Library Acquisitions

I went to a charity book fair today which had many interesting finds. My disappointment at not finding any Verne was more than offset by acquiring the collected works of H.G. Wells in leatherbound volumes - Huzzah!

Awesome Aquanefs

This guy is simply amazing. Go grab a towel now for all the drooling you are about to do!
Among his many fantastic models, are these fantastic Aquanefs:

The Nautilus, from Jules Verne's descriptions and the original illustrations

The French submarine Dupuy de Lome

The Alligator

You simply must visit, "Steam Noir" here:
http://www.freewebs.com/steamnoir/submarines.htm

Wars of Empire...in Cartoons!

Qued by an entry at TMP:

WARS OF EMPIRE IN CARTOONS
by Mark Bryant

the publisher's page says:

At the beginning of the Victorian era it seemed that the sun would never set on the vast British Empire which spanned the globe. However, the Pax Britannica was not all that it seemed and the forces of Her Imperial Majesty were frequently called upon to fend of aggressor nations and quell rebellions in Britain’s many colonies.

In an age before computers, television, radio and the cinema the impact of cartoons and caricature was considerable, especially when the only sources of information were posters, newspapers and books. To a news-hungry public, anxious about world affairs, it was the cartoon, with its immediacy and universal accessibility – even to the barely literate – that could speak the message mere words could never convey.During the Crimean War it was John Leech and his colleagues at Punch who drew their own satirical version of events. And who could take Tsar Nicholas of Russia, Paul Kruger of the Transvaal or the Mad Mahdi of the Sudan at all seriously when the artists of Fun, Judy, Moonshine, Vanity Fair and others cocked a snook at all they held dear? However, Britain’s enemies also had a wealth of talent laboring to counteract imperial propaganda and there were frequent, often vicious, attacks on Queen Victoria and her generals, admirals and politicians in French and German satirical magazines such as Simplicissimus, Le Grelot and Lustiger Blatter.

Wars of Empire in Cartoons is divided into chapters covering the main conflicts of the second half of the 19th century year-by-year. Each chapter is prefaced with a concise introduction that provides a historical framework for the cartoons of that year. Altogether some 300 drawings from both sides of each conflict have been skillfully blended to produce a unique visual history of the wars of the British Empire.

Specifications
9½ x 12¼. 160 pages, color & b/w images throughout, $34.95, hardback,Grub Street Publishing
Order it from Casemate Publishing here:
http://www.casematepublishing.com/cgi/titleinfo.pl?sku=9781902304403

And let me know whats its like if you get one - please!

Vulcania

I got this wonderful chart of Vulcania from the nice chaps at Disney - thank you indeed kind Sirs!


click here for full version: http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d170/pauljamesog/Aeronef/?action=view&current=Vulcnia.jpg

I've always wanted to make a model of this - perhaps it would make a good Chritsmas holiday project, but I think the addition of a drigible pad would also be prudent!

Into the Abyss

A short story by..

H.G. Wells

In the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, we are not alone...

http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a1047.pdf

Aquanef Inspiration

I found this pic on my hard-drive the other day, saved from goodness knows where (please tell me if you know). I absolutely love it - very Nemoesque and great Aquanef insipration.

VSF Terrain (25mm)

Mssr Zophiel pointed out this great range of gothic style terrain by RC Studio that just screams VSF (well, to me...after a claret or two anyway).

I particularly like the bunker, the generator and these mysterious contraptions that I dub steam-driven temporal Tesla converters

http://quantumgothic.com/Buildings.aspx

Thanks for the tip Zophiel!

The Lost World - Found!

I happened to stumble across a DVD copy of the original 1925 version which you may recall from here: http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/2008/01/lost-world.html

It was lying unwanted at a car boot sale for only $5 - Bwhahahah - now its mine, all Mine!

Alhazared's Victorian Landships!

Some splendid Landships and a dazzling undersea battle!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/banging1out/tags/victorian/

Quick-play Astronef

I found a fun looking set of easy play space ship combat rules today - called 'Launch Fighters!'
Its a free download and you can thank the nice chaps at Consortium games for this contribution.

Now, to play a bit of VSF style HM Royal Ether Squadron vs Kaiser's Sternmarine action using these rules, I recommend the following simple subtitutions in the rules:

• Delete Cannon, Insert Gatling-Cannon, Tesla Device or Electro-Howitzer
• Delete Missile, Insert Aether-torpedo, or Congreive Rocket Mk II
• Delete Defence, insert Armour Rating
• Delete Movement rating, insert Aether-engine or Solar Sail capacity

and you are ready to Blast-Off for Queen and Country!

You'll find Launch Fighters! (both full and quick play versions) and Consortium games here:
http://www.launchfightersgame.com/

Thanks awfully chaps!

Astronef scenery

Downloadable tabletop scape scenery an a fanastic looking campaign map editor

Simply download the bits you want, print out and laminate if you dont wnat the to have claret stains and cigar ash on them - enjoy!

Great job eh what!

http://www.thecourtjestersstudio.com/downloads/SpaceScenery.html

The Airship Destroyer - Part 2

Zeb has kindly emailed me to let us know that this vintage 1909 video is available here: http://www.europafilmtreasures.eu/player.htm?ID=278

It's a German version, but with English subtitling.

Thanks Zeb!

Kaiser's Goliath Gun

Egad! A 42cm cannon that fires 2800lb shells!
Sounds like a grand target for the Royal Aeronautical Service to take out!

http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Goliath_Gun/Goliath_Gun_01.htm

http://www.landships.freeservers.com/420mm_morser_m17.htm

A cracker of a picture

I just spied this fanstic sterographic image at the Republic of Sonora website- great stuff!

Check out the website here:

http://www.mysterious-island.com/aeronef/nef.html

LI spotted in South Carolina!

TMP spies have declared that recent land ironclad actions in South Carolina have been most prolific, thanks to the South Carolina Historical Gaming Society. Reports also indicate a new kind of Ironclad model, more akin to gunboat monitors - Chris says :

On this site are several pictures from a couple of LI games that we recently played here in South Carolina, USA. In some of the pics you can see 8 land ironclads that I made by mating 1/1200 ACW ships with 1/300 WWII tank hulls. They are the ones on the longer lighter-green bases. The USS Cairo class ships on top of the KV hulls was a really easy conversion. For them all I had to do was cut the bow and stern peices off of the ships and file the Fuel tanks off of the soviet tank hulls. (text from TMP here: http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=147274)

Read the reports and see the full range of pics here:

http://www.commandpostonline.com/landironclads_pics/photo_gallery.htm

(there pics are Copyright © 2008 The Command Post, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)