There And Back Again

Watching my bewilderment

2012-01-30T11:55:00.001+10:00

Look I'm excited as the next LOTR geek for any new plastic crack from GW, but what the hell is this monstrosity? I like the tentacles, i like the head, beak, etc. It looks like the one from the movie, but what the hell is it doing with an oversized prawn body, crawling about on the beach? I don't remember that ever happening, in the book or the movie?!

I was always under the impression that the Watcher in the Water was some kind of Kraken, not a mutated prawn? The legs and body looks ridiculous. So the question becomes, could I justify buying a $116 model, to saw off the lower body and place it in a water base as it should have been done? It should have been the some of the head sticking out of the water, perhaps with some nice textured waves etc on the base, rolling away from the head, then the tentacles should have been flailing about from out of the water. That would have made a lot more sense to me. Heck they did some lovely wave bases for their Dreadfleet set, so it's not like they couldn't have made this really special.

I guess they're trying to make it into a critter to charge across a battlefield, but it just comes across absolutely ridiculous! I might wait and see if one pops up on eBay then get it, and modify the crap out of it!

Lost on a desert island

2012-01-28T13:02:00.000+10:00

So we went off for a weekend on Coochiemudlo Island, which sounded lovely. And probably would have been if the weather was better and not the current monsoon conditions we're getting. As it was, if your planning on going to visit there, you probably want to know some things:

[1] Apart from the beach, there isn't anything much there. I'm told there's a 9 hole golf course, but if its raining you won't be using that. Its got plenty of beaches, which looked quite nice, although I hear they get jellyfish! If your stuck indoors, make sure you take something to do, otherwise its a trip back to the mainland for you! Thankfully that doesn't take very long, and the ferry runs pretty regularly.

[2] Not much in the way of food/dining options - take your own supplies with you. Otherwise it's a trip back on the ferry again. The closest thing we could find to a restaurant, was a kiosk with a barbeque behind it the would burn meat on demand, or a fish'n'chips shop near the beach. Functional, but not very romantic!

[3] But the worst thing was how utterly uncomfortable we were at the Seminara Apartments. The place was lovely, quite modern, and very tidy, but features one of the hardest beds I think I've ever had to try to lie on. The fold out bed/couch was missing its mattress, so it had no support or comfort to it either. We both felt pretty bruised and exhausted by the end of it - not the relaxing getaway we were envisioning. We certainly couldn't sleep in or relax, and were up every morning at 5. So I'd suggest taking whatever you need to be comfortable. If that means taking an inflatable mattress, or your own pillowtop, I'd say do it!

Anyway, that's enough complaining. I think if the weather had been nice and we were able to get outside, we'd probably have enjoyed the beach, and walking the island. We had a few hours of sunny weather when we first arrived, and did manage to walk part way around the island which was quite nice. It's not very big, and I think you could probably walk around it in an hour.

The people were also quite friendly, and were happy to talk with you. Little things were quite nice, but overall I think Coochiemudlo needs some effort to be come a proper destination for people to go too.

Doctor Who Xmas Special Promo

2011-12-15T09:52:00.001+10:00

COD: Modern Warfare 3

2011-11-24T11:05:00.001+10:00

After noticing we didn't have anyone to play on COD: Black Ops anymore, cos they've all scurried over to MW3, which meant we had to get the new game.

I haven't played any of the other Modern Warfare series so far, mostly just confined to the historical ones - World at War, Airborne, Black Ops. So far the campaign has been a ton of fun! The missions have been very exciting with a good mix of things to do - lay mines on a submarine and infiltrate, escape on an inflatable boat, fend off terrorists on a plane as it crashes, pilot a Predator drone, and fight through New York streets!

The only frustration I've had so far has once again been the multiplayer. Don't get me wrong, its very well done and tons of fun - if your not playing against people that are so far ahead of you in levels that they are virtually invincible. Its pretty frustrating to spend multiple games dying repeatedly, especially when you emptied your entire clip into the other guy! I get up, run about and die. Rinse, lather, repeat! All I seem to be doing is levelling up the other guy, acting as cheap cannon fodder! Why don't they match you up with people your own level, until you climb up the ladder a bit.

I also find you don't end up getting much support from your teammates. Often they just bugger off, and its an every man for himself situation. I don't know if there's better ways to encourage teamwork - although the assisted bonus is a nice touch if you help a teammate kill an enemy. I get the assisted bonus a bit, but its mostly just me trailing around behind people - not any real cooperation on their part.

I ended up giving up in disgust with my last batch of multiplayer, because any fun was just sucked out of it! The other guys were shrugging off a crap storm of lead from me, and would put me down with a single shot. Sometimes I wouldn't even see it coming from way across the map, or else they just bombard you with Predator drones over and over. First game out, I got stuck with people that were level 50+ with access to all the goodies!

I had wondered if there was any cheating going on, as I did have problems with this in Black Ops. There was an online douche who had some kind of cheat in effect, that would let him kill all the players in front of him, all across the map with a single press of the trigger - no aiming required! A lot of the players stuck together and kicked him out, but its a shame the game makers can't do something more to stop this kind of douche baggery that goes on.

I'm going to try doing the training levels for a bit and see if that levels my player up so that I can withstand multiplayer a bit better. If not I think i'll just go back to playing the campaign alone. I've just finished the mission with Makarov's shipment in Africa thats gone missing. I'll hopefully get some time to continue on with the shipment arriving in London tonight.

Ikit Klaw [5]

2011-11-17T09:45:00.001+10:00

Using a mix of Chaos Black and Codex Grey, I roughly painted the armor plates, leaving he metallic showing along the edges of the plates, as if the paint coating had been chipped off. I then adding the chipping along the edges of that plates using Mithril Silver.

Some more of the brass components were finished with Dwarven Brass. A wash of Devlan Mud was applied and allowed to dry. Highlights with a mix of Dwarven Brass and Chainmail were applied to the spots where light would fall on the model.

Some of the other warpstones were completed and the liquified warp stone flowing through the hoses on the backpack was painted in. I went back and finished the warpstone highlight layers that were missing using a mix of Scorpion Green and Golden Yellow.

Ikit Klaw [4]

2011-11-15T09:43:00.001+10:00

I had an urge to work on something a bit different, so I dug out Ikit to work on some more. I finished completing his robes, using shades of grey, building up from the Charadon Granite basecoat after washing with Badab Black. I used progressively lighter shades, moving through Codex Grey, and eventually adding in some Deneb Stone. The robes will need to have some Skaven designs detailed along the hem.

The armor plating was painted with a mix of Boltgun Metal and Chaos Black to keep the plating looking dark. I think I still need to add a painted coating on the plates, to make it look like the metal has been painted and that its not just bare metal. I'll apply this roughly so it looks like it has been knocked around and the metal has been exposed. I'll then add some Chainmail and Mithril Silver highlights and scratches to the plating.

The helmet had some Enchanted Blue added to the Boltgun/Black mix.I still need to do some shading, highlights etc on this. But I'll paint in Ikit's skin and fur before I go any further on that.

I've started to pick out some more of the Brass parts too, especially on the mechanical claw and staff. I started with Tin Bitz, then added Dwarven Brass. I still need to wash with Devlan Mud for shading.

The warpstone was painted with Gnarloc Green, then shades of Goblin Green, through Scorpion Green. I added some yellow into the last highlight. I'm not sure about that yet - whether I like it or not. I also still need to add the reflections from the glass, especially in the vials on Ikit's belt. And I'll need to do some OSL glow effects thrown onto the surrounding armor etc from the warpstone.

Doctor Who Season 6

2011-09-01T10:39:00.000+10:00

6.1 The Impossible Astronaut
Amy and Rory, River Song and a mysterious man each receive an envelope, numbered 2, 3 and 4, containing a date, time and map reference, unsigned, but TARDIS blue. This strange summons reunites them in the middle of the Utah desert and unveils a terrible secret the Doctor's friends must never reveal to him. After they meet up, they find a fourth envelope in a restaurant, sent to the Doctor, who joins them. Placing his life entirely in their hands, the Doctor agrees to join them on their mission. Their quest lands them in the Oval Office in Washington, D.C., where they are enlisted by President Nixon himself to assist enigmatic former-FBI agent Canton Everett Delaware III, in saving a terrified little girl from a mysterious spaceman.

6.2 Day of the Moon
The second episode of a two-parter, the FBI are looking for River Song, Rory and Amy. The world has been occupied by aliens that leave your memory the moment you stop looking at them; the Doctor and his companions can trust no one.

6.3 The Curse of the Black Spot
Aboard a 17th-century pirate ship the Doctor needs to win the trust of Captain Avery as his friends start to be influenced by a beautiful Siren (Lily Cole). Can the Doctor save them all before they fall for the siren's song?

6.4 The Doctor's Wife
In the hope of finding another Time Lord, the Doctor responds to a distress signal. Greeted warmly by Auntie, Uncle and Nephew, Idris' welcome is unusual.

6.5 The Rebel Flesh
On 22nd century Earth the Doctor finds humans using clones to perform dangerous tasks.

6.6 The Almost People
Continuing the story started in "The Rebel Flesh", the insane half-human, half-flesh mutant Jennifer is looking for revenge.

6.7 A Good Man Goes To War
In this mid-series finale, Amy is held captive on Demon's Run and the Doctor assembles an army of allies to recover her. Meanwhile, River reveals her greatest secret to the Doctor.

6.8 Let's Kill Hitler
The TARDIS crashes in 1938 Berlin where River Song tries to kill the Doctor.

6.9 Night Terrors
Eight-year old George is so terrified he can't sleep. His parents are unable to help, and the Doctor answers George's plea.

6.10 The Girl Who Waited
Amy is held in quarantine and Rory must free her. Unfortunately, Rory finds himself face-to-face with a future version of her, driven by anger, hatred and disappointment for both him and the Doctor, and Rory must make the biggest decision of his life.

6.11 The God Complex
The trio arrive at a hotel where the layout of the rooms keeps changing. It also contains rooms that hold the greatest fears of each visitor.

6.12 Closing Time
The Doctor visits Craig and meets the Cybermen again.

6.13 The Wedding of River Song
The Doctor travels to Lake Silencio, Utah to his death. But something is wrong with time.

Ikit Klaw [3]

2011-02-04T08:57:00.003+10:00

Working on the robes at the moment. Shaded the initial Dark Gray coat with Badab Black, then reset back to the Dark Gray coat, leaving just the shading in the deepest folds of the robes. Then added a highlight layer of Adeptis Battle Gray. I'll start doing blends next with progressively lighter shades of gray.

Some more of the metallic components have been painted in either Boltgun Metal or the brass mixes.

Once the robes are done, I'll start working on the dark armor. I'm thinking of mixing Boltgun Metal with Chaos Black for the darker plating.

Doctor Who Season 6 Promo

2011-02-01T14:48:00.002+10:00

The trailer for Season 6 of Doctor Who is now up. Looks really good, touching on some of the story threads from the last season, with reappearances by River Song, and the home made Tardis.

The on location shooting in America looks good, with some great looking scenery.

Ikit Klaw [2]

2011-02-01T10:41:00.003+10:00

Getting the rubberband off Ikit proved to be a problem, as some of the superglue had run out from under the backpack, and onto the band. I eventually managed to scrape it all off. The top of his gauntlet also proved to be a big problem to fit. It just would not fit on flush at all, no matter how much filing and sanding I did. I ended up fitting it to his arm, then using Green Stuff to fill in the gaps, and make it look like it should. While Ikit is a fantastic looking miniature, I think GW was being a bit ambitious trying to make these metal models. Plastic probably would have made for an easier fit together.

Started with painting the metal parts with Boltgun Metal, followed by a wash of Badab Black for shading. The bronze parts were painted with Tin Bitz, then brushed with Dwarven Brass, then highlights of Shining Gold, and final spot highlights of Burnished Gold. The rat medallion on his banner pole looks great!

I've painted the basecoat on his robes with Charadon Granite. I'm going to work up to a light gray/off white. I don't want the robes looking too clean and white though, because he is a rat after all!

Ikit Klaw [1]

2011-01-30T08:48:00.005+10:00

Looking at some of the new Skaven second wave miniatures, I was really taken with the Ikit Klaw figure. He's got a high tech suit (for a rat!) with warpstone powered weapons and a nasty looking power Klaw. With all the detail I figured he would be a lot of fun to paint, and possibly something interesting to do for the Golden Demon this year.

On starting on the cleanup and prep, he has a lot of flashing and some not too noticeable mold lines to clean up. Also he's really really sharp. You might want gloves to work on this one! Being a metal miniature, he will inevitably require some green stuff work to fill in gaps where he fits together. He's pretty good, but the backpacks never seem to fit on well.

One problem I did encounter was with fitting his banner pole. It should fit in behind the neck armor, but there is no hole. I carefully drilled one myself for it to plug into, then the slot on the backpack fits nicely up against the bottom of the pole. Not sure why the hole was missing? Molding problems possibly?

I'm holding Ikit together with rubber bands while the glue dries, then I'll be able to green stuff any seams and start painting him.

Beneath the sea, in Rapture

2011-01-04T13:54:00.009+10:00

Took the kids to Underwater World in Mooloolaba the other week as a treat for the Christmas holidays. Hadn't been there before so was somewhere new for me too. It's quite a long drive to the Sunshine Coast, one I haven't done myself before either, so I felt it was quite an achievement to get there in the first place (yes some mental high-fives were given!).

The drive through Mooloolaba was terrible, with slow moving traffic. I don't think the fact that there is one road along the point helped the problem much. Also there was not enough parking near the event, but thankfully we got something along the roadside and only had a short walk back. Driving home again in the afternoon proved to be not much better either.

Underwater World itself was quite reasonably priced compared to the tourist traps on the Gold Coast - except for food, take your own or go hungry.

There's all the usual highlights, pet the starfish (surprisingly they're quite hard), sharks, rays, moray eels, fish, alligator, plus an enormous frozen Hammerhead (certainly put things in perspective! - don't think I will ever get in the ocean in Australia). The seal show is worth a look, especially to see the seals being trained and some of the tricks they can do.

Doctor Who Season 5

2010-10-09T10:30:00.000+10:00

5.1 The Eleventh Hour
The failing TARDIS crashlands outside the house of seven-year-old Amelia Pond (Caitlin Blackwood), who welcomes newly regenerated Eleventh Doctor into her house to investigate the crack in her bedroom wall. He must use the TARDIS to regulate its engines, and promises he will return in five minutes which Amelia waits for. However, the TARDIS takes him twelve years into the future, where he joins the adult "Amy" Pond and her boyfriend Rory Williams in capturing the shapeshifting alien known as Prisoner Zerowho has escaped from the crack in Amy's wall and the failure of which will lead to the destruction of Earth by the glactic police force known as the Atraxi. After the Earth is saved, the Doctor tests the newly remodelled TARDIS and accidentally returns for Amy two years later in her timeline, the night before her wedding to Rory, and where she joins him for the promised travels of space and time.

5.2 The Beast Below
The Doctor takes Amy to the distant future, where they explore the Starship UK, a spaceship holding the population of Britain (with the exception of Scotland) after they fled Earth due to dangerous solar flares. They discover that the ship is guided by a Star Whale, who is being tortured out of fear that when let to make its own decisions it will abandon them. Believing that the future cannot go on this way, the Doctor prepares to render Star Whale brain-dead so it will continue to operate the ship but not feel it; however, Amy discovers that it is willing to serve the ship as it could not stand the children crying because of the solar flares.

5.3 Victory of the Daleks
The Doctor and Amy respond to a call from Winston Churchill (Ian McNeice) and visit him during the London Blitz, where he has employed "Ironsides", a scientific creation of Professor Bracewell (Bill Paterson) but which the Doctor recognises as his arch-enemies the Daleks. The Daleks reveal their plan to detonate a device built around Bracewell, who is revealed to be an android, and destroy planet Earth. As the device begins to activate, the Doctor and Amy convince Bracewell that he is human, which deactivates the device.

5.4 The Time of Angels
River Song (Alex Kingston), a woman from the Doctor's future, summons the Doctor and Amy to help her and Father Octavain (Iain Glen) and his group of militarized clerics destroy the last Weeping Angel in the site of the crashed ship Byzantium on the planet Alfava Metraxis. However, it is revealed that all statues in the stone labyrinth where the ship has crashed are Angels and are becoming more powerful from the radiation leaking from the ship. As the Angels surround the group and several clerics are revealed to be dead, the Doctor destroys the gravity globe that had been causing the labyrinth not to be affected by gravity.

5.5 Flesh and Stone
In continuation from "The Timeo of Angels", the group finds themselves thirty feet above at the opening of the Byzantium, which they enter to try escaping from the Weeping Angels. A crack very similar to the one in Amy's bedroom appears in the interior of the ship, which the Doctor discovers erases persons and objects from existance and was caused by an explosion on 26 June 2010. Meanwhile, it is discovered that a projection of an Angel had entered Amy's eye after she had looked into an Angel's eye in the previous episode, and the Doctor intructs her to keep her eyes closed. As the gravity fails, the Weeping Angels fall into the crack, erasing them from history and from Amy's eye, and the Doctor takes Amy to her house on her request. He resists her attempt to seduce him and descovers that the day of Amy and Rory's wedding is 26 June 2010.

5.6 The Vampires of Venice
The Doctor takes Amy and Rory to 16th century Venice as a romantic date, where they meet a man named Guido (Lucian Msamati) whose daughter Isabella (Alisha Bailey) was entered into the House of Calvierri, a school for girls. Guido is distressed because Isabella did not recognise him on the street and bore vampire-like fangs. The Doctor, Amy and Rory investigate the school, where they discover that the city's patron, Rosanna Calvierri (Helen McCrory), is a race of vampiric fish from another planet and has sealed off Venice in attempt to overtake it and make it a place for her race to live after they fled their planet because of the cracks in the universe. She transforms the girls admitted to her school into her race and has ten thousand of her children waiting in the water. Despite the Doctor's reasoning, she activates a storm which will flood Venice, but the Doctor deactivates the device and she sacrifices herself. As they leave, Amy asks Rory to stay and travel with her.

5.7 Amy's Choice
The Doctor, Amy and Rory find themselves travelling between two realities; in one, Amy and Rory are happily married but are being pursued by elderly people possessed by aliens, while in another they are in a powerless TARDIS that will slowly crash into a cold star which will freeze them to death. A man known as the Dream Lord (Toby Jones) says that he has put them in this trap and they must decide which is real and which is fake and die in the false one to wake up in the real reality and escape the trap. When Rory dies in the future reality, Amy decides that it must be fake because she does not want a life without Rory. At the conclusion it is revealed that psychic pollen had entered the TARDIS and caused the dream state, and the Dream Lord is revealed to be a psychic manifestation of the Doctor's dark side and self-loathing.

