Paint Table Turnover

   Having just finished a few bits of 15mm and 6mm scale stuff, the table was actually clear of minis for a few minutes. This will never do! So, I decided to rest my eyes for a bit and work on larger things. Now appearing on the paint table are:

Ork Dreadnought

(Games Workshop 40K)

   This fellow is destined to be a German VSF Walker. It's primary use is forest clearance, hence the big saw and claw which are permanent fixtures. However, it has two waist mounted hardpoints which permit the addition of weaponry "for self-defense against the primitives of Venus," according to the official statement of the Venusstaadt government.

Masked Minions with Flamethrowers

(Parroom Station)

   I love Bob Charette's Masked Minions. I already have 30-odd of them, and these two fellows will increase their firepower. Literally! I was going to paint them in infantry colours (blue) to be able to swap in and out with their rifle-armed fellows. But then I thought they needed a bit of flash, so I went with orange cuffs and collars instead. These devils serve Herr Doktor Professor Otto Maton in his efforts to become Solarian Emperor.

Masked Minions with Diabolical Weapons

(Parroom Station)

   Did I mention how much I like Bob Charette's Minions? These five ne'er-do-wells will fill out a squad of ten minions armed with these diabolical weapons. The weapon itself is, as you can easily see, an electro-galvanic emitter rifle. Does ghastly things to the human (or Martian, Lizardman, Parotfolk, Selenite, etc.) body. And is especially effective against armoured mechanickal devices, as the current blasts around within the metallic shell. Diabolical! (Note, the minion on the right is finished; the one on the left is in process.)

British Infantry

(Empress Miniatures)

   And now to my favorite maker of British Colonial troops in 28mm. The sculpts on these are just awesome, and very clean casts. These have languished for a bit, and I have more to get to as well, but this is a start on getting that second full unit of proper British Redcoats. Only six more to go! These I will prime in white, like I did the others - a departure from my usual black primer, but it helps keep the redcoat nice and bright.

Steam 1 Steamtank

(Ironclad Miniatures)

   This little guy is the second piece in my French forces. I see it as a small scouting tank, sort of the 'torpedo boat' or 'destroyer escort' of landships. Armed with only a machinegun, it's greatest advantage is that it is very light, and doesn't bog down easily. The figure is for scale reference; this tank is only primed so far, and hasn't even had its tracks attached.

Recent Projects Completed...

  A big update today. Lots of photos, and a few more are coming up on Victoria's Boys in Red, as well.

The Galvanic Ray Cannon

Germany's Newest Landship

A Simian Mutant Bodyguard for Doctor Vardu

OGRE meets Gojira!

IHMN: Lord Curr

IHMN: One of Lord Curr's Incorrigibles

A Texian Walker (French design) - a matched pair.

British Balloon Scouts (and nine friends)

     In addition to the items pictured above, I also managed to finish two more of my India Pattern Carriers for Flames of War. I don't have any photos of them, though.

   Plus, I have almost finished Lord Curr's Company for In Her Majesty's Name. Just lacking Lady Felicity, and she's still on the painting table. Once I finish her, I need to work on more Dystopian Wars vehicles - Prussian land forces this time!

Achtung! Panzer!

New materials have arrived on the Red Planet for the construction of an armored machine of war for the German Empire. This massive landship (name and classification unknown at the time of this publication) was delivered from KAS Wotan when she arrived this week.

This recent addition to the Imperial forces is, thankfully, not yet ready to take the field. Surely, once assembled and manned, this weapon will not sit idle. Although the journal's sources within the Viceroy's Office give us conflicting information about whether or not the landship is operated by the Kaiserlich Heer or the Kriegsmarine, one thing is certain at this time. A fiendish mechanism such as this can only be intended for one purpose: a direct assault against either Her Majesty's Martian allies, or the Crown Colony itself!

[Editor's Notes: This was a Hasbro toy, from the GI Joe line. It's called an IMP. I obtained this one for little cost via eBay after seeing some nice conversion done with one on another site. I think it will make a fine machine of war for my German 28mm forces. I've disassembled it already, and am considering the proper spray color. I might even do a naval splinter camouflage paint scheme on it. It needs to have a few logos Dremeled off, and various bits and bobs removed and added. Anyway, consider this the 'before' photos.]

The Brute!

Americans Unveil Steam-Powered Brute!

