Quarantine Kitchen Sink Update

Hello to everyone and I hope all are doing as well as possible during this pandemic.  It's been a while since I last updated the blog and initially I hoped that the extra time would lead to increased hobby progress.  Unfortunately, that hasn't panned out and the only project I've accomplished is growing my first beard.  :)

I haven't been totally comatose though so I decided to post a kitchen sink update instead of boring folks with multiple smaller ones.  My most recent project, my digital Winged Hussar (link here) was unfortunately C&D'ed by GW as apparently they claim ownership of all future grimdark space Poles.  Shortly after uploading, it disappeared from my account and it took me over a month to get a response from Thingiverse letting me know that GW had claimed my model and forced its removal.  Strangely, many of the component parts are still there as are thousands of other 40k models so I have no idea why they targeted it (along with a couple dozen others for DMCA takedown) as they included no justification.  I have to say that it put a damper on me continuing that project.  I had initially wanted to convert one of the new official Master Lazarus models to a Winged Hussar but the idea of giving them $40 plus shipping/tax is much less likely now.  I completed another conversion parts set that will likely never be uploaded and Lt. Googely Eyes will have to do for now if I ever need an RPG figure.

CBS All Access offered everyone a free month so I was able to catch up on two seasons of nuTrek.   I'd previously written up a very lengthy review of Season One of Discovery (linked here) so I wasn't particularly optimistic given that the same folks were still involved in running the show(s) and that reviews written since weren't particularly flattering.  I will neither be verbose nor include any spoilers so no worries if you haven't watched either of the recent seasons.

Picard was, as expected, a major disappointment.  Admittedly, like with the movie JJverse, they did set the expectations early on with the star stating that it would NOT be like TNG and that it would, more recently, focus on real world hot button issues like President Trump's election and the Brexit vote.  Sadly, those descriptions of the direction of the show were spot on and it was a complete mess except for one (possibly overly nostalgic) episode.  If you're a long time fan who pines for an optimistic view of the future that Star Trek used to be known for, look elsewhere.  Heck, the TNG Mirror Universe comics are probably a more optimistic and hopeful depiction of Star Trek than this show.   As for Discovery Season 2, it was a definite improvement and approaches "OK" with some actual exploration and an ensemble cast doing trekky things before it devolves yet again into a CGI schlockfest of action you can't make out while Michael Burnham saves the universe.  While I don't have any hope for Season 3 of Discovery, the Pike/Spock/Number One dynamic was a definite improvement (albeit still flawed) and the recent announcement of another spinoff show focused on them might prove the adage correct about the third time being the charm.
 

On the home 3d modelling and printing front, I've mainly focused on random RPG characters for the Starfinder campaign that I'm playing in.  I've done up multiple versions of the Krogan that I'm playing as well as a flying space monkey in armor (based on Overwatch's Winston), a small round alien mechanic/gunner (based a Mass Effect Volus with 40k bits), and a skittercommando (a Starfinder iconic race).  I haven't actually painted up any models yet as my campaign has gone virtual (and intermittent) but I do hope to at least finish a Krogan this month.

And, finally, I did finish cutting up and printing out the various parts for my 3d Heavy Gear models with some mixed results.  I resized and reproportioned both the Hunter and the Grizzly but I can't help but disagree with my initial assessment that something closer to the official models would be an improvement.  Judging them on their individual merits, I think the "chunkier" versions are better.  Overall, I also think that the Hunter XMG is better suited to home 3d printing than the Grizzly and will likely at some point paint that one up to match my army colors.

Well, that's my bimonthly update for now!  Thanks for reading and I hope to have some more progress to post at the end of the month.

Artel W Miniatures Review

I've been following a Russian miniatures company called Artel W for the past year but never quite managed to pull the trigger on placing an order despite my interest.  They do a variety of grimdark 32mm scale miniatures with realistic proportions that would be great for Warhammer 40k characters.

