luladins (preparing for september)

We're hitting critical mass. A lot of my classes are rounding to begin our finals, tons of crunchtime jobs at work for several new apps we're releasing, my 20th Anniversary Armored Berserk is coming in soon, AND I've been playing WoW casually ontop of it all. In other words, I am _fucking_ tired. But is it bad? No, it really isn't. I'm having too much fun.

One sad thing that did happen was that my paladin's original name, Flaminghomo, was banned. See details below:

His name is now Grifisu. Not as cool, no, but it'll do.

He's currently level 36. You won't believe how fast levelling is now! Here's some perspective - Grifisu was level 17 when I began playing him on Tuesday. It is Sunday, and he is now 36. I've played about 12 hours and gained 19 levels. That's insanity! Plus I have a mount and am getting an epic Charger at level 40.

As for my other hobby stuff, Cory and I setup a second Detolf case after moving the second couch in my room downstairs. My room is now infintely more spacey!

The centerpiece is going to have some reworking. I want to raise it up and purchase a display case to put the 20th Anniversary Armored Berserk in. Also, I'm planning on creating a HUGE Berserk mural that will be composed of several picture frames, each containing epic covers and inserts from the manga. And to top this all off, I'm probably going to install track lights on my ceiling. This is serious business, and it's going to be fucking epic.

Lastly, there was a request here by a reader for me to post a picture of the Scrojo Butcher shirt from Blizzcon. Here you go buddy, and thanks for your comments!

Fuuuuck. I'll be in Canton, China from October 8th to November 6th. Let's hope that goes well rofl. See you in Azeroth.

sprinting wolfmen, explosive monks, and a queen of blades (blizzcon '09)

Blizzcon this year was, as anti-climatic as this sounds, the same as last year. I'm not sure why I'm always expecting something amazing to appear out of the blue, but the internet has pretty much denied any possibility of such a dream. Even though I had to work the morning of, I pretty much went to MMO Champion and Blizzard's website and viewed all of the information that was released. The luster of it all has vanished, but I did indeed enjoy myself, seeing the grandness of it all. Even after all these years, I still gape in awe at the sheer amount of people, un-ashamed of their roots, coming to this annual event and showing their unsuppressed love and passion.

Kerrigan statue. This thing has been around, but I never get tired of it.

Let me first start out by saying FUCK YOU ANAHEIM CONVENTION CENTER. That's right. Making us pay for parking while all we were doing was picking up our tickets is all sorts of bullshit. Now that I have that out of the way, I think I'm gonna go ahead and talk about what I thought about some of the new games and changes.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

Most of us had guessed it already. Nothing escapes the whispers in the wind. Several weeks ago, people were already talking about Worgens and Goblins, and now that it is finally upon us, we sat in anticipation for the most important aspect of all WoW expansions: changes to the game. Simplification of stats? Good shit. Multi-levelling in crafting professions? Fuck yea. Taking mana away from some classes? Let's see where this goes.

Wang Wei's new Deathwing art is wickedly awesome.

I for one think that Blizzard kinda messed up on WoW. They cater to the pros, then they cater to the noobs, then they have to cater to the PvPers, then they have to watch out about how that will affect PvE, and vice versa. In the end we have a hodge-podge of classes that can do just about anything and everything. RNG has pretty much destroyed the professional WoW PvP scene and the redundancy of PvE tank and spanking has really yanked the sparkles out of this game. Cataclysm presents a lot of great new ideas, but most of them are lore-related. Long lost speculations of the Greymane Wall, Gilneas, Furion, Uldum, Grim Batol, and Deathwing have all finally resurfaced - and I'm glad. This alone is enough to pull me towards the expansion, but will it satisfy those who have already been fumbling through five years of grinding? The best way to re-invigorate WoW, IMO, is to give the whole game a face lift. Upgraded textures on a flat breasplate still means you're wearing a flat breastplate. Otherwise, Blizzard has been polishing a game that loses depth by the patch.

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty

Now here's something I didn't think I would be so excited about. They talked about the campaign being extremely grand, but I didn't expect this level of quality. Okay, maybe I did. The in-game cut scenes are literally of MGS quality and the voice acting is superb. They even got that chick from Battlestar Galactica to voice Kerrigan! I am hella rooting for this game now.

Yea I know this picture is old, but it's awesome.

It just sucks that the beta for the game got delayed. I was hoping to get in on that by this Winter, but it seems like the Battle.Net team dropped the ball on this one. We probably won't see Starcraft II launched till mid to late next year.

Diablo III: Monk Class

Fuck yes. When I heard about this, all sorts of stuff popped into my head. Monk as in healer? Or monk as in melee combat, fist guy? NEITHER. Monk as in badass fucking, explode your heart, shinning glyphs, holy warrior with AKUMA BEADS. While somewhat fragile in terms of his lifepool, the monk can dish out tons of damage and at the same time use powerful defensive abilities to escape dire situations. I really had a blast playing this guy, and if the final class isn't something wickedly amazing, I will probably be choosing between the monk or witch doctor.

