Dry Docks

Again, i haven't been doing a lot in the hobby sphere. Occasional small projects in passing.

With some more Battlefleet Gothic action pending both locally (exciting) and in NC it was about time to get my BFG situation finalised.

Have generally had a bit of difficulty finding a box arrangement i like for the ships. The whole stick on the underside makes it a little more complex than normal (i.e. than Epic).

A couple of weeks ago i noticed that Aldi had their art/painting boxes back (yhay) and got a couple more (actually i remagnetised all the Epic Chaos troops into one of these new (bigger) boxes as well... there's something else i did).

I also got one of the alternate shape (tall) boxes, thinking it might be suitable for BFG...

Turns out it was...

Bit rough in places, but had to recycle material from previous attempts where possible as not a lot of spare foam around. It works; the ships are solid (enough) and protected; just don't flip the box over.

And with tonnes of space for stuff below. Marker box, stand corral, and plenty of room for... snacks. (Do they still make those 'space food sticks'?)

And seems compatible with the stick poke issue...

Fleet
True, there is only enough room for these ships (could add another cruiser and some escorts if needs be) but in generally this is probably going to serve my level of interest in BFG. i'm absolutely not interested in 'collect them all' or 'what can i print next' like i did with Epic. so unless i find there is some single 'must have cruiser' (just 1) that i absolutely need to add, this is my fleet.

Yes, there was also a marine 'ship' previously. This has now been relegated to the 'in progress' box. Overall the ship was too large for the intended Strike Cruiser and far closer to a battle barge. Might end up as a dedicated Epic Space Craft... undecided. The 2 Gladius Frigates are also anomalous with the Imperial Navy Fleet (belong in the Marines Fleet) but can stay for now.

Not sure what i'll do if i get the Chaos fleet running, might make another insert tray and reuse the box... dunno... not likely to happen in the immediate future anyway.


Markers
As well as ships, BFG uses dice, tape measures and markers.

I had previously printed out some stuff, have printed some new, collected and finished it all off. It's far from great work but will do, because i care very little.

These are the Fighter Ordinance markers...

These are the Bomber Ordinance markers...

A comparison of the two; they are different...

And Torpedo ordinance (with dice) and Blast Markers.

The torpedoes are (as demonstrated) about 2 dice wide, which is what we used in all my games so far.
Both of these are fresh prints, as are the arc templates.

Reminds me, i also rescaled and printed some Eldar Fleet Fighters and Bombers for a game buddy in NC. Made a couple of extras for the 'in progress' box as well, just in case i want to get some tricksy pixies someday.


Icons
I have attempted to print some box icons (Aquila and Naval Icons) but after 6+ failed attempts i think the box is going to go unadorned. Probably for the best if it's going to be used for multiple fleets, also i only have one active fleet anyway, hence one box. Fricken printer.
We are current in a cold, rainy weekend before entering a heat wave filled summer apparently. Fricken printer.
One last attempts... and... nope... Fricken printer.

[A little later]
I persisted with the printer over the weekend (after cooling down sufficiently) and after another 2 or 3 failed attempts i was able to clip the job down sufficiently with wedges and shims to get it to hold in place for long enough to finish.


Until next time...

Hobby Adjacent - Coffee

While i did set up this blog as a diary (motivator) of my hobby progress, sometimes the enthusiasm for strictly nerd hobby stuff waxes and wanes.

I do also like other stuff. Amongst other stuff is... coffee.

For a while now i'd wanted to try growing coffee, and some(substantial)time ago even ordered some potentially sproutable seeds off the interweb. These entirely failed to sprout.

A few weeks ago we were at a nearby nursery where i spotted some coffee plants and decided to get one.

Had a look at the instructions. decided to pay attention to some, ignore others:

prune plants blah blah blah... 

something something frosts blahbity blah...   

make your own home made coffee; woohoo!

sum takeaway: make short blacks and ice coffees

and put it in a spare pot....

It looked like the plant was handling the situation (didn't wilt, whither or spontaneously combust). Then i changed my mind and decided to try putting one coffee plant on each side of the upstairs pergola. So went and got another one and worked out what size pot i'd put them in....

New pots - now with added textureness (c/o parklea markets for the locals). Should be enough room for them to grow into. Plus also not be so tiny that the soil fries the roots - we're approaching summer and have already had one heatwave day.

So i potted them up downstairs to avoid soil and mess on the pergola, and then carried them up to the pergola.

These suckers are HEAVY and also very difficult to get a decently grip on (being round, wide, and no hand holds).  At a guess they may have been somewhere in the 60-80kg range (but my weight guesses are typically poor).

After a week sitting up there i decided that they would end up (water) marking the floor too much even with dishes under them so back downstairs they went, where they now guard the stairs. Additionally, we had a very typical sydney-summer storm with some crazy high speed winds that whipped the plants about more than was desirable. [yes, i actually paid attention to the label part that said 'protect from strong winds']

Will look at making a temporary greenhouse for them IF they manage to make it through to the colder months. And yes, I'm aware that it doesn't get cherries for 3-5 years...

If you were to bet on my chances of actually tasting a single homegrown bean as being 'slim' i'd say you were being optimistic.

Anyway, at THIS point in time i think this makes me the most successful coffee farmer in my lineage, definitely on this block of land, also of anyone i know, and possibly on my street.

And if that doesn't scream SUCCESS i don't know what does.

Time for a celebratory latte.

[Later]
It occurred to me that a temporary greenhouse for a 2-3 meter tree would be a big ol tent. The aim is to keep the trees at a maximum of 2 meters tall (including pots). So plenty of pruning.

I did see some picture on the internet supposedly of a bonsai coffee tree, beans and all. May have been a different variety though.

Until next time...