Thursday, 3 May 2007

Zeppelin Raid Safety Tips

I'm off for a week or so on Her Majesty's service, so I'll leave you to ponder this safety tip in the meantime!

When the Zeppelins Come
A FEW USEFUL HINTS FOR PERSONAL SAFETY

The following rules of what to do in case of a Zeppelin raid are given on the authority of the Home office:-

Get indoors as soon as you hear the first bomb fall or the first gun fire, and stay there until the firing is well over.Find the best cover you can. Go down to the lowest floor-the cellar, if you have one. Keep away from the window. Flying splinters of glass are highly dangerous.

Make sure of a plentiful supply of water to put out fires due to incendiary bombs. Dry fine sand and dry fine soil are useful for putting a fire out, but water is the easiest and best safeguard.

Never touch an unexploded bomb or shell.

If you are in the street when a bombardment begins keep cool and make for the best cover you can find. Excitement and thoughtlessness are as bad as fright. If no shelter be available and bombs are dropping near you, throw yourself down on your face. You thereby reduce the mark for rising splinters, and you have a better chance of saving your face.

Do not be in a hurry to come out of your shelter. Remember that even when the Zeppelin had passed over you a shell aimed at her miles away may conceivably drop missiles into your street.

[Shropshire Archive reference: Shrewsbury Chronicle, 16 February 1916] http://www3.shropshire-cc.gov.uk/roots/packages/war/war_z06e.htm

Wednesday, 2 May 2007

Hollow Earth Theory


The Hollow Earth Theory, long discussed by the cleverest minds of our time, but never proved by anyone who came back that it, has been patented!



United States Patent 1096102:The Hollow Earth Theory
by Mark Harp
http://www.nemesi.net/patent.htm




More on Hollow Earth theory here:

Tuesday, 1 May 2007

VSF Rules Updated

Patrick's draft VSF rules have been updated:

"I have some a few more tweaks to The Colonel and Co. located in the shed annex. Mostly just some streamlining of the turn sequence and fiddling with the morale charts. I also separated the templates from the charts.Check them out if you get a chance and let me know what you think.We need another play test, though. I might enlist the boy to help me tonight."

Patrick's Hobby Shed: Updated VSF Rules

If you try them be sure to drop Patrick a line and let him know what you think

The Land that Time Forgot

Bored? Run out of holiday amusement?
Give this cracking read a go!


THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT

by Edgar Rice Burroughs
© Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. ~ Tarzana, California




You can find a free online version here:
http://www.erbzine.com/craft/o8ltf.html


Sunday, 29 April 2007

Beneath the Waves

Just cant wait for Aquanef any longer? These interesting rules may keep your boiler steaming in the meantime!



"BtW is a simple fast played board game where you battle steampunk submarines against each other. The game involves crew management, planned movement, all sorts of weapons and more. All you need is provided here except some dice and luck.BtW is played as a board game but can also be played an as huge floor-top game the way we done it at shows. But you don't need to go that far, using cardboard and paper gets you far enough, or you might build some small submarines from scratch. Take a look of what we have done to find some inspiration for your game."


http://www.pm-production.nu/beneath-the-waves.php

Saturday, 28 April 2007

Brigade pre-Release sneak peak

David has followed his review of his Brigade pre-releases (see entry for 26 April) with some pics.
"I've gone for a size-comparison approach, using some of the well-known bits of Irregular's scenery (don't ask we which bits!) and a couple of downed nef's (advantage of magnetic inserts) for comparison."

First of all, the new naval platforms with a few larger Aeronefs for size comparison:

Next, some closeups of the LI and Martian bits next to some Irregular terrain and AA batteries for scale


Many thanks indeed David - those ranges fit very well togetherand the scale comparison is very useful. Its obviously a picture of Mayberry Hill with that crashed cylinder there!

Cheers!