Artel W Miniatures

Back in January, they announced that they had received a cease and desist type of letter from Games Workshop and would soon be discontinuing some of their figures including some of the ones I was most interested in.  They were running a variety of very generous contests for the sets they were discontinuing and I was lucky enough to win one!  At that point (with free shipping even), I had no excuse not to place an order and added some more minis to the order.  It appears I wasn't the only one as they announced they were swamped with orders.  It took several months for them to work through the backlog but I finally got my miniatures this month.

It's definitely the nicest package I've ever received once I opened up the commercial mailer and online package tracking worked continuously from Russia to my doorstep.  This wasn't just for the contest winners as I've seen folks post the same with regular orders as well.  The figs were well padded and organized with no missing parts.  I have to say that I'm very impressed with the level of intricate detail that they put on their sculpts.  Seeing the pictures online is one thing but having those tiny pieces of resin in your hands and seeing no bubbles, miscasts, and only minimal flash is quite impressive.

Here are a few comparison pictures with official 40k figures as well as a few more zoomed in pics of individual figures.  I have to say again that the detail is quite impressive and daunting at the same time.  The realistic scale even at 32mm means that some of the slimmer figures (especially female models) have connection points that are less than 1mm in diamater and height/depth. 

Although I haven't assembled any yet (let alone tested the durability), my experience with other such figures in resin and metal lead me to believe that they're not particulary durable and will likely have broken parts simply from falling over onto their side with a wayward hand move across the table let alone a fall from a height of a few feet.  Below are a few size comparisons with GW figures as well.

Overall I'm definitely satisfied with my purchase (let alone the prize I got in addition to my order) and wouldn't hesitate to order again.  I actually regret not getting a couple more figs that are now discontinued but luckily there are others still on my want list like the female techpriest.  They've reported that the long wait times should be over this month (April) so future order should only take a few weeks with international shipping.

P.S. I apologize for the quality of the pics and lack of light balance but I've tried unsuccessfully indoors and outdoors to get nice pics close up with neither the lighting indoors or the overcast skies outdoors cooperating with my efforts!

Starfinder RPG and Dead Suns Campaign First Impressions

We had our first game and it was... interesting.  We played the introductory Dead Suns Part 1 adventure path by Paizo with a party of 5 players and a decent mix of races/classes/abilities (two soldiers, one operative, one envoy, and one mystic).  About the only core role/class we were missing was a technomancer i.e. space wizard equivalent.  The setting and rules are so so and what you'd expect from Golarion in space overall but the balance in the adventure path was off (even factoring out mistakes made by the GM that artificially inflated the difficulty).

First off I'll comment about the general overarching game mechanics.  They're pretty much what you'd expect from a D&D3X style system and it's easy to catch on to the basics if you're familiar with the older variants.  That said... there are many significant changes like being able to multiattack with penalties as a full round action without having to first unlock the second attack at high levels.  There are also minor changes like diagonal movement costs and magic missile not scaling with level.  For vets of multiple prior related editions, remembering whether the second diagonal costs normal or double movment (which seems to flip flop between various editions).  All in all, it's familiar and comfortable but certainly not revolutionary or groundbreaking in any way.  It's D&D3X in space for better or worse. 

The art in the books though is full color and top notch assuming you like the style (which I do).  The races introduced feel different and are most certainly not just the old fantasy tropes with a "space" adjective added in front of them.  If you do want to play those legacy fantasy races, the core rulebook does include them later on in the rules but I'm glad that they're not the focus.  Each class is unique and varies enough from the old fantasy equivalents to feel like they're their own thing. 

Unfortunately, I find the setting to be a bit of a let down despite the above.  It's basically an advancement of the old Pathfind Golarian setting which admittedly I was never a fan of it but neither was I critical of it.  There are new races and planets like I mentioned but the core setting and default start is basically just a big space station right above Golarion (or more correctly where it should be as it disappeared) and there are other planets that are just fantasy tropes in space (like the planet of space undead ruled by space lich overlords).  Maybe it's just me but I kept finding myself thinking "oh, that's just the space *fill in the blank* equivalent".  That's due in large part because of the actual Golarian/Pathfinder parts ported directly over as well as those just heavily influenced by the fantasy setting.  I would personally have preferred a completely independent setting but I recognize the obvious potential business benefit of leveraging a previous industry sales leading game (Pathfinder) for easy conversion into your new project.  While that gives the game relatively easy access to a large playerbase right out of the gate, I can't but help feel that the setting and game will suffer for it in the long run.  YMMV.

