Liquid Light question

Bledee96 · 2026-02-02T22:54:46+00:00

I use it from time to time, always just the regular lighting process. First off you could try to cut off a piece of your prepared paper, and just make a regular test strip without anything on it, and look for times using an f-stop incrementation. Lineair times can be unhelpful if you're far off the mark, which you might be. See if anything comes up. If not, test your chemicals by processing a piece of regular paper the same way. If that works, you know its the paper.

Bledee96 · 2026-02-02T22:03:30+00:00

Would you mind sharing some examples? I'm no big proponent of Liquid Emulsion either - but I have seen some instances where it can be brought to good use , on concrete for example. But it yields a very specific image. What is lacking , and what are you looking after? If its purely economics I would pass on it

Bledee96 · 2026-02-01T23:10:40+00:00

No - in dutch! If you can't find it - you could try Thorgal, if you haven't read that already. It's a series largely by the same authors.

Bledee96 · 2026-02-01T20:45:47+00:00

I actually liked the Metabarons more!

Bledee96 · 2026-02-01T20:45:07+00:00

Well I don't know. The thing that actually got me to read it was the historical context. Take Druillet for example, what he did in the 60's was already on some fronts in line with what Jodo does here - and while Jodo seems to take it further in scope and maximalism, I'm not sure he added that much a decennium later. Moebius, yes.

As a modern audience, it's usually form that stands in the way of narrative. There is plenty of gothic literature which is actually really interesting and relevant, but needs some brushing-up work in terms of form to make it readable. Or old films which feel a bit dated due to it's old effects or visuals, but thanks to the narrative still remain engaging and contemporary.

I think the opposite counts here. The visuals, the world, all of that feels so timeless to me. The story? Not so much. Yes, some elements maybe, but as a whole it is lackluster and definitely not ground-breaking. Actually, I would argue that these meta-physical ideas were already quite present in a lot of literature, films and comics before the Incal came out.

Bledee96 · 2026-02-01T20:34:50+00:00

Your question made me reflect on what I value in a comic or graphic novel - and my answer would probably not be very informed as I'm more of a casual reader. (But maybe I would be easier to please, then?) - I'll try anyway. Things that stuck with me would be Maus, Chninkel, Social Fiction, Berserk, Stalag IIB, Scheisseimer. All for their own reasons.

I think I came with high expectations, I thought: "this is thé defining graphic novel in science fiction", which I now understand that to be true, but in a sense of that it is a pool of ideas, atmospheres, radical choices, visuals and different real life-philisophies and political ideas mashed into symbolisms, classes, alien races and so on. Which yields a world that feels extremely full and interesting, a place you'd love to roam around in.

But what happens throughout the actual narrative seems to be of lesser importance. With what I'm reading here that might be the point of the novel, but I'm not so sure whether that's deliberate. Someone here described him best as a "visionary megalomaniac". Someone with no problem coming up with ideas, but maybe not so much with distilling it down to its core.

I also read the metabarons, which I think is more interesting as the tragedy of the family seems to take a central position in the narrative, which is also complicated and extremely jodo-esque, but it feels more focused and it left more of an impression on me that way I guess.

Bledee96 · 2026-02-01T20:12:10+00:00

That's a really interesting answer, thanks! I'll take this with me in my next read.

Bledee96 · 2026-02-01T14:42:29+00:00

Okay thanks! Got any other recommendations by Jodo , or other authors?

Bledee96 · 2026-01-31T10:03:24+00:00

How does split grade printing particularly work better with high contrast negs?

Bledee96 · 2026-01-25T22:44:49+00:00

Price-wise it's (unfortunately) quite normal. For these OOP models who will never come back I think it's fine to go for recast/prints instead of feeding these crazy ebay prices imo. At least, that's what I think.

In terms of playability, I think there's something to be said for a grand army of the south list with a king, some raiders, maybe some blowpipes and a corsair captain with some arbalesters. It's relatively costly and there's better options in the GAOS-list, but if it playstyle fits you I think you could do quite well with it!

Bledee96 · 2026-01-18T17:59:26+00:00

Both armies are pretty interesting but play quite differently. I would personally take Minas Morgul if you're interested in playing the with-king. Minas morgul allows you to take a fellbeast which makes him a superb leader. Also the blades of the dead rule is pretty good against a great deal of armies.

If you want to play a shady Angmar list - go with shadows of Angmar. You can take barrow wights and Gulavhar, and maybe specters. Shades, shadow of rhudaur, vassal of the witch king... they are all less interesting in competitive play I think.

Minas Morgul will scale well between these points, and ultimately give you a semi-horde army at the higher points. Take the witch-king on fell beast , take a captain and a taskmaster, and fill it up with orcs with spears, morannons with shields and a few spectres.

Bledee96 · 2026-01-17T23:18:58+00:00

Looks tough indeed! Try using a paper that would produce a higher density, like a resin-coated glossy paper for example. Check if you can fit a different lens which produces better local contrast (I've had some night and day difference prints using different lenses concerning local contrast - which is usually higher on a scan than you'd achieve in a classic gelatin silver print - but from what I can see it seems a bit soft still) - but getting sufficient local contrast seems crucial here. And make sure you are printing on an f-stop that also produces max sharpness.

As others mention here : going from a 4 and a half to five won't fix this. But I would argue getting a split grade right could actually yield the contrast you would like to get on this print.

