Friday, May 31, 2013

The SteamPunk Bible (an update)

The SteamPunk Bible covers many different topics associated with the SteamPunk genre. As the publishers have defined their text” it is “An illustrated guide to the world of imaginary airships, corsets, and goggles, mad scientists, and strange literature”. It is well written and has many colorful illustrations throughout the text. I purchased my copy through Amazon for under $20.00. The book is hard bound and includes over 200 pages of text, and loads of images and illustrations.

What I like especially about the text is that it has introduced me to ideas, concepts, and resources that I didn’t know existed. I have been having a great time tracking down the sources mentioned in the text. I will be sharing these with you shortly.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

10 Ways the World Will End

How Stuff Works ”10 Ways the World Will End” page features ten short videos that describe ten ways the earth “will” end. The site is interesting, but more recreational than educational (there is a mix of fact and fiction), but is still worth the visit, especially for those dooms day-ers out there. Pick your own poison; which way do you envision the earth ending.

Additional Fantasy Ships Found

I have found another source of fantasy-paper-crafted ships. The Ralf Schemmann's Man O'War Fleets page offers downloadable templates for six fantasy fleets. The fleets were created to play the "Man O' War Game” in the Warhammer World and include the following fleets:
  • Bretonnia
  • Empire
  • Dwarfs
  • Elves
  • Dark Elves
  • Orcs (in progress)

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Freak Angels

FreakAngles is an online comic created by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield. The story is set in post- apocalyptic England and has been running for several episodes. The following three lines from the first scene and episode is as follows:

“23 years ago, twelve strange children were born in England at exactly the same moment. “

“6 years ago the, world ended”

“This is the story of what happened next”

The comic’s graphics are first rate; the plot is dystopian and compelling.

Two Old Geezers

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have add two old men to my collection of miniatures. They both are additions to my small collection of fantasy miniatures. The one, the slight fellow with the lantern can be seen leading new disciples to their sage. The other miniature the bulky and rotund gent could pass for Charles Dickens-The Ghost of Christmas Past.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

The Serving Wench-I am Enamored by Plastic


From the first time I saw the wench, I knew that I would have to add her to my collection. The “Serving Wench” is one of Replicants 1/32 plastic miniatures and was accompanied by the Tavern Keeper. These two miniatures are part of my period pieces collection.
These two miniatures were my first attempts at painting miniatures. The wench seems to have her eyes closed so I didn’t get to paint her eyes.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

New Pulp Figures Added to My Pulp Collection

I received four new 28mm pulp figures in the mail a few days ago. I mentioned them in my “Two New Miniature Categories", post about a week ago. The three figures with rifles are from Artizan Designs’ Thrilling Tales collection. This set three of their Sky Pirates.

Artizan’s Thrilling Tales figures are no related to the game or the interactive online pulp magazine with the same name. According to the people at Artizan the Thrilling Tales collection was named to “convey the spirit of the range”.

The forth miniature is from Brigade. I added this figures as the command element; he is Capt. John Starr, Fighter Squadron Alpha.

I have already given these figures a grey base coat and am waiting delivery of the necessary paints to be delivered.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Haunting Abandoned Relics

I have always been fascinated with abandoned structures. I have toured several in my life. Abandoned structures usually provide a very rewarding photo-shoot. Just be careful. Some of these structures are anything but safe. The Haunting Beauty of Abandoned Relics site offers fourteen slides of some very striking images of abandoned vehicles and structures.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

The Catalog of Nautilus Designs

Throughout the years since Jules Verne wrote 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, men have tried to envision what Verne’s Nautilus may have looked like. Many have gone to the drawing board and have made sketches for the Nautilus. Here are a few designs of the Nautilus that have become known throughout the years.

Make sure to visit some of the links on this page for other images and detailed views of these designs.

I am rather partial to Disney’s version of the Nautilus. What version, if any, are you partial?

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

A Chicken Coop in 1/48

I started my 1/87 chicken coop a couple of months ago. It sits unfinished on my workbench, with so many other projects in various stages of completion. I found this unique chicken coop complete. From the picture, you can see that the model was created using a real prototype as a guide.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Another Fantasy Ship

This time the fantasy ship is in the form of wallpaper for your desktop. Nice.

Sorry, I have kind of got into this vain. Do you know of any other "fantasy ships" sites?

