| From a certain point of view. |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|11:54 am] |
Dafydd was busily hoisting Molly the steam engine up into the air using Cranky the crane this morning.
"Is Cranky lifting her back onto the tracks?" I enquired.
"No." He replied indignantly, "She is having a ride."
I love him to bits.
Wayne |
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| Cometh the DarkWalker... |
[Nov. 4th, 2009|09:57 am] |
One of the mountain of books I picked up in Haye-on-Wye last year (in fact exactly a year ago as it was my wedding anniversary on the weekend) was Darkwalker on Moonshae by Doug Niles. I didn't realise it, but according to Wikipedia it was not only the first ever Forgotten Realms novel but, by some wierd loop-hole quirk, also the first official Forgotten Realms publication ever.
This surprised me. I thought the Forgotten Realms was almost as old as D&D itself. I think I may be confusing it with Gygax's Greyhawk. easily done, I think.
I'm not sure why I'm reading it. I just sort of picked it up randomly the other day and started. My expectations weren't high. I read a FR novel in the 80's called, Spellfire and it was horrible. It was like reading an account of an actual D&D session. It was actually written by Ed Greenwood, creator of the Forgotten Realms and I've since heard fairly unkind things about his writing. Fair enough.
I was equally underwhelmed by the vastly over-rated R.A. Salvatore novel I read, in which Drizzt O'Urden the Super-Drow makes his first appearence. I seem to recall that Salvatore had a pretty utilitarian approach to writing, not being terribly interested in bothersome things like description and atmosphere.
So I was expecting Darkwalker to be pretty poor stuff. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is not the case. I'm actually quite enjoying it. It is, to be fair, pretty by the numbers pulp fantasy, but then I expected nothing more from it. I'm fine with that. It has to be said, though, that Niles, also, has a worse, comma, fixation, than, even, I do.
This said, it's a pretty entertaining story so far with a genuinely nasty monster on the rampage and a bunch of diverse and reasonably interesting misfits thrust to the fore in defense of the Moonshae Isles. The setting is appealing as it has a sort of Ancient Wales or at least, Arthurian Britain feel (so I can feel smug being able to pronounce the names properly - which I imagine even the author doesn't :)) combined with Disney Medieval Britain.
The book so far reminds me of a cross between Vance's Lyonesse (which I imagine probably was a huge influence) and Nix's Old Kingdom books with it's thoroughly primal and genuinely dangerous monsters.
Colour me quite surprised.
Wayne |
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| Forbidden planets and wars amongst the stars. |
[Oct. 28th, 2009|03:59 pm] |
I've had a couple of days off whilst the kids are away at the grandfolks to help Elin do some stuff around the house. It's been blissful. It's like the weekends we used to have before Delyth was born.
As a consequence I took a wander into the city center yesterday to get a printer cartridge refill. Whilst there, I decided to finally have a look in Coventry's Forbidden Planet. It was a bit depressing if I'm honest. I remember the halcyon days of my youth when Forbidden Planet in Cardiff was a nurd mecca. A glorious sea of comics with some cool merchandise too. Now it seems to be a merchandise shop with some comics in the back. None of which I am remotely interested in. I wandered aroudn the whole shop and found myself utterly dissinterested in all of it. It all seemed like a load of old tat and a stupendous waste of money. This wasn't helped by the fact that far from feeling like part of a national chain, the Coventry store looks like they hired out any old shop and just dumped their goods along the walls. I was starkly reminded of one of those seedy indoor market stores like the pound shop or hypervalue. Bleh. Maybe it's just because I'm 40.
Anyway, on a more cheery note. I finally got my mits on a copy of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy for the GameCube. It's bloody fantastic!!! I love it for one single reason and that is, you don't die. You just lose the bling you've collected thus far and carry on. In this way I can just play through the whole game without having to be a supernatural button masher - which usually requires me to use invulnerability. The objective is not just to complete the level but to complete the level with as much bling as you can which in turn unlocks other goodies. Cool. If I can be bothered, I'll do that. I wish there were more games like this because it's tremendously fun and rewarding without being utterly bloody frustrating. I might just have to get the first one now aswell.
