improvement made after the Leopard 2A5, the Leopard 2A6 is the current mainstay and latest Leopard 2 tank.


The Leopard 2A6s passing through a town. (Hope you guys like a different type of diorama from the usual plain flat grassland with no buildings.)

Even as the Leopard 1 tank was rolling out, the German Army was already looking for the successor of the Leopard 1 to keep up with newer Soviet designs. They went into a joint venture with the US to develop a new tank through the MBT-70 Super-tank Project. However, due to large overruns in cost, Germany withdrew from the project and started the development of the Leopard 2 to complement its Rhienmetall L44 120mm gun.


Even from just this picture alone, the obvious difference between the Leopard 2A6 and the 2A5 is its way longer gun length.

Aside from its Rheinmetall L55 120mm smoothbore gun (an improvement from the older L44 in Leopard 2A5s), the Leopard 2A6 has 42 rounds comprising of DM-53 APFSDS-T anti-tank round and German DM12 multipurpose anti-tank projectile. Last but not least, Rheinmetall has input an upgrade to Leopard 2 tanks enabling them to fire the LAHAT anti0tank missile through the main gun.


Leopard 2A6s moving in combat formation.

It has a combat weight of approximately 60 tons and can travel in excess of 65km/h forward and 30 km/h backwards. It has a combat range of 550km. The Leopard 2A6 is by far, a great formidable compare to the M1A2. Besides, the MBT-70 project, while a failure, was the grandfather and root of the creation of the M1A2 and Leopard 2A6 tank.


I always take particular liking for taking pics of tanks lining up..SO here is the Leopard 2A6s in a line!

In terms of Combat history, the Leopard 2A6 has perform well, providing great protection for Canadian Soldiers manning the Leopard 2A6 in the Afghanistan Conflict.


The Leopards entering a rural town to engage the enemy.

On top of the fact that the Leopard 2A6 is but the descendant of the superior German Armour technology. I find the Leopard 2A6 a really awesome looking tank with a great design. (I would even say better looking than the M1A2)


Isn't she a beauty? I really can't emphasize how much I like the German Leopard 2A6 design.

And as Much as we might deny it, even the American MBTs starting from The Patton tanks right to The Abrams were developed with much influence from German expertise. Since, they were renowned for the Tanks in WWII.

These Leopard 2A6 tanks that you see here are from Takara Toys (Now defunct and has merged with Tomy to form Takara Tomy). They are from the World Tank Museum Series 6 Collection which feature a selection of Modern Battle Tanks. It is designed Akira Tani and produced by Kaiyodo. Unfortunately, from the looks of World Tank Museum website and searching to get these tanks, your best bet on getting the 1/144 scale tanks would be to look at ebay. Apparently, Modern Battle Tanks aren't as lucrative to sell compared to Transformers and other popular Kid toys now.


These lil Tanks come in a great packaging with informative japaneesy info of the tank inside the package as shown below.


In my opinion, Japanese packaging is always awesome.

Speaking of the Leopard 2A6 and how I am really attracted to its design, have gotten myself the 1/72 Leopard 2A6M by Revell!! It will take awhile before I paint it but that is how much I really like the way this German Tank rolls!

Till next time, Thanks for reading!

Samurai Madness!

Good Day to you all again,

Hope you guys enjoy the current surplus of awesome posts. There have been much discussion and I would like to add that the last article by Joshua on the Human and Robot dichotomy was really intriguing. It was great to see so many people putting great pointers and opinions on the topic.

As you have noticed recently, I have been putting up many figures from the Rurouni Kenshin and Samurai X anime as the release of the live-action film of Rurouni Kenshin is coming soon. Weirdly enough, my week has been centered around much of ancient Japanese culture. From passing my Aikido grading to doing all these Samurai blog post, it seems that the Bushido spirit has washed over me.

Today though, I shall be talking about an epic game that Josh and I have been playing that pretty much showcase the Bushido Spirit of the Samurai and the Traditional Japanese Culture of Feudal Japan. The game is none other than Shogun Total War 2



This game is a true example of the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Creative Assembly (Designers of the Game) decided this time round to go back to its roots and bring back Shogun Total War in this new sequel.

