What Have I Been Up To?

   Personally, I have been dealing with treatment for Major Depression Disorder and ADD. After many years of denial. Meds and therapy are helping. A lot. Please don't be dumb like me - go get help if you even think you need it.

  Hobby-wise, I have been into Gaslands and KillTeam lately. Lots of terrain painted, and some more cars. Painted up the starter box for KillTeam for my sons, so a few Primaris Reaver Space Marines and some Tau Fire Warriors. Working on my own team of Genestealer Cultists because I have wanted to play them since they first appeared in White Dwarf in 1989 or so. Played some Team Yankee, and some Flames of War v.4. Have almost completed a Starfinder campaign (Against the Aeon Throne AP) that I am GMing. I play in an online Starfinder game, too. Played a big OGRE game in November. Finished up a couple of airships, but need to build stands for them. Though that has been designed.

Red Vectors Martian Skiff

 Made by RedVectors in the UK, these skiffs were custom adjusted a bit to work for 15mm. I am in the process of assembling and painting the first of the pair. The price was quite reasonable, I thought, and the shipment was dashed quick.

   Not quite done. It needs a gun on that forward platform, and a crew. I suppose this calls for a visit to Scale Creep for minis...

Martian Skyship, Part 1

   With a bit of space made on the table thanks to some finished 15mm vehicles, I decided it was time to finally work on the hulls at least of my pair of 28mm Martian Skyships. I bought these from Ironclad Miniatures through their US distributor at Historicon back in 2015, I think. So almost two years ago. For me, that's not too bad.

   Anyway, I took the pieces out of the boxes and cleaned them up with warm water and detergent, just like I always do with resin. Dull, but I hate it when I try to prime a piece and some mold release is still on it, causing all manner of havoc. So, suds, rinse, let dry overnight.

   Next day I laid out the pieces and did a bit of test fitting. The fit is pretty good. Looking at it, it seems that the deck and lower hull pieces are the same as in their British Airship. If not, they are pretty similar. It's not a problem or complaint, mind, just an observation. The upper works are nice, but they don't quite fit the curve of the deck. I thought about sanding down the edges of the deck, then though about how much time that would take and the chances I screwed it up worse, and decided that the small flaw wasn't going to be that much of an issue.

   Yeah, I am a bit lazy, too. But mostly I didn't want to make a hash of it and be forced to wait until I bought another ship.

You can see how the curve of the deck and the curve of the 

upper works doesn't quite match.

   Next I glued the lower hull to the underside of the deck, and after that dried for about ten minutes - I'm using CA - I flipped it over and attached the fore and aft bulwarks. Or gunwales? Anyway, the upper deck railings. I held off on attaching the mast collar on the deck for now, as I will need to carefully position it so the guns and ship's wheel won't be in the way. More on those later.

  Once the glue was nice and dry, I took the model out to my spray booth for a shot of flat black all over.

   And that's about as far as I have gotten in the actual build. Why? As I looked through the box in which I had stashed these kits, I noticed I had forgotten a couple of things that I need for them: to wit, guns and a ship's wheel! The ships come with a control console of sorts, but it looks too modern for my vision of VSF. So I need to order those... and that's why I know there will be at least a Part 2 to this series of posts. Probably a Part 3 as well.

  I'll end this post with a few thoughts about what I'm going to do with these two vessels.

• Sails: Lateen rigged, will cut the sail from some heavy paper, maybe some of that scrapbooking stuff, especially if it has a nice pattern on both sides. Rigging from white cotton thread.
• Ship's wheel: both Eureka and Houston's Ships make nice ones. Leaning towards Houston's because of the next item...
• Guns: I want at least a pair of swivel guns on the railings, and a heavier gun either in the bow on a raised carriage/slide, or in the waist with perhaps a pivot mount. Houston's makes some that are specifically for VSF aliens that are strangely reminiscent of designs in 1889.
• Flight Base: Not sure. I can custom build one, I suppose. I don't like how the champagne glass stand turned out, so I will be trying something else. Probably some thick brass wire. But it will need to have either a wide or a heavy base underneath for stability.
• Transportation: They are getting their very own trays and custom pluck foam. I may need two trays, one for each hull or one for the hulls and one for the sails. I am going to leave the masts removable, maybe magnetized.

