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At least it wasn't Hour of the Wolf, a book so bad it made wonder if I regretted learning to read.
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May 3, 2024 20:45
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PoptartsNinja posted:I find IPA works better if you warm it up to about 107F/42C. It warms the plastic/paint and will usually strip it right off (an Ultrasonic cleaner helps, both for stripping and temperature control). At the very least, it should weaken the outer paint layers enough to make other strippers work better. I seem to recall a warning about not having IPA in a ultrasonic cleaner because it could catch fire/explode. Is this a thing or just people being cautious?
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May 3, 2024 20:49
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Z the IVth posted:I seem to recall a warning about not having IPA in a ultrasonic cleaner because it could catch fire/explode. Is this a thing or just people being cautious? I ended up getting a 16oz bottle of acetone from the grocery store, it has mostly done the job, at this point. A few minis are still soaking. I'm going to get an ultrasonic cleaner once I move, though, and it'll probably be full of LA's. I'm looking into buying all of a friend's metal, so that and acetone will be my friends.
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May 3, 2024 21:02
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Z the IVth posted:I seem to recall a warning about not having IPA in a ultrasonic cleaner because it could catch fire/explode. Is this a thing or just people being cautious? I use sealed glass canning jars, with plain water in the ultrasonic cleaner's tank. The vibrations travel through the glass and liquid mediums just fine. The temperature isn't anywhere close to IPA's boiling point (180f/82C) so it shouldn't be off-gassing that much. I'm definitely not using a big exposed bucket of 99% IPA. That temperature's also not warm enough to melt plastic, but it will render it a little bendy, which can help fix some warping. I haven't noticed a significant difference between IPA, Simply Green, or LA's Totally Awesome. I usually rotate between them if a patch of primer is being a bit stubborn, because whatever keeps it stubborn will usually disintigrate as soon as you expose it to something else. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 21:17 on May 3, 2024 |
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May 3, 2024 21:13
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I've just finished Field Manual 3085 in my sourcebook catch-up from post-3rd SW interim to ilClan. My expectations about the RotS were exceeded, not just met! To the fake melting pot, let's add mass private disarmament and forced buybacks at whatever the materiel cops want to pay, and a policy totally against mercs except as a novelty on Galatea. Just a hilariously anti-BattleTech faction setup so that Herb can be justified in finishing the time skip and dumping out Field Manual 3145 the very next year.  Absolutely way too much optimism placed in trying to push a de facto new setting to keep the brand afloat. No wonder everyone tried looking back at Succession Wars and Clan Invasion in the latter half of the 2010s Sidesaddle Cavalry fucked around with this message at 00:39 on May 4, 2024 |
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May 3, 2024 21:38
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PoptartsNinja posted:I use sealed glass canning jars, with plain water in the ultrasonic cleaner's tank. The vibrations travel through the glass and liquid mediums just fine. The temperature isn't anywhere close to IPA's boiling point (180f/82C) so it shouldn't be off-gassing that much. I'm definitely not using a big exposed bucket of 99% IPA. This is great tip. Thanks! I need to soak my airbrush.
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May 3, 2024 21:41
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I mean, it might have worked had they managed to build up any momentum in 3145. Instead of using the Field Manual to set the stage, they spun their wheels for six years before releasing one book that sped through all those conflicts really fast so we could get to the worst novel the line has ever produced. If you're gonna do a time skip you have to be ready to go when you do it. They did the post-4SW skip with TRO: 2750, 20-Year Update and TRO: 3050 all in the chamber and ready to go within a year.
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May 3, 2024 21:43
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Defiance Industries posted:I mean, it might have worked had they managed to build up any momentum in 3145. Instead of using the Field Manual to set the stage, they spun their wheels for six years before releasing one book that sped through all those conflicts really fast so we could get to the worst novel the line has ever produced. If you're gonna do a time skip you have to be ready to go when you do it. They did the post-4SW skip with TRO: 2750, 20-Year Update and TRO: 3050 all in the chamber and ready to go within a year. How much of the delay was BLP's even shittier first effort getting rejected, though? Dude doesn't seem like he'd take "Your novel is terrible and you need to rewrite it" well.
