And Now for Something Completely Different, In Her Majesty’s Name

Rules Cover

I received a parcel today containing In Her Majesty’s Name; Heroes, Villains, and Fiends; and Sleeping Dragon, Rising Sun. Top notch products, stem to stern; kudos to the authors Craig Cartmell and Charles Murton. Osprey Publishing has done a superior job of publishing quality books and their efforts shine in this series of rules and supplements.

I must confess my imagination was given a work out when I initially read the varied discussions, the many blogs, and the myriad reviews. Having the books in hand has only confirmed my anticipation, and my appreciation of high quality writing. I wish I had acquired the rules and the two supplements sooner.

I usually prepare several Companies with differing “themes”. For example I can offer Villainy and Heroes, Egalitarian and Despotic, even Hard-Boiled and Whimsy. Armed with such comprehensive and well-conceived rules as the authors have prepared I am most certainly more able to find a congenial opponent to take the challenge of a good romp around the game table.

Have questions? Give me a shout.

Meet the Nineteenth Century Coincidentium

Nineteenth Century Meets Coincidentium

You have heard the old adage: “find a need and fill it”, this is how to make a fortune. It’s a theme that will persist on game days with Two Hour Wargames Colonial Adventures and Mission St. Mary.

A Sketch of the New Earth

The earth suffered a natural catastrophe from “the heavens”. Clusters of ‘space rocks’ following in the wake of a ‘mega-comet’ ploughed through three planets, Earth, Mars, and Venus. The Apocalypse arrived in 1859. Odd beings landed in worn out ships that had also been dragged through the galaxy by the comet. They founded new colonies on the shattered land.

No one was able to do much in the way of resisting the new settlers. Some Humans blamed the ‘new settlers’ or immigrants for ‘blowing up the sky’and draining oceans. Most of the immigrants do well to scratch out an existence on Earth. They have about the same needs as others. Some show bad manners and get into trouble, most seem to abide by law and respect the other beings now living in communes and out in the territories.

The Bureau of Particulars

The group picture is a brick of agents from the Bureau of Particulars. These agents are the field investigators and law keepers for human society in the late 19th century Maritime Union.

The Coincidentium

The new ‘reality’ has been dubbed the Coincidentium by New York Herald editor Marcus Frimby. “We will find we have a very real confrontation with beings much different from ourselves or anyone the great explorers of old ever encountered. To date the Maritime Union and Territories are populated by Hybrids, Mutants, Neugens, Mortans, Spirits, and Humans, and the persistently combative migratory Narga all making attempt to live on the what part of the planet that has remained stable for the last 25 years.” The Coincidentium reflects the razors-edge survival of all species on Earth.

“The most frightening and deadly beings are not always the most repugnant to the senses.” Lady Morgana Davis, Spirits, Charleston, Lower Carolina.

Evangeline–Steampunk Pistol Finale

Small Bolter Finale

I must say this has been an enjoyable build. Specifications were easy, I made some changes as requested, and a restrained use of materials seemed to make the whole flow together nicely.

Many people give special names to firearms, this is no exception; I understand this build will be christened Evangeline*. Perhaps I shall also make a Gabriel™, with apologies to the poet Mr. Longfellow.

Evangeline™ before crating

As the maker I like the composition and build process. I seek balanced components and  simplicity of line in the structure. I tend to add a little surprise as in color or shape or ornamentation. Sometimes I learn more about the build once it has left the toy shop. It is not bitter for me when this happens. It keeps the piece alive in my imagination.

Reference to Evangeline

Link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangeline

A Steampunk Armatage™

Something New Everyday

Here is a gander at a last-minute commission for an upcoming regional Steampunk Fair over the Labor Day Weekend.

Scrabbage

The idea of scrabbage is making a construction that I call a workment or Armatage™ in this case.  As the maker I am the Armaturge©.

Scrabbage is insightful scrounging, purposeful rummaging, and artful collecting, with a somewhat organized storing of parts for later use. It has to be organized and useful or else it is merely junk. My way makes all the clutter and mayhem into Junque and I do intend the capitalization.

“This is a bits and parts construction after all. Just slap something together. It will be fine.” Sorry lass, that is not the way I scrabbage something.

Armatage

Armatage, n. a construction or a fanciful but non-functioning weapon. The process and construction is Armaturgy.

Armaturge

Armaturge is a portmanteau of “arms” as in weapons and the noun thaumaturge from Greek wonder thaumato-  plus,  -ourgos working, from ergon work. One who makes miracle weapons from junk. How pretentious!