5.8 The Hungry Earth
The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive in Wales in 2020, where Dr Nasreen Chaudhry (Meera Syal) and Tony Mack (Robert Pugh) are drilling into the Earth for a mining experiment. Mack's son-in-law, Mo (Alun Raglan), had previously been dragged below the ground, which then happens to Amy. The Doctor discovers that reptilian humanoids the Silurianshave been disturbed by the drilling project and reach the surface, where they kidnap Mo's son Elliot (Samuel Davies). Rory and the Doctor capture one known as Alaya (Neve McIntosh); the Doctor instructs Rory, Tony, and Mo's wife Ambrose (Nia Roberts) to leave Alaya alone as anything done to her may been seen as an act of war. As a Silurian is about to vivisect Amy as he had done to Mo, the Doctor takes Nasreen on the TARDIS below where they discover an immense Silurian civilisation.

5.9 Cold Blood
Amy and Mo escape and discover Elliot is being held in an observation chamber. The Doctor is captured and ordered to execution by Alaya's sister Restac (Neve McIntosh), but Amy and Mo interrupt the trial. They contact Rory, Tony, and Ambrose to inform them they are sending a transport up for they and Alaya, the completion of which will leave them all free to return to the surface. However, Ambrose had killed Alaya out of revenge and they return her body to her people. A deal is made that the Silurians will hibernate for a thousand years as humanity was not ready to share the planet with them. As they leave with Elliot, they find a crack in the cavern which the Doctor reaches into to investigate and pulls out what is later revealed to be a piece of the TARDIS. Before they leave, Restac shoots Rory and he dies and is consumed by the crack, erasing him from existace and Amy's memory altogether.

5.10 Vincent and the Doctor
When visiting a museum, the Doctor finds a creature in the window of a church Vincent van Gogh's The Church at Auvers, and the Doctor takes Amy back to meet Vincent (Tony Curran) and defeat the evil creature. Welcoming them, van Gogh works with the Doctor to find the Krafyis, a lost and blind alien whom only van Gogh can see. Van Gogh kills the creature, though he empathises with its pain. Before leaving, the Doctor and Amy take van Gogh to the present where he discovers that people will admire him, but Amy is devastated to learn that he still committed suicide.

5.11 The Lodger
The TARDIS dematerialises with Amy still inside, leaving the Doctor stranded in present-day Colchester. He tracks the disturbance that caused the TARDIS to behave that way to the second floor of a flat, where people have been persuaded to go up to but have never come down. The Doctor rents part of the downstairs apartment occupied by Craig Owens (James Corden), a man who wishes to confess his love for his close friend Sophie (Daisy Haggard). When Sophie is lured up to the second floor, the Doctor and Craig enter it and discover that it is really a TARDIS-like spaceship disguised by perception filter and has been luring passerby to find a suitable pilot. The fact that Craig does not want to leave counteracts the ship's protocols, and this breaks the ship's hold on the house and allows the TARDIS to land. On the TARDIS, Amy discovers her engagement ring from Rory.

5.12 The Pandorica Opens
River Song summons the Doctor and Amy to 102 A.D. where she shows them a painting by Vincent van Gogh that depics the TARDIS exploding and contains the co-ordinents ofStonehenge. Underneath Stonehenge, they discover a prison box called the Pandorica, which is fabled to contain the most feared criminal in the universe. However, it is revealed that the Pandorica is empty and an Alliance of the Doctor's enemies arrive to put him in the Pandorica as the deadly cracks in the universe were linked to the TARDIS. The trap, which was constructed from Amy's memories, also contains an Auton version of Rory, who shoots Amy. Meanwhile, the TARDIS took River outside Amy's house on 26 June 2010 and explodes, causing the cracks to widen and the universe to begin erasing.

5.13 The Big Bang
The Doctor from the future gives Rory his sonic screwdriver and Rory uses it to get him out of the Pandorica; they place the dead Amy in the Pandorica, which will force her to stay alive once her DNA is given in the form of seven-year-old Amelia in 1996 who places her hand on the Pandorica by way of instructions left by the Doctor. As the universe is collapsing, the Doctor rescues River from the time loop in the exploding TARDIS and realises that if he flew the Pandorica, which contains a restoration field, collided with the exploding TARDIS it would restore the universe as it should have been, though this process erases him from history and closes the cracks. However, Amy is able to bring him back at she and Rory's wedding due to something the Doctor told her as he was being erased, and the newly wedded couple continue to travel with him.

Sauron [1]

2010-10-07T14:16:00.003+10:00

Here's Sauron on a lavaflow base. I've also tried to use object source lighting techniques to reflect the fire on his armor.

I used watered down Blood Red, Oranges, and Yellows to build up the color on the armor panels. This meant using a wet palette to stop the paint from drying out, but dry brushing off excessive water from the brush so just a light application of pigment remained. It took a few passes to build up the color on the model. When it was finished and dry, I hit the light passes with a Gryphonne Sepia wash which tied the coloring and blends together. I found that it made it look a bit too yellow though, so I applied a very light wash of Baal Red.

I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I'll be trying to use more OSL on future models.

Mumakil [4]

2010-09-14T15:25:00.006+10:00

I'm making some progress on painting the Mumakil now. The elephant itself is pretty much done, and I'm working on the ropes, wood, and red cloth of the howdah now.

The cloth is Mechrite Red, followed by a wash of Badab Black for shading, then an application of Red Gore, and Blood Red for highlighting. The wood is Calthan Brown, washed with Badab Black. Haven't added any highlights yet, and i'm a little undecided about what to use on that yet. The ropes are Adeptus Battlegray with Fortress Gray highlights.

The tusks and toenails were painted with Scorched Brown, then lines of Calthan Brown, followed by lines of Bleached Bone that were then filled in solid where appropriate.

The paint emblems daubed on the Mumakils face is Red Gore. I have to add some Chaos Black sigils onto there still.

It's a big project, I still have the upper howdah to start, and of course all the Haradrim soldiers that need to go on the howdah. But so far I'm really pleased with how the Mumakil has turned out, and I'm enjoying the little details. The base still needs a lot of detail work finished on it, but I think it's going to be a really cool model when its all done. I'm hoping to have it done in time for Golden Demon this year. Might be a little over optimistic though.

Daemons Competition

2010-09-01T15:55:00.004+10:00

Rather pleased after pouring my guts into finishing The Masque in time for the August Daemons Competition at Golden Demon, that I won it! Lots of positive feedback was really great after the very late nights I had to put into it. I don't know if I want to do something with that short a deadline again, as it got to the point where it wasn't fun anymore.

I'm sure the free entry to Golden Demon and the Games Day model will more than make up for it. This years effort is a Chaos Sorcerer. It's a pretty cool looking model, and I like it a lot more than last years Chaos Warrior. But I was hoping they might have gone with a 40k model this year, since they did Chaos Fantasy last year already.

Mumakil [3]

2010-08-17T09:14:00.000+10:00

Finally finished all the puttying, and sprayed the Mumakil with Chaos Black primer. I started on the flesh, drybrushing it with Adeptus Battlegray, then highlighting the raised parts with a drybrush of Fortress Gray. With the flesh finished, I've started on the wooden framing of the howdah on its back. I've started painting that with Calthan Brown. A highlight of Bestial Brown wasn't too successful though, as it looks to much like Calthan Brown to be noticeable. I'll have to try a different brown. When it's all done, I'll wash it with Devlan Mud to tone it all down - it's a bit bright at the moment.

I've also made a start on the detailed base. I've painted the ground with Scorched Brown, then dry brushed with Bestial Brown, and some highlights of Vomit Brown. I'm thinking it may be too brown at the point, so I may to a light drybrush with Bleached Bone. I've got to check out some photos of it finished first, and see what it looks like.

Gone Fishing

2010-08-16T15:19:00.004+10:00

The little fella's wanted to go fishing forever, and despite telling him how boring it is, he will not be talked out of it. So we got him a fishing rod and kit for his birthday. First trip out, we caught nothing, except for the cheeky crab that snipped off his hook and took it and the bait. An elderly man caught a shovel-nosed shark which he bought over for us to have a look at, but Beeb didn't want to touch it.

Second trip out he caught a small whiting fish, which we released. Unfortunately we were too busy panicking about what to do with this fish that was flopping around, that we forgot to take a picture of it - at least until we'd thrown it back over the dock and it had swum away.

He's starting to get a lot better at casting now, but there's still the odd one thats a mystery. Somehow he managed to throw it out 90 degrees to us so instead of it being out in front, it was way down the jetty to the right, and then in the water. Luckily it missed all the people, and nobody got hooked on it.

Mumakil [2]

2010-08-16T10:49:00.005+10:00

Finally finished puttying out all the seams in the Mumakil, and resculpting the flesh. I've spray primered it with Chaos Black, and then dry brushed the flesh with Adeptus Battlegray. Then a light dry brush of Fortress Gray. I've done some spot highlights by making some lighter shades of Fortress Gray and dry brushing the highpoints. Finally I washed the skin with Devlan Mud so the Mumakil wouldn't look too clean.

Mumakil [1]

2010-08-04T00:09:00.001+10:00

I got a Mumakil for my birthday and I've started assembling it. Their was quite a lot of mold lines in places that need to be cleaned up, particularly on the tusks. The model itself fits together pretty well, but there are some gaps. The beast is completely assembled, and the howdah is done. I've just attached the howdah to the Mumakil with blutack at the moment, as I think it will be easier to paint while its unattached. Tomorrow night I'll make a start on filling the gaps with Green Stuff.

I might also make some customisations, as per the Mumakil suggestions in Issue 339 of White Dwarf. I quite like the armored harness that the Mumakil is wearing, as well as the spikes on the tusks. The barbed wire stretched between them is also pretty memorable from the movies. And of course, I'll need to get a Mahud to stand at the front and steer the beast.

I was looking at some pictures from Return of the King, and there is another pair of spines that extend from the howdah, over the back of the elephant, with pennants hanging from the end. They aren't on the model, but there is a couple of spaces on the back of the harness where it looks like they should fit. I wonder what happened with that? An oversight on GW's part perhaps?

Deathmaster Snikch [4]

2010-08-03T23:03:00.003+10:00

So Deathmaster Snikch came second in the Mini Demon competition. Apparently he would have come first, but because I won the last competition with my Commissar, they decided it wouldn't be fair to let me win again. So I get kinda get the accolade, but not the prize. Oh well!

This months Mini Demon competition is Daemons and Daemon Slayers. So conceivably any model that is either a Daemon or could kill a Daemon. Heh Daemon-slaying Grot anyone?

Also, Games Workshop is running an official Daemons competition, which you need to show a store receipt for the model to enter. The details are as follows:

Daemons Challenge - August 28th!
Buy any Daemons model this month and use your receipt as entry to The 2010 Daemons Challenge Painting Competition! Lodge your finished Daemon (it can be any model - but the bigger the better!) in your local Games Workshop Hobby Centre on Saturday August 28th by 10:00am to go into the judging for the best painted Daemon!

Winners will receive the exclusive Golden Demon miniature for 2010, as well as paid entry into this year's Golden Demon competition.

So that sounds pretty interesting. Hope its not the person who buys the biggest most expensive model wins. But I'd have to be pretty cynical to think that...

Deathmaster Snikch [3]

2010-07-20T10:09:00.005+10:00

So I've finished the Deathmaster now. There wasn't too much left to do, mostly just small small detail work like claws, eyes, the little rats and skeleton on the base. Assembly was pretty quick as I'd already done some test fittings and setup the pins. Just dropped some superglue into the holes, then fitted the tail and arm.

I kept the base fairly simple with a sand/gravel mix, then painted with a Scorched Brown, Bestial Brown, slight Vermin Brown, and Bleached Bone highlights. I did a few coats of Matte Varnish, followed by a Gloss Varnish for the poison dripping off his blades. Lastly I added some static grass patches to the base.

It took 13 hours to finish the Deathmaster. Now to submit him for the Mini Demon, and see how he does!

Plague Monks [2]

2010-07-18T14:21:00.004+10:00

I went a bought another spray can of Chaos Black and used it to prime all the remaining monks. Then I started batch painting all the skin on each monk. So far I've done a pass at all the basecoats of Tallarn Flesh, then a wash of Ogryn Flesh, then a highlight stage of Tallarn Flesh again. I'm tossing up whether they look good enough, to whether to do one more highlight stage of Tallarn Flesh and Bleached Bone. I've also done all the horns and exposed skulls with Adeptus Battlegray, Fortress Gray, and Skull White.

It is pretty painful to do 17 at once, and I can't say I'm loving doing this many. I did buy some new brushes though, and that's helping a lot. I got a much shorter detail brush, so I can do the fine detail but not have to worry about having the brush bend about everywhere.

I've also started doing the Globadier, although I haven't been able to source a replacement gas tank for him. It's looking like I'm going to have to scratchbuild something. Might just have to try the Green Stuff!

Plague Monks [1]

2010-07-11T22:18:00.003+10:00

I've nearly finished my first three practice Plague Monks, and I'm pretty happy with the look of them now. The robes took a few goes to get right, especially to end up with a sickly green that I was happy with. Now I've just got another 17 to paint. I hadn't realised that there were so many. It's going to be quite an ordeal to batch paint that many in one go, as I usually get fed up and move onto something else for awhile. Let's hope I can keep focus long enough to get these finished for the Golden Demon.

I've also prepped a Poison Wind Globadier, but he's missing his backpack, so I'll have to look at scratchbuilding a replacement one. I've given it some thought, but I don't want to just build it from Green Stuff. I'm not confident enough in my abilities yet, so I need to look for a small plastic drum to use first, and then build up some details on it with the putty.

Deathmaster Snikch [2]

2010-07-04T11:03:00.003+10:00

I finished the multiple highlights on Snikch's skin, gradually mixing in more Bleached Bone till I was satisfied with the look of the skin. The tail took a while to do, gradually adding banding along the tail. I had to give it a light wash in the recesses with Devlan Mud to add some of the darker shading back in afterwards. I gave a couple of very light washes of Baal Red to tint his nose red.

The cloak as illustrated on the GW site is a blue/black mix, but I've done that a few times now with other models so I wanted to try something different. I figured that introducing green into the model would go with the theme of poisons, and exposure to warpstone, so I used a green/black mix. I started with a basecoat of Orkhide Shade and Chaos Black, then gradually added more Orkhide Shade as I highlighted. I then mixed in some Scorpion Green, and did three or four extreme highlights along the edge of the cloak, and the raised folds I wanted to attract attention too.

The poison on the blades was started with the green/black mix, then I used Goblin Green, moving from the end of the droplet back up toward the blade. I added more Goblin Green, moving up, then switched to Scorpion Green. Eventually using pure Scorpion Green. Finally a mix of Scorpion Green and Sunshine Yellow along the very edge of the poison travelling along the blade.

The blades were painted with Boltgun Metal, then washed with Badab Black. I added Chainmail to the Blade Edges, and the highlights along the handles. Final edging was added with Mithril Silver. The hilts on the blades were painted with Calthan Brown, then Dwarven Brass. I washed them with a coat of Devlan Mud, before applying Shining Gold highlights.

His jewellery was painted in the same way as the blade hilts.

I've started on the bandages, with an Adeptus Battlegray basecoat.

So far I have spent 10 hours on Snikch.

Deathmaster Snikch [1]

2010-07-02T09:16:00.005+10:00

I won the Mini Demon competition at the Brisbane GW - yay me! The prize was to pick a Warhammer miniature to do for this month's competition, so as I have some Skaven, I decided to pick Deathmaster Snikch. He's a pretty cool sculpt, so I'm excited to paint him.

I've had a few people ask me a bit about the process, and how long it takes to do a miniature. I'm probably not the fastest painter, and I'm pretty critical about my work, so I do take a long time. I'll try to keep an accurate track of time spent on this project.

So I started with the usual preparation work. Lots of mold lines, and excess flash to remove. I had to be quite careful with this one as with all the fiddly detail, it's easy to miss some of the flash. There was also a mold line running up across the cape that needed some care to remove. I used some jewellers files and a pair of side cutters for the larger stuff. I used a 1mm drill bit to drill holes for pinning on the components, and glued in some lengths of wire paperclip. I removed the large stub on the end of the tail, by clipping it down, then filing it flat to the tail base. It will be pinned directly to the body. Test fitting looked good, and I don't think I'll need to use any green stuff to gap fill anything.

When all the glue was dry, I washed all the miniature's components using detergent and hot water. I washed it twice to make sure all the mold release agent was off the metal, so the paint would adhere.

I glued the main body to the base, then spread some superglue around the base, and used some of the sand and fine rock on the driveway to detail the base. I had thought about building a more detailed sewer base, but as the model was going on the standard base, and not a diorama, it was a bit too small to get too creative with.

I basecoated the figure with Chaos Black using a brush. It took a few coats, and I had to make sure it got into all the crevices on the figure. I'd probably use a spray can usually as it's faster, but I don't have the pocket money to spend $22 on a can of Chaos Black at the moment, so the brush had to do.

When that was all dry, I started painting on the skin. I painted a basecoat of Scorched Brown on all the flesh, followed by Tallarn Flesh. You don't need to be too accurate when applying it, just make sure you've got good coverage of the skin. When it was dry, I washed it with Ogryn Flesh to provide some shading. When it was dry, I brushed on the first highlight of Tallarn Flesh, avoiding the shading that we got from the wash. The next highlight will be a mix of Tallarn Flesh, and Bleached Bone.

So far I've spent 3 hours on it.

They've got another Troll! [1]

2010-05-24T14:53:00.006+10:00

Dusted off my old Cave Troll from The Mines of Moria set and started painting him. He's been sitting around for awhile, because he needed a ton of green stuffing work to fill in all the gaps on him. Despite being plastic, he didn't fit together well.

I started base coating his flesh with a mix of Adeptus Battlegray and Chaos Black, mixing in more gray as the highlights went on, with a final highlight on the rocky back parts of Battlegray. He was washed in a mix of Badab Black and Devlan Mud to help tone down the layering. I'm still not happy with the dark flesh, so I might go back and work on that some more.

The chest etc is a mix of Chaos Black and Dwarf Flesh, with successive highlights containing more Dwarf Flesh. As i've gotten to the finer highlights, I've switched to the thinner brush and added strokes of paint to try to pick out the musculature. It was washed with Ogryn Flesh to blend it together. It's looking good, but looks a little bit to new born flesh, so I might make up a mix of Dwarf Flesh and Kommando Khaki, or Battlegray and lighten it up a little bit. The thing lives underground, so it's not likely to be running around with a beach tan!

Cave Troll
	Race	Type	M	F	S	D	A	R	C	Mt
Cave Troll	Troll	Monster	8	6/5+	6	6	3	2	3	-

Wargear:	Massive club or spear (hand weapon) and thrown weapons.
Special Rules:	Terror, Hard to Kill!

		F	S	D	A	W	C	M	W	FT
Cave Troll		6/5+	6	6	3	3	3

Wargear:	Hammer or Spear
Special Rules:	Terror, Throw Stones

River Troll Temptation

2010-05-07T23:02:00.006+10:00

I don't play Warhammer Fantasy, but occasionally a model comes along that tickles me, and I really want to paint it. The new River Trolls are fantastic, and I loved the look of them from the second I saw them, especially the vomiting one. They certainly have a lot of personality!

