Yet Another Cry for Help!

   I am about one and a half pages shy of finishing the next issue of The Aethergraph.

   I could sure use some help with an article or two. I already have the following features:

• Clive's Register (Teaser: it's a famous engineer.)
• Reginald's Regiments
• Diary of a Texican
• Verne's Armory
• plus an Adventuring Company for IHMN

So, the sorts of things that I would love to see would be

• Short Fiction
• A new creature or alien race with stats for any game system you like
• VSF Adventure Hooks
• House Rules - again, for whatever system you prefer
• A Battle Report, preferably with photos
• Artwork
• Game Reviews (Dystopian Wars? Dystopian Legions? Empire of the Dead?)

So, anything you have - throw it at me!

Pardon me, sir, but some gentlemen have arrived.

   Some indeterminate amount of time ago, I participated in the crowdfunding (via Kickstarter) of some miniatures for the Empire of the Dead game. I don't currently play Empire of the Dead (hereon, EotD), but I liked the figures for the Requiem expansion, so I bought in to the project. Naturally, as with most Kickstarter projects, everything was delayed, partly by the number of stretch goals reached and partly by the problems that spring up in any project. Not being in a tearing hurry, I was for the most part okay with it. When I duly received my package of lead, I was quite pleased with the contents.

   I started painting up the Lycaons first, which I believe have made previous appearances here. Now I am working on the Gentlemen's Club. I can absolutely see me making an Adventuring Company for IHMN out of these figures as well. I chose a theme color of blue for this faction. Thus, the Sapphire Club of Marylebone was born!

I am particularly fond of the Clockwork Butler.

Members of the Sapphire Club.

More Sapphirians. I like the fellow in smoking jacket and fez a lot.

The fellow in the overcoat is actually a club porter, not a member.

As if such a ruffian could be a member!

   One thing that I didn't like to paint, but which I think looks 'right' for these figures is the preponderance of black. Black trousers, black coats, black toppers. Not as bad as all white (snow blind me, will ye, ye damned Napoleonic Austrians?!?!), but still. I am glad I went for a brighter blue to help break the monochromatic issue.

   I have two more members to paint up (currently on the table) and that will be mostly that for this faction. I am finishing up what I think is the last of the Lycaons as well. He's just a human servitor, a hunter with a crossbow. After that, who knows? Maybe finish up the latest unit of automatons, which I have five completed and five remaining...

Cards for IHMN - A Useful Tool

  I downloaded a free Magic Card Editor program a few years ago. I don't play Magic: The Gathering any more, but the program is very useful for making reference cards for gaming. I have used it previously for GASLIGHT units, and now I am making a set of cards for In Her Majesty's Name.

This is a Talent card. It gives the rules and point costs for a Talent.

I have all the published Talents done.

This is a Beast card.

I am making one for each creature in the published Bestiaries.

A Character card.

I have finished Lord Curr's Company, the Servants of Ra, and

the Mechanickal Menace (Automatons).

Mystic Powers.

Phase, Range, Duration, Save, Effect, and points cost.

   If you like these, the program is free. You can get it here.

Baa Baa Baa...

"We are poor little lambs,

Who have lost our way.

Baa baa baa..."

   Sheep graze across the fields of England and Wales, enriching the nation with their woolly coats, and the soil with their rich manure. And now, they have been transplanted to the solar colonies! Also, we have pictured some native handicrafts. Though rather primitive, they do have a certain charm.

Black Face Sheep

Native Pots

[Editor's Notes: These are 15mm sheep. Peter Pig, I think. I have them for objectives, same as the pigs I have painted previously. While these are grassy bases, I will be adding some Martian based ones as well. Attacking a food supply or economic resource is a perfectly logical reason for a raid or even pitched battle. The pots I did up from craft store beads thanks to an idea I am swiping form Frank Chadwick's VSF game at Historicon 2013. Each has a number on the bottom. When a searching figure approaches the pot, it is turned over and a chart consulted. You may find treasures, allies, traps, or foes!]

