A Visit to the Moon

another piece of classic Astronef style fiction, from 1899!

A Visit to the Moon
by George Griffith

An Account of the Adventures of the Earl of Redgrave and his Bride on their Honeymoon in Space:

Well, we shall see a good many marvels. and, perhaps, miracles, before we come back, but I hardly think we shall see anything that is forbidden. Still, there's one thing we shall do, I hope. We shall solve once and for all the great problem of the worlds--whether they are inhabited or not. By the way, he went on, "I may remind your ladyship that you are just now drawing the last breaths of earthly air which you will taste for some time, in fact until we get back!

http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0602321h.html

Visitors from around the world

This week marks 2 months since I started the hit counter here at WWS (purely out of interest) and I must say that with 7500 hits so far I have been astounded.

What you may have also missed is that at the bottom of the left hand frame there is a Mapper which shows where traffic originates. Out of interest, I have been taking a snapshot of this traffic map every two weeks and it showed some very interesting results.

After 2 Weeks

After 4 Weeks

After 6 Weeks

And after 8 Weeks

So thanks to everyone who has visited WWS and and especially those who have left us comments - we appreciate it!

Robur the Conqueror

Robur the Conqueror

by Jules Verne

Alternate English titles include "The Clipper of the Clouds", and "A Trip Around the World in a Flying Machine"

This book, published in 1896, is one of THE top Aeronef classics.

If you havent read it yet, stop whatever else you are doing and click here:

http://www.classicauthors.net/Verne/Conqueror/

The Airship is Coming!

A really interesting site by the Danish Post and Tele Museum in Denmark, who has published a wonderful online exhibit about zeppelins

http://www.postogtelemuseet.dk/zeppex/en/enFront.html

Martians, cylinders and green flashes in the sky

Scientists are only now getting the evidence to prove what we already know...Mars is inhabited!!!

http://www.marsanomalyresearch.com/evidence-directories/3-civilization/civilization-directory.htm

And are these the holes that remain after theose terrible projectiles were fired with a green flash?

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070928.html

UUULLLLAAAAA!

Vulcania Submarines...

Vulcania Submarines...

for all your "Extraordinary Submersibles and Diving Equipment" needs, including vintage scuba gear, Nemo's helmet, a working underwater Nemo Rifle and the Journal of Professor P. Arronax!

http://www.vulcaniasubmarine.com/

Don't try this at home...

The above image shows the collapse of the Ottoman Empire to nearly-modern Turkey. The animation runs from 1870 to 1923 and displays British, French, and — eventually — Italian territories as the Turks decline. The original images were taken from the WHKMLA Historical Atlas - http://www.zum.de/whkmla/histatlas/asia/haxwasia.html - which may be the most useful collection of summary maps I have ever discovered.

Moving and Naval Logistics

You may recall that I moved house deeper into the Hindukush earlier this year. Well that campaign is drawing to a close so its time once again to pack up the baggage train and move encampments.

I'll be offline for about a week, but thought I would leave this with you to ponder. I realise that USS Constitution was an American ship, but would guess that things wouldn't have been much different under a different ensign!

On 23 August 1779, the USS Constitution set sail from Boston, loaded with 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of water, 74,000 cannon shot, 115,000 pounds of black powder and 79,000 gallons of rum.

Her Mission: to destroy and harass English Shipping

On 6 October, she made Jamaica, took on 826 pounds of flour and 688,300 gallons of rum. Three weeks later, Constitution reached the Azores, where she provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 300 gallons of Portuguese wine.

On 18 November, she set sail for England where her crew captured and scuttled 12 English merchant vessels and took aboard rum.

By this time, Constitution had run out of shot. Nevertheless, she made her way unarmed up the Firth of Clyde for a night raid. Here, her landing party captured a whiskey distillery, transferred 13,000 gallons aboard and headed for home.

On 20 February 1780, the Constitution arrived in Boston with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum, and no whiskey. She did, however, still carry her crew of 475 officers and men and 18,600 gallons of water.

The arithmetic is quite enlightening:

• Length of cruise: 181 days


• Booze consumption: 1.26 gallons per man per day (this DOES NOT include the unknown quantity of rum captured from the 12 English merchant vessels in November).

Naval historians note that the reenlistment rate from this cruise was 92%.

LOGISTICS LESSON LEARNED: Don’t load up with too much water

Painting at 1:1 Scale

I spent all weekend painting my new house before I move this week (yes, its another gangantuan effort to move my drinks cabinet 6" closer to Berlin"!).

After about 8 hrs on the second day, I started making a mental list on why painting this 1:1 scale models appeared harder than the 2mm and 6mm scales I'm usually happy to do.

In no particular order:

• It has to look good at 1 inch AND 6 feet - at the SAME time
• My wife (and every visitor) is as critical as a Golden Demon judge
• Washing techniques make a mess on the floor
• Drybrushing makes the wall look worse
• Its hard to blend the exact colour you want and have enough for 18 square metres
• Basing is a little more than kitty litter and some static grass.
• Cleaning up is more than 2 small brushes and some newspaper
  

Got others of your own? Please leave a comment!

New Blazing Skies Battle Report posted

Here: http://atkinswargames.16.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=110

Note the vital accessory in the background, just my kind of gaming - Cheers!

Rendered Airship fight

Its a bit more fanasty than VSF, but it does have a flying vessel, aeronauts and aerial adventures so its OK by me!

Enjoy!

Warbot released

Hydra miniatures have released this great Pulp style Warbot in theirRay raygun range.




I particularly like the 'gleaming red eye of death' style, which reminds me of the psychotic computer HAL from the classic movie "2001: A space Odyssey"


I think it has loads of potential as a VSF Iron Giant. Cant wait to get hold of one for my Mad Scientist army!






http://shop.hydraminiatures.com/product_info.php?cPath=2_31&products_id=32

Anarchy, Ho!?...

The above illustration shows the Huala Frigate by Ninja Magic (With Hostile Intent line). I've just pressed one into service as an Anarchist's Nef.

Vanvlak's Archives

It recently occured to us that there were a few early pieces of Vanvlak's work that were completed before WWS began, and thus havent been seen here before.

Here are some of the 'lost works':

Kolonel Kizhe's Vojvoda, a reaction steam engine Montgolfier
with force fields and a recoilless ground bombardment cannon.

The Spanish Dig "Princess Asturias"

The Sainta Barbara, of the Venerable Knights of Malta's Air Fleet

And a few more to come soon....

Beware the Kraken!

Every VSFer worth his salt needs one of these or something similar!

The Kraken, by Black Cat Bases, is part of their Pirates of the Skeleton Seas range,

The Kraken is 135mm tall to the tip of the tallest tentacle, and the base is 115mm wide and 200mm long. Supplied as a multi-part kit - the 8 tentacles are separate to the body. The whole model is resin.

http://www.blackcatbases.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=117&P_ID=572

http://theminiaturespage.com/news/291550/