Billy Beaverhausen
What's this? What's happening? What's going on?
Exmachina Davide 5.05
The updates of the Exmachina Davide full avatar have been falling from the virtual heavens in quick succession. I didn’t even get around blogging about version 5.04. When I first looked at version 5.05 however, there was something wrong with the mouth. The change log mentions that there has been a full mesh rebuild of the avatar to eliminate gaps and it looked as if they sewed shut it’s mouth in the proces. Though Halloween is far behind us (or far ahead), it made me think of the Billy character in Hocus Pocus…
So I left it for a bit, thinking that someone else would notify the creator or that perhaps they’ll notice it themselves. Sure enough, today I got a notification that I could go get a redelivery to fix the issue.
I still don’t feel super confident about applying a hair base AND a beard on the original head that is part of this avatar. It more or less worked out this time, but it still glitches every now and again, so I prefer to go for a longer hair style that doesn’t need a hair base, like Dura B&G83. The chin doesn’t look right to me without facial hair, so I applied the Bristle Beard by Birth. I clicked on “makeup” in the applier, because it gives you the option to place the beard on the layer of your choice. Layer 1 appears to be the most stable option. Don’t forget that you will need to get the Omega System Kit and install it before you will be able to use omega appliers. You’ll find that at the Exmachina store. The eyes that come with the avatar aren’t my cup of rich Earl Grey either, so I’m using mesh eyes from Avi Glam instead. The skin is one of the four standard skin tones for this body and the shape is my own work, though the package does include a shape. I wish someone would make him a nice pair of briefs that didn’t have that sideways worn semi erection going on, but that is the compromise I make for wearing something of good quality like the Thor briefs by Legal Insanity with this body.
The body also includes headless versions and it looks like the neck seam has improved from previous releases. I’m using the Catwa Victor head and Birth Benjamin skin and I remember that in previous versions the neck seam was jagged, but now it’s actually almost invisible, though of course as always windlight does play a part in this. The Omega body applier from Birth is not a perfect match for this body as there are some misaligned shadows, but the imperfections aren’t too conspicuous. It’s probably the best fitting skin for this body at the moment, apart from its original skin. The nails look gnarly, but you can correct that by choosing one of the standard nail textures from the body’s hud, after you have applied the Birth skin.
I like using 3rd party add-on mesh ears on Catwa mesh heads, like the L’Etrê basic mesh ears. You’ll find the Reach hair style at Stealthic and the eyes are the basic rigged eyes for this Catwa head with an applier from Avi Glam. The Hawaii swim trunks are by Legal Insanity.
Another thing that is worth mentioning is that you get a version with a bigger bum together with the standard butt version. When I applied the Omega skin to the standard version, a part of the right leg didn’t take the skin. The big butt version however had no such issue. I’ve dropped a notecard on Exmachina, so they’ll probably fix it soon.
Thirst Tank
Here’s just a quick heads up to let you know that Thirst has a great tank top for Signature Gianni and Belleza Jake at the current round of Equal10, which runs till April 5th.
As usual Thirst doesn’t provide single colour versions. Instead, two fatpacks are available. One with solid colours and another one with prints. Personally I fell in love with the yellow/orange ombre version which has tiny dots on it.
Most of the other prints and solid colours were able to charm me as well. Each pack contains 10 texture options. The tank top is long in front and shorter at the back. With the right kind of low riding jeans, that makes for a cheeky little gap. Evidently I had to try some Thirst underwear to see it works with this tank. For some the bulge is too big and it pokes through the fabric of the tank top. The two items from JOCKD March (Square Trunk and Sheer Brief) both work fine with this tank, making it a nice lazy Sunday morning outfit.
Items shown using the Belleza Jake body with the Catwa Victor head ,
Erwin skin by Stray Dog and Modulus Bailey hair. The mesh ears are by L’etrê. Both pairs of jeans are by Legal Insanity and the sneakers are from L&B Swear.
Equal10 is a monthly event. The current round runs until April 5th. Afterwards you should see the tank top pop up at the Thirst store and of course you can already get the JOCKD March items there now.
PS: Apparently the Erwin skin can’t be bought at Stray Dog. It was a L’homme Magazine group gift a while ago. Oh well, still plenty of skins to chose from though.
