100. Breaking Up The Monotony.

I know all I've posted is my Twitch Show Guides recently.

I have been active online, just not here.

If you want to check out what I've been doing hobby wise, there is a good chunk of content on my Hobby Blog: The Underhive Hero.

I've been heavily invested in my Twitch Channel (as the WKS attest to).
I've upgraded each and every stream to have their own personal open/end slates, sourced fitting music for each show and spent some time developing my Discord server to help better 'my' community.
I guess it's starting to pay off. I average a follower a week.
I'd be very happy if I can get 100 followers in my first year.

With this commitment to streaming has come additional content for my YouTube.
Pokémon Uranium is progressing well, and while growth is slow here, I am still occasionally gaining followers.
I'm trying to figure out how to/ what to do for YouTube exclusive content.
I have a few ideas, so we'll have to see how it goes.


I'm genuinely sorry that I've not felt the urge to write anything here.
It's not that there isn't stuff to write about either...

The world is fucking falling apart.

Brexit. Theresa May. Trump

The western world is burning itself to the ground; Nationalism is the cry, but Fascism is the result.

The world and it's populace have exceed my capacity for stupid.
I'm burned out explaining, debating and arguing with people who just yell 'that's your opinion' or 'fake news.'

I need time to recharge, but unemployment isn't exactly a fitting environment for that.

It'll all come together in time.
I know it.

But right now, I feel like I'm in a rut and there isn't a way out.
Every aspect of my life has major problems and I have no solutions, other than to watching on while everything crumbles around me.

My creativity levels and suffering levels rise in tandem.
What's getting me down, is that I'm sure people should know this...
But while I get folk congratulate me on my hobby/ art/ whatever else, no one even asks the question...

Anyway, ramble ramble ramble.

I'll leave you with something that sums up my whole existence for the past few years, and probably the next few.

Passing Through A Screen Door - The Wonder Years.



Cigarette smoke dances back in the window,
And I can see the haze on the dome light
I'm conjuring ghosts on a forty hour ride home,
And they keep asking me what I'm doing with my life.

While my cousins go to bed with their wives.
I'm feeling like I've fallen behind.

Well, the highway won
I'm listening to traffic reports one on one
Coming quietly undone.
I was born to run
Away from anything good.
An escape artist's son
Sun-drenched pavement in my blood

The first thing that I do when I walk in is find a way out for when shit gets bad and...

I've been looking for
Tears in the screen door (tears in the screen door).
I've been waiting for
Another disaster (another disaster).

Well I'm still afraid
Like a kid in the sixties
Staring at the sky
Waiting for the bomb to fall.
And it's all a lie
What they say about stability.
It scares me sometimes
The emptiness I see in my eyes.

And all the kids names I've ever liked recited tragedy.
Well, I don't want my children growing up to be anything like me.

I've been looking for
Tears in the screen door (tears in the screen door).
I've been waiting for
Another disaster (another disaster).

But I was kinda hoping you'd say.
I was kinda hoping you'd stay.

I keep a flashlight
And a small knife
In the corner of my bed stand.
I keep a flashlight
And the train times
But you wouldn't understand.
How could you understand?

Jesus Christ. I'm 26.
All the people I graduated with,
All have kids,
All have wives,
All have people who care if they come home at night.

Well, Jesus Christ, did I fuck up?

I've been looking for
Tears in the screen door (tears in the screen door).
I've been waiting for
Another disaster (another disaster).

But I was kinda hoping you'd stay.
I was kinda hoping you'd stay.
I was kinda hoping you'd stay.


Peace.

-DH-

95. Speedpaint. EpicErid

If you're subscribed to me on YouTube you may have seen my latest video (If not, you should totally click here and do that now!)


In this video I drew an avatar for a good friend of mine we've mentioned here before; EpicErid!

The video is the product of 2 separate streams on my Twitch channel (which you can follow by clicking here!).

It took about 6 hours to draw and paint, but I've condensed it down to about 20 mins by upping the speed by 800 times!


Anyway, you should go check it out, and subscribe for more if you enjoy it!


Thanks!

-DH-

87. Speedpaint: Dex the Tiefling Sorcerer.

If you're subscribed to me on YouTube you may have seen my latest video (If not, you should totally clink here now!)

In this video I drew one of my friend's (and potential future member of The Bross) Dungeons and Dragons characters; Dex the Tiefling Sorcerer as an Avatar.
The video is the product of 2 separate streams on my Twitch channel (which you can follow by clicking here!).
It took about 7 hours to draw and paint (with a few hiccups along the way!), but I've condensed it down to about 20 mins by upping the speed by 2500 times!

Anyway, you should go check it out.