A Fun Weekend Project

I recently downloaded Fantasy ships & Monsters, a JPG file that includes several fantasy ships and a couple of sea monsters. It seems like a nice weekend project when nothing else is going on. The site features several paper-craft paper navies that can be downloaded. Just download, print, and cut them out with a pair of detail scissors, and have your first sea skirmish in miniature.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Abandoned Stars War Sets

Yahoo news is featuring some very cool images of abandoned Star Wars sets that are now rotting out in the desert. Can you pick any of the scenes out? Very Cool!

My Miniatures Collection (An Update)

My current collection includes pieces in the following sizes and scales: 25mm, 28mm, 30mm, 40mm, 1/32 (54mm).

Category

Pieces
Period pieces 7
Wild West 5
French and Indian War 4
Fantasy 7
Pulp 12
SCI FI 4
Whimsical Nautical Creatures 11
Scenery pieces 1
 

==

51

I have added several new pieces to my collection so far this year. Most of what I have added were added to my collection of pulp miniatures. I have also added two miniatures to my collection of fantasy miniatures.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Two New Miniature Categories

I am waiting on my first order from Brigade Games. I ordered a set of Artizan Designs’ Sky Pirates, a Brigade command figure to go along with the set, and two other Brigade figures. The other two figures are of old men. The Brigade calls the one the Jolly Old Man and the other is old man carrying a lantern.

The new categories are Sky Pirates and Rocket Men, and Old Men. Sky Pirates and Rocket Men will come under the category of Pulp and the Old Men Distinguished Gentleman will be a sub-type under whatever category that the miniature seems to fit. These two old men miniatures will be added to my collection of Fantasy miniatures as they both display characteristics associated with this category.

Create your Own Pulp Magazine Cover

Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual has a very cool online app that allows you to create your own Pulp Magazine cover. Add your title, choose a font size and alignment, and pick graphic elements for the background. Save your cover and do with it whatever you wish.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Italeri 1/72 Buffalo Hunt

Italeri Buffalo Hunt has been discontinued and is no longer available from some channels, although you might still find a copy on the shelf of your local hobby shop. That is where I found mine.

The box contains 56 1/72 detailed figures. The box contains four identical spruces with fourteen figures on each spruce. Each spruce contains one horse, two rider figures and two other Indian figures. The rest of the figures depict Buffalo in various states of being hunted down or trying to escape the frenzied onslaught of these native warriors.

Although these plastic castings are well formed and had no noticeable flash I was a little disappointed with only having a total of four horses in the mix. In addition, I believe that the horses have a rather an unnatural appearance.

Pulp Figures

Pulp magazines were published from 1896 through 1946 and provided inexpensive works of fiction for the general public. Typical pulp magazines measured seven inches wide by ten inches high and were printed on cheap pulp wood paper making them quite inexpensive to publish. Pulp magazines usually consisted of 128 pages with a collection of serialized stories. These stories would sometimes run for weeks or months and span multiple editions. During the heyday of pulps, many now famous authors made a living by selling their work to the publishers of pulp magazines.

Some very imaginative characters were born in this era. Buck Rodgers, The Avenger, Captain Future, The Shadow, and Zorro came to life through on the pages of pulp magazines. Some of you might remember watching some sitcoms with the same names.

Pulp era role playing games and figures were born out of a desire to emulate these pulp characters and the plots from the stories.

There are many well sculpted and imaginative pulp era figures to choose from and there quite a few suppliers that either specializes in manufacturing pulp era figures or supply pulp figures as a part of their line of products. Pulp era figures can be found in 15 and 28mm. sizes

The Pulp Era site offers three pages (plus ancillary pages) of links to pulp era figure manufacturers, descriptions of their products, and images of some of their products. I found the information on the site informative and useful.

I just purchased a few pulp figures. I decided on a set of figures from Artizan Designs, Thrilling Tales collection. I will be posting more information about these miniatures in the near future.

I will be making another purchase of pulp miniatures where I will consider purchasing them from one of these manufacturers found on the Pulp Era site.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Two New Paper Craft Directories

I have found two new directories of paper craft. Both pages offer dozens links to free paper models of every sort and description.

Science Fiction Free Paper Models

This site is mostly geared to the war-gamer. Paper models of space ships, props and mechanisms of all sorts are listed here. Great resource!

