Getting Back to Work now - honest!

The Regimental Padre did a great service this week, with a reading from the Book of Armaments, Chapter 4, Verses 16 to 20:

Then did he raise on high the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, saying, "Bless this, O Lord, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals ... Now did the Lord say, "First thou pullest the Holy Pin. Then thou must count to three. Three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."

(Monty Python, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail")

VSF Factorium Silence...

Indeed the chimneys are smokeless and the steel presses remain silent as I am still enjoying a bit of a consitutional! I'll be back next week and the wheels of modelling industry will once again turn!

In the meantime, enjoy this classic Victorian Recipe!

POIRES AU VIN ROUGE

This pears in red wine dish caters for the Victorian sweet tooth (and ours) you will need:
2 lb (1kg) small pears

8 oz (200g) castor sugar

½ pt (300ml) water

¼ pt (150ml) red wine

small pieces of stick cinnamon

Peel the pears, but leave whole and with the stalks intact. Place close together in a saucepan with sugar, water and cinnamon. Simmer gently, covered with a lid, for 15 minutes. Remove the lid, add the red wine and cook for a further 15 minutes over a low heat.

Drain the pears and place in a deep serving dish. Continue to boil liquid until reduced to a light syrup. Spoon syrup over pears and chill.

I recommend a hefty snifter of Brandy as an excellent companion to this dish!

Prussian Land Striders!

This week saw some clever intelligence delivered to HQ - those Prussians have developed some sort of steam powered land striders. While the armour is too think to stand up to sustained bombardment, they will be devilishly effective is supporting cavalry scouts and infantry skirmishers.




Modelling Notes: Based on GW's plastic epic scale Chaos Dreadnought. Rocket launcher and front filed off, cannon shortened. Added funnels and front windows. Decals by skytrex (WW1 German Range) .

Nobody told you to Stop Working....

Sorry about that Colour Sergeant!

I'm off for a week or so of Leave shortly and hope to finish off my latest VSF creations before I go.

British Quadambulator!

The latest creation from the Royal Armouries....

is the HMLS MAJESTIC, a Land Battleship of hitherto unimagined proportions!

This mechanical marvel boasts 4 independant track systems, each driven by its own cross-connectable boiler for increased redundancy and sustainability in battle.

She boasts multiple light batteries, including a rear facing anti-personnel weapon to cover the blind arc and two mounts with extended elevation for use against flying targets. The primary battery is a massive seige weapon capable of breeching any known fortification....

and of course she comes with the gyrostablised drinks cabinet as a standard fitting!

Modelling Notes: 2 reversed WW1 British Mk IV tanks (from Irregular's 6mm range) with bits added from the spares box, including some BFG turrets and aerial. Flag by Brigade Models

And yes this is a world breaking 4 funnel class Land Ironclad - so the challenge is on!

"Chin-Chin! Do carry on with with your mud-pies!"

Der Prussian Steam Landram

Impressed by the recently demonstrated capabilities by the Maltese Landram in action against the Ottoman Turks, the best German minds got together to develop their own Landram. This was the result...

Recently unveiled at Military exercises on the Northern German plains, this high powered monster has 2 fully independant boiler systems to ensure batteld damage redundancy, and it proovide the best possible ramming speed. The contruction of the ram itself is a state secret but the Krupp steel symbol was obvious to all.

One jocular observer christened this monster "Klein Wilhelm" (Little Willy) but the true designation of the tank is unknown.

Modelling: The Landram is based on an GW Plastic Mk1 Landraider from the Epic range. It is reversed with most of the molded detail filled off. The ram itself is a golf tee (sufficiently mauled to give it the dents and divots) and extra bits added to VSF-ify it. The funnels are solid plastic tubing, drilled out to add the smoke effects. Flag is by Brigade Models

Pavlov's Beast!

Sinister rumours from the St Petersburg area were confirmed recently when a chap I know on secondment to our Embassy there was invited to some military manoeurvres.

It seems that the Tsar has his scientistis fossicking around the Siberian plains and digging up old frozen nastiness, zapping them back into life. Along then comes the renowned Dr Ivan Petrovich Pavlov and voila! - fully training beasts of war stand ready to defend the Motherland!

The Iron Giant

Nobody knows where this mechanical marvel came from, but only an evil and despotic genius could craft such a wonder and turn it to evil purpose! Last seen in the Urkraine, it has been dubbed the "Steel Tsar". It is rumoured to be controlled by those cursed Anarchists who are supporting the recent Cossack rebellion.


