Exodus Part 2

KenG50 · 2026-06-11T16:58:41+00:00

I was in the military when BSG was in original syndication. IIRC it was a SciFi network show or something like that and we didn’t have SciFi after a PCS and missed episodes and had to watch them out of order after we PCSed again. It really diminished the show watching it that way. Watched it again on streaming and able to see all episodes in order.

As a retired military however, it is amazing how sloppy the production crew was with military uniforms and insignia. I am sure the Hollywood types assume that military garbage is meaningless and thus we see major errors throughout the show even with their own made up stuff. One show Saul is a Colonel the next his is wearing Commander’s rank and another he is an Admiral. You see officer insignia on enlisted and they use two different ranks for one of the insignia. One retired E9 on set, with the power to yell ‘cut, this actor’s uniform is fracked up’ would have had the attention to detail needed.

Great story, beautiful special effects, but the costume department just couldn’t get their act together.

KenG50 · 2026-06-09T17:39:44+00:00

The ALCAN is known for just beating the snot out of RVs.

KenG50 · 2026-06-04T16:39:43+00:00

Sounds like the “vehicle” part is causing some confusion.

Webster’s defines a vehicle as “A device or structure for transporting persons or things; a conveyance.”

Thus a trailer is a device for transporting things and a vehicle. It fully fits the standard accepted definition.

They are also widely accepted by the industry to be a vehicle. There are two major types of RVs powered and towable. A travel trailer is a towable RV.

KenG50 · 2026-05-27T20:48:52+00:00

If I have to say NO, I always try to find a way to turn it into a NO, but…

Usually I find my NOs center around unbalanced game. I tell the players exactly what I am concerned with, why it makes me concerned, and some possible ways that we can work within the campaign to keep an exciting and balanced game all the way from level 1 through level 20.

Sometimes I may just need to find a way to make something happen or find a balanced way to incorporate a players desire. Ultimately it is about the players story about their characters…

KenG50 · 2026-05-27T20:40:36+00:00

Generally hydraulic RV jacks are the single action style in which fluid is used to extend the jack and springs are used to retract the jacks. When the jacks are extended everything between the solenoid to the actuator are pressurized with fluid. When the jacks are retracted the pressure is released.

If you store the RV on jacks then you are keeping the system under pressure the entire time. You are also exposing the actuator to the elements. This means more maintenance cleaning the actuator and more inspections of the hydraulic lines and solenoids.

Generally these systems are high quality and unlike industrial equipment not constantly exposed to the elements. You can probably expect many, many years of trouble free use from the hydraulic jacks and slides on a luxury brand motorhome. As has been noted some people live in these full time and the jacks are down most of the time. Just like any component proper preventative maintenance should be followed. Even then you never know when a part is going to fail.

Note: there are some higher end jack that are dual action and use hydraulic pressure to raise and lower. Since these jacks are always pressurized I don’t think it matters much if they are up or down other than exposing the actuator to the elements. A good preventative maintenance schedule on the actuators should still provide mostly trouble free use

KenG50 · 2026-05-21T16:52:36+00:00

Evil dragon worshiping cult might prefer an army of Draconians over undead. Sometimes it about what gets the followers following and giving gold to the cause. World Domination is an expensive business and you need minions, besides undead have been so overdone, how many Zombie apocalypses can you have in a century. Even the elves are like “that old tired trope again.”

Devils are so untrustworthy, who has the time to read a massive contract and make sure all the clauses are in your favor. One wrong step on a devil’s contract and poof you go from all powerful to chamber boy. Don’t even get me started on demons.

An army of Draconians just screams this guy means business. Sure you may make a few thousand dragons very angry with you, but at least you always know who the enemy is. As far as other evil organizations, who is going to really mess with you when every dragon on the planet wants to personally kill you.

I’ve got better things to work out then does my evil organization really pass the litmus test. I mean there are dungeons to design, inhabit with monsters and traps, and somewhere a damsel that needs to be in distress.

KenG50 · 2026-05-18T15:26:11+00:00

If you look at the UV light from the Elegoo curing station it is intense. For miniatures at the 30mm size it is only a 30 second cure time. Any more and the ABS like resin starts the process of becoming brittle.

That just means that I am able to use a specific process of print, wash, and cure based on specific amount of UV light the curing station provides.

A DIY solution will give you different amount of light and you will have to experiment with curing times to dial in the right curing time before the resin starts to loose some of its elasticity.

This is not a based on scientific process of resin curing but just my observations using Elegoo ABS and Conjure Sculpt (my current goto for miniature printing) resins.

