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Test...This Is Only A Test
Feb. 10th, 2020 02:54 pm
A couple weeks ago at the Knoxville IPMS meeting, a fellow member was clearing out his closet of old periodicals and some of us got to divvying the pieces among them. When I saw that he had old issues of War Monthly and True War among them, I shamelessly scooped up as much of those as I could.
Both those magazines were influences on me, and perhaps more than I'd care to admit.
War Monthly was the product of the Marshall Cavendish publishing powerhouse, and (I felt) a good value for the combination of artwork, writing and layout work. The articles would get repurposed into volumes, and from there sometimes into whole coffee table books.
True War, on the other hand, was the product of the notorious low-budget tabloid schlockmeister and pornographer Myron Fass at Countrywide Publications. The only color content was on the cover, and the interior was made up mainly of archival or press-release photos and cut-to-the-bone prose. True to form, their presentation on the Battle of Arnhem (for an example) was slimmer in both page count and journalist prowess as the photo spread of Cornelius Ryan's book A BRIDGE TOO FAR! I got a replacement copy of an issue of True War I thought I lost in 1978 and now that I think about it, I think one of my parents could have thrown mine out in disgust.
To make a long story short, I couldn't afford as a kid to subscribe to War Monthly, and even if the option were available my folks probably wouldn't have condoned me subscribing to True War. My main go-to publisher of magazines from then was Challenge Publications (Air Classics, Air Combat, Air Progress, Military Modeler, etc.).
But I'm glad to get back these. And then I found a bunch of online sources for .pdf versions of War Monthly, so one way or another I have all the content from the get-go through to Issue 49. The series lasted much longer than that, but the later ones are very hard to find because they were subscription-only and most went to library collections.
FP
FreeWill Punks Out
Sep. 4th, 2013 12:04 amSagittarius Horoscope for week of September 5, 2013
Punk icon Henry Rollins did an interview with Marilyn Manson, rock and roll's master of the grotesque. It's on Youtube. The comments section beneath the video are rife with spite and bile directed toward Manson, driving one fan to defend her hero. "I love Marilyn Manson so much that I could puke rainbows," she testified. I think you will need to tap into that kind of love in the coming days, Sagittarius: fierce, intense, and devotional, and yet also playful, funny, and exhilarating. You don't necessarily have to puke rainbows, however. Maybe you could merely spit them.
What are my "true colors"? Are you sure you want to see them?
Punk icon Henry Rollins did an interview with Marilyn Manson, rock and roll's master of the grotesque. It's on Youtube. The comments section beneath the video are rife with spite and bile directed toward Manson, driving one fan to defend her hero. "I love Marilyn Manson so much that I could puke rainbows," she testified. I think you will need to tap into that kind of love in the coming days, Sagittarius: fierce, intense, and devotional, and yet also playful, funny, and exhilarating. You don't necessarily have to puke rainbows, however. Maybe you could merely spit them.
What are my "true colors"? Are you sure you want to see them?
In Soviet Russia
Dec. 24th, 2012 06:21 pmGraphics Widget Customizes YOU
Ford Focus Coupe version (which I don't think we get in the U.S. for some reason).
PS: Oh, hay--it's the convertable version. Hmmph. Lexus can build theirs for the American market but Ford can't? Highly illogical.
Ford Focus Coupe version (which I don't think we get in the U.S. for some reason).
PS: Oh, hay--it's the convertable version. Hmmph. Lexus can build theirs for the American market but Ford can't? Highly illogical.
Bringing Back This Doodle
Dec. 2nd, 2012 08:31 pm
Over the weekend was the local IPMS club's Swap Meet, and I got several kits for very very cheap. Including a few more Spitfires.
Anybody feel like coming up with a paint scheme or two?
FP
Stevie's Stable
Oct. 7th, 2012 12:02 am
Rumor has it that Ford's Mustang Customizer contest ends today/Sunday so I copied my 21 ponycar designs to disk and compiled them here. The green one on the bottom left corner is the one I've entered to win, though I expect I didn't generate enough entry points to be a real contender.
MORE TO COME (I hope)
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For me, it depends on what the changes ARE. For example, if GONE WITH THE WIND or THE WIZARD OF OZ got tweaked into a widescreen version that lost none of the visual impact but instead enhanced it, with remastered sound and clearer picture quality, I'm sure everybody would want that. But I've said before that colorization doesn't always work.
When ET: THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL was tweaked by Spielberg, there was some justified contraversy about him changing the Deputies' riot shotguns to walkie-talkies in the bicycle chase scene. And, of course, George Lucas' meddling with the STAR WARS movies hasn't won him a lot of friends. If changes are made, they have to benefit the work as a whole, not just add gimmicks.
I'd been thinking about the movie MIDWAY. So much of that was stolen from other movies, that if it were me, I'd use modern tech to redo the parts that were from archives and so make it more honest and authentic. I'd redo the Doolittle Raid sequence so it wouldn't be from THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO or even the PEARL HARBOR remake. I'd redo the sinking of the USS Lexington in the Coral Sea. I'd redo the Japanese raid on Midway Island so it isn't footage from TORA TORA TORA and THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN. And I'd redo thing's like George Gay's crash into the ocean and the ordeal of USS Yorktown. But I wouldn't think of changing the scenes with Fonda, Heston, Mifune and company. The drama is where it's good. It's the other elements that work against it.
For me, it depends on what the changes ARE. For example, if GONE WITH THE WIND or THE WIZARD OF OZ got tweaked into a widescreen version that lost none of the visual impact but instead enhanced it, with remastered sound and clearer picture quality, I'm sure everybody would want that. But I've said before that colorization doesn't always work.