I was hoping to paint them for this years Golden Demon, but they're pretty expensive at $74 for the three. I'm not sure if the budget will stretch that far, especially when I would probably be better off purchasing things to complete my 40k armies.

The box set looks like it has a lot of customisation options, with three different bodies, five different heads, and five different pairs of arms. Some of the fins and things are detachable, although it probably wouldn't be too difficult to shave them off if you wanted to make different flavoured Trolls.

Oh well maybe I'll just have to suck it up, and treat myself...

Trolls
		M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Troll		6	3	1	5	4	3	1	3	4


Wargear:	Trolls don't need to carry normal weapons, though they often have a club, bone or bit of tree.
Special Rules:	Trollish Types; Fear; Stupidity; Troll Vomit; Regenerate.

Rohirrim return

2010-04-19T09:56:00.003+10:00

I saw an article in the latest issue of White Dwarf that got me all motivated with the Rohirrim again, so I've dragged them out of the box and started off batch painting all the horses again. Thanks to some of the tips in the magazine, I've gotten pretty quick at them, and they still look pretty good. I think I take such a long time with getting armies done because I approach every model as if it is a work of art, and it's actually starting to make a lot of sense to paint the 'rank and file' troops simpler, and spend more time on the big units. So I'm going to try to knock over all my Rohirrim to a reasonable standard and quality, and then spend the time on making the leaders look good, and just get the damned army finally finished! It'd be nice to get down to playing the game more.

Pixels

2010-04-15T15:30:00.003+10:00

This is a really cool video. The animation is really well done. Check it out!

Well I'll be a vomiting Troll!

2010-04-14T16:03:00.007+10:00

GW's just previewed some cool new figures for Warhammer Fantasy - plastic River Trolls, and plastic Boar Boys. The new Boar Boys looks really great, and I particularly like the Boar figures. I reckon I'd like to get some and cy-boar them up for my 40k Nobs to ride on instead of bikes. But the best looking model has got to be the River Troll that's vomiting up a spray of fish guts and bones.

I don't play Warhammer Fantasy, but I do have the odd model, solely because it's kind of cool, or its fun to paint something a bit different. I'm tempted to get the Trolls just because they're such interesting looking models. And the vomit is certainly characterful!

Matt Smith Interview

2010-03-29T09:50:00.002+10:00

First interview with Matt Smith, the new Doctor, and there's also been a few new clips and trailers for the upcoming new season.

BBC America Doctor Who Trailer

2010-03-23T08:01:00.002+10:00

New Doctor Who Trailer

2010-03-22T09:49:00.003+10:00

Plastic Winged Nazgûl Released

2010-01-19T09:35:00.003+10:00

I've wanted one of these for so long, unfortunately my hope that it would be affordable because it was plastic looks to have been smashed. It's a gorgeous model, and I'd still love to have one, but it's $96 - that's the same as a Valkyrie, which arguable has more parts and options in it than this. Honestly I'm starting to wonder what's going on with GW. Allegedly some of the price hikes was to do with the rising cost of metals, and plastics was supposed to make things cheaper again. It's certainly not looking that way. Still I guess it's good for GW that they're posting record profits, so at least they can continue putting out awesome models like this one. But I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy 9 of them any time soon. Anyway, it's available on pre-order now, with store release on February 20th.

Winged Nazgûl
	Race	Type	M	F	S	D	A	R	C	Mt
Winged Nazgûl	Spirit	Flying Monster	4	2	4	4	2	3	3	7
The Witch-King	Spirit	Flying Monster	4	2	4	4	2	3	3	7

Wargear:	Razor-sharp teeth and claws (counts as a hand weapon).
Special Rules:	Hard to Kill! Spirit Grasp, Spirit Walk, Terror, Swoop Attack, There Are Nine.

Hot Footing It

2010-01-18T13:46:00.003+10:00

Went to Alexandra Heads on the Sunshine Coast yesterday. First time I've been to the Sunshine Coast since we moved over - it's been over 3 years. Kind of similar to the Gold Coast, but without all the high rise buildings. I'm informed it's also less snobby - the people did look to be nice and normal. Quite a nice beach, although I didn't get in the water - still a bit unsure with all the killer jellyfish and sharks. Mostly just watched the people, and made sure Beeb didn't drown. Stupidly, I sunscreened myself before I took my shoes off, so I had very burnt feet later that night. Pretty much screamed like a little girl this morning when I had to put my shoes on for work. That'll teach me to be more careful.

Doctor Who Season 5 Promo

2010-01-04T11:01:00.001+10:00

End of Time Trailer

2009-11-17T09:04:00.002+10:00

The trailer for the penultimate Doctor Who special is up now.

Waters of Mars Trailer

2009-11-06T09:07:00.005+10:00

The next Doctor Who special should be coming on again soon. The UK is advertising it in November. Hopefully Australia won't be too far behind. It looks like it's going to be a really good one - very creepy.

Advance Orders on Skaven

2009-10-19T11:01:00.010+10:00

GW's put up the new Skaven models for advance orders now. They look pretty cool, and if I was going to play Warhammer, they'd probably be the army I'd look at collecting. Usually you get the odd good model spread across the different armies, but the Skaven overall look really good. The Screaming Bell model and it's variant looks pretty cool! But I really like the troops too, and I might look at getting a squad and painting them up for next years Golden Demon.

Don't be misrepresenting!

2009-10-03T14:20:00.004+10:00

I'm going to rant here briefly about something that's really starting to annoy the crap out of me. I know that triple or multi dipping on DVD releases has been going on for some time, but the current bout of misadvertising or misrepresenting what your actually getting in a release is taking things to a new level.

Firstly, I purchase Watchmen when it came out. All the info floating around had said there was a Theatrical Release and the Director's Cut with the additional footage, and amazing new commentary technology. So I went out and bought the Two-Disc Special Edition, thinking that this was the Director's Cut here in Oz, as they sometimes put different labels on releases over here. Special my ass! It was the standard theatrical release, with no special extras and no amazing commentary.

Quite a few people seem to have been sucked in by this, and the only response from the company distributing it was "The Director's Cut is not being released in Australia". Why?? I'll tell you, so they can suck in the early adopters, who'll then have to re-buy it when they do another release down the track. It's already bad enough that we get ripped off with what we're charged for DVD's here, vs what it costs in the US. But this intentional obfuscation of the facts, followed by re-releases later down the track is really starting to chaff.

Now I'm hearing Watchmen Director's Cut might be out here in December, and who knows when the Ultimate Edition is going to show up after that.

The latest one this week that really got on my wick was the release of Monsters vs Aliens. It was a movie released to theatre's in 3D, and it comes with 4x 3D glasses in the packaging, yet they don't upfront tell you that the movie release isn't in 3D, only the 15 minute short additional Bob's Big Adventure is. So your mislead into buying it, only to be disappointed, and what's to bet a 3D release will come out later??

So basically, now I'm stuck avoiding first releases of things, and I'll have to pay even more later for the subsequent releases because they won't come out with special first-release pricing, and I'll have to wait even longer.

Why can't they just release all the versions at once and you can choose which one you want to buy at the time? I mean Watchmen must have come out with at least 8-10 variations - I've seen the DVD, Bluray, lenticular pacakaging, Rorschach packaging, tins, steelbook, etc. Hell with Bluray why do they even bother with re-releases since I'm pretty sure most current releases probably don't fill the discs to their capacity?

You can't tell me people are going to go out and keep buying all the different variations and releases of these things? So what's in it for the movie companies?? Surely this has got to eventually be hurting their bottom line?

Riverfire

2009-09-14T15:55:00.012+10:00

Went down to a friend's place on Saturday to watch Riverfire on the Brisbane river. Unfortunately turned up a little bit late for the Roulettes performing acrobatics, so only saw a little bit of that, but the fireworks were fantastic. Certainly much better than the New Years ones that they have at Southbank. And the view from the apartment was fantastic - eighth floor straight down the river. The fireworks went for about 30 minutes, ending with the dump and burn of fuel from the F-111 planes. This was the last year they were doing it, as they are being retired this year. Australia is the last country in the world to still be flying these planes, and will be replacing them with the Super Hornet shortly. Wonder what they'll be replacing them with next year as the Super Hornet can't do a dump and burn? There were so many people there for the event. The trains were absolutely jam packed on the way there and back.

Dwarf Rangers

2009-07-06T11:45:00.004+10:00

Over the weekend I finally finished three of my Dwarf Rangers, and I've started batch painting the next four. I can't do the entire squad in one go, as I get bored with them, so I've broken them down into bite-sized chunks. Initially I had a bit of trouble with the cloaks, but I'm getting the hang of it now, and they're looking good. I've varied their hair color and beards a bit as well, to give them some individuality, as I'll be keeping their clothing in similar colors so they have a unified theme. I had tried stringing the bow on one of the archers, but the string went funny when painted, so I ended up removing it. The resin bases from Back-2-Base-ix look great as usual. The dwarfs are standing on ruin bases, broken rock slabs, with dirt, and a little touch of static grass. The rock is painted in Shadow Gray with Fortress Gray drybrushing. The dirt is Scorched Brown with Vomit Brown dry brushing. Simple but effective!

Night Goblin on Giant Squig

2009-06-09T11:49:00.006+10:00

So even though I don't collect Warhammer Fantasy, I'm now painting a Night Goblin on Giant Squig. He's the entry for this month's Painting Klub competition at the Chermside store. I nearly wasn't going to bother, but I figured he was pretty cool, and I can always enter him in the Golden Demon this year. Clean up on the figure was pretty bad, with lots of mold lines in hard to reach places. The squig also need a lot of pinning, particularly to hold the other leg on, and I also had to mix up some two part epoxy to fill in the gaps along the seam between the body and leg. Next time I'm going to try green stuff finally. I've got a Mordor Troll that's going to need a hell of a lot of gap filling, and I reckon green stuff is going to be a lot less messy. The body was basecoated with Dark Flesh, then layered up through Tanned Flesh, and mixes of Tanned Flesh and Dwarf Flesh, with final highlights of Dwarf and Elf Flesh. Washes of Ogryn Flesh were applied. I may still use some highlights of Rotting Flesh to get that pale putrescent look to it. Careful washes of purple were applied into the folds of some of the skin around the head and mouth, and feet. The eyes were reset with Chaos Black, then orbs of Golden Yellow, with Bad Moon Yellow highlights were painted. A small black dot of Chaos Black in each orb completed the eyes. The gums were painted with Purple, and then lines of Purple and Skull White were applied. The gums were painted with Red Gore, then mixes of Blood Red and Skull White to get a pink, were applied as highlights to the raised parts of the gums, and a couple of increasingly lighter mixes were applied. The teeth were then basecoated in Calthan Brown, then lines of Graveyard Earth, and lines of Bleached Bone were applied, with the final cap of the tooth in Bleached Bone. The goblin's body was painted in my standard Ork scheme, but I used more Camo Green this time to get a brighter green mix.

Update: All finished now. Experimented a lot with using different colored washes to tint the metals, and the skin. Also tried dry brushing in Rotting Flesh to make the skin look really putrescent and cave-dwelling-like. I made up a cave themed base with some stalagmites. I'd like to go back and maybe add some piles of bones, but I'll have to do that later, since I needed to get the mini into the competition before the deadline. The GW guy reckoned I had a good chance of winning this one. Here's hoping!

Sauron vs. Isildur

2009-06-09T11:43:00.005+10:00

Just about finished painting Isildur hacking off Sauron's fingers with the shattered sword. Sauron is pretty much complete, except for the base. I'd quite like to do him on a lava base, but a generic Mordor base would probably be more in keeping with the theme.

Update:
I purchased some large lava bases from Back-2-Base-ix. After the usual clean up of the resin, I undercoated it in Chaos Black spray, then the lava flows were painted in several coats of Skull White to get a nice uniform white. The hardened lava was dry brushed in a few levels of gray, to add some color variation. The lava flow was painted Golden Yellow, the watered down Blazing Orange stippled and blended toward the harded flow. Then watered down Blood Red, and finally Red Gore around the edges of the dried lava. Allow some over stippling on the edges of the lava to provide the reflected surface light. Build up the lighting on the Red Gore, through Blood Red, and Blazing Orange. If necessary, you can go back with light washes of Blazing Orange and Golden Yellow to smooth out the blends. I also stippled in a watery mix of Bad Moon Yellow on the hottest parts of the lava. I still have to go back and put reflected lighting on Sauron's armor, and blacken (or brown) the rim around the base.

Gimli - Mines of Moria

2009-04-15T14:33:00.003+10:00

This is the plastic Gimli from the Mines of Moria Starter Set. He's quite a good sculpt, although he's crying out for sculpted detail on the vambraces, shoulder armor, and robes. The pose is good though, with an axe in each hand, ready for battle. I started by cleaning up the flash on the mini, then undercoating with Chaos Black. The small amount of visible face was painted with Tanned Flesh, then layered with Dwarf Flesh, and small highlights with Elf Flesh. The face was then washed with Ogryn Flesh. Beard and hair was painted with Scorched Brown, then individual strands painted with Tanned Flesh, and highlighted with Terracotta. The various gold clips and rings in his hair and beard were painted with Shining Gold, and highlighted with Burnished Gold. His robes and pants were painted with Red Gore, then Blood Red. The robes were then washed with Baal Red, and a mix of Badab Black for shading and to tone the red down a bit. Shining Gold was painted onto the robe trim, and upper shoulder armor. Highlights were applied with Burnished Gold, and then washed in Devlan Mud. The axe heads were painted with Boltgun Metal, then washed with Badab Black, and had Chainmail highlights, up to Mithril Silver on the edge of the blades applied. The axe handles were kept a basic Scorched Brown.

Supanova 2009

2009-04-06T10:10:00.007+10:00

So went down to Supanova on Saturday. The line was out the front door, up the street, around the corner, down the road behind the full length of the showground, around two more corners, and up the next road. I keep saying every year I'll buy tickets from Ticketek but I'm ABSOLUTELY doing that next year. To Daniel's credit though, he came out and walked the line speaking to people, and then opened another entrance for people to come in through, so the line got moving pretty quickly. We got there at 11 and it opened at 10, so the line was pretty massive. Place was packed as usual, and despite the recession, seemed to be doing a good trade. Shame we weren't able to get a booth for New Ground this year, but I caught up with Daniel briefly and said "hi". Hopefully next time things will be better and Jeremy can get a booth, otherwise I might ask some of the local dudes if they want to go in on a booth and do something myself. Had a few more ideas for art, and feeling motivated again after seeing stuff on Artists Alley.

Micky wanted to go see Hayden Panatierre. She'd been waiting since last year when there were hints she was coming. She saved up her money from cleaning the neighbours car, and queued up, paying extra for the photo with her (unsigned too! - $50 for a photo, with another $40 for signature. Micky reckoned the usual signed photos were pre-signed too; Also Security were stopping people from taking pictures of her). She was gutted when she came back. Hayden wouldn't speak to her. She got shoved in and told to "Stand here". Took her picture, and pushed out the door. She said next time, she will just spend her money at the shops on geeky things. I felt bad that she was so disappointed. Then I was surprised to see the article in the Courier Mail on Sunday (http://tinyurl.com/da7gdm), complaining about Hayden's prima donna behaviour. Celebs need to remember that this is a PR exercise for them, and be friendly and gracious. These people have spent time and money to come here and see them because they admire their work - if you can't be gracious and pleasant then don't bother coming. Obviously it's just about the money or opportunity to travel. I said to her, at least she had an experience with this person, even if it's not what she was hoping for - I'm not sure it made a difference though.

The video games were a hit with Beeb though (the new Ghostbusters game looks amazing!), the wrestling, and free Laserstrike game was also good stuff. A little annoyed with Atari demonstrating the Afro Samurai game. Apparently it's okay for an eight-year-old to stand there and watch the game for 30 minutes, but when it's time to have a turn he can't play it because it's rated 15 years and over. Hmmm but it's okay to watch the violence? Just can't cause the violence?? WTF?!

Saw a few artists on Artists Alley pushing their own anthology books. Jon Sommariva's stuff looked great. Had a good look at the Cintiq and tablets on the Wacom booth - nice conversation with the Wacom lady about the tablets. Didn't find Todd McFarlane - where the hell was he? Went to see Jhonen Vasquez - crushing disappointment! The queue to meet him and have something signed went across the con, out the door, and around the corner of the building!! WTF?! Went to join the queue, but they closed the line when I got there and so I was rejected! Really annoyed because he was the only celeb I specifically wanted to see. Don't worry Jhonen! I don't blame you though. Obviously the organisers underestimated his popularity as he wasn't placed somewhere that catered very well with the queue. Perhaps they can get him back again. I had to placate myself with his Fillerbunny 3 book instead (and I have enjoyed the sick and disturbing artwork again and again).

Not really many deals going on merchandise - pretty much all the same kind of prices you get if you walk into the comic shop right now. So didn't really pickup anything much - got a cool mini movie poster of AVP2 from Japan which was quite striking - it's gone up on my studio wall.

Left about 5 o'clock because the parking says closed at 5:15 sharply! Bit stupid, considering the con doesn't close till 6?!

So in summary, had a great day, couple of niggles, but still enjoyed the mass gathering of geekiness. Saw some fabulous costumes, and everyone was very friendly and polite.

New Elves

2009-03-03T10:55:00.003+10:00

Some shots have shown up of new Elf models for LOTR. Looks like part of the expanding line for the new War of the Ring expansion. The new plastic archers and cavalry look really good, although I don't remember seeing any Galadhrim on horseback in the movies or books. The sculpts look really good, and I've always liked these guys with their leaf-like armor. I might pick up some of these when the come out. They should look really good in a group on a movement tray. Can't wait to find out more about the War of the Ring, and start to see some feedback from people playing the new expansion.

Complete Facebook Chat Emoticons

2009-02-18T08:20:00.002+10:00

If your wondering what emoticons Facebook chat supports, here is a complete list:

Happy emote: :) or :-)

Really happy emote: :D or :-D

Wink emote: ;) or ;-)

Happy eyes: ^_^

Laughing eyes: >:o

Cat smile: :3

Grumpy: >:-(

Sad: :( or :-(

Crying emote: :’(

Shocked emote: :o or :-o

Glasses emote: 8) or 8-)

Cool shades: 8-|

Rude: :p or :-p

Woot?!: O.o

Dork emote: -_-

Duhhh emote: :/ or :\

Devil emote: 3:)

Angel emote: O:)

Kiss emote: :-* or :*

Love emote: <3

Pacman: :v

Robot: :|]

Weird guy’s face: :putnam:

Who watches the?

2009-01-30T09:30:00.003+10:00

All the mess with Watchmen has finally been sorted out and it's on track to be released here on March 5th. Can't wait to see it, and the final poster has been previewed today.

