20 September, 2025

Review: Royal Enfield 450 Himalayan

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I was in for some new tires on my old Thruxton, so the local dealer — the excellent Motopia New Mexico — loaned me a Royal Enfield Himalayan to take around town for a day. If you’re looking for a Triumph, Aprilia or Guzzi, MV Augusta or Royal Enfield, hit them up. I’m sure they’ll ship and if you’re close enough, they’ll often run the bike out to you. Good guys; give ‘em business.

This isn’t my type of bike. I like a standard, old-school air-cooled twin like the Bonnevilles or the V7s. “Adventure” bikes don’t do it for me: they’re too tall and I hate the look. I rode the Moto Guzzi V85 and liked it well enough, but thought the Stelvio lacked character; the Aprilia Touareg is simple too bloody tall. This one? Comfortable, easy to foot at a stop. Even with the bags, it was fairly easy to wrangle my leg over it. Seat height is 31.5” — pretty standard height for a motorcycle these days.

This isn’t a powerhouse by any standard; it’s solid, reliable transportation that can go anywhere. I even took it through some rough dirt lots just to see how it did. Like all of the Enfields I’ve ridden that have been made in the last ten years or so, the balance is top-notch. It doesn’t feel heavy at all, weighing in at 439 lbs. With a single, water-cooled 450cc cylinder motor, it’s not fast, and it does not have that gearing that makes the 650 Interceptor punch above its weight in acceleration. The engine generates 40ish horsepower at 8000rpm and 40ish ft-lbs of torque. Quick enough for traffic, but not a rocket.

The saddle is very comfortable and has nice Royal Enfield branding embossing on it. The Showa suspension is workman-like and some of the rougher roads and the dirt lots were easy enough to traverse. The 21’ front and 17” rear give lots of stability and confidence when riding, and there is a tubeless rim version of the wheels.

The modern amenities include a bright and very legible TFT display, and phone connectivity that allows maps and turn by turn direction as well as music control. I didn’t bother to test these features but the RE Tripper system was on a few of the 350s I’ve tested and it should work well. ABS is standard on the single rotor and there are four ride modes — again, I let it in the most docile of the stack. 

I took the one pannier off so the swingarm was visible…

So is it worth it? Like all the Enfields, it’s cheap. $6k MSRP and three year warranty, and the parts and labor for my Interceptor were delightful, compared to the water-cooled Triumph I had. If you like this style of bike and aren’t wedded to big power and bigger price, the Himalayan is an excellent choice for a working bike.

 

19 September, 2025

New Ship for Star Trek Adventures: Gral-Class

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All the Franz Joseph fans from the ‘70s were in for a treat with the first episode of Strange New Worlds — the Saladin-class!

Nope…this is the Gral-class starship USS Archer, NCC-627. Fanhome dropped their latest model of the ship this month and the wee booklet that came with it describing the design process and thinking buffs out what we know about her: she’s small, has a crew of three, and is “more of a runabout than a starship”. There’s no mention of if it is armed, but if the Class C shuttlecraft had phasers, this mot likely does, as well — if only a bank or two.

She’s described as 110.47m long, 58m on the beam (making the saucer 77ish meters from bow to stern), and a draught on the dish of 10ish meters. The guide claims one deck, but the thickness suggests there could be two. The bridge is supposed to be at the bow (so that’s a window), and the slits along the sides also windows. That makes it about the size of two super-yachts side-by-side…more than enough space for a standard crew of 25-50 by SNW standards (with Enterprise having a crew of 210.)

So here’s my take on the Gral — your lightyears may vary:

This build assumes these are used for covert missions in denied areas — either watching pre-warp alien cultures in secret or scouting the edges of the Neutral Zone. For our game, I’m assuming two decks, with most of the engineering areas in the space under the central raised section on the dorsal hull, and a crew of 25-30 standard, with the senior staff typically being lieutenant commanders.

The copyright for 2d20 system is Modiphius, 2019. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios inc., and Fanhome is ©2025 DeAgostini Publishing Sp.A. All Rights Reserved and no infringement is intended.

