Lost In Space And Time

Ahhhhh... It's been hard graft here in Lake Godforbid, as I've been working days and a half hours every day for the last week, along with trips to the vet, a terminally ill neighbor (whom, is 'being made comfortable' - medical shorthand for being euthanised in my personal lexicon) and a general lack of sleep, caused mostly by a dream I had a t the start of the week which involved experiencing being on the very edge of death myself, waking up in a sweat at the moment of passing. Perhaps I did actually die in that other place and this is the afterlife - discuss.

But, despite all that, I'm making headway with the 15mm sci-fi project, with 3 forces bought and sorted out already and a fourth which I finished planning this morning before work.

My next force will a sci-fi take on the Air Cavalry centered around 19 of the GZG AV-7 'Fan Van' VTOLs packed out with the Outer Rim Coalition range of hard-suited figure, armed to the fucking teeth with support weaponry with which to tear the opposition  a new one from the sky before re-embarking and getting out fast.

It's something I've wanted to do for a long time, and so, I may as well get on and jolly well do it.

I've also ordered a new smooth grey mat for the table in the gaming room, allowing me to begin the re-creation of my much loved 'Attack on a Starport' game.

Briefly, one of our favourite scenarios when we first started gaming at Limpsfield school with the late legendary to those who knew him, Steve Roberts, was to grab a table, unpack the boxes of Citadel Traveller figures I'd taken a shine to and use pins to connect the foam liners to each other, to create rudimentary buildings at the edge of a spaceport apron, with one set of players defending and the others attacking, using the Laserburn rules (we should of course have used Imperial Commander for such large games) which, we never once fought to a conclusion, the human Marines getting cut to pieces on the plas-mac by dastardly Vargr mercenaries in the main spaceport. Our imaginations filled in the blanks and we each envisaged the epic struggle in our own take on early 80s sci-fi tropes.

Well, now I am trying to re-create that whole thing with proper buildings, modern models which have that 80s aesthetic and shed load upon shed load of eye candy.

Jon at GZG has been a great help - as he always is - and just today when I was discussing by email the cargo capacity of his VTOLs, pointed me towards the Gordon R Dickinson 'Dorsai' series of books, which I'll now have to read, because my next force will use the Bretheren Of The New Light as a totally infantry based 'local force' with their helmets so redolent of the Iraqi 'Fedayeen Saddam' troops.

I've started to take delivery of numerous plastic starships including three Space 1999 vessels in 1/72 - The Hawk, Eagle Transporter and Eagle 4 as well as the 1/72, 29.5 inch long Orion Clipper by Moebius, which combined could have got me 350-400 28mm infantry from a boutique manufacturer. Still, as Ken Reilly says 'go big or go home'.

Over the 4 days Easter holiday period, I'm going to crack on with the Federated Hov-Cav vehicles, which I've now added the first filters to, by going to my studio eye-wateringly early to get some work on them done, before I start the day and a half's work for that day, meaning that I've been working 13+ hours a day. But procrastination doesn't feed the Bulldog.

But it does mean that I can now start the painting in earnest. I fully intend to paint most of this myself and I think I can actually enjoy it because it's something very much etched into my gaming DNA.

I'm still waiting for my orders from Brigade Models, and they are not answering email enquiries, which worries me somewhat. So much hinges now on delivery of their terrain for my grand design.

I'll post progress pics of course as I err, progress, but for now I'm off to clean up and rehydrate as I've not had a drink since midday and besides, it's the Easter break now...

TTFN