Lazy Sunday…

Posted on May 17, 2015 by Andy

Hello again! I’ve been enjoying a light day today. Went to church, took the dog for a nice walk, and some light house work. I figured I would update the blog while I was at it! First of all, Jim and Debbie are up here in Portsmouth vising Gwen and Me. They are helping us with some of the preparation work for the twins, which we are both very grateful for. They will be staying for another week or so, but will be back when the boys are born. Speaking of which, our timetable has been moved up on that one a bit; the doctor tells us that 36 weeks is the longest she will let Gwen go before delivery! That puts us at the first week of July. Not much time left!

Other than that, I’ve been playing quite a bit of World of Warships, which I’ve discussed before. It is a new massively multi-player shooter game that allows players to drive WWI and WWII era battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and air craft carriers around in an effort to blow each other out of the water! It is quite a lot of fun, though I doubt I’ll have as much time to play it in the future with the kids on the way. I’ve also been able to finish a few more models for my Firestorm Armada fleet, including a carrier and two shield cruisers:

IMG_0783Other than that, I’ve made a few blog posts over at Man Battlestations, if you care to take a look:

http://www.manbattlestations.com/blog

Also, I’ve finally gotten around to creating a Facebook page for Man Battlestaions:

https://www.facebook.com/manbattlestations

I figure that the FB page will allow me to reach more like-minded naval gamers, and give me another place to share some of the incredible work that the members of the MBS community have done!

Until Next Time…

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Gwen’s 2nd Baby Shower

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Andy

 

IMG_0766Hello again! Gwen and I are back home in Portsmouth now, after our whirlwind trip to NOVA. As I mentioned yesterday, Gwen had her second Baby Shower on Sunday, hosted by her friend Lauren. Unlike the first shower in Indiana, I was able to attend this one! We both had a great time, and got some nice things for the boys. Anyway, enough of my blabbing. Now for what you really wanted to see; the pictures!

 

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May the Fourth Be With You!

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Andy

Happy Star Wars Day!

may-the-fourth

This year, I am on leave for the 4th, so I decided to celebrate in the traditional way by watching all 6 Star Wars movies in sequence. I’ve opted for a straight numerical order, rather than one of the more complicated alternate orders

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iOS Game Round-Up

Posted on May 3, 2015 by Andy

This is yet another subject I’ve been meaning to write about for some time now: iOS Game Apps. Over the last year or so, I’ve been doing more and more of my on-the-go gaming on my iOS devices (iPhone and iPad), to the extent that my poor 3DS tends to languish for months at a time. I’ve been impressed with the steadily improving sophistication and complexity to be found in these games, the most expensive of which costs around $15, and the least expensive of which can be had for the low, low price of Free (with the caveat that these games tend to encourage you to spend money on boosts and bonuses). So, lets take a look at a few of the apps I’ve found most interesting: Continue reading →

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April In Review

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Andy

Hard to believe it is May already! April just flew by. As you can see, I never quite got around to updating the blog, so here are some quick hits for stuff I did last month.

First up, I volunteered at a local Sea Perch event, which encourages kids from grade school through high school to build remotely operated underwater vehicles. I was part of a group of volunteers from the ship to attend:

IMG_0619The day was set up like a game, where the various robot designs had to compete at completing an obstacle course. It was a lot of fun to see the different designs and approaches the teams took at solving their challenge:

IMG_0625Later that week, I managed to link up with my friend Seth Owen, who lives in the Groton area. We played a really fun game of the WWII naval game War at Sea:

IMG_0647If you are interested in more details of how the game went, be sure to check out the full After Action Report that I posted on Man Battlestations. The very next day after that game, it was Gwen’s birthday! I wanted to make this birthday a little extra-special, since it will be the last birthday, BC (Before Children). So, I went a little crazy:

IMG_0651That weekend, we went to the Submarine Ball, which is always a good time. We got to dress up, and spend some time with our friends, all while honoring the history, tradition, and sacrifice of the US Submarine Service.

IMG_0668And the last major event of the month was a trip down to Boston to play some Dystopian Wars with a couple of friends of mine. We had a great time! I was very happy to get my DW stuff back on the table again; it had been several months since I played:

IMG_0681All in all, April was a very fun, but busy month! I went on leave today so that Gwen and I can go to her second baby shower in Virginia. I’m looking forward to the time off!

Until next time….

 

 

 

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Happy Easter!

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Andy

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It’s hard to believe it is Easter already! This year, it was a bit of an odd one for Gwen and me. I had duty, so I was on the boat for most of the day. This left Gwen to go to services by herself. Fortunately, I was singled and was able to go home by about 1600, which was nice. This gave me some time to spend with Gwen, take the dog for a walk, and do some desperately needed straightening up in the Man Cave.