 

19 September, 2025

Review: FanHome’s USS Archer, NCC-627

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I’ve been remiss in getting some of the reviews for the new Fanhome ships. Meanwhile, the one I’ve been waiting for has arrived: the Gral-class USS Archer (NCC-627) that was featured in the first episode of Strange New Worlds. They’ve popped up in the background a few times, always at a distance — I suspected because they were a bit under-designed.

As with the rest of these models, the quality of the model is very good, although — as with the Eaglemoss models — the clear portion of the base really does need to be better designed; this one really doesn’t want to sit right in the bottom portion of the base.

The booklet on this is instructive. Archer was actually fairly heavily designed and went through a number of iterations before they reached the current look. I like the single nacelle with the antenna on the end; very The Cage-looking. The underside has more going on that the top — a break from other minor background ships designed for Discovery and Picard where the ventral portion often feels unfinished. 

Archer is a Gral-Class scout that is described as “more of a runabout”, butat 110.47m long with a dish “58m” on the beam and about 77m long, this isn’t that small. That two decent-sized super-yachts side-by-side, and the dish looks to be about 10ish meters in draught — that’s enough for two decks, rather than the one the ship supposedly has. She is supposed to have a crew of three, although it could bit more. By my estimation, a standard complement of 25-30 would still have plenty of room, with all the necessary equipment (transporters, cargo, impulse and warp engines…)

Here’s a decent look at the size and the orthos of the ship:

So is it worth it? It’s an interesting design, although visually a bit bland. If you are looking to complete a collection of Disco/SNW vessels, I’d say get it.

STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios inc., and Fanhome is ©2025 DeAgostini Publishing Sp.A. All Rights Reserved and no infringement is intended.

 

19 September, 2025

Review: Booker’s 2025-01 “Barry’s Batch”

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A couple of friends gifted me a bottle of the Bookers’ Batch 2025-01, a Kentucky Straight Bourbon, for my birthday this summer, and after a long week, I had a chance to enjoy this with a nice steak. The presentation is good: the bottle comes in a nice collector’s box of charred wood with the Bookers’ name on it and a plastiglass front panel. There’s a wee card in the package that tells the drinker this is named for Barry Berish, a former CEO of Beam that led the distillery through some dark days. On the back of the card is the master distiller’s (Fred Noe) notes, giving you the history of the batch — the percentages from what warehouses and floors. The whiskey is aged a bit over 7 years.

Good presentation; good bourbon.

On opening, it had a nice strong oakey smell, and the color is a nice reddish amber. In a nice Glencairn glass, straight, the flavor is powerfully smokey and hot; with just titch of soda water, it mellows to a strong, light vanilla flavor with strong smoke and a slightly sweet aftertaste. There’s a reason for the almost overwhelming taste, neat — the batch runs 125.7 proof (62.85% ABV).

So is it worth it? I did a quick check on price and at $99 or so, definitely. It’s on par with most higher end bourbons, and when cut a bit, many Scottish single malts. (That hurt to type…)

 

17 June, 2025

I’ll Be Running Games at GenCon this Year

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Looks like I’m running Outgunned! on Thursday morning and evening. The adventure is The Lagos Job — and will run the players through character creation and a mission in the four hour block. Yes — we can do a full adventure and character creation in that time. Character creation is staggeringly easy, and with the stretch goals card deck, the players can find their roles and tropes and knock out their character in under half an hour. I’ve already done it with a five person table in that time.

Friday is Blade Runner — I’ll be running the original Electric Dreams adventure from the Starter Set with pre-gen characters from the same. Got a morning and afternoon game. I’ve played in this one last year at GenCon and it’s a good mission.

Saturday is my working the whole day — Alien, running the original Chariot of the Gods adventure. If I can get Free League to drop me a PDF (or if I can score a hard copy) of the new edition, I might even run the games using the new rules.

Sunday morning is Outgunned! again, then I have to move fast to catch my flight out of Indianapolis.

Looking forward to it.

