On the Painting Desk 334

 So, tournament season is going into summer recess for me, meaning I have time to start focussing again on the forces needed for the "second stint" of the year, around november (excluding one I organise myself, but I have enough UW bands ready).

 

To that end, I'm doing the last "casual" painting entries this period, before shifting focus to the army that needs to be completed for sure, the Bolt Action Belgians, and the next little unit has appeared as such on the desk for "in between".

 

But the main goal this week is to round out the Purifiers, in order to have them ready for a possible new tournament in the second half of the year.

 

Another thing I want to make good progress on this week, work allowing, is both the Oracle scout as well as the first of the two large Spearhead terrain pieces, in order to get at least the ACTA fleet as the full Fire and Jade terrain set all done before the summer, or at least the early part when Thorin will be home due to no school... and weekends will be spend going places!

 

Which I don't mind, do note.  But that does cut down in painting hours, the summer months traditionally being a slower period as a result, so whatever we get finished before then is bonus!

 

Check back next week to see how far we've gotten as a result... 

On Tour to the Frituur 17: Ijsmanneke in Kasterlee

 This was a bit of a nostalgia trip for me, as I used to go here all the time when I was just a wee lad and was spending half my life in Kasterlee.

 

And when we recently went back for a small holiday with little Thorin, it was more then normal to visit it and go get some fries!

 

Located on the Geelsebaan 21 in 2460 Kasterlee, the place is now run by a friendly family of chinese people.  They have a very wide selection of snacks and burgers, amongst them some specialties like "Riche" saus, a tartare with red beet in it.

 

The place also has a spacious seating area for in-house degustation, and a seperate seating area for those waiting on the take-out orders, with entrance and exit being in different places to prevent a constant traffic coming by as you eat there, which is excellent.

 

Our Order

 

As it was a take-away for the whole family, we went for a family pack, which turned out to be truly huge.  Perhaps one small point of critique is that they don't have something between a large pack and the family pack, a thing common here in the city.  For the rest we had some Playboy smoked sausages, curryworst, curryworst XXL, the new Belcrunch snack (I like this thing) and bitterballs.  All rounded out with a large pot of cold curry sauce, and this cost us 35.00 euro, a very decent price.

 

Conclusion

 

Like is often the case with the chinese ran places, everything was baked perfectly "dry", basically meaning no grease dripping off them.  The same goes for the meat snacks, and the Playboy's where still a lovely pink inside, so made to perfection.

 

While it gets some up's pure of nostalgia value, there isn't anyhting bad I can't say about the place except the above mentioned size option.  But that actually comes only into play if you are with 3, or 4 small eaters, otherwise the protions of fries are more then royal.  To that end I'm giving them a solid 8 out of 10, there just is nothing wrong with this place...

 

 

 

 

Benelux Clash III Warhammer Underworlds tournament

 So past weekend we found ourselves back in the outskirts of Rotterdam, Alblasserdam, for the third edition of the Benelux Clash.

 

 And this time there was an actual Golden Ticket on the line.  Not something I worry about of winning, but one never knows...

 

Okay, so entry fee was once again pretty steep for a niche game, my only personal gripe being they use a ticketing service website which forces you to pay even extra just for using it, totalling 36.00 euro with lucnh.  But compared to last year, the Belgian player in the organisation said the price support would be upped, so let's see if it is worth it... 

So, let's pick a warband and a deck, and I opted for my Thorns of the Briar Queen, together with the "Passive Aggressive" deck I brewed for them, and which was featured here on Critical Focus Channel.

I did make two minor changes though, the first being Mats's suggestion of changing Rumblings for Damned if you Do, because I *need* to attack a full one time in the game for Bruised, and I have the Warscroll ability to re-roll the whole attack if needed.  The second I chenged out was replacing Ploymaster, which can be unreliable, for Alone in the Dark, for reasons afterwards I don't get why I did that.

 

Luckily, the recent update didn't really influence my deck nor my warband, so I can definilty live with that, as I didn't have time to give the deck a go for it's money and will have to cope "on the fly" and learn to play it during the tournament itself.

 

The first game immediatly saw me paired against two times Top-8 finisher at the World Championships Jan-Willem with Zarbag's Gitz (who as reserve player alternated with Valentin who played the Knives of the Crone), so this was going to be a slaughter from the get go.  Yet the dice gods smiled on me, making every save and almost every Overrun, resulting in a suprise 19-16 victory with this band of tablecloths I never played before, and an untried deck... wot???

