Anime: Not really watching anything of note, right now. I'm eagerly anticipating Black Lagoon: Roberta's Bloodbath and I'm jonesing for Golgo 13 and Sengoku Basara. Unfortunately, I'm a bit broke right now, and I've got anime I haven't even watched yet in my DVD binders.
Airsoft: It will be some time before I'm in the market for any new Airsoft guns. My biggest concern right now is maintenance. I have 3 Armalite carbine AEGs. One works flawlessly (HK 416 by VFC). One works, but is making funny motor noises (Modded Marui 733/M203), and one cycles, but doesn't seem to want to shoot (G & P M4/M203). I have 40 M4 magazines that don't seem to work: 30 King Arms HK-branded plastic 120rd midcaps, and 10 G & P tan 130rd midcaps. I have a KSC Glock 18 machine pistol that keeps wanting to spit out its selector switch. I have a new MICH helmet that I need to attach a helmet light to. I have an MP5a3 that I need to zero the LAM and red dot on. Once I get all of these issues resolved, then I can get back out and start playing again.
Cosplay: It's been awhile since I've done any really cool cosplay stuff. I have a Solid Snake setup for MGS:2 Sons of Liberty, but it's getting a bit stale. I have a Russian Spetznaz loadout from Airsoft that I use to represent a member of Hotel Moscow from Black Lagoon, but that's about it. I have a set of OD Green 5.11's that I think would make a good MITHRIL uniform from Full Metal Panic, and my fiance thinks it won't be too difficult to do the Octocamo suit for Old Snake from MGS4. However, that one will probably be a bit pricey.
Manga: The current gaps in my collection are: Rose Hip Rose, Lone Wolf and Cub, Golgo 13, Hellsing, Megatokyo, Trinity Blood, and Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Jormungand.
Miniatures: I have 3 projects currently running 1.) A combined Imperial Crusade Army for Warhammer 40,000 (just bought a TON of Imperial Guard stuff for it. 2.) A Viking army for Warhammer Ancient Battles 3.) Various odds and ends, mostly character models for my combined Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay campaign and some modern stuff. The Viking Army currently has priority because I'm supposed to play a game with my dad against his Saxons.
Pen `n Paper RPGS: Big thing I'm doing is committing my older RPG books to electronic archive and selling them off before they fall to pieces. Other than that, I'm trying to get my Warhammer 40k roleplay game back up and running as well.
Video Games: I'm playing the Fallout series on PS3. New Vegas kept freezing and I got frustrated and went back to work on 3.
Wargaming: See Miniatures. I'd really like to get my hands on a set of the new Force on Force rules, as I'm trying to find a good set of 28mm scale rules for modern combat.
Next post, I hope to go into some work on my Airsoft problems. I plan to post pictures, and discuss solutions.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Introductions, Please!
Welcome to Plastic Arsenal, for what I hope is to be the first of many warblings about my geeky hobbies. Before we get into models of guns, costumes, manga volumes, rules sets, and all the juicy stuff, a little background about me is in order to understand my perspective.
I'm a fellow in his mid-30's. My grandmother was originally from Japan and used to bring me back Gundam toys and Hobby Japan issues in the late 70's and early 80's when she went back to touch base with her relatives. My dad was a computer programmer who had a closet full of wargames and miniatures and ran a Dungeons and Dragons group on the weekends. He owned the original 3-booklet set. I thought Star Blazers was where the world of afternoon cartoons began and ended until Robotech. In college, I had to be dragged grudgingly into paintball, with a backward, longing glance to the first Airsoft guns depicted in beat-up issues of Hobby Japan. When I purchased the first edition of the Warhammer 40,000 rules, it kept me entertained for a year. I've had the same army of Ultramarines since then. I purchased my first Marui M4a1 back in 1998. I own every Playstation console ever, and still play them all. I thought the Sega DreamCast was awesome.
During that time, I've grown up, gone to school, taken a break from school, joined the Army, fought in Afghanistan and Iraq with the greatest men on earth, gone back to school, gone through a variety of relationships, climbed mountains, driven luxury sports cars, worked a variety of jobs from waiting tables to white-collar office work for international companies, traveled to foreign countries, and managed to keep a pretty good balance between geekery and the real world.
I don't think I'm an Anime character, Space Marine, or Navy SEAL (Army Infantry, thank you, though my unit did get to work with those guys). I do this stuff for fun, although I've been known to dabble in making it pay to support my hobby jones, and I'd like to work in it once I retire from a real job.
This isn't an Ed Anger-style soapbox for me to hurl nastiness at others from to inflate my ego. I've hunted terrorists in the deep, dark, assholes of the earth. My Manliness Meter sits at a fairly comfortable level. However, I may speak out against things I don't like in my various hobbies. I'm not a big fan of ego inflation in Airsoft, for example, or Games Workshop's high prices. But, most of my irritants are pretty common across the board.
I'm not sure what structure I want to organize this thing along, just yet, but I think what might work is a regular update of what projects I'm working on, alternated with a focus on a project or new manga/game/etc. Update-focus-update-focus. Cool?
Happy reading!
I'm a fellow in his mid-30's. My grandmother was originally from Japan and used to bring me back Gundam toys and Hobby Japan issues in the late 70's and early 80's when she went back to touch base with her relatives. My dad was a computer programmer who had a closet full of wargames and miniatures and ran a Dungeons and Dragons group on the weekends. He owned the original 3-booklet set. I thought Star Blazers was where the world of afternoon cartoons began and ended until Robotech. In college, I had to be dragged grudgingly into paintball, with a backward, longing glance to the first Airsoft guns depicted in beat-up issues of Hobby Japan. When I purchased the first edition of the Warhammer 40,000 rules, it kept me entertained for a year. I've had the same army of Ultramarines since then. I purchased my first Marui M4a1 back in 1998. I own every Playstation console ever, and still play them all. I thought the Sega DreamCast was awesome.
During that time, I've grown up, gone to school, taken a break from school, joined the Army, fought in Afghanistan and Iraq with the greatest men on earth, gone back to school, gone through a variety of relationships, climbed mountains, driven luxury sports cars, worked a variety of jobs from waiting tables to white-collar office work for international companies, traveled to foreign countries, and managed to keep a pretty good balance between geekery and the real world.
I don't think I'm an Anime character, Space Marine, or Navy SEAL (Army Infantry, thank you, though my unit did get to work with those guys). I do this stuff for fun, although I've been known to dabble in making it pay to support my hobby jones, and I'd like to work in it once I retire from a real job.
This isn't an Ed Anger-style soapbox for me to hurl nastiness at others from to inflate my ego. I've hunted terrorists in the deep, dark, assholes of the earth. My Manliness Meter sits at a fairly comfortable level. However, I may speak out against things I don't like in my various hobbies. I'm not a big fan of ego inflation in Airsoft, for example, or Games Workshop's high prices. But, most of my irritants are pretty common across the board.
I'm not sure what structure I want to organize this thing along, just yet, but I think what might work is a regular update of what projects I'm working on, alternated with a focus on a project or new manga/game/etc. Update-focus-update-focus. Cool?
Happy reading!
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