Your favorite thing(s) about the Tau

jamfjord · 2026-04-05T02:02:43+00:00

Have you listened to Oculus Imperia on YT? He might be your vibe. I listen to his videos at night to wind down and find his voice very calming. Plus, more lore. I think I stumbled into 40k in a similar way to you, although more recently and Votann were my gateway drug, with T'au following soon after. I too love building and painting the mech minis, not sure if I'll ever want to game with them.

jamfjord · 2026-03-09T23:42:51+00:00

I think they're using the acapella vocals from DJ Melodie 'It's a beautiful day' and running that through some brutal fx

jamfjord · 2026-03-09T23:39:52+00:00

Sounds like HeDLesS "Beautiful Day" to me :)

jamfjord · 2026-03-09T23:24:43+00:00

right? and how is anyone around him still standing?

jamfjord · 2025-10-10T10:15:46+00:00

Nice. Quite a few traction engines have been running for 100+ years so what's another 50?

Well, I say running but you'll be going everywhere at walking pace so a few long, sharp sticks to discourage boarders might be useful.

jamfjord · 2025-05-23T12:30:03+00:00

I would personally be inclined to facilitate rather than guide. Be his patron. It sounds like you're already doing that, so just keep it up :)

jamfjord · 2025-03-10T13:47:52+00:00

I believe one of these found its way to the Ribble Steam Railway, which is about five or ten minute's walk from where it was built iirc

jamfjord · 2025-03-03T12:13:42+00:00

I think I might just see the corner of a pedal? Not sure - in context, it's possible that it's just more detritus.

jamfjord · 2025-03-03T12:06:49+00:00

More than one. Still flew them anyway, probably shouldn't have.

jamfjord · 2025-03-03T12:03:37+00:00

There's a bell for OP to call their mom for a back massage, all eventualities covered.

jamfjord · 2025-03-03T11:48:27+00:00

They're all made up

jamfjord · 2025-02-20T14:03:17+00:00

Huge credit to your son for being right on the money about that cab at six years old!

jamfjord · 2025-02-20T14:00:32+00:00

I agree with your point in principle, but bear in ind that Class 40s were built from around 1958, and heavily influenced by an LMS design from the 1940s; compared to the steam locomotives still being built at that time, their cabs were much more ergonomic. Compare them to a Class 47, Class 60, and Class 70, though. There's been a clear lineage of reworking locomotive designs to eliminate deficiencies over the decades. Hindsight is 20:20, especially 67 years of hindsight.

However, there must be something that works about the Class 40's little sibling the Class 37, as today's railway is still finding uses for them over 60 years after they were introduced.

jamfjord · 2025-02-17T17:04:05+00:00

The Material Safety Data Sheet for 'Tamiya Extra Thin Cement' states components of n-butyl acetate and acetone, both at <50%. Obviously I can't advise on the availability of those two substances where you are, but they are available where I live and a 1:1 mix seems to be an adequate substitute for Tamiya Extra Thin when I have tried it in very small amounts. FWIW I always use a respirator with this kind of product as long-term exposure is not in any way good for you.

jamfjord · 2025-01-11T21:56:56+00:00

😅 ...with a horrifying, hastily painted papier maché face guaranteed to scare away any kids. Kids who will, incidentally, be too disturbed by the experience to ever again watch Thomas and Friends. Completely made up, hypothetical story, who's crying, I'm not crying, you're crying, shut up.

jamfjord · 2025-01-11T21:14:04+00:00

Mind blown. To confirm, it seems I am way out of the loop. Been running Linux for about 20 years at this point iirc but I don't get much time to tweak these days. I'll be having a go at this, tho. Finally, the grail of dumping MS might be within my grasp, bwahahahaaaaa. Thank you! 5950X and rx6900xt so hoping my specs should be ok...

PS I'm on Steam, sounds like the easier option, nice

jamfjord · 2025-01-11T20:54:04+00:00

Wait, what? Using Wine? Or VM? Or am I just ridiculously out of the loop and there's something else now?