Check out the official site at http://watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com/

New Ent Models

2009-01-23T10:10:00.007+10:00

There's some new Ent models rumored to be coming out from Games Workshop soon. Probably in conjunction with the new Apocalypse-esque War of the Rings expansion. The new Ent is plastic, and there is possibly more than one. Although I would think the Ent's should lend themselves well to lots of customisation. Hopefully there will be some additional bits supplied that can customise the look of the models. No word yet on their release date or expected price, but if they're plastic they shouldn't be too costly.

Overall I like the look of the Ent, and its an improvement over the last metal efforts which looked too much like Warhammer Treemen. The best figure still has to be the Treebeard sculpt, but he's pricey, and you can't have more than one. I've seen a few complaints about the smoothness of the bark in this sculpt, but I don't see why you couldn't put some green stuff on the trunks and sculpt your own bark patterns fairly simply. And it's just begging to be reposed so it's throwing a boulder.

Kiwi Day

2009-01-22T15:28:00.003+10:00

Still frantically busy with stuff. The house is coming along. We just completed all the soil around the pool, and retaining around the base of the pool fencing to stop any little'uns from getting in and drowning. The spray coat lining for the pool is being done today, so we should be good to get it filled soon. The front and side gardens are done, and we're progressing on some more small rock walls. The gully is going to take a bit longer though, and is probably going to be an ongoing project for some time.

Instead of Australia Day this year, we're celebrating New Zealand Day (we've hijacked their holiday), and we'll be having some people round, and a BBQ with delectable NZ goodies. Something we're definitely looking forward too.

Another New Year

2008-12-31T22:00:00.000+10:00

So I had to work New Years Eve, but the family came into the city and we met up to go to the fireworks on the river. I don't know what had changed this year, but there seemed to be less of a focus on family activities. More stuff catering to the young and single.

Now I'm not that ancient, but I'm not that interested in DJ's playing the same sampled beats over and over, or rave dance parties. Actually the dance party was pretty pathetic - not a very large group of people for the space it was held in, and mostly a few adults trying to get their children to gyrate, with little success. I can't understand why they only elected to show one movie this year. Usually they'll have a bunch, and the one they did show, Princess Bride, seemed to have a reasonable turnout. Whoever's idea it was to have a Guitar Hero/Mario Kart tournament should probably be given a sharp smack across the forehead. How many people can play the games at once? Not many - leaving the rest of us to watch?? Ooh exciting stuff!

We filled in some of the time with a swim in the lagoon (with about 2000 other people), and waited for the fireworks. Fortunately they were still having the early showing, followed by the midnight bang up. We decided to stay for the early one, and took off for home about 9. The fireworks were as usual pretty good, although I had a feeling they'd been scaled down from previous years. I guess they hadn't escaped the economic downturn - perhaps that explained the lack of interesting activities this year also - all done on a shoestring. The only thing that kinda rankled me about the fireworks - they intercut the music with clips from the news during the year. Why the hell do we want to be reminded of all the horrible things that happened? Heath Ledgers death, skyrocketing petrol prices, wars, and then the final WTF - Obama being elected to president. Hey i agree it's great he's in, and the shaven monkey is finally on the way out, but what's it got to do with Australia? Last time I checked, Oz isn't a State of America yet. The whole thing was strange and surreal.

So yeah, home and tucked up in bed before midnight. Some strange movie playing on SBS, and the wife and children passed out. The dogs snoring on my pillow, behind my head. That was New Years... Not the worst I've ever had, but it's not such a big deal in my mind. We're still here, and life goes on. Here's hoping good things happen for everyone in 2009.

Joy!

2008-12-18T09:38:00.002+10:00

I got the 6 month contract extension. Hopefully the economy will pick up in that time and I'll be able to pick up something permanent here. I really love my job, so I'd really like to stay here. Fortunately the extension also gets me over the Xmas hump - it's becoming nigh-on impossible to find something at the moment. I'll probably look at doing some courses in the New Year. I'd been wanting to do some project management for awhile, so I might look at just paying for that myself and getting it done.

Here we go again

2008-12-16T11:10:00.002+10:00

Much to my disappointment I didn't get my contract extended at work, so I'm looking for a new position. It's quite difficult to find anything at the moment, with the global economy being in the toilet, employers are reluctant to take on new staff. I've got a glimmer of hope, in that there is a single extension available for another 6 months. I've applied and I'm hoping to find out soon. I had an interview yesterday for a job in the government, so I'm waiting to find out about that. So hopefully, I've got a couple of options available.

Rob had an accident on Saturday and possibly wrote-off the car. She hit a parked car that was parked over a rise. She was following a truck, which had to swerve to avoid the car as it came over the rise, and she clipped it as she went to swerve. Bay got thrown against the roof, Micky had some bruising from the seat-belt, and Rob banged up her knee, got some bruising, and some burst blood vessels across her chest. Thankfully they are all okay. What really annoyed me though, was the owner of the car said it was the 4th time in 5 months that this had happened! I mean, if you parked a car there, and it got hit, wouldn't you think that maybe it would be an idea to do something differently. Unfortunately it's going to bugger up our insurance now, and Rob's driving record. I really think the owner of the car should accept some culpability for it.

On a happier note, we got word from Maureen that our new puggy baby will be coming a couple of days before Xmas. She'd have been out on the weekend, but she still needs to get her vaccinations done. We're still trying to decide what to name her, but hopefully Olive will take to the new addition, and it will help settle her down a bit.

Where I'm At

2008-12-09T09:21:00.004+10:00

I haven't written anything personal in a long time, mostly because I've just been too busy, but also because things have been in a lot of turmoil and it's been difficult to articulate everything. I'll have a go now.

We've finally moved into our new home, and it's wonderful finally having a space to call your own again, not living in each others pockets or other peoples. We've been working hard finishing things, setting things back up again, and getting things just right. The property has been particularly hard to tame, but with the right tools and some time I think we'll be able to make it manageable. The ride-on mower has been a huge help, and takes a lot of the drudge out of maintaining the property - sure you still have to get the slasher out sometimes, but at least it's not slashing away at the entire 4 acres anymore.

I am still pursuing my previous employer for my outstanding superannuation, leave entitlements, and final pay. It still really angers me the way the dismissed me for asking for my pay, and the way they still refuse to pay me what is rightfully mine. I'm not asking for anything that I'm not entitled too - just the $11,500 they owe. It's also disappointing that the Government aren't really interested in pursuing these people, so I'm waiting while the liquidator goes through the legal process. So far they've gone out of their way to be as difficult as possible, conveniently 'losing' their financial records etc. I have faith the liquidator will pursue them to the end though, so I'll just have to be patient.

I love my new job though. It's safe to say it's the best place I've ever worked so far - I really enjoy the people, the work, and being in the city. I'm a little sad at the moment, because nobody had their contracts renewed. But there is a little glimmer of hope, so it's not over yet. I've started working on Plan B anyway, and hopefully I'll be able to find something else I'll love just as much. At any rate, I've made some good friends, and hopefully I'll be able to keep in touch with them.

Rob's gotten a great new opportunity, and has been working more hands-on with the construction sector. I know she's really enjoying the new challenges, and I'm really proud of her. The kids are still a bit of a mixed bag, but you just take each day as it comes. Doesn't seem like you can ever have them both behave at the same time, they seem to operate as a tag-team. Micky's growing up and doing the typical moody teenager thing. Beeb's still off in fantasy land, and seems to be more easily distracted lately - perhaps its just the age. He's getting better at baseball, and it's nice to see him involved in a group that treats him well.

Did you know... how to restrict default site templates

2008-11-26T15:55:00.002+10:00

To hide default site templates available to the Template Picker when creating a new site, edit the WEBTEMP.XML file in the 12 Hive at web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\1033\XML. Change the parameters for Hidden from No to Yes for all the templates you want to hide. Then restart IIS from the command-line to reload the configuration file. The templates will now be hidden. Any tabs that were available in the picker that do not have templates are also hidden.

Blade/Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull/Alien Vs. Predator II: Requiem

2008-11-24T12:13:00.021+10:00

Blade

This is probably one of the better minor- comic book movies. I thought this was very slickly done, with good effects, action, and characters. It's got some great black humor too.

Plot Synopsis:

Blade, a vampire-hybrid (with all of their strengths, but none of their weaknesses) hunts vampires around with globe with the help of his partner Whistler. He's hunting a group belonging to Deacon Frost, when a haemotologist crosses his path. He takes her in, after she is bitten, and she assists him as he tries to unravel what Frost is up too.

Frost is attempting to stage a coup, and wants to use the heads of the born vampire clans to awaken La Magra, the Blood God, giving him ultimate power of the Earth. He eventually discovers he needs Blade's blood to effect the transformation, and captures him (killing Whistler in the process), and uses his blood to empower himself.

Blade is aided in escaping, battles Frost in an underground temple. Blade ultimately defeats him, and continues hunting in Russia.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

This was better than expected, with mixed reviews. I enjoyed the movie just fine, and my earlier misgivings about the obvious looking CG-ness of it all, went away - I think I felt the trailer scenes of Area 51 looked a bit fake initially. Ultimately it was a lot of fun, and I would probably rank it ahead of Last Crusade. If they do a sequel though, I would like to see them make the storyline a little more challenging, as it seems a little simple compared to the previous movies (although I think that's why I'm not as fond of Last Crusade).

Plot Synopsis:

Russians break into the US facility at Area 51 that's housing all the collected Occult artifacts looking for something. They've abducted Indiana and his current partner. After locating a coffin with a magnetized corpse inside, and enduring a double-cross by his partner, Indy escapes with the help of a rocket sled. Wandering onto an atomic test site, he narrowly escapes being vapourised inside a lead-lined fridge. The US Military discover him, and after decontamination, question him about his dealings with the Russians.

Back at the University, Indy is suspended from his job after accusations of dealings with the Reds. When Indy decides to leave on the train, he meets up with Mutt who's been sent to find him because his mother and Indy's mentor Oxley have gone missing after searching for a Crystal Skull. When they are pursued by Russian agents, Mutt helps Indy escape on his motorcycle.

They then travel to South America, to pick up Ox's trail. They discover some clues which leads them to a graveyard, the resting place of a Conquistador that had found the City of Gold, and bought the Crystal Skull. They locate the Skull, but are captured by the Russians.

Taken into the jungle, they are reunited with Ox and Marion Ravenwood. They escape again, but are quickly recaptured after becoming stuck in quick sand. Indy discovers that Mutt is his son with Marion. When they are taken deeper into the jungle, they make another escape attempt, this time successful. Marion pilots their stolen 'duck' amphibious vehicle down the river, and over three water falls.

At the bottom, they find their way into the City of Gold. They are almost killed by natives, but Ox uses the skull to keep them at bay. Indy helps them get inside the temple's inner sanctum, where they find vast stores of wealth. Deeper inside the pyramid, they find a chamber with crystal skeletons sitting on thrones around the chamber walls. When the Russians arrive, their leader takes the Crystal Skull, and when it is reattached to one of the bodies, the skeleton's come alive. The temple also comes alive, and as it starts to fall apart, Indy and his group make their escape. The Russians are disintegrated in thirst for power, and Indy's group watch from the hillside, as the temple crumbles, and a silver flying disc rises from the rubble. It leaves in a burst of light.

Indy finally marries Marion.

Alien vs. Predator II: Requiem

This is a much better effort than the previous installment. Sure you don't care much about the characters, and a lot of the character development doesn't amount to anything (for instance, Dallas has returned from prison, and its hinted at some event having occured, but it's never explained, and doesn't mean anything in the story). But at least it's adult, it's gory, and violent, and what the Alien-/Predator- franchises are about - vicious creatures battling it out. The effects are really good, and they attempt to introduce new devices and expand on the Predator universe a bit more. It connects in nicely to the first movie, picking up directly after the first concludes. Overall a good effort, lets hope the third installment continues to raise the bar.

Plot Synopsis:

An alien bursts from the chest of the Predator that was killed at the end of AVP, and goes on a rampage through the Predator's ship. The larger ship releases the smaller hunting ship, and the smaller ship returns to Earth, crashing after the Predators blast a hole in its hull while trying to repell the Predator/Alien hybrid.

Face huggers are freed in the crash, and escape the wreckage along with the hybrid. They retreat into the sewers where they begin impregnating victims from the local town. The crash of the ship alerts a Predator 'cleaner' on their homeworld, and he is dispatched to Earth to clean up the mess. He arrives and goes to work, disposing of the wrecked ship, and tracking down the Aliens.

The town is eventually consumed in the war between the two races. One group eventually manages to escape the town in a helicopter from the local hospital, as the town is destroyed by the National Guard with a nuclear weapon.

Finally, Ms Yutani (of Weyland-Yutani) is given recovered Predator technology from the town.

New Star Trek reboot

2008-11-17T14:44:00.003+10:00

Well I don't know what to make off this one. I still don't think it was a good idea to go back and mess with the Original Series characters. It's not just the characters we love, it's the people that were those characters. And you can't go an recast Kirk, Spock, Bones, etc and have me love those characters. I'm not sure I want to see those characters as someone else. Also, I'm not thrilled with the modifications to the ship design, the fact the morons are building the ship on Earth (which goes against canon - the first of many things), and I really don't like the iPod-like bridge. Sooo, I'm having mixed feelings about this trailer. I'll watch it a few times, and see if my feelings changes towards it. Why don't you do the same?

Watchmen Trailer 2

2008-11-17T10:25:00.003+10:00

The full trailer for Watchmen is finally released. I'm still excited to see the movie, but I think the previous trailer with the Smashing Pumpkin's song worked better. Still, can't wait to see the finished movie. It looks great!

Iron Man

2008-10-10T10:15:00.010+10:00

Another great comic book film this year. Both this and the darker Dark Knight were very popular, and quite rightly so. This is a fun film, and although it suffers from the usual origin tale baggage, and a weaker third act, promises to become a highly entertaining series. The sequel should be even better now they can jump straight into the story. Hints at links to the Mandarin and SHIELD should provide possible future plot directions. The cast were excellent in this, and I really think they got the perfect Stark - Robert Downey Jnr. The supporting actors were also good, and I'm hoping to see War Machine in the sequel, giving Rhodes more to do. The effects are fantastic, and the sound effects should give the home theater setup and good workout. I watched it on a stereo setup because my theater setup is in storage till we move into our new house, but it sounded excellent even on that. I can't wait to re-watch it on a proper setup. Highly recommended.

Plot Synopsis:

Weapons Manufacturer Tony Stark is traveling through Afghanistan after demonstrating a new missile system to the US Military. The convoy comes under attack by terrorists, and Tony is injured after one of his own missiles is used in the attack, and explodes near him, hitting him with shrapnel.

We flashback to days before, and Tony is shown as a careless playboy, enjoying life with little care for those around him. He is surrounded by his good friends, Pepper Potts, James Rhodes, and Happy Hogan who try to keep him out of trouble. Obadiah Stane, former associate of Tony's father Howard, helps to run Stark Industries. Eventually Tony goes to Afghanistan and the attack occurs.

Tony is given life saving medical treatment in a cave, and when he awakes he's had an electromagnetic device implanted into his chest, powered by a car battery, to keep pieces of shrapnel from traveling into his heart. He's threatened and told to build a replica of the missile he demonstrated for the terrorists, and then he will be allowed to go. Tony discovers the terrorists are well stocked with weaponry from Stark Industries. He reluctantly agrees to comply, but aided by Yinsen (another prisoner) builds a miniature arc reactor to power the device in his chest. He then shows Yinsen his escape plan - a armored suit that can be powered by his mini reactor. They construct the suit in secret, using components scavenged from the various parts they are supplied to build the missile from. Yinsen sacrifices himself to buy Tony time to escape. The prototype suit is damaged after coming under heavy fire. The suit is smashed after crashing into the dunes, but Stark makes his way across the desert, and is rescued by the military.

Back in the US, Tony calls a press conference and announces that Stark Industries will no longer be making weapons. Obadiah isn't happy about this news, and tries to downplay it. Tony tells him he doesn't want his legacy to be nothing but destruction and misery. He's thinking of using his improved Arc Reactor technology to produce new non-military products. Obadiah tells Tony to lie low for awhile and recover.

Tony throws himself into developing the next generation of his armor. He builds a new improved arc reactor for his chest, which Pepper has to help him install. He labors in the basement of his home with his computers and robots building a new suit. As he tests and develops new parts, gradually refining the idea. His first test run of the Mark II suit, sends him into the skies, but when he flies too high and the suit ices up, he is almost killed, narrowly avoiding plunging to the pavement below.

After some further modifications, Tony puts the final MK III into production. While the robots are building the suit, he attends a company party that he wasn't invited too. There he is confronted by a reporter about Stark's latest attrocity - photos of Stark weapons being used in Afghanistan the day before. Tony confronts Obadiah, and Obi admits that they are selling weapons to whoever will buy them. He also says he was the one who approached the board of directors about locking Tony out of Stark Industries.

Tony returns home and watches the news footage of the attacks in Afghanistan. The robots assemble the MK III suit on his body, and he flies to Afghanistan. He liberates a village from the terrorists then sets about destroying their stockpiles of Stark weaponry. Returning to the US, Stark is pursued by military jets intent on identifying what attacked the terrorists. They open fire on him, while trying to avoid them, damages one of the planes. When the pilot's chute fails to open, Tony risks his own safety to rescue him. Rhodes covers up Tony's involvement.

Meanwhile, the terrorist leaders have recovered the pieces of Tony's MK I suit, and reassembled it. They hand it over to Obadiah, who has been conspiring with them to kill Tony since the beginning. He takes the prototype suit, and has the terrorist camp wiped out. Back in the US, he sets his scientists to building a new improved suit based on Tony's prototype.

Pepper finds Tony struggling to get out of the damaged suit, and is upset to find it full of bullet holes. Later, Tony is repairing the suit, and asks Pepper to go to the office to retrieve some files so he can get evidence of Obadiah's double-dealings. Pepper initially refuses because she doesn't want to help Tony kill himself, but he convinces her. At the office, she is copying the files from Obadiah's office when he walks in. She manages to escape with the files, but he quickly realises. As she is leaving, she grabs a SHIELD agent, and explains what's going on.

Obadiah goes to check on the suit his scientists are building in Area 16, but finds they are unable to construct the miniature Arc Reactor needed to power it. That evening, he break's into Tony's house, incapacitates him, and steals the device from Tony's chest. Obadiah brags how he has been trying to kill Tony, but was worried about killing the golden goose. Now he has Tony's final innovation, and he'll use it to make newer, more powerful weapons.

Tony manages to claw his way to the garage, where the original MK I device is, and reinstall it before he dies. Rhodes is alerted to Obadiah's plans, and helps Tony. Tony suits up in the MK III armor, and goes to rescue Pepper from Obadiah. Unfortunately, the MK I arc reactor cannot provide enough power for the MK III suit, and is losing power rapidly.