Skin Deep Beauty
It’s time to get SUPERficial and strip down to the bare essentials at this years Skin Fair. This fair opened on March 8th and runs till March 24th. It’s a chance for skin creators to show off their best and/or newest skins and to possibly offer an exclusive items just for the duration of the fair. I don’t want to Trump this by throwing unverified percentages at it, but let’s just say that the vast majority of the products is aimed at female avatars if you adhere to conventional gender appropriate features. If you want to do some research before you brave the lag, take a look at Skin Fair 2019 shopping guide, but I think it’s not exactly complete.
Birth, which is one of my sponsors, has an applier for Catwa mesh heads at this fair which they have named Mr Lee. If you use it on the Catwa Daniel head and use the shape and eyebrow shape that comes with it, you will see the resemblance with Bruce Lee. Personally I’ve used it on the Catwa Victor head and made my own shape and the end result doesn’t even look Asian. It does however accomplish a look that is mature yet still youthful. It’s an EXCLUSIVE for the fair, so you snooze you lose!
Skin shown on Catwa Victor mesh head and Signature Gianni mesh body. I’m using the standard rigged eyes that come with the Catwa head but with an applier from Avi Glam. The hair is by Modulus. and because I’m never all that thrilled with the work Catwa does on their ears, I got a couple of mesh ears at L’etrê, cause getting just one ear is a bit weird. Last but not least, the fancy golden briefs are from Noche.
Quench Your Thirst 6
New months are coming by so fast it’s causing me whiplash. Time seems to be a blurry mix of days that are crawling and years that are flying. But let’s not get melancholy and look at something a bit more jolly, like the March edition of JOCKD at Thirst.
Those of you who pre-ordered will have received the two JOCKD items for March already, for 400 L$ including a couple of exclusive textures. Don’t despair if you didn’t pre-order and these pics make you really thirsty. The March edition of JOCKD will be going on sale at the full price of 600 L$ soon (usually on 12th). Even without the two exclusive textures, the Square Trunk still gives you 10 options, including two fun textures inspired by St Patrick’s Day. The bulge size is “respectable” and the fabric clings to your buttocks like a second skin.
The second item in this set is a pair of briefs with sheer cutouts. It’s quasi sporty and playfully sexy without being overly provocative. Again the choice of textures is generous, even without the exclusive ones. Here a couple of neon options are included and the sheer fabric often is in a contrasting colour.
Both items are rigged for Signature Gianni and Belleza Jake. Sadly Thirst will no longer support the Signature Geralt body going forward. Rigging underwear items perfectly for the Geralt body is proving to be rather challenging for most, if not all creators. If you have pre-ordered the March edition of JOCKD, in the hopes of using it with your Geralt body, you will find a note card in the box explaining how you can get a refund in case that is the only body you use.
JOCKD April is up for pre-order now till 4th April and I for one am very curious about its contents already.
Items shown using the Belleza Jake body with the Catwa Stanley head ,
Erwin skin by Stray Dog and Vango Zack hair. The mesh ears are by L’etrê.
Another Fairy Day – Episode 3
Once or twice before I have wondered whether feathered wings and fairies are a plausible combination, but isn’t the only true limit in Second Life our own imagination and then of course there’s Disney’s Maleficent. So yes, here I am again with pointed ears and white angelic wings.
I’m using the Catwa Stanley mesh head, which is quite chiselled. One of these days I will try one of their rounder, softer looking heads for another fairy, but for now this doesn’t look to shabby.
The young radiant skin is ‘Ryu’ by Birth and you will also find the guyliner there in several versions for a mysterious smokey eye or something a bit fiercer.
For hair I went with something nonchalantly tousled by Vango.
The trusty multi purpose Season 5 Steking ears by Mandala are shown in their full elven glory. With a click of a button you can turn these into pixy and even human ears. They’re a bitch to match up with your skin tone, but hey, you win some, you loose some and you learn to make like Elsa and let it go, let it goooo!
Now I’m going to ask you to look into my eyes, not around my eyes, in my eyes. They’re the standard rigged Catwa eyes that come with the head, but with an applier from Avi-Glam.