Taking everything the fans loved from the old Shogun Total war and implementing new modifications taken from the development of the Total War Franchise, Shogun Total War 2 was everything I imagined it to be. From the great graphics to the improve AI that enabled allies to act as allies rather than distrusting backstabbing enemies, this game was awesome. The last game from the Total War series that I played was Medieval Total War 2. I did pretty much skipped the entire Napoleanic era, including Empire total War, so for me, it was a great delight to discover that there is a Multiplayer Co-op Campaign feature in Shogun total War 2. While this was something that was already implemented in Empire Total War, it was something new and great to me. (If my late friend Qamarul were here, he would have been overjoyed at getting his hand on this game and join me and Josh in some awesome Samurai fun)

I must reiterate the part in which Creative Assembly had taken all the good stuff from the Old Shogun Total War and implemented it to the new one. Things like the Samurai Music and Soundtrack which gave me a nostalgic feeling of the old game, to the Ninja Cutscenes which are so iconic to the old STW.

All in all, the Total War gameplay mechanics is addictive and the result in endless fun replaying single or multiplayer campaign mode. PC Gamer mentioned that the average Shogun total War 2 players plays about 100 hours, which is relatively true. I am in my 80th hour soon and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. And I can easily say the same for Joshua.

So far,

Josh and I had successfully impose our Mighty Rule in our first Multiplayer campaign using the "Easy" Difficulty level.

Together, our Takeda-Tokugawa Alliance was strong


Takeda-Tokugawa Alliance


Joshua's Daimyo, Takeda Shingen


Tokugawa Ieyasu, apparent heir in our game for the Tokugawa Clan

While this alliance was not meant to be of any historical significance, I could safely say that there were only a small handful of times where our growing influence and power was ever challenge. It was really awesome and ecstatic to see strong clans falling under our might which culminated in the showdown between our alliance and the Ashikaga shogunate.

Our second failed campaign involved us getting in over our heads and choosing "Hard" difficulty using the Date and Uesugi Clan. We were swiftly disposed off by neighbouring clans, ending off in a sad misery of defeat as the Massive Hatakeyama Army marches to eliminate the last of Joshua's provinces while I had to contend with a double assault from the Mogami and Honma Clan. Our folly was the result of getting in over our head and sending an attack force against our enemy that was too small. We should have slowly build up ourselves but we were underestimated and lost big time.

As of now, we are in the midst of a "Normal" Difficulty campaign in which we are doing pretty well. Josh taking the Shimazu Clan and I using the Chosokabe clan. Our dominance is note-worthy and it will be a matter of time before we come in contact with the Shogunate. Hopefully, we can do well to gear us to take on "Hard" difficulty again.

This brings me to the next part of this entry,

Shogun Total War must have definitely gotten a lot of its inspiration in terms of battle gameplay from old films like Ran and Kagemusha directed by the great Akira Kurosawa.


Kagemusha (Courtesy of Wikipedia)
Winner of Best Direction and Costume design for the BAFTA awards

For me personally, my first samurai battle film I had ever watch was Heaven and Earth by Haruki Kodakawa. An epic film that depicts battles between the Uesugi and Takeda clan. While not as critically acclaim as Akira's films, it was rated as Number one japanese film in the Japanese Domestic market in 1990.


Snippet of Heaven and Earth.

It would be the start of my fascination for Samurais and the Bushido way of thought. It was after this that I was introduced by my late buddy, Qamarul to Aikido and we also began sharing our interest and conquests in Shogun Total War.

And then the Last Samurai film came along, and it would be this iconic song that he and I would never fail to sing along the yelling part that really just brings me back good memories and gives a warm feeling in my heart even today.



So for those who are into the whole Samurai thingamajig, this game is guaranteed to be pretty darn awesome. The downloadable content are also pretty damn great. Furthermore, if you were a sucker for the Last Samurai movie, the latest expansion, Shogun Total War 2: Fall of the Samurai would be a fitting game to fulfill any imagination and fantasy construct you might want to play out in that expansion.

Aside from my review of STW2, i have also recently discovered an upcoming tabletop game called Bushido.



