Painting: Ork Warbike

As some of you may remember me mentioning, I'm trying to get back into my war games. I'm building a Necomunda terrain table to that end, but it's taking excruciatingly long... not because it's particularly difficult, but because I'm lazy.

So to get me into the mood, I painted an Ork Warbike that I borrowed from my friend Tim. This blog is all about what's going on in the dark recesses of what I pass off for a mind, so you guys get a little painting tutorial this week:

I got the bike pre-assembled, but in it's raw, blank plastic form

The Entire Miniature was then undercoated in black. I like using black as an undercoat because it does a lot of the shading work for you.

I'll also note that I use normal poster paints for undercoats, as opposed to the Citadel Paints that I use for everything else... it's cheaper and has the same effect.

• All the red areas were base coated with Red Gore


• Metal areas were painted with Boltgun Metal


• Flesh was painted with Goblin Green


• The ork's clothing was based with Bleached Bone


• The Bad Moon symbol on the front was done in Blazing Orange


• Finally, the headlights and glasses were picked out in Regal Blue

The cloth area was then given a very heavy wash of Red Gore.



After the wash had dried, the cloth was dry brushed with Bleached Bone.

The ork's teeth and skull detials were also picked out in Bleached Bone.



The entire model was then given a heavy black wash to pick out the detail. It was then highlighted with the same base colours.

Final highlights were a 1:1 mix of Red Gore and Blazing Orange followed by pure Blazing orange for the red areas; a 1:1 mix of Goblin Green and Skull White for the exposed flesh; a 1:1 mix of Blazing Orange and Skull White for the Bad Moon symbol; the blue areas were picked out with a 1:1 mix of Regal Blue and Skull White with a final highlight of pure Skull White and finally the teeth and skull details were picked out in Bleached Bone and then Skull White as a final highlight.

And there we have the finished mini. I hope you guys enjoyed the little tutorial of what goes into painting a mini... and fair warning: I will eventually finish off the Necomunda board, and you'll get a tutorial on that too.

-Odd

"Hobbies of any kind are boring except to people who have the same hobby. This is also true of religion, although you will not find me saying so in print. " -Dave Barry

Word of the Week

Turophile - noun

1. a connoisseur of cheese; a cheese fancier.

In The News:

New surveillance robot, and it knows how to hide - these little UAVs are getting smarter and smarter

Rome's Air Force super computer made out of PS3s - 1,716 PS3s linked into a massive super computer for image processing.

Artificial leaf may be a breakthrough in solar energy - another step closer to a viable energy alternative.

Nanotech implant checks for Cancer and heart attacks - where can I buy mine?

China to overtake the US in science in two years - a lot sooner than commentators thought... this should be a wake up call for the western world.

Moral Science

With the rapid pace of scientific advancement that we're seeing in the world today, I've been wondering if it's all a good idea.

The field of memetics says that these sorts of ideas will spread themselves regardless of whether they're good for humanity or not. I can think of quite a few examples of technological advances that don't seem to benefit us at all (chemical and biological weapons come to mind) and that got me wondering about the moral obligation of scientists.

Should scientists make moral choices about whether or not to continue the research they are doing? How would such a choice work? It's quite a complicated question. Take Einstein's nuclear research, for instance, if you were to ask the population of Hiroshima if that was morally acceptable research, they'd say no. On the other hand it has lead to clean(er) energy for the world and even the atomic bomb has had the consequence of making large scale wars impossible. The answer to the moral question of whether or not a given scientific breakthrough will be good or bad for humanity must lie in the sum total of it's consequences on our society... but how can anyone be expected to know all (or even most) of those? It's impossible.

Scientists are also largely removed from the practical execution of their research. That rests with the large corporations that fund them... and that makes sense to me. I don't want scientists to spend large amounts of their times dealing with business pressures, marketing and all the other capitalists bullshit... they're scientists, they must concentrate on the science. So it's the corporations that should be making moral choices about what scientific avenues to pursue? Now that is scary!