My outfit is the Gorean set from Thirst, which I got from an event a while ago, but I wasn’t able to locate at their store at the moment. I’ve been told that there is an issue with the rigging (I’m not really seeing it, looks pretty good to me) and hopefully the creator will have time to fix it and add this set to the permanent collection at their store soon.
Last but not least, my lovely dovely dreamy wings are from Blueberry. You can go completely overboard with these and splash out on a fatpack. So far I’ve been able to hold off, but I rather like the idea of having them in different colours.
I’ve spend a bit of time at Lost Unicorn, enjoying their fantasy themed stream and exploring the nooks and crannies of this magical sim, but now it’s time to spread my and am fly out of here to make a soft landing on my couch to watch something fantasy related like HBO’s The Magicians. I only just started on that the other day and two episodes in, I really am IN.
What’s Eating TMP 12
Well isn’t that just flipping-the-bird typical! As soon as I decided to get myself a pair of lovely-dovely bento hands from Vista to go with the very much non-bento TMP body, the folks at TMP all of a sudden woke up and released a little update and finally added… wait for it… bento hands to their body. I guess that warrants another styling exercise from my side, but only because the update is free for anyone who already owns the Deluxe body. At the previous price of 500 L$, the TMP Deluxe Body was an interesting proposition for anyone who had been reluctant to go from prim to mesh and for newbies that wanted to ease their way into the virtual world and look good without spending too much. Now the price has gone up to 1950 L$. Easy there TMP! Don’t get ahead of yourself!
This time around I wanted to revisit the combination of the TMP body with the Akeruka ‘Leon’ bento mesh head. I’ve used a skin by Egozy, as they are one of the few skin creators that still include a TMP body applier that comes with their head appliers and they also have a rather nice option for the Akeruka Leon head with their Marcus skin. I went for a darker “coffee” skin tone this time, as I like to mix up the ethnicity with my looks. The nipples looked a bit too fuzzy for my liking, so I brought them into focus with the Noche nipples. The flashy yellow swimming trunks, or perhaps you’re more likely to call those speedos, are also from Noche. Make sure you get the right ones! Noche has a newer pair of swimming briefs with stripes on the side and those (alas!) don’t include a TMP size. You’ll find my hair style at Stealthic and the mesh ears by Andore are available at the Men Only Monthly event till 15th March and most probably at Andore‘s main store afterwards. The Leon mesh head has its own mesh eyes and they’re not bad, but limited to just a few textures. I’m using mesh eyes from Avi Glam instead for a wider range of choices.
I did a quick check at Men On Monthly to see who still includes a TMP size with their newest creations and it soon became clear that many, if not most, have dropped it like its… eehm… not so hot. Of course you can demo the hell out of everything to see if any of the other sizes will work on the TMP body, but I wanted to keep things easy.
The Aitui ‘Quinn’ Jacket at MOM this mont includes a TMP size, so that meets the keepin’ it easy requirement. I couldn’t find a pair of jeans or any other kind of trousers at MOM that would work for TMP, so I grabbed the Cold Ash ‘Holloway’ ripped jeans from my inventory, cause those aren’t that old and I do like that worn look. The sneakers I’m wearing with this outfit are from a gacha set over at Semller.
Another creator who hasn’t completely given up on TMP is Etham. This simple sweater is good basic piece to have in your wardrobe, for those moments you just want things to be “normal” in SL. You’ll find it at the current round of MOM till 15th March.
Just to be clear, TMP’s mesh heads still are static, a.k.a. non-bento. It’s only the body that has had an update. And I do mean, only the body. Actually, it’s more like only the hands. The alpha hud is still as user unfriendly as ever before and the while the idea of their styling hud is a good one (it holds all texture you buy and install) it is slow and if you want support, I hope you aren’t in much of a hurry. Tattoos are problematic, as they tend to stay blurry till you right-click your body to force a texture refresh. In spite of all those issues, I still have a soft sport for this body.
Dabbling With Geralt – Episode XI
Time flies when you’re having fun or when you’re busy throwing clocks at people. It’s been more than a month ago already since I last seriously played with the look of the Signature Geralt mesh body and head. It was high time for a more serious dabble.