This past week has flown by! My business trip of two weeks ago was a nice break from routine, even if I had to spend a lot of time away from Gwen. However, this past week was piled high with all the work I had not accomplished while I was away. Yesterday, I had a few errands to run (someone has a birthday coming up!), did our taxes, and also worked on a model of my ship to use as a presentation gift to a fellow officer who is transferring soon. I’m pretty happy with how it came out! All it needs now is the brass plaque that will be ready tomorrow.

Other than that, I’ve been spending a little time playing video games, mainly World of Tanks and World of Warships. I’m still really enjoying the World of Warships beta; even though the ship selection is somewhat lacking, the mechanics, gameplay, and graphics are all great.

Until next time!

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Home Again

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Andy

IMG_0604

Hello all! I just got back from a week-long business trip. I was working nights, so I tended to have several hours in the middle of the day to goof off; that is where my last post on Star Trek Armada III came from. I also got several miniatures painted, having brought along a large plastic organizer tray with the required paint, tools, and materials. So, all in all it was a productive trip! All that being said though, I did miss being away from Gwen for the week, and I

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Star Trek Armada III: To Boldly Blow Stuff Up

Posted on March 24, 2015 by Andy

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At long last, here is the review of Star Trek Armada III that I promised about a year ago!

The Basics

So, what is STA3? Well, to start at the beginning, back in the early 2000s there were a series of Star Trek real time strategy (RTS) games published as Star Trek Armada and Star Trek Armada II. However, after the bottom fell out of the Star Trek market, this series was shelved, apparently forever. That is until about 10 years later, when a dedicated team of volunteers started work on a mod project. Put simply,

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We’re Having Boys!

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Andy

twinsThat’s right, we’ve found out that our babies are going to be two identical twin boys. Gwen and I actually found out last Thursday, but I was sworn to secrecy by Gwen who wanted to inform a few…VIPs, shall we say, personally. We had gone back and forth about whether or not we were going to find out the sex of the babies before birth or not. The traditional “Surprise!” approach was certainly appealing to both Gwen and me. In the end, several factors militated against going that route, however. First, the fact that they were twins meant that we will have to buy twice as much stuff, in general, than would be normal. Second, we are going to be having them in Boston, which means that the showers will not be held locally. So, for those reasons (and, I admit, a certain lack of patience on our part!), we went ahead and had the doctors tell us. We were a bit surprised…female identical twins are more common, so I think both of us went into the appointment with the assumption they would be girls. Oh well, now the name selection can begin in earnest!

So, other than that, I don’t have much else to report. I’ve been working off and on a few of my models. If you remember from some of my previous posts, I’ve been working on some models for Firestorm Armada. I’ve gotten all the painted markings done on the carrier and shield cruisers. This included some free-hand work for the carrier. I have since given them a coat of Glosscoat ahead of getting their decals:

As for the rest, I’ve started the washing process on them:

In addition to this little bit of modeling, I’ve been playing a couple of games on my PC. World of Tanks is still going strong, and I’m really enjoying the Pershing I recently unlocked. I’ve also been playing a lot of Star Trek Armada 3, which is a Star Trek conversion mod for Sins of a Solar Empire. I have mentioned this mod here before, almost a year ago in fact, but it was recently updated to include the Cardassians and the Dominion. I tell you, this thing pushes each and every one of my considerable number of Trek geek buttons! As a result, I’ve picked it up again and I am now well and truly hooked. I will have to finally sit down and write a more detailed post about it that I’ve been meaning to do. Until next time…

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M26 Pershing Unlocked!

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Andy

shot_007Behold! At long last, I’ve managed to unlock the Tier 8 American Medium Tank, the M26 Pershing. This marks the resumption of my long-stalled progress down the American medium tank line. The problem was this tank’s predecessor, the T20. That tank just didn’t mesh well with my play style, so I had to get over a pretty steep learning curve to get any kind of success with it. In fact, I got so frustrated with it that I abandoned the American mediums for about a year, to pursue the German heavy line. I’ve only got about 10 games into the M26 so far, but I’m really enjoying it. I can tell already that I’m going to have more fun with this thing than the T20.

In other news, as I mentioned last time I’ve been working on some models for Firestorm Armada again. Specifically, I’m working on the new Terran carrier model and a couple of shield cruisers to support it. My painting progress has slowed quite a bit, due to being busy at work again. Hopefully I’ll have them finished up in a week or so! I’ve also embarked on another project; I’m trying my hand at painting some naval models from Shapeways. This is the service that creates objects to order using 3D printers. There are a number of folks who have made 1:1800 models suitable for use with War At Sea. I’m starting off with just a handful of units to plug a few of the more glaring holes I have in my collection; stay tuned to see how they come out!

Until next time…

 

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