End of May Review

   In short, May was a horrible month for painting. Too many guests, too much work, etc., etc. The excuses abound. But the fact is I only sat down at the table for about three hours in the entire month. Here's the official tally:

• MG Platoon Goal: 15mm Indian Machinegun Platoon for FOW. Primed only.
• Great Cannon Crew Goal: Finish these two buggers. Untouched
• Free Taffy Goal: Finish these ten sods, too. 90% complete. A few touchups and basing.
• 6mm French Walker Goal: Epic GW Eldar War walkers, x4. (new!) Still in packing
• 6mm British Walker Goal: Epic GW Imperial Guard Sentinels, x5 (new!) Still in packing
• 6mm Rocket Goal: Epic GW Pulsa Rokkits, x2 (new!) Still in packing

  In addition, I started work on a 25mm scout aeronef from Ironclad Miniatures. You can find out more about that on Victoria's Boys in Red. Finally, I did work on a random piece, just sitting there looking for some work to be done. It was a GW Epic Squat Overlord airship. Well, I suppose it still is one, just with some fresh paint and a new purpose: to serve l'Empereur. Yes, a French airship for 6mm VSF. It is actually quite small, but heavily armed for its size, with six field guns, a few Mitrailleuse, and an assortment of bombs.

6mm French Armoured Zeppelin

Now Showing: Master of the World

From MGM Studios, in 1961. Starring Vincent Price as Robur, renegade captain of the Albatross.

For awesome B-movie VSF, it is hard to beat.

Historicon 2011, Day 3

   I know it has been a few days, but I am just now fully recovered from my relaxing stay in lovely Pennsylvania. Not that I saw a whole lot of it, because I spent most of the time indoors. But you don't want to hear about all that - you want to know about the games!

Beautiful terrain from Miniature Building Authority.

  So by now it is Saturday, the last real day of games for Historicon. I have a game at 0900, a WWII game using a rules system new to me called NUTS! It's from Two Hour Wargames. The scenario was pretty simple: D-Day, American Airborne forces approach a village held by the Wehrmacht. Wehrmacht must hold village. Didn't enjoy the game. One of the main opponents was a 'psychic.' Always knew what my troops were doing even if there was no way for the troops to have such information. I didn't like the rules either. One of my troops dropped a hand grenade into a room full of Amis, rolled the best result possible, and the result was that two of the GIs charged up the stairs and killed not one but three Germans at the top. One of the Germans was my second best guy, and a 'Hero', unloaded his SMG at the GIs, while waiting at the top for them to approach, and missed totally. An unbalanced scenario maybe, and a bad opponent for sure, but any result that leaves a group of people in an enclosed area in which a grenade has gone off totally unharmed - not stunned, not anything? I didn't like the game.

Amis appear in the woods and ambush a Wehrmacht patrol.

   NUTS! is my second time to try a game by Two Hour Wargames. I know a lot of people who like their games, but all I can say is, so far, I'm not a fan. I do really want to try the All Things Zombies rules one of these days, however, as I have heard nothing but good about them.

   My next game wasn't to be until 1900, so I thought I'd hit the vendor's area and Wally's Basement (the flea market). the boys, on the other hand, were headed to their game at 1300; a game of Car Wars. I've been playing the game off and on since about 1983. Even been planning on getting a Matchbox scale game set up. So the boys take off; about 1305, I get a call from Greyson and they need another player since there's only the two of them there to play. Had a pretty good time. Killed Greyson's car, got rear-ended by a ramplate but survived (barely!), got revenge on the rammer by virtually eliminating him. Time was just about up so we called it, and I won (only 'kill').

My car. Twin MGs and a bumper trigger.

Dane in red, Greyson in green, myself in the rear.

When I was rammed. Greyson's car is against the wall, on its side.

   My last game was one of the ones I most anticipated since registering: a G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. fleet battle. Simple scenario was that a new German aircraft carrier was damaged by a storm, and the British are trying to capture it while the Germans seek to prevent that.

Patrol boat HMS Courageous (fore) and cruiser HMS Essex

  I liked the game. It was very similar to Battles by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., and so it was familiar, with a few changes which had to be made in order to accomodate the third dimension. It seemed impossible to get to the carrier (the Valkyrie) before she made it off the table, and it proved so. Highlights of the game include the performance of HMS Cossack, one of my patrol boats absorbing fire from two German patrol boats and a German cruiser. After several turns, she was a wreck, and had three commanding officers killed aboard her. Finally, she settled to the surface, with no guns, no engine, and no officers left! Things looked very bad for the British side until the battleship finally got within range. Three German capital ships were crippled or destroyed, and three escorts, to the loss of three escorts on the British side. The Valkyrie did manage to escape, however.

The Valkyrie.

  The Valkyrie is a total scratch-built job, except for the mast and the flight stand. Absolutely beautiful piece of work. I especially like the raised hangar on the flight deck.



Insanely Cool Project

This is not my project, but it is absolutely awe-inspiring.

A giant - and I do mean GIANT - steampunk airship. In 28mm scale. For a Warhammer 40K gamer. And so far, it is totally beautiful. Here's the link:

http://fischers-design-shop.blogspot.com/search/label/Athena

And I can't help lifting two of his images to whet your appetites to go and see this work. Klaus, let me know if you want me to remove it - it's your project after all, and your images - but I gotta say that your Athena is incredible.