Thanks for reading and watching!
Comments and constructive criticism always welcome, either here, on the video itself or on the completed pieces Instagram post

If you'd like to know what I'm doing follow me on YouTube, Twitch and all the socials @DarKHaZZl3.
Also, I've updated The Underhive Hero with some more hobby project goodness, so go check that out too.

Peace!

-DH-

79. Re-Blog. The Silver Tower part1.

So, I have previously posted about painting boardgame miniatures on here before...
If you want to, you can check out my past posts about this stuff here (Mice & Mystics).

Now, I've often had a dilemma with this stuff...
All of my miniature painting is usually found of at The Underhive Hero.
however, not all board game miniatures are for table top miniatures games/ wargames.
as such I've posted them here.

This next project kinda spans both.
Warhammer quest: The Silver Tower is without doubt a boardgame.
The miniatures inside however, are not only for the game, but also to be use din Age of Sigmar; a fantasy table top wargame by Games Workshop.

Because it fits both, I've deiced to post it on both the Underhive Hero and Here.
So what follows i a carbon copy of my post on The Underhive Hero.
I thought both audiences might enjoy it!

+++original post can be found here+++


'I know I haven't been very consistent recently, but I have been working on other projects (as always).
If you'd like to chock those out head to The science of selling yourself short for more info!


Back to it.
I hit a hobby wall in the shape of too many boardgames with miniatures that are un built and unpainted.
So I've made it my mission to get these out of the way.

The problem with this is that building miniatures as they come in the box bores the life out of me...
So far I have built all of the Miniatures from Assasinorium Execution Force, and it nearly killed me.

So going into my next task; The Silver Tower, I've decided to try and make things a little more interesting for myself, without converting any of the models.




The game is fairly varied in all fairness.
unlike Execution force, there isn't 15 of essentially the same figure... the most of one type is 8.

But I still want to make them 'my own.'

This starts from the ground... no up, just the ground.

Most of the tile sin Silver Tower are this cracked turquoise stuff, with gold banding.



The plan is pretty simple; copy it onto the basses.
To do this I've used the Games Workshop palette pads to created the crazy shapes that are all over the board tiles.





Obviously, these will be painted gold, and any 'raised' areas will be added in using shading and highlighting.

As for the cracked floor, I decided to cheat...kinda.



Agrellan earth; a self crackling paint from the citadel paint range.
All I ave to do now is paint it!
I'll be using Stegadon Scale Green,Sotek Green and Temple Guard Blue to do the job.
Before that though I have a ton more basses to do...

That's all for now!

Keep you eyes peeled for more soon.'

-DH-

General update.

Nope, nothing new to report really.
Just ramblings.

I've been working on stuff.
I've got a thing that has taken up a fair amount of time, but that will have to be fully completed before I blog about it.
You can catch some glimpses of it on my instgram as always!

Other than that I've been doing some painting, which you can check out on The Underhive Hero.
The most recent project is my Escher Gang for Necromunda, so go check that out.


I've been spending a fair whack of time on Twitch too.
I'm up to 8 followers, which is cool!
I'm still giving away a digital copy of the first Starbomb album, so if you're interested on that, or just want to support the various thing i do, then follow me on there :3


I'm attending my third Smash Bros tournament on 18/05/2016!
I'm still crashing our very early in the competition, but such is life when you want to main Jigglypuff in a world full of Fox and Falco mains.
I did improve on my HawxX Nest performance, by actually advancing in the knockout round!
Bu tit's not enough, so more games to be played in preparation for that!


Next weekend is Slam Dunk, and the week after that is the Uk Games Expo, which I'm looking forward to immensely.


That's pretty much me summed up to be honest.
So, yeah, until next time...
Peace.

-DH-

74. Custom Paintjob: Mice and Mystics part 9. Roaches to Riches.

Continuing on that Mice and Mystics hype...

I've finished the rest of the cockroaches that I didn't get to finish the first time around





They started out scorched brown with a highlight of dark flesh, then washed back down with a dark brown wash.
From there it was a cash of progressively highlighting with Dark flesh adding vermin brown with each layer.
A Flesh shading was was applied afterwards before being finished off with a final highlight of vomit brown.
And that's it

Yeah!
That's all the bad guys done, and all the good guys done!

Woo!

I'll post a picture of the complete set (hopefully in action), to round off the post count to 10 for this series.
In the end I had a decent time painting them, despite the shoddy plastic the miniature are made from.


If you want to add some constructive criticism or have and other feedback/ questions, then feel free to drop me a comment on here, or hit me up on my Twitter.
If you'd like to see what I'm working o, as I'm working on it then follow me on Instagram.
And finally, if you're wondering what I do in between projects, follow me on Twitch and YouTube, as I'll either be playing games or doing a hobby stream!

So, until next time

Peace!