 

For the second game I faced my feared "red match up" to use team tournament terminology, with the Grymwatch in the hands of Joep.  There isn't much I can do against the warband, as they have the same numbers but they do come back, and a logical 19-10 defeat was on the boards.

 

It was then time for lunch, with hamburgers and fries.  It did seem they took my only point of critique to heart though from last year, and now there where ample fries.  To many actually, but a Belgian and his fries...

 

We also got to vote for the best painted warbands, and here is a short overview of the warbands (or at least most of them). 

 

In the third game I faced the eventual winner of the event, Kevin and his Emberwatch.  I made a serious play mistake in the end of the second round, forgetting to pull Varclav one back with Weary Thread which would have scored me Alone in the Dark, and might have made all the difference as I went under 13-10.  I also learned for myself that if I play a warband that isn't "my army" I tend to have just that little more investment mentally in them, and that slight slip of focus led to the playmistake as I wasn't paying that much attention to which ghost could do what and when.  Lessons learned, I'll just stick to Idoneth and Slaanesh warbands I guess for events...

 

Still angry with myself for the mistake, I faced Peter and his Grandfather's Gardeners in the fourth round, another pair up I didn't really fancy with his many bodies and regeneration.  I was still a bit "out of my focus" due to the events of the previous game, and went down 14-12 against the followers of Nurgle.

 

The cut was made then for the top-4, which as a result with only a single win and three losses didn't make by far, lingering in 7th place.  Unfortunatly the two polish players needed to leave at this point, which was a pity as I would have loved playing them, and the new pairing meant the previous rounds where "wiped clean".

 

Now back in focus and out to score wins in at least my two remaining games, I faced Peter again and a rematch against the Gardeners was on the board, this time ending in a 16-13 victory for the Thorns.

  

That brought us to the final game against the german player Maximilian (who won Best Sportsmanship) and his Gorechosen of Dromm.  My defence rolls went totally south, and every strike took down a ghost, but I managed to pull off a very close win in the end thanks to Alone in the Dark (it tried to redeem itself for earlier I guess) and took me to a 12-11 win.

 

So, that meant in the end I came out in 5th place, leading the "second bracket" with 3-3 and a Glory Difference of -8, the placing decider if Best Coast Pairings is used, yielding me another set of the promotional art cards and the raise / universal acryclic tokens, the latter always handy for certain.

 

The event was eventually won by Kevin and the Emberwatch, who beat Valentin in the final, and grabbed the Golden Ticket, well done!  

 

For myself, the above conclusion is taken back home to the brewing pot to consider in future deck builds, but expect on events to see the Razors come out again to play.  It is just something with infiltrating Aelves that rocks my boat in a good way I guess.

 

It was a fun day, and 6 more games I managed to play this year is always a fun thing, so onwards to the next edition of Benelux Clash next year I'd say!  And compared to last year, where I played 5 out of the 6 games against my regular group, now at least I faced 4 opponents from "across the borders"...

 

 

 

On the Painting Desk 333

 Taking a bit of a backstep from deadline painting for a week or two, it was time to do some R&R painting this week.

 

So to that end, no work was done on armies that needed to be finished, as my deadlines are still more or less okay at the moment.

 

To that end, the main bulk of the painting was done on the Myari's Purifiers warband for Warhammer Underworlds, as I would like to play them in some event in the second part of the year.  But so do I want to play the Discord and the Knives, who also received some minor attention this week, as well, so yeah...

 

Other things I have been working on was the second small piece of Spearhead terrain, and then the blast from the past I hinted at last week: A Hyperion cruiser and it's wing of Starfuries for a return to A Call to Arms gaming after literally decades!

 

I also hope to round out most of the work on those three "main liners" by next week, so check back for sure to see how far it all progressed! 

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

 Time to scratch another anime of the backlog, and this time it's Dragonball Super: Superheroes, the movie that came out in 2022.

It's a sequel to the Broly movie, and the second in the Super branding, which received high praise from the critics for it's nostalgia factor.

The CEO of Red Pharmaceuticals, commander Magenta, wants to reinstate the Red Ribbon Army, formerly led bu his father.  He and his assistant seek the aid of Dr Hedo, the grandson of Dr Gero, who accepts the offer under the idea that Bulma's Capsule Corporation is out on world domination.  Piccolo, who trains Gohan's daughter Pan, annoyed of the saiyan wasting his potential is attacked by the android Gamma 2.  He manages to evade him, following him to the Red Ribbon Army base and infiltrating it.