Obadiah powers up his Iron Monger suit and pursues Pepper and the SHIELD agents through the factory, when Tony interrupts and they fight out into the streets and onto the freeway. Obadiah smashes him with a car and motorcycle. Tony lures him into the atmosphere, where the Iron Monger suit ices up, and crashes back to Earth. Drained of power, the MK III erratically hops back to the factory. Iron Monger survives, and continues attacking Stark on the roof top of the Arc Reactor building at Stark Industries. Tony asks Pepper to help him by overloading the Arc Reactor. She does so, and Iron Monger gets blasted by the full power of the reactor. The disabled suit crashes through the ceiling of the installation and falls into the reactor, which explodes.

Tony survives, and SHIELD helps to clean up the mess, arranging for Obadiah to be found in a light plane crash, and creating the story that Stark was saved by one of his security personnel in the armored suit. The press are calling him Iron Man. At the press conference, Tony goes against instructions, and admits that he is Iron Man.

After the credits, Tony arrives home to find Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD in his living room. He has come to talk to him about the Avengers Initiative.

Stealth

2008-09-11T08:27:00.005+10:00

This was a bit of fun. You can't really take it too seriously though. I mean hey, it's from the guy that did Fast and Furious, and that wasn't exactly sophisticated entertainment! But yeah effects are really good, got some good action, and Jessica Biel - rowr! Surprising that they chose to kill off one of the team members part way through, especially given who it was.

Plot Synopsis:

Three Navy stealth pilots are assigned a new wingman; an experimental stealth plane piloted by an advanced AI named EDI. Despite reservations by the team, their commander pushes the experimental plane on them. They are assigned to an aircraft carrier where the AI observes and learns from the teams interactions, but after being struck by lightning, the AI rewrites itself, and goes rogue. The team are assigned to retrieve the plane, but when they try to destroy it, it kills one of the team, and damages another. The remaining team member continues to pursue EDI at the orders of his commander. EDI initially tries to kill him too, so that it can continue its chosen mission: destroying a fusion research facility in Russia. When EDI sustains some damage, the team leader convinces it to go to Canada with him for repairs. The commander is now keen to cover up his mistakes by having EDI erased, and the team leader killed. EDI is rescued from deletion by the leader, and they escape together, contacting the carrier's commander and alerting him to the situation with EDI and the actions of their superior. He later kills himself. EDI goes to North Korea, and arrives to rescue the downed team member, sacrificing himself as the remaining team escapes over the border into South Korea. The AI finally advanced itself enough to gain some humanity.

Lions, tigers, and bears...

2008-09-08T14:03:00.020+10:00

Took our visiting friend Bron and her kids to the Alma Park Zoo recently. Hadn't been there before. They were going to go to Australia Zoo, but dragging the kids around a massive zoo all day was not appealing, and it's quiet expensive, so we went here. It's a small zoo, but nicely set out in native bush. Fed the usual animals, kangaroos, deer etc. The kids got to touch a python, crocodile and koala. I couldn't bring myself to touch the snake, but the crocodile was interesting. I was surprised how warm the skin was. Personally I can't stand snakes, horrible looking creatures. Yet add some legs, and I'm fine with the various lizards. We got an ecology talk from the keepers about how we're destroying these critters home, so I felt good that we're going to reforest the land we've bought for the animals. Poor little buggers can come hide out at our place (as long as they've got legs).

They're back

2008-08-31T20:38:00.003+10:00

Now it's starting to warm up again, they've slithered back into our lives. The ever repellant snakes are starting to return around the property again. So we have to be ever vigilant to avoid being bitten. Here's the latest whip snake. We found it come out from a hole under the house pad over the weekend. I went around the side of the house and nearly stood on it. Thankfully it's not overly aggressive, but it can still kill a child, so it's a bit of a worry. We've apparently got King Browns out on our property, although we haven't seen one yet. Those are a lot more dangerous, since they're territorial and will attack.

Did you know... generating a GUID

2008-08-25T16:53:00.003+10:00

There is a GUID generating utility bundled with Visual Studio. It is located in Microsoft Visual Studio 8/Common 7/Tools/Bin/guidgen.exe. Run the tool and select the format of GUID you want generated. Click on Generate a New GUID, and then click Copy to Clipboard to transfer the GUID for pasting into your application's code.

Mustering the troops

2008-08-23T20:49:00.002+10:00

Beeb had Muster Day today where they assigned the kids to their teams. He got assigned to the Mets, but they've since changed the training time to an absolutely stupid 4 o'clock which we can't get too. I don't know what we're going to do now. I might have to see if we can move him to another team. There's no way we can make training at that time as we both work. Originally it was going to be 5 which would have been better, but I'm guessing some pampered housewife complained about it, and now they've made it earlier. I guess it's alright if you don't have to work. So far I'm getting a bit annoyed with the whole thing. The club has been pretty disorganised, we've had weeks or no activity at all, vagueness about dates and times, we got two coaches who are running some kind of 'time share' option on training - not good! I hope we can get this all sorted out, because Beeb's really excited to get playing and make some friends, and if they fluff about too much longer, I'm worried he's going to get disappointed and lose interest in it.

Did you know... viewing the contents of a .WSP file

2008-08-22T11:10:00.001+10:00

Change the extension on the file from .wsp to .cab, and the file will become a standard zip cabinet that will be recognized by any zip handling package. You will be able to view the packages contents and extract them.

Did you know... fixing SPUrl error

2008-08-21T10:58:00.003+10:00

Open your web.config file. Locate the compilation parameters in system.web and replace them with the block below. Note the new line referring to the SPUrl expression. Also be aware that this only works with MOSS and not WSS, as WSS does not have access to the publishing DLL. For WSS you will need to path to your image/item rather than using the dynamic SPUrl.

<compilation batch= " false " debug= " false " >
<assemblies>
<add assembly= " Microsoft.SharePoint, Version= 12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c "/>
</assemblies>
<expressionBuilders>
<remove expressionPrefix= " Resources "/>
<add expressionPrefix= " Resources " type= " Microsoft.SharePoint.SPResourceExpressionBuilder, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version= 12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c "/>
<add expressionPrefix= " SPHtmlEncodedResources " type= " Microsoft.SharePoint.SPHtmlEncodedResourceExpressionBuilder, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version= 12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c "/>
<add expressionPrefix= " SPSimpleFormattingEncodedResources " type= " Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSimpleFormattingEncodedResourceExpressionBuilder, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version= 12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c "/>
<add expressionPrefix= " SPUrl " type= " Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebControls.SPUrlExpressionBuilder, Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version= 12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c "/>
</expressionBuilders>
</compilation>

Did you know... cannot edit code in SharePoint Designer

2008-08-20T16:36:00.004+10:00

If you cannot edit code you may be working in Contributor Mode (should be visible along the top menu bar). To allow Code view in Contributor Mode, go into the Site Menu, choose Contributor Settings. Modify the Content Authors (default) profile. Click the check box that says Allow user of Code View. Click OK. You should now be able to edit your code. The Design, Split, and Code option will be available at the base of your content window now.

Did you know... adding logos to master templates

2008-08-20T15:39:00.002+10:00

Here's how to add your company logo so it is inherited across your sites.

Browse to the top level of your site collection in the browser.

From The Site Actions Menu, Select View All Site Content

Select the Site Collection Images Library

Upload your Company Logo (companylogo.gif) - If required, approve this image.

Open SharePoint Designer 2007 and Select File, Open Site. Type the URL of the top level of your site collection.

Locate the master page gallery in the left pane. _catalogs\masterpage

Double click the default.master (you may be prompted to check it out - if so choose yes)

Search For: <SharePoint:SiteLogoImage id=”onetidHeadbnnr0″ LogoImageUrl=”/_layouts/images/titlegraphic.gif” runat=”server”/>

Replace With: <asp:Image runat=”server” id=”logo” ImageUrl=”< %$ SPUrl: ~sitecollection/sitecollectionimages/companylogo.gif %>/>

What the above does is replace the default (site by site) mechanism for replacing the company logo with a hard coded reference to the company logo which you uploaded to the Site Collection Images library.

By doing this, all pages which inherit from the top level default.master will be updated to reflect this change. Each time you create a sub site, simply inherit from the master page of the parent site collection.

Did you know... speeding up Firefox

2008-08-15T10:22:00.001+10:00

Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining network.http.proxy.pipelining network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

Alter the entries as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

Did you know... how to copy an entire SharePoint site

2008-08-14T15:46:00.002+10:00

Use stsadm.exe to create a backup of the entire site.

Open the command line and enter:

"c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\bin\stsadm.exe" -o backup -url http://www-dev-19/ -filename c:\fullbackup -overwrite

The root SharePoint site at www-dev-19 is backed up in its entirety to a file on C:\ called fullbackup. The exported site generated a 411Mb file on C:\.

Now go into your SharePoint Administration tool, and create a new Site Application. Make note of the site name and port number. In this case, we created a new site application on port 2091.

Then go back into the command line and enter:

"c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\bin\stsadm.exe" -o restore -url http://www-dev-19:2091/ -filename c:\fullbackup -overwrite

The data is imported from the file into the new site application database.

We have now created a duplicate of our original site on port 80 on port 2091.

10 Web Design Time Savers

2008-08-14T09:56:00.004+10:00

Saw an interesting article on Digg recommending time savers for building web sites. Here's a cut down version so I can remember to use some of these awesome tools in future projects.

Drop Down Menus :: All Web Menus (http://www.likno.com/allwebmenusinfo.html )

Image Capture :: Gadwin Printscreen (http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/)

Batch Image Resizing :: Multiple Image Resizer .NET (http://www.multipleimageresizer.net/ )

Web Forms :: My Contact Form (http://www.mycontactform.com)

CSS Text Boxes :: Rounded Cornr (http://www.roundedcornr.com/)

Vectorizing Images :: Vector Magic (http://vectormagic.com/)

Selecting Color Schemes :: Adobe Kuler (http://kuler.adobe.com/)

Creating a Patterned Background :: Stripe Generator (http://www.stripegenerator.com/)

Building a Quick Photo Gallery :: Flickr Slidr (http://flickrslidr.com/)

Testing Your Website in Multiple Browsers :: Browser Shots (http://browsershots.org/)

If you want to check out the original article it's available here.

Did you know... unblocking file types in WSS

2008-08-12T10:54:00.002+10:00

If you are getting the message “The file you are attempting to save or retrieve has been blocked from this Web site by the server administrators.", Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 prevents certain file types from being uploaded to the server. Server administrators can add or remove file types from this list, as needed. Contact your server administrator to request that the file type be unblocked.

To resolve this issue, remove the file type from the Blocked File Types page in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. To enable a file type that is currently blocked, remove it from the global settings list and from the Web application list. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration.
2. Click Operations, and then click Blocked file types under Security Configuration.
3. On the Blocked File Types page, click Global Settings in the Web Application box.
4. Remove the file name extension from the list of blocked file types. For example, remove the .config file name extension.
5. Click OK.

If you are using MOSS there are some additional steps.
6. Under Security Configuration, click Blocked file types.
7. On the Blocked File Types page, click the Web application that you want to configure in the Web Application box.
8. Remove the file name extension from the list of blocked file types.
9. Click OK.

Did you know... how to move sites

2008-08-11T10:55:00.002+10:00

Remote access into your Sharepoint server. Open command line access, and navigate to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\bin.

Run stsadm -o export -url http://<server name>/<server path>/<site name> -filename <path to export file> -includeusersecurity -versions 4

Exports the site data to your output file. Creates a file with a .cmp extension.

Then create the new site in the location you want in Sharepoint. Make a note of the new site address. Delete any unwanted welcome posts, category entries, etc. Imported data is amended not replaced.
Open command line access, and navigate to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\bin.

Run stsadm -o import -url http://<server name>/<server path>/<site name> -filename -filename <path to import file> -includeusersecurity

Data is imported into new site. Check that everything you require is there, and then you can delete the old site.

The Dark Knight

2008-08-10T23:10:00.008+10:00

Wow this film was amazing. Batman Begin's was awesome, and they've just refined, continued, and expanded upon it's universe for The Dark Knight. Hopefully they'll be able to keep the same high-standard and quality up for the next film (or possibly final film if it's intended to be a trilogy). Although it's a long film, it was never boring, and when there was action going on, it was relentless. I was delighted that for once they didn't kill off Batman's villains, and I'm really saddened that Heath Ledger is no longer with us to continue as the Joker. I really pity the actor that has to follow on from his portrayal. I can't wait to get this on DVD. This is a definite buy.

Plot Synopsis:

Batman has escalated his war on crime and is relentlessly pursuing the city's mafia elements. With the help of Jim Gordon and the new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, they are attacking the criminal syndicate's money holdings. The Joker pulls a daring heist on a mob owned bank. The criminals are becoming desperate, with problems from both Batman and the Joker.

Lucius Fox is investigating a business partnership with Mr Lau's company in Hong Kong, but suspects that his business dealings might not be legitimate. During the investigation, an accountant at Wayne Enterprises stumbles on the funding for Applied Sciences and discovers the plans for the Tumbler. He tries to blackmail Lucius. Lucius laughs off his suggestions that Bruce Wayne is Batman.

Mr Lau arranges to have all the syndicates money stored in a secure location. The Joker offers to help the syndicates by destroying the Batman in exchange for half the money. Lau returns to Hong Kong, and the police realising the connection between Lau and the syndicates are powerless to retrieve him. Batman travels to Hong Kong and abducts Lau, returning him to the Gotham police. Harvey Dent then has all the crime syndicate members arrested and prosecuted.

The Joker begins targeting the Police Commissioner, Harvey Dent, and the Judge responsible. He kills the Commissioner and Judge, but Harvey is rescued by Batman when the Joker attacks Bruce's charity function. Batman saves Rachel after the Joker drops her out the penthouse window. Bruce hopes that Rachel will continue to wait for him, as he thinks he will soon be able to set Batman aside and let Harvey Dent take over the war on crime. However Rachel has moved on with Harvey.

The Joker threatens to kill more people unless Batman reveals his identity to the public. When Jim Gordon is killed, Bruce considers giving in, but Alfred tells him to endure and continue on. Harvey comes forward as Batman, and is arrested by the police, hoping to lure out the Joker. Rachel is angry with Bruce for allowing Harvey to take the blame for Batman.

When Harvey is transported to the Gotham jails, the Joker attacks. Batman intervenes but the Tumbler is destroyed after catching a missile in the engine. Batman escapes after the remains of the Tumbler converts and releases the batpod. He pursues the Joker, disabling his truck by flipping it over with cables. He then faces down the Joker, and with the help of Jim Gordon captures the Joker. Jim had faked his own death to protect his family.

With the Joker in jail, the crime syndicates have Rachel Dawes and Harvey Dent abducted by some crooked cops. Jim Gordon is promoted to Commissioner. The Joker antagonises Batman, but eventually tells him that he has Harvey and Rachel in separate locations chained to barrels filled with gasoline. Batman can only save one of them. Batman goes to save Rachel and Gordon goes to save Harvey, but the addresses the Joker gave them are reversed. So Batman saves Harvey but Rachel is killed in the explosion. The left side of Harvey's face is badly burned.

The Joker escapes. When the lawyer from Wayne Enterprises goes to the media and say's he will reveal who Batman is, Joker intervenes and says he will destroy a hospital unless someone kills the lawyer within an hour. When citizens try to kill the lawyer, Gordon moves them to another location. Bruce discovers who the crooked cops were, and intervenes to save Jim and the lawyer's life.

Harvey (now 'Two Face') starts to go crazy and after some taunting by the Joker at the hospital, gets revenge on everyone who had anything to do with Joker's plan and Rachel's death. Joker destroys the hospital. Batman realises that the Joker has played them all from the start.

When Joker traps two groups of people on city ferries; one group of convicts and another of citizens, he tries to provoke them into killing each other with the detonators and explosives he's placed on each boat.

Batman uses Fox's cell-phone sonar technology to wire all of Gotham's cellphones together in an effort to locate the Joker. Lucius is angry that Bruce is using the technology to undermine everyone's freedom to privacy. He agrees to help this once, but will leave the company if the technology remains there. Batman eventually finds and captures Joker again. After a tense stand-off on the boats, neither group kills the other. The Joker is disappointed he cannot provoke people into chaos, but taunts Batman by telling him how he has failed, since Joker has corrupted Harvey.

Meanwhile, Harvey has kidnapped Gordon's family and taken them to the place where Rachel died. He blames Gordon because some of his officers (who were escorting Rachel and Harvey when they were abducted) were working with the Joker. Batman arrives saves Gordon's family, in the process causing Harvey to fall to his death.

Batman tells Gordon that Gotham does not need to know that their hero, attorney Harvey Dent became this monster, and that the only way to honor his memory is to say that Batman committed the murders Two-Face did, making Batman a wanted criminal. With Gordon as the commissioner and head of the Major Crimes Unit, Batman recommends that the city look to their police force for protection, so the Batsignal is destroyed.

In the aftermath, Gordon tells his son about the heroic figure that watches over Gotham, a Dark Knight named Batman.

Did you know... enabling Sharepoint debugging

2008-08-08T13:43:00.003+10:00

To enable debugging, open the web.config file with notepad, that is located in the volume containing your Inetpub root. Eg:

c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\80\web.config

Search for the Callstack attribute. Change it from False to True.

Then locate the CustomErrors element. Disable it.

Check any web parts or controls are registered in the Safe Controls list.

Finally, add a new element to the web.config file:

<trace enabled="true" pageOutput="true" />

Now you will receive the full stack traces as output on errors instead of the cryptic non-descriptive error message you get by default.

To debug a web part, under the Debug menu select Attach to Process. Check the Ensure Show System Processes and Show Processes in all Sessions boxes. Locate the w3wp.exe process that is running when you have a browser open with the site in it. Select this process to attach the part too. Back in the browser, access your web part as normal, and when it encounters a problem or a breakpoint, you will be sent back into the Visual Studio debugger.

Keep your eye on the ball

2008-08-07T07:37:00.013+10:00

Beeb started little league baseball finally the other day. He had his first practice and they all were given some lessons batting, pitching, and playing the game. Some kids made some funny mistakes, running the wrong way or hitting the instructor in the groin with the ball, but overall they did well. Beeb is already trying to make new friends, and so far they seem like nice kids. I hope he can make friends, since the bullies at school are still beating him up and he doesn't really have any friends except Tildy.

Did you know... disabling IE Enhanced Security

2008-07-31T10:52:00.001+10:00

Windows Server 2003 ships with security locked down by default. Part of this locking is Internet Explorer Enhanced Security which provides an extra layer of protection when accessing the net using Internet Explorer.

You can uninstall the entire Configuration, or just for users, or just for Administrators. The un-installer is set up like this:

Enhanced Security
->For Administrators
->For Users

If you have just random users connecting via Remote Desktop or Terminal Services, you may want to leave the Users configuration installed.

