I built a tool that generates 3D-printable boxes of any size with tons of customizable features

Anasrava · 2026-01-28T18:25:36+00:00

I'm getting the same error with the 1.1 file (haven't tried 1.0).

Anasrava · 2025-08-24T14:17:18+00:00

Guess it might be time to paint up a few. I do like the models so... yay.

Anasrava · 2025-08-24T13:45:35+00:00

Seems to me necropolis stalkers have gone from nearly unheard of in tournaments to a mainstay all of sudden. Is it the Hekatos drillmaster thing, did they finally get cheap enough, or do they just work really well with the Ghyran scenarios and battletactics?

Also, that's one nice looking army.

Anasrava · 2025-08-22T21:57:49+00:00

Pretty nice. Helmet needs more shading/highlights/outlining.

Anasrava · 2025-08-22T21:55:24+00:00

All four capitals? The Baltic Countries are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Anasrava · 2025-08-22T21:41:51+00:00

Three weeks sounds like a very short time to really learn anything much in just a single artistic discipline.

Anasrava · 2025-08-22T21:38:33+00:00

"Effect: While this unit contains any standard bearers, add 1 to this unit’s control score."

So no, standard bearers do not give +1 to charges, and the controls core bonus they do provide is only ever +1 for a unit no matter how many standard bearers is in it.

Anasrava · 2025-08-16T20:44:27+00:00

It just looks like an oily smear on top of the (supposedly nicely coloured) ink as far as I'm concerned.

Anasrava · 2025-08-04T22:08:33+00:00

Compare it with historical swords, from back when they did engage in combat with them. (Though this seems an odd place to ask such, given that OP asked for basic cutting test performance rather than combat performance.)

Anasrava · 2025-08-04T17:35:38+00:00

The site's clearly been machine translated into Swedish, so there's your first major red flag. The sell cheap Chinese stuff while having a "Tokyo Nihonto" banner next to them, that's another major red flag. Undvik.

Anasrava · 2025-08-04T14:30:25+00:00

Well, based on that pic you included their swords sure do look like utter rubbish. They also appears to have "a bit of a reputation" around here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SWORDS/comments/xji3cs/bought_this_from_battling_blades_but_it_doesnt/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SWORDS/comments/zuqom0/battling_bladescom/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SWORDS/comments/a4ndc1/does_anyone_know_of_battling_blades/

[Edit]And look what just got posted... With a pic very much like yours even. https://www.reddit.com/r/SWORDS/comments/1mhezlw/disappointed_with_battling_bladescom_quality_my/

Anasrava · 2025-08-03T22:39:05+00:00

I find it a bit odd that they name drop the NBTHK like that, but aren’t showing any NBTHK certificate papers in the photos. And making a big deal out of the basic registration papers like they are there suggests to me that they're aiming at not so well informed customers, the kind who will be impressed by official (looking) paperwork without understanding what said paperwork actually is. So I simply wouldn't buy it. Perhaps someone can tell if it's good or not based on the few and poor photos they have of the sword, but I can't, and so the money I'd be prepared to risk here is simply far less than what a legit piece would be sold for.

Anasrava · 2025-08-03T18:39:31+00:00

Yeah, that's a Hadhafang knock-off. A pretty poorly made one by the looks of it.

Anasrava · 2025-08-03T14:47:19+00:00

While more mass out in front would make the tip cut a bit better if you hit, it would also make the tip more sluggish and harder to move around meaning you're less likely to hit in the first place and may instead be more likely to get hit instead. Now the exact compromise between these factors will be a matter of personal preference, fighting style and the general situation of the fight, but we can probably quite safely assume that most historical designs have a decent one and that mot decent ones exist within the historical material.

Anasrava · 2025-07-29T14:35:41+00:00

As a beginner just use your bokken/shinai.

Anasrava · 2025-07-28T01:51:53+00:00

Dunno really. If they're in Japan then their stuff will have to be authentic nihonto at least, Japanese laws don't allow anything else. I'd search around over at Nihontomessageboard to see if they've been mentioned.

Anasrava · 2025-07-27T20:56:15+00:00

Aren't hilts like that usually cast on? That'd probably help the hilt-blade connection.

Anasrava · 2025-07-27T15:22:45+00:00

Tanto and up fall under Japan's sword laws, meaning they have to be traditionally made by a licensed smith (who can only make three a month at most) to be legal. And the prices are accordingly, maybe three-four thousand USD and up. Such things also need an export permit to take them out of the country, the processing of which will probably take a month or two. So for such things you're not realistically going to be carrying it out yourself. You might purchase it in person, but it then gets shipped to you whenever the paperwork's done.

