Back from Andalusia

I am back from a well earned and thoroughly needed vacation. This time my wife and I did a long wished trip to Andalusia to have a look at all the Moorish influenced monuments and stuff. This was also something on our bucket list, so the Alhambra in Granada and Mezquita in Cordoba are now crossed out :)

It was a very nice experience, we planned the trip ourselves (after getting some offers from agencies which were incredible expensive) and went with a rental car and tent on a round trip to Andalusia. For cost saving reasons we started in Madrid (flights and rental cars were much cheaper there) and accepted the 4 hours drive to Granada. We had then 11 days to to all the crazy sight-seeing and driving around including some hiking trips and where blown away by the differences and the strong Arabic influences in this region. In Granada we even saw signs to the monuments in Arabic!

Our tour was like: Madrid → Granada & Capileira → Torre del Mar & Malaga → Grazalema & Ronda → Sevilla → Cordoba → Madrid. So it was quite a hardcore tour ;) Especially since we tried to get to all of the monuments and cathedrals possible. I think we did every day some kind of a 15 - 20 km walking trip.

We made zillions of pictures (ok only 1100) and have to sort all the impressions and stuff now. So I think I will make another post with some of the pictures from the trip.

Was it worth it? Absolutely!
Hope you all also had a good time the last 3 weeks :)


So long,
Paradox0n

In a deep slumber

Wow. That was some loooong time off. Health issues, Working-Life balance off the mark and a big lack of motivation just stopped me from doing anything wargaming related. But the last weeks this changed a bit and a recent spam comment awakened me from this very deep slumber.

So I am motivated posting stuff again, and I think I have some interesting stuff to post.
First I had birthday and got some great hobby stuff as presents. Second I had some games of Kings of War going (the first one I already posted some time ago) but some followed and last I really get into gaming again. Looks like there is a gaming group in the making and even if it is a good 2 hours drive away, I could be getting some more regular gaming in the future.

I hope someone is still reading here :)


So long,
Paradox0n

Total War: Warhammer

OMG I am so hyped now... Long I could resist, but with the stream offensive and the newest trailer I just can't resist anymore.

Yesterday I got myself a copy and will bring our beloved and destroyed Warhammer world back to life again. What do you think about the game? Heard of it? Interested? You will play it? Tell me! :)

On a side note: I got even more nostalgic and hunted me some very old dragon ogre models on ebay. Can't wait to get them, they will be my Grotesques for my Abyssal Dwarf army :)

#hype


So long,
Paradox0n

Back to normal?

Long time, no see. So yes, I am still lurking around, reading Blogs, Tweets, Facebook and watching Youtube. Its just that I don't have the energy to write stuff at the moment.

Why is that? Last year did not end and this year did not start well for me. First we lost an unborn child and then my father-in-law passed away suprisingly. Since he lived abroad this was quite the struggle to get everything managed (mor for my wife than me but still...). And if that would not have been enough, the sickness wave fully struck me.

At least I think I found some power again, because we had to rebuild our "office" and by that everything concerning storage etc. pp. for my hobby stuff. It has never been THIS structured and cleaned up than now :) And I hope that I could motivate a friend of mine to Kings of War. Which would also would help to motivate to paint again.

I hope some of you still bear with me. If everything turns out, I will start posting again :)


So long,
Paradox0n

Still alive!

Yes, I am still alive :) Lots of stuff happened in the last few weeks, which kept me from doing anything for my hobby.

First my needed vacation (and luckily we came out of Egypt before all the planes where canceled after the plane bombing).
Then the typical flu attack and years end chaos in the office.
And if that was not enough: My PC slowly and quietly died.

I know have a knew one including a bigger monitor and have to setup everything (Photoshop, Camera etc. pp.) and hope that I can start posting again soon.

Hope someone still reads this!


So long,
Paradox0n

We are Back in the Future!

Just to spread some geekiness: Today is Back to the Future Day! If you don't know the movies: When Marty McFly got in the Delorean (his time machine), he went forward to today! Even if the scetched future of the movie is not the present, it is absolutely awesome (in a geeky way).

