V: Again

I just saw a commercial. Ladies and gennlemen, please stand and raise your glasses.

They're remaking "V".

That quintessential eighties TV show about the rodent-eating, fake skin-wearing, we-come-in-peacing lizards that went from TV movie to miniseries to slightly odd TV series.

Awesome.

Stargate Universe

I've been casting a jaundiced eye over the newest installment of the Stargate legacy: Stargate Universe.

Well, it's not bad. The principle of the series is this:

An off-world base has a uniquely situated star gate. The core of the planet is radioactive (aren't they all?) and this might allow them to dial a new nine-symbol address.

Nine symbols?

Yeah, try to keep up.

So, the place gets attacked by the Lucian Alliance, the über-upgraded human ships (remember the end of Stargate SG-1?) are suddenly weak and pathetic again and the planet blows up. Our new heroes make their escape through the star gate, using the nine-symbol address.

And there's another flaw. Sure, we have the reasoning that the explosion of the planet could have propogated through the open wormhole and, as such, Earth was out. But are there no other stargates? One on an uninhabited planet, mayhap?

Anyway, through they go and find themselves on a ship. An Ancient ship. An Ancient ship many, many, many, many, many (done yet?), many lightyears from home.

Oh, and the ship's buggered. Not a whole heck of a lot is working. But the Ancients were smart.

Apparently, the point was to send the ship out, unmanned. Flying away before it are a number of other unmanned ships programmed to seek out certain planets and drop star gates on them. Thus, when the time was right the Ancients would use the nine-symbols to transport themselves into a new area of the universe with an already completed network of star gates. If anything went wrong, the ship would seek out the nearest star gate on a world that had what was needed and go there. Of course, the Ancients ascended before they got around to using it.

And that, more or less, is the premise of the show. The ship's on automatic, on its last legs, and it's going to be stopping off close to important places where our heroes can go get stuff.

Because, like, the Ancients had never heard of the concepts of 'spares' or 'backups'.

There are flaws in the premise, it's true, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief there. What I'm not willing to suspend is my hatred for shakycam. I'm convinced that they hired the same guy to make this new series as they did the remake of Battlestar Galactica. Either that or they just stole his ideas, that whole shaky camera work, stupid zooms and everything else that goes with that 'mockumentary' style of cinematography.

Still, I'm going to watch it. I just won't like it as much as if they had kept the style of the previous two series.

And.. I've come..

Oh, This Is Nice

I

WANT

THIS

CAR!

Crazy Belated Everything Post

Between celebrating our anniversary (yay!), watching the Bengals get thrashed (crap!) and going back to work (boo!) things have slid a little around here, so this is a catch-up post.

First:

Friday Rodent Blogging



Selene would like a moment for rebuttal, in re the question of the happiest match, and would like to submit gerbil and pumpkin seed as a contender.


Friday Cat Blogging


Attack! Attack the hand! Kill! Kill! Kill!


The Anglo-Saxon Project


This is the latest. The green stuff (kneadatite) arrived and progress was made. I started with just the helmet and the neck piece, leaving the sides and face mask 'till later. For reasons that aren't fully clear, even to me, I also added the crest. With some tidying, I should be able to finish this in about.. a year or two.

Actually, one more session should see it near done.

The Anglo-Saxon Project

Here's a modest update:

I've gone about as far as I can do with this until my supply of green stuff arrives.

I started with this figure:


This is basically a standard Praetorian Lieutenant model, but I had already reshaped the sword, making it a powersword rather than a chainsword. I needed to strip the paint from the model and do some more work:


I removed the sword's handguard and reshaped the blade into a short sword. I am considering reshaping the blade further in order to give it the distinctive Anglo-Saxon tapered look. I then ground the helmet and face down to give me a nice base to work on.

And that, pending kneadatite, is all folks.

Apart from the name. The British Museum site plays it coy about the identity of the helm's owner, but the Sutton Hoo site declares him to be Rædwald, King of East Anglia and later, one of the most powerful figures in Anglo-Saxon history.

Accordingly, this character shall be called Major Rædwald, 22nd regiment, Praetorian Guard.

This Week's Impossible Dream

Here's a nice picture:

If you're from England, I probably don't have to tell you what that is. But for those not from The Centre Of The Universe, or for those to whom history is merely something that happens to other people, that is the Anglo-Saxon helmet discovered at Sutton Hoo, now on display at the British Museum. The Sutton Hoo burial mound was first excavated in 1939 and a wealth of treasures were unearthed from an unidentified Anglo-Saxon king's burial ship.

This helmet has fascinated me ever since I saw the original as a schoolkid. I love the look of the piece.

The British Museum also has this replica, made by the Tower Of London Armouries, which shows the helmet in all of its original glory:




The trip down memory lane that led to the British Museum's website also sowed the seed of a mad idea now germinating inside the fizzing fireworks display that I sometimes, but not often, call my mind.

