too big?

The Fort Apache set was misleading. It has a sprue of accessories in 1/12 scale which doesn’t really work with the 1/35 scale figures. For $10, it’s not a bad set of Cavalry and Indians. I took another look at my old set I had picked up decades ago for an upsized Boothill. The figures in there are pretty good as well. I’ll try and see if Michaels has anything useful the next time I’m in there.

I have since found out about 1/72 scale cowboy figs from Airfix, BUM, and Imex that might be viable. I will need to pop by the model shops to see what I can find. At 1/72 instead of 1/35, the buildings would be a lot easier to make and store.

Holiday recap

Holidays were nice. I didn’t get a lot actually finished on my list but did move a few chores further along. It was nice and relaxing.

The sift on the room is coming along quite nicely. For those who don’t know, it still looks over-packed but it is more organized and I’ve actually cleared about 5 boxes worth of stuff. Not that I’ve gotten rid of 5 boxes of stuff – just condensed and reorganized with a bit actually being removed.

I had gotten the computer working relatively well again. At least up until Sunday, when it refused to achieve startup again. That’s too bad as it looked like we could delay an upgrade for a bit longer.

We popped by Keycon and visited the dealer’s room. We actually ran into most of the people that we would have attended to see anyways. I ran into Brian (not TSR Brian) - who is running the gaming at the ComicCon this fall. He asked me if I wanted to run some games. He wanted to see Circus Imperium and I also suggested I might be able to upsize RoboRally by then – so now I have to bump that up on my list of things to do.

Fort Apache?

We got another flyer with the paper today. In it, there is a cowboy fort playset with 190 pieces for $10. In sifting my room, I have found an old set I had picked up a couple of decades ago for cowboy miniature games which I still have to test for paintability. With the Rules With No Name and Gold Rush games I’m looking at, it caught my eye for more figures. I did a search online to try and find out what it might contain and came across this site: http://www.thortrains.net/armymen/armymen1.htm . It has a lot of the classic army men sets from over the years. Some look familiar – like some of the astronauts from my youth in the 70s. The cowboy and Indians as well as some of the army figures bring back memories. Most of my old ones got chewed on and tossed out over the years but I do have a few of them somewhere. I think I will pop down and take a look at the playset on Friday when I am off. I might be able to get something done with it while I’m off next week. For that price, if the figures are good, I might even get two for the wagons and extra bits.

Survivor - final

For those who were playing along with us on Survivor, the final points are as below:

Survivor Tribe Points
Pavrati - Dabu/Air/Mal 117 – Ultimate Survivor
Amanda - Dabu/Malakal 106 – 2nd place
Cirie - Dabu/Malakal 80 – voted out episode 14
Natalie - Dabu/Airai 80 – voted out episode 14
Erick - Dabu/Mal/Air 77 – voted out episode 13
Alexis - Dabu/Airai 73 – voted out episode 12
James - Dabu/Air/Mal 73 – removed episode 12 – medical reasons
Jason - Dabu/Airai 73 – voted out episode 11
Ozzy - Dabu/Malakal 62 – voted out episode 10
Eliza - Dabu/Air/Mal 58 – voted out episode 9
Kathy - Airai 46 – left episode 7
Ami - Malakal 44 – voted out episode 8
Jonathan - Airai/Malakal 36 – left episode 6 – medical reasons
Tracy - Malakal/Airai 36 – voted out episode 7
Chet - Malakal/Airai 30 – voted out episode 6
Joel - Airai 24 – voted out episode 5
Mikey - Airai 19 – voted out episode 4
Yau-Man - Malakal 17 – voted out episode 3
Mary - Airai 7 – voted out episode 2
Jonny Fairplay - Malakal - voted out 1st episode

The highest possible total would have been 460 for a perfect combination of Erick, Natalie, Cirie, Amanda, and Pavrati.
My team of Joel, Tracy, James, Pavrati, and Amanda was worth 356 so far. With the final votes, this pulled me up from eighth place to a third place finish. Second place was a close 361. Shan easily held on to first place with 391 points for her team of Erick, Jason, James, Ozzy, and Amanda.
We had hoped Amanda would win but she really doesn’t express herself well in the final Tribal Council.