 

17 June, 2025

Review: FanHome’s Enterprise-G

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I have been pleasantly surprised with FanHome’s pick-up of the Eaglemoss Starship Collection, thus far. They’ve gotten all of the eight ships (so far) out on time, and after dumpng OSM as their shipper, they’re hitting their shipping windows consistently. (To be fair, OSM was consistently getting me my shipments one day later than the estimated time, save for the Christmas season, and that’s to be expected.)

Again, the presentation is far superior to the Eaglemoss packaging. the standard graphics for the boxes is much more pleasing to the eye that the bland blue from Eaglemoss. This box, as with the Enterprise-F XL, has an embosed Star Treklabeling that’s quite nice. It comes with the XL-sized Enterprise-G and a booklet about the design process for this Picardseason three hero ship. The angle on the stand is better than it was on a few of the earlier models, which were a bit too flat; too much chance of the model falling off if bumped.

What you get…

They did a grand job with this one, as with the “F”. The detailing is excellent, and one place FanHome has excelled over Eaglemoss is the detailing on the ventral side of the models. A lot of the previous models skimped on the undersides of the vessels; so far, most of the FanHome products have given more attention to the underside. Hatches, ports, phaser banks, RCS props are all well detailed.

The underside gets similar detailing on the engineering section, if a bit less so on the saucer:

I was particularly fond of this design and for obvious reasons — it’s a modern take of the refit Enterprise from the original movies. It’s a design that combines the classic modern look of the TOS ship with the more realistic portrayal of the movies, then toughens it up around the neck and tosses in the new nacelle design (meh). No negative space design with holes in the spaceframe that don’t need to be there; it looks tough in a way the Akira and the Sovereign did. It’s simply a fantastic looking ship.

So is it worth the $70 or so? If you’re a collector, if you like the look of the 25th C. vessels, if you’re looking to have the whole alphabet in your collections — absolutely. It’s really a gorgeous model. This and the Stargazer have won e over to the new 25th C aesthetic in a way the F did not.

 

2 June, 2025

Review: FanHome USS Titan

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Riker’s ship has warped in from FanHome. I wasn’t real jazzed up for this one, (Ba-dum-bump…) but now that it’s here, I’m really liking FanHome’s model of Titan. I was worried it was going to be more cartoony — in keeping with the aesthetic of Lower Decks, but no, it’s a pretty good model. As with the other FanHome products, presentation is a cut above the old Eaglemoss. Box, booklet, all have better graphic design and look good.

There have been definite improvements for the subscription service. The change of shipper has smoothed out some of the kinks from the beginning of these releases, and my models have been coming in, like clockwork, on the last estimated day for delivery, or one after. So far, I’ve had no damaged boxes of models.

Titan has that TNG movie period aesthetic — the nacelles are similar to the look of the Akira-class, and the saucer section has similar queues from the period. The quality of the model’s paint job and detailing are very good — I think they did a better job on this than the preceding models, though it does seem to have more plastic and less die-cast in this particular release.

The lifeboats, the emitters are all nicely visceral. The windows seem to mostly line up, and the aztec paint job is good. This model did not skimp where most do — the underside is equally well done.

Hathces, docking ports, warp core hatches — all painted with warning lines. Other than the seam on the underside of the tail, it all looks good.

They really did a nice job with this one. So if you like the TNG movie period vessels, this is definitely worth getting.

 

1 June, 2025

Review: 2026 Aprilia Tuono Factory V4

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I started riding on a 50cc Aprilia Scarabeo scooter back in 2000. It was a great little machine for popping around town on the cheap. It was my gateway drug into motorcycles. I went through my sportbike phase while still pretty firmly a Triumph guy — I’ve owned the 955 Sprint RS, the 1050cc Speed Triple, the 675cc Street Triple, and I’ve ridden most of the Ducatis that have come out until the last few years. Fast forward — the excellent fellows at Motopia New Mexicorecently picked up the Moto Guzzi and Aprilia lines, as well as MV Augusta. I had to take my V7 in for it’s regular maintenance and was given the new Aprilia Tuono Factory V4 to “go play with it”.

So for the next 24 hours, I got to ride the hell out of it. First off, styling and comfort: it’s Italian, it’s a sportbike. The form mirrors the function: it looks fast and nimble, and boy is it. The wing thingee (the technical term) on the front keeps the nose stable under speed. There’s a single-sided swingarm and single pipe. Chain access is easy. I love the little wings on the back, though I smacked my leg repeatedly when getting on. The mirrors have good visibility and don’t vibrate much when romping on the engine, the windscreen is very effective at pushing the blast off the rider.

I’ve always found the Ducatis, GSX-Rs and most other sport bikes uncomfortable. Your weight is on your wrist and I always feel like I’m perched on top of the things; just waiting to fall off. You sit in the bike with the Tuono, and the bar are comfortably high and wide, and allow for ease of maneuvering. An hour and a half carving up the mountain curves on the Aprilia was comfortable — no fatigue, no hot spots, no pain in the wrists or elbows.

It’s a technological marvel and successfully combines all the things I hate about modern motorcycles in a package that is easy to use. You have wheelie control, traction control, engine break control — the bike practically can ride itself. you can monitor it al on the full color dash, and the togle switch and controls for swapping between the modes and setting up the levels of these electronic aides is easier than I expected.

The suspension is ridiculously smart. It’s got rain, sport and track modes. I didn’t bother with the track mode; it was plenty fast in sport. It’s got an active damping control and wheelie control that I didn’t even notice, except once when getting on the highway. I had to slap the throttle to get past a car and felt the front climbing. Wheelie, for sure…except it just didn’t happen. I found the automatic suspension adjustments of the Öhlins Smart EC 2.0 completely unobtrusive, though a friend who races quite a bit said it messed with his ability to manage the bike in turns. You can, allegedly, turn it off. But for most riders, this would possibly be a life-saver.

The V4 was something Honda created and made well, but Aprilia has perfected it. The 64º 1100cc V4 punches out 180hp and 89 ft-lbs of torque and is managed with a six-speed transmission that wants you to run it long. The motor doesn’t even wake up until 6000rpm. The power delivery is smile-inducingly fast, and the bike never feels like it is straining. On a run out to the backside of the mountain, I got the bike close to the redline in sixth. I though I was doing the ton — I was doing 60mph faster than that. The bike was rock steady. On the mountain twisties at altitudes of 7000 to 10,000 feet, the bike continued to deliver quickly and effortlessly. The quick shift was very useful coming into tight switchbacks — no changing the throttle or hitting the clutch; just shift.

I did notice that bobbling around town the bike got hot and fast, but once you had any speed over about 40mph, the heat washed off quickly. 177F was typical at highway speeds, and it got up to 220F in the hot sun. Pretty standard for a sport bike in traffic. I did also note there’s a flat spot on the fueling about 4000rpm where the motor starts to lag and surge — but my friend at Motopia pointed out I “should be riding it a lot harder than that.”

So is it worth it? It was selling out the door for $26,000 or so. That’s a lotta dough, but this is a top-end race bike…and it is a lot of bike. So, yes — it’s worth every penny (and ticket). I drifted out of my sportbike phase about a decade ago, but this is one of the single best bikes I’ve ever ridden — I’m including the Panigale in this — and it is almost enough to get me back into fast bikes. It’s just simply excellent.

 

18 May, 2025

New from Black Campbell: Rum Row

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We’ve been gone a while, but the first adventure for our “Prohibition Cycle” — Rum Row — is out on DriveThruRPG.

“Rum Row” is a 2-4 hour scenario for 3-5 players where the characters are roped into a bet — which crew can make the run from Bimini, stop to pick up alcohol at Rum Row and land it in Fort Lauderdale, then return to Bimini first? What could go wrong?

The scenario is written for Ubiquity, but we’ve added some suggestions on how to tweak for other systems like Spirit of the Century‘s FATE and Director’s Cut, the excellent engine for Outgunned Adventure by 2 Little Mice.

