Hitting the 40k visits mark

So wow! I just checked my statistics and saw an unbelievable number oft hits there. Over 40.000 visits on my blog! Although I know that most oft the traffic comes from Google and other crawlers I am pretty happy. Even more since I know that most oft the spambots are now blocked out (can see that pagehits did break down after I changed the comments to registered only).

So a big: Thank you! to everyone who is reading this blog.

And I take this oportunity to make the small anouncement that I will post again more (hobby) stuff. Had to take some time off doing other things like working and hiking (especially in Norway and the Black Forrest) until I found the motivation again to interest me for my plastic mountains ;-)

So stay tuned.
Paradox0n

Impressions from Norway

As promised I will post some of my Norway pictures. Today I want to start with some more hobby related pictures which gave me some nice ideas for bases/weathering and an idea how stuff "grows" in reality.
So without anymore babble I let the pictures speak. "A picture tells more than 1000 words", right?

Earth, Stones and Trees

Some impressions from our first hiking trip. Liked how the area looked, a bit "highland" feeling.

Ice | Nigardsbreen

Some impressions from Nigardsbreen. After we did a small hiking trip to one of the arms in the neighborhood, we decided to go to the big one which is one of the biggest attractions in Jostedal. We booked a short guided tour and therefore I could take some nice pictures from the glaciertongue itself. We didn't climb up too far, but it was very impressive. Next time a bigger blue ice tour ;)

Weathered truck in swampland

One nice thing I stumbled upon when we did our last hiking trip was this rusted truck. It was nearly reoccupied by nature and was really cool.

That's it for today. If you liked it please say so in the comments, I can post some more pictures of Norway if you like. For example on our canoe trip one part looked a bit like the place where the hobbits paddled through ;)


So long,
Paradox0n

Painting Buddha Academy: PBCC released the first video in their series

As you all know by now I am a pretty big fan of Painting Buddha and their DVDs. And they don't stop surprising me! Michael, Ben and Mati did another masterstroke: They opened up their own painting academy and just promote it.

If you want to know more about the Painting Academy, the features, costs and everything, please read their very informative and comprehensive blogpost concerning the Painting Buddha Community College.

 And what better way to promote that with the first tutorial video (out of 42 as usual)!

I put the released videos all together in one playlist for your convenience and hope Michael is OK with that. You can find the original blogpost from Painting Buddha on their new website/shop/blog and all the videos on their Youtube Channel.

I myself only opted to take the blue pill and hope they continue to produce DVDs and stuff (which I will most likely buy then) and not switch completely to this community thing. To not take a membership (for now) is just a personal preference, most paid communities I had a look on didn't just convince me. Have to see how the PBCC will be in the future.

Hope you enjoy it.


So long,
Paradox0n

P.S.: I think Michael really wants to take over rulership and be "El Presidente" ;)

Hobby Magazines - Ironwatch Issue #25

Ironwatch Magazine Issue 25

Issue #25 of Ironwatch Magazine, the Mantic Games Fanzine has arrived.

This time it contains a nice mixture of Kings of War and Warpath topics like:

• Kings of War scenarios
• Gallery of professional painted Mantic miniatures
• An overview of an undead army
• Second part of a Warpath story
• and many more

And there is also one short notice about the planned hardcover variant for the magazine:

Due to technical difficulties, availability in hardcover has been put on hold for the immediate future. We will attempt to get them to you in hardcover as soon as possible!

If you haven't checked already, take a look, its free and fanmade and totally supported by Mantic (so you'll see lots of images).


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Dan Bull 40 years of gaming and back from Norway

The leisure times are over... My vacation in Norway was way too short but with lots and lots of impressions. If you need ideas for your display bases or army displays Norway is the country to travel to. I live in a really nice area (Black Forrest in Germany) which has an incredible landscape, but Norway was even more spectacular since it combines all kind of landscapes.
I have been climbing the heights of waterfalls, wanted to explore caves, did some glacier hiking and some canoeing in a fjord. And took more than 1000 pictures which I will show you some of them as inspiration for your future projects as soon as I have sorted them.

For today I will just show you a nice music video from Dan Bull: 40 years of gaming. I am curious how much of the stuff you know, my first video game wath Ataris PONG in the living room of our neighbours and since then hasn't stopped :)

Hope you enjoy it!

So long,
Paradox0n

Vacation! Finally!

Trolltunga in Norway

Finally I am off to Norway! Should have been there already for more than a week but due to some health issues of my wife we had to let my sister-in-law and partner travel without us.

But now we will catch up and meet them in Bergen and enjoy the second half of the trip together. Too bad that we missed the good weather and jump right into rain and storm (nice since we want to sleep in our tent). So cross your fingers that the weather will get better soon and I don't have to fear that my tent is blown away in the night ;)

Plan is to visit Bergen, Finse, Trondheim, Trollheimen, maybe Jotunheimen, Oslo and some stuff in between, Then back to the ferry which brings us to Denmark and finally a 14 hours drive back to Germany.

Outdoor adventure here I come!

See you in about two weeks!
Paradox0n

MMM: Bülent Ceylan - Nichts besondres

Todays MMM has a special reason: Last weekend I enjoyed the new program of Bülent Ceylan, a german comedian, which was a gift from my wife for my birthday a week ago. I knew him until now only from TV or DVD but Live on Stage he is even better!  And this song really surprised me the most.
Since the audio is in german, I think it could be a bit disappointing for my english audience but maybe you can grasp the feeling of the song:

Its a song about being nothing special and taking life as it is, be it good or be it bad. The chorus struck me (roughly translated):

"Many laugh only because they don't want to weep,

what did the life do to you?

Do you want a better the world,

start with the one you see in the mirror!

Every tear contains a rainbow,

only in the darkness you can't see it.

I know the stars are above,

and a small shine is enough for me"

So long,
Paradox0n