 

Raygun Build—Mock-Up

A good soak in SuperClean™ degreaser and general great cleanser insures the inner Raygun chassis will be ready for the inner works installation.

                                     Clean and ready for components

I do not know what is moving me forward on the Raygun build. I really want to see what the bits n’ bobs will look like when they all come together. The deadline is six weeks out. Plenty of lead time– I just step over to Raygun Central and poke and prod for a few minutes whilst the paint dried on a paint challenge.

I have employed a little Blue Tack and some Painters’ Tape to try out ad hoc design in real time, no drawing this time, which is my usual tack when I build a project.  I have not used the Dremel ™ yet because I intend to work with what material as is.

                                                      A Tape n’ Tack Mock-Up

I have thought a little about a name for the Raygun. It is not part of the challenge but every project has a name or a title. Same should hold true for this build, besides, I am getting tired of just calling this build a Raygun.

What is a good name for the Raygun?  Suggestions welcome!

Raygun Build Part II

To begin a project requires planning, imagination, and time. Often I do a trial fit and if I like the outcome then the project is finished in short order. What I make depends on what I have on hand. I usually just scrounge the parts.

Here is what I found when I opened my find. Yay!

All of these build activities are in the toy shop where I can find anything I want or have not finished; it just takes a little time.

During summer my projects come in order of emphasis:   a little behind work (Ech!), just after sports (Score!), and a long way behind relationships (Cheers!). I shall endeavor to move this Raygun build along in a timely fashion. The deadline is for late October.

For this build picking the parts takes the place of an initial drawing. I use what I have on hand. This is the sculptural aspect. It is great that the parts have threaded ends or existing holes for easy assembly. The divine is in the details to wit, the parts.

The box of bits includes a flashlight (torch) lens, several couplers, a cut crystal jewel, a pump bulb, two shell casings; a battery powered light, a small key, tape roll thingy, etc. Remember the inner parts of my Raygun may also yield some interesting tidbits once they are thoroughly cleaned. The housing has a lot of space to accommodate some LED’s or other secret gizmos.

How I understand the term ‘Steampunk’

In regards to a personal definition of Steampunk I get the reference of ‘power’ as steam. Then add ‘punk’ to a noun as descriptor, (I thought adjectives did that job) and lo, a new genre is formed. Crimeny-Ned!

I interpret ‘punk’ as ‘imaginative trend-bending’ of historical artifacts as ‘powerfully projected alternative renditions of everyday items with a patina of the Victorian ethos’. One of the shared interests is making that stuff consistent in the world of imagination with a 19^th century swagger.  I enjoy the idea that the limits of historical influence are undone or at least mixed with the present.

Can you tell what I might combine on this build?

Raygun Build

Part I

Scrap Punk: I make personal disasters.

The Ridiculous Diversion part of Wargaming involves the influence of other people on me. Victorian Sci-Fi and Steampunk are both truly outside my orbit. That is until something comes along that piques my interest. I have a certain magnetic attraction and wonder at the reuse of parts from one thing to make another thing, a transformation of sorts, as in reuse from refuse.

      “What can it become?” is my favorite question.

Moding or modifying is another term that I use interchangeably with scratch building or kit bashing both older phrases.  The fourth term in constant use with DiY’ers is altered as in ‘altered books’, ‘altered boxes’, and ‘altered toys’. Altering, bashing, scratch building, homebrew, moding and punking (even pimping) convey the idea of making something from various left-over bits and parts. It is not called kit-bashing for nothing, hence, the need to keep a lot of parts on hand.

There is a sculptural aspect to making decisive additions to the template material (as in the picture above) and putting the pieces together in 3-D. It is a collage of bits in the round.

A few of my associates needed a new term for making things from scrap and so I invented Spiking. Graphic artists to artful MiG and TiG welders took the term and ran with it. My phrase for this upcoming challenge shall be:  Scrap Punk.

All the world’s a dust bin,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their bits and their parts,
And one man in his time plays with many toys. . .

My next in-between projects diversion will be a Victorian Sci-Fi / Steampunk Raygun Construction Challenge. I have just the place to begin, in my toy shop where I deconstruct to re-construct, all very post-modernist (Po-Mo). I began bashing kits before Po-Mo was cult.

I say, the games afoot…

I make custom disasters.

Scrap Punk is my own term, and a Steampunk Raygun is closer to reality. Please accept the oxymoron.