Friday, 27 April 2007

Green Blood and Red Blood for Mars

Found this interesting tidbit today...from the wonderfully named "Deep Fried Happy Mice: The World’s First Online Miniatures Restaurant (Please Wait To Be Seated)"

"Green Blood and Red Blood for Mars was originally published to cover tactical mass warfare on Mars during the Victorian Science Fiction Era of the late 1800s. Units with twenty men as well as those with 500 men can be represented on the board.

Scales
One casting = 10 men
One turn = one minute
20mm+ castings : One inch = ten yards OR One centimeter = 5 yards
15mm /6mm castings : One inch = twenty yards OR One centimeter = 10 yards."

http://www.deepfriedhappymice.com/html/gw_vsf_ice.html

Hmmm....Blue, Green and Yellow Martians, 6 and 8 legged natives beasts...I wonder how they would go with a conversion for 2mm?

Thursday, 26 April 2007

Brigade website updated

As promised, the Brigade Models website has been updated with pics of their newest releases, including this lovely Turkish war Balloon! (several of which will shortly be deployed to my garage for scientific research)

You can see "whats new" from the Brigade Home page here, with direct linkages to the pics of the new Nefs - enjoy!

Wednesday, 25 April 2007

New Brigade Models reviewed

David from the Wessex Games VSF has posted some reviews on the latest from brigade which he managed to pik up at SALUTE. This is what he says:

Here's my thoughts on the pre-production stuff from Brigade.
Please note that the production moulds may differ!

Naval
Landing craft and mortar barge.
Cracking models, well finished to usual Brigage style/standard. Landers come in large (45x20mm) & small (13x10) Is there a medium? Barge is snappy, deep with seperate mortar, 20x10 All could supply nef conversions.

Aussie Ironclad.
Nice model, slick, crisp, good small detail. 55x11.

Other river monitor or similar?
Uses Yank turrets and lots of them, so I'm guessing this is a static defensive piece of Yank design. No doubt my attempts at assembly will differ from the intended! The high control tower (24) call out to be put on a carrier!

Martians
Oh! The cylinders! Showing them to a non-player, she identified them correctly. That's the way to do it! I have 2 different, one slightly longer base, second unscrewed. Martians are difficult to tell apart in a zip lock bag, but here goes!

3 legged walker
1) has 4 legs and a heat ray3 legged walker
2) has 3 legs and a long probiscus(!)
4 legged walker has 5 legs and 2 collector/close combat type claws

Tall walker
1) is 4 legged with heat ray Tall walker
2) is 3 legged with probiscus.

I didn't get any bases.As the bodies are all the same size with minor differences in attatchment sockets, you can mix & match to make a variety of models. The addition of extra legs is gonna lead to some interesting conversions!


Tony from Brigade has since clarified "We probably won't ship the bases with the models after all - they are such a chunk of metal that they will distort the price, plus they don't fit Li basing standards ! We might offer them seperately."

Land Leviathans

French medium, comes with double-ended top shown or second with one big gun. 25x10mm

Some of these have wooden decks! Remember the post about Venusians? Russian cheap production jobs? Love the tall wheeled job. A Yank, maybe, part of a new land train? I like the idea of seperate/changeable tops. I have the idea that a few real giants are coming, Ogre style!All smaller contraptions come on sprue of 3 different. Brits are 10x5mm, turn any of them over and there's enough detail to use them as destroyed decoration on bases. Germans and French are a little smaller. Lone possibly French large contraption, 18x7mm of sleek cruser? Really nice sculpt, tracks are quite seperate from main body, rear twin guns are very crisp. My Russian sprues come with only 2, one being the Dmitriev Land Cruiser, 14x4, and the other a fantastic little armoured car type reminiscent of a bren carrier or "funny", 4mm square!

That's all folks, now wait for the pikkies!

Tony from Brigade also said "I'll be updating our website with these (and more) this week."

Thanks very much for the detailed information David - Great stuff!

