First of all, I'm busier than a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest. I'm doing the best I can.

Second, I FINALLY figured out why the links aren't working in See Mark Paint. They are fixed and uploaded.

Third, I am deep into a total rewrite of See Mark Paint. I am adding an entire chapter on PPE and safety because I'm learning about my 3D printer and there are bad consequences if you don't do things right. I am also adding a chapter (obviously) on 3D printing. I am almost finished with my 4th rewrite. The formatting and editing will soon follow.

Fourth, I have Roster Builder 3.0 for Windows 99% ready. This is also a total rewrite so I can just transfer the code to my Mac and Unix environments and compile them there. The Win version will be out soon, I have to get cracking on installing the interpeter and compiler in the other environments and getting them to work there. Another stumbling block is the help files and I'm taking another shot at a video walkthru.

Fifth, I know the sections just below the main banner are not working properly. I'm on this as well, but's low on the list.

This past weekend, I got three friends together at one of the FLGS' and we got to play some Battletech. We currently have four stores, there's been times where we have had zero.

David I have already had some battles with, James who last played years ago, and Mike, who was very interested in playing and this was his first game. We were doing 4k BV each, and I specified 3 Mechs, nothing special. It was Mike and I against David and James.

I didn't take detailed batrep notes because I was concentrating on teaching the game. There was this one shining moment for Mike:

David was intending to send that Locust around the back of Mike's Uziel/Gurkha/Wolverine team, so he's running and has a +4 mod to hit. Mike had different ideas. Mind you, this is his first game, 3rd turn. The Uziel rings the bell of the pilot with an SRM to the head. The Gurkha then pulls the trigger on his PPC and also hits the head. Almost perfect decapitation, there were some paint scratches from a couple other SRM hits from the Uziel.

Mike also got the other kill in the game as well. He surrounded another of David's Mechs and did the Vin Diesel "500 fights" beatdown until the poor guy ran out of CT structure. A fine example of focused fire. If that second Mech had actually survived the shooting phase, he was going to get kicks from the Wolverine and Uziel, and the Gurkha was going to stick his sword in the poor guy's back.

At that point, time was called. A fun day for all.

These posts, I'm afraid to say are so infrequent that I feel I have to preface each one with "I'M NOT DEAD YET!" But that happens when you're working on a second website, an application, a book, looking for a job while fighting for ten weeks to be approved for unemployment, house maintenance, and 15 other things. I don't get a lot of time for modeling and posting here.

I managed to score some cash and acquired an Anycubic Photon printer a couple weeks ago. I've also been acquiring the ancillary accoutrements to make miniatures and I've actually produced a few.

I have about 80-90% of my seven current battalions, so I'm going to learn the ins and outs of the printer in filling my TO&E's out. Yes, this information will end up in the 4th Edition of See Mark Paint.

I'm actually kind of sad and dismayed about doing this. I personally like metal miniatures. I like their heft, their feel and their look. I also know that the advancement and decentralization of technology and information is pushing all of us away from the metal miniature. The production costs for injection-molded and now 3D printed miniatures are way lower and all that. For $30, I can get a liter of resin and use it to make almost a battalion's worth of miniatures, way less that buying metal from Iron Wind Metals. To me, it's just not right. I've met the people at IWM and they're good people. I hope they are going to survive this current crisis and remain profitable for many years to come. I am actually planning on making a run up there and just buying $1,000 worth of product just because I like them. Of course, seeing friends and buying Stroh's are also on the list when I'm in that part of the world.

Since I'm here, I'm also updating  and adding a few other pages. Here's my fleet of dropships:

(L ro R) Overlord-class TCB Fred Smith, Union-class TCB Benjamin Franklin.

In case you didn't know, I live in Memphis and the most-used three letter acronym here is "TCB," Elvis' phrase of "Takin Care of Business." Since Dropships deliver, I named these after very famous delivery guys. Fred Smith is the founder of FedEx, based in Memphis. Ben Franklin is the guy who's responsible for the US Postal Service.

Leopard-class TCB Leeroy Jenkins

Yes, that Leeroy Jenkins. The pinnacle of foolhardy charging into battle are those that ride Leopards into hot LZs.

I shamelessly plug, push and pull people for praise on See Mark Paint. I really want feedback, positive and especially negative. If I did something wrong or bad, I want to know so I can fix it and not disillusion or even hurt a new gamer. The praise helps inspire other visitors here to grab and read it. I also get inspired that others like my work as well.

That being said, I don't get to see a lot of the "fruit" from my ebook. Mr. Spenser Sparks not only did a very glowing review, he sent me some pictures on his latest miniature after he put to use what's in my book. Click on each image for full size in a new tab.

"I've watched dozens if not hundreds of video tutorials how-to guides on basing, glazing, blending, you name it.

Your E-book is the most comphrehensive and well-explained guide to miniature craft and painting I have ever seen! You really should be proud of this and are a legend for this kind of contribution to the painting and wargaming community!