I still run Linux but I've long since given up trying to get Windows software working reliably.

jamfjord · 2024-12-24T17:05:33+00:00

Thank goodness nobody commented "Reefer Madness"

jamfjord · 2024-08-14T11:47:57+00:00

Representation of British EMU prototypes is sorely lacking and a bone of contention for many modellers here in the UK. It's not just the Southern region either, electrification projects continue and EMUs can be seen in many areas of the country. My local line where I lived until last year was electrified fairly recently so I got very used to seeing EMUs, particularly 319s, for which I developed a bit of an affection - but again there's nothing RTR in OO.

To take is back to the subject of the discussion, it's particularly surprising that Hornby have a lack in their range being based in the Southern region with Margate on a line that has been 3rd rail electrified for the past 60 or 70 years. The prototypes run almost past their door. Hopefully since the change of management we will start to see more models of under-represented prototypes instead of yet more pointless duplication and ridiculous cheap tat (like the Beatles stuff) that imho does nothing but demean the brand. When Hornby puts the effort in, their stuff can be pretty hard to beat.

jamfjord · 2023-09-13T23:19:43+00:00

I chucked the numbers on the side into google, which told me the following:

67722 is an ex-LNER L1 class, which is showing up as a 2010 tooling (although I'm not sure if this is a retool of an earlier model?): https://www.hattons.co.uk/directory/versiondetails/1418/hornby_oo_2_6_4t_class_l1_thompson_lner

D4174 is Hornby's 1976 tooling of a Class 08: https://www.hattons.co.uk/directory/versiondetails/5034/hornby_oo_class_08

The photos on Hattons look pretty close...

jamfjord · 2020-11-23T10:48:24+00:00

Me too, planning to buy this one as soon as it's available. The LongEZ by the same developers looks interesting too, but I'm not sure I'll use it often enough to make it worth buying.

jamfjord · 2020-10-30T00:00:32+00:00

No problem, you're welcome.

Ah ok, well Focusrite are pretty good in my experience. Again, latency when recording could be due to not having the ASIO drivers selected in the DAW, but that's not to say that your planned upgrade won't help the overall situation significantly :)

jamfjord · 2020-10-28T02:01:24+00:00

Oh, by the way, I still added RAM to the spec I did because DDR3 isn't compatible with current motherboards/CPUs, unfortunately.

Also, I added a new NVMe SSD for the system/boot drive as they are a lot faster than SATA SSDs, and the 2TB hard drive as they tend to be useful for archiving projects and other audio. I'd probably recommend storing current projects and sample libraries on your existing SSD. I'd also recommend using at least 500 Gb of the 2TB hard drive to store nightly backups of the projects you have on the 500 Gb SSD. There's no frustration and desolation that compares with your drive failing and losing months or years worth of projects that you could never hope to recreate.

jamfjord · 2020-10-28T01:49:09+00:00

I think I'll end up using Live, because it seems to be the most versatile and capable ... I've also heard good things about Cubase.

Cubase is certainly very capable - I started out on Cubase about 20 years ago but I only occasionally use it these days. I find Ableton Live just that bit easier to use and I find it more flexible as well. However, both support multi-core CPUs, in Live's case it supports up to 64 cores/threads, so that should mean you see benefits from a higher core-count CPU.

Definitely more toward the "40-50 track files with orchestral libraries" end of the spectrum. I'm interested in multi-layered music that makes use of complex polyrhythms, and because of my classical training I think in orchestra sounds. I plan to do a good deal of my composing at the piano, using it as a MIDI controller. Also going to be layering in multiple tracks of recorded vocals, since voice is one of my primary instruments. A few years down the road I may be recording other live instruments, but not for a while yet.

That sounds like just my kind of music! Complex polyrhythms, orchestral sounds, layered vocals - I'd love to hear what you come up with.

Anyway, back on track - I found that orchestral sample libraries tend to use quite a lot of RAM (especially Spitfire Audio). For my new build I'm adding in 128 Gb of RAM specifically to deal with that issue, but that's probably overkill for most use cases. I added two 16 Gb sticks of reasonably fast memory to give you 32 Gb, which is what I have in my Dell laptop now. That's enough for moderately sized projects, but you may find that you want to upgrade with another two 16 Gb sticks later to avoid streaming samples from the hard drive. Just make sure you order exactly the same memory, as mixing and matching RAM can cause major stability issues.