He learns Hedo created Gamma 1 and 2, and that they are creating Cell Max, based on the original Cell's schematics.  Going back to Bulma, they are unable to reach Vegeta and Goku, who are training off world with Broly.  Piccolo asks Shenron to unlock his full potential, as Pan is kidnapped to lure Gohan to the base.

Together with Piccolo, he faces Gamma 1 and Gamma 2, but the latter gets convinced by Piccolo that Capsule Corporation isn't evil and that he and his creator are being manipulated.  Magenta activates Cell Max however, and the giant rampaging monster breaks free.  Bulma arrives with Goten, Trunks, Android 18 and Krillin, and all together they manage to bring down the big lumbering brute, with the aid of Gamma 2 sacrificing himself.

So, it was okay, quite fun but also more of the same.  The biggest difference is maybe that there was no Goku in this movie (only briefly), showing off the others some more in the spotlight.  So if you like the franchise, you're going to love this.  if you're not a fan, it's Dragonball: lots of hyperspeed fighting and yelling...

Charlotte

Time to pinch off another anime series that Noshi watched and I hadn't so far.

 

And this time, it is Charlotte, an anime exclusive from 2015.

 

Taking place in an alternate reality where the comet Charlotte passes Earth every 75 years, it spreads a dust over our planet that triggers special powers in certain children.  In Japan, Yuu Otosaka, receives the power to possess others for 5 seconds, using this to live a carefree life at school.  But he is caught out by Nao Tomori, and is forced to join Hoshinoumi Academy.  

 

Here he meets other people with powers, like Takajo who can move at incredible speeds.  He joins the student council, who's job is to prevent children falling in the hands of organisations wanting to exploit their powers.  A Japanese idol, Yusa, is also recruited, who is a medium to her deceased older sister Misa, who can take over her body and in doing so use her own pyrokinesis skills.  When Yuu's younger sister suddenly manifests a power that causes things around her to collapse, she dies in this event.

 

This causes Yuu to fall into a deep depression, going out to beat-up low level crooks to alleviate his loss.  Nao manages to pull him out and when he attends a concert of the band Zhiend, he thinks about his older brother, now deceased, Shunsuke who could time-travel.  He also learns his ability's true nature actually allows him to steal other people's powers, and uses the powers of his brother to go back in time to prevent his sister's deadly accident.

 

Nao and Kumagami, one of Shunsuke's closest friends, are kidnapped by a terrorist organisation, and Yuu tries to free them.  However, Yuu is seriously injured in this event while Kumagami is killed, and when he awakens from his injuries Yuu vows to travel the world and using his powers to protect all ability users.  This puts a drain on his memories and he collapses after finishing his job of stealing all the powers around, but he is taken back to Japan left with no memories by Shunsuke.  Nao tells him she is his girlfriend, and they set out to make new memories of their own...

 

A nice little, highly enjoyable series it must be said, and I binged through it over the time of two shifts as it has that little "addictive" trait of wanting to know what happens next.  

 

Certainly recommended!

Bolt Action Belgian Medic

 It's time to start painting the Belgian army for the Bolt Action tournament end of november, and that means figuring out a colour recipy for the uniforms of the regular troops.

 

While I had already figured one out for the Chasseurs as could be seen on the 47mm a while ago, our normal uniforms are more of a khaki light brown.

 

So I tried out a combination on a medic, a loose little model and ideal to try the colourscheme out on!  The scheme painted relatively quickly, so that is a good thing as I'll be painting up quite a decent amount of riflemen in the coming months, as my force won't have armoured vehicles included.

 

But first, it's time to assemble those... and start some weapon teams in the meantime.

 

 

On the Painting Desk 332

 Two weeks since the last episode as it was time for a short family holiday as well as the Mines of Alost II tournament the past weeks.

 

But against the expectations, I actually got to finish way more then expected.

 

Mainly the Bull Centaur for Blood Bowl, whom made his debut past friday to the pitch, as well as (finally) the actual general model of my Idoneth Spearhead, meaning I don't need another character to proxy anymore as a stand-in.

 

The same goes for the Belgian medic, who was a "uniform colour tester" and now has been finished, so I can start on more of the models come july to get the army going for november.  But first, I'll be painting some side projects for sheer variety after a hefty 5 months of deadline to deadline jumping... starting with Myari's just because I feel like it.

 

And then there is that thing from 20 years ago that is returning... but more on that next week!