Card Modeling FAQ: Free models

The Card Modeling FAQ offers information to paper modelers. The FAQ is especially useful for someone just getting started in this very rewarding hobby. For the price of a sheet of paper and some ink you can assemble all sorts of models.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Ten 15mm miniature ranges nobody makes! (Possibly with good reason)

The author, a 15mm miniature enthusiast lists several whimsical ideas for 15mm minis in his Dec 10th post. I am not a 15mm enthusiast, however, why not! Some of his ideas do sound like they could float. I mean, some of the subjects he mentions are already available in other sizes.

At any rate, the article was fun reading and imagining.

How about you? Do you have ideas for minis

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The Steampunk Bible

This text recently arrived in the mail. Like another reviewer as commented, the Steampunk Bible is a beautiful book and includes many beautiful illustrations. The Steampunk Bible by Jeff Vandermeer is great resource to have on hand. The text not only defines the Steampunk movement, but also provides fodder for further research. I have only just started to read this book and already have so many leads to other resources that we no doubt broaden my view on this subject.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Around the World in Eighty Days

Around the World in Eighty Days is a curious story by Jules Verne involving an eccentric man named Phileas Fogg who accepts a wager from his associates at the Reform Club, which Phileas is a member. He makes the trip with his French valet Passepartout.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel. It was read on an Android tablet. The epub was from feedbooks.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Texts of Verne’s Voyages Extraordinaires I Have Read

While it may seem that I have a long way to go, reading anything of Verne's is by no means a chore...
  1. Five Weeks in a Balloon, 1863
  2. The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, 1866
  3. Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1864, revised 1867
  4. From the Earth to the Moon, 1865
  5. In Search of the Castaways, 1867–8
  6. (*) Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, 1869–70
  7. Around The Moon, 1870
  8. A Floating City, 1871
  9. The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa, 1872
  10. The Fur Country, 1873
  11. Around the World in Eighty Days, 1873
  12. (*) The Mysterious Island, 1874–5
  13. The Survivors of the Chancellor, 1875
  14. Off on a Comet, 1877
  15. The Child of the Cavern, 1877
  16. Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen, 1878
  17. The Begum's Millions, 1879
  18. Tribulations of a Chinaman in China, 1879
  19. (R) The Steam House, 1880
  20. Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon, 1881
  21. Godfrey Morgan, 1882
  22. The Green Ray, 1882
  23. Kéraban the Inflexible, 1883
  24. The Vanished Diamond, 1884
  25. The Archipelago on Fire, 1884
  26. Mathias Sandorf, 1885
  27. The Lottery Ticket, 1886
  28. Robur the Conqueror, 1886
  29. The Flight to France, 1887
  30. Two Years' Vacation, 1888
  31. Family Without a Name, 1889
  32. The Purchase of the North Pole, 1889
  33. César Cascabel, 1890
  34. Mistress Branican, 1891
  35. Carpathian Castle, 1892
  36. Claudius Bombarnac, 1892
  37. Foundling Mick, 1893
  38. Captain Antifer, 1894
  39. (R) Propeller Island, 1895
  40. (*) Facing the Flag, 1896
  41. Clovis Dardentor, 1896
  42. (*) An Antarctic Mystery, 1897
  43. The Mighty Orinoco, 1898
  44. The Will of an Eccentric, 1899
  45. The Castaways of the Flag, 1900
  46. (R)The Village in the Treetops, 1901
  47. The Sea Serpent, 1901
  48. The Kip Brothers, 1902
  49. Traveling Scholarships, 1903
  50. A Drama in Livonia, 1904
  51. Master of the World, 1904
  52. (R) Invasion of the Sea, 1905
Titles marked with a ( R ) are those that I would like to obtain and read soon.
Titles marked with an ( * ) are those that I especially liked.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

My spring 2013 Reading List (an update)

Here is a list of epubs that I have downloaded and intend to read in the spring of 2013:

  • Tender is the Night, 1934, F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Anthem, 1937, Ayn Rand
  • Barnaby Rudge, 1841, Charles Dickens
  • The Pathfinder, 1840, James Fenimore Cooper
  • Utopia, 1516, Thomas More (audio book)
  • Around the World in Eighty Days, 1873, Jules Verne
  • The Count of Monte Christo, 1844, Alexander Dumas
  • The Most Dangerous Game, 1924, Richard Cornell

I haven't gotten too far in my readings because I keep on picking-up other reading material. I am not happy unless I am in the middle of at least two books. As you can surmise from my other posts I have become severely side-tacked from my goal. But, at least I am having fun. I am now reading Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days and will try to stay on track.

“So many books, so little time”, Frank Zappa