Finally we come to the Dead Suns adventure path.  In short, as an old 3.X GM and player for years, I found the balance in the adventure path to be suprisingly off but a large part of that was because of two big mistakes by the GM that inflated the difficulty unncessarily.  The first encounter after the players introduce themselves to each over is CR4 (and that's assuming you think that rating is accurate..see below).  Your first interaction before any real roleplaying with NPCs is to get your feet wet with an "Epic" difficulty level encounter for 1st level characters and presumably new players to the game.  The GM was supposed to only attack us 1/6 of the time but he must have missed that part in the setup (and combined based on common sense two encounters into one the next time). 

Regardless of his mistakes, the CR 1/2 (as in one half) street level gang thugs we were facing had the equivalent stat wise of dex 18 weapon spec and focus shooting.  No big deal, right?  Just use some social skills to beat the encounter nonviolently, right?  Yeah, they also had the equivalent of Cha 20 and full class skill rank in intimidate to boot.  Their actual stats were nothing close to that but their end bonuses for both attacks, damage, and some skills were significantly higher what was possible for us as 1st level player characters.  They were markedly better than CR1 opponents should have been let alone the CR1/2 individually they were listed as.

The GM commented that his main group had a very hard time with the scenarios as well.  I asked another Starfinder GM and he said that Paizo does that with most of the official encounters and that he personally actively encourages his player to NOT fight but find away around combat.  That wasn't an option for us in the first encounter as it was literally scripted that the shooting started right as we arrived and we were caught in the crossfire.  That trend continued throughout the game and the Deus Ex NPChinima had to save us yet again later that night in the next big encounter.

I'm willing to give the game another try (and will actually be Gm'ing next time as we convinced the GM to join us for a single game only).  Although we didn't reach 2nd level yet, I forwarded the group a "loan" of 300 xp to reach 2nd level to see if the equity between characters and published encounters is more balanced later on.  I suspect I'll still have to adjust on the fly some of the crazy bonuses down a bit though but we'll see.  All in all, at best the experience overall was mediocre although I will admit that it was nice to sit down at a table with fellow gamers and do anything for the first time in years.  I'd give the game overall 2 1/2 stars so far but the Dead Suns campaign only 2 stars due to the perceived lack of balance for a supposedly introductory 1st level adventure.

To Brazenly Reboot... Star Trek Discovery Review (Part 2)

Link to Part 1 of the Review

Also, in case it's not obvious...  *SPOILER ALERT!  CONDITION RED!*  The review contains spoilers for the first season.
 
The Ugly

Let's start with the Klingons... they're horrible.  Mush-mouthed over prosthetic'ed alien of the week makeup with little to no flexibility or ability for the actors to convey emotion or at times even simply move their necks.  They physically and philosophically bear almost no resemblance to the established Klingons in Star Trek.  I was too young to participate in the bruhaha in Trek fandom that happened when green facepaint Mongolian Space Communists turned slowly into ridged foreheaded Viking Samurai hybrids.  I expected more grimdark in tone and action Klingons given post-BSG reboot scifi but I didn't expect them to abandon almost everything that made them Klingons.  They pay lipservice to the old lore but these would have been much better as completely new aliens rather than Klingons.  The same holds true to the Klingon ships that bear *ZERO* resemblence to what came before and after supposedly in the same timeline.  The D-7 made an appearance midway through and was completely unrecognizable.  The ship asthetics really do bolster my opinion that the what Discovery calls Klingons would be much better if classified as a completely new alien race/fleet.

