Do you not understand the fiction part?

    I was talking on the phone yesterday with a guy who wanted to buy some Space: 1889 figures. He likes 15mm because he can have larger battles and still have detail on his miniatures. He tells me about all of his armies that he has in 15mm. I ask about zombies. You gotta have zombies, right? His response was, "No, no zombies. Name one time when a dead person got up and walked."

    Two minutes later he's telling me about the size and dimensions of a ruhmet breer and how much metal it would take to cast it in 15mm. Then he goes on to tell me how his character invented lightning cannons and how he wanted gashant for his Brits to ride. It hit me hard then: Some people are so entrenched in their own fantasy that not only are they not in touch with reality, which is scary enough, but they also refuse to allow that other fantasies are possible. I've known this for a long time, but encountering it first hand now and then really drives it home.

    Now that the rambling is over here are a couple pics of the fourth project this week. Only one more to go.

     I'll be sending the first set of British soldiers to the caster with the other stuff I finished this week. Just some basic poses. Looks like I need to reshape the helmet on the center one.

    I'll be adding a couple more packs as quickly as I can. There will be some who are more in motion, some officers and NCOs and specialists types. When I ge masters back from this mold, I'll be adding some breathing apparatus for thin/ poisonous atmosphere and some more exotic weaponry.

    Other items that need completion soon are the rest of the hill Martians, naval/ air crews and cavalry. Then I can move on to the high Martians.

Space Guys With Broomsticks

    The second project (all right, the third really, the second was a set of cavalry matrices for a client) I was able to wrap up this week was the second set of space guys for the Red Cross donations. Every good space opera game needs Space Guys with Broomsticks or, more eloquently, Space Kendo Masters and Student.

    You've seen the old guy before in a post.

    The student has made appearances in a couple of comparison shots at TMP.

    The caped master was finished this week.

    This guy will be cast as two parts; the main body and the cape. The heat is playing merry hell with the museum putty so the cape isn't set completely in place, but you get the idea.

    I'll add a donation button at the Space Pals for Red Cross page when these are actually available.

Monkey Boys

    This week it has been refreshing to get back to sculpting full time. It took a while to build up steam again, but here are a few of the new pieces heading to the caster next week.

   You've seen a few pictures of two of these guys before, but here is a group shot of the first pack of Zhuh Zhuhs for Two Hour Wargames' 5150. These mercs will be sold on the Highlander Studios website under the Zap, zap, zap! Die, die, die! science fiction heading.

    I'll be adding several other packs of monkey boys as quickly as I can, but Space: 1889 needs to take precedence right now. I did spend a few minutes grabbing some reference shots for the next set which will be the gangers.

    Big Momma should be a lot of fun and I have some specific images in my head for the silverback.

    I may just call him Binky.

Air Freshener Plus New Router = ?

    Susan decided I needed a Kindle Fire for all of the extra wedding work I've done in the the last 2 months. What can I say? I have a really great woman. However... the Fire was a bit frustrating. I reset my router, changed security settings, reset passwords and read about 20 articles on connecting the Fire to your existing wireless system. None of these things worked to get online with it. So off to Walnut I went to scope new routers.

    Jump back in time about 18 months...

    Several conventions ago I noticed an air freshener in a restaurant bathroom. It had good domed shape and arches that were scaled beautifully for 15mm gaming. Loads of sci-fi and VSF potential. I refrained from stealing the freshener. A month later I visited my parent's and found that my mom had these same air fresheners in the house. She even had a few that were used up. I took them home and stored them for later projects.

    Back in the present...

    New router plus air freshener equals...

    Martian stronghold!

    Well, the beginnings of one anyway.

    A little bit of detail sculpting and a quick paint job later I ended up with this.

Took a couple of hours of work, some garbage and a little paint and putty.

    The dome was left as a separate piece so I can move it around or leave it off if I wish. I'm also deciding what kinds of other movable detail elements I'd like to add. Walls, a mooring tower, stuff like that may well be in the future.

Starting small... really small

    Wedding plans are fairly well firmed up and I've had more time to get back to work. I'll have a few traditional sculpts to show off next week, but for now I'll start with some digital work.

    Learning new skills is always fun for me. What isn't particularly enjoyable is when I've taken an extended leave from practicing them and need to get back up to speed. So when I had time to get back to the digital sculpting, I decided to start small... really small. Like 1:1200 small. Enter the Space: 1889 steam launch.

    I borrowed a friend's copy of Cloudships to play and check the detail and actual size of the models. I've been left with a minor dilemma. The models in the game box are not 1:1200 scale. The measurements work out to right around 1:1000 scale. So... do I make them 1:1200 and have them be noticeably smaller or make them 1:1000 and have them integrate well with the plastic ships? I'm trying to find some of the older metal releases to see how they measure up. In the mean time I need to get some build on the computer. The beauty of 3D software is that, once I have it modeled, I can scale it however I like with a few simple key presses.

    I decided to start small. The steam launch seemed like it would be easy at first. It consists of a low number of fairly angular shapes. The real problem was deciding how detailed to make the first model. I could have gone overboard with rivets and plates and such, but this ship will only be 15mm long even if I produce it in 1:1000. So some extraneous details like deck planking, rivets and bands on the boiler were left off. I also left the gun mount empty for now. I'll be designing separate models of those to import to each ship as needed. When I finalize the model for 15mm printing, I'll need to go in and add all of the gubbins and extras. For the smaller stuff I want the prints to be clean and easy to paint.

    Here you can see some of the lift panel details. I'm still working on a good way to do them that doesn't involve moving each separate panel into place by eye. I have to play a bit and see what I come up with; especially on the angled bow and aft sections.

    After seeing the crispness of the trash can prints, I'm excited to find out what this will look like in person. I'll have one printed while I'm off being married and be able to see what modifications I'll need to make for the final printing. I may well find that all of the little details will show up and have to add them for both scales. I'll post again when I can provide some pictures of the real item.

    OK. The lift panels are worked out.

    I've added the Nordenfelt. Hopefully that will print.