Ahoy and pass the Rum ye Scallywags!

Dont pretend you dont know what day it is! http://www.talklikeapirate.com/

Think I'll go walk the Quarterdeck with Capt'n Peaches...

Scientific Adventure Violence for Young Men and Literate Women

The year's foremost journal of progressive armaments and weaponry! Behold the latest line of defense captured in action!

The second book to emerge from the printshop at Grordbort Industries, Victory follows in the footsteps of the trans-galactically successful Dr Grordbort's Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory that was released last year.

Filled to the brim with first hand tales of exploration and progress from the great heroes of our time, picture strips of unimaginable escapades on the frontier, never-seen-before portraits of dazzling damsels and monstrous villains, and laudable accounts of man and robot pitted against our greatest enemy (the uncivilized world), Victory is an onslaught of action-packed scientific adventure in full-spectrum color - containing facts that every boy and literate girl should know.

Written and illustrated by Weta Workshop Conceptual Designer Greg Broadmore, this book sumptuously details a science-fiction history that never was. Hearkening back to the classic sci-fi serials of yesteryear, it reveals the backstories and mythos of Weta Limited's highly limited ray gun collectible line.

This gorgeous 64 page full-color hardcover will be available mid-November.

You can pre-order now (I already have!) directly from Weta here:
http://www.wetanz.com/victory/

British Leviathans

More Monsters in the Sky design development, this time its the British, who are looking great.
Check out the sketches and leave some feedback!

http://monstersinthesky.com/2009/09/15/evolution-of-the-british-leviathan-part-2/

The Mystery of the Russalka

I found this interesting article online, detailing some of the lack of seaworthiness of early ironclads. Or what it those mysterious Atlanteans....

Tsar's Battleship lost at sea in 1893.
by Christopher Eger

Background
The Russalka (Mermaid), a 204foot long ironclad monitor built just months after the loss of the famous USS Monitor, eventually followed her American cousin to the same fate. Built in 1867 she suffered -like the Monitor- from a very low freeboard and poor sea keeping abilities. This led to insufficient flood ability and damage stability. After a quiet 25 years service on the Baltic the poorly designed warship left harbor on her final patrol. She had become largely obsolete and had since past from her place as a first-line battleship to that of a training ship assigned to the Gunnery Training Squadron.

Last Voyage of the Russalka
Never firing a shot in war, the HIH Tsar Alexander’s Imperial Russian Naval Battleship Russalka, sailed from the port of Tallinn (now in Estonia) to Helsingfors (currently Helsinki, Finland) on September 7, 1893. Today this is a regular 80km two hour express ferry service between the capitols of two Baltic countries. In 1893 this was an all day crossing from one Russian naval port to another. That morning the Russalka was to sail with another ship in her squadron, the gunboat Cloud ("Tutysa") at 0730. However Captain 1st Class Victor Hristianovich Ienish arrived aboard the Russalka an hour late from hospital due to a headache caused by concussion received just a few days earlier and the battleship cast off to sea at 0830, trailing her companion.

The morning started with a calm gentle breeze and 2 foot seas but with a gale forecasted. Some 17 miles north of Tallinn the pair of ships had closed to within a half mile of each other but the seas had grown considerably. By lunchtime the Clouds ship's log was noting sea state 5 conditions (16-20 kt winds, 6ft seas with long waves). Having to close her deck air intakes to prevent water from swamping the engines, the Russalka's speed dropped considerably and the distance between the two ships increased. The seas and wind increased to a strong gale and the two ships became further and further separated. Eventually they were over the horizon from each other, separated by the then 40 kt winds and 20 foot rolling waves of a fierce Baltic storm. The Cloud arrived in Helsingfors at 1500 and waited for her companion. She was to have a very long wait.

The Search for the Russalka
The next morning when the Russalka did not appear either in Helsingfors or back in Tallinn, Rear Admiral Buracheka ordered a search by all available ships. For 37 days dozens of ships crossed the Gulf of Finland looking for the overdue battleship but only found remnants. The Russalka's lifeboats were found un-used as if washed off deck and cast about the sea as were empty lifebelts and life rings. On September 15 the body of seaman 2nd class Ivan Prunskogo, a lookout from the Russalka washed ashore near the fortress of Sveaborg (now Suomenlinna). He was the only soul of the 12 officers and 165 crewmen to ever be found. A court of inquiry led by Rear Admiral Syridov found that Rear Admiral Buracheka, commander of the Gunnery Training Squadron had been negligent in ordering the ships to sea with bad weather on the horizon. Captain 2nd Rate Nikolay Mikhailovich Luzhkov, commander of the Cloud was dismissed from the service for leaving the Russalka alone during the storm. He would later die in the naval hospital at Kronstadt a broken man after his only son would die a hero a decade later aboard the Russian battleship Petropavlosk during the Russo-Japanese war.

The Russalka Remembered
The name Russalka was retired from the rolls of the Russian Navy and in 1902 a monument of an angel with outstretched arms named after the ship was placed on Kadriorg beach in Tallinn. Pointed at 23 degrees, the course the Russalka took towards Helsingfors, it was made of Finnish granite and carved by Estonian sculptor Amandus Adamason. To this day flowers and wreaths are laid at the feet of the angel for the lost souls.