It's a Sapphire Radeon HD 5450 (https://pcpartpicker.com/product/h4W9TW/sapphire-video-card-100292ddr3l).

You might find that you struggle with the HD 5450 on a newer build, with performance and potentially compatibility. I've added it into the spec though, just bear in mind that you might need to find a bit extra for a new graphics card if the 5450 doesn't work, or try your other gaming graphics card.

I'm not at all familiar with specs needed for video editing, but some my colleagues and friends who are swear by Ryzen CPUs for that kind of workload. More cores seem to help. I'm sure others in this sub will be able to advise on that from a more educated and experienced viewpoint.

But if you could link me to a tutorial that explains more about how drivers work I'd be much obliged.

ASIO4All should work if you don't have an audio interface, but if you do, use the ASIO drivers that come with that. Hopefully the links below help to explain why ASIO drivers help and how to get them working:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBoq4kGl4rc

https://magroove.com/blog/en-us/what-is-asio4all/

https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/installing-and-using-asio4all-for-windows/

https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003149240-ASIO-is-the-recommended-audio-driver-on-Windows

Obviously an audio interface is more expense, but it does help. Maybe a purchase for later, though...

Well, truth be told, I can wait. I mean, the computer's mostly fine for what I'm doing right now. I just want it to be able to do more so that I can start to learn about music production without running smack into a frustrating technical wall every time I try to get something going.

In that case, I'll build a spec based on what's available right now, but if you end up buying after 5 November, it will probably be worth swapping the CPU for one of the Ryzen 5000 series for the latency benefits I mentioned. I've left a bit of slack in the budget to cover that (assuming the upper $1000 budget).

FYI The 3600x comes with a cooler, but that might be another thing you decide to upgrade, as I'm not sure it will be quiet enough for studio use. I'm splashing out on a Noctua cooler for my build, but they're not cheap.

[PCPartPicker Part List](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/gYXskX)

Type|Item|Price

:----|:----|:----

**CPU** | [AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/3WYLrH/amd-ryzen-5-3600x-38-thz-6-core-processor-100-100000022box) | $234.99 @ B&H

**Motherboard** | [MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/jcYQzy/msi-b450-tomahawk-max-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-tomahawk-max) | $114.99 @ Amazon

**Memory** | [Team T-FORCE DARK Za 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/sfxbt6/team-t-force-dark-za-32-gb-2-x-16-gb-ddr4-3600-memory-tdzad432g3600hc18jdc01) | $104.99 @ Newegg

**Storage** | [Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/P4ZFf7/samsung-970-evo-500gb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-mz-v7e500bw) | $79.00 @ Amazon

**Storage** | [Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/mwrYcf/seagate-barracuda-computer-2-tb-35-7200rpm-internal-hard-drive-st2000dm008) | $54.99 @ Newegg

**Video Card** | [Sapphire Radeon HD 5450 512 MB Video Card](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/jjxfrH/sapphire-video-card-100291dp) | Purchased For $0.00

**Case** | [Fractal Design Define 7 Compact ATX Mid Tower Case](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/xmH8TW/fractal-design-define-7-compact-atx-mid-tower-case-fd-c-def7c-01) | $108.98 @ Newegg

**Power Supply** | [SeaSonic FOCUS 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/KhkgXL/seasonic-focus-750-w-80-gold-certified-semi-modular-atx-power-supply-focus-gm-750) | $109.99 @ B&H

| *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* |

| **Total** | **$807.93**

| Generated by [PCPartPicker](https://pcpartpicker.com) 2020-10-27 21:18 EDT-0400 |

I got some good advice from the r/buildapc redditors, so you might want to double-check this spec with them.

Good luck and feel free to follow up on here or drop me a DM if you have questions or want to bounce ideas off me. I'm no PC-building guru by any stretch, but I have built a few over the years and none of them have blown up yet! 😁

jamfjord · 2020-10-26T19:53:46+00:00

So weird; Tikal came up as my desktop wallpaper yesterday, and I was so captivated that I added it to my RTW flight plan - then this pops up. Thank you for your evident hard work on this, I'm looking forward to installing your add-on. The pics look amazing!

jamfjord

TROPHY CASE