Bleaseworld: Wargamers To Arms! Sign This Petition!!

Bleaseworld: Wargamers To Arms! Sign This Petition!!: It's not often that wargamers get a bit hot under the collar and organise a petition but with the Royal Mail have introduced some rathe...

Prussian Bombard Battery

   Three Prussian Empire BS-3 Bombards in a battery. These self-propelled high-angle guns fire indirectly and at great range. Again, I went with the dark green paint scheme that I used on the Sturmpanzer, and that is depicted on the Armoured Battlegroup box. I probably should have gone with a grey scheme, and thought about it, but chose this one for the contrast between the armour and the brass.

Prussian Empire A9-V Sturmpanzer

   I just finished several pieces of armour for the Prussian Empire of Dystopian Wars. This is the A9-V Sturmpanzer, a large capital class landship. It is armed with four turrets with heavy cannon, twelve smaller cannon, one massive Tesla cannon and several smaller Tesla coils in broadsides.

Forward View

Port Side

Aft View

 

Aerial View

A Photostat of Lady Felicity

   The last member of Lord Curr's Company of Incorrigibles to be mustered, Lady Felicity is now ready for action. Don't stare too much, gentlemen - those pistols she carries in her dainty hands are not for show! She's a crack shot with them, and has felled many a monstrosity in her world-spanning adventures.

Momento Mori...

In Flanders fields the poppies grow

      Between the crosses, row on row,

   That mark our place; and in the sky

   The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

   Loved and were loved, and now we lie

         In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

   The torch; be yours to hold it high.

   If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

         In Flanders fields.

Popular Mechanicks, Issue #8

Otto Maton's "BS" Alloy

   If you've been reading our paper for some time now, you may be familiar with the diabolical maechanickal works of Herr Doktor Professor Otto Maton, the Belgian Mad Scientist on Mars. His fiendish creations have often graced these pages, and wreaked havoc upon the peaceful peoples of the Crown Colony of Mars. For some reason, Herr Doktor has a particular dislike of the British. It probably has something to do with the fact that a British aethership disabled his vessel on approach to Mars, and trapped him there.

   However, if you have seen Maton's handiwork, you must have noticed the preponderance of brass used in their manufacture. This may lead one to ask oneself "Why brass, for God's sake? It's either too soft or too brittle, depending on the zinc content! And heavy? Not half!" The problem with your complaint is one of perception. While Maton's brass may seem to be perfectly ordinary alpha-beta brass (consisting of more than 35% zinc), it is not. In fact, Professor Maton has created a special alloy of brass which, though it requires hot working, is equal to fine steel in strength, and immune to rusting. He calls the alloy Brassified Steel, or "BS."

Maton's Foundry, in an Undisclosed Location

   BS is not a perfect metal for all applications. Its manufacture is a closely guarded secret of Maton's. After all. It is known to contain traces of certain rare elements not found in common brass including cerium (Ce), aluminum (Al), gadolinium (Gd), and handwavium (Hw). While it possesses impressive qualities, the expense of its manufacture limits its use. Plus, no one knows how to get these elements to alloy other than Maton himself, and perhaps one or two of his most trusted lieutenants.

   And an older photostat, from an after action report, for those of you newer to this journal. In it you can see a trio of Doctor Maton's flying automatons attacking a Martian Death Ray cavalry officer. In the background, far below, a column of another sort of automaton is marching across the red sands. Notice the outer shells of BS on both models. Like all of Maton's mechanickal devices, these are powered by handwavium reactors. The flying "hovertons" also utilize unobtainite crystals to repulse gravity.

[Editor's Note: It's been a while since I posted an article feature, and this is one I have considered more than once. Why do I use so much brass? Really, it's because it just looks warm and Victorian to me. Popular Mechanicks is one way of explaining away all of the Weird Science that goes on in my VSF universe with pseudo-scientific terminology. The real reason for any of the VSF silliness that I indulge in is much simpler: I like it. Now, back to studying Charlemagne. ZZZzzz...]