I have a spare Praetorian Lieutenant model. And that helmet would look just awesome on him.

Yes..

And I have the week off work..

I'll get back to you if there is any progress.

All images © Trustees of the British Museum.

In The Grim Darkness Of The Far Future There Is Only.. Lego?

Via Bullymike at 40kology comes Jerac's Lego Site, a place where one man melds 40k with small plastic bricks..

Fantastic. Utter genius.

Storm Troopers!

Here are some nice, close-up pics of my Storm Trooper squad, taken for painting competition entry over at 40K Online.

Sergeant, Flamer, Grenade Launcher, and Random Guy Who Just Happens To Be Carrying The Spare Ammo For The Grenade Launcher.


The Three Shooters. Guys taking aim. Clearly they were never taught the rule about all models in a unit shooting at the same target. Either that or they're surrounded by one really big enemy unit.


And the Three Guys Who Aren't Aiming At Anything Much, though the guy in the back does seem to have taken an interest in the guy who is standing in front of him. He, in fact, seems to be giving his behind a nice, long look.

Hey, don't ask, don't tell.

Sharpshooters!

The first of my Praetorian Royal Marine Sharpshooter teams is done:

Front:

Spotter:

Sniper:

The other two teams will be individually based, but I thought that putting these two on a large base was appropriate. More on this unit as it develops.

Paint Day 26/07/07

An unexpected, but welcome paint day today allowed me to do some magic with my airbrush.

First, I added a very light dusting of tan to the objective marker, which makes the sand look so much more realistic, and gives the hatch a nice weathered look:


Next, I experimented with a camouflage scheme for my sentinel:




And the same on my chimera:


Annoyingly, they both look way better up close than the photos would lead you to believe. Still, they are WIP shots, and they'll look better with details added.

Paint Day 24/07/07

Paint Day was, frankly, a bit slow. I made some progress on my Royal Marine sharpshooters, I managed to get my airbrush working, so some progress was made on my sentinel, but the only thing that was finished was one of my objective markers, the hatch marker:

Paint Day Again

Tuesday is Paint Day again, so in preparation I have been making objective markers.

The first uses the wounded Praetorian figure from the old boxed set, and represents a fallen comrade awaiting rescue:


The second uses a rhino hatch, and represents the entrance to an underground complex, storeroom, or maybe the exit from a bolt-hole that the army must secure:


Painting will commence Tuesday morning.

Don't Leave Home Without It

Something every Imperial Guard player needs, a die specifically for rolling those saving throws:


Yes, it's real. Yes, I own it. No, I don't think it'll be used in games...

Dr Who

Sci-Fi has just started showing the new season of the ancient and beloved BBC gemstone, Dr Who. David Tennant is just, again, brilliant as the Doctor.

So far Sci-Fi has shown three episodes (Runaway Bride, Smith And Jones, and The Shakespeare Code), of which my DVR managed to record the first two. So, I'm already an episode behind.

Sniper Gets Another Buddy

The third in my trio of Praetorian Royal Marine snipers has emerged:


And here is a side view showing the rifle:


And the three together:

Sniper Gets Buddy 2

Here's another WIP shot of my latest sniper. I've snipped off the bayonet lug (because a sniper rifle doesn't need a bayonet) and turned the scope into something more like a - well - scope.

Nighstalkers

I thought it was time to haul out my Nightstalkers Chapter (what little of it there is) and take some pics.

First, here is Captain Stone:


Rear view:

And the side:

Stone was originally conceived as the lead character for a story about a Space Marine chapter who were sent to guard an Adeptus Mechanicus base. In the course of the story, Stone was fitted for an experimental backpack mounted cannon, linked through the black carapace so it tracks and fires by mind impulse. I thought the idea was so cool I just had to make the model. In game terms he just has a storm bolter and a power sword, the backpack gun is just decoration.

Sniper Gets Buddy

I spent some time today assembling this, my second Praetorian Royal Marine sharpshooter. I decided to try something different with the scope, mainly because I don't have another of the previous type in my bits box. I've also left off the bipod, because I'm out of space marine knives, too..

One more sniper (and I know which model is getting the treatment) and three lasgun armed troopers and my marine sharpshooter squad will be ready.

Praetorian pics

Firstly, something I haven't done in a while, here is the 22nd on parade:


Here is my now completed lascannon squad:


And here is the (near) completed rhino that carries Colonel Ironfist and his retinue around:


Side view:


Again, if you don't know why it's a rhino, you haven't been playing long enough.

In game terms it simply counts as a chimera with a turret-mounted heavy bolter and a hull-mounted heavy bolter.

I've also created a photobucket album. You can see it here.