1/43 Millennium Falcon

I just came accros a large collection imgages that were taken of a scratch built Millennium Falcon. I have to see it to believe the amount of detail in this larger scale model.

Toy Story Special Effects

The Bored Panda has taken over thirty photos of his Toy Story miniatures. There are very whimsical display.

The Tarmuth Layout

Back in November of last year I made a post consiting of a quote from The Scar by China Mieville. The quote described the port of Tarmuth. "The town is full of industrial yards and sidings." There really wasn't al that much of a decription of the town .so I have been trying to envision the town.

Recently I watched Gatsby by Werner Brothers and caught a scene in the movie that made me think about Tarmuth. Its hustle and bustle. Its industry and bleak environment. Its rawness, its dirt, and grime. You just need to believe that the shipyards and building slipways are there somewhere.

Gatsby, Werner Brothers, 2013.

Shoe Shop From a Sketch

A very nice article on the buildings of shoe shop. The structure was built from the authors Seaview Hotel Sketches. I see the author used paper to create clapboard. I very fine build indead.

Incredible Dioramas-Mini Scenes

Happy New Year. Why don't we give this another try?

Taiwanese artist Hank Cheng creates incredible dioramas that are so realistic. Each of the completed dioramas is crafted from wood, metal, and recycled materials. The page features several of Cheng's incredable creations.

Smallest Diorama

Check is out. Guy creates a diorama in a thimble.

When winter first begins to bite:

The wind so whirled a weathercock
He could not hold his tail up;
The frost so nipped a throstlecock
He could not snap a snail up.
‘My case is hard!’ the throstle cried,
And ‘All is vane’ the cock replied;
And so they set their wail up.

Bilbo Baggins

As found in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Tales from the Perilous Realm

Do Avtomat’s Have Memories?

In Daniel Wilsons The Clockwork Dynasty Wilson refers to his clockwork automations (robots) as Avtomat’s. They should not be confused with the Avtomat, the AK-47 combat rifle of Russian origin.

To answer my own question. Yes, it does seem to be true that Avtomats do seem to be able to remember certain details of their past even though they have been around for more than a millennium, perhaps several millenniums?

Here are a few memories from Lu Yan (Peter):

"China 3000 BC

My body is sprawled in the frozen mud of Stalingrad, but my mind is transported to an impression of the past. Memories rush over me like a surge of river water, pulling me under. submerged, visions of my other life appear. Bits and snatches, growing into a tumbling flood of images and sounds that cascade through my mind.

I remember.

In this age I am called Lu Yan. I am holding simple leather reins in gauntleted hands, settled on the wide back of a gray stallion. The horse is strange, with primitive blue-black stripe running along its spine and parallel lines raking over its shoulders. Not a horse, I think.

Somewhere far away. I feel the bark of a blasted tree pressing hard into my spine and weight of Leizu’s sharp knee on my chest. The metal device in her hand sings and sparks as it sends memories crashing through my mind. Sights and sound fall over me, blotting out the cold reality of the war in Stalingrad.

I remember.

In a great cavern, light blazes from hundreds of lanterns hanging from a semicircle of tall stone pillars. Brightly dressed soldiers of all kinds form endless ranks across the room, perfectly still, made of painted pottery. The sculpted clay soldiers stand at arms in battle formation, grids of archers radiating into the fluttering darkness beyond the lamps. Between the soldiers, narrow rivers of quicksilver thread themselves over the expanse in patterns that copy the paths of China’s great rivers.

The cold of Stalingrad is pushed from my mind as another sliver of memory falls. I see Elena’s face painted with bright panic. She has another name here, too-but I recognize my sister’s porcelain cheek, the way it looked in Favorini’s workshop. She and I are running through a primeval forest, hand in hand, wet branches stripping our elaborate silk costumes as we fling ourselves between thick tree trunks.

I remember.

Slipping. I fall over a tree root and roll over a rocky spillway. Scraping my hands through dirt and chalky stone, I scramble back onto all fours. My sister dances more nimbly down the hillside of broken rock, her dress billowing behind. As she throws herself from boulder to boulder, her wrists spill jewelry, hoops of metal and gemstones and ribbons of weightless silk.”

The Clockwork Dynasty, Daniel H. Wilson

Building my Dream Tree house in Miniature

The author of this video is a true artisen. The amount of detail in this model is truly amazing. I was blown away.

40k Terrain from Cardboard Only

Recently, I viewed this twentty-three minute video on creating a 40k Terrain piece totally from cardboard.

Tarmuth A New Diorama?

“The economy or Tarmuth is more than prostitution and piracy. The town is full of industrial yards and sidings. It lives as it has for centuries, on building of ships. The shoreline is punctuated with scores of shipyards, building slipways like weird forests of vertical girders. In some loom ghostly half-completed vessels. The work is ceaseless, load, and filthy.

The streets are crisscrossed with little private railways that take lumber or fuel or whatever from one side of Tarmuth to the other. Each different company has built its own line to link its various concerns and are jealously guarded. The town is an idiotic tangle of railways, all replicating each other’s journey.”

The Scar, China Mieville

Building a Zen Garden Diorama

This is a great fifteen minute video depicting the building of a Zen Garden.

Oceans and Seas of Bas Lag

This is not an exhaustive list of the Oceans and Seas of Bas Lag, but only a first on the geography of the BasLag "the straights, sounds,channels, bays and the bights":

Rime
Boxash
Vassilly
Tarribor
Teuchor
Muted
Swollen
Gentlemens Sea
Spiral Sea
Clock
Hidden...

The Scar, China Mieville

Other Books: Miéville’s Bas-Lag/ New Crobuzon Series (The Scar)

 

I started this category, labeled Special Books back in 2015. This is where I can record lists of books that are mentioned within the story. Most are fictitious in nature, but I still find them intriguing.

I found these titles listed within China Miéville’s , The Scar which the second in his Bas-Lag/ New Crobuzon series. The second volume is has thick as his previous volume (638 pages) in a large format. I would say that you would have close to 1200 pages if it had been published in regular sized book.

This is heady stuff:

Against Bendamburg: A Radical Theory of Waters
Maritime Ecologies

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The Biophysics of Brine
Predation in Iron Bay Rock pools
Sardula Anatomy
Essays on Beasts
Theories of Megafauna
Trans-plane Life as a Problem for the Naturalists

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Caudexes of the Wormseye Scrub
High Kettai Grammatology

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Kriiach Aum