Wayne |
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| New WHO logo |
[Oct. 6th, 2009|10:14 am] |
New WHO logo unveiled.
...well, it's better than the last one...
I mean, I like the shape. I prefer it. It's just that type face. Blurgh!
Wayne |
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| Boiler! Boiler! Boiler! |
[Oct. 4th, 2009|10:06 am] |
Boiler's on!
I'm not overly enamoured with the steam dome. It's quite fiddley and I think I can simplify it a little.
Also, the large blank panel either side needs something that isn't more bloody rivets. I was thinking of a cast iron plaque stating that it was made in Birmingham or something.
Anyways, I'll look to this and then on to the cabin. Nearly done!
Crow |
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| Aphid Update again! |
[Sep. 27th, 2009|10:40 pm] |
A productive weekend.
Having taken a break to make some Selenite paper minis, I've now textured up the Rear cowling and 'gear box'.
I've also completed the ventral compass housing (not shown in the pics).
Boiler next. Huzzah! I'm really looking forward to it.
Crow
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| One man, eleven faces. |
[Sep. 17th, 2009|09:09 am] |
I've taken a brief break from the Aphid to finish something I started months ago; paper miniatures of the Doctor. All of him.
Click on the image to download the PDF
Small things and all that...
Wayne |
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| Aphid model update |
[Sep. 10th, 2009|10:45 am] |
Right then, the Cowling, Gear Box, Boiler and Cabin have prototyped up pretty well, though the bell thing on the boiler was maddeningly fiddley and I'm not convinced the cabin is constructed as well as it could be but I'll have another pass tonight. In the mean time here's some pics (that also show the 3-point stand):
And yes, the boiler is modelled after Skarloey from Thomas the Tank Engine - I just thought it looked more interesting than a plain old cylinder
There may be a slight delay before the next update whilst I work briefly on some Selenite paper minis for next Tuesday's game.
Crow |
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| Martian Boys! Martian Boys! Laced up boots and Corduroys! |
[Sep. 7th, 2009|08:41 am] |
I've been reading A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Not bad.
When it comes to Science Romances I prefer the (and I appreciate the irony of this) "harder" edge of Verne and Wells and even Space:1889. The John Carter stuff is a little too whimsical for my tastes. That said, it's still a great adventure story and rips along at quite a pace which is unusual for novels of the time. However, the ripping pace is still quite uneven. Carter spends something like the first two thirds of the book milling about with the green martians or 'Tharks', explaining their culture in minute detail and then in the last third changes the political geography of the planet in fairly broad strokes. Burroughs sets up a tragic story of long smouldering revenge only to resolve it largely off-page (definately the most disspointing aspect of the book so far) and he also builds up his main villain to gargantuan, terrifying proportions, only to have Carter floor him with a single surprise punch to the jaw and escape.
I also found myself questioning the morality of some of it. Carter aids the martians in utterly levelling a city in order to stop his beloved Dejah Thoris being married to a prince in order to bring peace between her city and his. The green martians burn and loot and pillage and one can't help wondering how many perfectly innocent men, women and children suffered and died at the hands of the green hoardes simply so that Carter could stop a wedding. It doesn't endear you to the man, really.
Wayne |
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| Aphid Update |
[Sep. 5th, 2009|11:11 pm] |
Update!
With the exception of the ventral compass housing, the hull is done:
Now for the top half. Can't wait.
Crow |
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| Hull Prototype 2 - This time, it's CARD! |
[Sep. 1st, 2009|09:31 am] |
Okay, Prototype 2 - cardstock worked extremely well. It's a no-brainer, really. You can print to cardstock as easily as paper and it's much stronger. I might do the rest of the model in it now. In fact, I might do all my 'paper' projects in cardstock from now on.
Anyway, here it is with some familiar faces for scale. Now I need to texture it, print it and build it for real.
I also need to construct some sort of cradle for the model to sit on.
