Monday, May 23, 2016
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Dust, Tears & Dice: Laserburn - Imperial Commander - A real blast from...
Dust, Tears & Dice: Laserburn - Imperial Commander - A real blast from...: It must be my age. These has been a real hankering of late to go back to the early 1980's and swap the all glossly and background...
I'm thinking of doing a VSF version of these classic rules.
Monday, May 9, 2016
Austin-Kegresse By Shouting Into The Void
Here's Peter's 1/100 scale (15mm) Austin-Kegresse half-track. It's a WW1-vintage machine, based on the Austin-Putilov armoured car, that went on for use after the war by the Red Army as well as organisations like the German Freikorps.
Friday, May 6, 2016
Lanchester Mk.II BY Shouting Into The Void
This is my 1:100 scale (15mm) Lanchester Mk.II that I had printed in high-definition black acrylate by Shapeways. The color is supposed to be the British army's *Deep Bronze Green*, their standard peace-time color for AFVs on home service during the interwar period. It's a color that consistently defeats me; I can never seem to get close to it. Vallejo do a Bronze Green in their VMC range, but it's nothing like the army color, being more like the color of actual green bronze.
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Monday, May 2, 2016
Her Majesty's Steam Land-Ship Improbable
From: Peter Fitzpatrick at Shouting Into The Void
Her Majesty's Steam Land-Ship Improbable is ready now to go steaming across the veldt.
Except that now that I look, I suddenly realise that I completely forgot the funnel.
Bugger.
So, not quite finished. But nearly!
Her Majesty's Steam Land-Ship Improbable is ready now to go steaming across the veldt.
Except that now that I look, I suddenly realise that I completely forgot the funnel.
Bugger.
So, not quite finished. But nearly!
A bit later....
I added the funnels and replaced the pictures, so now I'm done.
Friday, April 22, 2016
Earthmen On Mars!
Since my free trial of both PhotoShop and Paintshop Pro have run out, I have to take a short break from *Rough Riders On Mars!* for a bit (until I can buy one of them). So I'll take this time to post some pictures of the Earthlings that will be used for my *Edison's Conquest Of Mars! *games. These are 15mm figures of my own design (except for British 9pdr which is Minifig and the US and French guns that were designed by Richard Huston). *Edison's Conquest Of Mars! *allows for a wide variety of nationalities, however, at this time I have only French, German, British, and American uni...
Monday, April 18, 2016
All Quiet On The Martian Front: Germans
In keeping with my "All Quiet On The Martian Front" project and stealing liberally
from other sources, namely the BBC 's "THE GREAT MARTIAN WAR" . I thought
I'd do a German faction since I already had this monster built several years ago......)
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Her Majesty's Steam-Landship "Improbable"
I have begun work on an imaginary VSF (that's *Victorian Science Fiction*) steam-powered land-ship in 15mm scale. So far, I've only completed the front wheel assembly, and the front gunner's position with its Gatling gun. I haven't done any preparatory drawings for this thing, and I'm just making it up as I go along, which is proving to be both easier and harder than working from plans. Easier, because I don't have to worry too much about dimensions, except to cater to 3d-printing limitations, and harder, because I have only the vaguest idea of how it will end up looking, so I have... more »
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Saturday, April 2, 2016
Rebel Minis' Famous Spring Sale
Rebel Minis' Famous Spring Sale
It's that time again for Rebel Minis' famous Spring Sale! Everything on the site is 20% Off! That's Right! 20% off with coupon code Spring16! The sale goes from now to April 17th!
Every year packs sell out but we will keep them on the site, back order them at the discounted price and ship them to you when they come in!
Share and Spread the Word!
Check out everything at www.Rebelminis.comTuesday, March 29, 2016
Rolls Royce conversion from Shouting Into The Void
Here's another conversion of Battlefront's Rolls Royce armoured car, this time to (sort of) the 1916 version, using my 3d-printed conversion set from Shapeways. I didn't do anything about the spare wheels, which should also be spoked, so I probably should add another couple of single wheels to the set. Again, I rather regret being a cheapskate and going for WSF plastic instead of high-resolution FUD resin, even more so than in my other conversion, because the WSF really didn't resolve the wheel spokes much at all, and I had to paint them in, which is not nearly as good.
Rolls Royce Conversion
Friday, March 25, 2016
Martian Miniatures by Chris' Minature Wargaming
To those of you that have been following *Rough Riders On Mars!*, first let me express my gratitude for you interest in that project. Thank you. Let me assure you that Teddy and the gang will have their hands full of intrigues and hostiles before too much longer, probably about chapter 8 or so. The idea of *Rough Riders On Mars!* came to me after I completed the initial draft of my *Edison's Conquest Of Mars* wargame rules. These rules are somewhat based on the novel by Garret P. Serviss of the same title as well as elements from numerous other sword and planet novels. Currently, th... more »
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
The Great Martian War
“What if?” Literary scholars say that question has driven science fiction since time immemorial, and the made-for-TV movie The Great Martian War poses a doozy: What if Mars invaded Earth in 1913?
The Great Martian War isn’t a sci-fi B picture exactly. It airs on History and has been carefully crafted to look, sound and feel like a historical documentary, complete with grainy archival footage, witness testimony from aging survivors and the analysis and deconstruction of present-day experts.
The Great Martian War combines computer-generated images of alien invaders and film footage from the First World War to create the illusion that a Martian invasion actually happened. Think of it as Orson Welles’s The War of the Worlds crossed with Woody Allen’s Zelig, dressed up as a historical documentary, complete with portentous narration (“A century ago these fields were the bloody arena for the most terrible conflict in human history …”) and brooding, “important” background music.
“We were fighting monsters!” an elderly witness recalls, decades later.
Another elderly witness recalls, in a shaking, halting voice, “There was life beyond our planet! It went against everything I was raised to believe … An entire generation of young men, all of them vanished.”
Whether The Great Martian War is for you will depend a lot on your sensibilities. More serious-minded viewers may be offended that actual First World War film footage of a real, bloody conflict involving actual living, breathing people has been manipulated for use in a sci-fi pulp adventure.
Many viewers, though — most, perhaps — will be drawn in by the compelling way The Great Martian War poses its central mystery. It’s silly, sure, yet strangely addictive. It uses every filmmaking trick in the history documentarian’s playbook, from grainy archival footage to the testimony of present-day experts such as “war historian and broadcaster” Duncan Mitchell Myers, who explains how an unexplained explosion in the middle of Germany’s Black Forest triggered a rush to war.
At two hours, The Great Martian War seems repetitive at times, a little like a one-joke comedy stretched too long. It’s cleverly put together, though, with small, welcome touches like war vet Hughie Logan “of Calgary, Canada” — “filmed in 1987,” according to the caption — who recalls that going to war meant leaving loved ones behind at home to ponder his fate on the battlefield.
The Great Martian War isn’t mere pulp entertainment. The centenary commemorations of the First World War — the actual war — are just around the corner. In an indirect, almost offhand way, The Great Martian War seems calculated to appeal to a younger generation raised to believe that historical documentaries are tedious and uninspiring.
The Great Martian War may remind some moviegoers of the 2004 Gwyneth Paltrow film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which was filmed in sepia tones and set in an alternative 1939. There’s an almost heedless energy to the way The Great Martian War tells its story. It’s a novelty, but an inventive and surprisingly engaging novelty. Provided, that is, one doesn’t take it too seriously. It’s not Ken Burns, after all.
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