In Capitalist America Hobby Earns You Money.

Streetscape Props

So last time I spoke about lasers, I talked about the fine people at Urban Lasercraft that wanted to use some of my designs. Well my designs are up on the laser craft site and for sale, check them out here. I did the smaller stuff, the buildings were all done in house. There is still another wave of my stuff to come. I will post again when the next wave of designs are released. 

more Streetscape props

Classic corner Saloon

In related laser capers I noticed that the founder of laser craft has been experimenting with some Wild West designs. He has themed  them for the upcoming Wild West Exodus. He posted a couple examples on the Lasercraft Facebook page, some nice looking stuff. I also backed the WWX kickstarter but I didn't pledge enough to get the excellent terrain packs from Micro arts Studios that were on offer. I did however start to design some of my own. First up I decided to design standard Wild West buildings. Easy enough as there is a tonne of reference material out there. Then I just needed to add a sheet-metal pattern of engraving on the roofs and cut the sign lettering out of acrylic so they look like neon tubes. Put it together and wallah you a have steampunk wild west  architecture. So I offered to share a bunch of my designs. I hope they help inspire Urbanlaser to release a new line of WWX terrain.

It was tempting to build a whole
town of 3D renders 

Standard Old West shops

Check out the 3D renders I did I think they look cool. They are lacking the detail of the engraving, but cool none the less.

Old school open air train platform and
with attached warehouse. 

Some tall skinny shops just because

The sultry sounds of gaming.

Like many of my fellow worker drones after I shuffle into my cubical at work. I plug in my headphones to help escape from the crushing reality that is life. Unlike the bulk of my works mates I am not listening to music but podcasts specifically gaming podcasts. I normally cycle through the same four podcasts 40K Radio, The 11th company, The official Dungeons & Dragons podcast and The D6 Generation.

• 40K Radio is the typical amateur internet radio show, hosted by a bunch of friends that all love the 40k universe. The show's content is full of the hosts talking over each other, smack talk, toilet humor & other frivolity. This is a bunch of guys having fun talking about a game they all have a lot of passion for. The last two episodes has mainly been the hosts going over the latest GW Codex: Space Marines. They managed to secure an early copy of. Apparently some one in the know is a fan of the show. There are many other more serious gaming news aggregate sites, blogs and podcasts that this could have been leaked too but they chose the fun guys of the podcast world.  
• The 11th company is another podcast dedicated to 40K. While they still obviously still enjoy the extended universe, the show concentrates on the meta of playing the game. In-depth reviews of the codexs, list building and tactical advice. The show couldn't be more different from 40K Radio. It is still incredibly fascinating (for a nerd) hearing about the strategies that about that go into the playing the game competitively. The last few episodes has there has been new segment titled Sim Hammer.  There has always been a math component to any 40k discussion, however Sim Hammer takes it to a whole new level. Instead of just calculating the to hit or to wound chance of a units attack. Sim Hammer has be working to produce formulas that provide an effective frame work as a metric to compare different 40k units. Things like Damage output per point vs different targets and resilience per point.
• The Dungeons & Dragons podcast has been interesting to listen to there has been some stuff about DnD Next and some celebrity interviews that was ok. Some interviews with Chris Perkins where he was giving DM tips, that was enthralling. But the best stuff has been the recordings of Acquisitions Incorporated adventures. The Penny Arcade guys are joined by a new intern after there last one was unavailable. Having two professional word smiths as players and Chris Perkins as your DM certainly results in an eventful role-paying experience. They finished off their adventure at PAX prime.
• The D6 Generation is a class act when it comes to podcasting their sound quality is usually excellent the segments follow a structured formula and are well edited. The host are well spoken and speak intelligently about all sorts of gaming subjects. They have a revolving third host chair and have managed to seat and interview some serious talent. I am surprised that they can frequently get people like  Geoff Engelstein, Ted Terranova, Jason Marker, Ross Watson and one of the craziest things is they had David Weber in the Third chair and beside speaking about playing GURPS with George R.R. Martin, Roger Zelazny, Walter John Williams, Jane Lindskold, some guy called Chip while the GM was Melinda Snodgrass's husband. He also talked about his movie deal with Evergreen Films produce a film about Honor Harrington. How the hell do these amateurs land these kind of interviews?  The image of all the authors playing an RPG reminded me of this scene from the TV show Castle where Nathan Fillion plays poker with a bunch of  famous authors.