On a similar note, I'm simply not a fan of the asthetics used on a show that is ostensibly set only a few years before TOS.  Again, I fully expected and wanted updated visuals and tech but the showrunners have effectively rebooted 90% of the visuals with little regard for what came before beyond an occasional bridge beep boop or photon torpedo whoosh.  The bridge feels way too dark and metallic for a Star Trek show and the ship designs look someone spilled Stargate and Tron (both of which I like) all over some Trek outlines and forgot to clean it up.  Ironically there is the occasional almost exact port of an old prop like a communicator that I'd have prefered them to update instead.  Again, I'll use the JJverse Starfleet uniforms as an example of what I expected as they're both modern, different, yet instantly recognizable as Trek.  Something as simple as using primary colors (grey, red, blue, yellow) and brighter lighting on the exact same Discovery bridge with the exact same special effects would have been enough to scratch that itch.  The showrunners wanted to change everything in a reboot while still claiming to be a prequel to the classic Trek timeline.  I'm sorry but you can't have it both ways and they should have just flatout admitted they were changing so much ahead of time like JJ Abrams did with his movies so that the series could be judged on its own merits.  A clean break with classic Trek might be what the IP needs but they should have been honest with the fans after doing so instead of hedging their bets.  It also feels like the showrunners did a 60 degree turn after the midseason break with more blatantly forced fanservice nods to TOS culminating in the appearance of *THE* U.S.S. Enterpise in the season finale that looks somewhat like it doesn't belong in either visually.

Lastly we have the blatant intrusion of real world politics into the show by a creative team with a distinct left leaning agenda.  Star Trek has always tackled social issues in a progressive way but I've never seen it couched so blatantly in political rather than moral terms.  The writers are on record as having based the Klingons on Trump supporters and the parody continues over in the Mirror Universe.  Comments by actors prior to the show's premiere actively dismissing classic fans as unimportant in response to the criticism of the asthetics and politcs certainly don't help either.  Now my political leanings are decidely in the ever shrinking center and I was completely disgusted with both mainstream party choices in the 2016 election but the writers taking out their frustrations on having lost an election within their scifi work is a step too far.  Leave the one sided real world politics out of Star Trek and stick to debating the morality that underpins the issues at hand instead.

The Final Verdict

Overall, I'd give the show as is a 1.5 stars out of 4 despite the relatively different word counts I gave to the category above.  If the show had been properly advertised as a reboot without the baggage of classic Trek, I'd have given it a 2 / 4.  If you don't fancy classic trek, that latter score is probably more applicable to you.  It has/had promise (some of it already squandered with wasted good characters) but I'm not entirely sure it'll make it much past the first two or three seasons.  The beginning of a Trek series has always been rough with those initial seasons traditionally being the worst (TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT) but the TV landscape has changed and I don't know if fans and/or the network will stick with the show long enough for it to find its own niche.

Will I watch the second season?  Probably.. if I can yet again find a way to do it for free like I did this time with the introductory free week of streaming on CBS All Access... but I certainly won't pay separately for the priveledge to do so.  I also have no interest in the associated merchandise that I'd normally be a shoe in for like T-shirts, models, and books.  I suppose I'm simply just not in that new 18-40 demographic that the show is looking to hook but rather in the 40+ dedicated fan demographic that they largely (at best) take for granted or (at worst) actively disregard.

To Brazenly Reboot... Star Trek Discovery Review (Part 1)

I finally got around to watching the full first season of Star Trek Discovery and decided to post a rambling review.  I'll start out by addressing what I expected from the show as there unfortunately is a common strawman argument/insult that comes up in discussions.  As a fan of classic Trek, I expect a new show set a few years before The Original Series (TOS) to absolutely have modern special effects and "future" technology but I also expected those asthetics to be inspired by and reminiscent of the originals.  I typically use the JJ Abrams Trek movie uniforms as an example of that.  Sadly, the most common response to a critical analysis of this recent show by fans is to instantly dub the critic a luddite who wanted the show to stay exactly the same as the 1960s version.  Also, in case it's not obvious...  *SPOILER ALERT!  CONDITION RED!*  The review contains spoilers for the first season.