Crow
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| 28mm Aphid Gunship paper model WiP |
[Aug. 31st, 2009|01:06 pm] |
In anticipation of Red Sands and to complement the paper miniatures I made a while back, this is the beginning of what looks like it's going to be a pretty fun project. A Space:1889 Aphid gunship paper model.
I'm using Deitrich's plans from the original rulebook which don't match up but are close enough to work with. I'm building the model in Maya and I'll use a combination of Photoshop and Pepakura to manufacture the parts.
I'm hoping to have the first one, complete with paper crew (of course) by the time Red Sands is released.
I've made a start on the main deck. This will have two sides, the intention being that you glue them to each side of a sheet of 5mm foam board or some such for strength and rigidity. It should then provide a light, but pretty sturdy core for the model.
Provided Photobucket hasn't resized it, this is around actual print size (on my monitor atleast) and is around 28% of the working file. I'm working at 300 dpi - though the final may well be 200dpi to keep the file size down.
I've been working on some new Space 1889 minis aswell, but I'll bung those in the other thread when they're done.
If you want the ones I've done so far, they're here:
http://www.crowstuff.co.uk/temp/Space_1889_Minis_01.pdf
Here's the main deck started. I printed out both top and bottom pieces and glued them to a piece of 5mm foamboard. I've made 5mm skirt pieces with rivets visible on the 'nose. The rest will form the base of the hand rail but I don't want to put those on until the main deck features like the cabin and boiler etc are in place.
Hull Protoype 01 - paper worked quite well but it feels as fragile as I suspected it might and wrinkles somewhat on the joins. The foamboard 'ribs' either end of the middle section provide pretty good support though. The whole structure could probably stand on it's 'stomach' without collapsing.
I'm going to try a second prototype using cardstock which I suspect will prove a lot stronger as long as the thickness of the card doesn't throw the measurements out too badly. I'm not expecting it to.
I'll post updates here
Crow |
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| Micro-blogging is making me lazy. |
[Aug. 25th, 2009|10:19 am] |
It's been absolutely ages since I posted in here. The fact is, Facebook is making me lazy. When I can just post some random cryptic sentence or selection of song lyrics in my status box on Facebook, the idea of sitting down here and writing an entire paragraph (or more) just seems like hard work - and I hate the fact that I feel like that.
This is a place where I can compose my thoughts and really go into detail about how I feel about certain subjects, and I think it's much more worthwhile posting fully formed thoughts here than just random, cryptic crap on Facebook. Indeed some folks have taken to simply transmitting their 'Tweets' to their LJ in place of actually posting coherent thoughts.
Of course the other thing is, just about everyone I know, indeed, just about everyone I've ever met reads my random crap on Facebook whereas here, it's just a small selection of friends who can be bothered to have an LJ themselves.
I've been thinking about posting this for a couple of weeks (but it just seemed too much like hard work) and by staggering galactic coincidence ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) k_matic posted pretty much the same sentiment the other day. LJ, indeed non-professional blogging is dying and probably for the reasons I mentioned above.
It's a shame but there's nothing I can do about it. Ah well, it was fun whilst it lasted (when I could be bothered).
In the mean time, I really must pull my finger out and post more often and with greater volume.
So then, a brief update. The Lovecraftian fad has worn off. I've read some stories, listened to some podcasts, played half way through 'Dark Corners of the Earth' and briefly considered running the RPG. That's quite enough of Mr Lovecraft for now, particularly as, to be honest, he's really not that great a writer. There, I've said it. Much like George Lucas, he created a fantastic universe for other people to play in, but when it comes to realising that universe himself, he's really not that good at it.
I did, however manage to produce something fun from it and that is the 28mm scale Elder Thing and some investigators. You can click on the picture below to link to the PDF file.
Now I am gripped by Space:1889 madness and am manufacturing paper miniatures of both people, creatures and a 28mm scale Aphid Gunship for use when Pinnacle Entertainment finally release their Savage Worlds, 'Space:1889 - Red Sands' Plot Point Campaign. I'm also reading through the first John Carter novel, A Princess of Mars. It's quite racy stuff considering the time it was written, people running about naked. It even contains a chapter called 'Lovemaking on Mars' - The humanity! I feel quite scandalised!
