Ballin

12.16.2017

I got a new toy. Well, for me it's a toy. Many years ago I gave up using mice and went with trackball(s). My trackball of choice was the Logitech Trackman Marble as I can use my fingers to roll the trackball instead of my thumb. I seem to have finer motor control over fingers. A Logitech trackball lasts about 3 years for me. That's when the left button decides to work intermittently. I don't think it's a problem with the components or a connection gone bad, but instead a build up of gunk from my fingers clicking the button for years. I know it sounds gross, but given the dirt I clean out of the ball holder (yes, that sounds bad too) about once per month I can only imagine what creeps into the crevices of the button.

I could try to clean it out, but given that one of those trackballs is $20 it's just easier to get a new one.

Well, the trackballs used to be $20 when I could trot down to CompUSA and pick one up. The last one I got (for work, Aug 2016) was $23.

Whenever it's time to replace a trackball I look to see if there's anything new that I want to try. Kensington has a nice selection, but the ergonomics don't work well with my hand placement. I could swear I've tried others but nothing else comes to mind just yet.

The latest flakey button induced search brought me to the ELECOM M-HT1URBK Wired Trackball Mouse. This one caught my eye because

• It's "big" and marketed for "big" hands. I have big, meaty hands.
• The ball is where I like it. For god's sake, no one take that out of context.
• It has a scrollwheel. That's sorely lacking in most trackballs. For those that have one, it usually sucks.
• The scrollwheel DOESN'T also act as a button.

After watching the inventory go from low to out-of-stock and back to low, I ordered one to try out. Sure, it was $60 instead of $23, but given the number of hours per day I would use the blasted thing if it was even a marginal improvement over the Logitech series I'd been using for at least a decade then it would be worth it.

After 4 days of using the one that came in, I like it enough I've ordered another one to use at work. The size is perfect for my hand. All the buttons are naturally located for where my fingers want to fall. The scrollwheel is quickly my favorite part. The buttons are a little soft when they click, but only because I've been paying attention to all the little details. When I press naturally those buttons act like they should.

Now, the funniest part to a boonie hick like me was that the package didn't have a bit of English on it. Elecom is a Japanese company, so I'm going to guess all those characters I couldn't read were Japanese.

Except "HUGE trackball". I could read that one.

Permalink programming/interweb

Population Up By 12

11.28.2017

It's been a few weeks since the last hobby update. After focusing on buildings last time, I went back and opened up 4 Walking Dead boosters. This gave me 4 zombie and 8 regular folk to paint. I've learned that I really like washes and dry-brushing. Primer white with a blue wash gives a great denim look, so I tried washes on different base colors. Light colors work the best, so using a light tan with a dark brown wash, and light grey with a black wash was able to bring out some details and highlight on clothes. Skin tone has also been hard to nail down of late. For non-zombies, this batch got a pale flesh base and then a light skin tone wash (whatever Citadel calls it). So far I like it, but this is one of those things that I'll have to look at off and on for a while for my true feelings to come out.

My true focus on this batch was to pick out details and not get caught up in rushing through painting them as if I was on an assembly line. That's part of why it's been almost a month since the last hobby update :) Clothing details were the key I focused on. Shirt tails sticking out from under a sweater. Piping on shorts. The tied drawstring on those shorts! That last one I'm kind of proud of.

Glenn's baseball cap was a good test for detail. His NY Yankees hat has been done well by many. Thanks to a fine tipped pen that works on paint, I manage to get something close to NY pinstripes. The one problem with the pens I use is that the sealant will make the ink run, so when it came to sealing I sprayed lightly and from a distance. There was still a little running of some type - in the right light there's a slight, pink-ish hue to parts of his cap.

I'm still having fun painting minis. There's a batch of buildings I want to start on, but I may fit in a couple of regulat minis before then. Just to mix it up I think I'll grab some of the Reaper Chronoscape figures and take a break from the sanctioned Walking Dead minis.

Permalink gaming miniatures

BF2017

11.26.2017

Like most years, I try to save up some of my DVD shopping for Black Friday sales.  If it's not a movie I'm dying to see right when it's released on DVD, starting around September I push these to my "wait for Black Friday" wishlist.  There were a handfull on that list that I ended up buying 3 weeks ago.  Target was running a pretty good sale on most of what I was wanting, and I talked myself into "is it worth a few extra bucks to not stand in line and put up with crowds?" so that I thought I was going to indeed miss those crowds.

Like normal, come Thanksgiving & Black Friday there was price matching galore online.  I could have picked up that handfull of early-purchased movies for a lot less had I waited and bougth them online (have to remember that for next year).  There were sales on other movies that were on my long term "wait until it goes on sale" list, so I racked up on them, too.