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May 3, 2024 22:01
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Defiance Industries posted:I mean, it might have worked had they managed to build up any momentum in 3145. Instead of using the Field Manual to set the stage, they spun their wheels for six years before releasing one book that sped through all those conflicts really fast so we could get to the worst novel the line has ever produced. If you're gonna do a time skip you have to be ready to go when you do it. They did the post-4SW skip with TRO: 2750, 20-Year Update and TRO: 3050 all in the chamber and ready to go within a year. Next book on my list is Wars of the Republic Era (2014), and I'm going to find out just how much of an afterthought that was.
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May 3, 2024 22:03
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NinjaDebugger posted:How much of the delay was BLP's even shittier first effort getting rejected, though? Dude doesn't seem like he'd take "Your novel is terrible and you need to rewrite it" well. I know a big part of the delay was the breakdown of their relationship with Ben Rome, who had written the whole outline for the new era. That ilClan sourcebook? I'm pretty sure they were teasing it at GenCon in 2016 or so. They decided to scrap it and come up with something that still fulfilled their overall goal, but was also legally distinct enough they wouldn't risk getting sued. I'm sure rejecting the first draft of HotW definitely added on some extra delay, though. Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:Didn't we get both the XTROs in addition to the 3145 one-faction TROs sometime around then? Those could have certainly baked a little bit longer to get better omnibus releases. The XTROs were 2010-2012, the single-faction 3145 books were 2013-2015. I preferred the XTRO series, personally. It was fun to see all the pie-in-the-sky ideas and then the ones that had a workable idea getting turned into something a little more normal.
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May 3, 2024 22:23
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Defiance Industries posted:I know a big part of the delay was the breakdown of their relationship with Ben Rome, who had written the whole outline for the new era. That ilClan sourcebook? I'm pretty sure they were teasing it at GenCon in 2016 or so. They decided to scrap it and come up with something that still fulfilled their overall goal, but was also legally distinct enough they wouldn't risk getting sued. I'm sure rejecting the first draft of HotW definitely added on some extra delay, though. Missed that whole era, so I don't know who Ben Rome was or what the falling out was about. Do tell, please.
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May 3, 2024 22:46
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I don't know much about Ben Rome aside from his favorite faction (Ghost Bears), but his ousting seemed to end an era where the authors (and not the game designers) were the cowboys who drove the franchise.
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May 3, 2024 22:48
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NinjaDebugger posted:Missed that whole era, so I don't know who Ben Rome was or what the falling out was about. Do tell, please. He never really said much outside of that he was really tight with Herb, with the two of them overseeing a lot of the Jihad stuff. Herb was out in 2013 and Rome has said that was when he started to feel the people running the show wanted to go in a different direction than him. Beyond that, who can really say? I've read his outline and it could have been better than Hour of the Wolf, but HotW is like the Star Wars prequels where basically anything you can imagine would have done a better job.
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May 3, 2024 22:55
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Z the IVth posted:I seem to recall a warning about not having IPA in a ultrasonic cleaner because it could catch fire/explode. Is this a thing or just people being cautious? IPA should be fine, anything that isn't a hard liquor really. Ultrasonic cleaner is a weird drinking implement though, hipsters are out of control
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May 4, 2024 01:25
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Wars of the Republic Era is my favorite of the Historicals series. The Capellan Crusades are fun as hell.
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May 4, 2024 01:33
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Defiance Industries posted:Almost anything would have improved it, but the core problem is just how fawning it is. It reads like someone wrote fan fiction of their favoritest character Alaric, except this is actual published material. I noticed this too and was thinking "hold on, isn't ilKhan Incest here supposed to be the new big bad?" Alaric for the vast bulk of the story is so different from the Alaric at the end of the story that I wonder if the ending is a survivor from a much earlier version. Fearless fucked around with this message at 01:52 on May 4, 2024 |
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May 4, 2024 01:48
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Strobe posted:Wars of the Republic Era is my favorite of the Historicals series. The Capellan Crusades are fun as hell.