It is a 2 player tabletop 'skirmish' type wargame that is based on Oriental Fantasy storyline. Much of the game play is represented by 32mm figures in which players are to outwit and defeat each other to achieve their personal objectives. I for one, particularly like the Prefecture of Ryu starter set as seen above as it is very Samurai-orientated. While it is a new tabletop game, it will take awhile for it to establish itself, but if you are a fan of skirmish tabletop wargames like Warmachines and Hordes, this might be something you can embark on.


As of now, that is all from me. Hope you like the Rurouni Kenshin and Samurai extravaganza for the past few weeks. Will be coming back with the usual Model kits and Miniatures real soon!

Till then, Any Samurai or STW fans out there? Give me a holla on what do you think about the New STW 2 and its latest DLC, the Fall of the Samurai.

Sagara Sanosuke

Greeting again Toyconstruct readers!!

Today, I would like to talk about Sanosuke. Like how Ironman had War Machine by his side, Luke Skywalker had Han Solo and Batman had Robin, Sagara Sanosuke was Kenshin Himura Wingman and Closest Buddy.

Sagara Sanosuke was a fighter for hire before he met Kenshin Himura. But before he even became a fighter for hire, he was formerly from the Sekiho Army.



Born 1860 in Nagano, Sanosuke was a member of the Sekiho Army. He had a very great admiration for the leader of the Sekiho Army, Sagara Sozo. Unfortunately, when the revolutionary government encounters financial problems and wanted to bury their promises that they owed to the Sekiho Army, they labelled the Sekiho Army as a fraud and in the process executes Sagara Sozo, leaving Sanosuke as one of the only survivors.




Because of the predicament that had occurred to him, Sanosuke was consumed with hatred for the Meiji Government and becomes a fighter in Tokyo. Ten years onwards, he gains notoriety as one of the strongest fighter for hire in the city. The Kanji Word that he wears on his back
惡 aku means "evil' on which is a symbol of his loyalty toward his past in the Sekiho Army.



Initially, Sanosuke wields a huge zanpakto which he uses as a weapon that crushes and smashes enemies rather than cut them. The first fateful encounter between him and Kenshin Himura is when Sanosuke was hired to fight Kenshin. It was at this point that Sanosuke comes in first hand contact with the skill and prowess of Kenshin. Kenshin easily destroys his Zanpakto and Sanosuke learns of the truth of Kenshin's no-kill approach which leads him to become one of Kenshin's allies. (Usually, I would share the fight scene via one of the youtube links, but this time, wasn't able to find it. My apologies, but do take note that the fight scene was epic!)


Throughout the entire series, we see how Sanosuke develops a close buddy relationship with Kenshin. Unlike many other sidekicks in other various stories, Sanosuke had come to be Kenshin's best friend. Sanosuke was a wingman that was willing to punch Kenshin when he was sad to wake him up from his sadness.



While he does not match up to the talent and skill that Kenshin has, he is a great fighter himself. After his zanpakto is destroyed, he chooses to focus on hand combat which he excels in and improves even further along the TV Series.




At this point of time, I kind of have a lapse in memory of other wingmen that have been influential and supportive to their various respective main character heroes but this I can say for Sagara Sanosuke. He has been always there for Kenshin. During the entire TV series and onwards, he has always cheered up Kenshin when need be and given tough love to him.

What really moved me is that here you have Kenshin Himura, who was the Hitokiri Battousai and is still the Top dog of Samurai Swordsmanship which usually would give the impression that he is invincible and need not have anyone to help him at all. But much as Sagara Sanosuke can't compare or compete to Kenshin in skill, he has been a great buddy and wingmen in helping Kenshin throughout other aspects of his life. In several occasions, Kenshin even learns from Sanosuke's advice.

Brotherhood and Friendship is really golden. And while Words just fail me now, It does bring back memories of the Bro and Great Friend I had.

Nonetheless, I am appreciative of the awesome close wingmen around me. That includes you JOSH!

Help me out here though guys, What other wingmen from various stories or shows do you think are one of the greatest wingmen? Do share..

Till the next post, Cheerios!