I suppose that any big new idea will be a catalyst for change in society and it is that change that has the most dangerous potential, change is always dangerous (just ask the dinosaurs).

I don't see us throttling our technological advancement any time soon and I'm not sure that we should... We'll just have to hope that our greatest evolutionary power - our adaptability - will see us through the dangers and changes that we bring upon ourselves.

-Odd

"As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying." - Arthur C Clark

Word of the Week:

Fugacious - adjective

1. Lasting but a short time; fleeting

In The News:

Geminoid-DK: possibly the creepiest android yet built - another master piece by Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro. This thing is so far down the uncanny valley that it's scary.

Printing a human kidney - a TED talk demonstration of this amazing technology... we're fast approaching the immortal tipping point.

Masdar city runs into problems - the ambitious project to build 'the city of the future' in the middle of the desert has run into funding problems during the recession.

50 000 Japanese download the Android flashlight app after disaster - mobile computing is saving lives... go google!

Death and the Powers: A robot Opera - an opera combining human and robotic performers... and it's getting good reviews.

Internet killed the LAN (Star)

I should preface this by saying that I don't play a lot of computer (or console) games anymore. I'm not even on the WOW bandwagon, but I used to be a regular gamer and I still try to keep an eye on the industry.

I've noticed a trend in the gaming industry that has worried me for some time. It happened quite a while ago... there was no outcry, no one checked if I was ok with it... it just happened. They took all the LAN support out of games.

LAN stands for Large Area Network... and it used to be the social space for gaming geeks. We would all descend on someone's house, link up all our computers and spend the weekend in a sleep deprived Valhalla of death matches, co-op strategy and camaraderie. Some of my most precious memories stem from this period of my life. Battling through the Dust mission in the original Counter Strike, frantically building up an army in WarCraft 3 or sniping from Faces in Unreal Tournament is so much more meaningful when that headshot you just pulled off causes the guy on the other side of the room to scream in anguish.

This style of play is not possible now. Modern games have dispensed with the LAN in favor of internet based multi-player. The internet is quite a cool place, I suppose, it allows you to play people from all over the world, people who you wouldn't have the opportunity to meet otherwise, but it doesn't have the same feel as getting a bunch of your mates into the same room and slaughtering them in your favorite FPS.

I always used to laugh at people who said that computer games were anti-social. I used to regularly get together with 12 or 15 of my friends (in person) and connect through the medium of gaming. Now I think those same people have a point (even if it is accidentally). Even with voice chat, it's just not the same thing.

I miss LAN parties... I wonder if I can get a group of people together who want to play the ancient games that enabled this pinacle of geek culture.... Counter Strike anyone?

-Odd

"Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them." -Pacifist Badge, 1978

Word of the Week:

Abrogate - Verb

1. to abolish by authoritative action, annul.


2. to treat as nonexistent.

In the News:

Sweden to replace stamps with SMS - great new use of existing technology.

Researchers show method to disable cellphones by SMS - as cellphones become more advanced, they become exposed to the same dangers as computers... this is worrying.

Google gives Japan a hand with People Search - Great lateral thinking here. Putting existing technology to work, helping during a time of crisis. Google FTW.

Laser scribing to create better solar cells - anything that provides clean energy (without the risk of melt-down) has to be a good thing.

Cuba sentences a US citizen for setting up Internet connections - Disturbing, yes, but not inconceivable. We've recently seen the effect that the free transfer of information over the internet has had on dictatorships.

What do these words even mean?

I've been thinking about this one for a while now.

If you're reading this blog, then you probably use these words all the time without even thinking about them. Like me, though, I doubt you have any idea what they mean. What words am I talking about? I'll use one of them as an example for the purposes of this post. What I'm talking about is "LOL".