Saturday, 21 April 2007

New Aeronefs Launched!

.
Brigade have announced their latest releases, just in time for SALUTE (for those of you lucky to live in Old Blighty!)

US Lincoln class Battleship £6.00
US Baton Rouge class Cruiser £3.00
US Saginaw class Frigate £1.00

.
US Decatur class Frigate £1.00
US Fleet Pack #3 £18 (contains two of each of the above)

Turkish Sakarya class Dig Destroyer £1.75
Turkish War Balloon £1.50

Russian Strashchni class Destroyer £1.25

German DA-19 class Torpedo Frigate
.
A few weeks ago they also made available some bits for those who wish to up-gun their existing nefs, or even for loading into an indig. design
.
.
Looks like the arms race is alive and well!
Hopefully, they will updates and have other pictures on their website shortly!
.

Monday, 2 April 2007

WOTW by GASLIGHT

Giant (Reviresco) tripods smash through the English countryside, but the gunners of the Royal Artillery have set an ambush. Several are smashed down, their alien occupants splashed to oblivion!

Saturday, 31 March 2007

Land Ironclads delayed, but new pics at Brigade Models

Sadly there is news that the Land Ironclad rules by Wessex (for which I was also fortunate to be a playetster) will be delayed. Initially due for release at SALUTE, the influx of real life work to the boys at Wessex has necessitated a delay. There is an official relase at TMP about it http://theminiaturespage.com/news/945758/



As Brigade Models are synchronising their LI model range's release with the rules, they will be delayed also. But the good news is that the Brigade Models Design Page has been updated with some nice pics of painted protoypes of their forthcoming LI range. There are some crackers there (such as the British contraptions shown here), and now you have more time to plan your purchases!

http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/Frames/New/index.html

Saturday, 24 March 2007

Gaming News: Grimm's Lost World (26 March 2007)

.
Visit exciting & exotic Grimm's World, home to the fauna and flora that time forgot!

Hi Everyone,

Ace Reporter Maksim-Smelchak reporting from Grimm Port, fantastic entryway to THE LOST WORLD!

There are many beautiful women on the island even if the clothing is at times lacking!
Solution: Don't wear ANY!

Continuing the Lost World theme running lately here at YIAWWS, you may wish to look up Grimm's verison of it. Here are some lovely figures (...beautiful women, dashing heroes, salty sailors, etc.), beautifully painted and well photographed. Inspiring stuff!

Digging expeditions are available for the eggheads in your party!
You never know just what you might turn up!

And don't forget to check out his other very impressive galleries as well!

Find the site HERE:
http://grimm.backofbeyond.de/gallery_lost_world.html


In such a beautiful and pristine environment, the local animals really GROW!
Here, some locals are interacting with a cute and fuzzy animal!

Ace Reporter Maksim-Smelchak signing off!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures: These are not all my images. I am using various images from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

Thursday, 22 March 2007

Professor Longfellow's Field Guide to Badly Painted Dinosaurs

That saucy scientist Professor Priscilla Longfellow has published an account of her incredible Camp Cretaceous. Filled with great steroscopic images of her specimens, it is guaranteed to give you a good idea of what you are going after before you see it through a gunsight!



Prof. Longfellow poses in front of her prize Brachiosaurus at Camp Cretaceous. Pic from Professor Longfellow's Field Guide site.

Good show Professor. Perhaps we could chat more about your adventures over dinner eh?!

http://www.geocities.com/tempest_raiko/index.html

Tuesday, 20 March 2007

More Dino Hunters!

Come meet Lord and Lady Bloominton, their friends Sir Samuel Baker, Lord and Lady Manchester and their guides. Some lovely individuals gagging to bag some big game on a Saurian Safari!

http://www.twfigurines.de/vict/vict2.htm

An exploration of debauchery, vice and other reasons to be a man!

An exploration of debauchery, vice and other reasons to be a man!