Category: *.BAK

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Japanese Whiskey Advent Calendar

I wrote to the shop I got the wrong calendar from. At first they tried to gaslit me, saying that the only difference is the calendar sleeve, but I told them that I checked the contents on the site, and they aren’t the same. Then they offered 5% discount if I keep it, which is laughable. By that time I also received the correct calendar, and the funny thing is, it is also significantly larger. I don’t know why yet, as the contents are the same, 24x30ml bottles. But it is also 300g heavier. Either more cardboard or different bottle design.
At least I managed to get a refund for the blue calendar. And now I’ll probably will “sit” on the red calendar for another year, knowing myself.

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New York Distilling Ragtime Rye Double Oak

9th bottle from the Advent Calendar.
It’s a surprise on so many levels. It doesn’t taste of rye much, and it doesn’t have the medicinal taste I often associate with oak. It is sweet, and unbelievable smooth for 56% ABV. Not to be confused with regular Ragtime Rye, which is “only” 45%. Has a long warm aftertaste. At 48GBP it’s incredible value.

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CaDA Master C61505W Viva Hypercar (Ferrari La Ferrari)

I don’t know how much CaDA influences the design. But the approach is quite different to Lego. If Lego builds the chassis, then adds on top, in a horizontal manner, CaDA builds vertical slices: engine, cabin, transmission, and then joins it all together.
The way pieces are grouped is also totally different. As I mentioned, you have 7 different parts you need to build, but for each part there are multiple bags that seem to be grouped by the type of the piece, not where it fits. So you have gears in one bag, pins or axels in another, and so on. I spent a lot of time just sorting those into finer groups.
CaDA also uses some pieces I’ve not seen from Lego. Notably the strange angled pieces. Lego angle is the same thickness. CaDA has thickness 2 going to thickness 1.
Because the bags are just types of pieces and there are just 7 major blocks to build, you have to manage your own time. Unlike with Lego, where I knew 1 bag = 1 hours, give or take. It’s much more difficult. I spent 2:30 hours in 2 sittings, and haven’t finished the 1st block. Got stuck for a long time on this piece called 7-9L Linear Actuator because it just wouldn’t fit. Turns out, it has a screw inside, so you can adjust the length, and I put it in without adjusting,

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Penderyn 8 Year Old Moscatel whiskey

8th whiskey from Advent Calendar, this one from Wales.
Until now there were some whiskies that were good for their price. This is simply good. It is strong, 60%, but it has everything you’d expect: numbing the mouth, some warmth, a lot of sweetness and muscat notes. Hits with a bang. I was surprised that it’s only 8 years old. At 90GBP it’s not a steal, just the right price.

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Asahi Cookin Cut Rubber Cutting Board

Four months in, it works. I didn’t have to sharpen my Shun or Miyabi once since I bought it, just to hone them occassionally with Horl.
It does stain from strawberries and such, but the stains also go away. And it doesn’t retain any smell from onions.
I usually wash it by hand, but had occassionally put it in dishwasher, without issues.
It is heavy, but I still use rubber grip mat sometimes.

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*.BAK

Japanese Whiskey Advent Calendar

After buying whiskey advent calendars for a couple of years, I came to a simple conclusion that I’m not excited about Scotch whiskies anymore. I like them the most, but I’m not interested in trying more, because I had most of them, either as a bottle, or as a taster, or a better version of:

And this year I’m going through the World Whiskey calendar, which doesn’t change that much either.
What else is there? There’s Japanese whiskey. Those whiskies are more expensive, and so are the calendars. I always purchased the calendars after a discount, paying around 100GBP, but discounted Japanese whiskey calendars are 160GBP discounted.
And since I was dragging my feet into February, they actually stopped being discounted, and started selling for 250GBP again.
Luckily some shops are still selling them at the old price. Or so I thought.

Continue reading “Japanese Whiskey Advent Calendar”
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*.BAK

King Void, Holy Goat Brewing

I’m a simple man. I see Imperial Stout, I buy. Then a year later, I drink.
Holy Goat are based in Dundee, Scotland, and focus on barrel aged beers. This isn’t BA, as far as I can tell, though.
I wasn’t sure what I’m tasting, coffee or cocoa. Turns out, it has both. As delicious as Imperial Stouts get, if I appreciate more when it tastes like coffee without containing coffee.

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*.BAK

CaDA Master C61505W Viva Hypercar (Ferrari La Ferrari)

When I was ordering from AliExpress, the only option available was without a box, so I’ve got mine wrapped in a bag.
Lego model was divided into 23 bags, although some contained smaller bags inside. CaDA divides its bags into 7 groups, each group is about 8 bags. And some extras, like wheels and tires. Wheels are slightly smaller than of McLaren P1, not sure what’s the reason for that, as both should be 1:8 models.
Lego is often criticized for using blue pieces. Those provide more friction, but they do stick like a sore thumb if left exponsed, like on the McLaren P1 front panel. No blue pieces in those bags. We’ll have to see if CaDA uses same color for pieces of different friction, or they just use frictionless black pieces for everything.

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Lakes Distillery The One Colheita finish whiskey

7th bottle from the Advent Calendar.


I hate when whiskey producers come up with those witty names. How am I supposed to search for whisky called “the one”?
In any case, whiskey is not just about taste, but also about price. This is a blended whiskey, but at least it’s 46% ABV, and it costs just 35GBP, which is quite impressive for what it delivers.

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Mousin Weasel Sprint

I decided to take a break from painting Warhammer to painting an alternative model, picking Mousin Weasel Sprint printed by someone from Etsy. Those can be printed in multiple sizes, I went with 100mm.