I think Geralt is a good option for anyone who wants a slimmer body, so this time I made a conscious effort to tone him down, though he still looks pretty fit as f*ck. Akool has an Omega mesh head applier named Chris that comes complete with Signature, Belleza and Omega body appliers. My first guess was to try the Signature body applier, but it didn’t stick, so I used the Omega applier instead. Nothing looks particularly out of place, but the nipples were a little bit funky, so I covered them up with the unrigged version of the Noche nipples. It took some tweaking, but he enjoyed it really.
The Geralt mesh head has built-in eyes but I’n not a fan, instead I’m using mesh eyes from Avi Glam. I further jazzed up the head with add-on mesh ears by Andore, available at the Men Only Monthly event till 15th March and most probably at Andore‘s main store afterwards. The scruffy beard is one of the standard options that come with the head. I continued the mild “bad boy” vibe with the tousled “Nial” hair by Modulus.
Finding fancy underwear is always an issues with the newer bodies. Luckily some brands started to pick up Geralt. Thirst is a good example of that. I realise that my previous blog post was already dedicated to them, but I didn’t mention Geralt in that. Their G-String Jock, Peekabooty Briefs, Long Johns and Boyfriend Boxer all fit Geralt, and there are more items in their range which include a Geralt size. All items come with some very flashy texture options, but as you can tell from the items I’m modelling here, you can also keep it stylishly muted.
If you head over to the current round of the Equal10 event, which runs until 5th March you can pick up a cropped t-shirt by Thirst and a pair of studded jeans by Legal Insanity. After browsing my inventory for a bit in search of a pair of fitting shoes, I eventually settled on the Native Urban “Pryda” sneakers.
Missed Equal 10? Check out the Legal Insanity and Thirst main stores.
Have fun dabbling with Geralt!
Quench your Thirst 5
Just a little reminder that time to pre-order the March edition of the Jockd underwear set at Thirst is running out soon. Don’t miss out on the 200 L$ discount and the exclusive textures! At this point the content is still a mystery to me, but I can look back at some previous editions, which are available at 600 L$ for a set of two with various textures.
The Basix Jock from the December edition of Jockd is one of those typical must have items and it comes with the Basix Trunk. The Peekabooty Briefs from January’s Jockd are perfect for driving that special someone in your life wild with desire… or just that one night stand, we won’t judge you… slut. Those briefs came together with the Panelled Bikini Briefs, perfect for hanging out at the tropical SL beach of your choice or perhaps just napping on a floaty in your rooftop pool.
You can head over to the new Thirst store now and grab these items and while you’re there, pre-order the March edition of Jockd. You have until 4th March to do that. The spanking new skintight items will be delivered to you on 5th March giving you access to the exclusive textures as well as the bragging rights of having it a week before the non pre-orderers. On the 12th of March pre-ordering starts for the April edition and the plebs can start buying the March edition, cause that’s how that cooky crumbles. #bootytooch #buttslap
Items shown using the Belleza Jake body with the Catwa Stanley head ,
Erwin skin by Stray Dog and Vango Zack hair. The mesh ears are by Mandala.
Taking David to Men Only Monthly February / March 2019
The current round of the Men Only Monthly event has been on for a couple of days and my NX-Nardcotix David mesh body had a sudden yearning for some new outfits. Coincidentally, styling my avatar is my favourite thing to do in SL, apart from some shameless slutty behaviour, but that should be something for a different blog (Sex & The Sim City?).
David’s first outfit exists of the Aitui ‘Quinn’ Jacket from the MOM event, combined with the ‘Finlay’ cargo pants from the NX-Nardcotix store and ‘Chelsea’ boots from Cold Ash. The Signature size works best, with a slightly toned down muscle mass and flattened chest. Don’t worry, the pecs are still very much worth showing off with the plunging neckline on the tank top underneath the jacket.
The Outlier “Moto Slims” at MOM in the Niramyth size are quite a good fit for David. An added bonus is that you can easily combine these pants with the tank from the NX-Nardcotix ‘Darrel’ underwear set. A nice pair of sneakers from Deadwool finishes off the outfit.
At some point Etham was rigging items for David, but the sweater they now have at MOM does not include his size. The Sig Gianni size works well enough though. The cargo pants are by A&D Clothing and also from the current round of the MOM event. they don’t look great without a top, but go well with the Etham sweater. The NX-Nardcotix Jude ankle boots pick up the green from the bit of t-shirt that’s showing at the bottom of the sweater.