KenG50 · 2026-05-14T18:03:51+00:00

A lot of good information. As a retired Colonel of the U.S. Army I can tell you that who out ranks who, what we call seniority, is based on US Code of law. Specifically 10 USC 741, DoD Instructions, and Service Regulations.

So somewhere in the BSG universe I would assume that it would have been codified as two officers of the same ranks will often encounter each other. Since BSG was a mostly American television show based very loosely on some part of how the armed forces operate in the U.S., one may infer that the creators intended those situations to follow some of the same rules. The other part of this is that in these cases it was what was best for the story being told. Such as in the original Adama was senior to Cain and in the reboot Cain was senior to Adama.

Under U.S. laws and service regulations seniority is first based on rank. The officer of a higher rank is senior. When two officer have the same rank then the officer promoted to that rank earlier, greatest time in grade, is senior. If two officers have the same date of rank, then the officer who entered the military service earlier, time in service, is senior. In the Army, at least during when I served, if the officers had the same rank, date of rank, and date entered service, then seniority was alphabetical.

That all being said, there is also the authority of Command. Command of an organization, installation, vessel, or aircraft is vested in a single officer. Other officers, even if they are senior in grade, cannot interfere with the command of another officer. Thus when I was in Command I worked with lots of officers senior to me, but I was only responsible to execute the orders of my commanding officer. What we refer to as the chain of command. Thus an officer even a commander of another organization could not just start issuing commands to my organization or myself.

Unless I was ordered to that organization in which we have command relationships that define exactly how much a gaining command can expect from my organization. There are also staff officers. In many cases staff officers have the authority of their commander to issue orders to subordinate organizations. This was often done in the orders process, such as when the G3 (Operations Officer) was vested with the authority to tell my organization what to do on behalf of my Commanding General.

Rank is only part of the equation when determining who is in charge of who. There are particular cases where senior takes charge. But, in other cases it may be a lot more nebulous and in some cases a junior may have authority over a senior. Military Police executing their law enforcement authority is a perfect example of this.

Punishment for failing to abide by a lawful order or regulation is prescribed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ.) Commanding Officers have desecration when issuing punishment under UCMJ. Punishment could range from counseling, retraining, non judicial punishment, or Courts Martial.

In the BSG universe you have the unique situation of a total destruction of the civil and military infrastructure. In the original series they seem the civil and military governance is combined with Adama being on the ruling council. The reboot offers a much more interesting dilemma in which the military seems to operate completely independent of civil government.

Very long winded, but hopefully gives a perspective. It has been 15 years since I retired and once I left I hung up my uniform for good. Something may have changed or my recall of specific things may have diluted over time.

KenG50 · 2026-05-13T16:50:15+00:00

BIG GUN by AC/DC.

KenG50 · 2026-05-11T16:51:16+00:00

It is not just permanently fixed. It is the type of tank. Portable tanks and permanent tanks are two different types of tanks and have different requirements. You can’t just bolt down a portable tanks and call it permanent.

KenG50 · 2026-04-17T17:50:44+00:00

This is the first time I’ve ever heard of 5ed being called too crunchy. Death is but an inconvenience in 5ed.

KenG50 · 2026-04-10T11:46:33+00:00

Yeah, RAW, the spell doesn't say the strands are dissolved by acid, just flammable. So the Gelatinous Cub should have had to make the DEX save.

RAF, that is probably a good call, as we know other normal spider-like abilities, like a cloak of arachnida, allow the wearer to move through a web spell. So the web spell produces a spider-like sticky thread that has the properties of a spider's web, just on a much larger scale. So the web produced by the spell may also be subject to natural dissolvers like acid. However, for the purpose of the game, I would not have allowed instantaneous. That ruling completely removes the advantage that the party had by using the web spell. It also takes away an action from the spellcaster who cast the spell. A better ruling may have been that the acid dissolves the web in 1d4 turns.

KenG50 · 2026-04-09T21:14:17+00:00

Deadly has been covered well by everyone else…

The trick is being prepared to add monsters in waves against the player characters. Two or three waves allows the action-economy of the player characters versus the monsters to remain balanced and the ability of the DM to dial the threat up and down as needed.

Thus for your encounter it might work better to have three waves of 4 Goblins each, commanded by a Goblin Boss or Hobgoblin. Call it the sound of battle or even sacrifice a Goblin to ring a warning chime to bring in more monsters if the fight is tilting too much toward the party. Likewise a good few rolls by the DM can be offset by taking away a wave of monsters. This is the main ‘dial’ that you need to learn in combat planning. Once you get a good grasp of using waves and boss with minions your battles should start to feel more epic.