-DH-

73. Custom Paintjob: Mice and Mystics part 8. Hammer and Healing.

MOAR UPDATE!
Because consistent updates are a thing for now.
Mainly because I have a boat load of things I want to get finished!


So, more Mice and Mystics stuff.
This time it Nez and Tilda!







Not overly fond of how Nez's fur turned out, but Tilda turned out a lot better than I expected.

That's all of the mice done!
I might re do the bases of Lily and Colin to match these guys a bit better... maybe...


On to the last 5 cockroaches!!

Comments, constructive criticism welcome, as well as general chatter :)


Until next time

-DH-

71. Custom Paintjob: Mice and Mystics part 7. The Magos and the Theif.

MOAR update!

If only I'd been this productive my whole life I'd have
A) Finished this project when I starte dit, and
B) Probabaly gotten a lot further in life.

BUT I DIGRESS!

There are no work in progress shots for this, just glorious finished models.

This first is Maginos the mage.



This is where the comeback started.
I just fancied doing him on a whim (I knew leaving them all on my desk would get to me eventually!).
The hardest part was trying to get him to match his more white furred artwork, without being too bright.
The way I decided to get around this was to just make the rest with a lot of viable fur darker (Nez and Filch to some extent).
He'll look light enough by comparison.

I really enjoyed doing his wooden staff and the ladybird.


The next up is Filch.



Filch was largely done to be honest.
I just was really uninspired to do his fur and knife... and that was still true while I was finishing him off.
But I really like how the fur turned out; nice and dark, buy with enough flicks of light grey to give it a good texture.
I also decided to spruce up the knife.
First I added the little poison tip, to give him more of a D&D rouge appearance rather than just a thief... but ti still didn't fit well.
It was then I decided on the slightly battered golden hit for the knife and boom!
Perfect.


2 more down.
2 left to go; Tilda and Nez (as well as 5 cockroaches, but screw those guys).

Nez shouldn't be too hard... just trying to make him stand out as interesting will be the challenge.
I'm still not looking forward to Tilda... too much white :|

Anyway, that is it for this update!

If you like what I do, why not subscribe and check out all of my other projects?

I post non-board game related hobby on The Underhive Hero. Recently I've been doing some Salamanders Space Marines.

I've been streaming games on Twitch; mainly Heartstone, Rocket league and more recently Chronicle: Runescape Legends.
I also put highlight reels up, and other videos I think are worth it on my YouTube Channel.

If you want a head sup on what I'm working on then follow my Instagram and Twitter (Both @DarKHaZZl3).


Anyway.
That's all for now.

Until next time!

-DH-

57. Custom Paintjob: Mice and Mystics part 6. Award Winnnig Rats.

Nope, not actually award winning, just finished.

Check the not so great pictures out!



If you follow me on Instagram you'll know I've actually done a lot more on the Mice and Mystics models.
I just haven't got round to posting them.

I've also done a fair amount of work on my Lizardmen Bloodbowl/ Age of Sigmar stuff, which you can see over on The Underhive Hero.

I'll be getting back into posting a bit more regularly now I'm settling in to my job, and now I've passed my driving test, so watch this space (and my others too)!

See y'all soon

-DH-

43 b. Revamp/reboot part 2.

Hi guys.
I have an update.

I have changed my mind, again!

TL;DR

The science of selling yourself short has always been a personal experience for me, and I feel that I may have had it backwards before.
yes The Cardboard Cartographer is the driving force behind this blogs readership, but you know what? That doesn't matter.
To maintain it's integrity it has to revert back to being that personal, cathartic experience it once was.

I do need to maintain some clarity and distinction of content.

To that end I have decided that The Cardboard Cartographer should have its own blog site.

http://thecardboardcartographer.blogspot.co.uk

And there it is! The new home of The Cardboard Cartographer.
I truly feel this is the bets move all round.
Not only does it provide The Cardboard Cartographer with its own distinct space to grow, but it also allows this blog to revert back to being, well, about me and my personal experience.

In addition, there will be varying content on here in the future.
All of my ideas and concepts will find their way to here.
I've been doing a lot of art work and posting it on my instagram so that will start to make an appearance here in the future.

If any of you guys are a fan of The Underhive Hero fear not! I have posted there too explaining that, essentially, it will maintain consistency and integrity too.

Obviously revamping all these blogs is now the new goal, and it will be a lot of work, so this month will probably be fairly devoid of posts.

I thank you for your patience and such.

See you all soon

-DH-

37. 'Cards Against Humanity (UK) un-boxing and review. The Cardboard Cartographer issue 12.

Welcome to issue 12 of The Cardboard Cartographer here on The science of selling yourself short.

A whole month since the last issue! Well, if you would like to see what I've been up to in that time head over to The Underhive Hero

In this issue we are not only un-boxing Cards Against Humanity (CAH) (UK edition), but because there isn't a great deal to look at, we'll also be reviewing it too. I know right!