Primitive Fortifications on Venus

   This journal recently received photostatic evidence of a primitive fortification built somewhere in the jungles of Venus, the Veiled Planet of Mysteries. As our dear readers are no doubt aware, Venus is home to at least two indigenous intelligent lifeforms. Though both the lizardmen and the parrotfolk are savage tribalists, they display a degree of cunning that must be taken into account when venturing forth from the safe enclaves of human habitation.

   See below the apex of Venusian engineering...

The human figure in strange attire and armed with primitive weapons is unknown.

Perhaps he is a French agent, a coureur du bois or voyageur?

A lookout tower of some sort. Apparently, it is unfinished at this time.

[Editor's Notes: The fort has been sitting a long time, a gift from a fellow VSF enthusiast in the Houston area. I painted and flocked it, but Dan built it. I built the tower using leftovers from the fortress. It is almost done, needing only the base - an old CDR - to be flocked, and some sort of overhead covering to be done. Speaking of which, I am considering a roof over at least one of the two bastions in the fortress. What do you think?

  I plan to use these for games of In Her Majesty's Name and other VSF games. It could be a jungle on Earth as well as Venusian. My son said the fortress looked a little barren for a jungle, but I reminded him that one does not allow undergrowth or trees near one's fortification. A clear field of fire is a necessary asset in these cases.]

Working on These Projects

My two weeks away from home has seemed to refresh my desire to paint and build, and these are the projects I am prioritizing:

1) Gentlemen's Club for Empire of the Dead.

I haven't played a game of this yet, though I took part in the Requiem Kickstarter. The minis are all very nice, and I have already painted up most of the werewolves. I know I can use them as Adventuring Companies in In Her Majesty's Name as well, which is a really nice skirmish ruleset.

2) Prussian Airships for Dystopian Wars

I bought these back at Christmas time, I think. They are pretty simple to paint up - it just needs doing. Plus, it would be progress! And proof of progress helps to keep me motivated.

3) 15mm Spanish Civil War

My friend Zach is very interested in playing some Spanish Civil War. I have chosen the Carlistas, who supported the Nationalists because the Nationalists supported Catholicism. I picked up several packs of Peter Pig's Carlista requetes while in Weymouth. I'll paint up a few bases's worth and see how they look. You'll be able to follow that project more closely on Scattergun Gamer.

4) New Issue of The Aethergraph

I wanted to get another issue out back in May, hoping to do a quarterly schedule this year. Grad school sort of got in the way of that. But, I think I am ready to try and tackle finishing the issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated, naturally.

   So I am going to work on these projects for the next few days. Hopefully by end of the week I shall have something to share.

Having Returned from the Wilderness...

...and recovered (somewhat) from his travels, Our Hero returns a bit refreshed and ready to do some serious work.

   The trip went well. Weymouth, Cardiff and Windsor were all brilliant. Paris was nice enough, but I've seen what I wanted to see.

   Speaking of which, I went to the Musee d'Armee at Les Invalides whilst in Paris and took several photostatic images of French uniforms. They aren't terribly good images, I am afraid, as everything was behind glass, it seemed. However, it should give your Dear Editor something with which to work when he ventures into Froggy painting. Most of the images below are of various colonial troop uniforms.

Bleaseworld: Land Ironclads: Sprue Fortress I

Bleaseworld: Land Ironclads: Sprue Fortress I: A little break from 6mm - here's some 2mm! :-) Busy day today with work and trying to get Saul's stuff ready for his first gig tom...

I'm in Cardiff today...

I scheduled this before I left, to post whilst I am on vacation.

In Cardiff, I shall revisit the Goat Major Pub and have a Wye Valley Pie. I hope to run into these fine gentlemen.

Because how cool would that be?

That is the actual (recently retired) Goat Major himself, in the Goat Major Pub, with Shenkin, the official mascot of the Royal Welsh Regiment.

Now, off to see the castle!