To remove it:

Click Start, put your mouse over Control Panel, and click Add/Remove Programs

Now click Add/Remove Windows Components

After a few seconds a window will pop-up. Uncheck the check mark next to Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration. If you'd like to only disable it for Administrators or only for Users you can click Details and do so.

Press Next, let it finish, and it's now disabled.

Did you know... fixing disappearing Toolbox in Visual Studio

2008-07-30T16:32:00.004+10:00

I installed the frameworks and add-on's to Visual Studio 2005 v8.0.50.727.42 and found that all the items in my Toolbox disappeared and some items appeared more than once in other menus.

Apparently if you right click on one of the toolbox control headings, (common controls for example) and select reset toolbox

then right click again and select show all...

then they will be all displayed (with them grayed out)

then right click again and select Reset Toolbox...

should take about 30 seconds and they will all reappear

If this doesn't work you can also try clearing out the cache files for the Toolbox in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0

Did you know... how to setup a Sharepoint Dev Environment

2008-07-30T15:12:00.000+10:00

Check out the article here.

Generating an .SNK for Code Strong Deployment

2008-07-29T11:34:00.002+10:00

Open command line window.

Change to c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin

Execute sdkvars.bat

Then execute sn -k c:\.snk

The key file will be generated for attachment to your project. Right click on your project in Visual Studio and select Add Existing Item. Select the .snk file that you just created.

Then right-click on your project again and select Properties. Navigate to the signing tab. Check Sign the Assembly checkbox, and then choose your .snk file from the Choose a strong name key file dropdown list. Close the Properties window. Rebuild the project to recreate your dll with the strong name.

Lots to learn

2008-07-29T09:26:00.003+10:00

Been busy with a lot of learning lately - just finished a week long course on developing for Sharepoint. That's one definite advantage with the new job - they don't mind sending me on training. So i've been installing Visual Studio 2005 and trying to get the SDK for Sharepoint installed so I can start writing some web parts for some ongoing projects at work.

The house is coming along slowly, definitely not as fast as I would like it too. Unfortunately we've had a run of bad weather - figures, if we weren't building it would be 30° and hot, but because we're building it decides to hell with the drought, let's feck up their plans! So we're still squatting in the backroom of our inlaws.

I'm still managing to do some painting, and I'm feverishly trying to get stuff finished for the Golden Demon competition in September. I really want to enter something this year, and Beeb is painting some troops to enter too. Plus which, I'm not allowed to buy any more until I finish the ones I've got. Bummer I know! Especially with the new 5th Edition Rules I'm going to need some more ground troops to round out my Tau army. Beeb's doing pretty well with his, as he has a Tactical, Devastator, and shortly Assault squad ready to go. Micky destroyed her Tyranids, especially the Ravener that I was going to enter in the GD. I told her not to take them to school, but she stole it out of my cupboard and proceeded to destroy it by smuggling it out in her skirt. So I've taken control of those. The Ravener is going to need a bit of love and care to get it back into shape, especially since she managed to lose a set of rending claws from the figure. I've cannabalized a Genestealer for parts, so it'll be slightly different now, but at least it will have arms. The left over Genestealer body we converted into an objective marker, and it looks like it's crawling out of a pile of rubble to attack.

Rob's gotten a promotion to the job she's been wanting to do for ages. I'm so happy for her, and she seems more excited to go to work now.

Collapsible Menu in Blogger

2008-07-29T09:02:00.003+10:00

My sidebar links were running out of control, so I decided to hook up a collapsible menu solution. A hunt around the internet turned up a nice javascript solution, but as usual I had endless trouble trying to get it to play nice with Blogger. For some reason Blogger's security model blocks some javascript from running in the site. Usually it's something as simple as changing &'s in a GET/POST string to &amp's; instead, but this time it was a lot more difficult. Here's how I got it working, so you don't have to waste as much time on it as I did.

I created an HTML/Javascript part on the sidebar and inserted the following block of code:

<ul id="containerul">
<li>
Art
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://alantew.blogspot.com">Alan Tew</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.maleev.com">Alex Maleev</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://absoluteart.blogspot.com">Tim Kane</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>

<li>
Wargaming
<ul>
<li cteopen="http://<your site address>/cte_specialminus.png" cteclosed="http://<your site address>/cte_specialplus.png">
<span style="font-weight:bold;">Lord of the Rings</span>
<ul>
<li cteitem="http://<your site address>/cte_specialpage.png">
<a href="http://www.lotr-collector.com/">LOTR Collector</a>
</li>

<li cteitem="http://<your site address>/cte_specialpage.png">
<a href="http://thelastalliance.com/">The Last Alliance</a>
</li>

<li cteitem="http://<your site address>/cte_specialpage.png">
<span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://www.thepalantir.org/">The Palantir</a></span>
</li>
</ul></li>
<li cteopen="http://<your site address>/cte_specialminus.png" cteclosed="http://<your site address>/cte_specialplus.png">
<span style="font-weight:bold;">Warhammer 40k</span>
<ul>
<li cteitem="http://<your site address>/cte_specialpage.png">
<a href="http://www.advancedtautactica.com/">Advanced Tau Tactica</a>
</li>
<li cteitem="http://<your site address>/cte_specialpage.png">
<a href="http://www.tauonline.org/">Tau Online</a>
</li>
</ul></li></ul></li></ul>

<h2>Blogs</h2>

<ul id="anothercontainerul">
<li>
Personal
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://olivepug.blogspot.com/">Olive Pug</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://metrobuild.blogspot.com/">Under Construction</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

<h2>Resources</h2>

<ul id="resourcecontainerul">
<li>
Web Design
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://http://www.sxc.hu//">Stock.Xchng</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.templatemonster.com/">Template Monster</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

<script type="text/javascript"></script>

Then in the <HEAD> block of your site's template insert this code:

<script src='http://<your site address>/javascripts/cte_scripts.js' type='text/javascript'/>

<style type='text/css'></style>

This all seems to work properly. If you want to add another container grouping, copy the grouping, paste it and change the block name. Then put the block name in as an input to the initiate() code block.

Heading for the big leagues

2008-07-26T11:33:00.004+10:00

Little league's finally rolled around again. This time we signed up Beeb without hesitation. He was so excited he was up at 5 in the morning ready to go. We got all the gear and he's been sleeping with the catcher's mitt on because the club people told him it will soften the leather up. We've had a few practice sessions and he's not to bad at batting, although he'll be starting off with tee ball in his age group. First game or proper club practice is on Friday. Now we just have to find a way to stop his cup slipping down from his groin to cover his knee.

Watchmen Trailer

2008-07-18T14:14:00.003+10:00

Wow this looks really good. It looks like they've remained faithful to the graphic novel, and after the job Zach Snyder did on 300, I reckon this is going to be something pretty special. Check it out or get the trailer from Apple.

Alvin and the Chipmunks

2008-07-10T13:59:00.004+10:00

I watched the DVD of this the other night with my son. I think he enjoyed it, but it was a bit boring from an adult perspective. The story is very simplistic and you could pretty much see what was coming from the outset. All the funny bits are in the trailer, so no real surprises there. As a kids movie, it's successful, but as something an adult can go to with a kid, it's a huge flop. I don't even think it's that bankable based on old-age nostalgia by the parents.

Plot Synopsis:

Failing music writer Dave encounters singing Chipmunks when they move into his home. After they drive him nuts for awhile, he has some success when they sing his songs. A greedy music promoter manipulates the Munks into leaving Dave, and then proceeds to overwork them to exhaustion. Dave finally "grows a pair" and gets them back, reuniting their little family.

GenConOz

2008-07-05T11:11:00.001+10:00

Took Beeb to the first GenConOz today. Little bit disappointed compared with Supanova. SN is a much bigger con with a lot more to see and do. Considering the $22 door entry it wasn't great value for money. For that much I'd hoped they might have slipped a free miniature in the goody bag - as it was I didn't even get a magazine in mine. Beeb got a PC gaming mag, so at least he got something out of it. Although I think he was happy playing Hellboy, Call of Duty 4, and Unreal Tournament. There was a reasonable turn out from the board gaming/wargaming community which was good, but nothing much in the way of electronic gaming. Notably absent were Electronics Boutique, or pretty much any of the large games companies (no Microsoft for instance). Games Traders were there with some games setup for play, but nothing to buy. I think I'd probably have gotten more value out of it if I'd gone along and played in the tournaments, but there was a lot of empty tables in that area too. Perhaps if they have another one in Brisbane next year, I'll be able to go along and play (unfortunately the bulk of my armies are in storage at the moment while we wait for the builders to finish our house). It was excellent to see Games Workshop represented for a change though. I've always wondered why they don't bother turning up to Supanova? The absolute best thing I found there was Back2Base-IX - they produce awesome little resin bases. I'm absolutely thrilled with my purchases (yes I know I'm that geeky). There was a massive area for guests and signings, but they only really had two guests anyway - Alan Tudyk from Firefly/Serenity and a guy from Stargate Atlantis. They were both quite interesting at least and filled in some time.
Overall, it's a start, but I hope next year will be bigger and better. As it was they had too much space, not enough to do, and I suspect too many days to fill. Next time I think they should get a smaller venue (RNA showgrounds work for Supanova), so at least the size of the place doesn't magnify the fact that you don't have much (and possibly a smaller venue might make it cheaper), and maybe make it shorter, and please get some more things there. Heck combine it with Supanova if you have too. I just hope that the poor event this year won't dissuade people from turning up next year.

Alien vs Predator 2 : Requiem

2008-07-03T09:22:00.010+10:00

I finally got around to seeing this. First I wanted to see this when it came out, and my daughter begged me for weeks to take her, but it only ever ran after 9pm, once per day, and it just became too hard. Then I preordered the DVD, and a couple of weeks before it came out, I lost my job. So that solved that! This time I rented it on $2 night at the video store. Happily I can say, it was better than the last one, and better than I expected. It's by no means the abomination that everyone was making out. In fact the heavy R-rating and gore this time, was much better than the PG kiddie-friendly outing last time. This was the way these creatures are supposed to be. Yes the character development is nothing much, and you never really care enough about the characters to be bothered whether they live or die, but what are you expecting. It is what it is - two nasty monsters battling it out. It's not Shakespeare! The effects and creature work was great, there was plenty of creature action, and everything else was kind of peripheral. I'm probably going to keep an eye out for this and pick it up when it finally dips down to a more reasonable price.

Plot Synopsis:
Picking up immediately where AVP ended, the Predator ship is invaded by a new Alien/Predator hybrid, after it bursts from the corpse of their fallen comrade. The Hybrid causes havoc aboard before escaping in a Predator shuttle and returning to Earth. The shuttle ultimately crashes on Earth, and its cargo of face huggers along with the Hybrid escape into the wilds.

A Predator is dispatched from their homeworld to clean up the mess. The aliens start impregnating the towns folk. When the Predator arrives, it locates the crashed ship, gathers some data about the aliens, then destroys all evidence of the ship. It tracks the aliens into the sewers under the town.

We are introduced to members of the town, and as they gradually cross paths with the creatures, they are killed or caught in the crossfire. Eventually as the Predator hunts them down, the aliens are forced into the township proper. The National Guard is summoned and after some troops are wiped out, elect to destroy the town.

A small group of survivors try to escape, but split into two groups; one deciding to go to the hospital to use their helicopter to flee, and the other elect to meet the Guard in the center of town. They fight there way through more aliens, manage to escape in the chopper. The second group is killed along with the Predator and Hybrid, and any remaining aliens, when the town is nuked.

The chopper crashes in the wild, and is recovered by rescuers. At the end, government agents hand over recovered Predator technology to a Ms. Yutani.

Mordor Expansion

2008-07-02T15:09:00.005+10:00

The new Mordor expansion should be out and available now. I wasn't that interested in some of the recent expansions, but this new one looks pretty good. Also quite a few new Mordor models out. I understand they're probably stretching the boundaries on what's canon now, but at least it looks like they're trying to stay within the design ethos that was established in the Rings movies. I've seen the new plastic troll, and I really love the drummer troll. It's pretty neat how they've included lots of different parts so you can really build your own troll.

Out on the street

2008-06-20T15:57:00.002+10:00

Well once again we've been screwed over. Our promised accommodation that was supposed to last till our house was finished has vanished, and we're left possession-less and back with the in-laws again. Yay! my favourite place to be. Back to being treated like i'm 2 again. I'll just have to cross my fingers that the house will get back on schedule and finish quickly, otherwise I have to find reasons to avoid going home as much as possible. Rob's got her Kumbartcho workshop this weekend, so maybe I'll take the kids and go out for a few hours. At least I managed to grab my GW paints and some figures to work on. My Kroot got packed away, but I've got my last Tau Fire Warrior to finish, a Rail Gun pathfinder, and my Balrog. Hopefully that will be enough. My modelling drawers were supposed to have been put away where I could get to them, but typically they've been put in behind a wall of stuff. Guess that means they'll have to let me buy some more models if I run out. Actually I might go with Beeb to the GenconOz con that's coming up, and doubtless there will be some painting goodies to be had (plus which it has the added bonus of getting me out of the inlaws house).

A fresh start

2008-05-21T20:14:00.002+10:00

Well back at work today finally! My first day at my new job was a little slow, what with the mountain of paperwork and documentation to surmount first, but by the end of the day I've got project work to do, and I'm ready to get into it tomorrow. What a change it is to work for a proper professional outfit, instead of the circus I was with before. These guys document, follow procedures, and have some actual structure. Once I wrap my head around it all, it'll be nice to have some order for a change, instead of the instability and chaos that previously ruled. It's also nice to be in the city with lots of people and things going on. I had a nice walk at lunchtime, and it was good to get out and see the world (especially after 7 weeks stuck at home). Overall, I'm feeling pretty optimistic about things. It's going to be a lot of hard work for a little while till I get settled in and understand fully what I'm supposed to be doing, but I think it's going to be a good move in the long run.

Highlander

2008-05-08T08:47:00.007+10:00

I really wanted to see this film when I came out, but was told no because it looked too violent. Cue my disappointment and a few years of waiting before I finally got to see it. And damn it was worth the wait. It's a really good film, original, and beautifully told. Although I wish the studios hadn't tried to make a franchise out of it, and kept churning out inferior sequels. With each new one, the continuity gets more messed up, and don't even get me started on the Tv series. There should have been only one! Christopher Lambert is really good in this, even more so when you consider english isn't his first language. I also really enjoy Sean Connery, although he's one of those actors who'd be great even if he was just reading the phone book. Some stunning locations on show, makes me want to visit Scotland one day. Highly recommended!

Plot Synopsis:

Connor McLeod sits watching the wrestling at Madison Square Garden. He watches the wrestling and his mind drifts back to an ancient battle, Scottish highlanders in a bloody battle in the highlands. He suddenly gets up and leaves, going down into the parking garage. A man attacks him with a sword, and they fight. McLeod cuts Faziel's head off. Energy flares from Faziel's body, causing destruction throughout the garage, and coursing through McLeod. He hides his sword and runs when he hears the sounds of approaching sirens.

Flashing back to Scotland 1536, the clan McLeod ride out to battle. On the field of battle, a dark warrior tells the oppositions leader that ConnorMcLeod is his to kill. Both sides attack and fierce battle breaks out, but no one will fight Connor. The black warrior rides in and challenges Connor. He quickly stabs him through with his sword. Connor's clansmen comes to his aid and stop the warrior from severing Connor's head. The warrior tells Connor he will return.

Back at Madison Square Garden, Connor tries to leave but is apprehended by the New York police. He is using the name Russell Nash, and he is arrested for the murder of Faziel.

Back in Scotland 1536, Connor is read the last rights by the priest, and declared dead. Connor's woman weeps over his body.

The cops investigate the murder scene. Brenda Wyatt from police forensics has been called in to gather evidence. The police assume that Nash killed Faziel for his priceless antique sword, as he is listed as an antique dealer. Nash is questioned by the police about Faziel. Nash feigns ignorance, and provokes one of the officers into fighting with him. Without any solid evidence, the police are forced to release him.

The dark warrior is driving to New York. He checks into a hotel room as Victor Kruger. In his room he unpacks and assembles a very large sword.

Brenda is given samples of metal taken from Faziel's wound by the coroner. She analyses the metal and realises there must have been another sword involved. Back at the garage, McLeod is retrieving his sword, when Brenda arrives. Using a metal detector, she finds pieces of McLeod's sword embedded in one of the garage pillars. McLeod meets up with Brenda at a local bar. As he's leaving she follows him home.

On the way home, McLeod encounters the dark warrior. He has returned for him, and they fight in an alley. McLeod tries to protect Brenda who stumbles into the fight. Luckily a police helicopter arrives and interrupts the fight. McLeod warns Brenda to stay away from him and not to follow him again.

Back in 1536, the Clan McLeod think Connor is possessed by the devil because he is still alive and has recovered from his wound, when he was a corpse the night before. His woman declares that Connor is in league with Lucifer, and they drive him from the village, beating and pelting him with rocks. His clansman Angus banishes him even though the rest of the village want to burn him. He wanders off into the highlands.

Back in New York, McLeod is returning home. He goes into a room in his loft filled with mementos of his time alive. He remembers blacksmithing and building a tower with his new woman, Heather. As they finish making love, the Spaniard Ramirez arrives to speak with McLeod. He knows his story, and has come looking for him. McLeod is effected by a lightning storm, and Ramirez explains it is the Quickening he feels. Ramirez claims he is the same as McLeod.

Brenda distracts her captain, and then checks through the file on his desk, finding the pictures of Nash. Meanwhile, McLeod is repairing and resharpening his sword. He looks at a book about ancient swords, turning it over to reveal it was written by Brenda. He remembers Ramirez.

On a Scottish lake, Ramirez is training McLeod, and they are trading insults. Ramirez responds by tipping him into the lake, and Connor complains that he cannot swim. Ramirez tells him he can't drown because he is Immortal. McLeod walks across the bottom of the lake, surfacing to attack Ramirez on the shore. Ramirez easily avoids his attack, and then starts to tutor McLeod in proper swordsmanship. Ramirez explains to Connor about the time of the Gathering, when the few who are left will gather to fight for the Prize. He explains the only way they can die is if his head is severed from his neck. He is safe only on holy ground, and they will all fight until only one is left. They train and practice until Connor is finally able to beat Ramirez.

Later, Ramirez warns McLeod that he must leave Heather because they cannot have children, and it will be too painful to watch her age and die. Ramirez explains that he has been alive for over 2,000 years, and when his last wife died he was shattered, and he does not wish him to experience that pain.

Back at McLeod's tower, Connor tells him of the black knight. Ramirez tells him he is the Kurgan from Russsia, and explains that he is the strongest and most evil of the Immortals. He must help stop the Kurgan or mortal man will endure an eternity of darkness.

Ramirez is entertaining Heather while McLeod is away when the Kurgan arrives. Ramirez attempts to protect Heather. They fight in the tower, and leave it in ruins. Ramirez manages to slash across the Kurgan's throat, but doesn't sever his head. The continue to fight and the Kurgan gains the upper hand, taking Ramirez's head, and raping Heather.