So if you have the possibility enjoy the movies today (many tv channels or streaming providers have the movies today on broadcast).


So long,
Paradox0n

Blog Babble - Interested in photography stuff?

Long time no see (again). But as usual I am drowning in work. My travel to Romania didn't help either and the loss of all my prepared post made it even worse. But hey, in Germany we have a saying "Unkraut vergeht nicht" ("A cat has nine lives"?). So Yes I am still here and No I haven't recovered from the loss of the articles yet.

But since I started hiking again and started experimenting with my DSLR (perhaps you remember my older article about it) I have a question to you all: Are you interested in a) Landscape pictures and more important b) Tutorials about using a DSLR and filters and maybe even picture composing/editing? If so, I will start with some articles to this topic.


So long,
Paradox0n

Why is the rum gone?

Last weekend started with a big WTF. When I checked my blog (and why the connection to the social media networks seemingly doesn't work) I saw that nothing was published to neither the blog nor the Twitter, FB or G+.
So with some big eyes I just saw that my pre-produced and scheduled articles are all gone. I have no clue what happened, but I had planned two articles to post the last 2 weeks. Everything gone... At least from Blogger, I can see that my pictures are still on Picasa.

So sorry for not posting anything for such a long time. I have lots to do atm and thus wanted to use the free time I had to pre-produce some stuff, which clearly didn't work out :(

 Since I will travel to Romania again next week, maybe I can use the spare time in the evenings (if we are not on the road) to produce something.


Have a good start into your week!


So long,
Paradox0n

Short tip: Care for your brushes!

Damaged brushes

Since I am into painting stuff again (the temperature isn't something around 40°C anymore) I have a really important tip for you guys out there: Care for your brushes!
I could throw four brushes away because they didn't keep their tip anymore. The first picture here shows what can happen if you don't care or just throw your brushes around. OK ok, those here are more than 10 years old by now, but if you paint a lot, this could happen much, much faster.

So my tip is: Give your brushes from time to time some love. Rinse them in clean water, then soap with whatever you have in your reach e.g. shampoo and rinse them again. After that, form a nice tip again and let the bristles dry (best with the tip down so that the water doesn't collect in the ferrule and weakens the glue).

Brush soap

If you want to go a step further, use some special brush soap. They come from different manufacturers. Mine was part of my DaVinci brush set but there is also a special one from "The Masters" which was a long time not so easily to buy in Germany. Only know that from videos on Youtube and everyone seems quite happy with it.

But whatever you do: Curd Soap, Shampoo, special Brush Soap... Show your brushes from time to time some love and clean them :)


So long,
Paradox0n

Farming "wife points"

Perhaps you can remember my post about using a laptop cushion as mobile working station for preparing my minis? If not, I gladly provide you a dip into the past with a link back to the review.

As I get slowly back into the flow of doing hobby stuff again, the cushion now also gets into use and I can only say: Yes, it is working. At least for preparing the miniatures like clipping them from sprues or removing mold lines or gluing your stuff together.

That means I can also farm some "wife points" :) Its pretty cool, watching your favorite TV series together, while doing preparation works or sitting together while she is learning french and I scratch away mold lines. Nothing better to keep one going than sharing time instead of being separated in different rooms...

So today I was priming a whole lot of minis (and getting a strong dislike for my brown Army Painter Sprayprimer). I hope I can also paint some stuff up. Kings of War is calling!


So long,
Paradox0n

ReRoll-Weekend!

Today only a short promotional post :) On the first November weekend (All Hallows), the Tabletop Network does held a charity weekend: The ReRoll Weekend. The rules are pretty simple:

• In every game you play at this weekend, you can buy rerolls. 
• Every reroll costs 50ct 
• The reroll has to be accepted

The money you raise will be collected by the TTN and be donated to the Weisser Ring e.V.

