Did not get to go play today - DW has been out of town on a business trip, and I thought that I should be here when she got back, instead of losing a random Warmahordes battle.
I did get to run over to a local hobby store. Not gaming, but trains, slot cars, etc. There, I picked up a book on wiring a model railroad layout, and a jig to align the fins on a model rocket. Yep - those are two other hobbies that I have. I have to indulge them from time to time, too.
The train stuff has been on hiatus for a while - I need to finish cleaning out the basement, and then I can start building the benchwork. It's going to be much bigger than the current 4' x 8' table that the son and I have built. It should not interfere with my gaming all that much - the kids will both be in school, so I will have a bit more spare time. I have more problems with the carpentry and the electrical work; after all, building scenery for an HO layout is basically the same thing as building scenery for gaming, after all.
And model rockets do not interfere with gaming at all. It's just an excuse to build something and make it go "whoosh!". And then hike for half a mile to see if I can find where it landed. I try to claim the whole experience as a combination of physical and mental exercise, but no - it's just plain fun.
Showing posts with label rockets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rockets. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Rocketry and list-building
Earlier today (or possibly late last night), I had a (very mild) epiphany: rocketry and listbuilding are, in some ways, very related activities. No, seriously, bear with me here - there are some similarities between playing with little plastic and metal toy soldiers and lighting an extremely flammable substance in order to hopefully propel a cardboard tube with a pointed wooden tip at high speeds.
For starters, both involve lots of money.
Okay, kidding aside, here is my point. I often sit down and, armed either with ibodger or a deck, start to build an army. To an extent, I know what works for me and what doesn't. I know what I can do with Lord Carver and a bunch of farrow brigands (besides lose, anyway). I have a Terminus list that seems to work fairly well for me, although it needs some tweaking. But, when I have a new unit or caster, I don't really know how well it will work with my playstyle and in my local meta. I can read all the forums that I want, but until I actually put Ossyan and Hypnos on the table together, and play some games with them, I don't really know how well they work for me. And, one game isn't really enough - you need a larger sample size to determine if your wins (or loses) are flukes, or serious problems with the list.
So, how does this relate to model rockets? Well, right now, I have three rockets that I have been working on this week. Two of them are relatively simple builds - an Estes Viking and an Estes Wizard - similar, though not identical to, other rockets that I have built. I am building them mainly because they can take C motors, and are light enough to hit roughly 1600 feet with the right motor. (As I said, I want to take advantage of a club launch with a flight ceiling higher than 1000 feet). So, just like a Carver + Brigands list, or my Terminus list, I feel reasonably confident that, even though each kit is new to me, they are similar enough to what has come before that they will take off and fly without a problem.
The other kits - an Estes QCC Explorer - is a considerably more complicated. It's an entirely new type of build - and, just as is the case with a new faction, or even a new unit or warcaster, it may not perform the way that I think it will. I have build lists that I thought looked good on paper, only to get slaughtered (repeatedly) on turn 2, or were fine in general play, but could not handle scenarios. Likewise, there is a chance that, come its inaugural launch, the Explorer will explode into a thin cloud of cardboard and balsa pieces, rocketing upward at 200 mph or so.
In other words - theorymachining is a good thing, but until the figs and the dice hit the table, no matter how good something looks on paper, you can't really know how well it will do. You may have a pretty good idea, based on experience, but when trying something new, sometimes you just have spectacular failures.
For starters, both involve lots of money.
Okay, kidding aside, here is my point. I often sit down and, armed either with ibodger or a deck, start to build an army. To an extent, I know what works for me and what doesn't. I know what I can do with Lord Carver and a bunch of farrow brigands (besides lose, anyway). I have a Terminus list that seems to work fairly well for me, although it needs some tweaking. But, when I have a new unit or caster, I don't really know how well it will work with my playstyle and in my local meta. I can read all the forums that I want, but until I actually put Ossyan and Hypnos on the table together, and play some games with them, I don't really know how well they work for me. And, one game isn't really enough - you need a larger sample size to determine if your wins (or loses) are flukes, or serious problems with the list.
