A Host of Characters - Dr. Fu Manchu

"The enormously long nail of his right index finger rested upon the opened page of the book to which he seemed constantly to refer, dividing his attention between the volume, the contents of the test-tube, and the progress of a second experiment, or possibly a part of the same, which was taking place upon another corner of the littered table."

Chapter 19, The Return of Dr. FU-Manchu, Sax Rohmer

Warhammer Dreadfleet - Bone Hydra

This polystyrene miniature is from the Wargame Factories’, Dreadfleet board game, and it represents one the few monster adversaries.

In Greek Mythology, a hydra was a multi-headed creature; a cross between a dragon and a serpent. When a head was cut off, two would grow in its place, making this a worrisome adversary. What the Bone Hydra’s properties are in this game, I don’t know; best to give this creature a wide berth and stay out of its path.

A Typical Fu-Manuchu Labortory

This is not the first laboratory we have seen the Dr. absorbed in his work. Horrifying as it may be, it seems like Dr. Fu-Manchu well adept in his experiments. He only knows the object of his research.

"The end in which I lay, was, as I have said, typical of an Eastern house, and a large, ornate lantern hung from the ceiling almost directly above me. The further end of the room was occupied by tall cases, some of them containing books, but the majority filled with scientific paraphernalia; rows of flasks and jars, frames of test-tubes, retorts, scales, and other objects of the laboratory. At a large and very finely carved table sat Dr. Fu-Manchu, a yellow and faded volume open before him, and some dark red fluid, almost like blood, bubbling in a test-tube which he held over the flame of a Bunsen-burner.

A huge glass retort (the bulb was fully two feet in diameter), fitted with a Liebig's Condenser, rested in a metal frame, and within the bulb, floating in an oily substance, was a fungus some six inches high, shaped like a toadstool, but of a brilliant and venomous orange color. Three flat tubes of light were so arranged as to cast violet rays upward into the retort, and the receiver, wherein condensed the product of this strange experiment, contained some drops of a red fluid which may have been identical with that boiling in the test-tube."

Chapter 19, The Return of Dr. FU-Manchu, Sax Rohmer

The Street of the First Shell

"Be of Good Cheer, the Sullen Month will die,
And a young Moon requites us by and by:
Look how the Old one, meager, bent, and wan
With age and Fast, is fainting from the sky."

The King in Yellow, The Street of The First Shell, Robert W. Chambers

Two 1990’s Vintage Slot Vehicles

I recently came across these two vintage slot cars while rummaging through a box of miscellaneous toys at a garage sale. I don’t collect slot “cars” as per say, however, their Jurassic Park decals caught my attention. Damn, I should have thought about adding a Jurassic Park label when I made my first post on this topic. I have added Jurassic Park to my collections by adding Jurassic Park to most of my posts on Jurassic Park.

The slot cars are manufactured by Tyco. The slot cars were, at one time, included in a special Jurassic Park Lost World play set that included track, controllers,a motorized dinosaur, and scenic pieces.

The Phantom

"If it is true," she sighed, "that you find in me a friend, let us turn back together. You will forget, here, under the summer sky."

I held her close, pleading, caressing; I seized her, white with anger, but she resisted.

"If it is true," she sighed, "that you find in me a friend, let us turn back together."

The Phantom of the Past would go no further.

The King in Yellow, The Phantom, by Robert W. Chambers

A Find at Slime Beast - An Update

Recently I came across a webpage that featured Zombie Planet zombie miniatures, the same ones that I made a post on earlier this year. The page mentions that Hoppin Hydros originally manufactured these miniatures back in in 2011. The page also goes on to introduce each of the miniatures by name and give a brief bio on each of the zombies.

Small Projects-Tichy Train Group-Jib Crane

This is another of those “small” projects. This 1/87 scale Jib Crane in molded in polystyrene and includes a section of small scale metal chain for the cranes chain falls. The Tichy Train Group produces a wide range of model train products in N, HO, and O gauges. This Jib Crane might be used to load or unload machinery or products from or two waiting flat or gondola cars or on to a tractors and flatbed trailer at some railroad spur.

Small Projects-Woodland Scenics Steam Engine and Hammer Mill

Why would I be compelled to start another project when twenty plus projects languish on my workbench? I am in the mood for a construction project, one in which I can complete in short order. The 1/87 scale Woodland Scenics Steam Engine and Hammer Mill is molded in pewter. Hammer mills are used to grind, pulverize, and crush a wide range of materials. With the attached head on this particular hammer mill, its looks like there might be some wood splitting to be done.

Alchemy

Camilla: You, sir, should unmask.
Stranger: Indeed?
Cassilda: Indeed it's time. We all have laid aside disguise but you.
Stranger: I wear no mask.
Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask!

The King in Yellow, Act I, Scene 2

....

