Undertow in Phoenix

 Aloha,

Another review of a local Tiki bar here in Phoenix, it has recently moved to a new location and the wife and I went to check it out.

Undertow

We went last weekend to check out this bar after there move to their new location. Undertow is a nautical themed tiki bar, its an immersive experience and very well done/  The bar has an elaborate back story and I would guess the owner must be a gamer. 

Back bar and there is a Dodo bird back there!

One of the two booths at the bar/

Our Porthole

The Undertow only allows you to be there for about 90min, so that's why you need a reservation, and they load the main bar first, then the other seats about 30min later to stagger the groups. When you do a reservation you have to put money down, which was credited toward your bill.

They have a large drink selection and various rums from around the world. They have some classics as well as some that they created as well.

Cloak of the Black Panther

Cures & Mysteries 

Piranha's Kiss of Death Elixir

Song of the Sycorax

Talon of Tenacity 

Overall I loved the place and will be back, the only downside is that there is no appetizers offered so you need to make sure you eat something before or after you go. It is a cool environment and definitely not like a regular bar, I highly recommend it. So if your looking for an interesting themed bar, this is your spot to check out.

TK

Th Golden Tiki

 So,

This past weekend the wife and I took a weekend trip to Las Vegas, one stop that I knew we had to go was the Golden Tiki, someplace that I have wanted to go for a while.

As the Sign states, the Golden Tiki

We made reservations for noon and set out for adventure, for those that dont know, the Golden Tiki is an over 21 bar in Vegas that is a mix of Disneyland Tiki room meets traditionally Tiki bars of the past with an adult theme thrown in, perfect for this Ex skipper!

The wife out front of the Golden Tiki

h 
We arrived a little before noon, to get our temps checked before going inside. The person at the door met us and checked our temps and gave us the ground rules, no smoking inside, you can wonder around but must have a mask on, but if your at the table you could keep the mask off.

As you enter the doors, your in a small cave, the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song was playing with a small water fall with torches in the wall with another door. As soon as we opened the door we were transported to the Tiki bars of old!

Front of bar

Going towards rear of bar.

They sat us at a high top along the wall, everything was Tiki, the wall paper, the decor, the music everything, it was amazing! They had a variety of drinks and we got to ordering our first set, I ordered the Painkiller and the wife ordered Three Dots and a Dash. I watched as the bartender made each drink and garnished the drinks as he was done with little umbrellas and fruit. We also ordered two appetizers, Shrimp Cocktail and Pork Meatballs in a sweet chilies sauce. All of it was amazing! Next up was a Mai Tai for myself and the wife got Navy Grog that was served with a flaming sugar cube.

Navy Grog

Both drinks were amazing, and with that we ordered two more appetizers, Coconut Shrimp and Crab Rangoon. Once again everything was perfect. Our waitress Asia did an awesome job and the kitchen brought the food within minutes of placing the order.

We then ordered another round of drinks which we both went for the Piranha Punch which was absolutely amazing!

Piranha Punch

We spent almost our whole two hours there and spent with tip about $200.00 for everything (we tipped very well. My wife had to take a picture in the Giant Clam shell seat and i love all the shruken heads in the case behind it!

 

A pearl in the Clam Shell

There were a few other pictures we tool, but I wanted to keep it PG, so be warned, this place is Disney meets R rated, there are paintings of nude women and pictures of nude or topless women on the tables. Also the door handles in the restroom are umm...Golden Tikis! LOL

This is now a must go to place for us and will happily return and make the 4 hour trip from Phoenix to Vegas just for this place alone. I highly recommend this place if your in Vegas, make sure to make a reservation though as it can be pretty busy.

Aloha TK

Been a rough few weeks...

 So,

I am still alive and still here, just had some very personal stuff going on and the Hobby time came to a screeching halt. I am slowly starting to get back in the grove, so will have more updates soon.

TK 

Rail fanning Gila Bend AZ

 So,

Today DrunkenSamurai and I headed down to Gila Bend AZ to catch Ga few trains running at speed, this is on the old SP Sunset Route and today Union Pacific did not disappoint. We arrived around 8:00am and went and found the old SP Steel Water tower in Gila Bend and checked that out.

Southern Pacific Steel Water tower from days of old.

We then went down a little further to find a good spot to take some photos. In Gila Bend there is a passing siding and we parked so we could see the signal lights, as these are approach lit, y knowing if anything was coming they would alert us. 

Can't see them, but further down are the signals.

It didn't take long before the signals came alive and wed saw a train heading East bound to us, if fact the train was pulling into the siding which told me there was traffic either behind it, or making its way west bound.

Mixed freight heading to Tucson

Getting closer

Two Big GE units on the head end.

