Light Bulbs - Test and Review

So recently I had to take some pictures for a contest over at ThroneofSkulls.com of a WIP Angron model that I have been working on. Now taking good pictures is something that I always find difficult, and have never really mastered. Taking that into account, and the fact that I don't/didn't have a tripod, light box, or sunlight (At the time) the pictures came out pretty badly.

Fast forward a couple of days to when I was walking around in shopko while waiting for my car to get some new tires and I spy some GE Sunlight, and GE Daylight CFL light bulbs. For those of you that do not know, CFL (or Compact Fluorescent Lights) are those weird spirally looking light bulbs that use a ton less electricity than your normal incandescent bulbs. I had previously noted that a 26 Watt (100 watt equivalent) CFL bulb gave out a tone more like that the incandescent bulbs of approx. the same size, and extremely more than an average 60 watt. The CFL light is also much more white rather than yellow, which I thought might help my pictures since they tend to turn out rather yellow tinged.

That brings me to today, when I decided to test out 4 different types of light bulbs and see how they took pictures. In order to do this I set up my Demon Prince model in front of and on top of a regular piece of paper, set up two lights, and set my camera to its no flash, super macro, ISO 64 settings.  I then proceeded to take a picture of the miniature from approximately the same angle, and distance using 4 different light bulbs.

I took pictures until my camera's motion detected said that there was no motion blur. So what light bulbs did I use?

60 Watt Incandescent - Probably what most people use, it fits in normal light fixtures and lamps, and are relatively common.
26 Watt CFL - This is a 100 W equivalent bulb. In terms of lumens it gives probably about 3x as much light as the 60W incandescent.
26 Watt Daylight CFL - Pretty much the same as regular 26 Watt, but wanted to see what the light quality difference would be as it is a "Daylight" bulb
26 Watt Sunlight CFL - Again, I wanted to see the difference in the quality of the light from the bulb, and specifically how it differed from the Daylight bulb.

Now onto the results:

60 Watt Incandescent
This was my control, it is the light most commonly used, and has a very yellow glow. Here is the picture that it took:

As you can see the picture has quite a yellow/orange tinge. The red is washed out, the bronze looks more brown, and the colors are extremely different than if you see the miniature in person. Just to give you an idea, the background should be white, not off white. This picture would in my opinion require a bit of color tinting in GIMP to really show what the miniature looks like.

26 Watt CFL
This is the bulb that I took the pictures of Angron with, It should be a lot brighter, and from seeing the differences in light, should also be a bit whiter and have truer color.

Well there it is, it does look a little bit better, but still quite yellow. The Background should be white, but once again has taken on a yellowish tinge and washed out the colors. The brighter light did seem to help a little bit, but it still suffers from the same problems as the incandescent.



26 Watt Sunlight Bulb
One of the two bulbs that I picked up the other day to test out. Wasn't sure how it was going to work, but since sunlight is amazing to paint by, I had to give it a try. Here are the results:

So as you can see the difference is pretty extreme. The background actually looks white, the colors are much truer to light. Some of the red still got a little washed out, and the camera cord got in the way on the left hand side, but the picture is still light years ahead of the other two.

26 Watt Daylight CFL
So here comes the daylight bulb, again, I was not sure what I was expecting. I know that there are some really expensive daylight lamps that look very good, but considering the price of the bulb was under $10, I wasn't expecting much.

The picture is again much better than the incandescent or regular CFL. The Background is actually a little bit blue, but the colors look pretty good and close to real life, but i think that they are a little bit more blue than they should be.

OVERALL

Considering that all I change was my light bulbs, not fancy editing, no light boxes or diffusion screens, and using only two lights and a pretty basic camera, It think that light bulb definitely matters. I am never going to take pictures with incandescent again, event the extra brightness of the CFL wasn't as big of a change as I thought it would be. I would say that the winner in this test was probably the Sunlight bulb, because of the fact that if really gave a good white background where it was supposed to. The daylight bulb is a close second, and I am going to have to do some more tests to see which one I like and works better.

