Soldier, Painting
Thomas Wilkinson
How to Paint: Zhufbar Dwarfs

In which I get ready for Dawi to return to The Old World...

With The Old World bringing back two of my white whales from my childhood in the form of Bretonnians and Dwarfs I’ve had a lot of fun projects this year. I wanted to do a slightly different Dwarf scheme than the old green and gold I remember seeing in White Dwarf as a kid and settled on the old Zhufbar livery of white and light blue. It makes for a striking force on the table top and is relatively speedy to paint up as detailed below!

How to Paint: Zhufbar Dwarfs
Soldier, Painting
Thomas Wilkinson
How to Paint: The Dead of Dunharrow

In which I finally start delivering on the promised painting guides...

I have been sat on a fully constructed Battle of Pelennor Fields box for just about a year after purchasing it as a Christmas present to myself at the tail end of 2021. Having signed up to a few "slay the grey" style challenges in the New Year I thought it was time to start with a nice easy paint job.

How to Paint: The Dead of Dunharrow
Puddings, Sponge
Thomas Wilkinson
Vegan Christmas Puddings

In which I modify an old family recipe to be vegan friendly...

After successfully turning my hand to vegan Christmas cake I thought it was high time I adapted my old Christmas pudding recipe to be vegan too.

Vegan Christmas Puddings
Tinker, Web, Python
Thomas Wilkinson
Dominant Colour Extraction in Python (for a ...

In which I discuss getting the dominant colour from an image quickly...

I have recently made a Discord bot that searches for online versions of board games to help people find games to play remotely. This link will add it to your server.

Discord embeds have a colour bar down the side that can be manually set. I thought it would be cool to have this display the 'average' (i.e. dominant) colour of the board game box and decided to investigate the best way to do it.

Dominant Colour Extraction in Python (for a Discord Bot)
Tinker, Productivity
Thomas Wilkinson
The Holiday Do List

In which I plan my holiday tasks…

So it may just be because it is 2020 or perhaps I'm just a bit lazy but I’ve found that I often start holiday breaks with a list of things I’d like to do and by the end of the trip* I’ve not achieved most of them. Whether it’s odd jobs or relaxing activities I wanted to get through I just accidental sit around and don’t do them. This holiday season I decided I needed a to do list and though I’d try out the new Todoist Boards feature.

*Or, let’s be real this year: sitting on the sofa at home.

The Holiday Do List

Cool Physics

How Far Did Javert Fall?

How Far Did Javert Fall?

In which I answer a question posed to me via a webpage...

This post will be in the style of What-If XKCD without the awesome diagrams and scroll-over text.

So a good friend of mine recently posed the question "How far did Javert fall?" by the medium of this webpage: http://www.mathalicious.com/lesson/the-fall-of-javert/. I clicked on the webpage expecting an entertaining answer to the question but sadly found it was actually an exercise left to the reader. I realise this is a lesson plan but humour me.

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Cool Physics #1

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In which I describe some cool physics!

So I thought I would start to impart any cool science/physics I've come across throughout my degree and continuing research. This post is going out while I'm at a conference - so this week have some beer!

Beer Bottle Fizz

Beer Fizz

When I came back from my first year at Uni a friend of mine asked me what Physics I had learnt that year. Casually I lifted by beer bottle and tapped hers on the top causing her beer to froth and foam over the top and down the side. She dived forward to stop any spillage (which as we all know is lick-age). Practically anyone who has been to a party involving alcohol has seen this trick - but how does it work?

Well why does the bottle fizz in the first place when you open it? Gas (C02) is stored in the liquid in equilibrium. When you open the bottle a new equilibrium needs to be established and so gas leaves the liquid and causes bubbles. When you hit the bottle you release a lot more gas compared to opening the bottle causing the bottle to fizz all over your hand/the table/a nearby cat. You can also obtain the same effect from slamming a bottle onto a table.

Smashing the Bottom of a Beer Bottle

Watch this video:

So how does that work?

Cavitation is mentioned but you've probably never heard of it. What happens is a vacuum is formed and then collapses very quickly. The force of the water crashing down through the vacuum is easily enough to break glass. In fact cavitation can be very damaging in things such as turbines:

Cavitation turbine damage

Cavitation turbine damage

The collapse of these 'bubbles' causes heating and shockwaves and causes lots of problems in devices such as turbines.

Tom Out!

P.S. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavitation

P.P.S. http://what-if.xkcd.com/6/