Just in reading the first introduction section I learned six different very useful tips. Using a sponge to form a point and Legos while gluing, these are just amazing tips for someone like me to name a few!

I can't tell you enough how much I personally appreciate your work in this E-book and the dedication you took to make it!" -- Spencer Sparks

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Well, I had yesterday scheduled to release Roster Builder 2.5, but my Windows release is not working. I'll have to recompile and try again. I managed to get to full "BattlePaperwork" mode activated as far as TO&E, except for Clans. The Clans can die in a fire for their "this is the way it must be, except on alternate Tuesdays" on their structure. It's giving me a migrane trying to make the programming work.

So you know what's in the pipeline, 3.0 will have the Clan TO&E working and you can build Alpha Strike rosters. Suggestions are welcome as well. If I include your suggestion, you get kudos.

Hey all! "See Mark Paint" Version 3 has now been posted. I've gone from crushing Locusts to crushing Cicadas this thing is big enough. Enjoy!

I have been quite busy recently. See Mark Paint 3rd edition is going through final review, I'm putting the finishing touches on the World Battletech Leauge, and I am working on bringing about the "BattlePaperwork" of having a real TO&E (Table of Organization and Equipment). This will show the layout and you can move units between the pool (left) and the TO&E to assign units. You can also print it out and Roster Builder will provide a detailed assessment of your Organizations. The final product will be different, but not much.

I have the standard IS Battlaion (with and without Command Lance), Square Battalion (With and without Command Lance) Augmented battalion and Comstar Level III set and ready to go. I still have to Grok on how to do the Clan structure.

I just did a minor change, I got tired of the "image load" stuff from all of the rotating banners. I decided to go to a static format. I hope all y'all like this way better.

With all of this pandemic stuff rolling around, I have had a significant amount of unstructured time fall into my hands. Here's what I've been doing with it.

First, more models painted. I currently have 27 miniatures waiting on an Army Painter dip and another 8 miniatures and 24 stands of Battle Armor waiting on detail painting. Once all those are painted, dipped, sealed and flocked, I'll be caught up. For a while, at least. I'm aiming for 7 battalions worth of units.

I'm also collaborating on a "COVID-19 friendly" BattleTech campaign. Should be seeing that in a couple of months.

Then there is Version 3 of See Mark Paint. A lot of practical experience to include, some new ideas and more practice needed on some things before I get to the actual writing and editing part.

Version 2.5 (or 3, haven't decided yet) of Roster Builder is still in the feature conceptualization stage. I know what the new features will be, I just have to figure out the interface and coding to "get there from here."

With all that out of the way, the whole reason for this post is to announce two articles in the Game Aids page, A BattleTech "To-Hit Computer" and a new compilation of thoughts on how to grow your local BattleTech community, after we can get closer than the next ZIP code over.

ATTENTION EVERYONE! I just oploaded Roster Builder 2.0 to the website. Please feel free (because it is free) to download and enjoy it.

I added the Aircraft external ordinance, standardized the interface among all of the windows and a bunch of stuff behind the scenes.

Everyone, I have rewritten my Tactics series and added a new article, so now there is Tactics 101, 201 and 301. Please read and enjoy.

I also stumbled across an article I found back in the 90's on "The 15 rules of wargaming." It had a British tone and 40k terminology, so I revamped it and made it more general. Please read and heed.

Last, but not least, a couple months back I saw an idea for a Battletech Escallation League, which is a way specifically new players to give them an incentive to sit down and paint miniatures. I took the time to clean it up and codify it into set rules and even addedd some cross referencing.

Enjoy all of these new articles.

My apologies for the poor quality of the help video. Evidently I did not record it at high enough quality. I am rerecording the video and I have no idea how long that will take. Hopefully before Election Day.

In the mean time, the basic flow is this:

1. Create a profile. PLEASE give a value to default roster size and year of battle. It goes a bit wonky if you don't. Fix is on the punch list.
2. Create organizations. You can have up to ten orgs.
3. Create non-Canon units. If you have custom units, enter them.
4. Add Units to Organizations. This is where you put your combat units into the organizations.
5. Once all this is done, then you can create rosters until the cows come home.

If my database does not have your unit, I'm getting updates in my copius free time.

I now release my newest creation, seven months in the making. I hope you like it. You can read more about it and watch my walkthru video in the link below.

Battletech Roster Builder Version 1.0.

2/20/2020 UPDATE: Still working on editing the video, it didn't help I was in the hospital for three days.

The "last final update" will be to announce the acutal release of Roster Builder, which should be somewhere in the next 5 days. I am finishing up on the walkthru/help video and once I have that finished and posted, I can release Roster Builder to the wild.

2-12-2020 UPDATE: See the above post, but I thought I would update this punch list too. New accomplishments are highleted and crossed out.

