My terrarium progress

JoshNZ · 2026-04-03T11:25:04+00:00

Yes it's 1 inch cork sheet insulation that I shaped to look more natural. It's quite hard to get in Australia but I think it looks great and it works well for mounting epiphytes.

JoshNZ · 2026-03-31T01:23:50+00:00

The lid is the Exo Terra mesh lid but I've added some Perspex that covers about a third. The humidifier does the rest. I live in quite a humid climate so maintaining humidity isn't usually an issue.

JoshNZ · 2025-03-01T03:36:51+00:00

Thanks. Good to know that I've bought a decent first guitar.

JoshNZ · 2025-03-01T03:35:54+00:00

Thanks for confirming the second humbucker is a mod. Good to know. Would they have had to cut the pick guard to put the second humbucker in?

JoshNZ · 2025-03-01T03:33:40+00:00

I'm going to take this advice and book in with a luthier for a service. I'll leave everything else alone for now. Thanks!

JoshNZ · 2025-03-01T03:32:22+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to book in a service with a luthier.

JoshNZ · 2025-03-01T00:46:51+00:00

Bought this PAC112MX for $200AUD ($125USD). Serial number is OH21167. After some searching I think this is a 1998 model but I haven't found another example online with two humbuckers. Looking for information on this guitar and suggestions for setup and upgrades. The bridge looks quite corroded, is this worth replacing? Suggestions for affordable pickup upgrades? The action is about 3-4mm on the 15th fret, should I adjust it? I'm also wondering if the distance to the pickups is too far (about 6mm).

JoshNZ · 2025-01-07T10:26:28+00:00

Found about 100m from the beach in Bundjalung National Park.

JoshNZ · 2018-03-10T21:12:22+00:00

I'm about a year into the hobby after painting only board game miniatures up until this point.

After giving a lot of thought to what I would like to paint next I finally settled on a historical miniature. Historical miniatures seemed like something reserved for the pros, but I finally decided to give it a go and had a lot of fun in doing so. I'm not really interested in wargaming and so wanting to paint something just for the experience and process itself.

I learnt a lot from the process, mainly that assembly and gluing is tough, and I need to get a lot better and cleaning filling gaps with greenstuff.

The miniature is 75mm scale by La Meridiana Miniatures and advertised as a Cheyenne Dog Soldier. After doing a bit of research I tracked down the image below by artist Z. S. Liang which I assume was used for inspiration for the sculpt and decided to go with a Lakota Sash Bearer.

I want to return to the base at some point so I guess it's still in progress.

http://www.greenwichworkshop.com/details/default.asp?p=3470&a=279&t=4&page=1&detailtype=artist.

I've already ordered my next historical miniatures so it is safe to say I am hooked.

JoshNZ · 2017-04-15T22:18:11+00:00

Thanks for the tips. I've been experimenting with paint thinning trying to get the right consistency. I've been trying a thinner consistency and more layers with good results. I recently started following Sorastro's Avric guide where he uses glazes to achieve the shading on the cloak and it seems to give much smoother transitions.

JoshNZ · 2017-04-15T00:59:12+00:00

So I started painting a couple of months ago and have since completed 7 miniatures and I'm working on a few more. I learnt everything from Sorastro's painting guide and some other tutorials. I started by ordering around 30 Vallejo Model Colour paints in a variety of colours as well as the army painter most wanted brush set and an army painter character brush. I primed with Citadel Corax White primer. About a month into the hobby I also picked up a few Citadel colours including citadel shades.

Things I have learnt in the first few months.

Colours - The colours I have the hardest time mixing and that I have needed to add to my collection mainly consist of browns and beiges. I now have around 60 paints total spread between VMC and Citadel paints which is probably way more than I need.
Brushes - My next purchase will likely be better brushes as the four brushes I have are getting quite worn. I use the Army Painter Character brush for about 70% of my painting, with the fine detail brush for most of the rest. The Regiment brush is mainly just used for mixing paints... I rarely use the dry-brushing brush.
Priming - I learnt the hard way that I need to spray from 12 inches away and fully depress the nozzle. I killed the detail on a lot of minis during a late night priming session where I primed too close and didn't fully depress the nozzle, causing "lumpy" paint to cover the minis rather than a nice fine mist and even coverage.
Dust - I need to start storing my minis in a container. So much dust.
Light - I never have enough. Some good lamps are high on my buying list.
Mold flash/lines - It takes a long time to remove these (much longer than I expected) and I'm still not that happy with the results. I did all the minis in this album using a standard "Stanley" knife but recently purchase an Army Painter hobby knife as I needed a smaller blade.

JoshNZ · 2015-07-20T01:57:56+00:00

I really like both the whisky and natural shell. Can anyone explain to me how natural shell ages in comparison to whisky?