The problem with 100mm started pretty quickly, as there’s a single spoke that attaches the weasel to the base, and it’s quite heavy, so after gluing, that spoke just broke off and stayed stuck in the base. I’ll need to figure out how to attach it to the base safely later.

The same happened with the mouse tail. But after a couple of attempts, I managed to glue it back together.

Priming it was surprisingly easy. Maybe because it is a larger model, or diffirent plastic that the one Games Workshop uses, but one coat of Abaddon Black was enough. Shading a larger model is tiresome, though. Or maybe I needed a larger dry brush.

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*.BAK

Lego McLaren P1 42172

Over New Year I finished my Lego McLaren P1. As I predicted, two wrong pieces in bag 11 came to haunt me in bag 23, the last bag, as the engine lid wouldn’t close properly.

Luckily, Lego has a piece delivery system, which doesn’t even require receipts. You just specify which set you are doing and what pieces you are missing.
I’m glad that I submitted the request on the 1st of January, because I received the items only a couple days ago.
But now it’s finally complete. Took 23 sittings, per number of bags, and around 15 hours in total. I didn’t try to rush it, though, had no reason to.
Next, I’ll give CaDA a try.

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Imperial Iron Brew, Vault City Brewing

I’m not a fan of sours, but this one, which resided in my fridge for at least a year, was actually pretty good. So much strawberry I couldn’t believe it didn’t have any additives to it. Overall, great one, as expected from Vault City.
Also, let’s just appreciate for a moment this peach color.

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*.BAK

Whiskey Advent Calendar

5th bottle is Kavalan Triple Sherry Cask. I’m familiar with Kavalan through their Concermaster, and Triple Cask is no different. It is sweet, if I’d prefer it to be at least 46% instead of 40%. The problem is that this bottle costs 81GBP. For that price, you can get yourself a nice sherried Cask Strength.

6th bottle is Uncle Nearest 1884. It’s a bourbon. You can taste the corn, and it has a surprising afterwarmth to it. But not something I would buy, despite a reasonable price of 55GBP (when available).

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Painting Scabbik’s Plaguepack

Over Christmas, completed my Scabbik’s Plaguepack.


I was preparing so much to glue them, only to discover those are push models. Well, I’m not one to complain about that.
The real challenge if those Skaven models, in addition to regular warpstones, and the tails, are the plumes of smoke that come from their censers.
I tried drybrushing metal, but it mostly got thrown away.
Pleased how pink parts worked, with Bugman Glow, then strangely enough Berserker Bloodshade, then highlight with Bugman Glow again.
I’ve never seen bones/horns done in blue (I don’t remember this particular contrast paint, maybe Kroxigor Scales), but I did it for contrast mostly.
One thing I plainly lack is the discipline to photo the process under the same light all the time.

 

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*.BAK

Kyro Malt Rye

4th taster is from Finland. I’ve had rye whiskey before in New York, and it tastes quite similar, like a rye toasted bread. Not my favourite taste. At 47 ABV it leaves plenty of pleasant warmth, though.

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Lego Technics alternatives

Lego Technics sets are pricey. They are aimed at adults, but still, those usually cost around 300GBP. So there are plenty of Lego enthusiast that advocate for alternative brands: CaDA, Guly, Nifeliz, Mould King.
But here’s a thing. A lot of those alternatives don’t come in fancy boxes. Sometimes, you need to pay more to even get a box. Some have missing parts or even missing bags. And most of those models are not licensed: so you have names like Assassin instead of McLaren P1.
And once some of those alternatives like CaDA grow big enough to provide all of the above, guess what? They cost not significantly less.

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*.BAK

Amrut whiskey

2nd bottle was Teeling, an Irish whiskey I’m familiar with. I usually don’t drink single pot still whiskeys, but this one was quite nice, at 46% ABV. If I was told it’s Scotch, I would have believed it.
So jumping straight to 3rd taster, it’s Amrut. That’s a whiskey I’ve actually been waiting for. As I probably mentioned ready, Scotland and Ireland, best known for their whiskeys, are also the worst countries to make whiskeys. Taiwan, Israel, and now India figured that out. I assume this is the regular Amrut, as there’s just the 46 ABV statement (so not cask strength), and not peat in it (so not the Fusion, I guess). Also, there is no age statement. But, it is great: very sweet and rich, like some of the better sherry Scotch whiskeys. For its price of 43GBP, it’s a bargain.

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*.BAK

Mateba

I’m a big fan of firearms history, so I was excited to learn about Mateba pistols, which are quite crazy:

Also featured here:

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Genevieve, Brasserie Thiriez

There are multiple beers from differenent breweries named Genevieve. This one is from France, not a country associated with beers, although the town it’s brewed in is pretty close to Belgium, so maybe that’s the reason. I brought this beer from Denmark, since it wasn’t big on beer shops.
It’s supposed to be Belgian style tripple, but it doesn’t looks nor tastes like one. It’s not bad, just very different, almost more like an oaked cider than a beer. No head, but plenty of bubbles, just like in sparkling cider.
I said in the past that I’m yet to find a barrel aged beer I didn’t like. This might be the one. Although those are gin barrels, if I’m not mistaken.

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Tacticus

Rukkatrukk from its event (I think):

Actus and Exitor-Rho from pulls:

Those two are considered good, but I’m still missing Tan Gi’da for full Mech team.

Tankmasha from farming the shop:

Finally Titus from the shopping event.

Titus is the one I wanted since I started playing, he’s incredibly powerful for being able to ressurect if he kills an enemy with his Vengeance.
The shopping event also brought me much closer to obtaining Marneus Calgar, most expensive Ultramarine character. He’s farmable, but the closer the better. I’m now 430/500 shards, which means it’s possible to farm him in a couple of weeks.