I will just stick to playing CoD, MoH, Halo, and a little Madden. Going online with WoW and WoT and getting called a "Noob" by a 12 year old would be soul crushing.

Returning hijacked thread back to you, Mr. Brindos.

It's not a waste of time if you're having fun and playing in moderation. When I started getting higher level characters, extremely difficult raids (an in game area where a group must go and fight a very hard NPC called a "boss") could take hours to set up and hours to complete. Four or more hours was not uncommon and required 5 to 25 players depending on the level.

Problem was that in order to get good at a raid, you had to do them, but if you did poorly, you'd get booted from the raid. It was a Catch-22. I stopped raiding because they were very time intensive.

I did find that it cut into my modeling time, but I would play for maybe 30 minutes to an hour at a time, often when waiting for something to dry or set.

Thanks for that overview. I obviously was confused over the difference between WoW and WoT. Some of those acronyms are as bad as the U.S. government's, but thanks for the explaination. Still glad I'm not wasting my time there. I'd rather waste it here and building armor! ;-)

M1GarandFan

Wow, Rob. You've convinced me beyond all doubt, that I'm thrilled I never got involved in WoT. What a bunch of gobbltygook. It's another entire language and sounds more like D&D than a war game.

 

NPCs are non-player characters which are in game AI people that are vendors, guards, quest givers, etc. They are vital to actually playing the game by sending players on various tasks or are the target of the task. For instance, a farmer may ask you to kill the leader of a gang and get back something they took (or someone). You then have to kill a bunch of bad guy NPCs to kill their leader and rescue the person or retrieve the stolen item.

In a PvP world, an enemy high level player can kill all these folks (and you) and literally make it impossible to play in that area. At least until their moms make them get off the computer or they get bored. Waiting for lower level players characters to re-spawn is called "camping" and is bad form, but done frequently on PvP worlds.

In a PvE world, the enemy can still attack NPCs (usually called "grieving"), but can't attack you. But they normally don't go after rookie areas just to spoil the fun like they do in PvP worlds.

I've seen a few WoT forums where they think they know tanks and tank tactics. But they know them as well as I know sword fighting and archery from playing Warcraft.

Warcraft has a third style of world where people on the world attempt to mimic their in game character's racial traits and speech. These are called "role playing" worlds. If you play a dwarf or an elf, you try to talk and act like one in game.

stikpusher

Looks like a Tiger. Although the smoke grenade launchers and the exhaust guards are for the mufflers are for the initial production type and not this later type. 

 

Wow, Rob. You've convinced me beyond all doubt, that I'm thrilled I never got involved in WoT. What a bunch of gobbltygook. It's another entire language and sounds more like D&D than a war game.

M. Brindos

Sounds like my years of playing World of Warcaft. Too many idiots anymore. Just sucks all the fun right out of it.

I've played World of Warcraft for 11 years now, although on and off the past few years. I understand your statement going back to vanilla. In 2006 a friend of mine gave me a gift of the first game. When I started, I didn't know there were PvP and PvE realms. He didn't quest, he just did battlegrounds and played for hours so going beyond level 19 was not in his routine.

In my first year, bored high level players (level 60 at the time) would kill all low level players and NPCs making it impossible to quest. I actually started three different toons and would log off of one when they raided that rookie area and go to the next one. Then they caught on and would show up at the other race's rookie area. I stopped playing for a while and my friend asked why. When I told him, he directed me to PvE realms where you could learn to play without being fodder for max level players.

Once you leave the PvP realms, playing was quite peaceful. Every once in a while, I go back to my original realm. They still play that juvenile style of play where max level characters raid lower rookie levels. My last trip there was over a year ago and the number of players in Stormwind was 16. In my regular realm, a medium population realm, there are hundreds.

During the Cataclysm expansion, they had an "iron man" challenge, to level a character from 1 to 90 using only grey or white items, no professions beyond first aid and a death meant you had to start over. I made it with my third attempt, a night elf rogue. My previous attempts with a human paladin and night elf hunter were unsuccessful.

November 3rd....if anyone cares.

Sounds like a good plan. This is a "fun" kit, so have fun with the finish. Weathering can be a blast!

Sounds like my years of playing World of Warcaft. Too many idiots anymore. Just sucks all the fun right out of it.

I've got Monday off so I'll have an extra day for painting this baby up. I'm going to start with a very near black and modulate my way down the scale till I get a nice and dark grey with a few highlighted areas on the top for variation.

After that I've got an idea how to paint the white tiger stripes to make it look like worn white wash.

I think a base may be necessary on this build. A mud and snow scene would be appropriate I think. ;)

what do you guys think?