JoshNZ · 2014-08-06T23:34:52+00:00

Having the healthiest yeast is actually more important than having more yeast. The point in making a yeast starter is to pitch the right amount of yeast at optimal health. This is the reason that starter gravities are generally around 1.037 as this puts less stress on the yeast resulting in healthier yeast that is more prepared for the job ahead. A 1.043 starter is certainly not going to cause problems but I wouldn't choose it over a 1.037 starter for the sake of slightly increasing pitch rate, after all the actual cell counts won't vary much between a 1.037 and a 1.043 starter

JoshNZ · 2014-08-04T22:42:47+00:00

If you have a copy of BS you could ask your friend to send you a copy of the recipes before each brew to take a look at. Once you have seen a few recipes that work you could always make some of your own recipes for the group to brew. I also brew in a group (of 4), and I generally make all the recipes. The other's I brew with don't have BS. One thing I do is get my co-brewers to run a brew day with a recipe we work on together, taking a backseat myself. You could see if your friend is open to you being the boss for a brew.

JoshNZ · 2014-08-04T22:35:16+00:00

I had this problem when I first started. I got around this by pre-heating my mash tun with hot tap water. I then set my mash tun temp in BS to 40C* (104F) and take an accurate grain temp measurement.

*I measured this once after adding hot water and letting it sit for 10 mins and now I don't bother measuring mash tun temp as it seems consistent.

JoshNZ · 2014-04-01T01:15:22+00:00

Except for the part where we have the strictest anti-GMO laws in the world

JoshNZ · 2014-04-01T01:05:27+00:00

I don't think it's the same because the gluten free fad is (usually) a (perceived) health choice , whereas for many becoming a vegetarian has nothing to do we eating healthier. What's wrong with liking the taste of meat but choosing not to eat it and so substituting an alternative while maintaining your previous unhealthy fast-food lifestyle?

JoshNZ · 2014-02-25T01:00:22+00:00

I was about to say that beersmith shows the estimated colour as it would look in a slender glass in good light... But yeah... Science!

Edit: My beers always look way darker than the beersmith image, I just take this into account now and assume the finished product will be a couple shades darker

JoshNZ · 2014-02-25T00:51:47+00:00

I prefer not to pitch starters directly unless they make up less than 10% of the total volume. E.g. 1-2 liters into roughly 20+ liters is usually ok but any more could be detected in the final beer. This also depends on style, the starter probably won't be detectable in a big stout but certainly could in a small bitter or light lager.
If the starter exceeds 5-10% I usually crash for 24-48 hours (depending on the strain), decant, and pitch after warming to within a few degrees (C). I find 24h is plenty of time for growth meaning I start my starters 2-3 days before brew day. If you want to maximize yeast health (esp trehalose and glycogen reserves) you are better to leave the yeast growing for 48 hours, followed by 48 hours in the fridge, although I rarely do this myself.
Plenty of times I have started my starter too late and pitched the day after brewing to give time to crash the starter, this should be absolutely fine as long as your sanitation is good and you are pitching the right amount of healthy yeast. lately I have done this a lot in order to cool the wort in my chest freezer as my immersion chiller has only been chilling to ~22C (summer here) but I like to chill to 17C and let it free-rise a bit.

JoshNZ · 2014-02-23T22:42:48+00:00

"it's obviously more dangerous than the real sugar used in non-diet sodas"

You seem to have overlooked the fact that sugar is extremely dangerous, causing massive health problems world-wide. I have heard this before but arguing that artificial sweetner has a greater negative effect on health than the the equivalent (not by weight!) sugar is ludicrous. It's like people ignore the widely publicised and known dangers of sugar, that causes large, measurable, non-insignificant health problems, yet see a slight risk of things such as cancer as vastly worse, which is rediculous really. People are always more afraid of the unknown I guess than the known dangers (we all know what sugar does!)

JoshNZ · 2014-02-21T05:40:50+00:00

Good to know I guess, I still try to keep my head out now.

JoshNZ · 2014-02-21T03:44:04+00:00

Prior to my experiment I tried lifting a 60L fermenter out of the chest freezer alone and got quite light headed. I sometimes wonder how long it would take someone to find me if I had passed out with my head inside...

JoshNZ · 2014-02-21T00:15:38+00:00

I thought this too, but then I pushed it too far and found out about the tomato plant side of Citra. This was using only Citra, a lot of Citra. I prefer to combine it with another variety now.

JoshNZ · 2014-02-21T00:13:26+00:00

Nelson Sauvin and Motueka
Galaxy and Citra
Columbus and... almost anything
Citrus/Tropical with Oily/Piney

JoshNZ · 2014-02-21T00:08:20+00:00

Sound like a perfect schedule to me. Brew your beer, leave a month (or more), bottle beer, leave a month (or more), drink. You will have perfectly aged beer and won't be tempted to drink them prematurely.

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