masterminis.net - where we learn to be a better painter!

Monday, March 18, 2013

A perfect 10...


Good Monday, everybody!

...a perfect 10. 

Now this is a miniature related blog, so I guess there are two things that one could expect with this title. 

10
Most of you - especially the younger generation - would probably expect a perfectly painted miniature. One that is undisputedly a 10. Great skill, superb base, awesome color choice and no flaws whatsoever. Something we'd all agree on: It's a 10!

Some of you, especially if you are from my generation, secretly hope that I am talking about Bo Derek's 1979 movie "10". I don't recall when this movie was released in Germany, but at some point in the 80s we were 'interested enough' in this genre, that bad VHS copies of that 'comedy romance' with Bo in a bathing suit would be shared among friends that belonged to that kind of 'circle of trust'. How times have changed. 

Sadly, today's blog is not about either of that. Awww. 

Its about a guy called Murphy, who made a LAW that specifically targets miniature painters, who he hates.

Frakk you, Murphy!
Most of you remember the server crash that left our internet server down for almost a full month in January and early February.

Last Friday, something almost devastating happend.

Concerned about the security of our project and media files, we build a RAID 10 system with 8TB. For those of you that don't know what RAID 10 is: Basically you have redundant hard drives (at least 4) that - if one fails, you still can recover. 

In theory, no harm should have come our way. 

Except for the RAID controller going bananas and corrupting ALL data on ALL disks to the point that all disk drives were unsalvagable. 100% data loss, total desaster, end of show, go directly to jail kind of stuff. 
EXCEPT.

7 hours of trying to recover the RAID disks...
to no avail...
We do daily backups - and the last one was an hour before everything went south :) TAKE THAT MURPHY!

Still it took about 2 days to rebuild the machine.

So, how does this relate to miniature painting? Well, its a warning about Murphy. He strikes when you least expect it.

It reminds me of a story a painter friend of mine (she shall remain nameless) who had just finished a marvellous 70mm Knight of the Crusade on horse. With banner, Heraldry and detailed freehands. Her best work up to that point, hundreds of hours worth...

She wanted to protect her masterpiece with a thin layer of matte varnish. 
The room was dimly lit. She was tired. 
She grabbed the 'Chaos Black' basecoat spray... 

Yes, the image in your head is exactly what happened next...

On a much brighter note

The first prizes have been sent out to the winners of our REVOLUTIONARY 42 giveaway contest. There are still quite a few people who have not claimed their prizes! So make sure you check whether you have won or not.

The rest of the prizes will be sent out either this weekend or next monday.

I hope you all enjoy what the 'Easter Bunny' brings you right in time for the Easter vacation :) Happy painting/playing/reading/listening - depending on what you have won ;) 

Paintingbuddha.com DVD Set update

As we told you, our little project was not ready for shipping on March 1st. We are not very far off target, but we want to make sure that the final shipping date we tell you really IS the shipping date. 

And we are afraid of Murphy.

But we expect that FRIDAY THIS WEEK we 

a) will tell you what the final content of the DVD Set will be (its going to be awesome, we think),
b) will be able to show you some sneak peaks and finally
c) tell you when we will start shipping :)

To all of our supporters - thank you for your patience. We believe the wait will be worth it :)
And we can't wait ourselves... ^^

9 comments:

  1. I cried a little inside for the server issues.. then a lot more with regards to the story of the varnish vs primer story... Hope it gets back to normal soon, and maybe Raid 10 run in parallel to 6 other servers is now required? :) Just saying ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, but next time I will use a dedicated RAID-Controller, not the on-board controller ;)

      But since the one I have in mind costs around 800€, we need to make money first :D It's not only good for security, but also for rendering speed on our machine.

      We have a dedicated 12TB Windows Server 2012 Backup-Server which pretty much saved our skin ;)

      Delete
  2. Hello Zaphod,
    I have not yet received any confirmation email on your behalf
    about the REVOLUTIONARY 42 giveaway contest.
    So I'm wondering if you received my email at all or if I should still be expecting an answer.
    cheers,
    Thomas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, same here. Should I resend my e-mail? And as for that server crash, I didn't even know that could happen! But at least you didn't have that sinking feeling knowing that you didn't back it up. Good luck with your computer troubles.

      Delete
    2. Hey guys :)

      Weeeell, half good news... The emails were NOT backed up, so I will require a new email from some of you. I did already make a list of some of the winners (those were already sent out).

      I will go through all the winners and cross reference them tomorrow - I will also clearly post if I need the shipping address of any of you again.

      Sorry about this, I should have checked it right after I restored the crashed PC...

      Murphy REALLY hates us :D

      Delete
    3. No problem at all. When you are starting up a new business, I'm sure that giving stuff away for free is probably not the highest priority. I'll resend my e-mail with my address. Thanks again for the awesome stuff, and best of luck with the new company and the computer issues!

      Delete
  3. Heya.

    I also haven't had a confirmation email? Should I resend?

    Ta,

    Sue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope Sue :) Your packet is - as they say - 'in the mail' :D

      Congrats again! Hope to see you at GD UK?

      Delete

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