Survivor totals - before final

For those playing along with us on Survivor, the current points going into the final are as below:

Pavrati Dabu/Air/Mal 87
Amanda Dabu/Malakal 80
Natalie Dabu/Airai 80
Erick Dabu/Mal/Air 77 – voted out episode 13
Cirie Dabu/Malakal 75
Alexis Dabu/Airai 73 – voted out episode 12
James Dabu/Air/Mal 73 – removed episode 12 – medical reasons
Jason Dabu/Airai 73 – voted out episode 11
Ozzy Dabu/Malakal 62 – voted out episode 10
Eliza Dabu/Air/Mal 58 – voted out episode 9
Kathy Airai 46 – left episode 7
Ami Malakal 44 – voted out episode 8
Jonathan Airai/Malakal 36 – left episode 6 – medical reasons
Tracy Malakal/Airai 36 – voted out episode 7
Chet Malakal/Airai 30 – voted out episode 6
Joel Airai 24 – voted out episode 5
Mikey Airai 19 – voted out episode 4
Yau-Man Malakal 17 – voted out episode 3
Mary Airai 7 – voted out episode 2
Jonny Fairplay Malakal voted out 1st episode

The highest possible total would be 399 for a perfect combination of Erick, Natalie, Cirie, Amanda, and Pavrati.

My team of Joel, Tracy, James, Pavrati, and Amanda is only worth 300 so far. In our group, I am in eighth place. Shan is in first place with 365 points for her team of Erick, Jason, James, Ozzy, and Amanda. Unless Amanda gets voted out of the top three and Natalie wins, Shan is unbeatable in our group.

Books read

I've got four books on the go right now, but this is mostly what I had for the first third of 2008 - less tradebacks:

From Jan:
finished Warships in Miniature by Michael Ainsworth
DC Comics – A Celebration of the World’s Finest Comic Book Heroes by Les Daniels
Tim Burton’s nightmare before Christmas: The film, the art, the vision by Frank Thompson
Invasive Procedures by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston
When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops by George Carlin
The Usborne Introduction to the Second World War
The Serpent & the Rainbow by Wade Davis
World War Z by Max Brooks

Feb
Me, Chi, and Bruce Lee: Adventures in Martial Arts by Brian Preston
The Seuss, the whole Seuss, and nothing but the Seuss: a visual biography of Theodor Seuss Geisel by Charles D Cohen
Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Vision of Hell by Kim Pattenroth
Foul Play! The Art and Artists of the Notorious 1950s E.C. Comics! by Grant Geissman
The zombie survival guide: Complete protection from the living dead by Max Brooks
The Last Wild Wolves: Ghosts of the Great Bear Rainforest by Ian McAllister
Cthulhu Live: Player’s Companion by Robert H McLaughlin
Starting an eBay Business For Canadians For Dummies by Marsha Collier and Bill Summers

Mar
Germany’s First Air Force 1914-1918 by Peter Kilduff
Cthulhu Live: Lost Souls by Philip Salmon
Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross by Chip Herd and Geoff Spear
Cthulhu Live: Shades of Gray by Robert H McLaughlin
Knights of the Air: Canadian Fighter Pilots in the First World War by Lieutenant-Colonel David L Bashow

Apr
Cthulhu Live: Second Edition by Robert H McLaughlin
Joan of Arc – The Teenager Who Saved Her Nation by Philip Wilkinson
52 Weekend Makeovers: Easy projects to Transform Your Home Inside and Out by Taunton Home
My Inventions by Nikola Tesla
PC Mods for computer evil genius
Cthulhu Live: Live Action Horror Game Set in the Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft by Robert H McLaughlin

Sifting / movies

I’m back. Didn’t get a lot done on my list last week. I did fix the coffee table – which had been wobbly. The dusting of snow on Sunday prevented yardwork – like turning the garden.
I did start a sift of the boxes in my room. I pulled out most of the boxes and have rearranged them a bit and moved some around and have cleared 4 boxes so far. It may not sound like much but it’s almost a whole stack and will make it easier to get in and continue working away at it.

On the weekend we did catch two comic book movies. We finally saw Ghost Rider on TV. It was a fairly close adaptation of the series. They did use Dan’s costume with Johnny Blaze though. He’s always been a tough on as Johnny didn’t really have any major villains (mostly using his hellfire against thugs) and Dan mostly fought demons using the penance stare. Visually though, it did look quite good. A flaming skull is always a good image.

The other one we saw was Iron Man. This has easily moved to the top of my list of best comic book movie adaptations. Luckily, there’s still a war on, so his origin didn’t need to be tweaked too much. There were a few forgivable changes (electromagnet to keep fragments vs a pacemaker, and making Stane a business partner) but it very much was very true to the books I remember. I do miss Jarvis as a British butler but I can understand him being changed to make him look like less of a Bruce Wayne copy.
All-in-all, a great adaptation. Plus the SHIELD (with upgraded acronym) and Ultimate Fury cameo were very cool. The other neat thing, his big energy device is basically a Tesla coil – I’m into my second Telsa book so it’s apparent.