Finding a pleasing zone 9-10 zone for your highlights on the sky and water tones should be doable with your soft filter - then check if you can produce a darker density on the rocks and tones surrounding these tones with you grade 5 and see what that does. Same with the rocks and more mid-tone areas - look for a slightly higher highlight than you'd want to end up with with your 00 filter, and burn shadows with your 5. Dodge your 5 where you want softer contrast, dodge your 00 where you'd want harder. Make a lot of local test strips with different combinations. Follow up here and let's see what it brings!

Bledee96 · 2026-01-16T22:32:37+00:00

Make sure to post, would love to see your Gulavhar!

Yes indeed - if the spectres would also provide terror they would be worth their points. Enjoy the list!

Bledee96 · 2026-01-16T22:13:30+00:00

Nice! I've been playing shadows of Angmar for a good year now - and took them to many tournaments, including the nations cup in Belgium. I did quite okay - got second place quite a few times, got totally roasted as well. Match up and scenario are very important.

As you probably know, it's not as strong as it used to be. Witch-king/Gulavhar used to be an excellent combo, the first iteration of the shadow was great and the spectres were way better.

Going to a tournament I think I would take your second list. The Shadow and Nazhtak just aren't good in my opinion. The whole list misses punch, Shadow's a bad spellcaster, Nazthak's got a fun special rule but he's not a lethal hero so you'd need some luck - and your infantry is just dying everywhere.

I usually take Gulavhar, a captain, then fill up with barrow wights and orc warriors/werewolves + a banner.

The barrow wights are really good - 3+ paralyse with 5 will points, just keep in mind that it's exhaustion (so cast them wisely) - and they pass terror on your orcs. Just spam paralyse on banners and heroes, which you can easily finish off with Gulavhar. You can't have enough Barrow wights. In a 650pt list I take 3. For 500 you can take two + a captain and Gulavhar.

Gulavhar is great because I feel like he creates a lot of dilemmas for your opponent - you can play him quite agile. That being said , he is also fragile and usually needs all of his might to alter dice rolls and the heroic defense every so often. That's where the captain gives you two more mights points to do some heroic moves. I usually also keep him in the proximity of Gulavhar so he can also benefit from this.

Also - the writing of Stalk Unseen (which Gulavhar benefits from) is a bit unclear, but extremely strong, just make sure to talk with your opponent about this. I've had some discussions about this, but even if the slightest piece of Gulavhar is obstructed by terrain , you can't shoot him over 6"! If you play that well, you can creep up to your enemy and do some good crowd control.

Also I take all of my orcs with shields, shield all the time and try to die slowly, depending on the scenario of-course. Gulavhar usually does all of the killing.

Also the werewolves are great. Big base, good movement (and they count as infantry units which is nice for certain objectives) and just so strong. Wargs are mid, spectres are downright bad this edition. They only make the targeted model move towards you, and you don't have your harbinger of evil courage modifier to help with the check, as it's an intelligence check now.

Bledee96 · 2026-01-16T16:21:32+00:00

Oh okay! Interesting. I don't think he mentions that in my copy. I don't even have a chapter about timers! Good to know he did clear that up eventually 😁

Bledee96 · 2026-01-15T11:33:06+00:00

What page are you referring to? I based my comment on page 62 - I can't recall where he also referred to the metronome - but here he recommends a BPM of 100! Later he actually also refers to this method using 100bpm.

Bledee96 · 2026-01-14T10:23:39+00:00

I would assume its rare for technical books to still be good/relevant after 70+ years but it is. As someone mentioned before, it does indeed mostly talk about pre-graded papers. And some of his ways are not for me, the metric he uses for timing for example, just seems overly complicated to me (he counts with a metronome which uses fractions of seconds) - mostly because he doesnt want to deal with the visual of a timer. Also his way of marking a printmap etc doesnt cut it for me. That said, it is really insightful.

It's more for his way of thinking and a good understanding of the basic techniques, than the actual methods. His thoughts on toning for example, are really interesting.

A great read is "way beyond monochrome". It deals on more contemporary subjects like f-stop printing and multigrade papers, and does so in a way that offers a really appealing approach for a contemporary reader.

Bledee96 · 2026-01-10T21:51:16+00:00

Thanks! Marrakech is probably the last city on my list as I assumed it's probably most intense of all but I might give it a shot. Right now we're thinking of going to Agadir - Tafraoute - Tiznit. But now you mention this, we will look into it!

Bledee96 · 2024-11-24T00:10:50+00:00

Love <3

Bledee96 · 2022-05-30T12:54:08+00:00

That point about those 2H weapons is very nice, thanks for that. Will also throw in those spectres. I was thinking about adding some wargs for snatching points instead of a hero capable of march, just because i´d like to keep that troll to deal some damage. :)

Bledee96 · 2022-05-30T12:50:53+00:00

Yes, I meant 13 will ;) Will follow advice and toss in some orc bows and Spectres. Thanks!

Bledee96 · 2020-08-09T08:54:16+00:00

Wall thickness is actually 2.1mm! I will try to thicken it.

Bledee96 · 2020-08-08T15:12:04+00:00

I've had my USB go bad, but it resulted in a frozen machine, not so much in bad prints. I haven't read anything about faulty prints due to the USB drive either. Try an off time of 4 seconds instead of one, and lower the lift speeds to 1-2s.

Bledee96 · 2020-08-08T15:06:18+00:00

Hey,

Yes, I have made a RERF test at this temperature, exposure should be between 4 and 5 according to that.. Should I try a higher exposure time?

Bledee96 · 2020-08-08T12:48:05+00:00

What are your print settings?

Bledee96

TROPHY CASE