- Mesh body: NX-Nardcotix David
- Mesh head: Catwa Stanley
- Birth Winston applier for Catwa mesh heads and Birth Omega body applier
- Hair: Stealthic Reach
What’s Eating TMP 11
It was time for another one of those posts in which I wonder out loud about what the heck is going on with the male TMP mesh body.
About a year ago I was quite excited to finally see some changes at TMP’s store “The Shops!“. Nothing has changed since then though. You still enter the place in a sort of anteroom where you can buy their “new” bento hair. From there you can teleport to an area where the good old TMP bodies and static non-bento heads are sold. The biggest change of course was the massive price drop from 5000 to 500 L$ for their bodies and heads.
Meanwhile there still is a lot of unclarity about what would happen to the body if TMP would ever take their servers offline. Styling options for this body are saved in a special styling hud and your settings are then saved to a TMP server. It has been said that if that server would go offline, you’d be stuck in one skin or maybe the alpha hud would no longer work. Then again, 500 L$ is 2 USD (not counting the transaction fee when you buy lindens) so we’re not talking about a huge risk. Sadly the body was never upgraded to bento, so the hands are static. Another sad thing is that it was never made Omega compatible so you are more limited in skin choices and the number of creators that make a TMP applier is dwindling rapidly. But let’s look at one of the latest pieceof eye candy I’ve put together using this body.
One way to minimise the risk of wasting your money, is to only invest in body skin appliers that also can be used on other bodies. Egozy is a good example of a skin creator that makes appliers for the Catwa and Akeruka mesh heads and includes TMP, Signature, Slink and Omega body appliers. This is their Tiger skin in the golden skin tone on the Catwa Stanley head with the TMP body. I’m quite pleased with the nearly invisible neck seam you get on the combination of this head, body and skin. Don’t use the neck sheath for TMP bodies in the Catwa hud, as it actually gives you a less good result. This Egozy skin is 800 L$, which is pretty good considering all those body appliers are included. I jazzed it up a bit more with the add on mesh nipples from Noche.
If you are feeling brave, you can do something silly and get the Vista bento hands for the TMP body. These are 700 L$ and if the body would indeed become useless at some point, then you wouldn’t have much use for these hands either. The omega applier that comes with the Egozy skin works on these hands, but you will need to get the Omega relay from Vista. The result is nearly seamless, depending on the windlight. The package includes a simple bento fingers animator, which is ideal if your main AO doesn’t have bento hand animations. There is also a larger hud with hand poses and all the built-in skins and fingernail options.
Of course there’s always the question whether there are still any new clothes available for the TMP body. It definitely has been dropped by some creators. It’s difficult to find any nice new underwear or swimwear for it, but there is a back catalogue of items in that array that still don’t look outdated. Take a look around at Noche’s store and you will find their Essential Jockstrap, Metalic Thong and Bottomless Trunks on the 3rd floor. Always demo items first to make sure the TMP size is included, as Noche stopped supporting TMP a while back.
Some of you will want to venture out into the big wild grid with a bit more clothing, so I took a quick look at some of the styling I have been done with other bodies and recycled a couple of looks.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! The blazer with t-shirt, slacks and Oxford shoes from L&B work just fine with the TMP body if you use the Gianni size. You can pop off your feet as they are totally covered anyway. You can play with your shape a bit to tailor the suit and make your feet a bit smaller so it doesn’t look like you’re walking around with snowshoes and then save that shape to wear with this outfit. (SAVE AS! Use SAVE AS! You don’t want to ruin your perfect naked shape!)
For something a lot more casual, you can find the “Strong” jeans and tank top at Invictus. They come in TMP size, so you’ll be able to go topless, but I did notice a tiny bit of clipping at the ankles. The Deadwool Chase sneakers are a good option with this outfit.
That’s it for now. TMP remains very quiet, with zero changes to the store in about a year, obviously no new releases and definitely no mentioning of an update or new body. I think at this point it’s mainly alts, collectors, newbies and very late converters that are buying it. Oh well… Still looks hot though.
