Hobbies in March

 Hi guys.

Hope you all are in great condition.

Here in my place the situation is getting better. With RMCO in place, the Covid numbers is steadily decreasing, giving us much hope.

However, the battle is yet to end. Be vigilant, always keep clean, maintain your social distancing and wear mask outdoor. Keep safe.

So, I'm still kind of busy with the real life stuff. As my workplace have been relocated to new premise, we have our hands full to setting up production line, so not much free time as previously.

Nevertheless, this month I have received my purchase, that is a neoprene playmat & Takenoko boardgame. I've purchased the playmat for quite sometime before but due to the MCO restriction, the seller can only deliver to me in these past weeks. About the Takenoko, I won a bidding online for a BNIS defect set...which is pretty minor to me. I managed to get it at a cheaper price due to the defect.

So like any other tabletop gamer do, I immediately done a initiation ritual on the newly bought playmat (wink wink). I set up a 50points TANK game for me, my wife and son to play. The battle was in a forest fought between US (wifey), Soviet (son) and German (me). Just a casual game between family members (another wink wink). I won after being assaulted left right by the wife & son. German won!!!

The neoprene playmat is awesome to have. Not only it eliminate the tumbling sound when the dice rolled on the table, the surface is soft and nice contrast to the hard wood texture of the table body. It also make the table 'pop' more and feels expensive. Worth every penny spent on the purchase. I'm looking forward to play more using the playmat.

Bonus photos: 2 of my kids spending time playing with dice and Marvel United minis while their parent and older brother kicks butt.

That's all for now.

Until then.

Stay safe everyone.

More games & table work

 Hi guys.

Back for another entry.

1) More games on board

Another batch of local games have arrived in past few weeks. I purchased two card games; Kuih-Muih cardgame which to my personal opinion its more like Sushi Go + card drafting, and Drama Pukul 7 cardgame which is a direct parody of Malaysian soap drama that always being televised at 7pm, hence the name.

Between both games we enjoyed playing Drama Pukul 7 more, as my wife delightfully scheming (which is a success) to dropped my HP & losing the game. (She's kept getting better at playing...ouch).

Anyway, I'll keep increasing my collection stash for her to play more (my excuse on buying more games hehehe).

2) Reworked on the gaming table

As I have bit extra time, I decided to spruced up my gaming table a bit by adding table legs. Initially the plan is to have the portable gaming table to be set up on another table, but as the dining table is usually occupied I came to that decision.

Materials used:

56 inch x 3 inch x 12mm thk repurposed pallet wood - 4 length

2 inch x 2 inch wood - 2 length

Self locking table leg foldable bracket - 4 pieces

Materials for the leg

Existing table

The plan is to add the pallet wood underneath the existing table for the additional leg support and adding the table leg. The table height is based on my IKEA Melltrop table so I can have a good clearance for leg area when sitting.

Below are the WIP photos:

Setting the support for the table leg

Support added

Cutting 2 inch wood for table leg

Sanding work

Spray painted the whole table

Attaching the brackets and legs

Close-up of the bracket

Table done...and being inspected by officer :)

Gaming table with leg folded

...and photos of the table being test played.

The table is sturdy enough to have game played on it as the pallet wood acted as additional support for the existing table from bowing at the center. However, the table is a bit wobbly due to the mechanism of the bracket. As long as the table is at one place and not being heavily push or leaned to, I think it is durable for the usage.

Another thing is due to the additional support & leg, the table now is significantly heavier compared to before. During the previous set-up, I can easily carry the table to anywhere without breaking a sweat. Now I can feel the weight during the movement. Well, that's the compromise for making a table to stand on its own.

While doing the table, I had to work under watchful eyes of these 'officers'.

So before all of you jump the gun and shoot me with all inappropriate words, let me clarify that THERE IS NO WAY THESE KIDS ASSIST ME IN THE WORK. They are merely do a pretend play during my preparation before the work commenced. ALL sharp objects, tools, nails, screws and anything that can injure my kids were properly kept out safely from their reach AND THEY ARE UNDER MY STRICT SUPERVISION when using my tools. I let them play for 10 minutes before locking them back inside the house before I started my work.