Well, once this train pulled into the siding and cleared us, I saw the headlight of the train coming West bound. This Stack train was flying, I was a good 30' from the tracks and when the wind rush it me, it made me stumble back, it was awesome!

A flying train, it had wings!

Two helpers rear of the train.

It was an awesome day, we ended up catching about 6 or 7 trains today all along the Sunset route, only thing that would have been better was to see SP units, but I think UP has repainted them all now.

TK

New Books, New/Old model!

Well,

I have some great new books that arrived the last few days, I was recommended to pick up these three title from a friend, all the Books are from Lance Mindheim. The three titles are How To Design A Small Switching Layout, How To Build A Switching Layout and How to Operate A Modern Era Switching Layout, all found on Amazon.

Lance Mindheim collection

All these books are great for novices and old timers alike. Lance does a great job pointing out some pitfalls that we all fall into when planning, building and operating. Most of which I already knew, but there is also a few things that were new to me. These are a great collection to anyone's library and are very easy to read, I highly recommend them.

Also I felt like I wanted to build something, so I busted out this Walthers Open Air Transload building that I got a few years ago. This kit will be going on a module that I am planning for my group that I belong to. Its a pretty close match for a transfer building that used to be down off of 107th Ave and Buckeye here in Phoenix (Avondale really) that was named Western Seed Production.

Walthers Cornerstone Kit

The kit was pretty straight forward and had a two sided instruction sheet. I got this assembled in two nights and now is ready for paint. I remember when the Cornerstone buildings first came out years ago, I had built a few for myself and friends and those kits were very fiddley to assemble. But this is a newer kit and it went together very nicely and its very sturdy. I was very pleased how the kit went together.  

Loading Dock side

Back of building

Rail serviced side

Truck serviced side

Now I have fully assembled the kit and will be painting on it in the next few days. So stay tuned to see progress on painting.

TK 

JC, well maybe?

 So,

Last year I order a couple of these awesome little jungle boat from Sarissa Precision and promptly put one together. As some know, I floated down the river of some of the most famous rivers in the world in Anaheim CA, well when I saw these I knew I had to have them for some pulp gaming.

Keep your hands and arms inside the boat!

These boats are modeled more after a famous movie called the African Queen and is very l close to its namesake boat Sarissa Precision has done a great job in capturing the feel of the boat and its very easy to assemble.

Never get out of the boat man!

Well as I said, I got this about the middle of last year and got it built, then sadly it sat on a shelf (boat on a shelf for xmas?) and I did nothing with it. Well last week I wanted to work on something other then model railroad stuff, so I took down the boat and decided to paint her on up.

New paint for the old girl

I painted the whole thing with a Krylon Beige paint as and under coat. Then the out side got painted with Reaper/CAV Blitzkrieg Grey on the outside of the hull, followed by a wash of Army painter soft tone. The inside deck was kept beige with the soft tone wash and the roof canopy (which is tissue paper over the top) was painted khaki and washed as well. Boiler was painted black, then Pig Iron from P3 and washed with strong tone.

No what to call her???

Well there you go, painting took less then a day and I really like how it came out. Now I do have another kit and I think I may modify it to look like my former ride that I use to work just so I can have two different looking boats.

Hit it skip!

TK

Rolling in the dirt shop!

Well,

So this past weekend I decided to weather up a few cars that I assembled on New Years Eve, first up is an old MDC double door box for WP, I added weight and Kadee couplers, just waiting for the metal wheelsets to arrive. I used my usual suspects for weathering, Vallejo Environmental colors, and really weathered up the roof as it was silver.

MDC Double door Box

Roof weathering.

Next up is an old Athearn Double door Box painted up for the Longview Portland & Northern which was a car we would see in Anaheim from time to time as it was for wood products. Same products were used for weathering.

Athearn Box

Roof weathering again.

Next up is a single door Golden West Service box from Athearn, GWS was just starting to enter service after the SP merged with Rio Grande and I would see these cars all the time along the 5Fwy in Souther California on my way to work for the mouse.

Athearn GWS Box

And lastly another LP&N box from Athearn, this one being a single door FMC car. once again these would make there way down from the Pacific Northwest and were something we would see in Anaheim.

Athearn FMC Single Door Box

So there you go, four more cars for the railroad and now are fit for service once I get my metal wheels for all these cars.

TK

New Year and what I hope to do...

 Well Friends 2020 is behind us, about fricking time! Now I sit here wondering what the new year will bring for my hobby, lets place some ideas here:

Model Railroading - Well I want to continue working on my layout and getting my modules up and running for the club I am with. So far this is looking very good as of today I was working on a few rollingstock just today, so that's a plus already. At the end on 2020 I got all the track laid and now I am sourcing wire to get it all wired up, my plan is to have the NCE DCC system working by the end of February. Modules should be up sometime in March, I just finished paying my buddy for them so I now can actually start working on those.