Designed and built by Baron von J of Unkerlant, and crewed by American soldiers, the new Brute-class of land dreadnought was unveiled last month. One hopes that construction notes may be forthcoming, but these European aristocratic inventors are notoriously secretive about their scientific process, you know. Additional information and photostats of the Brute may be found by directing yourself to the appropriate telephonic interweb location: http://baronvonj.blogspot.com/2009/05/brute-class-land-ironclad.html.

[Editor's Note: This is a really well-done scratchbuild that I was tipped off to by the Editor at TMP, via a news item he posted there. It's really nice work, and I recommend that you take a peek at the Baron's other projects. Very worthwhile, I think.]

Meanwhile, back on Earth...

Three New Land Ironclad Classes Added to Her Majesty's Ever-Victorious Royal Navy Land Forces!

Hurrah for British engineering! Her Majesty's Royal Navy has put more earth-shakingly powerful land ironclads into production from the Brigade Foundries [actually, Brigade Models, www.brigademodels.co.uk]. Three new classes of ship are beginning to be produced, it was announced today: the Imperator, the General, and the Brunel classes. The photostat above does not, actually, contain any of the three new classes, which are so new as to not even have paint upon them as of yet.

Sadly, these armored leviathans are not going to be available for service here on the Red Planet anytime soon. Their immense weight will require specially designed transport vehicles to cart them across the aether to Mars. Even disassembled, it would take many trips back and forth with current vessels to deliver a single land ironclad to Mars. But what a difference that one leviathan could make in cowing the ambitions of the Kaiser's colonial administration!

[Editor's Note: This is an area of VSF gaming that I am seriously considering getting involved with in the next year. I really like the models, and the fact that the system (Land Ironclads, by Wessex Games) is compatible with an aerial system (Aeronef) and a forthcoming naval system (Aquanef). The models are quite nice, and seem to paint up well from what I have seen online, though they are a bit difficult to get hold of in the States. I took the photo above from Brigade's website. I hope they don't mind, but if anyone does, please let me know and I will remove the image. I am hoping the advertising is worth the picture grab.]

NEWSFLASH: Hurricane Cuts Communications

A severe storm has caused a good deal of damage in the Republic of Texas, where many of our faithful readers (and both writers) live. It is our sincere hope that all our readers have been inconvenienced as little as possible during the recent troubles, and that they will be able to resume their normal lives as soon as possible. Our correspondents in the area suffered only minor damage, but one (myself, actually) was forced to evacuate the area with his family for a short time.

Just imagine what it would be like if we had no orbiting stations to observe and warn us (via heliograph, of course) of incoming stormfronts! The loss of life could be catastrophic!

In further news, the Journal has only limited access at this time; however, I have prepared for your reading pleasure a short treatise on the development of the first British landships, which you may read in the links marked 'Publications' under the heading of "Prince Royal-class Landships." Also, a preliminary version of a history of the Papal States Army and Navy will be made available today, though it is certainly not finished.


[OOC: Hurricane Ike was, for my family, mostly a great inconvenience. We evacuated to Dallas two days before the storm arrived, and were lucky to be able to return to our home in Leauge City (between Houston and Galveston) on Wednesday. We realize how blessed we are to be able to say that, and our family's prayers go out to those who lost loved ones or who suffered serious property loss. My wife is temporarily out of work until the business she works for gets up and running on Galveston Island again. I am scheduled to report to school on Wednesday morning at this time.]

HMLS Albert - Finished at last!

For those of you that have been following this telephonic differencing engine journal for a bit, you'll know what troubles we've had here with those blasted engineers.

First one of them gets drunk and breaks the port rifle.

Then one engineer gets the bright idea that instead of replacing the rifle, his new-fangled flamegun invention (the Richardson Heavy Flamegun, patent pending) would be better suited to the landship. "It's already been fitted to ASA #27," he pointed out. "And look what sterling service it provided at Ghola!"

So, no sooner has that field expedient been approved, mounted and tested, than the starboard rifle mysteriously disappears. Richardson blames it on thieving Johnnies, but I have my own suspicions. Obviously, we need a second Richardson for the starboard side as well. Unfortunately, he's only made the two so far, and we have a month's delay in getting another cobbled together.

Finally, it is all together. And here's the proof:

Landship Field Expedient Alterations

The Scot engineer in charge of repairing and reassembling HMLS Albert after its trip via ethership to Mars has been sacked.

The persons responsible for hiring him have been sacked.

We'd sack the persons responsible for the engineer's birth, but they are pre-deceased. So they avoid a well-deserved boot to the head. In addition to being sacked from whatever pathetic position they may have once held.