So yeah...let it end here.

Until next time.

Stay safe guys.

MCO Activities Recap

Hi guys.

Back to the work desk 😓
Started my work on 1st June as the government loosen up their CMCO restriction for some businesses. The bosses are dying to get the operation up & running again (we also feels the same).

Anyway, for 75 days of MCO from 18 March till 31st May, it was a well spent time for me personally. I got to spent my best bonding time with my kids, gave all my attention to the wife, having time to de-clutter my home, and obviously immersed myself in my hobby stuffs.

So, achievement during the lockdown:

1) Made myself a gaming table
2) Played some games (tabletop & board game)
3) Clearing backlog...well almost all

Not a big achievement if compared to other people, they sure did wayyyyyyy better than me. But still proud at myself for managed to get things done during the isolation period. Playing games are definitely the best part, not only I finally can quenched my dice rolling craving, but managed to made my wife appreciate all the "junks" (that's what she called them) that I have been stashing for a long time. To be able to see her enjoys beating her husband in board games sure made all of these worthwhile.

As a recap, these are the kits I've managed to build:

1) Gundam - HG BF Hi-Mock
2) Gundam - HG IBO Hyakuren
3) Gundam - HG-OO GN-X
4) Gundam - HG-OO GN-X III ESF Type
5) Gundam - HG-OO Exia
6) Gundam - HG IBO Barbatos Lupus Rex
7) LBX - Pandora
8) LBX - Nemesis

Hope I can keep the momentum and spirit going after this.
It is already in a good pace, and I really hope I can squeeze in my hobby time as the work have taken over my life again.
We'll see how things fare out in the future.
It is my 2020's resolution to keep my hobby alive.

Ending of my useless rant now.
Until next time guys.
Stay safe.

MCO Activities Update - 01

Hi guys.
Hope everybody are safe during this virus outbreak.

Here's an update on some hobbying activities done during homebound.

1) Making gaming table

Yup, that's right. I'm officially have my own gaming table ( oh yeah!!! )

The idea has been in back of my head for quite some times. Although I'm just alone to do gaming right now (waiting for my kids to grow up a bit more to introduce them to tabletop gaming), I want to have a proper gaming area which I can throw some dice and have fun indoor. So hence, my own gaming table. MCO period is the best time for me to make one since I'm not going anywhere, and I happened to have all the materials ready ahead of time.

My criteria of the gaming table are:

1) Must be lightweight, as I need to put and remove the table easily alone.
2) Must be durable. Although lightweight, the table must be strong enough to handle the burden of dice bombardment and all the terrains weight on it.
3) Must have borders, to avoid the dice from bailing the game and hide underneath the cupboard. And also to prevent the missus from having a reason to yell when she found rouge dice lying around :)
4) Must have small gap for modular base. This is an idea where I can make modular gaming surface / base which can be remove/replace for different type of game, for example forest base to city base to dungeon base.....you get what I meant right.

So, based on that..I get the things done. This was done on 26th March during the isolation period.

Materials I used:
1 inch x 1 inch wood - 6 lengths
56 inch x 3 inch x 12mm thk repurposed pallet wood - 4 lengths
4 ft x 4 ft x 3mm thk plywood - 1 pc

These are the WIP steps while making the gaming table

Thus, the completed gaming table was then was tested by my QC personnel and they approved. The table able to withstand the testing impact :)
The table is light enough for me or the wife to carry and move unassisted while durable enough to hold some games on it.
The next thing to do is to paint it to make it more presentable once the MCO ban is lifted.

QC checking in progress by some very dedicated personnel

So one item can be ticked off from the bucket list. GAMING TABLE ACQUIRED.

2) Clearing some backlog

So fortunately my TANKS backlog have completed before the MCO began. What's left are some GW's and Plamo's I have; Gundams, LBX's, model kits, and some odd kits lying around. So on 8th April I took 1 out and built it.

Still have a lot to go through the pile, so hopefully I can clear the backlog during the MCO. Unfortunately I may be can only build instead of painting as I'm running out of paint stock (I have limited paints by the way) or the paint dried up and unusable.

Anyway, stay safe everyone.

Until next time.