So warm up your dices and play games at that weekend :)
More information about that charity event you can find on the delivered links. Warning: All in German :)

So long,

Paradox0n

P.S.:

And some shoutouts to new followers. Welcome to The Responsible One and Morikun. Take one of the free seats and enjoy the flight.

Blogger changes - Cookies!

© dreamstime.com

Maybe you wondered why now a strange message box in the head of many blogs appears: That is because of some recent changes in blogger's cookie policies. In the EU there are some legal restriction for dealing with cookies and at some point you as user have to accept the usage of cookies. With those cookies you enable the website to track your behavior and, depending on the kind of cookie) your interests and stuff.

As always in the WWW there are good and bad cookies. Some are really needed for websites (like session management and stuff) others are somewhat neutral (tracking your likes and thus providing ads which fit to you) others are clearly harmful. 

For  my part, I have a cookie blocker which kills hopefully most of the harmful stuff. Other side of the coin is, I have to whitelist everything I want to allow. But that is up to your decision how you want to deal with all this :) 

I would be happy if you would allow me to track your visit for my statistics and also to display some ads (even if not personalized). If enough people choose to click on ads and have analytics track them, the more one gets for an ad. I will not get rich by this, but maybe (at some point) there is enough there that I can buy some paints or stuff, which I could make a review on or so ;)

So far for this more technical update. If you have questions about cookies and stuff, feel free to comment, maybe I can help you (if it gets not too far). 

So long,

Paradox0n

The End has come - Farewell old friend!

I am so sad. Really! As it seems I finally have to say "Goodbye!" to an old friend, which was part of my gaming life (even if it was with big breaks) in the midst of the 90tis: This night the rules for Age of Sigmar, the so called successor of Warhammer Fantasy Battles came out. At least the first official glimpse with the free rules and the Warscrolls...
Even with all the rumors and those pictures of the Sigmarines I had a bit of hope left. But this is destroyed now.

I don't know what those guys/girls did take for drugs but honestly, the rules souond as if my godchild had written them, while taking some of the Space Marines from my old Starquest and doing "Pew Pew Chhhhhhhh" sounds. Honestly how can you call that a game with rules like "the count of models defines the army size you play" (as if 30 Skaven are as strong as 30 Sigmarines) and special rules like "If you do as if you ride and imaginative horse you get rerolls and if you even talk to this imaginative horse you get this and that bonus".

And the translations are also as if they where put through Google Translate or something (at least the German ones). Fluent reading not possible. Not that I would require German rules but nonetheless...

There is so much wrong in all this that I can't find words for it. Either it is a (very) late April Fool hoax or I don't know...

How convenient that the Mantic rules will be presented this week and they started a Kings of War offensive some time ago. Maybe this will be the new ruleset for all kind of Fantasy Battles in the future. I am already on that train and eagerly waiting for the Kickstarter stuff to be shipped. Maybe I then can convince my old gaming partner to give it a try, because for him WHFB was aleady dead some time ago. Otherwise my thousands of points of Dark Elves and Skaven will find a dark and silent grave again in my cellar.


What are your thoughts on the new rules? Are you happy with them? Or as disappointed as I? Please feel free to leave a comment below.


So long,
Paradox0n

Calming down

Wohooo! Seams like slowly the spambot attacks are going down. That is a good sign, so I will start posting again and see whats happening :)

Hobbywise things do calm down even more, since soon we will rebuild our complete working/hobby area.That will also mean more space for storing stuff and hopefully a bit more room and cleanliness. ATM its just a pain to start painting or stuff because my desk is full with other stuff and I have to clean everything up and also store the paint stuff again. That really sucks because I am more the slow painter and if you always have to store your stuff you will never make progress...

And I just saw I have a new follower. So :Welcome aboard Dan! Hope I found out the correct blog for you :) Search yourself a seat, the airship slowly fills up.