Back in New York, Brenda has come to see Nash, and is asking about a japanese sword with the metal in the blade folded 200 times. McLeod invites her to dinner. The police are watching Nash and they report back that Brenda was talking to him. Rachel, McLeod's assistant in his shop, asks what to tell people when they ask about him. He flashes back to World War I, when he found Rachel in the rubble of a destroyed building, and saves her from the Nazis.

Rachel tells him that she knows he is lonely and he should find someone to be with. McLeod leaves to go on his date with Brenda. He arrives at Brenda's place, and quickly discovers her hidden tape recorder, a .45 pistol, and the police unit watching her home. He seems amused by her deception, and tries to get the truth from her. He brings a bottle of brandy from 1783, and then tells her about the events of the year. She asks about the gift he bought for her, and when she opens it she finds her book. She realises the jigs up, and he confronts her. She tells him she just wants to see the samurai sword, because it shouldn't exist. She says its far too advanced for the time it was made. McLeod leaves her.

Flashing back, McLeod has built a new home near his ruined tower with Heather. We see a montage over time as Heather slowly ages, and dies. He stays with her to the end, unchanging.

McLeod meets with Castigere, another Immortal who has come for the gathering. They talk of the Gathering and decide to have a celebration. McLeod remembers the last party they had in 1783, when McLeod had a drunken duel with Mr Bassett on Boston Common. Bassett becomes frustrated when he is unable to kill McLeod despite repeatedly stabbing him with his rapier. He eventually turns his duelling pistol on his man servant and shoots him in the buttocks.

The Kurgan is fighting with Castigere. An American military veteran driving past witnesses the fight, and gets out armed with a machine gun. He witnesses the Kurgan take Castigere's head. He unloads the entire machinegun clip into the Kurgan, and when he goes to look for the body, the Kurgan stabs him with his sword. Kurgan takes the Quickening, then flees into the street, stealing a car with a little old lady in it, and then terrorising her all over the city.

The cops go to see the veteran in the hospital, and question him about the swordsman. They show him Nash's photo, and he confirms it wasn't Nash. The veteran tells them about Kurgan's scar across his neck. He can't understand how he got up after he filled him full of lead. He then tries to tell them about the Quickening, and the cops dismiss him as a kook.

Brenda is researching Nash's background and discovers that his identity belongs to a child that died young. She trails back through history, a succession of newborns that died, and their identity's taken, the previous identity leaving their posessions to the new identity. She has the handwriting on the birth certificates checked and compared to Nash's, all the way to 1796.

At a cathedral, McLeod goes to light a candle for Heather to remember her on her birthday. The Kurgan arrives and threatens McLeod, telling him Castigere is gone and they are the last. He provokes McLeod, and says he will come for him soon.

Brenda confronts McLeod about his past. He takes her to his treasure room, and tells her the truth. He stabs himself to prove to her that he is telling the truth. They end up kissing and making love. The next day at the zoo, McLeod tells Brenda that it won't work and he cannot get involved again. The Kurgan spies on them, and abducts Brenda when she gets home. He then calls McLeod and tells him to come meet him or Brenda will die.

McLeod goes to the Silvercup Building. He finds Brenda tied to the Silvercup sign, and the Kurgan attacks while he is freeing her. A fight breaks out atop the sign, moving down to the rooftop when the sign falls from its mounting. They fight on the roof, and they both fall through a skylight to the warehouse below. McLeod gets the upper hand and manages to cut further through Kurgan's neck, severing his head.

McLeod wins the prize, his mortality, and supreme knowledge. He goes to start a new life with Brenda.

Eraser

2008-05-07T19:00:00.004+10:00

Another reasonably standard Arnie actioner. It's pretty good, and only let down slightly by some dodgy CG croc's in the zoo sequence. I suppose they were pretty advanced for the time, but they don't look very real. Otherwise, there's some good action sequences, and some humor. Recommended if your passing it in the cheapie bin, or just an Ahnuld fan.

Plot Synopsis:

Special Agent John Kruger (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is assigned to make people disappear for the witness protection program. Mobsters have broken into an informants home and are terrorising them when Kruger arrives and deals to them. He then fakes the informants death, and helps the couple to disappear. The cops arrive to find the home ablaze.

Back at the Justice Building, John changes the couples fingerprints and dental records to match the corpses he substituted them for in the house fire. John's workmate Robert Deguerin (James Caan) comes to speak to him. John gets assigned a new witness to protect; Lee Cullen (Vanessa Williams) to protect. She worked for a Defence Contractor, Cyrez, and has uncovered some illegal dealings.

The FBI watch as Lee goes to collect evidence from her employers. She goes into the security vault to copy the data from the secure server. While there she makes two copies of the data. As she's leaving, security ask her to report to the director's office. He confronts her about copying the data. The director discovers the camera Lee is carrying, pulls a gun on her, but turns it on himself committing suicide. During the ensuing confusion, Lee manages to escape to the FBI.

Kruger meets with Lee to explain her new identity, and she refuses to give up her life, and goes home. The FBI check the data disc into evidence, and the clerk takes the disc and gives it to someone else. Lee arrives home and checks the second disc, but finds she is unable to run the program because it must be used on the secure corporate server. The disc's program alerts security officers at the company. She calls her friend at a newspaper and lets her know what's happened.

Some men arrive and murder the FBI watching Lee's house. They then start shooting at Lee using a high-tech railgun from Cyrez. Kruger arrives to protect Lee as the shooting starts. They dodge the shots, until John is forced to improvise a trap destroying her house so they can escape. John offers to hide her until the hearings.

Higher up, politicians connected to Cyrez are starting to panic. Orders are given to clean up the mess. John takes Lee to stay with a person in China Town. He tells her he works alone, so if anyone comes looking for her on his behalf, shoot them.

John meets with Robert who tells him someone has been murdering their suspects, and they suspect a mole in Witness Protection. He tells them they have to go meet their witnesses face to face. They go to check in on Alice, a witness of Roberts. A gunfight breaks out, and Robert kills Alice. He fakes giving her mouth-to-mouth when the other agents come in. He then cuts off her air. He plants evidence on the man near Alice's body - a photo of Lee. Robert asks John where she is, and John tells him Atlanta.

Back on the plane, en-route to Atlanta, Robert drugs John. John realises he's been drugged, but manages to text his warning code to Lee. They intercept the cell phone call and divert the plane to New York. When John awakens, Robert has murdered another agent and framed him. John pulls a concealed knife, and stabs Robert. He then grabs and parachute and escapes out the plane door. Unfortunately he drops the chute, and is forced to sky dive after it. He gets it, puts it on, and opens it. Robert has the plane turned around and tries to ram John. He becomes entangled in his chute, but manages to free himself and open the reserve. It opens a little too late though, and he slams into a wrecked car in a junkyard.

Robert lands and figures that John would have sent Lee to the New York Zoo. He sends his team of hitmen there. Meanwhile, John is on his way to New York in an acquired tow truck. One of the men finds Lee at the zoo, and tells her John sent her. She shoots him and runs off. The other men search for her and eventually pursue her into the reptile house. John arrives crashing the tow truck through the zoo gates. John shoots out the glass on the alligator exhibit, freeing the creatures. They start attacking the hitmen.

John and Lee hide out in a church. John makes contact with his captain and explains what's going on. He tells him he'll make contact again when he has proof. Lee shows John the second disc she made, but explains they can't use it outside of the Cyrez building. John goes to ask for help from the mob informant he rescued at the beginning.

Johnny agrees to help them. Robert is already watching Cyrez with his men. Johnny arrives disguised as a pizza delivery man. He fakes a heart attack to get into the building infirmary. John and Lee arrive disguised as paramedics. The Cyrez security team detect John accessing the disc but can't understand how he isn't running it from the server room. One of the technicians suggests he must be running it from a terminal in the building. They try to locate the terminal through the network. John discovers the Russian Mafia are buying the railgun weapons that day at midnight. The technicians finally track John to the Director's office. The security team burst in shooting. Robert grabs Lee as they try to escape.

Johnny goes with John to the Baltimore docks to stop the arms sale. His cousin Tony runs the docks and can help them find the ship the weapons are going on. They enlist the help of Tony and his mob crew. John contacts his boss and tells him where the arms deal is going to happen.

The mob guys create a diversion while John sneaks onto the docks. Hitmen armed with the railguns start sniping at John. He manages to get one of the weapons away from them, and starts using it against them. He disrupts the arms sale, and ends up fighting with Robert atop one of the shipping containers. Lee escapes from the Russian mob guy that is holding her aboard the ship. The wiseguys start shooting at the Russian mob guys. Robert is bought in by John, but looks like he might escape justice. John is cleared, and fakes Lee and his death in an explosion outside the courthouse. He then erases Robert and the corrupt Senator by arranging to have Johnny leave their limo on the train tracks. Their car is destroyed by an oncoming freight train.

Star Trek: First Contact

2008-05-07T10:45:00.009+10:00

Simply the absolute best Next Generation film. Nothing more to say really. My favourite from this series. Everything is just perfect. Great story, effects, action, everyone has something to do. If there's only one change I'd make, I'd have loved to have seen more of the space battle. More ships, more battle, more... It's something we haven't really seen from the Star Trek movies before - a massive space battle. They certainly were grand on Deep Space Nine, but I'd really like to see a huge battle on the big screen. In my mind, Insurrection was a bit of a lost opportunity too when it came to this. Anyway, fantastic film, it's a definite for the collection. Highly recommended.

Plot Synopsis:

In the Borg Collective, Picard stands in an alcove, as we're taken through the ship, showing Picard's assimilation into Locutus of Borg. Picard opens his eyes in his ready room. Some Borg device bursts out of his cheek, and he wakes up. The communicator alerts him to a message from Starfleet. A colony on a Federation planet has been destroyed by the Borg. Picard briefs the command crew, that a single Borg ship is on its way to Earth. Picard reports that they won't be going to Earth's defence, as Starfleet has assigned them to patrol the Neutral Zone. Picard feels they don't trust him since he was assimilated by the Borg previously.

Out in the Neutral Zone, Picard is reduced to inspecting reports of space dust, and comets. Picard listens to Starfleet's communications as they engage the Borg cube. Picard listens as the fleet is massacred by the Borg. He reaches a decision, and decides to take the Enterprise to Earth.

Meanwhile, Worf is fighting the Borg with the USS Defiant. He is taking damage when the Enterprise arrives and begins attacking the Cube. When the Admiral's ship is destroyed, Picard takes command of the fleet. He can hear the Collective inside his head, and orders the fleet to attack a seemingly harmless section of the Cube. The fleet opens fire, and the Cube is destroyed. Just as it is about to explode, a smaller Borg Sphere leaves the larger Cube and continues on to Earth.

The Sphere opens a portal into the past, and escapes through. The Enterprise becomes caught up in its temporal wake, and detects that the Borg have assimilated Earth in the past. Picard follows them through to correct the changes in the past.

At a human settlement in Montana, Zephram Cochrane and Lily are heading home after a night of drinking at the local tavern. They see a bright light in the sky that begins shelling the settlement with energy bolts. The Enterprise arrives with minimal damage, and detects the Sphere firing on the settlement. Worf fires quantum torpedoes and destroys the Sphere. Picard realises the date is April 4th, 2063, and the Borg were attempting to disrupt First Contact. Picard leads an away team to the settlement.

They beam down to find devastation. Picard leads a team into the missile complex under the settlement. They find extensive damage to the complex, but find the prototype warp ship mostly undamaged. Lily fires on them with a machinegun, before collapsing due to radiation exposure from the damaged warp ship. Lily is transported back to the ship for medical treatment. Riker and Troi are assigned to locate Zephram Cochrane. Geordi beams down to aid in repairs to the warp ship.

Back aboard the Enterprise, Engineering has noticed some strange behaviour within the environmental systems. A team is checking for faults in the Jefferies Tubes when they are attacked. Picard hears the Borg again, and realises something is wrong aboard the Enterprise. Picard and Data return to the ship leaving Riker in charge.

Medical is having systems failures, when something starts trying to bash the doors down. Worf reports that there are system failures on the lower decks to Picard. Picard realises the ship is being adjusted to be more hospitable to the Borg. They transported over when the Enterprise's shields were down, and are now attempting to assimilate the ship. Data locks out the main computer to stop the Borg from gaining control of the entire ship.

Crusher is forced to wake Lily up so they can escape the Borg. She activates the EMH program to act as a diversion while they escape. When they escape into the Jefferies tube network, Lily runs away. Picard takes command of some security teams, and leads them to Engineering on Deck 16 to try to stop the Borg.

Meanwhile, Troi has located Zephram Cochrane, back in the bar getting drunk and dancing badly. Riker arrives and angers Cochrane when he turns off his loud music. Troi has been drinking with Cochrane, and is pretty drunk. She declares Cochrane nuts, then collapses onto the floor. Cochrane returns to his bad dancing and loud music.

Picard discovers the Borg have already begun converting the Enterprise corridors, building new alcoves and Borg technology into the ship. Data feels anxious, so Picard suggests he deactivate his emotion chip. They advance toward Engineering, running into Crusher's group. She warns Worf that Lily has escaped. The team begins to encounter Borg, and Enterprise crew members that are being assimilated. The Borg ignore them until they attempt to gain access to Engineering. They begin to attack and for awhile the teams phasers stop them, until the Borg adapt their shielding. Worf and Data begin attacking them in hand-to-hand combat. Picard opens the Engineering doors, but is attacked by more Borg. The team retreats, but loses Data as he is grabbed and dragged under the Engineering doors. Some team members are captured and assimilated. Picard kills one team member to end his suffering. They flee into the Jefferies tube network, where Picard runs into Lily. Lily takes his phaser and threatens him with it.

Data awakens to find himself restrained to a Borg assimilation table in Engineering. The Borg Queen introduces herself to Data, and attempts to seduce him to gain access to the computer network.

Meanwhile, Riker explains to the truth to Cochrane. They attempt to prove their story to Cochrane by showing him the Enterprise-E through a telescope. He eventually believes them, and Riker explains that they need him to conduct his warp flight in the morning as he will make first contact with an alien race. This race will come and this will lead to the eventual creation of the Federation. Cochrane agrees to help them.

Meanwhile, the Borg are advancing through the ship, assimilating crew members. A team reports to Worf that the Borg have halted their advance on Deck 11. Picard takes Lily to a room with an observation window so he can show her she's in space. Picard manages to calm her down, and explains what's going on.

Back in Engineering, the Queen reveals herself to Data, and reactivates Data's emotion chip. She has had synthetic skin grafted to his arm in an attempt to tempt him to her side. Picard takes Lily through the ship past the Borg. Picard fires at the Borg, and leads them into the Holodeck. He activates his Dixon Hill program, and deactivates the safety protocols. Picard pulls a submachinegun from one of the goon's cases, and opens fire on the Borg. Lily realises that Picard gunned down his own crewmen, and is stunned at his callousness. Picard locates the neuroprocessor, and checks it to find out what the Borg are working on.

Back in Montana, Barclay is nervously harassing Cochrane. Geordi explains to Cochrane how everyone worships him. Cochrane seems to be struggling with all the hero worship.

Picard arrives back on the bridge and receives a report from Worf. They discover the Borg are building a beacon on the deflector to summon more Borg from the Delta Quadrant. Picard decides to take a team outside onto the hull to stop them.

Cochrane has run away, and Geordi and Riker pursue him. Cochrane explains that he's not a great man, and didn't want to build a warp ship out of any great motive, he just wanted money and women.

Picard, Worf, and Hawk venture out onto the deflector dish. They attempt to release the magnetic couplings holding the deflector dish onto the ship. They come under attack from the drones assembling the beacon, and Hawk is assimilated. He turns on Worf and Picard, but Worf kills him with a Klingon knife he'd bought along. They release the dish, and destroy it as it drifts away from the ship.

The Queen has attached more flesh to Data's frame. She is still attempting to turn Data to the Borg ideal. Data tries to escape, but halts when his flesh is injured and he feels pain for the first time. Data finds himself unable to remove the flesh. The Queen kisses Data and uses her sexuality to seduce him. Surprisingly he reciprocates.

The Queen quickly realises her deflector dish plan has been disrupted, and changes to an alternate plan.

Back on Earth, the repairs have been completed, and the team are preparing Cochrane and the Phoenix for launch. Cochrane is hung over, so Riker and Geordi go along to help out.

A crew member reports to Picard that the Borg are once again advancing through the ship. Worf suggests they destroy the ship, and Crusher agrees. Picard refuses and they argue. Lily confronts Picard and he refuses to give in, even though his personal experience is coloring his judgement. Enraged, Picard destroys the display of previous Enterprise's on the wall. Lily points out an analogy to Picard and Ahab from Moby Dick. Picard finally relents and agrees to destroy the ship. The crew prepares to evacuate. The auto destruct sequence is activated. Picard apologises to Worf, then sends the crew to their escape pods with Lily. Picard stays, after hearing Data in the Collective.

The Phoenix launches from it's silo in Montana. Cochrane finally realises the enormity of what he's achieved. Picard goes to Engineering and finds the doors open for him. The Borg Queen confronts him as Locutus. She shows Picard what she has done to Data. Picard offers to give himself up to become a companion to the Queen, if she releases Data. She releases Data but he will not go, he is Borg now. The Borg Queen commands Data to unlock the computer core and deactivate the self destruct, which he does.

Cochrane prepares to activate the warp drive. He sees the Enterprise out his window. Data brings the sensors online and targets the Phoenix. He fires but the torpedoes just narrowly miss the Phoenix. The Queen realises Data has betrayed her, and he smashes the plasma coolant tanks, spraying the coolant throughout Engineering. Picard and the Queen climb up hosts to avoid the coolant which liquefy's organic matter.

The Phoneix goes to warp. Data rises from the coolant to drag the Queen back down, where her organic flesh is dissolved. All the Borg drones aboard the ship malfunction and shutdown. Picard activates the environmental systems and pumps the coolant out. He finds the Queens cybernetic skull and spine, and snaps them, finally killing her. Picard helps Data who has had his skin dissolved too. Data admits to being tempted by the Queen for 0.68 seconds.

The alien ship arrives in Montana and makes first contact with Zephram Cochrane. The Vulcans step out and and greet them with "Live Long and Prosper". The Enterprise returns to the future. Cochrane is busy introducing the Vulcans to loud music and drink.