What do you guys think of the pictures, the bulbs were the only things changed, I even edited them all the same. What experiences have you guys had with different bulbs?

White Dwarf Review 378

So I signed up for a White dwarf subscription awhile back and got my first issue today, the Newest White Dwarf featuring a lot of stuff about the new Warhammer fantasy expansion Storm of Magic. Quick note, if you don't like reading, you can just pick out the red and bolded print to get the highlights.

(Warhammer) New Release Section  7 out of 10, most of the stuff isn't too new, but there are some surprises to make this section worth looking over.
So as everyone knows WD always starts up with a new release section, and while some might see this as just advertising I actually like it. First off, if anyone has ever read pretty much any magazine you will know that just about every other page is an advertisement, usually for something completely unrelated to what you are reading about. At least with WD you know what you are getting, and if you bought the mag, you obviously care at least a little about the game.

The new releases mainly feature the new storm of magic stuff. Detailed pictures of the new monsters (chimeara, manticore, black dragon, and cockatrice) are followed up by the new terrain (two sets, one with the magewrath throne, and balewind vortex while the other has the eternity stair and dreadfire portal).  Next are the new wizards which everyone has most likely seen (one for chaos warriors, demons, dark elves, and vampire counts). Next up we get to see a nice picture of the Storm of magic Book itself, which includes a cool spinner for seeing which magic lore is in ascendancy. BTW, i really do love the new Warhammer books, they just look beautiful to me, and I might actually pick up the storm of magic one. The next two pages contain the vortex templates, new magic dice, and the battle magic set.

Finally, after all this, I turn the page and my eyes practically pop out of my head! the lammasu and great taurus from the chaos dwarf range are both being released in finecast! Talk about a surprise. Also the fen beast, dark emissary, truthsayer, and a brand new cold one sculpt are also being released in finecast. The release section ends with a preview of the new kill team game and some books from black library.

(Warhammer) A Magical Mealstrom 8 out of 10, check it out to get the low down on the new expansion, With a lot of new rules and descriptions this is definitely with the read.
This is basically your preview section for explaining what the Storm of Magic is, and how it effects and changes the game. Basically you get to cast awesome spells, tame great beasts (All 60 of which are available to EVERY army) and use some amazing artifacts. Each army gets storm of magic points to use in addition to the normal points for a game. Even Zoats are included! ZOATS!



(Warhammer) Scourging of the Southlands 3 out of 10, its short and nice, but not worth more than a minute or twos glance.
Just a cool picture and brief description of a Lizardmen vs. Skaven Storm of magic game.

(Warhammer) Here Be Monsters 5 out of 10, preview of the actual rules is nice, read the first page or so, and then you can probably skim the rest if your not into scultping
This section explains more about how monsters work in the storm of magic and gives the full rules for the Chimera. It is also an interview with Trish Cardon, the sculptor who did the four new monsters for the release. The end of the section gives a fully painted showing of the new black dragon kit, I personally want the wings, they would be awesome for a demon prince.

(Warhammer) Monsters for Hire 3 out of 10, really just a showcase without up close pictures, cool if your army is included, a pass if it isn't.
This section just showcases some of the studios armies for the new storm of magic expansion. It includes a tomb kings army, dwarves, orks, wood elves, and skaven.

(Warhammer) Battle Report: Chaos Warriors vs Dark Elves 7 out of 10, if you are thinking of getting storm of magic, check this out, it really gives you a feel how the new expansion plays out.
Without going into the turn by turn the battle report really showcases the huge effects and awesome spells that come into play with the new expansion. They really are possibly game changing spells, and the batttle report reinforces my belief that Storm of Magic will be better suited to be a Beer and Pretzels, story driven game rather than anything uber-competitive.


Standard Bearer 5 out of 10, some nice background/behind the scenes info, but doesn't really say anything.
This is basically just Jervis talking about the evolution of how miniatures were made, giving some nice insight into some of the behind the scenes differences between plastic and metal. Not anything horribly interesting, but worth a quick skim.