This is the gondola section. The plan is that each door will allow an airborne trooper to drop from it. Sixteen doors, total.

Here is a forward elevation shot, showing the exposed ribs, the flight deck (did I forget to mention it's also a carrier?) and the side rudders and island bridge.

Aeronef News

As you may or may not know, I purchased a number of Brigade Models's Aeronef minis a month or so back. I've not been doing much in the way of painting the last several weeks, so little progress has been made upon them.

However, I have been inspired to get back to them today, by an announcement on The Miniatures Page (TMP - http://www.theminiaturespage.com/) regarding the first of a new fleet painted by Tony, aka Dampfpanzerwagon.

Tony has begun a new fleet project, the Knights of St. John, aka the Knights Hospitaller, aka the Knights of Malta. Above is a photo of the first ship in the fleet, and she's a beauty! The really amazing part is that she's a scratchbuilt, as are most (if not all) of Tony's ships.

Find out more here: http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/2009/04/aeronef-new-project.html

End of Month Progress Report [ooc]

So, here's the progress on projects this month.

Deathray cavalry: Have received all figures. Three additional lancers, a musician and the unit leader are painted and assembled, just waiting to be mounted on the rays. After these, I have five more to finish, and the units will be done. I say units because I have two. One is the Prince himself, with standard, musician and four guards. I am considering adding three more gun-armed men to this unit to round it out to a full ten. The other unit consists of a captain, musician and eight lancers.

Martian Personalities: I have painted the Incomparable Dejah Thoris, John Carter, a Martian priest, and a Martian king/hero. The butler/assassin is primed, but hardly painted.

Martian swordsmen: Little progress.

Bombardment Sentinel: Purchased Whirlwind for conversion of rockets to Sentinel. Awaiting arrival.

Gunship, 28mm: Received guns, assembled and primed. Currently on painting table. Trying to decide on magnetic attachment option or permanent fixture.

Gunship, 15mm: Main deck cut out. Primary lower hull section built. Mast section assembled but not cut to final length yet. Re-working cabin section design. Forward lower hull needs final desing and assembly. Guns not ordered; considering ERM fittings. Help with 15mm guns would be appreciated.

Parrotman Huts: Prototype finished. Adjustments still to be made for remaining three huts. Back-burner project.

15mm Papal Troops: Two 90% painted as prototypes.

Mordian/German Special Weapons: About 70% painted on lieutenant, sergeant, grenadier, and three riflemen, plus two mortarmen and melta-gunner.

Gex/Gaters: Decided to send to be painted, as I am never going to get around to them. Looking for painting service in US.

That's pretty much everything that's even remotely active for right now. I am hoping to get some projects finished in March, letting me get back to some older projects that have been on hold for a while.

First Time Ever!

Primitive Dwelling of Highest Venusian Civilization

For the first time in any Human journal, we find a photostat of the primitive huts built by the elusive Parrotmen of Venus. While the Parrotmen themselves are not in the photograph, be assured they were nearby. This photostat was purchased from a German scientist's former assistant. Apparently he was wrongly accused of theft by his former employer, and so was dismissed. When packing his things, the former assistant accidentally carried off the photostatic data for the Herr Professor's monograph on the culture and architecutre of the Parrotfolk.

News of a New Aerial Gunboat, HMAS Raptor

As some of our readers may know, work has begun at the Womack Shipyard of Victoria Landing to construct a new aerial gunboat, HMAS Raptor. So far, all we know is that her shape is similar to the old Aphid-class ships, at approximately 90-feet in length and 22 feet of beam. She is rumored to be powered by handwavium reactor, the first such ship built here on Mars. Her armament is undecided at this time, but provision has been made aboard her for a small Marine contingent, to guard against boarding actions.

[Editor's Note: I will provide a step-by-step of how I built the Raptor in a future post or two. Construction of foamcore and sheet styrene, primarily. So far, I am pretty happy with how its turning out, though I screwed up the deck a bit. Next one will come out better. I also have an idea for a really cool small Martian kite. I even think I can put grapnel launchers on the kite - boarders away!]

Properties of Unobtainite

Excerpts from Volume XIV of the Journal of the Royal Geological and Mineralogical Society (1872)

A rare mineral found in remote areas, unobtainite is a blue faceted crystal. Its unusual properties were discovered by a Fellow of our Society, Doctor Edward Isling...

While searching the mountainous regions of one of Her Brittanic Majesty's central African colonies, Doctor Isling was caught in a sudden thunderstorm. Lightning struck the ground near his camp, where he and the rest of his expedition were sheltering from the fury of Mother Nature. Doctor Isling happened to be outside of his tent, and saw several blue crystals emerge from the ground at the point where the lightning had struck.