WoT is fun if you don't get too far into it. I played for about two years and finally got so frustrated by the idiots in the game that I couldn't take it anymore. I hate to judge, I wasn't that great a player but I didn't shoot players on my own side, sit around the base and do nothing etc. I finally got to the point that this game I was playing for entertainment was causing way too much stress. And isn't the point of game to have fun and relieve stress? Walking away felt so good. If you don't get that involved it should be fun though. 

Thanks, D. I haven't played the game yet. I d/l'd it, but have never gotten around to playing.

Im more into the modeling aspect as well lol.

The paint scheme should be interesting and I'm looking forward to getting started this weekend. :)

M. Brindos

He did seem more enthusiastic about the included game codes than the model lol.

 

I used to play WOT.  More interested in building models than playing on the computer these days.  Maybe when he is my age, he will feel the same.  I am 53, so don't hold your breath.  

Looks like you are having fun, and that is what counts!  Looking forward to the paint scheme.

D

He did seem more enthusiastic about the included game codes than the model lol.

M. Brindos

Since my boy doesn't seem interested in this anymore...

Just went through this on an Apache chopper with my newphew, not enough instant gratification I guess, but keep at him. Looking foward to the tiger stripes.

Thanks guys. You do get a lot of extra parts in the box. It was fun picking out the options. But it only comes with the one type of road wheels.

The parts are otherwise included for early, late, and tropical.

Now that it's together, the real fun (for me) begins. :)

No worries Mike. That is what counts, is that your son is happy with it. Like Rob said, it is nice not to get all wrapped up in the details, and just build to have fun.

It's liberating to build kits for fun without regard to accuracy. Not saying that striving for perfection and high levels of accuracy isn't fun, to some, that is where the fun lies.

Lol, all I know is that the steel-rimmed road wheels indicate a late model. 

Looks good, the tracks look perfect from what I can see. 

Meh. My son will like it and that's what counts. These were the parts he wanted to add, so I added them.

Now for the paint job he wanted... Siberian tiger stripes. It aught to be interesting. ;)

Looks like a Tiger. Although the smoke grenade launchers and the exhaust guards are for the mufflers are for the initial production type and not this later type. 

Since my boy doesn't seem interested in this anymore...

I finished assembly. I just stuck all the cool parts on and I figured, "why not?" 

Now I'm ready for primer and paint! Yay!

The non used parts are likely from a common sprue for use on the late and early production versions. 

Quick update. We managed to make all of the hinged pieces work and built up the upper hull, but Jr. cut out the wrong piece, so the front of the hull is missing the Zim. I noticed it after it was fully glued on and we're just going to roll with it. I didn't realize the kit comes with non Zim coated hull pieces and a full Fifel(sp?) air filter system (plus smoke generators and spare link mounts for the turret sides) The parts are not mentioned in the instructions.

Live and learn I guess. I'll be paying more attention from now on.

Thanks for looking. Happy modelling, my friends.  :)

Like I said, not my idea, but it did work well for me. :)

I hope that when you get another chance, that it will work spledidly!

That is a super method for dealing with the tracks. I tried something like that on my Maquette T-34/76 but it did not work out. In fact it almost urged me to toss that kit into a wall. I will give it another go with your version on my next indy link or link  & length tracked AFV build. Thanks for the tip!

Both sides of the tracks are done now. I really like that I can remove them for painting lol.

I'm going to use this method again then next time I have to use Link and Length tracks. Works quite well. Once the track pieces were cleaned up I just assembled them with liquid cement, waited five to ten minues for the glue to setup then wraped them around the wheels. It was a little tricky getting the links to match up properly once I had them wraped, but with some cotton buds and a stretched out hair band I got them into position and just let them cure overnight.

The next day I had perfectly set tracks awaiting primer.

Thanks for checking-in, and I hope Jr. wants to do more work on it later. I kinda like this kit and I may have to get one for myself eventually. It's really not too bad at all.

http://www.use.com/J83FO

The link above will take you to our progress.

One side done, one to go.

Thanks for looking.  :)

The trick I mentioned about glueing the tracks to the wheels with the wheels loose worked better than expected.

We've got one side completed and it took more time to clean up all the wheels and track pieces then it did to glue it together lol.

I'll get pictures up as soon as I can. :)

I would hope to see a WIP of you and your sons build.  This I'll definately follow.  With my new grandson it'll be in no time flat that I'll be building a Snap-Tite Kit with him very soon.  It's projects like these that have more meaning that a first prize ribbon on a kit from a club show.  

Bonding with your son and teaching him techniques like these will allow him to carry this over into things of use in everyday life!  I envy and am proud of you M.Brindos!  Good luck with the build!

Toshi