FoW/TY/FoN - Well I would like to get back to Flames and need to get inspired to finish up a few units for the game for each of my armies that I have. I know Drunken Samurai will be happy to see this as he is usually the one I play the most.

Kill Team/ Necromunda - I really love these games, and want to get them back on the table in the new year. I had plans for building a Inquistor based Kill team, I may get back to that, we shall see.

FFoL - I love the Fistful of Lead games, at the end of October I purchased the Starfighters rules as well as a couple of token sets for the various games. I knoe Wiley games is going to be working on a Big Stompy Robot version as well as a Samurai game, both I am waiting on pins and needles for. So if these come out I will be picking up the rules and doing some of both!

Pulp - I yreally love the pulp gaming scene and love Pulp Alley and wanted to get this back on the table. I backed the 2nd edition rules and have them, I have models, I have terrain, just need to play some games.

Gaslands - I really miss playing GL, I have to date built 50 cars, when you only really need about three cars! I have built some terrain and really need to get this back on the table. I love the game and really do miss racing around the wasteland and hope that I can get it back onto the table this year.

Warlord of Erehwon - This was another late comer last year and I really love this game as well, it scratches the itch for fantasy. I would love to get it back onto the table this year.

Bolt Action - Well I only got in a few games of Bolt last year, I really love it and want to play it more often. I bought terrain for South Pacific buildings and want to make an effort to get in more Pacific games this year with Drunken.

Black Powder - Well I want to get this back on the table and as I write this I am thinking of the new Epic scale warlord is going to come out with and I may jump on getting into it. Still have not decided yet, but I am thinking about it.

Stargrave - So, Osprey announced a futuristic game called Staregrave from the same author of Frostgrave. I am very interested in seeing this and if its any good may go out on a limb and purchase it, really depends on the state of affairs with the world.

So there you go, some hopes for 2021, we shall see how this rolls out.

TK

2020 in Review or lets get this year over with already!

So,

Its that time again for the end of year review, you can see the original post here. So lets see how we did: 

Kill Team – Well this was a success as I got my GSC cult finished, we played a bunch of games and had a good time with it. Necromunda also crept into the mix this year which once we started playing that Kill Team was left behind. Drunken Samurai and I struggle with using either Kill Team or Necromunda for I-munda, we still have not decided which is a better system to use! LOL

FoW – Well I started a Mid War Russian Tank army, got it painted up and played a few games. Then I switched to a Mod war German force and built and painted up a whole new force for that, got in more games with that. Then Drunken and I took the leap into Team Yankee, I took Russians and he took USA, split the starter box and played one game. Part of the reason for the stall was waiting for BF to get the new rules and expansion pack out for the Russians, I was able to get the new Russian cards, but that was about all I did with it.

Gaslands – Wow, Mike and I had huge plans for Gaslands, then Covid hit and squashed all those plans. I built cars (now have about 50!) and built a nice Canyon to race in, but as the Covid kept getting worse, the games became less. I think I got only one game in after Covid hit. The lack of games is really bumming me out about the game, I still love it, but agter building 50 cars and terrain, I can't do much with it.

Other Games - Well I did work on a few new things that I had not planned, Warlords of Erehwon saw my LotR orcs getting some new units and new/old figures. Played a few games, really like the system and how it plays and hope to get it back on the table.

Worked on Pulp stuff this year for Pulp Alley, got a lot of models painted, got new terrain but no games played. Also worked on stuff for Fistful of Lead, old west, gothic horror but once again could not play anything. I had planned on doing another Halloween game, but the scary monster called Covid stopped that dead.

I also finally decided to put my paint brushes down with Saguaro Painting Service, was a nice run of almost 10 years, but life made me realize that I am not getting any younger and its time I paint up my own toys. So I had one commission sitting completed for about 4 months but due to Covid, I could not get it to the owner locally. Another part was that most of my commission work was historical and Vallejo paints got hard to get and I did not want to try to match paint colors I used for years.

I have been on again off again working on my Model Railroad layout, but back in October a friend gave me his huge collection of locomotives and rolling stock. With this huge gift, I was back into Model Raillroading again and had no excuse to not be working on my stuff. I have found enjoyment working on it and even coaxed a fried, Drunken Samurai back into the hobby (wasn't hard to do). 

