Whatchya Workin' On, O Creatives?

presented in 1910 by La Societe Prehistorique Francaise to Melle Chervin.

sigh

To “Mᵉˡˡᵉ Chervin” = Mademoiselle Chervin = Miss Chervin. I can’t find any actual biographical details of the lady, but I suspect she may have been the daughter of Dr Arthur Chervin.

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I was laid up on the couch and had time for some light googling.

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dude, your google-fu is exceptional!

i am reminded that it was you, sir, that searchified a flowering tree that i now have in my yard…
thanks for that, BTW
the starburst tree!

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I’m working on a new laser-cut map

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I went on my first Pleine Air outing yesterday at Yawkey Wildlife Center, a bunch of land set aside for wildlife. Lots of marshes. No masterpieces, but I’m happy with a couple of my field sketches.
Here’s the first stop:


And the second really short stop:


I’ve been trying to get better at colors recently and feel like it’s paid off.

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Oh lordy, I misunderstood you. I read “plane air outing.” I thought you were arting on an airplane! I confess to being very intrigued, and also confused. This makes much more sense!

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Your efforts are paying off! Very nice!

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Haha! Back when I used to fly a lot for work I did some airport sketching, so that was kind of plane air :wink:

I could post a photo of a blank sheet of watercolor paper and call it “plain air” painting. :joy:

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Adrian van Helsberg [my developer] has suggested splitting Tatchanka into 2 or more games, and publishing Fall of the Directory, soon, since it’s relatively balanced, while holding Rising Against the Volunteer Army for later, since the situations are unbalanced, and harder to turn into competitive games. He also wants a game or module covering the period between these campaigns.

I’m still eager to share Rising, including The Road to Freedom? and if practical, also The Bolshevik Advance. I actually prefer Rising to Fall.

Fall of the Directory was hard to research, because the strengths are so uncertain. Especially partisan and Directory strengths. The Bolsheviks historically overran most of Ukraine. But I don’t think that was inevitable. I think it was an unstable situation. I’m happy with a scenario where that’s possible, but it’s not the most likely result, and each side’s victory is possible.

Rising Against the Volunteer Army hasn’t been as hard to research. The Makhnovists broke out into southeastern Ukraine, the Whites counterattacked, and ultimately the Bolsheviks arrived and again overran most of Ukraine. I’m trying to create scenarios where the historical outcome is possible, and something close to it is the most likely.

The 1st half, The Road to Freedom is hard to balance, because the Makhnovists start with a small force, and have to capture supply centers to mobilize a stronger force; the Whites start with most of their forces fighting the Directory, and others garrisoning the Kavkaz. Apparently, White players felt like they didn’t have enough options in the early game. But Makhnovist players need the chance to break out, and to mobilize.

The 2nd half, The Bolshevik Advance is impossible to balance, because the Bolsheviks arrive with a massive force, while the Whites have lost most of their force to desertion. It also requires an extra counter sheet.

If I’m going to add a 3rd game to link these campaigns, I’d suggest zooming out, to include much of southern Russia as well as Ukraine. Maybe larger units, 1 month/turn, and 60 miles/hex, would work better.

Splitting the games would also help avoid confusion about which counters are for which scenarios, allow more period-specific factions, etc.

[So I’m somewhat disappointed, but it’s been 20 years; if part of this game finally gets published, that’s better than nothing. I’d need a sensible computer setup, a cardstock printer, etc. to redesign Rising.]

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Just…wow.

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2 layers down

The finished size is larger than the laser’s work area, so I’m piecing it together and hiding the seams in rivers.

The staples on the left will be hidden by layer #3

ETA how the pieces go together

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due to all the positive responses, I went ahead and removed the rust and then polished the belt buckle. very difficult.

polishes don’t remove the rust, nor scotchbrite, nor fine steel wool; a tiny bit at the edges was all. a scouring pad with tiny nodules in it was what worked but it left fine scratches. I buffed those with fine steel wool and then got those finer scratches out with polish. I used Mother’s Mag and Simichrome and didn’t notice much difference but Mother’s paste is a finer consistency so I went with that. I then rebuffed the background with the steel wool in an attempt to get some contrast/satin look. didn’t really work.
I want to re-patina it and polish just the raised surfaces but there’s no home recipes. nothing from bleach or ammonia. a boiled egg releases enough sulfur to patina copper and silver but I didn’t get any results on this pewter. there are products you can buy, next time I’m on amazon I’ll look around.

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I got the pieces and I’m glad to report the Model M controller worked flawlessly at the (almost) first attempt! (some configuration was needed).

Unfortunately, right now the keyboard is as boring as… well, a keyboard can be. So it works like a keyboard.

The great thing though, is that QMK (the firmware I use for the keyboard) allows for heavy customizations, even without altering the aspect of the keyboard, like programming macros, setting up insanely complicated key combos (like, “if you hit the period key three times in quick succession, instead of a dot, output a … unicode mark”, or “if you double hit caps lock, caps will stay on only until you hit space” and so on), extra layouts, etc.

And of course I have a header which theoretically could connect an i2c screen, plus the same IO that the leds use, so I could replace the leds above the numpad with a screen and some extra keys. Sky (and patience) is the limit!

I did joke with a friend that the RP2040 is so powerful, we could build an Sinclair ZX81 emulator inside to make it the most robust Spectrum ever :laughing:

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Nice work! Shiny!

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Giant puppet taking shape. Needs to be done in 3 weeks. The top of its head will be 13’

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Cool! I like seeing the process.
What’s in 3 weeks?

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we’re at the fancy lumberyard getting stuff for a client, I took pictures of some of the cool wood they have (none of it is for our client)









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Drooling GIFs - Find & Share on GIPHY

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Valentines gift for my SO. Cedar keepsake box with cherrywood handle.




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Lovely.

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