The Good

The special effects are top notch and well they should be given the rumored budget of over $8 million per episode.  Simply put, they're probably the most consistent and best quality effects in technical terms that I've seen on a TV ever.  I'm particularly sensitive to needless greenscreens and there were only a few scenes in the entire season where the quality or proficiency of the special effects made me raise a Vulcan eyebrow in disappointment.  While I dislike the chosen asthetics on the show for different reasons (see The Ugly below), their implementation on the show was done very professionally.

I'm also a fan of many of the secondary supporting characters like Cadet Tilly, Captain Lorca, Doctor Culber, and Commander Saru.  They add alot of depth to the show that the main character lacks and portray the width and breadth in personality that someone in Starfleet could display.  Cadet Tilly is the wide eyed stand in for the fans who geeks out awkwardly when cool things happen.  Captain Lorca was (at least initially) a TNG Jellico style no nonsense hardball captain who is willing to occasionally skirt the rules and regulations for the greater good.  Doctor Culber is in a way the opposite to Lorca in that he represents the veteran character who likely has seen much but still espouses the caring and ideals that underpin the Federation.  Commander Saru feels like the link to the previous TNG/DS9/VOY era of exemplary Starfleet Officers leading by example despite his inner turmoil.  Unfortunately, I don't expect to see much of some of them in the next seasons (spoilers! see below).

 The Bad

First up here is the delivery service for the show in the U.S.A., CBS All Access.  Unfortunately for those of us here in the country that created Star Trek, it's being used as a ham fisted way to get people to join a streaming service with literally nothing else in terms of new unique content to offer.  I subscribe to both Amazon Prime and Netflix streaming services and have access to almost everything else that I might want to stream from the CBS library already without paying for largely the same (old) shows yet again.  On top of that, the show wasn't delivered in normal Netflix style "bingeable" season lumps but instead drip drabbed out over the course of 5 months to inflate subscription revenue.   The cherry on top is that the quality of the app on my xbox was absolutely horrible.  Out of the dozen discrete times I watched the show, only once did the app actually work on the first attempt.  Almost every time, I had the initial video missing (while the audio played) necessitating a restart which led to a crash and another restart where hopefully it would finally work.  One time, it took almost 10 attempts/crashes and 15+ minutes to actually get any video signal.  Once it worked, it then worked for the rest of the viewing session though but the initial stat up was very frustrating.  And, no, it wasn't an issue with my internet as I was able to surf the web looking for advice while it was screwing up and the xbox itself had been online and working with other apps/games both just prior.

Next up is the story line.  I expected a darker tone in the new show in this post BSG reboot era of scifi television but what I didn't expect was the shoehorning in of a mutiny and subsequent war with the most contrived ending after the writers realized their mistake.  The show gave us no time to get to know or appreciate the characters before mutilating, killing, and ruining their lives supposedly before convientently reversing some of that by the end with no real reprecussions.  The main character directly caused the death of thousands in the hours after her mutiny and then likely millions to billions in the subsequent year and a half of galactic war with the Klingons in which the Federation took heavy losses.... and yet all was forgiven by the end with her good name and rank restored along with a rousing speech and medal on her chest for deus ex machina'ing the end of the war that she started.  Michael Burnham is ironically the main character in a mainstream Star Trek series but feels like she is lifted right out of bad 1970's fanfiction.  There has always been an element of lack of reprecussions in Star Trek for the main character(s) but starting a galactic war and getting a 6 month sentence takes that leeway orders of magnitude further.  Simply put, I think the show would have been better without Michael Burnham and had instead focused on the supporting cast I mentioned above.

I was quite disappointed with the fate of two of my favorite characters, Captain Lorca and Doctor Culber.  The captain went from a nuanced portrayal of a hardnosed but loyal officer to a moustache twirling villain and allegory for modern US politics.  Doctor Culber was simply wasted as a needless death midway through the season.  In the meantime, the unlikeable main character portrayed by an actress who seems to be phoning in the performance despite displaying obvious talent in a supporting role in the Walking Dead is given a tons of screen time and a free plot pass for crimes against the galaxy while better characters are either misused or tossed to the wayside.

Link to Part 2 of the Review