Talk about badass.

I even bought a Diablo III poster and a Butcher t-shirt. If you didn't know, the Diablo franchise is probably my favorite of all time. Not only was it the first real Blizzard game I owned, but the cornerstone of my adolescent gaming.

On a final note, I can't believe this costume didn't even get an honorable mention. She could have totally beat out the paladin and Kel'Thuzad that got 4th and 5th place. You had to see it in person, it was fucking awesome and extremely true to the in-game armor.

Night Elf Priest wearing tier 8.

Before I close out this blog, I'd like to throw out a big thanks to Sean Wang and Mike Schwan. You guys fucking rock and made my Blizzcon experience possible.

And finally, a little taste of what's to come...

It's been a busy week, and it's only going to get busier. As school moves forward and work is piling up from MEDL, I will be able to see less and less sunlight, and far fewer hours doing the things I like to do. I do however, still want to paint another Berserk kit before I fully turn away from modelling, so keep an eye out for that!

the white hawk (has landed)

It's been about a month since I first received my Griffith Hawk Soldier 1/10 on Horse garage kit. Through these past few weeks, I've gone through some of the most tedious yet awe-inspiring moments, as I slowly, piece by piece, assembled my beloved Griffith.

The journey was long, but I feel extremely satisfied now at the end. Research, planning, hard work, dedication, the right tools, and a little imagination allowed me to create my first amazing statue. Before I go into more progress work, I'd like to thank a few particular sources: Joa (for the inspiration), Steve (for TONS of tips and suggestions), HobbyFanatics.com (for a slew of ideas), Cody's Coop (for the general tutorial), and M_Candy's youtube guides on garage kit building.

A comment on the kit itself and my decisions on how to construct it - I had originally wanted to follow the traditional color scheme (blue lightning bolts, silver armor, etc.) but then decided against it. After careful consideration and research, I consulted a few friends and we all ended up agreeing that performing an ivory white paint job (much like Art of War's Griffith repaints) would much better depict the "immaculate white hawk" that I had originally intended to portray. With that came the gold splattering on the base and the flag idea, which was drawn directly from one of Griffith's victory scenes in the manga. A little bit of improvisation and the use of a pastel purple instead of the over-used, bludgeoning blue took the kit a long way forward. Once again, I am extremely satisfied with the results, and I hope to do more of these things in the future!

And so...continuing where we previously left off:

Over here I added several rocks made of putty and apply the Taka no Dan decal.

After I primed the flags, my sister and I hand painted the Taka no Dan crest on both sides of each flag.

Primed, painted, and washed the rocks in the same colors as the base.

Added the same gold sprinkling effect that I used on the base.

I had a good feeling about adding foliage to the mix, so I went with a fall palette to give a sort of drying moss/leaves to the base and ultimately give the piece more dynamics in color.

A peek at what the other side looks like.

Stuck the flags in, two in the front and three in the back.

Rear view.

Installed footholds after epoxying Griffith to the saddle. He, surprisingly, doesn't need to be pinned down. His weight and how the saddle is made can easily support him.

Used the brass sheet again for the reins and attached the scabbard to Griffith's waist.

The final step of the piece - painting the Taka no Dan crest gold!

Peeling off the decal to a pretty amazing finish.

"Griffith, The White Hawk"

Note to self: don't drink three heavy shots within the span of 15 minutes. Your head might hurt the next day. Other than that, I hope you guys enjoyed reading about my progress with Griffith. Lots of pictures, I know. I'm hoping to work on something easier for the next one - probably a Casca. School, work, then Blizzcon on Friday. Good shit sirs.

burnt to a crisp (but still light as a hawk)

It's surprising that I can still take time out of my midterm schedule to write here. In reality, I'm being suffocated by a mountain of work that I still need to power through - it wouldn't hurt to take a breather ever once in a while. Between each project I'd sit down and watch an episode of anime or work on Griffith for an hour or two. It's perfect since I'm usually waiting for something to dry or set.

FInished priming the bastard.

Masking out the lightning bolts.

Finished painting and touching up the horse, added the tail, put Griffith on (not glued yet) just for this picture.

Home Depot was being a douchebag and wouldn't help me drill pilot holes, so I took my Dremel and did it myself. Slow and messy, but whatevs.

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Three screws about 1'' above the plaque's surface for stability. I added a bit of epoxy for good measure.

As suggested by my friend, Steve, I went to a hobby store and bought thin sheets of brass for the flag diorama.

Surprisingly, the best way to cut this stuff is by using oldschool scissors.

I'm going to paint these white and add stencil the Taka no Dan symbol onto all of them, then splay them around the base. I'll also be adding additional rocks and sprinkling the whole base with more gold paint. GET HYPE.