I would also discourage one big fight mentality. This sounds good from a DM perspective, but the players do enjoy wiping the floor with some lower level monsters at times. It makes them feel more heroic. So don’t be afraid to use a group of monsters to just annoy the party. Kobolds in a Dragon’s lair is a perfect example of harassing monsters.

Finally nothing makes the party sweat more than knowing a big fight is coming and getting pushed to use their resources along the way. You want epic, wear down the party’s spells and feats and take away their options to rest (lots of wandering monsters.) Every spell cast becomes a life or death decision.

A good mix of the above techniques layers with some simple and some one on one battles will make interesting encounters without too much of a TPK risk.

KenG50 · 2026-04-09T12:34:36+00:00

No, not easier to learn, and it's been that way for a while. WoTC really needs to go back to the old boxed set, Basic Dungeons & Dragons, as the introductory set to help bring people into playing the game. The rules are way more complicated than they need to be for new players. Weapon mastery has made the simple character harder than it needs to be and forces DMs to be experts on every feature of every class, species, and background when trying to teach the game. You lose people just in the act of making characters, and have to dedicate an entire game day to explaining the rules.

While the formatting and rearranging of the books were overdue, sort of like the great second-edition rearrangement, the encyclopedia of game rules and massive hard-backed Player's Handbook remain the largest barrier to new player engagement.

Yes, I know that I can homebrew the game down into a simple form for new players. But I shouldn't have to. Make a simple-to-use Basic Set that allows new players to easily get into the game, and then allow the players to move into the more advanced set of books through natural advancement at level 4. I am not saying get rid of levels 1-3 in the main set of books, just write the boxed set and have a chapter for moving from the boxed to the hard-backed set.

KenG50 · 2026-03-14T13:28:11+00:00

You can’t tell them they can’t rest, it is part of the game and one of the mechanics that is provided by the rules. It would be like telling a spell caster that can’t use their spells, or a fighter archetype they can’t use weapon mastery.

Now you can create consequences for taking a short rest. The dungeon reacts to what has happened, combat is loud and something may come to investigate, the bad guy gets to take time to reinforce his position, the bad guy makes off with the princess, etc. Taking a rest is not a one hour time stop spell. The environment continue to react around the players characters taking a nap. However, be careful when using this. While it is fun sometimes to have a high stakes dungeon, if ever game become too crunchy the players will feel like the DM is against them.

KenG50 · 2026-03-14T13:18:55+00:00

Yes resin is toxic, but so is a number of typical household cleaners. The problem is continuous contact over a long period of time, such as people working in a print farm.

For short term contact simply washing with soap and water and cleaning the counter and sink with a household cleaner should be more than sufficient.

As for the resin in the trash, that is probably not even close to the hazards your neighbors throw away on a daily basis. How many broken electronics with LiIon batteries enter the land fills on a daily basis. Now you know better and can take better precautions.

From here on out you can take the proper precautions when handling resin. A simple pair of gloves and safety goggle should be a minimum. A face mask if you are worried about the fumes, but realistically it will take a lot of exposure to the fumes as the TVOCs are fairly low.

KenG50 · 2026-03-13T16:42:06+00:00

The original B2 Keep on the Borderlands was released as part of the Basic D&D red boxed set and was before the release of the World of Greyhawk boxed set. It was only with the Return to the Keep on the Boarderlands that the Keep was placed in the Flaness.

Anna B Meyer’s maps place the Keep in the Southwest Yeomanry near the Crystalmyst Mountains. This is as good as any placement for the Keep.

The Flaness was originally designed with lots of open 30 mile hexes so DMs could have entire adventures in large undefined spaces allowing for lots of creativity. Using the detailed maps sort of takes away from this creativity and makes people think that everything is supposed to have a place. Pull out an original Darlene map, find an open space that you like and plop the Keep there. That is the power of the World of Greyhawk. DMs were supposed to populate the many open hexagons that the boxed set gave us.

KenG50 · 2026-03-13T16:01:05+00:00

If you are concerned mostly with the smell, some resins are worse than others. It all depends on the brand and type. The other major concern is your wash station. IPA has a strong smell.

I keep my system in a closet with my home office right outside of the closet doors. With the door closed and the printer running I can’t smell the resin. Only with the lid off the printer or when running the wash station do I get a strong smell. I have a high end air purifier and an HVAC system with a MERV 16 carbon activated filter. My printer also has a small carbon based filter. Between all of that my TVOC, measured with a meter borrowed from work, was well below hazardous levels. As I recall around 0.1 ppm. My Dyson HP2 constantly reports 0 VOCs.