(Warhammer 40k) Dark Eldar 4 out of 10, If you play dark elder give it a read through, otherwise just skim the painting tutorials and see if you can use any of them.
The next few pages cover a huge monologue on Dark eldar and cover things from modelling to painting the new miniatures. Ultimately I have like the painting guides in the recent issues, and while not all of them directly effect what I am painting, I have been able to use quite a few to help increase my painting skill level.

(Warhammer 40k) Cities of Death - OFFICIAL 6 out of 10, nice to see some rules coming out of the white dwarf, even if they are just updating an old expansion.
This section marks what I hope to be a return in the pages of white dwarf, official rules, even if only for an older 40k expansion. After a brief article about Cities of death, There comes official army specific stratatgems and four new cities of death missions. The article ends with some cities of death modelling advice.

(Warhammer 40k) Battle Report 2: Chaos Marines vs Space Wolves 3 out of 10, its a battle report.
A cities of death battle report with two power armored foes. Not too much to say about it.

OVERALL SCORE 7 OUT OF 10

+Previews had some new shockers tucked away

+Storm of Magic reviews really give a good feel to the expansion

+Nice Dark Eldar Hobby

+Cities of Death Official Rules

-Nothing for Lord of the Rings if you play the game
-Unless you play Dark Eldar there was not a lot for 40k


Any one have any questions? Did you find the review helpful?

The Horned Rat - Chaos in the Old World - Review

So for those of you that don't know, Fantasy Flight just came out with the first expansion for the board game Chaos in the old world.

THE ORIGIONAL
Just so that everyone is on the same page, the original Chaos in the Old World places each player in control of one of the four main Chaos Gods. Players then set about corrupting the different regions of the old world using cultists, warriors, greater demons, and the chaotic powers of the gods themselves. Players can win in one of two ways, by victory points which players get by dominating and corrupting the world, or by completely specific tasks and advancing their chaos dials.

THE HORNED RAT
The new expansion for the game allows a fifth person to play as the god of the skaven, The Horned Rat. The expansion comes with new power cards and upgrade cards for every original power, as well as a new set of old world cards (for those that don't know, Old world cards are flipped each turn giving effects and changing the game).

PLAYING THE GAME
So this weekend I got to play three games with the new cards. We only had three people, so we chose to play with the Skaven, Nurgle, and Tzeentch. We went with both the new power cards for the gods as well as going with the expert level  set of Old world cards.

The first game was won by the skaven. The game went well with everyone getting used to the new cards and how the powers changes from what they used to be. Everyone was pretty even with skaven eventually being able to pull ahead thanks to an Old world card. The second game went fast, I played nurgle and was able to get 4 dial advancements first turn, 5 the second turn, and then one more to win on the last turn. During the last game I got my turn to play skaven, and thanks to the same old world card as the first game I was able to pull ahead early and win.

REFLECTION
I think playing with three people is not ideal, whether with or without the expansion. With only three it is hard to stop someone if they get ahead. I would definitely recommend playing with no less than 4, and want to see how the game goes with 5 people.

The powers: The new power cards change the dynamics of the Chaos gods a lot. Nurgle was able to easily get over six dial advancements each game, and actually won by dial advancement. There wasn't a lot of change for Tzeentch, who can still go either dial advancement or victory points. The horned rat powers deal mainly with dominating regions, but their upgrade powers and dial advances allow for the rats to go for either win condition depending on the game.

The Old World Deck: In the original game the old world cards rarely made any huge difference in the game, maybe one card a game would be a game changer. There are two ways to play with the new old world cards, shuffling them in with the old cards and dealing them out regularly, or using only the new cards. We played with only the new cards, and it was pretty crazy. Every one of the new cards affects the game board pretty massively, so playing with only the new cards brings a new anticipation to the Old world phase. Since there are only 9 new cards, playing with only the new ones means that you see each card a lot more often then with the older deck.