The one movie I had been waiting for a really good deal was Guardians of the Galaxy 2.  Disney movies have an added $3 MSRP premium these days, putting the sale price in the $20-$23 range VS the $15 I was hoping to get it for.  The Target ad had advertised $15, but that was for in store/doorbusting.  I was on the lookout for an online match.  Amazon was listing it on Thanksgiving for $23.  Later in the day it dipped to $18.  Wal-Mart had it listed for $18.  If I entered my zip code to find out about in-store pickup, there was a listed price for $9.96 in-store only.  I guess this was their in-store/doorbusting price?  I couldn't add it to my cart for in store pickup for that amount.

If my hope was to avoid crowds whan I made that first Target purchase 3 weeks earlier, I really didn't want to deal with Wal-Mart Black Friday crowds.  Maybe there would be online price matching later?

Thursday I went to my cousin's in Killen for the familial Thanksgivign feast.  On the way back home, around 8PM, I neared the Athens Wal-Mart.  It'd been 2 hours since the doorbusting started.  I wonder if the craziness had died down?  Unlike other stores, Wal-Mart is always open and didn't have to bother with funnelling people in when the doors open.  I spied the parking lot as I neared to see it wasn't packed.  Oh hell, I'd give it a chance.  I parked and went in through the garden center.  There were 3 people checking out.  Not crazy at all.  

Making my way to the back of the store to find the DVD I was after was another story.  Aisles are not spaced for multiple people with buggies to stop and see what's on sale up there, down there, and over there.  Like a ninja I made my way to the back!  Ok, like an old man without a buggy I made my way to the back.  I found an ample stack of Guardians of the Galaxy 2.  I made my way to a barcode scanner and sure enough, it was a $9.96 blu-ray!  I went back to the garden center to checkout and became #3 in line.  10 minutes later I was checked out and on my way home.

If I ever have to go Black Friday shopping at Wal-Mart, I know the right time to do it.  And not having a buggy makes life easier.  That actually sounds like a horrible way to Black Friday shop at Wal-Mart.  But if you're after 1 precise thing, then THAT'S the way to go!

Permalink random

End of Month Hobby Catch Up

10.30.2017

This past month, yes, evidently I decided to take a month before updating anything, I finally got around to test painting some MDF buidlings. I mentioned previously about picking up some Micro Art buildings for Infinity on sale a few years ago. Since I'd likely not make use of a sci-fi setting that these buildings were meant for, they'd make for a great test for paint and construction of MDF.

I put together a few pieces to form a square and set about testing different spray paints. Tamiya Fine Primer (white and grey) worked perfect. Testors super quality model stuff was pretty good, but I sprayed it a little thick and it ran more than I wanted. Krylon primer was crap. All my Krylon paint has been crap. I then tossed all my Kryolon paint.

Next I dry-fit pieces together to see how this stuff worked. District 5 buildings are meant ot be taken apart and reconfigured as needed, but I was testing stuff and wanted to glue things. Gorilla Wood Glue worked well for me.

There were lots of accidents along the way. 3mm MDF can be brittle in big beefy man hands like mine, especially when trying to squeeze crap together. As it was, stuff broke. Not splintered into a bajillion pieces, but broken enough to be noticed. I knew this would happen, so it gave me an excuse to test battle damage painting on the building. I like battle damage painting!

The 2nd building was an Objective Room. The floor on this one had some interesting detail. The etching when the MDF is cut is deep enough that priming doesn't obliterate everything. To try and bring out some of the details, instead of painting after priming I went through with ink pens and basically played around. It's gaudy, but that's what playing does. In the end it turned out better than I thought.

The final bit of the month was 2 more figure expansions for the Walking Dead game - Tyreese and Lori. I'm trying to practice more non-caucasian skintones, and finally making an effort to give people eyeballs. Both of these need work before I'm anywhere close to average.

Next up is painting and constructing some proper MDF buildings. Some retail stores from TTCombat are on the way.

Permalink gaming miniatures

Quick Paint on the Core Set

10.03.2017

I had a spurt of activity this past week as I played around with washes of various shades while minimizing the actual painting. The Citadel blue wash on top of white primer gives a really good blue jean look, while the yellow wash finally seems to give the blonde hair shade I've been shooting for. With this batch of zombies and batch of regular folk, the Walking Dead core set is all painted up!

As fast as I was getting through painting these minis I know I rushed through some things and didn't get the quality I've been shooting toward. I think I'll take a figure break and finally try putting together & painting one of the MDF buildings that's sitting around from Black Friday sales past. I'm (mentally) treating this as a throw away/learning attempt so it's ok if I mess it all up. We'll see if any of it turns out decent enough to post pics of.

Permalink gaming miniatures