What Isling had discovered was the levitative property of unobtainite when exposed to galvanic influence. Other scientists would go on to find that one could control the level of repulsive lift generated by the unobtainite by increasing or decreasing the flow of galvanic energies through the mineral.

Of course, since that time, our British engineers have created means to manipulate the flow of galvanism through unobtainite and acquired a supply suitable for the production of a small fleet of aerial craft. Steam engines (sometimes heated by handwavium reaction) are connected to generators, which then feed the rheostatic devices which control the repulsor lift generated by the unobtainite.

...additional deposits are rumored to exist in the fabled 'floating island' of Laputa, being the probable cause of that mythical land's gravity-mocking flight...

...Martian princes are no strangers to unobtainite. Martian science discovered the mineral - which is in far greater abundance on the Red Planet than on our sphere - millennia ago. They reached a plateau in the development of flying craft some 2,000 years past, and have since not added to their store of...

...no source of unobtainite has as yet been located on Venus, though many strange lifeforms abound there...

[Editor's Notes: I have been considering the source for our essentially implausible flying craft. I have talked about unobtainite before, but thought that the storyline needed re-working. I hope you enjoyed it. For gaming purposes, unobtainite is available in small amounts on Earth, and in far greater mounts on Mars. Earthly steam engines power generators to feed the unobtainite; Martians use slave labor to crank a generator. I am also re-thinking the mineral handwavium, and expect to give more information about that in the near-ish future. There are also a couple of deep secret projects in the work, of a potentially commercial nature. We'll see.]

Wasps over Albertport

Aerial Gunboat Takes to the Skies of Mars

We have also received word from the Royal Navy's ethership docks here in Albertport that Her Majesty's Royal Navy shall soon have a new class of small, steam-powered, hydrium-lift gunboats to protect the Crown Colony from the German menace and the troubling actions of certain Martian princes. Though it has yet to be armed, your faithful journal writer has no doubt that it soon shall be.

Seen here is the armored control cabin and the steam engine of the new HMS Wasp, the first ship of its class. Below, you can see a sergeant of the Royal Artillery's Research and Development Field Testing Platoon atop the armored cabin. The lights of the Albertport Ethership Tower can be seen in the distance behind.

You can not see the hydrium venting system in the hull that helps control the altitude of the armored airship in these photostats. Unlike the more common rigid frame gasbag type of airship, this vessel uses internal tanks of hydrium and is constructed largely of liftwood for added bouyancy. It can rise and dive rapidly as a result, and is far smaller and more maneuverable than even the smallest of the framed gasbag types.

[Editor's Notes: This airship can be converted for use by other nations in a matter of minutes, by changing the flag (on a removable pole). It currently sports the naval ensign of Imperial Germany, which is why it isn't seen in these small photos. It still needs a good bit of work, repairing damage sustained during shipping, and adding little details I like. Plus weapons, of course!]

[OOC] New Arrivals!

Today I got in two of the three packages I have been waiting for with baited breath. In the smaller package were ten Safari, Ltd. Spotted Eagle Rays, better known to my readers here as Golden Whorled Deathrays. So now I just need one or two more to finish off that project. Oh, and painting the riders and casting up about 9 more saddles. Then its just glue it all together, add the straps, and mount on the flying stands. Woohoo! Project finished!

The second package I got today was quite a bit larger. It contains... a 25mm scale aerial gunboat, scratchbuilt by Joseph Dragovich of Pittsburgh, PA. Once I repair the damages from the rough handling while being shipped (USPS), I will take some photos and post them, make official announcment type stuff, etc. I also got five aeronaval crew and an officer. I will need to get a couple of weapons to mount at the wing spots, but those can wait a few weeks.

I am still awaiting a package from the north side of town, an order from Little Wars in Houston. Its just a few small packs of Papal Zouaves and infantry from Freikorps in 15mm. Been almost a week, though, and no contact. I must say I don't like that, though I know they'll get here eventually.

Lastly, there is yet another new project on the boil for Venus, but that will remain under wraps for now. The only thing I will say is... keep an eye on the foliage.

Her Majesty's Fleet of Aeronefs

A photostat and some descriptive instruction on the production of the Aerial Armada can be found here: http://billwerks.blogspot.com/2008/10/british-aeronef.html

It is likely that aeronefs and digs shall make an appearance in this journal in the next year or so.

Minor progress was made this weekend on some new structures to replace the Earth-style buildings used previously. I think that Earth buildings will be kept apart, perhaps in an Earther conclave or compound. Martian and Venusian architecture is going to be a bit different, and I hope interesting.

Photostat of British Airship in Action!

HMAS Goliath flies over a Hun battleship in this photostat. Surely, the naval rating manning the camera needs additional training,a s the focus is a bit off. Or perhaps he is simply trembling at the sight of the mighty power of Her Majesty's airfleet?

Makes one proud to be British.