In July 2003 the Russalka was found at the depth 74 meters some 25 miles south of Helsinki by the Estonian State Maritime Museum (Meremuuseum) research vessel Mare. The wreck is standing vertically almost upright, with her bow deep in the mud and the stern rising some 100 feet from the bottom. Now that she has been located after 110 years an investigation is under way to finally determine how the Russalka was lost.

Read more: http://ww1history.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_mystery_of_the_russalka
http://ww1history.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_tsars_battleship_russalka

A real Land that Time Forgot!

and right on my doorstep too!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/07/discovery-species-papua-new-guinea

Time to load up the Nef with my trusty dino-hunting gear and see if there is any "big game" there...

Strategic targets

I just found these while rummaging around in my bits cupboard and thought I'd share an idea I had.
Last year I visited London (and enjoyed a few ales eh DC?) and grabbed a few of these resin buildings from a cheezy souvenir vendor for about 1 pound each. Lovely detail and pre-painted.


So, Buckingham Palace or French chateau? Tower of London or enemy fortified building? St Paul's Cathedral or enemy parliament house? A lick of paint round the edging, neglected so far I must admit, and some nice buildings are had very cheap for minimal effort!

Now if only I could find those Revell Hindenburgs (which DC put me onto) that I was looking for in the first place....

Maquis Fleet

Lertia has posted pic of her French Maquis fleet to the Brigade Models forums.

She has used some unique colours in a crisps style for a uniue 'parade style' appearance - good stuff!

http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=822

There are more pics of this fleet at the Facebook Aeronef group

Sedales Serpent

Vehicle design for the Iron Grip game series from Isotx.

A bit more on the pulp Nef side than the VSF genre in my opinion, but very kewl!

http://keiththompsonart.com/pages/sedalesserpent.html

Ragnarok 55 out and about

The latest SFSFW magazine has been released and the mail packet delivered some to the colonies yesterday. Two particular VSF treats in this edition:

Firstly, an Aeronef scenario set in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871 which pits a combined Franco-Swiss force against some aggressive Germanic types. Nice!

And secondly, the back cover sports a pic of Wessex's (infamous) Battle of the Pyramids which was taken by me at Salute back in 2001 (when I met Mssr Blease). OK, its not a major drawcard but I was chuffed to see it there!


You can get Rag 55 from SFSFW:
http://sfsfw.blogspot.com/2009/08/ragnarok-55-pdf-available-at-wargame.html

Nordenfelt class Turkish Submarine

Thorsten Nordenfelt built the Nordenfelt II (Abdülhamid) in 1886 and Nordenfelt III (Abdülmecid) in 1887, a pair of 30 metre long submarines with twin torpedo tubes, for the Ottoman Empire navy. Abdülhamid became the first submarine in history to fire a torpedo while submerged under water. Nordenfelt's efforts culminated in 1887 with the Nordenfelt IV which had twin motors and twin torpedoes. It was sold to the Russians, but proved unstable and ran aground off Jutland; when the Russians refused to pay for it, it was scrapped.

Abdülhamid and Abdülmecid were found by Germany in Istanbul in 1914. The submarines were briefly considered for use in harbour defence but it was found that their hulls were too badly corroded.

More Brits

Here are some closeups of Nuno's British Nefs, which I showcased here last week.

He informs me that his painting technique was:
- white undercoat which was left showing in the sides of the superstructures and the masts as well as the tail of the nefs
- GW chaos black hull side
- GW Sepia wash on the decking
- GW foundation astronomican grey in the turrets
- GW foundation adeptus battlegrey in the cannons and the center of the large turrets
- GW foundation tausept ochre on the chimneys

I've updated the entry on his Greman nefs to detail the paint scheme too.

Thanks for sharing mate, I thin they've come out beautifully. Well done old Boy!

Index Reorganised

I'm currently going through the labels assigned to almost four years of posts and adding, where appropriate, an extra designation for the relevant Empire to which a specific unit or model might belong.

This means that one can, with a click, see all the Aeronef, Astronef or Land Ironclads belonging to that nation which have been posted here. Thats should help trawling about or looking for inspiration. Enjoy!

Shiny Italians!

Ruarigh has posted pics of his Italian Aerofleet, bolstered by some newly purchased and British built Stingray class torpedo nefs. You can see them on his "Ooh, Shiny Complex' blog here:

http://ooh-shiny-complex.blogspot.com/2009/08/italians-buy-british-boats-shocker.html

Nice one Ruarigh, looking forward to seeing more!

Aeronef meets Full Thrust

Another good find by those fine chaps over at 15mm VSF - Nefs battling it out over a Sun using FT rules!

http://www.geocities.com/mxconnell/GZG8/space.html

Monsters in the Sky artwork

In case you missed it (like I did in my hiatus), there is some very kewl airship artwork up from the Monsters in the Sky project at the Catalyst games website:

http://monstersinthesky.com/?page_id=155