Google-fu.
Wikipedia;

Cards Against Humanity is a multiplayer party game available in published hardcopy via purchase and as a free download that players can print off to create their own cards via print shops. Its development originated from a successful Kickstarter campaign and has since received nationwide acclaim for its simple concept backed up by its satirical, mature content

Cards Against humanity is a game that was hugely successful on Kickstarter.
I'd go as far to say that it was on of the first board game type projects to gain such notoriety and continued popularity after the campaign had ended.
Since then it has become a force in its own right, with even those who are not traditional gamers getting involved and loving it.
I must admit that I did not discover Cards Against humanity until long after the end of the Kickstarter campaign, so my knowledge of this game comes post Kickstarter.

If you want more information I suggest heading over to the CAH website. You can download a print and play edition of the core game for free! - http://cardsagainsthumanity.com/

Lets get started shall we?

In this issue we're just looking at the core game, and here it is;

As you can see, the box (black with white text) and rule book (white with black text) are very clean, very simple. This is a design feature throughout the game.

The only other items in the box? Cards. Lots of cards.

Again, these are split into two colour schemes.
The black cards have a statement/question/situation printed on them, while the white cards have an 'answer' printed on them.

That is literally it. 
First Impressions.

Design wise it is minimalist to the extreme; simple, plain, clean but clear and contrasting. It isn't visually exciting or pleasing, but then it isn't terribly dull or offensive either.
The card stock is pretty flimsy, and as a party game which will see a fair amount of handleing this is a bit of an issue, and there are far too many cards to use sleeves on.

I like a bit of colour and artistic licence in my games, but in the case of CAH I think simple is better.

Gamplay.

CAH is a tad fast and loose when it comes to rules.
The basic rules are as follows.

Each player is dealt ten face down white cards.

A 'card-tsar' is selected (insert arbitrary 'first player mechanic here').
The card-tasr then deals a face up black card for everyone to see.
All other players then pick one of their white cards to 'answer' the black card.
The card-tsar then shuffles them and deals them face up, reading the black card and then the white card each time.
The card-tsar then decides which white card is the funniest.
The player who played that card takes the black card.
All players draw back up to ten (some cards require multiple cards for the answer).
The role of card-tsar then passes clock wise.
The game ends when there are no more black cards left/ you get board/ a pre-set number is reached.

That is it.

There are a bunch of rules that can be thrown in for added complexity/ variety, but how many you use, or don't is entirely up to the players.

Personal Opinion.

While on the face of it CAH's game mechanics sounds unbelivably simple and repetative (they totally are by the way), the game itself is outrageously enjoyable, so long as you are not easily offended.

What makes this game so outstanding is humour.
CAH uses a shock and awe tactic when it comes to the answer given. Some answers are tame, some morbidly realistic, while others are gonzo and/or offensive as possible (I for one was not slightly bothered. I have a high redolence when it comes to this type of humour).

This is not a game to be taken seriously. In any way.

However its simplicity does allow for a the 'player behaviour' mechanic to flourish.
This is a mechanic not always written into the game; it forms naturally as a result of empty space.'
In CAH this takes the form of strategic answers, or in others words, knowing how to make certain people laugh.

For example; Some people find gonzo humour funny. If the card-tsar is one of these people, you aim to play an answer that fits in line with their sense of humour.
While on the other hand, if the card-tsar is not into that type of comedy, you simply play something else.
So while the game isn't serious, nor is it based on tactics or skill, there is still a little room for intelligent play...
...but only a little.

Overall, I enjoyed the game. I am blessed with a group of friends who are not easily offended and have a similar sense of humour as I do.
The game has obvious drawbacks;
If allowed to go on for too long it gets very, very repetitive. There are 5 expansion out (accurate at time of publication).
Also if played with the wrong people it just will not be any fun,so be careful (100% NSFW).

Digital Spotlight.

Nope. There are no official digital editions of CAH (other than the print and play pdf).

However, their website states;
'Cards Against Humanity is available under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.0 license. That means you can use, remix, and share the game for free, but you can’t sell it without our permission. Please do not steal our name or we will smash you.'
A such there are so very many in browser and app versions of this game (even more than coin age).
I haven't played any of them as they all vary in quality/ malaware.
Some have online matchmaking which is potentially hilarious...

I feel that CAH isn't about that though. It is a more intimate, party setting game. Take that away and it loses its soul and character.
That might just be me.


That is all for this, very text heavy, issue of The Cardboard Cartographer!

What do you think of Cards Against Humanity?
Have you played any web or app based versions?
What is the best card combinations you've had?

Feel free to comment on this post or hit me up on Twitter @DarKHaZZl3

Until next time, thanks for reading.

-DH-