Lastly, I had set a goal to be more active with the blog last year I barely got through 13 post for all of 2019, which was a post a month, I wanted to do a better job and with this post it will be 68 for 2020. Part of the reason was I left Twitter and tried to stay focused on doing my own thing. Twitter became a a horrible place with politics creeping in to the tweats, I had to leave it behind. I am still on Fakebook, but trying to limit my time there as well. At least with my blog I can not worry about the negativity and just keep it to my interests.

So all I can say is get the F@$k Out 2020, here is hoping and praying that 2021 gets back to normal!

TK

Tiki, Tiki, Tiki bar!

 So,

Not a Hobby thing yet, but will soon be! Many folks know that I used to work at Disneyland and I was an attraction host in Adventureland. This meant I worked Jungle Cruise, Tree House, Indian Jones and the Enchanted Tiki room. I loved the tropical vide and it did really feel like Hawaii, which I visted a couple of times.

So for the last year I had a bucket list to go start checking out Tiki bars and there are a few here in Phoenix, but then Covid hit and bars closed down. The thought of visiting a few places was placed on the back burner. 

Then about a month ago while scrolling through my Youtube I found The Hula Girls channel featering one of the guys, Spike talking about his Tiki Bar he built and the Breezeway Cocktail Hour show on Tiki Drinks. i was hooked and now watch pretty regularly. 

Then it dawned on me, if I can not vist Tiki Bars, why not bring the Tiki Bar to me? So now I am seriously thinking of building a Tiki Bar in my backyard to host friends and family. But were do I start?

Two Awesome books!

First step is to research and get my drinks going, so after watching Spike on his channel, I ordered the Smugglers Cove book and my wife got me Trader Vic's book. So now I am diving into the Tiki drinks and planning to pull of a great looking outdoor bar for my back yard. I am still in the planning step, but hopefully will have a tropical oasis soon springing up in my back yard.

So stay tuned friends, more will come on this daring adventure into the world of Tiki!

Aloha!

TK

Games?, what games!

 Well,

Its been almost a month now of no work on anything game related, no games have been played and no urge to work on anything. It seems that the Covid Lockdown is playing havoc with my gaming interest. I know I am not alone  with this as some of my friends are feeling the same way. And just last week, someone at our local store came down with it causing the store to shut down and clean and get everyone tested.

I wonder if this is going to have a longer lasting effect on me as well as others. I have switched to doing Model Railroading to keep me busy as there is nothing new out there that I am reall excited about. I have not given up on gaming, just put it on the back burner for now.

For some, this is going to be a game breaker, I am sure of it. For others its a chance to catch up on their painting and assembly. I have been painting most of the time during lock down, I closed my Commission painting service to focus on painting my own stuff. But even now I am bored with that and it seems pointless to keep painting for something that may not ever come back.

Sorry if this sounds so negative, but its depression that is kicking in and I just need to vent about it here. I have not crossed the path yet of selling my stuff off, just have no real interest in it right now. Although at Christmas I got the awesome Ghost of Tushima and that is making me look at Samurai scenery and models.

But the reality is why buy and work on stuff for a game that I may never get to play on the table, I already have it virtually so I should be content with that.

So to all of you out there feeling the same way, I get it, I really do get it. Try to focus on another part of the hobby or look at something else that you can enjoy solo. Now maybe I need to get off my butt and get to designing my Tiki Bar for the backyard during the lockdown.

TK

Track gang at it again!

 Well,

The track gang came along last night and made some changes to my layout last night, it seems that management was not happy about the progress this past weekend. So this past Saturday Robert and I went out doing some lite rail fanning here in Phoenix and I realized how spread out things are on the real railroads. I have always know this, but in my effort to try to cram more industries into my track plan I got a little carried away. I was more in Model Operations mode then trying to model the real thing.

Also another layout has really brought the idea of Less is more is this great layout Red Dirt & Rails which is a nice little railroad. I heard about this layout from Robert who found it on Youtube, and I binged his videos and was very impressed at just how well he captured the Oklahoma area. I knew I had to change mine as it was bothering me.

So last night I took out the middle set of tracks which I was calling the switch back track, when I put it in I made it easier to switch out the trailing and following industry tracks, in reality the real railroad would never have done this and it looked to cluttered.

Before, middle track is just a switch back.

Here is the track after removing the switches, much more simpler plan and feels right. Another thing that removing the track, it gave me more area for modeling the industry along this section. I was going to use just facades but now I can add more depth to this section of the layout.

After, removed the switch back track

Less track makes it tougher to operate, thats a good thing!

More space for the industry as well!

I am happy with the plan now and it does capture the feel of the real railroad to me and it gives me an opportunity to do more modeling with the industries along this section of the railroad. So I will lock down the rest of the track later today or tomorrow.

TK