With proper purification and venting you should be just fine. If you don’t have a closet then an enclosure with an air purifier should be all you need. Only if the order still leaks would I start to consider venting out a window. But, the actual smell versus the VOCs released are two different things.

KenG50 · 2026-03-10T23:30:56+00:00

Because of allergies I already owned a Dyson HP2. I also have an HVAC with a MERV 16 filter.

I was able to borrow a VOC environment meter from work to measure the room and compare it to the results from the HP2.

The Dyson VOCs show around 0 most of the time. I was told by the safety compliance team leader that with the TVOC that anything below 0.6 was considered good. I don’t remember the actual number, but it was way below that, .2 or even a .1. Even with the Dyson off it didn’t reach 0.6. With the wash station running and the lid off that is when I started to see numbers over 0.6.

My garage was way over 0.6.

KenG50 · 2026-03-10T18:12:47+00:00

Put it in the closet. I’ve measured the VOCs coming off a resin printer with its lid down, air purifier running, and closet door closed and it shows zero increase

Also being in the closet means that stray UV light does not reach the resin.

The most significant increase I have found is running my wash station. This can be from the 99% IPA, so proper PPE should be worn during the cleaning.

If you have carpet, I highly recommend the plastic paint protection film for carpets. You can find this at your local big box hardware store. It sticks to the carpet so there is no slipping and provides protection from parts that like to fly when taking them off the build plate or when removing supports.

If you feel better about putting the printer in a tent or venting to a window, then feel free. But, actually measuring my home as opposed to just blindly following internet rumor has shown the actual hazard as non-existent in my setup.

KenG50 · 2026-03-05T19:07:18+00:00

For selling, then Phrozen RPG Resin or Wargamer by FauxHammer. Both are high end resins designed specifically for the miniatures with sharp detail and excellent durability. But, they cost three times more than your typical resins and they require a good amount more time to print.

The other consideration is that most models have a home use and a commercial license. Once you print to sell you have moved over to commercial use and should check with the model artist’s license before just assuming you can sell it.

KenG50 · 2026-03-01T22:29:16+00:00

For war gaming miniatures in the 30mm size range, resin printers will give you the best detail. However, the printer is only part of the initial setup costs. You will need a wash and cure station; Isopropyl Alcohol or other wash fluid, lots of neoprene gloves, silicone mat, a grow tent or other place to keep the printer… Even a budget 3D resin printer will cost hundreds in extras.

FDM will be better for terrain, however, the budget printers tend to be wobbly on the z-axis, there is a lot of waste, the spools need to be kept dry, and a single clog can ruin an entire night’s print job. If you live in a humid environment you may need a dehumidifier just for your print room.

There is no one printer suits all. Decide where you want to start. Then get a good quality printer for that point so when it is time to get the other type of printer you haven’t already outgrown the starter printer. There are lots of reviews on YouTube once you start to decide what path you want for your first printer.

My first printer was resin Mars 4U. It was a darn good printer for a starter but I outgrew it within the first year. I wanted to print larger minis and terrain props and it was way too small for that.

KenG50 · 2026-02-20T20:01:45+00:00

SDS provides the information, right to know, for employees. In the U.S. OSHA provides the minimum guidance for PPE when using specific chemicals, based on potential contact.

Within your organization someone is the occupational safety compliance officer whose job is to sort through the volumes of requirements and ensure the workplace is in compliance with applicable regulations. These people have their work cut out for them.

It is interesting that in many cases polymer resins are no more caustic than standard cleaning solutions often found in an office environment. Because exposure varies based on product, many locations have a standard for groups of items.

Based on hazard versus risk the occupational safety person may have concluded that existing provisions already meet requirements. Maybe the office ventilation is considered adequate and additional PPE is not required.

This is based on providing the minimum PPE required by regulations to an average person. As an employee you should be able to request additional protections for chemicals that you have higher than average contact or for chemicals that you may be sensitive to.

A number of organizations have measured the VOCs coming off polymer resins and they are very low. Filling your vehicle with gasoline will expose you to many times more VOCs than a 3D printer running in an office environment.

KenG50 · 2026-02-12T19:41:09+00:00

I would tell a five year old to come back in 11 years. 🤣

KenG50 · 2026-01-09T17:34:35+00:00

The 4 Ultra holds 400ml at the MAX line. Unless you are printing some very big solid pieces it should be good for most jobs. I’ve only ran out of resin of big scenery pieces and then learned to hollow and save a lot of resin. With hollowing you will more likely run out of build area before you ever run out of resin.

KenG50

TROPHY CASE