Anyways, back to the subject of anime, I want to point out that Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood) episode 19 was seriously one of the best episodes, both in plot and animation, that I've ever seen. They hit ALL the sweet spots and pushed ALL the buttons over and over again; they even added a major cliffhanger for good measure. After I soaked up all 24 glorious minutes, I immediately returned and began to take screenshots. I ended up with about 20 ... yea, there were that many awesome scenes. For your sanity's sake, I will only be listing about half of them :P

I ASSUME everyone has a general idea of how FMA goes, but I'll go ahead and put this disclaimer here that there might be some spoilers, though most of this is just action and me pointing out how awesome the animation is; scroll down at your own risk.

Look at how they "paint" the scenery. Rough, but extremely effective.

I never expected this. The way they animated this was beyond words, watching the pieces of Barry's armor fly towards the audience, in pieces.

Even minor details, like Hawkeye's tears, were extremely well done. Watch for the sparkle JUST as the tears begin to slide down her cheek. Details man, details.

This is probably THE badass shot of the episode. The slow-mo with the armor debris flying was extremely captivating.

Not the most awesome shot, but this shows the sheer power of Mustang's fire.

After watching this, I finally accepted Lockon Stratos' voice acting. The way he lets loose with words "kisama wa koi tana", sent chills down my spine.

Extremely voilent. Almost shocking, compared to other BONES series. But extremely well-animated, and the point of her suffocation is made extremely clear.

That perspective. Look at Mustang's pose and the downwards trajectory that we're shown. This not only displays a very unique view that is rarely seen, but demonstrate's his superiority in the situation.

Change some hues and light some bitches on fire.

Sweet ass pose, T-1000 style.

The way they do disentigration in this series must be some new technique, cause it looks fucking amazing. This is ESPECIALLY apparent when we see Lust's stone disentigrate. Do it in chunks, not linearly.

So that's my image-filled orgasm for FMA. Really though, the production this season is breathtaking. Backed by Akira Senju's score (which will probably be one of the best anime OSTs of all time, no joke) there are probably very few to no flaws.

Okay back to midterms =.= I'm about 90% done with Griffith. A lot of the stuff now is minor details, like adding the reins, the saddle strap, creating some more diorama rocks, painting those rocks, and adding the painted flags to the mix. I might also burn-engrave the Hawk symbol onto the wood, but I'll need help with that haha. Anyways, I might be going to pulsr's place this Saturday for the SBO BBQ. Let me know if you want to come. Peace.

the finish line (i can taste it)

It's been a busy, busy week. First off, I want to say I landed an internship at a cellphone app creation company. It's pretty sweet, and I will be working part time there in the coming days. Besides that, been hard at work on my Griffith garage kit. It's surprising to think, after all of this hard work and insane labor, that I am pretty damn near close to finishing. I thought that the post-prep work would be fairly difficult (such as painting and attaching all of the little shits), but it's actually quite the opposite. I sat down and managed to paint all of Griffith in one night, save the sword and scabbard. Albeit it took the entire night (about 6 hours worth), he came out rather nicely (or IMO anyways). My phone camera was a real poor choice for this, both because it hides my mistakes as well as the extra effort I put into small details. I promise that when the statue is complete, I will take my dad's 9 thousand megapixel camera and do this kit some justice.

I had to pretty much re-mold several broken/missing pieces out of Milliput. Fuck Thai resin.

Tamiya Masking Tape is really godlike. Sticks decently and is easy as hell to pull off.

Priming outside my house, in my underwear, at midnight.

This was tricky as hell. Since the cloak pieces are rather heavy, I had to apply massive amounts of masking tape to make sure the chunks would stay in place while the epoxy glue dried (which takes several hours).

My ghetto triple stack foam dryer.

Everything (except for the cloak) is primed! Testing it out.

While the glue was hardening on the horse, I decided to paint Griffith, starting with his face and hair.

I then did his clothes a pastel violet and his boots a rosey leather.

Painted his armor ivory white and added gold to all his buckles.

Attached the cape with some epoxy and called it a night. Woke up the next morning and the cloak was stuck on rock hard.

Decided the white armor needed a bit more flare and added gold to all of the bolts.

Finished building and painting the sword! You also cannot take that out of his hand, his two-part fist clenches it in place.

The final stage of prep work for the horse - puttying and epoxying the gaps between the cloak. Took about an hour.

You can't really see it that well, but this was the innovation of the night. I took an old toothbrush and the gold paint and flicked gold flakes all over the base. It's really sublte, but I think the overall outcome was great.

Now that the Griffith stuff is over, I just wanted to share some snapshots of an ad I saw on TokyoTosho. Darker than Black was a decent series; I'd actually rate it slightly above average in overall terms, but the entertainment value was definitely much higher. I did enjoy the first season, and I am definitely looking forward to the second!

Midterms this week, and work. That's not going to stop me from finishing my Griffith kit though! And on a final note: may my uncle rest in peace. He left us just a few days ago, and I wish him all the best wherever he is now.