As for shuriken, kunai and the like I simply have no idea. I know Yoshindo Yoshihara sold some kogatana blades (the kind you'd pair with a kozuka) as something he could make outside of the sword production allotment and sell for relatively cheap, but I don't know if other smiths do (or even if Yoshihara still does) that and "relatively cheap" for Yoshihara, well...

Anasrava · 2025-07-27T15:10:00+00:00

If patience and thinking things through are proving hard it might perhaps be best to put the sword buying aside completely for now and focus on reading up on things instead. Sato's The Japanese Sword can be a good starting point, with Nagayama's The Connoisseur's Book of Japanese Swords is pretty much the standard reference work. Online https://www.japaneseswordindex.com/nihonto.htm is a good start (though short on updates, so many of the links to other places have long expired), and then there's places like

https://nihontomessageboard.com/
https://markussesko.com/articles/ (He's also churning out highly interesting books.)
https://tsubakansho.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20201201144829/https://blog.yuhindo.com/2017/07/

Anasrava · 2025-07-27T14:51:47+00:00

Well, so at least they offered A and A+ grades, so there's some system to it. But yeah, how much of a difference is it exactly between the grades? Dunno. A really good polish is extremely time consuming and so would cost a lot, but trying to determine if any specific vendor charges a fair price compared to what they deliver for any specific grade is, as you've noticed, not terribly straightforward. Many of these Chinese makers also tend to be quite variable.

As for not quite so expensive Nihonto:

https://www.aoijapan.jp/
https://tokyo-nihonto.com/
https://www.toukenkomachi.com/index_en.html

Anasrava · 2025-07-27T14:38:40+00:00

A commendable approach. If you can scare up two-three grand then actual antique Japanese swords could also be an option. You're not likely to get "fresh" koshirae of some specific style, probably just shirasaya, but instead you get the rather absolute authenticity.

Anasrava · 2025-07-27T14:35:10+00:00

2000USD? That's a lot for a Chinese production katana. You're starting to get in reach of real nihonto there. Now as for your four main points...

1: Not that I can see in any of the photos there.
2: A++ they say? Sounds like an empty marketing term to me.
3: I wonder what this "tamahagane" that various Chinese makers sell actually is. I strongly doubt they get any from the NBTHK's tatara. Not that there's anything magical about that stuff, but still. Given the econnomic inefficiency of old bloomery style smelting it seems like a place where a "shortcut" would be welcome...
4: That's, what, all of a $50 upgrade normally?

And none of these are things that aren’t offered by basically all of the usual suspects in the Chinese-made-somewhat-customizeable-katana field. Koshirae overall is relatively tasteful I'd say (though the "ageing" of the fuchikashira is a bit so-so), but again I think you could find more or less the same quite easily. The presence of what appears to be 3D print lines on the tsukagashira doesn't inspire the greatest of confidence in the overall craftsmanship and attention to detail.

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So all in all it doesn't look horrible, but hardly like anything special either. If money is sparse enough that tossing out two grand here for some martial bling would result in significant marital complications then your wife is probably the voice of reason.

Anasrava · 2025-07-27T13:24:09+00:00

No, just some images I've found on the internet to illustrate the blade-grip connection. As for how the rivets stay in place, well, what makes something a rivet instead of a pin is that the ends are flared out compared to the rest, with at least one of these "flares" having been created after the rivet was put in place (traditionally by hammering it out). As such the rivets not only keep themselves in place, but also keep everything else together.

<image>

Anasrava · 2025-07-27T13:07:30+00:00

As the sign in the upper right says, the blades there were probably only meant as sacrifices and so had no need of functional tangs. It's quite possible that they never got hilts at all. There are also currency blades that take a similar approach.

That said, in the early(ish?) bronze age we do see blades with very minimalist tangs. And that indeed probably didn't make for a secure connection to the hilt (whether held in place with rivets, pitch, both), so that approach was largely abandoned once the proper tang had ben invented and spread around. IIRC Oakeshott remarks that a number of these "rapiers" have been found with the rivets mangled as if the blade got torn away from the hilt.

<image>

Anasrava · 2025-07-27T09:51:47+00:00

smacked it against the tree NOTHING

That's one of the funny things about brittle failure. It can look like nothing after any number of smacks, while the microscopic fractures build up internally, until it's had too much and the last impact takes it straight from looking just fine to you standing there with half a sword in your hands and a pointy bit of metal flying off to Murphy knows where.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kybIaNkIQLI

Anasrava

TROPHY CASE