So long,
Paradox0n

Still in the trenches

If you wondered why it is so quite on this blog: No I did not quit writing or trying to do some hobby stuff. I just had some "active" weeks with travelling to Romania for work and more private stuff.
Also I am still pretty p***ed about whats going on with all those spambots. Looks like Russia does a cyberwar against my blog, three days ago I had more than 500 hits only with those spambots. But it seems that this was the last spike and things are calming down now...

So cross your fingers that this stupid wave is finally over please :)

See you soon!
Paradox0n

Calming the waves

Nichiren Calming the Seas by Kuniyoshi

Yes, I am still alive. I did take a short break to (hopefully) calm down the spambot waves a bit. Through my latest posting and pushing rhythm it seems I got quite the attention of a lot of spambots. I could see a LOT of doubtable referer URLs in my statistics and also got some spam in the comments.On the one hand, attention is nice but on the other hand only if its from real readers and not just sutpid bots.

Meanwhile I did change my about page a bit, to reflect the latest changes in the hobby.

Finally I got the pictures from the shipmodels convention I visited a week ago. Just scanning through them and finding the best for a short report :)

Also my Warmachine/horde battle report is still waiting. One ie preproduced and the other one is in the making.


So stay tuned,
Paradox0n

MMM - Anyone alive out there?

Another episode of my Monday Morning Musings (and Music). Today I am asking myself if anybody is still reading the stuff I post. There was not much feedback on the last stuff I posted which dampens my motivation for posting a bit at the moment.
As you all know, comments are a bloggers best friend (also like/shares etc.pp. help to keep a good mood). So if you still read my stuff, I would be happy if you find some time to post a small comment from time to tome, even a "sucks" or "great" if you have not much time.
I see that I have lots of visits (increasing from month to month) and sometimes up to nearly 300 a day but no active participation like comments or likes/shares in the social media.

Therefore I shout out in the blogosphere: Is anybody out there?! with some hardcore music from Neophyte:

Warmachine/Hordes battlereport Nr. 3 is already done and will be posted this week. I also had a fourth game last Monday. Sadly I took no pictures but I will give you a short summary nonetheless.


So long,
Paradox0n

P.S.:
And another new follower. A warm "Welcome!" to Alejandro Lii. Take a seat, grab some tea and enjoy the ride. If you have a blog, please tell me, that I can add you to my blogroll.

Happy Easter to everyone

Today only a very short post: I wish all of you a Happy Easter. Hope you can party with your family and have some nice free days.

And a warm welcome to Kodos der Henker. Have a seat, take some tee and cookies. And enjoy the ride.


So long,
Paradox0n

Milestone reached: 60.000 hits

So its another milestone which this blog breached: 60.000 hits since I am tracking. Maybe you ask yourself why I am not waiting for the 100k mark for making a happy dance. That's easily explained: I just count this mark more like 50.000 hits because recently I have lots of search engine traffic (but no exact values sadly) so I have to give a best guess.

It seems to pay off that I tried to be a bit more present in Social Media (please check them out if you don't habe already) and in blog/community rolls of big hobby sites (like BoLS or Faeit).

And I was lucky and just hit the blog and was greeted with the perfect number ;-)

So what are the plans for the future? Most likely there will be more Warmachine/Hordes content (as soon as I got my stuff) and also a bit more of Shadows of Brimstone. If everything works fine I may also have a bit more time and I can play some bigger games of Kings of War which my system of choice will most likely be since ATM I see my future not with Warhammer Fantasy. But who knows, maybe the new edition will be excellent.

I also hope that I find more time to paint there are many many miniatures waiting. But that also depends a bit in which games I will play the next months.

I wish you all a food time and thanks for reading this blog!


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Random musings

After a long time I do again a MMM but switching from Monday Morning Music to Monday Morning Musings :) At least for today. I just don't want to post some music today (which I will do nonetheless) but also do some ranting and musing. Seems fitting at the moment because I just can't find the needed time for the hobby and even the blog is not traded as well as it should be (despite all the good intentions for this year). So I will at least start with blog care!

But as usual I will start this post with some music!
Woodkid - Conquest of Spaces: