Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 8500 - Review

So here's a little sidestep from the regular updates that I normally do. Though not the first, as I like to take pictures and talk about new gadgets, games etc as well.

Anyhow, I recently bought a new watch and decided to give my input on it, as there's surprisingly few user made reviews out there for this timepiece. And the ones that I found didn't have all so many pictures on them.

Now to start, It's pretty obvious that I like the watch as I just bought it, so this review could also be read just as a pictorial overview of sort. :)


Omega Planet Ocean 8500 (45,5mm):
232.30.46.21.01.001



The watch comes in the red leather box  of course like every other Omega -watch. The box itself is made of quality materials, as you would expect from a watch of this caliber. It's sturdy and the inside of the box is covered with satin (or satin like) material. On the right side of the watch in this picture is the "secret compartment", where I myself keep the excess bracelet-parts.

Here's the whole box and the cleaning cloth that has the Planet Ocean logo on it. Im not sure if Omega still ships these cloths with the new PO:s, or are they a thing of the past which were made for the old 2500 versions? Anyhow the store that I bought this watch from had these so I got one as well.

So the actual watch is a great looking watch for sure and just oozes quality. I personally really loved this watch from the start. To me the versatility of this watch is just in it's own level. It has been called a "sporty watch" and I get where that comes from, but I can just as easily wear this with a suit as I can use it with a shirt and jeans -combo.
It's brushed steel -looks are also pretty eye-catching, but it's still very elegant as it doesn't have any two tone shiny parts in it.  Even if you know nothing about watches this one will definitely give you that sense of quality, but it doesn't throw that in anyones face so to speak. And that's pretty much what I personally want from a watch.
Of course you need to like divers-watches to really appreciate the looks of the PO:

I really like the look of the new dark grey bezel that they put in this version. I also liked the look of the older 2500 version, but I think I like this grey one better. To me the bezel looks very classy and it differentiates the PO from every other divers watch out there that has a black shiny bezel. This gives the watch a lot more character in my eyes.
And the bezel is made of ceramic now, so that was definitely a plus to me as it doesn't scratch nearly as easily as steel.
Bezel centers nicely and it has a very firm but smooth feel to it.

Size 42mm vs 45,5mm:

I really had a hard time at first in making a choice between the 42mm and the 45,5mm models, so I decided to give my overall input on this as well. I actually already "made up my mind" for the 42mm one when I was going to the store, but eventually I ended up with the 45,5mm version and personally I am glad that I did.
Reasoning behind the 42 for me was that it's more of a "normal sized watch". In the end when I tested them both at the same time and looked them side by side, the bigger version just really pleased my eye a lot more. To me the smaller one just looked inferior in my wrist, so I ended up making my decision just purely on aesthetics and the feel on a personal level.
My wrists are rather small even though my hands are not. My wrists are are about 6,75 - 7 inches but they are rather flat. The PO is a heavy (230g for this big version) watch and pretty thick too, but they both felt very nice on the wrist.  Personally I usually like my watches pretty big as I like the wrist-presence that they give.
I also liked the bracelet on the bigger version a lot more, as it's quite a lot wider and I like that hugging feeling.

The watch also looks a lot smaller than it actually is in my opinion. I think it's because of the bezel, and the lugs that are really nicely shaped and end short. Compared side by side the 42mm version actually looked smaller than the 41mm Seamaster 300m version, and I feel like this 45,5mm version is about the same size as my 42,5mm Certina Action Diver. Go figure, but you really need to see it in person yourself if you don't believe me. :)
Finally my word of advice if you are thinking between the models: test them both at the same time. You really can't get a decent picture of the watches from the internet. Test them both and choose the one that you feel more comfortable with and like the looks more. After all, you are buying it for yourself. Besided they are both nicely proportioned so it's hard to go wrong, as they both look great. :)

The Dial:

This 8500 version has the planted on Omega logo which is made of white gold. Also the numerals are planted rather than painted, and that's a great addition. It's small little details like this that give this watch a nice 3D effect when you look at it from different angles. Also the orange Seamaster -text gives a nice contrast on the black dial and the silvery parts.

It's hard to see at first and even harder to capture in a photograph but the dial is actually textured rather than just plain black (you might need to check the larger picture by clicking the photo):

All in all I really love the dial, it's just so clean and crips. That's actually a fairly good word for the whole watch, clean. It has so much contrast and clean, clear lines.

One thing I wish though, is that they would have made the date -window a bit bigger in this 45,5mm version, as there would be enough space to do so. Date is displayed on a black background with silver numerals, and the contrast again is very crisp so it is very easy to read. Bigger one would have just been a small improvement in my eyes though.

Crown and the mechanics:

The detail in here again is just superb, the crown is nicely made in a way that the Omega logo stands out. Winding the clock is very smooth, and I love the addition with 8500 mechanics where you can jump hours. It's now very easy to change the time when you travel to another time region.

After this we get in to the actual mechanics and heart of this watch, the "Omega inhouse co-axial 8500" -movement. I know there's some people that don't think of 8500 as a real inhouse movement as ETA also has been involved in generating it. It's a topic that I won't go into detail here, as it makes no difference to me. In the end, it's a very respected movement these days and seems to be lifting the whole brand as well. Omega also warrants these for four years which is pretty nice.

And it's just beautiful:

Lume:

Lume seems to be on par what I expected. It's bright and the watch looks awesome in dimmed light:

Here's the watch in total darkness:

All in all I am very pleased with the PO 8500 as you could expect. The attention to detail is just awesome in every part of the watch. Everything is so clean, clear and stylish. The domed sapphire glass is dual coated with anti reflective materials and is crystal clear and extremely scratch resistant.

Bracelet is very sturdy and the lock clicks nicely when you snap it on. The watch also moves surprisingly little in the wrist even though it is rather heavy. I think that's because the watch just sits very well on the wrist and the see-through backside keeps it in place.
What also pleasantly surprised me was how easily this fits under the shirt. It is a thick case yes, but you still don't need to buy bigger shirts just because of it. :)

I won't go much in to detail with the helium escape valve as it's probably  purely for aesthetics for 99,9% of this watches owners. But it's there if you need it and it just looks cool.
 
I suspect that the prices for these Omega 8500 watches is going to keep on rising in the oncoming years. You just get so much of swiss made quality and innovations for a lesser price than let's say a Rolex. (I have nothing against Rolex, just pointing out what I believe will happen and that's just usually the brand that everyone keeps comparing the PO to).

Now the price is still pretty steep, but you really get what you are paying for. At the time of writing this the price given by Omega for this PO Co-Axial 8500 is 4740 euros. I have heard that they are consistently trying to catch up Rolex, so they seem to be pushing the prices up all the time.
And the marketing also is really up there, as the Bond - Skyfall also proves.

Awesome watch, few more pics just for the sake of it:

Hope you liked my review of the PO, whether you are a fan of mechanical watches or not. If you have question or remarks just drop a comment. :)

TabletopCop

Kingdom Death wip

Hi all.

I took some work in progress pictures when I was painting my Great Game Hunter, so I thought I might as well drop them in here.
They were taken at the very late stages of painting though so there's not much of seeing as progress goes. I also took the pictures with my phone so the quality isn't anything special.

Anyhow:

 Here's a picture of taking a picture, because that's just how I roll!

I got some different backdrops, have to test them out at some point. For the photos I only had the two halogen-lights, otherwise the room was fully dark
If you are wondering why the camera is so far from the miniature, reason is that I was using a 105mm macro lens -which gets you pretty close even from a distance. (as you can see from the lcd-screen).

I have some old and new stuff that I am working on right now, I will post some updates once I get something to show. :)

Regards,

TabletopCop

Kingdom Death

!!

What a succesfull Kickstarter the Kingdom Death Monster had. As a fan of the miniatures I just had to pledge for the game. I ended up pledging all the way to Herald of Death -level and a bit over, but I am confident that it is worth it.

Ever since the kickstarter popped up I was itching to paint some of their miniatures, so I ordered a few.

The first one I got was the Great game hunter -female pinup. I already painted it, so let me show you the pictures first:

As you can see I changed the backdrop to black with this one and I think it worked very well with the mini. I think it's not so overpowering as just pure white so you can focus on the actual mini a bit better. I was going to experiment with textured backdrops also, but with this piece I didn't feel the need to as I liked it this way.

The miniature was a lot of fun to paint, and in a way I went over my "comfort-zone" a few times with this one. That's always a good thing as it teaches you new things.
For example painting human skin is not my strongest area, so I experimented with many different shades with this one. There are places that I could have done a lot better but overall I am fairly satisfied with the result.

Miniature itself is packed with a lot of extremely small detail and the whole sculpt is surprisingly tiny. Also the resin that it is cast in is very easily broken. I broke her right ankle when I was putting her together. Luckily I was able to pin it back up without any visible damage to the model.
In the end I probably wouldn't recommend the resin miniatures from Kingdom Death to a total beginner of this hobby, as you need to be pretty careful with them and they may be a bit fiddly to put together and clean.
This miniature however was pretty straightforward as the Game Hunter herself is in one piece. The squire carrying her crossbow comes in two parts, as the crossbow is connected with very small contact points. I ended up pinning the crossbow to his/her head.
Miniature had some flash and a couple of bubbles but nothing major, and they were pretty easy to clean up.

Here's a picture of the miniature unsassembled (taken with my phone):

Base for the miniature is a resin base from the Dark Age Groundwerks -lineup. I had it lying around and felt that it fitted the overall feel of the mini quite nicely. Temple ruins are just the places for Great Game Hunters to move out from. :)

The other Kingdom Death mini I have for know is a bigger project as it has multiple parts. I'll leave that revelation to another post soon to come. :)

Drop a comment and be sure to check out the Kingdom Death for their awesome lineup of miniatures and background for the upcoming game.

ps: I am sadly disappointed as I wanted their miniature "Flower Knight", but was too late and they are allready sold out again. Second time that this has happened to me, and I am bummed out as that is in my opinion one of the coolest looking miniatures ever made. ;/
Oh well, perhaps someday.

Hope you liked it and have fun painting!

Some models done

Hello everyone! Long time since I last posted. Got some painting done after a while and decided to make a quick post.

I painted epic Irusk, it was a fun model to paint but it's just so damn small.

As a little side project I painted a Deneghra model as a test model. I have an army of Cryx in the closet waiting for an inspiration. I am probably going to paint them using metallic paints and using a lot of pigments etc. Deneghra was just a fast test piece for a way to paint the metallics. End results aren't actually anything to brag about but here it is anyhow:

I also recently put together Khadors Conquest which I am probably going to start painting pretty soon. Though first I would like to get some unfinished models done first.

Btw these pictures were taken with my new lightbox. They are ok but I really need to get a flash with some diffusers, as the amount of light just wasn't enough for models this small. But I will try and upgrade the quality of the pictures with different backdrops etc.

Cu.

Zombicide: Board game overview

Delivery guy woke me up this morning and carried a big box for me.
Inside the box was my copy of Zombicide. I backed this game up in the kickstarter for the abomination level. This is a game that didn't come cheap. First the abomination level + shipment to Finland took 125usd, and after that my copy ended up on the customs table and they made me pay ~24 euros taxes as extra.
Well, here's hoping the game shines and atleast it has a lot of stuff in it:

Zombicide basegame:

 Heroes:

Zombies sculpts:

Abomination extras: 

More Zombies! (Basegame comes with two sheets of zombies)

Extra "Mr Spiky" (basegame comes with one abomination)

Extra Heroes:

More dice. The white ones glow in the dark (uuuuuu spooky)

Size comparison:

I took some pictures with the miniatures next to a "standard sized" space marine. Now bare in mind though that the marine is in terminator-armor, which makes it a bit more bulky. The abomination is about the same size as this guy:

(This guy would probably make the game a bit one-sided though)

Thoughts:

All in all, game certainly has a bunch of nice stuff in there. Plastic they used for the miniatures is hard and the sculpts are done nicely. Miniatures are a bit smaller though than I inially thought.

Gameboards are printed on a very thick and durable cardstock, and they have some cool artwork on them. Same high quality applies to the small cards and the dices as well. Components-wise, I have zero complaints.

As far as the actual gameplay goes, I just got this so I haven't had a chance to play yet. I have read some promising reviews though. Should be fun, and probably fits those gamenights with a few beers thrown in the mix. :)

Atleast the cat got some enjoyment out of it allready:

 

Mage Knight: Board game Overview

I got Mage Knight the boardgame a while back. It's a game I think I don't have changes to play very often, but something just intriqued me enough to warrant a purchase for myself.
First edition of the game was also sold out very quickly, and from what I have read the second edition is also pretty much sold out now. (there are some shops that still have it in stock I am sure).
I have heard a rumor that a third printing of the game is due later this summer (july/august, but again, this is just a rumor, But it is definitely coming as it seems to be selling fast).

My copy of the game is of the second edition, although the editions seem to be pretty much identical.

Anyway, this is just an overview of the game and it's components:

Mage Knight -  Boardgame:

Game is being praised quite a lot lately on boardgamegeek. For those of you who haven't heard of it, it's a game where you take control of a powerful Mage Knight and explore the world. It has the basic RPG/adventure elements where you fight monsters and try to develop your character with better loot, spells etc before taking on the final challenges. It also includes some very interesting mechanics and has very little luck involved, so you have to rely on your decisions.

Game can be played cooperatively or competitive, and it can also be played as a solo game. (solo rules are included in the game).

Anyway, let's take a look at the components.

The box insert:

Fits pretty nicely. My only complaint about the insert is, that he cards are printed on a pretty thin stock so they need sleeves. And from the look of it sleeved cards are not going to fit on their place in the insert.

Mage Knights:

Miniatures are pre-painted, and the quality is what you see here. For a boardgame I think they are pretty nice out of the box. (I am tempted though to give them a wash or two and maybe some highlights.)

Game also comes with four miniature towers on Clix -bases. These towers represent cities that you can conquer in the game once you get powerful enough to take them on.

Tower:

Again, a drop of wash would show the details a bit better. These towers are on Clix-bases, the number showing the difficulty -level of the current city.

The cards, as I allready said are printed on a pretty thin cardstock so you might want to sleeve them. Artwork on the cards in my opinion is very nicely done.


Game is being played on hexacon tiles, which you place once you explore the land further. These tiles also have nice artwork, and they are of good quality and thick cardstock.

Map:

Game also comes with a lot of other stuff that I am not going to go on detail here, such as a bunch of tokens, custom dices, plastic crystals, etc. Everything in the box is of nice quality in my opinion, although nothing extraordinary.

All in all I am happy about my purchase components-wise, and I have a feeling I end up liking the game as these kinds of games usually interest me.
That being said I haven't actually played the game yet, so I can't give a deeper analysis just yet. If this is something you fancy, check out more about the game on boardgamegeek.com.


TabletopCop