Les mystères de l'opium #2

“Boy, another pipe. Sweet to me this chance.
And the airborne gold where sleep’s steps are muffled.
But no, stay o boy, don’t you hear,
The silent god who knocks at the ebony door?”

Paul-Jean Toulet, Les Contrerimes

Les mystères de l'opium

“And the least foolish, intrepid lovers of disorder,
Fleeing the heard restrained by Destiny,
Take refuge in Opium's vastness!”

Le Voyage

---

“More than fidelity, opium,

night,

I desire the elixir of your lips where love flaunts

itself”

Les Fleur du Mal

Charles Baudelaire

An Encrypted Message for Lord Grandrith

“The goblin has gone mad, and he is our enemy and the enemy of our enemies, his former friend. The goblin is holed up, but we are digging him out.”

Brass Bwona (Doc Caliban)

The Goblin probably refers to Iwaldi, the ancient dwarf and one of the nine. Iwaldi was at least ten thousand years old and possible could even be thirty thousand years old.

Lord of the Trees, Philip Jose Farmer

A Tale of Two Universes

In his introduction to Philip Jose Farmers “Lord of the Trees”, Scott Eckert has made more than few observations about Farmer’s work and his characters. There is much I will not comment on, however there are a few points of his introduction I would like to share.

Farmer wrote three novels about the nine and as is usually the case I did not read them in succession, I read them in the order I was able to obtain them. They are:

“A Feast Unknown”
“Lord of the Trees”
“The Mad Goblin”

I have read the other two, with “The Mad Goblin” being my first introduction to the “Nine”, and then “A Feast Unknown”, which was the most disturbing of Farmer’s work I had read up to the point, and now I start second of the series as my last read from the series.

“The Nine are a secret sect of immortals (those who have partaken of immortality elixir that extends one’s life up to 30,000 years) bent on amassing power and manipulating the course of events.”V

There are always mentions of other texts. Texts that are meant to fill-in-the blanks as to the history of the Wold Newton Family, like Farmer’s “Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke”, and “Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life”, both fictional biographies. Both are on my Farmer reading list.

Tom's Spaceship Miniature & Game Lists

Tom has collected an extensive list of resources on spaceship miniatures and games in an old directory like fashion. The pages include items currently available and items no longer available.

Adam Savage's One Day Builds: Scratch-Built Spaceship!

Here is another scratch build from Adam Savage's One Day Builds

Although Adam Savage has been at it for some time, I am still inspired by watching Adam work. I am still a long way off from Adams skill level, but I do want to move forward and improve my scratch-building skills.

P.S. I had wanted to get to a couple more post last month. I had other projects and a deadline I had to meet. I never go to the posts. Hopefully, I will get to post them this month.

The Miniatures Calendar

The Miniatures Calendar has been existence April 2011 and has featured one small miniature scene each day since then. The author, at least, makes some use of Preiser figures. I cannot vouch for the size of his miniatures, but I am guessing that they with HO or N-gauge.

More Inspirational Dioramas

I just found another page with some amazing miniature dioramas from Tokyo artist Satoshi Araki.

Over the Top Dioramas

Judging from his work Luke Towan has been creating "over the top" diorama's for some time. I have watched several tutorials of Luke's and I am simply amazed. The videos introduce one fabulous step after another. Just when you thought that there couldn't be another feature that could possible be added to the diorama, Luke introduces you to some new feature.

Working with Polystrene

Working with polystyrene never looked so easy.

Paper Napkins and Industrial Towels (Materials)

I am always on the look-out for scratch building supplies, especially for those that are free. Recently I came across this “natural” colored napkin. Looking closely at its pattern I noticed how it resembled roof shingles. I have used a paper-towel to represent a shingled roof once before.

Digging through one of my supply boxes I found a couple more examples of paper towel/napkins. I had wanted to create a shingled shack and I might try to use the napkin for this purpose. I will keep you informed…

Materials - Balsa Strips

I recently found this pack of 50 balsa slabs on Ebay. These miniature “slabs" measure ¾ wide by 2 inch long and are 1/16 inch thick. They measure 5 foot wide by 14.5 foot long in HO scale. They come neatly and tightly packaged and they cost me $4.43, including postage. Balsa is lite and it takes to distressing well. I will cut these to a scale 1 foot boards and build a few board on board sheds, shacks, or shanties.

Extras From Farmer’s Flesh

Farmer's "other" worlds novel's Flesh front cover.

“Farmer is no moralist and is not concerned with character arcs. He is a scientist and explorer mixing civilizations and ideas and observing the results.”

Some other topics covered in his short discussion on Farmer’s “Flesh” novel.

Dystopia

Millennium, John Varley; Dune, Frank Hubert; The Sheep Look Up, John Brunner

Dystopia-Depopulation

Seventy Years of Decpop, Farmer
I Am a Legend, Richard Matheson

Robert Heinlein

The Rise of Robert Heinlein

Highs and Lows of Robert Heinlein

Michael A. Boron, penned Flesh’s second afterward

Dr. Calthop

“Man, is his blindness, greed, and arrogance, has fouled the God given earth. His ant-heap cities have emptied their filth into the rivers and the sea and turned them into vast sewers. He has poised the air with deadly fumes. These fumes, I suppose, were not only products of industry but of radioactivity…”

Dr. Calthop

Flesh, Philip José Farmer

I have just completed the last in Farmers Grand Master series.