 

25 April, 2025

Review: Military Armament Corp. M1014 Shotgun

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After the experience with the MAC2, I thought it would be interesting to see how the Military Armament Corporation’s knock-off of the Benelli M4 (known to the Marines as the M1014) compares. There happened to be a pair of these at the excellent Workhorse Armory here in Albuquerque — one with the walnut furniture, and a more traditional tacticool one. I went with the second.

Unlike the MAC2, which uses the inertia system of the M1/M2 series, the M4 utilizes the “auto-regulating gas-operated” (ARGO) system — it’s a short stroke piston system that supposedly self-cleans (bullshit!), and is supposed to be self-regulating to handle both light and heavy loads. More on that in a moment…

The MAC1014 (in this configuration) came with plastic stock and foregrips, and unlike the MAC2, there was actually a rear sling mount. The shotgun came with a MAC-branded sling, three choke tubes, tools to change said tubes. It uses the “ghost ring” sights — with a nice bright white dot on the front post, and the usual two white dots on the ring for very quick acquisition of the target. It also has a Picatinny rail on the receiver ahead of the read sight for optics. It comes with a 5 round tube — so six shots, total, but like the Benelli, can be modified with aftermarket parts for seven, either from MAC themselves or Benelli-compatible parts. Allegedly, the gun is 99% parts interchangeable.

I did a thorough cleaning, as I had with the other two MAC shotguns and saw none of the finish issues I had with the first MAC2 we tested. The weapon broke down easily and once cleaned and oiled, I took it out to the range the next morning.

This first trip was not the fifty shell shoulder torture of the MAC2; I only shot 30 shells, but could have easily done twice that. One of the supposed benefits of the ARGO system is lighter recoil, and that’s true. Even with older Super-X slugs, the recoil wasn’t worse than my little KS7 firing birdshot.

I kept it simple: all targets were at 20 yards. The ammo used was all Federal Premium and some older Winchester Super-X slugs. About that self-regulating thing with the gas system…nope. Maybe this is a break-in thing, but it really didn’t like the “Personal Defense” loads — 1145fps 00 buckshot. They shot phenomenally well: on point of aim, with a very tight group that had minimal spread (maybe four inches). So, just a good word in for the FliteControl packing for the Federal 00 buckshot; it’s fantastic! But in the MAC 1014, I had a failure to eject with every shell, and I purposefully spread these out with the slugs and heavier buckshot to see if the gun would loosen up a bit as I went on. Nope.

This was not an issue with the Federal Power-Shok buckshot, rated for 1350fps. Recoil was still quite light and I was able to annoy the guy next to me on the range but popping off six in rapid succession. The Power-Shok were nowhere as tight as the FliteControl ammunition, and the spread was about double at 20 yards, including a few over the shoulder of the silhouette. Next was the Federal Trueball slugs rated for 1300fps. These are stout, but I found them surprisingly pleasant to shoot from the 1014, and like the FliteControl — true to point of aim and light enough on the recoil I could drop the whole tube and stay in the nine ring. The older Super-X rifled slugs moving at 1600fps saw me drift a few inches to the right and up, but still in the eight and seven ring, due to recoil, which was noticeable — as was the report; much louder — but not unpleasant.

After the range trip, I broke the shotgun down and cleaned and inspected it. The gas pistons were dirty, but not outrageously so. The barrel was a bit dirty, but one pass had it clean. There was no damage to the finish, as with the original MAC2, and the shotgun went back together without issue. Probably the most annoying parts of the disassembly/reassembly are the bolt handle, which has to be rotated as you pull it out, or it’s not coming; and the two piece forearm, which requires a bit of finesse to get it back in. Nothing serious.

So is it worth it? At $370 before tax, this is an absolutely buy. It’s built like a tank; better than the MAC2, in my opinion, and the ARGO system makes shooting it fun without the shoulder pain. I’ll try some faster birdshot and see if it runs it, but my suggestion for self-defense ammo would be keep it over the 1200fps mark. Federal’s got a FliteControl wad in 00 buck running 1325fps…my suspicion is this would be spot on for home defense by minimizing stray pellets. (Yes, I really impressed with this stuff.)

The walnut stock and forearm version has a nice classic look to it that I really like, as well.

 

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