Work in Progress

A few weeks ago I posted about some sternguard veterans that I was painting. They are nearly finished, and I'm just baseing the unit. I thought I'd just share photos of them.

Moar Warhammer

Charlie requested some posts about warhammer. So, I've included some pictures of a model from the sternguard veteran squad I'm currently working on. He is a work in progress. A quick rundown of how I did him is as follows:
1. Spray under-coat in white.
2. Wash in nuln oil (I realise I should have used a mixed wash for better effect with the white but I'm lazy)
3. A layer of white scar.
4. Bronzes- dwarf bronze (or its new equivalent), followed by agrax earthshade wash, followed by highlights in hashut copper (this is where someone tells me hashut copper is the new dwarf bronze).
4. The boltgun is leadbelcher, washed with nuln oil. Mithril silver (whatever that is now) is then dry brushed on top of that.
5. All paper is bleached bone (I HAVE A LOT OF OLD PAINT OKAY!) followed by agrax earthshade followed by a white highlight.
6. The purity seal wax and the blood staining on the fists is khorne red,  then mephistone red, then evil sunz scarlet.
7. Piping behind the knees and elbows is dawnstone washed with nuln oil (I do love nuln oil).

While I haven't gotten round to baseing this model, the basingI use is as follows: blackfire earth (the new texture paints are miraculous), layered on thickly. This is followed by dawnstone, which doesn't have to be neat, smooth, or even. Then, wash with nuln oil (yes, again). Then drybrush dawnstone on. Finally, drybrush a thin layer of 50:50 dawnstone white scar mix.

This is not a painting tutorial, it's an exhibition of how I paint my marines.

Oh I know what to blog about!

I had a beautiful moment of realisation just now. I have an interesting bit of news to write about. On Wednesday I went to an applicant day at the University of Nottingham, and received an excellent offer. I currently require an AAB to study MSci Physics at Nottingham. Which considering my next lowest offer is AAA* is a very good offer. Also, I remembered how much I liked the university. It's got a beautiful campus, and a fantastic physics course. I remembered how interesting the staff were and how good the research was. But, most importantly, I remembered how much I felt like I belonged at the University of Nottingham. I feel very much like it was where I should have been aiming to go all along. Therefore, I am currently leaning towards putting Nottingham down as my first choice. Probably for reasons that stem deeper than just 'liking the feel of the place'. However, the phrase 'liking the feel' is the most accurate description of my reason for deciding on Nottingham that I can come up with at the moment.

Also, please suggest things for me to write about. Otherwise the frequency of my posts will drop. Please put your suggestions in the comments box. Thankyou. 

I need to post more

I need to post more often. Also, I need to generate more focused content. If you have suggestions as to what you'd like to read please comment.

Not Much Really

I find myself with a desire to blog, but with nothing to blog about. This is unfortunate really. Exams are over, therefore I should probably discuss what I will be doing with my life for the next few months other than going to birthday parties. There are a number of video-games installed on my computer that I have yet to get round to starting let alone finishing. I should probably play the aforementioned games. Also, I have been model painting quite a bit recently, so I will be spending even more time doing that. I will probably even put up photos of models I have painted. I will ask Charlie to take the photos as he has a decent camera. I am rambling to myself by this point after completely forgetting that I have an audience. I do apologise reader. I have not finished uncompartmentalising (that's probably not a real word) my mind after exams. I do hope you've all had a good exam season. I'm glad it's over, and I can't wait to get on with the rest of my life.

Welcome Home

I have returned home to Indonesia. The concept of home in this case is convoluted. I'm not going to go into depth; I'm only going to state that in this case I'm calling Indonesia home because it's where my parents live. So far, I have been home for around two weeks and I'm beginning to get used to the heat again. It's beautiful here. Nothing quite equals waking up in the morning and being able to walk outside and watch as the clouds brush over the mountains that surround Malang.

It's warm enough to stand around outside in nothing but pyjama shorts. Much to my parents chagrin, I have often taken advantage of this fact. Don't get me wrong, tropical heat can be overbearing and oppressive at it's worst. However, it is nice to not have to carry a coat everywhere. I have also enjoyed living in my flip-flops, or thongs as the Australians have christened them (but why?!). I haven't actually left the house yet without my flip-flops on. I see very little point getting sweaty feet wearing other types of footwear. Sure everywhere else is sweaty, but not my feet.

I have managed to eat at a variety of cuisine. I believe that in these two weeks I have eaten Chinese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Italian (yeah pizza hut isn't really Italian but what can you do), English, and American cuisine. I'm not entirely sure if describing some of the food I've eaten as cuisine is entirely accurate but as it's the most simple course of action I'm going to stick with it. Tonight I had duck and it was, simply put, really good. The restaurant we went to also serves what is, in my opinion, the best nasi goreng in malang. For the uninitiated among my readers, nasi goreng is the Indonesian phrase for fried rice.

While eating and enjoying the weather have been a large part of my vacation, it hasn't been the most important part of my return home. Spending time with people who I grew up with, and spending time with my family has been the highlight of being home. I've had the chance to catch up with Bethany and Jamen Gallagher who are really dear to me (they're Australian so I'm not sure if they'll find that last statement a touch mawkish). It's been amazing finding out what they've been up to while I've been separate from them. It has also been really rather entertaining spending time with the Buckners. I spent a lot of time with both Jon Mark and Dorothy while growing up and they matter to me a great deal; so finding out how they're lives are shaping up these days is a real privilege. Spending time with my family has also been really interesting. They are all insane. No member of my family is normal, whether it's my huskies or my parents. That's probably the reason I've missed them all so much. I've missed being with people that I know are as loopy as I am.

That concludes my holiday post. I'd like to leave you with a song you may recognise from the Nikon advert:

A social media revolution

My father recently brought to my attention how much rubbish is posted on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and even Google+. With this in mind I viewed my Facebook news feed and was ashamed to find that the social media generation was actually posting rubbish, unhelpful, boring, and quite often degrading things all over the social part of the internet.

It is such a waste. Social media is such a powerful tool, as everything we post can have an effect on a relatively large group of people. We have the power to influence not just the people we are directly connected to but also the wider network of people connected to us through friends.

If this is true, then why do we repost stupid cat videos and degrading images? Moreover, why do we continue to be mindless meme slaves subscribing to brain killing trash and subjecting others to posts that don't reflect the thoughts and passions of our generation. This repost culture its comparable to endless nyan cat ! This analogy goes further than you might expect. Bad posting is both annoying and endless.

Imagine how much better the internet would be if we posted things that were edifying, that were helpful, that actually mattered. Moreover, imagine how much better people we would be offline. We have to stop pretending that what happens online doesn't affect who we are in the real world. We have to stop filling the internet with rubbish and we have to stop being meme slaves. We have to stop this nyan cat culture.