Although I knew nothing of chemistry, I listened fascinated. He picked up an Easter lily which Geneviève had brought that morning from Notre Dame, and dropped it into the basin. Instantly the liquid lost its crystalline clearness. For a second the lily was enveloped in a milk-white foam, which disappeared, leaving the fluid opalescent. Changing tints of orange and crimson played over the surface, and then what seemed to be a ray of pure sunlight struck through from the bottom where the lily was resting. At the same instant he plunged his hand into the basin and drew out the flower. "There is no danger," he explained, "if you choose the right moment. That golden ray is the signal."

He held the lily toward me, and I took it in my hand. It had turned to stone, to the purest marble.

The Mask by Robert W. Chambers

A Set of Four, Set Eight

Soviet Infantry
Source: Axis and Allies, 1941 edition
Size: approximately 1/72

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Hoplite
Source: Age of Mythology, Greek
Size: 30mm

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Egyptian Spearman
Source: Age of Mythology, Egyptian
Size: 30mm

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Drow Duelist
Source: D & D Legend of Drizzt
Size: approximately 35mm

Dr. Petrie Compiles his Notes

"I glanced up from my notes. Smith settled into the white cane armchair, and began to surround himself with clouds of aromatic smoke. I took up a half-sheet of foolscap covered with penciled writing in my friend's cramped characters, and transcribed the following, in order to complete my account of the latest Fu-Manchu outrage:

"The Amharun, a Semitic tribe allied to the Falashas, who have been settled for many generations in the southern province of Shoa (Abyssinia) have been regarded as unclean and outcast, apparently since the days of Menelek—son of Suleyman and the Queen of Sheba—from whom they claim descent. Apart from their custom of eating meat cut from living beasts, they are accursed because of their alleged association with the Cynocephalus hamadryas (Sacred Baboon). I, myself, was taken to a hut on the banks of the Hawash and shown a creature... whose predominant trait was an unreasoning malignity toward... and a ferocious tenderness for the society of its furry brethren. Its powers of scent were fully equal to those of a bloodhound, whilst its abnormally long forearms possessed incredible strength... a Cynocephalyte such as this, contracts phthisis even in the more northern provinces of Abyssinia..."

Chapter 19, The Return of Dr. FU-Manchu, Sax Rohmer

Dr. Petrie's Reflections

"Any one who has been forced by circumstance to undertake such a vigil as this will be familiar with the marked changes (corresponding with phases of the earth's movement) which take place in the atmosphere, at midnight, at two o'clock, and again at four o'clock. During those fours hours falls a period wherein all life is at its lowest ebb, and every Physician is aware that there is a greater likelihood of a patient's passing between midnight and four A. M., than at any other period during the cycle of the hours.

To-night I became specially aware of this lowering of vitality, and now, with the night at that darkest phase which precedes the dawn, an indescribable dread, such as I had known before in my dealings with the Chinaman, assailed me, when I was least prepared to combat it. The stillness was intense."

Chapter 16 The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu, Sax Rohmer

My Civil War Collection: Another View

Some time ago I made a post that featured a set of 1/87 scale American Civil War miniatures in various stages of being painted. Recently I found an image that included the whole extent of my HO gauge American Civil War collection. Granted, it is not a very good image, but it is the only one I have that depicts most of what I purchased when these miniatures were still available. I don’t believe K & L is still in business. Whether their molds were sold and some other company is now producing their line of products seems doubtful.

Cannon Pictured Here:
AP 1	12 pd Napoleon
AP 2	10 pd Parrott Rifle
AP 3	3" Ordiness Rifle
AP 4	12 pd Howitzer
APH 1	20 pd Parrott Rifle

DEMOISELLE JEANNE D'Ys

"Mais je croy que je
Suis descendu on puiz
Ténébreux onquel disoit
Heraclytus estre Vereté cachée."

"There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:

"The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid."

...

When I opened my eyes, I looked around in terror. Jeanne was gone. I saw the stream and the flat rock; I saw the crushed viper in the grass beside me, but the hawks and blocs had disappeared. I sprang to my feet. The garden, the fruit trees, the drawbridge and the walled court were gone. I stared stupidly at a heap of crumbling ruins, ivy-covered and grey, through which great trees had pushed their way. I crept forward, dragging my numbed foot, and as I moved, a falcon sailed from the tree-tops among the ruins, and soaring, mounting in narrowing circles, faded and vanished in the clouds above.

"Jeanne, Jeanne," I cried, but my voice died on my lips, and I fell on my knees among the weeds. And as God willed it, I, not knowing, had fallen kneeling before a crumbling shrine carved in stone for our Mother of Sorrows. I saw the sad face of the Virgin wrought in the cold stone. I saw the cross and thorns at her feet, and beneath it I read:

"PRAY FOR THE SOUL OF THE
DEMOISELLE JEANNE D'Ys,
WHO DIED
IN HER YOUTH FOR LOVE OF
PHILIP, A STRANGER.
A.D. 1573."

