Dr Grordbort's Infallible Aether Oscillators & other Marvellous Contraptions!

An incredible website, selling all manner of revolutionary equipment including the latest in steam powered rayguns, including the MANMELTER 3600ZX Sub-Atomic Disintegrator Pistol and the GOLIATHON 83 Infinity Beam Projector, shown here by Dr Grordbort's lovely neice Leila.

Even if you arent in the market for the latest in death ray breaththroughs, you must check this site out!

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Also includes a "Bestiary of the Cosmos" section with the latest zoological discoveries, including the Vesuian Double Backed Shrovel and the Mountain Meat Beetle.

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http://www.wetanz.com/holics/index.php?catid=4

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Thanks for the great link Maks!

It pays to be a student of History...

"It is disgusting to notice the increase in the quantity of coffee used by my subjects, and the amount of money that goes out of the country as a consequence. Everybody is using coffee; this must be prevented. His Majesty was brought up on beer, and so were both his ancestors and officers. Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer, and the King does not believe that coffee-drinking soldiers can be relied upon to endure hardships in case of another war."

- Frederick the Great of Prussia (1777)

Now here is a quote to live, fight and die by!
Just look at his eyes and you can see the DTs setting in...Huzzah!

HMAS Platypus revealed!

That Mad Genius Vanmullikan reveals his latest works!


Fans of Dr. Who will know of the establishment of the Torchwood Institute in the latter days of the reign of HM Queen Victoria. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torchwood_Institute)


A few ships have on occasion been assigned to Torchwood, in particular during the Martian invasions and the Venetian incident. This includes the HMAS Platypus flying the Torchwood flag. Now all I need is a police box of the same scale.

Another great and original peice from Mssr Vanvlak - thanks for sharing matey!

OTTENSteam

Today I received the following delightful telegram:

Dear Sir,

I visited your excellent blog, and I thought that my own website might be of interest to you---OTTENSteam features articles and galleries about Steampunk, Dieselpunk, and Retro-Futurism and may be found at the following address,

http://www.robsacc.nl/_ottens/steampunk.html

You may notice that OTTENSteam is part of a much larger website, named simply OTTENS, which also offers a History section featuring architecture, the occult, and articles about the mysteries and wonder weapons of the Third Reich.

Yours Faithfully,

"Ottens"

---------------------------

Thankyou Ottens, I really appreciate your message. I like your website too.

For those who havent yet been there its described as:

"Welcome to OTTENSteam, offering articles and galleries about Steampunk, related genres and Retro-futurism. Recent additions to this section are listed below. Updates to this section will be announced on this page.

Steampunk is a subgenre of speculative fiction, usually set in an anachronistic Victorian alternate history setting. What is known today as Steampunk has its beginnings in the early days of Victorian penny dreadfuls and the encyclopedic novels of Jules Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires. An increasingly literate public took advantage of the opportunities for adventure and high romance offered them by Verne, H.G. Wells, H. Rider Haggard, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Rice Burrougs, as well as the macabre tales of Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and others. Steampunk is in part a nostalgic reclamation of Victorian and Edwardian Scientific Romances, imperialist adventures, Edisonades and Voyages Extraordinaires, reminiscing about a more elegant age of adventure that never really existed"

VSF Spider Robot

I picked up a nifty VSF spider robot the other day, from the Star Wars collection. Its a "Guild Homing Spider Droid" - minimal conversion required only IMHO. Just add a smokestack for steampunk!

Victorian Names For Heroes, Cads & Others!

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If you’re looking for an authentic name for your Victorian-era characters, heroes and cads, here are a couple of sites that may be of assistance:

“Victorian Era Names circa 1840’s-1890’s Being a compilation drawn from old census and vital statistic records” offers a lengthy list of the same

This site also has some crackers!
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~poindexterfamily/OldNames.html

Enjoy!

The Martian War

The other book I read while touring the Kingdom of Thailand was this:

The Martian War: A Thrilling Eyewitness Account of the Recent Invasion As Reported by Mr. H.G. Wells
by Gabriel Mesta (AKA Kevin J. Anderson)

This is a very different take on the WOTW concept, one in which all of Wells's stories are based on factual events. Working for the secret Imperial Institute in London, he cannot divulge his adventures in any fashion other than fictional stories for the paper. Cavourite spheres, invisibility potions, germ warfare, lunar beings, tentacled Martians, battle tripods, Professor Huxley, Dr Moreau, Percival Lowell - it's a grand cast of period characters and materials.

The plot of this book is therefore a completely different one to the traditional WOTW stories and I found it quite enchanting. An easy read in the Victorian period literary style, I found it quite compelling and hard to put down.

I give it 9/10

You can read other reviews of this book at Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/Martian-War-Thrilling-Eyewitness-Invasion/dp/0743446550/ref=sr_1_2/102-9120740-3087328?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179136658&sr=1-2

War of the Worlds: Next Millenium

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War of the Worlds: New Millennium

by: Douglas Niles

I just spent 10 days in the Kingdom of Siam, enjoying this book that Maksim, fellow White Wine Saucer and ace reporter, most kindly sent me as a gift a few weeks ago. Thanks awfully, old boy, and to thank you, here is White Wine Sauce's first ever book review!

The traditional WOTW story translated into a contemporary context, but it is NOT a novel of the recent Tom Cruise film. Think more Wells with Tom Clancy techno-military detail.

Its a very easy read with a fast paced and engaging story, though some technical blunders along the way do marr it just a little (...then again, VSF'ers aren't normally too interested in such nuances!).

Almost all the plotlines of the original Wells masterpeice are represented here including the Battle of Maybury Hill, the Artilleryman, the Thunderchild, etc. but are not the same as the original. Spotting the similarities was fun. The only one I couldn't see was the parson episode and being trapped under a cylinder. Without spoiling the plot, the ending also has a nice twist on the original.

Overall, an absorbing and enjoyable read which stays true to the spirit of Wells.

I give it 7.5/10

You can read more about it here:
http://www.amazon.com/War-Worlds-Millennium-Douglas-Niles/dp/0765311429/ref=sr_1_6/102-9120740-3087328?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179115096&sr=1-6

Thanks again, Maks! I haven't read a novel for ages and this was just the tonic I needed for a bit of R&R!

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

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:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Earth

http://www.hollowearththeory.com/articles/hollowEarthHistory.asp

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

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

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!

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?