I recently got a new job and had to spend two weeks in another town getting trained for my new job. I spent my time in the evening drinking and finishing the Battle Armor code (you can now select a squad size of 4, 5 or 6) and getting a serious chunk of code written to handle three C3 networks. This past weekend, I squashed the last bug for that.

I also discovered that my windows were too big, so I had to revamp sizes and layouts of multiple windows. I also upgraded the method on how to select your numbers (gunnery/pilot scores, BA squad size and C3 network).

This is the punch list that remains for version 1:

• Clean up Units to Organizations code (I fixed this Sunday night after writing the post)
• Update the Gunnery/Pilot BV multiplier (CGL changed it when I wasn't looking)
• Clean up the "Phone Home" code (the app will ping this website periodically to check for updates to the main database and application itself)
• Detail which units are part of which C3 networks in the printed paperwork.

The new features to be seen in version 2 are at least these:

• More units added to the main database
• Aircraft external ordinance
• (Possibly) up to 15 units in a roster. I now have the area to handle it, I just have to upgrade the code to count to 15 rather than 12
• The ability to add custom units to your roster and at your option, share them with the rest of the community (I'm still thinking on that last part)

Features WAY down the line:

• Full TO&E (you get to have a display that shows every unit in a particular slot in the Organization)

So there you have it. Keep tuned for updates!

Hey all, just before Christmas 2019 I was ready to release the Roster Builder App as-is. What stopped me was I had an opportunity drop into my lap. I quit my job Friday (1/3/20) and today (1/6) I am starting a new job, which will entail two weeks of training away from home.

I am planning on using my after-class and weekend time to write articles for my other blog, but also add in the two main features I was going to let slide and do later, namely how to handle Battle Armor squads and C3 networks. The BA code will be easy, the hard part will be the C3 networks. I as a person know how to do the math to refigure BV for units in a C3 network, the sticking point is my difficulty in wrapping my brain around an efficient way of having the application do it. After these two feats of programming skill, I then get to work on the ability to mount external ordinance on Aerospace units, which I will complete before releasing any Aerospace entries.

I am also cleaning up the unit database for the first release. I will have all mechs and vehicles initially, then adding BA and Aerospace units as well. Roster Builder will have the feature of checking a server every now and then for updates to the database and the application itself.

A future feature will allow for you to include your own custom units and on your option, allow them to be shared with other Roster Builder users. This is still in the "rough parameters" stage and low priority to getting the other features coded.

Okay everyone! I was going to hold off on releasing See Mark Paint until next year because I put a 2020 coptright tag on it, but you know what? I'm not a big publisher that has to plan months in advance for a book release. I can do it whenever I want, so I'm doing it NOW!

Also, the first version of the Roster Builder app is 99% ready. I have one bug (that I know of) to squash, then I'm doing a YouTube video that will be a help and tutorial video. This one is still a couple weeks out because I have to edit it.

Several things here.

First of all, I have updated my Game Aids article with a few new (amazingly enough) game aids. Namely, a nice neoprene battlemat, some amazing status dice (from Canada, eh!) and a line-drawing laser pointer.

The biggest update of all is I made a desktop video of me performing a tutorial so I can clearly articulate what the Roster Builder is and does. Enjoy!

UPDATE: I took this video off-line because I made one of the production release.

Multiple things here,

1) The development of Solaris Skunk Werks is in the hands of a new team and is now on GitHub. The link to the new SSW on the sidebar is updated.

2) Roster Builder development continues. I have several minor bugs and user interface issues to work out, but as of this moment, you can create/open a profile, then create organizations for the profile, add units to each organization, then build a roster and generate it to PDF. I still have the end of that roster code to write as while it is functional, it is not "user friendly" at the moment.

3) I have been buying multiple things to enhance my game play. As soon as the last item gets in from Canada (2-3 weeks) I will have a detailed "Product review" on all items.

My "Brother-from-another-mother" Chris is our local Catalyist Demo Agent, and is worked like a dog by CGL during GenCon. He managed to slip this custom Banshee modeled and painted by Dave Fanjoy off the CSO table this year. This is the "Beat-Yo-Ass Banshee" piloted by Chris "Beatdown" Crews.

Chris even sent me a snapshot of it on the table:

Because it obviously has a RAC-5 and an ER PPC, but no canon unit has that loadout, I decided to make my own.

Here is the Banshee BNC-4F. Introduced in 3086, it's very heat balanced, generating one heat on an Alpha Strike, it has 2 tons of ammo for a full 6 turns of maximum RAC fire. It has a slightly lighter armor load, but also has CASE and no XL engine so it doesn't die if there is an ammo explosion. It also has a Medium Pulse Laser in each arm and an ER Small Laser in the head. Since the club is actually an impromptu weapon, it's not part of the official loadout.

I made a record sheet and I am posting it here for you to copy and enjoy. Right-click and "Save As" to get it in full size.

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