Albert has been further modified, on the basis of maintaining a balanced weight to both sides of the vehicle. The heavy fuel tanks for the flame projecting device on the port side of ht evehicle were causing Albert to develop a noticeable list. Perhaps the engineer never noticed it, him being a wee bit too fond of the creature, as my Irish nanny would have said. He listed a bit to port himself.

At any rate, the only solution proper English engineers could devise in a short time that was both economical and practical was to remove the starboard rifle and replace it with a flame projection device as well. Repairs are being made today; it is hoped that the Albert will finally be prepared for action by tomorrow.

Repairs to the Landship

The landship, which you may remember was damaged by a drunken Scot, has nearly finished completion of repairs. The damaged weapon is being replaced by a new flamegun mounted in the port side sponson. This astounding new technology will sweep the port flank of the landhsip clear of any infantry with a sheet of burning gashant-oil.

Unfortunately, due to space limitations inside the landship, the fuel tanks were forced to be mounted outside the vehicle .

Also, the crew refused to enter the vehicle while that much flammable liquid was inside with them and a boiler.

On the plus side, if it gets hit, the burning liquid should remain on the outside of the vehicle, and may actually increase the boiler temperature, improving speed as the landship rushes to safety.

Photostats will be presented as soon as repairs are finished.

Photostats at Last!

I greet you tonight with evidence of the progress on preparing Her Majesty's Prince Royal-class steam landship, HMS Albert.

As you can see, the Bertie as her crews call her has been painted in a blue not too dissimilar from the cavalry service. She also sports a St. George's Cross on one of her front armored panels.




Bertie's Scots engineers have added a larger St. Andrew's Cross to the roof panels as well. Unfortunately, they were a bit careless in the drunken celebration of their paint job and managed to damage the landship already. The starboard rifle was broken clean off at the swivel when Sergeant of Engineers David Abercrombie fell off the top of the vehicle and caught himself on the way to the hard packed dirt floor on the rifle barrel. Sapper Abercrombie has, of course, been reduced in rank for his negligence, and shall have his pay stopped until he can pay for a replacement weapon to be shipped from Earth.

More photostats shall be provided as work is completed on this mammoth scale project.

I've Been Absolutely Worthless...

...for three days, gentlemen.

I still have a bit of a bug, but at least the fever's down somewhat!

For goodness' sake, my last journal entry was begun three days ago and only just now been posted! Damn this Venusian Sinus Fever! Never should have gone to that wet hellhole. Oh certainly, the dinosaur hunting was a grand lark, mind you, but between the belligerent natives, the Kaiser's presence in the best hunting areas and the fevers, it just wasn't worth it. The new Holland and Holland worked out well, though. Bagged a pair of deino's (deinonychus), a clubtail (ankylosaurus), and a truly inspiring three-horn (triceratops) bull. Can't wait to mount that trophy on the wall. Horns four and a half feet long, what!

Haven't done any work at all on any project. The landship has barely received any paint, and the Johnnies are getting restless on the table. Twenty of them have base skin tones, but virtually nothing more. But at least the Major General has agreed to compromise on the landship. Blue she will be, with one panel painted for St. George. The Scots engineers who have been re-assembling it have a rather sneaky look about them, so I fear they may be up to something. Well, whenever they finish up, I shall endeavour to make photostats available.

Until then, dear friends and readers, its off to the bathhouse to sweat out the last of these ill humors from Venus. Give me nice, dry Mars any time.

1,000 Visitors! Port and Cigars for All!

A milestone reached! I'm honored that some of you seem to enjoy coming to see what random musings I shall ponder on a semi-daily basis.

The reinforcements mentioned recently are coming along. One of the main difficulties is that the Major General wants the landship painted in red and white, with a St. George's Cross, while the crewmen insist that it was supposed to be painted blue.

Only time shall tell how this conundrum shall be solved.

Reinforcements Have Arrived!

Thanks to Mark over at Scale Creep (check them out at http://www.scalecreep.com/ - great to do business with) for dispatching reinforcements so rapidly. An additional unit of regular Martian infantry, armed with swords (Black Hat's 18mm Imperial Martians with Swords) and their command, complete with standard, horn and drum, shall soon assist the Emerald Legion. Being regulars, they are unarmored, but just as eager for a fight, and much lighter on their feet.

For Her Majesty's forces, a Prince Royal-class Heavy Steam Landship has been assembled. Once it's ordnance is mounted and it receives a protective coating of paint, it will be ready for battle! (Again, a Black Hat product, the heavy tank with the wheel kit)

Photostats shall be disseminated in a timely manner, I assure you.