Overall: I honestly love the game, both the original and the expansion. I think that four or five people will be best for playing, I was not completely impressed with the three player game. The new power cards really do change how the gods play. Combined with the new power cards, the gods really do play differently. This gives a nice different feel to the game and really changes things up.

The only downside I feel is that you really need to play the game a couple time to get the hang of things. Each God has a few tricks that you need to prepare for and be able to deal with. Just like with the original game the dynamic changes as players understand better on how to play the Gods.

I would definitely recommend picking up the Horned Rat if you have the original game, hell I recommend picking up the original game and the horned rat even if you've never played before.

Does anyone have any questions?

Raven's Flight

An Audio Book Review

This is a review about Raven's Flight, the recent Horus Heresy Audio book by Gav Thorpe. Origionally I wasn't even going to get the audio book as I like reading, but I figured I would since it was Horus heresy and it would give me something to listen to in between classes out at college.

For those that know nothing, the book is about the fight on Isstvan V after the Raven Guard, Iron Hands, and Salamanders were massacred at the drop site. The book Fulgrim also goes into some detail about Isstvan V and Ferrus Manus vs. Fulgrim, but only touches on the dropsite massacre. Following a lot of other HH novels, Raven's Flight follows several story lines (2 in this case). One dealing with Corax, Primarch of the Raven Guard, and another following Marcus Valerias, an officer of the imperial guard at the raven spire.

What was Good:
I thought that the reading was pretty good, and the sound effects added something to the story that might not otherwise have been there. It was definately easy to get involved in the story. The book also offers some insight into the Raven Guard and particularly thier Primarch Corax, particularly on his weapons, combat style, and his "unique" abilities.

What was Bad:
The whole book is only just over an hour, and frankly, I think that there was more context in some of the short stories in Tales of Battle. The story begins interestingly enough with a fortuitus dream by Marcus Valerias, unfortunately it doesn't really go anywhere from there. The basic parts of a story such as the rising action and climax seem to have taken a vacation from this publication. Unlike most of the HH books, the traitors barely even get a minute in this book,even the battles that provide the action of the other books are relagted to a single scene (maybe 1 1/2). The book has more introspection than I thought was necesary, and very little conflict. The book also ends fairly abruptly, and doesn't really give any sort of resolution to the story.

My Opinion:
I would give Raven's Flight a mere 2 out of 5, and I love the HH novels. Basically, there are only two reasons to read the novels, 1) You love the HH novels and have an OCD obsession to read/listen to them all, or 2) You really like the Raven Guard Chapter, and want to know everything about them. Besides these, I think would say the 75 minutes would probably be better spent painting, modelling, reading or staring off into space. If you want spoilers, scroll down.

Has anyone else listened to it? I know that it hasn't reached many store shelves, how many even knew about it.













******Spoiler********


Marcus Valerias begins having nightmares about burning ravesn soon after Corax leaves for Isstvan V. Corax's story starts after the dropsite massacre where we learn that Vulkan stayed on the dropsite and was massacred, although we don't learn of his exact fate. Corax and his few remaining warroirs then ambush a Iron Warriors Tank column, and Corax says some choice words about Perturabo and his' relationship.

Continueing to have horrible dreams, Valerias appeals to the last Raven Guard Commander to allow him to go to Isstvan. Obviously, he refuses. Valerias, not cowed, decides to go anyway. And in a discussion which almost gets his entire fleet destroyed by the Raven Spire's defense turrets he convinces the Raven Guard Commander to allow him to go.

At the same time, the raven guard have managed to survive, although only 3,000 are left out of a qouted 80,000! marines. They face thier last stand against the World Eaters and Angron, set to die when Dropships from Valerias swoop in to save them from the first wave and allow them to retreat to orbit. The book then promply ends.

Interesting Facts:
- Corax uses a reat energized whip which can apparently slice a terminator in half.
- Corax can also make himself "unnoticeable" to people around him.
- The size of preheresy legions is hinted at when Corax says that he came to Isstvan V with 80,000 marines.


