Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Off to work; more later. First coat of satin black as an undercoat on the tubeway car; metallic silver yet to come!

Originally Posted by AsenRG

I'll join Gronan's recommendation...sir Terry Pratchett is very, very good!

Oh, that's hilarious!

That one is spot-on. But really, people, I didn't read this to learn what you two think of JRRT...And this one just gets the stupid award.

Is anyone better? Let me think, Sherlock... Zelazni, MAR Barker, Geoffrey C. Grabowski, Greg Stafford, Jack Vance? And those are just those off the top of my head, which have published RPG settings - like Tolkien. I can probably find others without much effort.

These two help me understand where the obsession with unusual machinery came from in pulps.

When advanced thought isn't good for anything apart from politics, I'd question how correct is the "advanced" qualifier. Or maybe I should question the "thought" part.

All very good points - you are a delight, you know.

And yes, the fascination with 'super-science' gadgets goes back a long way, and while Phil was not a big expert on technology, he did have more then a few of these things lying around. And when we found them, we usually regretted it...

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Great suffering Fnord, I'd forgotten about those!

Kids, the 50s were incredible; we were suspended between believing that the Perfidious Bolsheviks were going to destroy the world in a cataclysm of Mutually Assured Destruction, and the belief that Mister Happy Atom would solve all the world's problems.

And, of course, as Chirine mentioned, the "Davy Crockett." "Let's give an atomic weapon to a second lieutenant! What could possibly go wrong?"

Besides of course the obvious questions of "What's the range on this thing, and what did you say the blast radius was?"

Like the - I kid you not! - nuclear satchel charge? Set the timer, and run like the dickens...

Originally Posted by AsenRG

This, and I'm not going to play that drinking game - I suspect there might be alcohol poisoning waiting for both of us there...

(I'm surprised the TOR authors didn't say a word about female representation in Jack Vance stories. Maybe they're just Vance fans).

I think we'd all be in liver failure in less then fifteen minutes, frankly.

Same here - I could be a cynic, and ask if Tor has the rights to the series. It also may be that Tor is a little sensitive on the subject of women, given the issues they've had in the recent past.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Like the - I kid you not! - nuclear satchel charge? Set the timer, and run like the dickens...

The Gullivernians would have loved it!

(Oh my Lord, the things they dreamed up!)

Originally Posted by Hrugga

Uncle, I can't wait to see how it turns out!!!

H:0)

There will be photos. Got the first coat of metallic silver on the thing, over three coats of acrylic filler, two coats of cobalt blue acrylic as a sealer, and one coat of satin black enamel as the undercoat. Both the satin black and the metallic silver are spray enamels, which will dissolve the open-cell polystyrene foam sphere I used as the basis for this model quicker then you can say "Whoops!" and you try to clean the sticky glue out of the carpet. So, two coats of acrylic over the filler, and everything is fine - so far.

Now, here's one for all of you. The car is a 6" sphere; I am mounting it on a clear Plexiglass base, as there will be times when I will need it as a free-floating model - like when the players wind up in one of the junction stations or the repair yards. My question is: we never ahd a model of either the cars or the stations, so what should I do for a tubeway car station? The opening in the floor for the tubeway will be the same size as the car, with a little 'windage', and as I'm doing this car as a 'midships' model with the door on the greatest diameter, the car will be 'floating about halfway in / out of the tubeway.

I am leaning in the general direction of a pretty 'generic' station, one that takes these cars and not the big ones, as I think this would get more use in games over time. The base, will have to be about three inches thick, to make the car float at the right level, and I'm wondering if I should try to do a little 'forced perspective' modeling and install the "dim purple lights" that Phil said are in the tunnels. My other option would be to rebate the underlayment for the floor, and have valence lights with purple filters to give a nice glow to the thing as it sits in the station. I am also sort of assuming that I am going to want to do the three colored 'tiles' in the floor that are the panels that summon the cars and indicate status. (LEDs, no problem.) Walls? The service rooms off the corridor that leads to the actual station?

My thought is that this will be about a foot wide and deep, so that I can use it as a 'super tile' in Underworld adventures. I'll have to make the stairs that lead 'up' from the base level of the game board to the station entrance, but that I can due in my sleep. Same thing with stairs down from the surface, if that's how the players get into the station.

Comments? Thoughts?

Hey - would there be any interest in a model of the Underworld in "Tomb Complex of Nereshanbo"? Working water feature is possible - one of the layouts I saw at one of my club's shows had a working canal with canal boats; what knocked the socks off me were the scale swans and cygnets that came along behind the narrowboats... - but to make the thing easier to transport I'd just use poured resin or something.

I love to build stuff - you think it shows?

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

The Gullivernians would have loved it!

(Oh my Lord, the things they dreamed up!)

I do miss Fred; he passed away a few years ago, and nobody really noticed except on the Blackmoor forum.

Fredrick P. Funk III, better known as Funk the First, King of the Orcs under Blackmoor and creator of the Orcian Way. God rest him.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

I do miss Fred; he passed away a few years ago, and nobody really noticed except on the Blackmoor forum.

Fredrick P. Funk III, better known as Funk the First, King of the Orcs under Blackmoor and creator of the Orcian Way. God rest him.

Yes, I heard some time later. Too young.

Photo, as the thing dries on the workbench...

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