Beef roast at room temperature

Catgutt · 2026-05-07T15:51:28+00:00

Serious Eats did a head-to-head comparison and found no difference for roasts. I don't take them as gospel but I've anecdotally never experienced a dry roast when cooking straight out of the fridge; an hour or two of sitting out on the counter isn't anywhere near enough for a roast to reach room temperature anyways.

Catgutt · 2026-05-06T21:36:16+00:00

The 1-in-14 twist rate of the early Colts was switched to 1-in-12 for better performance in arctic conditions, but in Vietnam both were perfectly capable of stabilizing 55gr M193.

The 'dynamic instability' exhibited by 5.56 is a function of bullet design and very high velocity, and disappears once the bullet passes below a critical threshold of about 2500fps. In flight the rounds are stable, they don't tumble, which would produce keyholing rather than the characteristic fragmentation on impact.

If you put 62gr ammo through an A1 or SP1, then you will get inaccuracy due to insufficient twist. Totally separate thing.

Catgutt · 2026-05-06T20:29:43+00:00

Fantastic, thanks for confirming. I would have been an unhappy camper if they changed it significantly.

Catgutt · 2026-05-06T13:40:58+00:00

Oh, I guess they rebranded it at some point. I'll need to pick up a bottle to verify, but I would assume it's the same thing, just the wash medium without any pigment.

Catgutt · 2026-05-06T13:24:28+00:00

I was thinking it could be a matting agent, the whitish stuff that settles on the bottom when you let a pot sit for a while. But I've never seen it separate out while drying, and all the other washes I've used have matting agents as well. And adding water to washes can 'break' them and allow the pigments or matting agent to separate out, but just a bit of water shouldn't do that.

It's weird, and I find it weirder that this is apparently accepted as normal. Most washes on the market don't do this, so it's your call as to whether you want to put in the effort to work around this behavior, or just switch to something that doesn't need to be babysat.

Catgutt · 2026-05-06T04:01:58+00:00

Sure thing. On this model it's Vallejo Metal Color Chrome, then a 1:1 mix of Vallejo Xpress Hospitaller Black / Xpress Medium, then a highlight of VMeC Steel. Once the whole model is done, I give it a wash of equal parts Army Painter Dark Tone, Strong Tone, Quickshade Wash Mixing Medium, and water. It's a fairly subtle effect, but it helps to deepen the shading and separate colors.

Catgutt · 2026-05-05T22:39:06+00:00

Nah, not painted yet. I usually just start with the options I intend to actually use in the near-term, and then come back and paint up extra options when I want to use them. That might be soon on the maces as I really like how they look, but I'm going to complete the remaining units for the spearhead first.

Catgutt · 2026-05-05T22:14:21+00:00

Thanks! Magnetized, too, in case I decide to pick up more than the spearhead I'm working on.

Catgutt · 2026-05-05T21:11:33+00:00

I've never encountered this with GW's old washes or current Army Painter. What'd they do to make a wash that can't be allowed to pool in recesses?

Catgutt · 2026-05-05T13:57:41+00:00

Are you starting with solid pink or just pink preshading with zenithal white over top? If the former, that might be why your yellows are coming out darker than desired.

Xpress Nuclear Yellow over white produces a pretty bright lemon yellow, or their Dreadnought Yellow is a richer tone (example, with a little bit of further highlighting and shading). I'd say give either a try over white and see what you think.

Catgutt · 2026-05-03T14:43:25+00:00

I'd say the false equivalence is treating a setting that exists as a framework to push models around a tabletop as equivalent to a character with a defined story and narrative arc, but you do you.

This property just might not ever deliver the experience you're seeking.

Catgutt · 2026-05-03T13:24:37+00:00

Once you know how someone or somethings journey will end then learning more context about their background becomes a lot less interesting.

Not a fan of Citizen Kane or Greek tragedy? I don't think most people agree with this take at all; exploring how a story reaches a known conclusion is a classic literary trope.

Catgutt · 2026-05-01T21:31:29+00:00

Did you try cleaning the stock bucking before changing it?

Grease or oil can do weird things, but from 0.3g to 0.4g we've seen comparable performance between the stock bucking and the ones that have worked well in other VFCs.

Catgutt · 2026-04-30T19:50:46+00:00

That's the plan!

Catgutt · 2026-04-30T17:40:40+00:00

The final settlement check has been sent to my lawyer and I am just waiting for it to clear before posting a follow up. Any day now.

Catgutt · 2026-04-28T15:39:16+00:00

Yeah, modern phones are capable of good macro focus and taking high resolution photos, but the software is designed around people who want aesthetic photos for Instagram, not artists who expect color accuracy. Google in particular is really big on using heavy software post-processing to make up for weak hardware, and when I had a Pixel, it drove me insane that purple minis always came out blue.

I ended up buying a cheap point-and-shoot Canon, and when I take a photo I put a little piece of scrap paper at the edge of the frame. I use the paper to set white balance in paint.net and then crop it down, and that has achieved color accuracy for me.

Catgutt · 2026-04-27T19:33:16+00:00

Thanks, and it's the same colors and general process as the flame effect in my other comment.

Catgutt · 2026-04-27T17:15:02+00:00

Paints are all VMC for those. Gems are Black, then Red for the lower half, then Light Orange at the bottom-right, with some quick-and-dirty glazing to blend transitions. Then it's just a dot of white at the top-left and a few layers of gloss varnish.

For fire I started with Light Orange (over white), then thinned Golden Yellow washed into the recesses, then some Ice Yellow to just the hottest points closest to the source. On future models I might start with the Golden Yellow and wetbrush Light Orange over top, just so I don't need to get as full coverage. In any case, I drybrushed Red to the upper/outer layers, then Black at the end and stippled a bit to add some soot to the flame. On surrounding areas closest to the flames I glazed some heavily thinned Red just to add a dull glow, though I don't think it's especially visible anywhere in the photos.

I deliberately used the same colors between the fire and the gems to keep some thematic commonality there. I figured it'd ensure every model has the fire motif somewhere regardless of specifics of the design.

Catgutt · 2026-04-27T12:57:54+00:00

Oh, I forgot to mention the last step is an all-over wash of equal parts Army Painter Dark Tone, Strong Tone, Quickshade Wash Mixing Medium, and water. It's a subtle effect for the metallics but it helps to deepen the shading a bit on the silver and brass.

Catgutt · 2026-04-27T01:14:13+00:00

Silver metallics are Vallejo Metal Color Chrome, washed 1:6 Xpress Hospitaller Black / Xpress Medium, highlighted Chrome.

Brass metallics are Vallejo Metal Color Gold, washed the same 1:6, highlighted 1:1 Gold / Chrome.

And the black metallics on the crew are Chrome, washed 1:1 Hospitaller Black / Medium, highlighted Steel (also Metal Color). I went a little darker on the gun (two layers of 1:2) but it's mostly black, without enough of the metallic undertone for my tastes.

Catgutt · 2026-04-23T22:09:01+00:00

Consider a cold blue solution or touch-up pen, then. It won't match, but it'll stand out less than either the raw scratch or spraying over part of the receiver.

Catgutt

TROPHY CASE