***************Spoiler End************

White Dwarf 361 Review

So I know that a lot of people have pretty much given up on white dwarf, but I haven't yet, and probably wont. Even in the face of more advertisements and such and the removal of some rules and such, I still think that there are some good things coming out of the monthly magazine.

The Good

Page 13, Black Library

While technically a type of ad, its one that I am ok with. The magazine devotes half a page to each Graham McNeill and Dan Abnett to talk about the next duo of Heresy books to come out. Gives some good insight into the books that will be hitting shelfs soon, and how the authors are going about writing the two books from different perspectives. Just Look at Abnett's first line, "Prospero Burns...and well it should!"

I love the Heresy series and this was a nice section to wet my appetite before the books come out.

Page 20-26, Insights into the Beast

So this section is always something that I look for when a new army comes out, whether Fantasy or 40k. It begins with a Q and A about the army and gives some insight into how they are designed and played. It's nice for me cause it lets me know what the army has in store without needing to shell out $25 for the codex that I won't use. It ends on page 27 with the one things that the newest white dwarves have in droves, and which I love, painting advice. On one page it gives you step by step instructions for fur, flesh, horns/bone, and metal. The skill level is easy enough for beginners to accomplish, but at the same time still nice for the more medium to advanced crowd.

Page 46-49, Liber Apocalyptica

For those who like the army lists of the past, this section is nice, and something to look over. Whatever your feelings about apocalypse, you have to admit it gives you some interesting ways to play and some interesting tactical positions. Apoc formations are always fun to read for me since they are going to be the crazy stuff that you would love to see in real games, but know that it wouldn't work.

Page 52-55, Striking a Balance

Perhaps only an interesting article since it using wood elves as its main example (an army I play), but does give some meager insight into list building and tactics with a more balanced list. Ultimately I think that it is a little bit more to promote the friendly fun play that GW seems to be pushing, but gives some things to think about.

Page 79-85, Ask 'eavy Metal

I was happy when I flipped through this section, hopefully something that White Dwarf will continue. These pages are covered in painting tutorials with things like Blending cloaks vs Line highlighting, marine hand painted decals, reflective metals, glass vial.hourglass tech, red armor and cloaks, a red magma effect, and some weathering techniques shown on orks. They finish it up with 2 different horn tutorials and a sculpted banner tut.

Page 98-103, 'eavy Metal Masterclass

Dealing with painting faces on monstrous creatures this was a nice file article to have. It covers a variety of things like LotR Ogres, Lizardmen, Beastmen, Giants, orks, and even deamons. A little something for everyone.

The Bad

Battle Reports:

Brettonians + Empire vs. Beastmen. Battle reports are always iffy for me. They rarely are a very interesting read and give only a cursory glance at any specific armies tactics or rules. If you are looking to play beastmen, you can probably get some decent information out of it, otherwise, I just leave the stuff alone.

Planetstrike Tactica:

I don't know about you guys but I don't really play planetstrike or really own the book. If you do, give it a look and there might be some interesting things.

LotR:

I don't play LotR so I will leave this section up to you, although there is a pretty nice painting tutorial about the Nazgul.

The Meh...

Standard bearer

The standard bearer articles are kinda like Jervis's Soapbox. He may say some interesting things, but really, is anyone listening? This months is about conversions.

Golden Deamons?

A far cry from the golden deamon articles of the past where you saw Gold silver and bronze in each category, but all said, it is some nice "eye candy"

Modelling Workshop

Not bad if you are looking for some terrain ideas. This months focuses on "Despoiling the Empire." There are a lot of pictures that will give you ideas, but it doesn't really show to many WIP or step by step.

So there was my review, hope it wasn't too boring. I haven't posted in awhile, so I figured I would do something, and this came to mind. If you guys like it, ill redo this one with some pictures and continue, if you don't I wont.

On another note, I am working on a Tzeentch Demon Prince, a Sorcerer for DnD, a squad of bloodletters for a contest, and painting a squad of fire warriors. Also I hope to have a test model done of a berzerker soon. Hopefully I'll get some pics up this week or so.

Out.