Talking of Roleplaying, I was listening to Yog Radio the other day and it was a discussion held at Birmingham Games Expo a couple of years ago (the same subject came up in one of their other
casts aswell).
The topic of the future of roleplaying came up and there was great concern as to how to get youngsters involved in the hobby. How to get new players interested. What can we do? How will the hobby survive?
One person present suggested that roleplaying was a 'blip'. That it would only last as long as the current players lasted. This sounded quite profound and insightful until you look at it head on and realise that it's stating the bleeding obvious. It's true of anything. Absolutely any hobby or industry for that matter will only last as long as the participants are interest in it.
What I don't understand is what the problem is? If you want to roleplay, then roleplay. The hobby only needs to last as long as you are interested in it. Why do you feel the need to evangelise? To convert to the cause like some crusading gamer mormon? If you can get other people interested, then great but I don't see that it's a matter of utmost urgency.
I don't understand.
Ah well, I think that'll do for this particular update. Hopefully I can eschew Facebook in favour of a more erudite output. Time will tell, I guess.
Wayne |
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| Alone in the Toss, more like! |
[Jul. 23rd, 2009|09:02 am] |
I'm in the middle of a full-on Lovecraft fad at the moment, triggered by watching Sapphire and Steel last week. I've bought a copy of Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth for the X-Box which I'm looking forward to tucking into. Whilst I'm waiting for that to arrive, however, I noticed that our office library has a copy of Alone in the Dark 4: The New Nightmare for the PS2 from 2001. I rubbed my hands with glee and borrowed it forth with.
I brought it back this morning.
I got all geared up. Waited until Elin had gone to bed to play it, turned out all the lights in the hopes of creating a decent spooky atmosphere and started it off.
It's not a bad looking game and it looked like it would have been quite interesting and spooky to play, but after ten minutes I wasn't so much creeped out as just totally frustrated with the control system which is akin to shouting instructions at a blind person: Left. Left. Left. LEFT! (sigh) Right. left. right. LEFT! Add to this that the forward button was twitchy and you had to be aligned exactly to use essential things like light switches whilst all the while these plant things are biting chunks out of you. I'm also not a fan of the Resident Evil (whose band wagon this was clearly jumping on) fixed camera perspective.
I just went to bed angry.
Not to worry Call of Cthulhu should show up today. My only real concern with that is that it might be too much of a shooter.
In other news, Cubicle 7 have announced the Doctor WHO pen and paper RPG for October.
Should be interesting. As long as it rewards you for non-violent, intelligent problem solving and roleplaying rather than just for killing things.
Wayne |
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| New Who and How! |
[Jul. 21st, 2009|10:10 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | dr who | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Leamington | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  ecstatic | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Cthulhu podcast | ] |
Filming has begun on the new series of Doctor WHO and I LOVE that costume!
It could have gone so badly wrong and instead it's gone so very right! Colour me very excited.
Wayne |
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| Weekends, Big Bangs and Vampires |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|09:03 am] |
We had quite a nice weekend. On Saturday we went in to town to see the Chinese exhibition in the Herbert Art Gallery. I didn't know the place existed, it's gorgeous. Unfortunately it's not of much interest to pre-schoolers, as you might guess, so we managed to see most of the Chinese exhibition and nothing else before the little folk decided they had had enough and would rather charge around screaming at the top of their voices.
Also, before we got to the gallery we coincidentally arrived just in time to see the Godiva carnival procession on it's way to the Godiva festival at the Memorial park - which was nice and very samba-ey.
Then on Sunday, whilst Elin and the kids were in church, I finally got my arse up the road to the Transport Museum to see the Doctor WHO exhibition that's been there for months. It was quite impressive. As big as the permanent display in Cardiff Bay and just as interesting. Most impressive was the full size animatronic Racnos rig and the Daleks firing real lasers. Very cool.
This last week, against my better judgement, I've been getting in to two new TV series. I say 'against my better judgement' because I've been enjoying the fact that TV has been a bit poor recently and I find myself enjoying not sitting in front of the idiot's lantern and doing other things instead.