Star Trek: Nemesis

2008-05-06T17:54:00.008+10:00

A bit of a mixed bag this installment. Probably not as bad as has been made out, but some elements just don't sit right. I can't fathom why Data seems to have a death-wish in this film. He volunteers to sacrifice himself twice when there's no real reason, and there's probably still alternatives to death. It's almost like he's suicidal or something? Obviously the writers had a real urge to kill off a cast member, but by the end they're set up B-4 as Data's obvious replacement anyway, thereby cheapening his sacrifice. Your never really given a chance to mourn the character, and he's back! But the effects are great, the space battles great. Would have loved to have seen the Federation fleet maybe come looking for the overdue Enterprise, and arrive to lend some assistance in the battle. It was interesting that the Romulans decided to fight alongside the Federation, but perhaps a bit hard to believe that they'd suddenly set aside years of aggression because they don't like the current madman in power. It's hard to put my finger on what's wrong with this film. I desperately want to like it, and on some levels I do, but there's still something that feels off. I'll just call it good, but not great. I'm disappointed that it wasn't better in the story department, and it'd be nice if The Next Generation crew were given one really good movie to finish it off. Otherwise, the crown is still held by First Contact as the best TNG movie.

Plot Synopsis:

In the Romulan Senate, the Romulan leaders vote to refuse to join forces with Shinzon's Reman fleet to attack the Federation. The Senate is then murdered by a horrific little device that petrifies all the senators.

Meanwhile, Picard is officiating at Riker and Troi's wedding. Later, back aboard the Enterprise-E, the ship is heading to Betazed for a wedding ceremony there when the ship detects a positronic signature coming from the Kolarun system. They move to investigate.

Picard takes the Argo down to Kolarus III, and they search the desert planet, finding parts of another Soong-type android like Data. They encounter the locals, but manage to escape in their shuttle. The crew reassemble the android and discover it is a prototype, less advanced but similar to Data, named B-4.

Picard is contacted by Admiral Janeway who asks him to go to Romulus to facilitate peace negotiations. Picard takes the ship to Romulus. Data attempts to copy his memory patterns to B-4, but it doesn't seem to offer any improvement to B-4.

They arrive at Romulus, and after being kept waiting for 17 hours, meet with the Reman Warbird Scimitar. The away team are surprised to find that Shinzon is a human. He makes some allusions to being the same as Picard and then invites him to dinner tomorrow. He provides them with a blood sample.

Doctor Crusher confirms that Shinzon is a clone of Picard. The Romulans are unhappy with Shinzon, and were expecting him to help them attack the Federation. Shinzon puts them in line, and then asks Commander Donatra to keep an eye on her superior. Shinzon collapses when Donatra leaves, and the Viceroy rushes to his aid.

Back on the Enterprise, B-4 starts behaving oddly, and begins hacking into the Enterprise's computer network. Picard attends dinner with Shinzon, who explains that he was created as a clone of Picard with an intention to replace Picard. He was ultimately abandoned when a new government came to power on Romulus. He was discarded to the dilithium mines of Remus. He again makes overtures of peace, and wants to know Picard's history. Picard tells him it will take time to earn trust.

Back on the Enterprise, the crew have discovered illegal thaelaron radiation coming from the Scimitar, and have also discovered the illegal computer access. Picard suspects that Shinzon is looking for something other than peace.

Shinzon violates Counselor Troi's mind with the help of his Viceroy. He then retrieves B-4 from the Enterprise, and his technicians begin downloading the information B-4 took from the Enterprise's computer. Later, he abducts Jean-Luc from the Enterprise, and cloaks the Scimitar. He tells him he needs a massive transfusion of Picard's blood to stop his degeneration due to the cloning process not being completed. Shinzon says that with the data from the Enterprise, he will now be able to conquer the Federation.

Back aboard the Enterprise, they're searching for the Scimitar. B-4 returns to take Picard to Shinzon, but it turns out that it is Data impersonating B-4. Data has been investigating the Scimitar and has discovered it contains a thaelaron weapon. He tells Picard to return to the Enterprise. Picard tells him they'll go together. They run into Shinzon's guards as they make their escape, but manage to gain access to a fighter bay. They steal a fighter, and fly through the corridors of the Scimitar, escaping through a large window. The Enterprise beams them aboard, and they jump to warp. The Scimitar pursues.

Doctor Crusher confirms that Shinzon doesn't have long to live without a transfusion from Picard. Data tells B-4 that he is deactivating him because he gather information against them. Geordi briefs the command crew on the specifications of the Scimitar's thaelaron weapon. Picard hopes that the Enterprise can reach the fleet first, and together they can stand against Shinzon before he attacks Earth.

The crew prepare for battle. Shinzon is deteriorating visibly now, but plans to intercept the Enterprise when it reaches the Phaezon Rift. Picard realises too late that the Rift disrupts communications, as Shinzon attacks, attempting to disable the ship. He damages their warp drive, forcing them back to impulse speeds, then continues bombarding the ship while cloaked. Picard attempts to return fire, but is firing blind. When they do hit, they do minimal damage to the Scimitar.

Shinzon contacts Picard and tells him his terms for surrender. Picard attempts to appeal to his better nature. It fails. Shinzon simply wants vengeance. Commander Donatra arrives with some Warbirds and offers assistance to Picard. They combine forces and attack the Scimitar, but they are quickly defeated. Deanna has an idea; she may be able to sense the Viceroy and find their position. She makes contact, and guides Worf toward their location. He fires and damages the Scimitar. Picard then pounds the Scimitar with all weapons.

Shinzon dispatches a Reman boarding party to the Enterprise. Worf and Riker lead a security team to meet the Reman's on Deck 29. A firefight breaks out in the corridor, and the Viceroy escapes into one of the Jefferies tubes. Riker pursues him into the tube. The Viceroy attacks, and after a struggle, Riker manages to hurl the Viceroy down a deep shaft.

Shinzon attacks blowing the front off the Enterprise's bridge. Picard's last ditch plan to disable Shinzon involves ramming the shattered Enterprise into the Scimitar. Shinzon watches in disbelief as the Enterprise slams into the Scimitar, locking the two vessels together. Shinzon reverses up, pulling this ships apart, but doing horrific damage to both vessels. Picard attempts to activate the self-destruct mechanism, but discovers he cannot due to the extreme damage.

Shinzon decides to deploy the thaelaron weapon and destroy everything left alive aboard the Enterprise, before resuming course for Earth. Picard decides to beam over to the Scimitar to stop Shinzon. The transporters only allow Picard to go, before they malfunction and shutdown. Data follows Picard by jumping across the gap in space, and landing on the Scimitar's hull. Picard confronts Shinzon and they fight, with Shinzon ending up impaled on a piece of mangled Scimitar hull. Data arrives, and attaches the emergency personal transporter prototype that he had to Picard, sending him back to the Enterprise. Data then sacrifices himself to destroy the Scimitar and it's weapon. Picard and the crew watch as the Scimitar is destroyed. Later, Picard holds a service to mourn missing crew, and Data. They tell stories of Data and his attempts to become human.

Back on Earth, the Enterprise is undergoing repair. Riker and Troi are leaving aboard his new command, the USS Titan. Picard is preparing to meet his new first officer, and is counseling a re-activated B-4. B-4 begins to exhibit signs that perhaps Data's memory transfer might have worked after all.

Executive Decision

2008-05-06T10:32:00.003+10:00

Actually a pretty good film. I saw this when it came out, back in the days when I could still afford to go to the movies. It's pretty notable for Steven Seagal being killed early on in the movie. It's fun enough with some good action and plot twists. Recommended, and worth a purchase if you pass it in the $7 bin.

Plot Synopsis:

US Special Forces led by Col. Austin Travis (Steven Seagal) raid a safe house in Trieste looking for stolen DZ-5 nerve gas. They find nothing, but lose a team member.

Three months later, David Grant (Kurt Russell), an army consultant is having a flying lesson when he is back to his office with news that the US has captured a notorious terrorist leader. The terrorists respond with acts of terror; suicide bombers blowing up public locations.

Meanwhile, a flight to the US is hijacked by more terrorists, and led by a fanatical terrorist leader. The American Embassy receives a message that the terrorists have taken the plane and that they want their leader released. Grant gets called to the Pentagon to advise. He surmises that the terrorists have put the DZ-5 on the plane, and are planning to fly it into the US and detonate it as a weapon. Travis suggests that they use a special Remora stealth plane to board the hijacked airliner.

The plan is approved, and Grant meets with Travis's team at the air base. The Remora launches and goes to rendezvous with the plane. Engineer Dennis (Olive Platt) tries to dock the Remora with the airliner. The succeed and the team sneak aboard the airliner. Unfortunately things don't go smoothly when they hit turbulence, and the Remora is destroyed along with Travis. Grant is forced to take command of the situation on the plane. The military thinking the team have failed, begin to plan to destroy the airliner as a backup option.

Grant suggests the reconnoitre the plane to find the terrorist leader, and the bomb with DZ-5 that must be on board. The team starts installing cameras and microphones throughout the plane, while searching the cargo holds for the bomb.

They locate the bomb and Grant makes contact with Joan (Halle Berry), one of the cabin crew. Grant gets Dennis to help with defusing the bomb since the teams bomb specialist has been incapacitated. Grant goes to help the team take control of the plane. They are forced to abort when the bomb suddenly goes haywire. They're attempt at disabling the bomb didn't work. It has a remote control. Grant makes contact with Joan to see if she can help find the passenger with the remote control.

Dennis screws up and they realise that they've been working to defuse a decoy bomb. They disassemble the mechanism and find the real bomb hidden underneath. Joan locates the passenger with the remote control. The Pentagon sends fighters to destroy the airliner. The fighters threaten the plane, and Grant manages to send a message using the tail lights to send morse code. They buy some more time.

Grant goes into the plane's cabin with Joan to get the passenger with the remote. They realise they have the wrong person. Grant looks around and spots him. The shooting starts and Grant manages to get the remote away. The rest of the team blow the cabin lights and attack. Dennis manages to stop the bomb from detonating just in time. One of the terrorists gunshots tear a large hole in the side of the plane and some passengers are sucked out. Grant confronts the terrorist leader on the upper deck of the plane. The leader shoots the plane's pilots before he dies.

Grant is forced to fly the plane and attempt a landing at Dulles Airport in Washington. He can't do it, so he tries to land on the learner field that he's used too. He puts the airliner down there on the much smaller runaway, destroying a lot of small learner planes in the process.

Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith

2008-05-05T19:25:00.006+10:00

This is probably the best of the prequel trilogy. There is plenty of action, some horrific plot twists, good character interaction. Overall the acting is better, the effects are outstanding. Sure the dialog is still a bit clunky, but personally I just tell myself that Lucas was going for a sort of 'oldey' time language. Sort of the later trilogy is more modern time, so they talk like us, and the prequels are more like Victorian times, more formal language. It's a shame too that some of the minor plot points are not explained in the film, and you've had to see the Clone Wars animated cartoon to understand them; eg: the coughing General Grievous. There were quite a few comments when it came out, from people who obviously had not see the cartoon. Still it's a fitting end to the prequel trilogy, with Anakin's descent into hell finally shown, and the galaxy plunged into the evil of the Empire. It's a must see if you've watched the others.

Plot Synopsis:

The galactic civil war has been going for some time. The Separatists leaders, General Grievous and Count Dooku, have captured Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, and Obi-Wan and Anakin are dispatched to rescue him. They fight their way onto the ship, and Anakin defeats Count Dooku, killing him at Palpatine's instruction. While attempting to escape the ship, they are captured by General Grievous, but during the confrontation, Grievous escapes, leaving them to crashland on Coruscant.

Anakin is rewarded by Palpatine, and promoted to the Jedi Council against the Jedi's wishes. He becomes angry when they refuse to grant him the title of Jedi Master. They resume their pursuit of General Grievous. Anakin is asked to report to the council on Palpatine's dealings. Obi-Wan begins searching the Outer Systems for Grievous. Yoda is dispatched to Kashyyk to aid the Wookiees in battle. Anakin returns home to Padme, who is heavily pregnant.

Palpatine continues grooming Anakin to be his apprentice, sowing the seeds of discord. Anakin has been experiencing nightmares where Padme dies, and when he uncovers that Palpatine is the Sith Lord, Palpatine convinces Anakin that only the power of the Dark side can save Padme.

Obi-Wan discovers Grievous's location on Utapau. He summons the clone army, and confronts General Grievous. When the clones arrive, Grievous attempts to flee with Obi-Wan in pursuit. The eventually fight, and Obi-Wan defeats the General. Meanwhile, Anakin reports to Mace Windu his discovery. Master Windu goes to confront Palpatine, and they fight, leaving Palpatine horribly disfigured after having his own Force lightning reflected back at him. Anakin arrives and demands that Palpatine is arrested rather than killed, and ends up attacking Master Windu. Palpatine flings Windu out the tower window. Anakin is now taken as Palpatine/Darth Sidious's apprentice, and given the title Darth Vader.

Darth Sidious commands the clone troops to turn on the Jedi, and across the galaxy, Jedi are cut down and killed. Yoda senses what has happened, and avoids being killed. The Wookiee's help Yoda to flee the clones. Obi-Wan narrowly avoids his fate, and manages to escape Utapau in Grievous's ship. At the Jedi Template, Darth Vader takes his clone troops and destroys everyone at the temple, including the children. Sidious then dispatches him to Mustafar to take care of the Separatist leaders.

Yoda and Obi-Wan make contact with Senator Organa, and they decide to return to Coruscant to deactivate the signal at the Jedi Temple that is commanding the Jedi to return home. They do so, and discover Anakin's treachery. Yoda confronts Sidious, and Obi-Wan goes to Padme to discover where Anakin has gone. She will not help him, so he hides aboard her ship when she goes after Anakin.

Darth Vader arrives on Mustafar and slays all the Separatist leaders. Yoda fights with Sidious but is defeated, and narrowly escapes with Senator Organa's help. Padme confronts Anakin on Mustafar, and he tells her he did it all for her, to save her, so he won't lose her like his mother. When he sees Obi-Wan he flies into a rage, and chokes Padme. Obi-Wan and Anakin fight through the complex, and out onto the machinery, which they damage and it falls into the lava. They fight across the lava floes, until Obi-Wan gains the upper hand and severs Anakin's legs and remaining good arm. Anakin catches fire as he lies next to the lava, and Obi-Wan leaves him to die.

Sidious sensing Vader is in danger arrives on Mustafar, and takes Vader for medical treatment, rebuilding him in them more familiar Darth Vader form. Obi-Wan meets with Organa's ship, and they take Padme to a medical facility where twins are delivered; Luke and Leia. She dies after giving birth. Vader arises from his slab and asks Sidious what has happened to Padme. He tells her that Vader killed her in his anger. Vader enraged crushes and destroys everything in the room using the Force.

Yoda decides to go into hiding on Dagobah. Obi-Wan agrees to take Luke to the Skywalker's on Tatooine, and remain guard over him. Senator Organa takes Leia to Alderaan. The two droids are given to Captain Antilles on the Tantive IV, and C-3PO has his memory erased. Darth Vader and the now Emperor, stand watch on a star destroyer as the Death Star is commencing construction.

Balrog Progress

2008-05-05T16:17:00.004+10:00

Finally sucked up the courage to continue on with the Balrog. After much studying of techniques out there, I think I've made a pretty good go of the flames. They look pretty awesome. Now I need to work on reblacking in the skin of the creature. Unfortunately I'm out of Chaos Black, and since I'm still unemployed, that's not something that's likely to change anytime soon, so back in the cupboard he goes. I still think he's going to look awesome when he's finally done.

The Rocketeer

2008-04-28T11:12:00.012+10:00

I felt the burning urge to rewatch this film a few weeks ago, but only got around to it now. Sadly, I hear the creator of the character, Dave Stevens recently passed away. It was a real tragedy that this film came out to little or no marketing from Disney and consequently didn't do well, because from the people who've seen it, it's much loved. It would have been neat to see the character, and subsequently the creator do well from it. This is a great movie, lots of fun with a pulp-era hero. This could have been another Indy Jones if it had been handled right. Sadly, we'll only ever have this one. But damn, its a good movie. The production values are good, lots of interesting characters, good acting, effects that are pretty good for when they were done, and a great story. Highly recommended. And who wouldn't want to strap a rocket to their back and fly?

Plot Synopsis:

Pilot Cliff Secord is testing a new racing plane when his flight is interrupted by FBI chasing gangsters who have stolen some secret device. The gangsters shoot at Cliff's plane, and stash the device at the airfield. Cliff's plane crashes, and the gangsters are captured, but the FBI don't care for Cliff's loss.

The FBI believe the device was destroyed when the gangsters car crashed. They report to Howard Hughes that it was destroyed. He refuses to build another one.

Hollywood star Neville Sinclair is angry with Eddie Valentine because his men lost the device. He demands they find it immediately, and tells them they're looking for a rocket. Sinclair sends his thug to the hospital to interrogate Eddie's man about the rocket's location.

Meanwhile, Cliff and Peavey find the rocket stashed in their plane. They figure out what it does, and decide to try it out. It takes off out of control, and returns smashing into the ground. Cliff asks Peavey to fix it so it works properly, then they can use it to make enough money to repair their plane.

Cliff tells his girlfriend Jenny about the rocket. Sinclair overhears and tries to get to Cliff through Jenny. The gangsters search the airfield for the rocket, and wind up pursuing Cliff after he uses the rocket to save a fellow pilot during the airshow.

Peavey and Cliff get attacked at home by Lothar, Sinclair's thug, who's looking for the rocket. He takes the plans that Peavey has drawn, when the FBI also arrive looking for the rocket.

Hiding out, Cliff has a run in again with the gangsters, and learns that Sinclair has Jenny with him, and the gangsters are working for Sinclair. He takes off for the club to rescue her. Peavey is captured by someone.

At the club, he tries to warn Jenny, but runs into Lothar as he is leaving. He retrieves the rocket and tries to escape the club. Sinclair has all the doors locked, so Cliff escapes through the roof. Unfortunately, Sinclair captures Jenny as she is leaving.

Returning to the Bulldog Cafe, Cliff find's Peavey gone. And he is captured by the FBI, and taken to Howard Hughes. Howard explains that the Nazi's are after the rocket so they can invade with flying commandoes. Cliff realises that Neville Sinclair is a Nazi spy. He escapes and goes to meet Sinclair at Griffith Observatory. At Sinclair's house, Jenny tries to escape and discovers that Neville is working for the Nazi's also. She retrieves the rocket's plans from Sinclair's secret office.

At the Observatory, Cliff arrives to exchange the rocket for Jenny. He tells Valentine about the Nazis. Eddie and his gang turn on Sinclair, and he reveals his Nazi troops. When the FBI also arrive, Cliff manages to escape during the chaos. Neville takes Jenny aboard the Nazi zeppelin that has arrived. Cliff pursues them and damages the zeppelin's tail rudder on landing.

He fights his way through the Nazi's and Lothar to Neville. They have a confrontation, and Cliff gives the rocket to Neville, after secretly removing the gum that was covering the hole in the rocket's fuel tank. Neville takes off, and the rocket ignites the leaking fuel, exploding. As the zeppelin starts to burn up, Howard Hughes and Peavey arrive to rescue them.

Later, Howard delivers a new GB plane to Cliff, and Peavey receives his plans back, already thinking of ways to build a new improved rocket.