"LOL" supposedly stands for Laughed Out Loud, but that's not what it means anymore. There are times when I'm reading something that I will actually laugh out loud (and yes, my co-workers look at me funny when I do), but how would I communicate that fact to anyone? The word "LOL" has been used so often that it has lost all meaning. For instance:



What part of this makes you laugh at all? never mind out loud? Then why are they called Lolcats? shouldn't they be Awwwcats?

So here's a challenge for my readers: come up with a term I can use when I actually laugh out loud?

-Odd

"At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities."      -Jean Houston

Word of the Week:

Puckish - Adjective

1. whimsical; mischievous; impish

In The News:

Creationists in America at it again - this time they're co-opting the arguments of a pro-evolutionist to try get "intelligent design" back in schools... what's wrong with these people?

Taiwan researchers turn to silk for flexible devices - cool tech... and i'm looking forward to the day I can blog from my tie.

Cyber attack against South Korea - at what point does a digital attack warrant a physical response?

Electronic gadgets maybe be effecting your sleep detrimentally - no way! you mean the long hours I spend watching videos instead of going to sleep is preventing me sleeping? wow...

Warner Brothers to release movies via Facebook - This makes a lot of sense to me. If I had a cheap, easy, available platform to watch movies online, I might not pirate as much as I do... maybe... possibly.

Some reasons modern society is so F&^#ed Up

When I first had the idea to write this post, I was so angry that I could have attacked someone with a cactus. This was going to be a rant, with the bile of my rage flowing over the screen like it had been jammed in a Mel Brooks movie.

But it's been about an hour since then, and I've calmed down some. Enough to look objectively at my subject matter and decide that, yes, these are the reasons that our society is in such a bad state.

The situation that started me thinking about this was sitting in traffic on the William Nicole offramp on the N1 South.

We've recently had a run of roadworks that were intended to improve the highways and off ramps. Sounds great, right?

The problem is that turning left onto William Nicole is still a disaster! Traffic routinely backs up for kilometers, but the Joburg Road Agency saw fit to leave the turn as one lane. How incredibly short sighted is that planning? It's unbelievable! That was the major problem with the offramp, and they didn't change it when they rebuilt the entire bridge and intersection? WHAT?!?!

The second phenomenon that occurs in the morning traffic is that certain people (usually driving a minibus taxi, SUV, Mercedes or BMW) obviously view themselves as a race apart from the rest of us. We sit in the que for the left turn for 15-20min, waiting patiently for our turn. They, on the other hand, feel it is their privilege to run up the right hand lane and cut in directly at the top. I don't get it. What makes you so much more important than the rest of us? Yes, you are a special and unique little snowflake... just like the rest of us.

The people who let them cut in irritate me even more... these are probably decent, hard working folk, but they keep rewarding this anti-social behavior and propagate it by doing so. I'd like to see a collective effort to block these chancers out... Give them a couple days of waiting while the whole line flows past them and they'll get in line with the rest of us.

So those are the three problems that I see embodied in the morning traffic:

1. Lack of intelligent forethought


2. Psychopathic douchebags taking chances


3. Good people letting said douchebags prosper

<rant/>

On a lighter note: This video is absolutely incredible! This man is so talented, he makes me sick.

Thanks for reading, and as always: Please comment and tell your friends.

-Odd

Word of the Week:

Cosset - Transitive Verb

1. To treat as a pet; to treat with excessive indulgence; to pamper.

In The News:

World largest radio telescope built - at least until the Square Kilometer Array gets approved

US Military to cloud source new military vehicle design - .... my version would transform into a giant robot.

Biodegradable sneakers - I'm all for green technology and recycling is essential to our continued existence... but biodegradable shoes? really?

Researchers create computer that fits on a pen tip - tiny computers... very cool. I want one attached to my car keys that will beep at me when I scream "GOD DAMN IT, WHERE THE F#*& ARE MY KEYS!?!?!"

Two planets found sharing one orbit - which entirely sinks our current theory on how planets form... and our definition of such... sorry Pluto, we might have been a bit hasty.