Never mind, I've heard a lot of folks online mention True Blood and two colleagues were waxing lyrical about the Big Bang Theory the other day. So I thought I'd give them a go.
( True Blood )
( Big Bang Theory )
Wayne |
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| Oh 1977, how I miss thee... |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|08:56 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | star wars | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Leamington | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  nostalgic | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | David Mitchell's Soap Box - podcast | ] |
I've been watching the original Star Wars movies recently, trying to get into the zone for our SAGA game on Tuesday.
I know nostalgia plays a big part in it, but 1977 seems so far away now. Watching Luke stare into the twin suns of Tatooine, it's hard to imagine that this is the same universe that once contained Count Dooku, General Grievous, Darth Maul, Battledroids, Darth Revan, Admiral Thrawn... the list is seemingly endless. It all seemed so simpler then, slower and more tactile.
I find the prequels largely unwatchable these days. Elin was laughing at me the other night because despite all my whining, I still put one on occaisionally, just to see if it's, you know, changed. It feels different, even from the opening shot of the Phantom Menace, so it's a precarious beast to straddle anyway, but as soon as Jar-Jar opens his mouth, Or Anakin, or Watto, or the Podracing commentator or even C3PO, I just fall out of it completely and start pining for the simplicity of the originals.
The prequels are gorgeous looking films and I always joke that I'd love them if you could isolate and turn off the dialogue track. Just have the visuals, sound effects and music and they'd be great films. I mean, it's not like you'd miss the story. Maybe I should get a copy of the French or Japanese dubs :)
But even then, there's something wrong. They're just too slick, too polished and soulless. The originals, particularly the first one, were nailed together on a shoestring budget using what was to hand. It gave the universe a genuine, battered, lived-in feel. There was some liberal interpretation of the designs too, on the part of the props department. If you look at McQuarrie's concept art, it's all very Flash-Gordoney. The props built from it were less so and that, I think helped a great deal. With the prequels, everything was exactly by design. In the original, Luke's landspeeder looked like it'd be knocking about the desert for years. It looked like it had genuinely had the shit kicked out of it. In the prequels, the weathering, scratches and dents appeared to be carefully and lovingly reproduced exactly from the officially approved concept art.
There are things I like about the prequels. Indeed, I thoroughly enjoyed the Clone Wars TV shows - Cartoon and 3D - but as I told several of my friends who watched it, I find it easier to completely disassociate it from the orignal movies rather than give myself a headache trying to reconcile them. I think of it as a reboot with Anakin Skywalker instead of Luke. The future is unwritten. The prequel movies don't exist. I find I can enjoy it much more.
Wayne |
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| Top 50 Sci-Fi big shots. |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|09:04 am] |
SFX magazine just ran a list of what they percieve as the top 50 biggest movers and shakers in sci-fi either currently or in the forseeable future.
This list includes only six women (all but one of which are actresses) and not one single non-white face.
Wow! Just.... wow!
Wayne |
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| Monsters! Monsters! Monsters! |
[Jun. 19th, 2009|03:21 pm] |
Last night, I put Ennio Morricone's Hamlet soundtrack on the stereo, poured a glass of red wine, curled up on the sofa and started reading the World of Darkness rulebook.
...and totally creeped myself out! :)
Last night I also watched Beowulf with Ray Winstone and Angelina Jolie.
I seem to remember at the time much fuss was made over the fact that it was not much of a story but very impressive CGI work.
I actually found it to be the opposite. As a story and as entertainment, it was great. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Technically, though it was a bit of a furry fish. Too realistic to be interesting, but nowhere near realistic enough to be convincing, which leaves me wondering what the point was.
The character models were mostly impressive but a long way from being convincing as the real thing. Occaisionally in the right light, when they were virtually still, a character would look impressively realistic. Wiglaf was the best for this. The illusion broke almost immediately that they started to move, though. The animation was jerky and weightless in places too, reminding me of the humans in Shrek.
Impressive, just not that impressive.
meh. |
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