All I know is that I hope it remains more than a couple of leagues away from me and my highly prized crystal Scotch decanter !

(Actually, this Figure is from the Star Wars collectible minaitures range. Its No 14/60 (Fringe10) "ASP-7". I dont remember seeing this in the movies, but it does make a great VSF Robot!)

New 28mm Minis Company Puts Out Figures Suitable For VSF!

Hi Guys,

Mike from the SFSFW E-group wrote the following:

http://www.anglianminiatures.co.uk/

Is going to put out (initially) 28mm figures for the SCW, but is promising to do those strange irregular armoured vehicles in 1/56th scale which might just have a use for Science Fiction of VSF type scenarios...

Regards,

Mike.

Sounds interesting...

You can read more from the SFSFW an old gaming club, here:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/SFSFW/

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

More Prussians Sighted!

My spyglass shows more Prussians massing on the boarder! These fat sausage eaters are spoiling for a fight after whipping those Frenchies years ago. And to think that the Kaiser is a relative of our beloved Queen Vic! Here they are all together, the old ones and some new.

Newly arrived are 2 more Companies of Infantry (to make a full 4 Company Battalion), a Squadron of Bavarian Hussars (in green) and 2 Field Artillery Batteries equipped with those very smart new Krupp breach loaders.

Its enough to make one have yet another large Gin and Tonic with a twist of lime.

In fact, I will....

The Martian Invasion

Some spiffing Chap asked for more photos of those dastardly Tripod contraptions, the ones with the dreaded Heat ray and Black Smoke. Well here they are!

I snapped some shots of these two smaller ones, plus one of the largers ones shown at down the page further (models by GZG, supplied by Eureka Miniatures and painted by yours truly).


Here are some action photos taken during the dark days of the Martian Invasion...

This Tripod is one of the smaller ones and was painted by John who sctachbuilt the awesome Landram posted earlier this week. He also has a new Martian machine posted to his Blog "Vanmullikan"
(http://vanmullikan.blogspot.com/)

Aerial Scrap over Mars!

I recently uncovered these photos an old Chum sent me from his posting to the British Martian Regiment. He took this from a reconnaisance flyer during a rather heated scrap over the pyramids near Olympus Mons...

He doesnt recall the exact outcome of the scrap, but remembers it was called Operaton SALUTE 01 or some such muck, and that the General's organisational Staff included some fine chaps from the Wessex Games Regiment or something.

Bravo!

White Wine Sauce Receives International Acclaim!

Well, hello Sir Paul and a Good Day to You!

I'm happy to say that your fine White Whine Sauce is receiving international acclaim... from the hot lands of the Bible to the frozen wastes of the Czar's Expanses...

One of these many notices of your fine creations can be located here:

http://6mm-minis.blogspot.com/

And regarding your recollections:

And last we saw of you Max was when we set off that cracker in the clacker of your camel and he shot off across the Egyptian dunes at high speed. That was back in '76 I think before we shipped out to see off the Zulus. Ahh good times...

It's Maks or Maksim and not Max, you silly Englishman!

You should watch your protocol, old boy, or next thing you know, you may be sent to one of Her Majesty's penal colonies... possibly even that one with Kangaroos and other such strangenesses!

And that stunt with the camel was my fault for agreeing to be one of the Czar's liason officer's to your Queen. I'll hopefully know better next time.

Of course, I remember when you woke up with a donkey after all that time you spent with the hookah, old bean... Ahh good times... (Such good times make one miss even bleak Siberia!)

Well, Mazel Tov and congratulations again, comrade-at-arms! May all your endeavors be great successes!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Anarchists and Air Pirates Sighted!

The scourge of Mankind has been seen on the edge of the Continent, poised to strike at the aerial shipping lanes of the Civilised World!

First seen were these Cutlass Spar Torpedo Vessles. These flthy beasts ram their helpless targets and send them down to oblivion. Hardly a civilised weapon...


The Black Fleet Squadron was led by this vessel, a hardbitten veteran more usually seen in Far Eastern skies. She is the Damnation, formerly of the United States Navy but she dissappeared while on patrol in known pirate waters of the China Station .

The Squadron, commanded by an unknown and un-named enemy of humanity, can only mean further trouble to peace loving people the world over. One can only hope that our stout lads of the Royal Aeronef Srevice can intercept them before they cause more misery and grief.