So, how does this relate to model rockets? Well, right now, I have three rockets that I have been working on this week. Two of them are relatively simple builds - an Estes Viking and an Estes Wizard - similar, though not identical to, other rockets that I have built. I am building them mainly because they can take C motors, and are light enough to hit roughly 1600 feet with the right motor. (As I said, I want to take advantage of a club launch with a flight ceiling higher than 1000 feet). So, just like a Carver + Brigands list, or my Terminus list, I feel reasonably confident that, even though each kit is new to me, they are similar enough to what has come before that they will take off and fly without a problem.
The other kits - an Estes QCC Explorer - is a considerably more complicated. It's an entirely new type of build - and, just as is the case with a new faction, or even a new unit or warcaster, it may not perform the way that I think it will. I have build lists that I thought looked good on paper, only to get slaughtered (repeatedly) on turn 2, or were fine in general play, but could not handle scenarios. Likewise, there is a chance that, come its inaugural launch, the Explorer will explode into a thin cloud of cardboard and balsa pieces, rocketing upward at 200 mph or so.
In other words - theorymachining is a good thing, but until the figs and the dice hit the table, no matter how good something looks on paper, you can't really know how well it will do. You may have a pretty good idea, based on experience, but when trying something new, sometimes you just have spectacular failures.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Not much painting tonight
I did some painting tonight. I did not finish anything, but I worked on a wardog and a unit of widowmakers. I had hoped to get in a game on Vassal, but for various and sundry reasons, it just didn't happen - too much stuff on my end. It's also why I did not paint much - a bunch of interruptions made it such that I only painted in 5-10 minute bursts. Hard to get anything done in that kind of time frame.
I also got distracted. See, I am a man of many hobbies. Well, several, anyway. There is a reasonable chance that this weekend will give me a chance to indulge in one of them. And what hobby is this, you ask? I like to build and launch model rockets, and this weekend, there is a launch about 90 miles away.
Now, I can launch pretty much any day of the week, but there are some fairly significant restrictions. I can't launch anything that will fly higher than 1,000 feet (without FAA clearance), and, at the moment, I don't feel comfortable launching anything that will go over 750 feet or so, just because I do not have access to a field that will reasonably accommodate that kind of altitude. I like to have 1 foot of horizontal clearance for every foot of projected altitude - so anything going up 750 feet means I want to have an area roughly equal to a circle 1,500 feet in diameter. That's bigger than it seems. So, until now, I have been launching tiny little rockets with nothing larger than a C motor.
Anyway, the launch this weekend has a standing waiver for 12,000 feet of clearance. I'm not certified to any motor strong enough to launch a rocket anywhere close to that distance, but I do have a couple of kits that should blast past the 1k mark. Unfortunately, they are not built - or rather, were not, since I am in the process of building three of them. I just need to have them built by Wednesday night, so that I can paint them on Thursday.
(Then, Friday I can drive for a couple hours, so that I can run a marathon on Saturday, and then drive home. Sunday, I can then go and launch some rockets with my son.)
I also got distracted. See, I am a man of many hobbies. Well, several, anyway. There is a reasonable chance that this weekend will give me a chance to indulge in one of them. And what hobby is this, you ask? I like to build and launch model rockets, and this weekend, there is a launch about 90 miles away.
Now, I can launch pretty much any day of the week, but there are some fairly significant restrictions. I can't launch anything that will fly higher than 1,000 feet (without FAA clearance), and, at the moment, I don't feel comfortable launching anything that will go over 750 feet or so, just because I do not have access to a field that will reasonably accommodate that kind of altitude. I like to have 1 foot of horizontal clearance for every foot of projected altitude - so anything going up 750 feet means I want to have an area roughly equal to a circle 1,500 feet in diameter. That's bigger than it seems. So, until now, I have been launching tiny little rockets with nothing larger than a C motor.
Anyway, the launch this weekend has a standing waiver for 12,000 feet of clearance. I'm not certified to any motor strong enough to launch a rocket anywhere close to that distance, but I do have a couple of kits that should blast past the 1k mark. Unfortunately, they are not built - or rather, were not, since I am in the process of building three of them. I just need to have them built by Wednesday night, so that I can paint them on Thursday.
(Then, Friday I can drive for a couple hours, so that I can run a marathon on Saturday, and then drive home. Sunday, I can then go and launch some rockets with my son.)
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