Saturday, June 30, 2018

Excerpts from the "The Book"

Lovecraft is known for his dreadful creatures, exotic spaces, and his ancient texts of mythologies. Here are some excerpts from one of his short stories, the Book. The book remains title-less.

" I seem to have suffered a great shock perhaps from some utterly monstrous outgrowth of my cycles of unique, incredible experience.

These cycles of experience, of course, all stem from that worm-riddled book. I remember when I found it in a dimly lighted place near the black, oily river where the mists always swirl. That place was very old, and the ceiling-high shelves full of rotting volumes reached back endlessly through windowless inner rooms and alcoves. There were, besides, great formless heaps of books on the floor and in crude bins; and it was in one of these heaps that I found the thing. I never learned its title, for the early pages were missing; but it fell open toward the end and gave me a glimpse of something which sent my senses reeling.

There was a formula sort of list of things to say and do which I recognized as something black and forbidden; something which I had read of before in furtive paragraphs of mixed abhorrence and fascination penned by those strange ancient delvers into the universe’s guarded secrets whose decaying texts I loved to absorb. It was a key a guide to certain gateways and transitions of which mystics have dreamed and whispered since the race was young, and which lead to freedoms and discoveries beyond the three dimensions and realms of life and matter that we know. Not for centuries had any man recalled its vital substance or known where to find it, but this book was very old indeed. No printing-press, but the hand of some half-crazed monk, had traced these ominous Latin phrases in uncials of awesome antiquity.

...For he who passes the gateways always wins a shadow, and never again can he be alone. I had evoked, and the book was indeed all I had suspected. That night I passed the gateway to a vortex of twisted time and vision, and when morning found me in the attic room I saw in the walls and shelves and fittings that which I had never seen before.

...I remember the night I made the five concentric circles of fire on the floor and stood in the innermost one chanting that monstrous litany the messenger from Tartary had brought. The walls melted away, and I was swept by a black wind through gulfs of fathomless grey with the needle-like pinnacles of unknown mountains miles below me. After a while there was utter blackness, and then the light of myriad stars forming strange, alien constellations. Finally, I saw a green-litten plain far below me and discerned on it the twisted towers of a city built in no fashion I had ever known or read of or dreamed of. As I floated closer to that city I saw a great square building of stone in an open space, and felt a hideous fear clutching at me."

The Book, H. P. Lovecraft

Thursday, June 28, 2018

How To Make a Bunker for 40k


Miscast Terrain has released another DIY video. This one demonstrates how to build a Warhammer 40K bunker and a string of barbed-wire. The bunker is made out of foam core.

The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Volume II

I have finally gotten around to reading Allan Moore and Kevin o’ Neill’s second volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman. My first post from volume on was back in March 2014. With its host of extraordinary characters, fantastic story-line, and saucy scenes, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, volume 2 takes over where the last volume left off.

Here are the titles of the novels six chapters:

  1. Phases of Deimos
  2. People of other Lands
  3. And the Dawn Comes Up Like Thunder
  4. All Creatures Great and Small
  5. Redin Tooth and Claw
  6. “You Should see me Dance the Polka…”

Thursday, June 21, 2018

The Nautilus

Here is another rendition of Captain Nemo’s Nautilus. This version as depicted in the movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a bit more fanciful than the one rendered in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.


I suppose I could have gotten some better screenshots of this craft. Better luck next time.

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Fantastic Beasts

"I have visited lairs, burrows and nests across five continents, observed the curious habits of magical beasts in a hundred countries, witnessed their powers, gained their trust and, on occasion, beaten them off with my travelling kettle." —Newton Scamander

Newt Scamander is a character from the Harry Potter series and is purported to be the author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The Newt Scamander miniature is cast from metal by Jada Toys and stands approximately two and half inches tall.

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Books Authored by S. Kip Farrington, Jr.

Railroading around the World, Castle Books, New York, 1955

Here is a partial list of books form this distinguished author and sportsman.

Fishing the Pacific, off shore and on
Fishing the Atlantic, of shore and on
Pacific Game Fishing
Atlantic Game Fishing
Sport Fishing Boats
A Book of Fishing
The Ducks Cane Back
Ships of the U.S. Merchant Marine
Interesting Birds of Our Country
Giants of the Rails
Railroading from the Head End
Railroading from the Rear End
Railroading at War
Railroading of Today
Railroading the Modern Way
Railroading around the World

I don’t have a large collection of his work, in fact I only have the one that I have posted an image of its dust jacket. It was almost a year ago that I purchased this volume at a train show. Because of its mildewed pages I can only take it in small doses. The book reminds me of another in my collection somewhat, in that the other text recalls foreign narrow-gauge railways.

Monday, June 11, 2018

Shanty # 2-Post-Apocalyptic #1

This is my first Post-Apocalyptic shanty and my second scratch-built shack & shed. It is number 12 in the Shacks & Sheds series. I built it in 1/72 scale for war-gaming terrain and it will be one of many eventually!

It is built to represent an all steal construction, steal plates that might have been savaged from abandoned or grounded ships. You can see other elements of steal plates that have been left to the sand and rust. The shanty has seen occupancy by many bands of post-apocalyptic adventurers. It has been attacked by the elements and with chemical and biological weapons.

Monday, June 4, 2018

How Tolkien created Middle-earth

The Guardian has published an interesting article How Tolkien created Middle-Earth, which tells of the opening of an exhibit “Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth”. The article goes on to mention the many items that are being exhibited within the exhibit.

Sunday, June 3, 2018

The Bellman Knocks

Maidens in your smocks
Look well to your locks
And beware of the fox
When the bellman knocks

Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees

Saturday, June 2, 2018

TS CUBIC CARD

The diorama artist on this site creates some very fine dioramas. The site serves has his production blog.

Friday, June 1, 2018

Free Samples

AM models sent these samples of their 1/87 scale fences and pallets. The pallets especially are very delicate castings. I was sent two spruces of each. There is a sheet included that recommends that one should glue the top and bottom sections of the pallets before removing them from the sprue.