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

1871: The Battle of Dorking

It was on Tuesday, the 10th of August, that the fleet sailed from the Downs. It took with it a submarine cable to lay down as it advanced, so that continuous communication was kept up, and the papers were publishing special editions every few minutes with the latest news…. This went on till the Thursday morning. I had just come up to town by train as usual, and was walking to my office, when the newsboys began to cry, “New edition – enemy’s fleet in sight!”.… It was about ten o'clock that the first telegram came; an hour later the wire announced that the admiral had signalled to form line of battle, and shortly afterwards that the order was given to bear down on the enemy and engage. At twelve came the announcement, “Fleet opened fire about three miles to leeward of us” – that is, the ship with the cable. So far all had been expectancy, then came the first token of calamity. “An ironclad has been blown up” – “the enemy's torpedoes are doing great damage” – “the flag-ship is laid aboard the enemy” – “the flag-ship appears to be sinking” – “the vice-admiral has signalled to” – there the cable became silent, and, as you know, we heard no more till, two days afterwards, the solitary ironclad which escaped the disaster steamed into Portsmouth.
- The Battle of Dorking

A cracking read if you havent come across it by now, and now a wargame by Draken Games! Available for download through wargame vault:

http://www.wargamevault.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=2492&products_id=63471

"1871: The Battle of Dorking" allows two players to find out what might have happened at the key battle of this fictional campaign. Along with the rules and all the cut-outs needed, full background notes are given regarding Chesney's original book, the context of the campaign and the weaponry, organisation and tactics of both armies. A game should last two hours on a first play, reducing to 90 minutes once familiar with the rules.

Contains:
Rules and Background
2 Piece 8.5"x11" map
57 double-sided counters
28 single-sided counters

Thee you go, I'd be interested to hear form anyone who has played it - cheers!

Mea Culpas

Its true, I am a (typical) wargamer with no sense of consistency, and wade between gaming genres with no rhythm or plan. Indeed you can see from the posting rates here - its feast or famine, with not much to rave about of late.

Anyhow, with the last of my tertiary efforts now complete (and hanging on the wall), the VSF flame has been rekindled. Ironically, I found that this is the exact same time this happened a few years ago when on the first day of Spring (here in the Colonies that is), I got out all my stuff and cataloged it. A few small additions since then but nothing too significant.
http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/2007/09/new-nefs-and-balance-of-power.html

Anyhow, I figure the time is ripe to delve into the big box of unmade lead and see what inspires me in the run up the White Wine Sauce's 4th Anniversary next Feb. I think the Russians might be well overdue for some attention actually, and of course their worthy Japanese adversaries too...

(Image courtesy of Wessex Games)

More Germans

Here are some close-ups of Nuni's lovely German Nefs. I really like the way he has added colour to them with the red keels and the deck staining.

He tells me:
These I actually did some research and found that some German ships of the period had a reddish lower hull side and I tried to go for that look, with a grey superstructure. I decided I wanted the deck to feel darker than was the actual case

- white undercoat
- 1:1 vallejo game colour gory red/blood red for the side of the hull
- GW ogryn flesh wash on the decking followed by a watered down GW badab black wash
- GW foundation adeptus battlegrey on the turrets, superstructure and the sides an rear of the tail
- GW bleached bone on the top of the tail and superstructure, followd by devlan mud wash
- GW chaos black for the chimneys
- Devlan mud wash on the masts

New Brits and Germans

Nuno (aka Rastamann from the TacCom boards) has finished up his British and German starter sets and they have come out beautifully!

Well done Old boy! They look great and I love the thematic presentation style you've adopted. Great stuff!