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May 4, 2024 02:08
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Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:Yeah I've at least looked through Operation Turning Points: Capellan Crusades and that just even -felt- like all the hate in-universe and out-of-universe boiled over Why?
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May 4, 2024 02:37
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Fearless posted:I noticed this too and was thinking "hold on, isn't ilKhan Incest here supposed to be the new big bad?" Alaric for the vast bulk of the story is so different from the Alaric at the end of the story that I wonder if the ending is a survivor from a much earlier version. OK, I'm stealing "ilKhan Incest" for how I'm referring to Alaric from now on  .Finally got back into painting minis, so finished off the Jade Falcon Nova I'd been working on:        Wish I'd been thinking enough at the time to pick an actual Jade Falcon unit scheme (don't think any do green + gold); didn't really work too well with the decals either. Ah well, for coming back to mini painting after years not doing it, it looks OK enough anyway.
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May 4, 2024 03:18
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Delta Galaxy is green + yellow, you can get away with calling them that if nothing else.
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May 4, 2024 03:26
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MadDogMike posted:OK, I'm stealing "ilKhan Incest" for how I'm referring to Alaric from now on These have unbelievable classic energy and I love them; also who cares if the colour scheme exactly represents a specific unit, they've got green on them and you call them Jade Falcons. That's good enough imo
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May 4, 2024 07:15
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Fearless posted:I started reading Hour of the Wolf because I wanted something brainless to read while traveling to and from a conference and I'm starting to think that Pardoe wasn't let go for his horrible politics as much as his horrible prose. I think a big part of the problem of HOTW is A) CGL asked Pardoe to write four novellas in a single year (Divided We Fall, Rock of the Republic, Children of Kerensky, THEN Hour of the Wolf) which is a herculean task even if you're phoning it in, B) Pardoe seemed to phoning it in just to, in his words "Kill the Dark Age and move on", and C) he wrote Alaric as a straight protagonist instead of a villainous protagonist. I think CGL too just wanted to move on to a new era, so they did the bare minimum of editing on his four-part novel series ending the Dark Age. Based on the guy's CBT and Dark Age novels, he was a decent pulp writer with some standouts (Surrender Your Dreams I think is honestly one of the best BT books written in the forty years of the game), but no writer is going to pound out 4 novels in a year and make them all great. His protacted legal issues with that one former fan contributor (and the resulting restraining order against the fan) definitely didn't help either. It should also be kept in mind this forum and the discords can be a bit of an echo chamber. Here we all agree HOTW is trash for a variety of reasons (And I agree with many of those reasons). When I talk to a lot of fans on the ground, in the local gaming scene? Their opinion is cautiously positive to loving it. Still has very positive reading ratings on Amazon too.
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May 4, 2024 13:02
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ilmucche posted:IPA should be fine, anything that isn't a hard liquor really. Ultrasonic cleaner is a weird drinking implement though, hipsters are out of control The recipe said to shake vigorously.
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May 4, 2024 13:51
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Correcting myself because I forgot I'd already taken a sneak peek into Wars of the Republic Era into Kai's recording. That was the thing OTP Capellan Crusades was generally more toned-down and little anecdotes at the beginning of each scenario were mainly just campy, not hateful
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May 4, 2024 22:05
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:It should also be kept in mind this forum and the discords can be a bit of an echo chamber. Here we all agree HOTW is trash for a variety of reasons (And I agree with many of those reasons). When I talk to a lot of fans on the ground, in the local gaming scene? Their opinion is cautiously positive to loving it. Still has very positive reading ratings on Amazon too. Like 50% of the people I have met via Battletech I have never wanted to meet again so this tracks. Meeting up with Battletech fans in real life really disabused me of my naive notions about people's taste, reading comprehension, and critical thinking abilities, not to mention seeing some nerd masculinity in crisis lol.
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May 4, 2024 22:38
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