 

Check back next week to see how far we went with everything!

Doctor Who: the 60th anniversary specials

 The specials of the 60th anniversary certainly had a twist, as it was not Jodie Whittaker that stepped out of the Tardis, but none other then David Tennant himself, the 10th Doctor, as she regenerated back into him at the end of her final season.

 

Yet, he comes out stating "why this face", so what is going on in this three part specials series, each running for about an hour?

 

Compromising of three episodes titled The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder and The Giggle, with not only David Tennant returning, but also Catherine Tate as Donna and Russel T. Davies as the show's writer!

 

Following his regeneration, the 14th Doctor lands in London where he comes across Donna Noble, her mind erased from ever meeting him all the way back in the episodeJourney's End from 2008.  He also meets her teenage daughter Rose and husband Shawn Temple.  When a spaceship crashes, he goes to the site and meets with UNIT and thier scientist Shirley Anne Bingham, and the Doctor believes the events of his reincarnation in this form and meeting Donna are connected in a way.  

 

Rose finds an escape pod near their home, meeting a furry cute creature called The Meep, hiding it but Donna discovers it.  The Doctor arrives and they learn of The Meep that it is being hunted by bug-like Wrarth Warriors.  When possessed UNIT soldiers and the Wrarth start fighting, the Doctor notices the aliens not using lethal force, and confronts them with the Meep.  This reveals the true nature of the furry beast, killing the Wrarth and being the one controlling the soldiers.  As the Meep threatens to destroy London, the Doctor is forced to reawaken Donna's memories, as with Rose's birth she had passed on a part of the meta-crisis energy into her.  More Wrarth arrive, taking the Meep into custody, and Donna goes on a last trip with the Doctor, though by spilling coffee on the TARDIS console causes it to malfunction, landing in Isaac's Newton garden accidentally causing an event he would name "gravity".

 

The TARDIS flies off to a spaceship on the edge of the universe, and vanishes while the Doctor and Donna explore the corridors.  They find an old robot slowly walking through the main corridor, as the rest of the ship periodically reconfigures itself.  They encounter dopplegangers of themselves, who lacking the concept of size and shape call themselves the Not-Things.  

 

The Doctor and Donna realize these slowly take their thoughts and forms to become copies, making it hard to tell each other apart, and the Doctor tries superstition with a line of salt to keep them back.  He realises the ship's captain killed himself to prevent these beings copying him and taking control of the ship, and set in motion a trap, a low speed self destruct with the robot being the trigger.  Just as the vessel would be destroyed, the TARDIS reappears, allowing them to escape, though the Doctor regrets the fact he invoked superstition at the edge of the universe.  They meet with Donna's grandfather just as a riot starts and a plane crashes near Candem Garden.

 

The Doctor and Donna are taken the UNIT headquarters, as the world's population has become violent.  He is reunited with Shirley, head of UNIT Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and his former (Sixth and Seventh) companion Melanie Bush.  The Doctor determines the cause is the recording of a giggle from the doll Stooky Bill back in 1925 and embedded in every television signal ever since.  Travelling back to that era, they learn it is the Toymaker that sold the doll, and he traps the two in his domain.  He plays humanity for a never-ending game of debate in which everyone thinks they are absolutely correct in their beliefs.  The Doctor and the Toymaker play a game of cards, the latter winning but the Doctor stating they are now tied due to him winning their last encounter.  

Returning to the present day, the Toymaker resolves to have one final game with him, attacking UNIT before taking control of the galvanic cannon, mortally injuring the Doctor, triggering his regeneration.  However, the Doctor splits in two incarnations due to the mythical "bi-generation", and as such introducing the 15th Doctor to the audience as well, Ncuti Gatwa.

 

Both Doctors work together, beating the Toymaker in a game of catch and banishing him from existence.  Aboard the TARDIS, the 15th Doctor advises his predecessor that he needs to recover from the extensive trauma's he has been through, and that he looks like the 10th die to being emotionally exhausted and subconsciously recognised the need.  She invites him to instead stay with her family instead of travelling constantly, the 15th creating a second TARDIS as his reward for beating the Toymaker, the 14th settling down while the 15th continues to travel the universe...

 

And so the series of specials made for the 60th anniversary ended, great stuff and truly an adventure through time and space, while reconnecting with the 60s as well.  This bridges the gap between the relaunch all the way back with Christopher Eccleston and the generation of Doctor Who viewers before that, which ended with Paul McGrath.

 

Really worth the watch!