But upon the icy slab lay a woman's glove still warm and fragrant."

The Demoiselle D'Ys by Robert W. Chambers

The Yellow Sign

"Let the red dawn surmise
What we shall do,
When this blue starlight dies
And all is through."
...

"At the same moment he raised his head and looked at me. Instantly I thought of a coffin-worm. Whatever it was about the man that repelled me I did not know, but the impression of a plump white grave-worm was so intense and nauseating that I must have shown it in my expression, for he turned his puffy face away with a movement which made me think of a disturbed grub in a chestnut."

The Yellow Sign, by Robert W. Chambers

Kings of War Undead Revenant Troops - Skeletal Dog

Skeletal Dog or is it a giant undead rat? This miniature is molded from polystyrene plastic and measure 10mm tall and is 30mm from the tip of its tail to the end of its snout.

According to Mantic Games Kings of War: Evil Army Special Rules, having one or more of these undead rats or are they dogs, increases the “Evil Dead Rule”. “The unit recovers one point of damage it has suffered for every point of damage it inflicts in a melee.”

Sink the Bismarck-Free Print and Play Game

Sink the Bismarck is a free print and play solo game, but I have played the game with two contestants before. Instead of rolling for both sides, just pick the side of the attacker or the defender.

The basic premise of the game is to sink the battleship Bismarck. The Sink the Bismarck PDF includes an 8.5 by 11-inch game board, twelve British Swordfish torpedo bombers, and instructions on how to play.

“The game ends once 5 torpedoes hit the ship. You'll will also score points for each aircraft and torpedo you destroy.”

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Alternative Sink the Bismarck Game

Poltarnees, Beholder of the Ocean

Talking of the Poltarnees, Beholder of the Ocean. “And the ghouls and ghosts, whose highway is the night, are kept in the south by the boundary of magic.”

Poltarnees, Beholder of the Ocean, Lord Dunsany

Descent: Journeys in the Dark, Flesh Moulder

The Flesh Moulder stands approximately 35mm tall and is a monster from the Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition) board game. “Flesh Moulders study the living, and are capable of rending or knitting living flesh as it suits them.” This is one nasty character, here.

Atlas 1/87 Scale Figures

I recently found these Atlas 1/87 figures while rummaging through a box of my model railroad stuff. You might remember my making a post on 1/87 scale figures where I featured some of the same Atlas figures. It seems I have duplicates. However, that is not a bad thing on a large layout.

The figures could be used to depict characters in the 1940’s or 1950’s eras. These figures, six to a runner, are molded in a dense flesh colored plastic.

Palanlri (Seeing Stones)

"They are not all accounted for, the lost seeing stones. We do not know who else may be watching." —Gandalf to Saruman, in The Fellowship of the Ring

The Palanlri were seeing stones. There were seven in all and were used to communicate in Middle Earth and beyond.

“The lore of the Stone’s has since been forgotten and can only be partly recovered by conjecture and from things recorded about them. They were perfect spheres, appearing, when at rest, to be made of solid glass or crystal deep black in hue. At their smallest, they were about a foot in diameter, but some, certainly, the Stones of Osgiliath and Anon Sul, were much larger and could not be lifted by one man.”

Unfinished Tales, J.R.R. Tolkien, pg. 472

The Drúedian

The Drúedian are a race of peoples mentioned in Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales. The Drúedian were unattractive in appearance; “they were stumpy (some were only four feet high), but very broad, with heavy buttocks and short thick legs; their wide faces had deep-set eyes with heavy brows, and flat noses. They typically grew no hair below their eye brows (with the exception of a few) a small tail of black hair in the midst of their chins.” Those who were to grow these tails were highly favored and held in high esteem.

Unfinished Tales, J.R.R. Tolkien

The Istari

This is the first in a series of three posts of interesting quotes from J.R.R. Tolkien’s, Unfinished Tales. The posts will highlight three obscure facets of Middle Earth.

“Wizard is a translation of Quenya istar (Sindarin ithron): one of the members of an “order” (as they called it), claiming to possess, and exhibiting, eminent knowledge of the history and nature of the World. The translation (though suited in its relation to “wise” and other ancient words of knowing similar to that of istar in Quenya) is not perhaps happy, since the Heren Islarion or “Order of Wizards” was quite distinct from the “wizards” and magicians of the later legend.”

During the Third Age of Middle Earth there were five wizards:

Saruman	the White
Gandalf	the Grey
Radagast	the Brown
Morinehtar	the Blue
Rómestámo	the Blue

A Set of Four, Set Seven

Game Piece, Yellow
Source: GearWorld
Size: approximately 18mm

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Toxotes
Source: Age of Mythology, Greek
Size: 30mm

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Egyptian Priest
Source: Age of Mythology, Egyptian
Size: 30mm

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Flesh Moulder
Source: Descent: Journeys in the Dark
Size: approximately 35mm