When ET: THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL was tweaked by Spielberg, there was some justified contraversy about him changing the Deputies' riot shotguns to walkie-talkies in the bicycle chase scene. And, of course, George Lucas' meddling with the STAR WARS movies hasn't won him a lot of friends. If changes are made, they have to benefit the work as a whole, not just add gimmicks.
I'd been thinking about the movie MIDWAY. So much of that was stolen from other movies, that if it were me, I'd use modern tech to redo the parts that were from archives and so make it more honest and authentic. I'd redo the Doolittle Raid sequence so it wouldn't be from THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO or even the PEARL HARBOR remake. I'd redo the sinking of the USS Lexington in the Coral Sea. I'd redo the Japanese raid on Midway Island so it isn't footage from TORA TORA TORA and THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN. And I'd redo thing's like George Gay's crash into the ocean and the ordeal of USS Yorktown. But I wouldn't think of changing the scenes with Fonda, Heston, Mifune and company. The drama is where it's good. It's the other elements that work against it.
Old Toys...New Playing Around?
Mar. 6th, 2012 04:14 pm
Fourteen years ago, CRIMSON SKIES came and I was so excited about it. I wanted to design planes, and get games going, and really get into the setting. I never got to play, but I did put a few models together and these are some of the paint schemes I'd invented for my fleets. I decided to take an old magazine ad illo (for Cox's model airplanes) and use it as a respository for these schemes and others.
More Of The Same
Feb. 20th, 2012 10:35 pm
I'm not done, probably, but I feel close enough to that point.
Armies Of The Unreal, Explained
Jan. 2nd, 2012 12:12 am
I decided to go the route of invented factions with my wargame armies partly because of a general disgust with the purely historical paradigm (partly boredom and partly hatred for the horrors of the politics involved) and my ongoing need to do something creative and self-authentic. Besides, if I have pieces in, say, Nde Nation markings, they are far less likely to be stolen from a big convention as, for example, ones with Wehrmacht Afrika Korps colors.
Who Is What:
Balance Corps. Colors: Woodland/Temperate Brown. The "hero" faction of the Hackett Continuum, their insignia is intentionally based on the compass rose sigils of NATO and the Central Intelligence Agency.
Nde Nation. Colors: Grassland/Zebra-Tiger Stripes. This is a tongue-in-cheek concept from Hollywood and anime given a serious twist. The return of the Apache tribal nation as a modern militant force, with contemporary weapons and technology.
Royal Sealand Guards. Colors: Nocturnal Gray/Black/Deep Purple; Stealth. The shield is the same as in the actual micronation's coat-of-arms. The Royal Guards is a real organization; in the Hackett Continuum they are one of the main military forces backing Balance Corps.
Misfit Brigade. Colors: Arctic Gray/White. Based on the movie of the same name and the Weird War Two game concept that followed, these are renegade Germans in a WW2 or Cold War setting.
Trigon Federation. Colors: Forest/Jungle Green. The Aggressors from the Cold War U.S. Army exercizes.
Freikorps. Colors: Desert Tan. Real history given some steroids. The Nazis attempted to turn Allied P.O.W.'s to their cause, but never got enough of them to send them into combat. And worse, the Freikorps was easily penetrated with Allied double agents! See also Kurt Vonnegut's novels Slaughterhouse Five and Mother Night.
Metal Victory Army. Colors: Bare Metal and Black/Iron. Invented for the comic books I was writing in the 1990s, they would evolve into one of the antagonist forces in the Hackett Continuum.
Cuerpo Sangre. Colors: Marine/Blue. The other main antagonist force, they are co-belligerant competitors of the MVA.
White Army. Colors: Urban/Ghost Gray. Like the Misfit Brigade, only renegade Russians and Eastern Europeans rather than Germans.
THIS SITE is a challenge to sports fans to build upon the 2012 Indycar baseline with your own aerodynamic package and color graphics. A little too advanced for me, but I wonder about the other artists I know.
Blast From The Past
Jun. 19th, 2011 09:42 pm( Rusty Is Back In Town )
Since the current version of the "Nacy L. Courey's Age-Dated" beer can is in a Black and Gold color scheme, any race car livery based upon it would likely resemble the livery seen in this commercial for Miller Genuine Draft and Rusty Wallace's NASCAR Cup campaign. Bobby Rahal was the parallel contender in CART/IRL at the time.
Since the current version of the "Nacy L. Courey's Age-Dated" beer can is in a Black and Gold color scheme, any race car livery based upon it would likely resemble the livery seen in this commercial for Miller Genuine Draft and Rusty Wallace's NASCAR Cup campaign. Bobby Rahal was the parallel contender in CART/IRL at the time.
Random, Sorta
Apr. 9th, 2011 10:30 pm
After doing those entries for the Ace Combat skin design contest on Facebook, I felt a little like doing the same for the aircraft in Hackett Continuum. This is the first of what I hope will be a series of profile sheets. Color and other niceties to follow; this is only a work in progress.
Planning out a wargame army can be a lot of fun AND a lot of work. A while ago, I was inspired to create a non-historic force for Flames of War and other 15mm-scale wargames based on the amateur militia Billy Joe's Boys, from the spoof movie Suppose They Gave A War And Nobody Came?. It's a parody of a modern cavalry troop, yahoos riding in old jalopies with Army Surplus armaments.
Thanks to Gear Krieg, statting out the vehicles wasn't tough. Plus I'll use a few off-the-shelf pieces to keep my force "sanitary" for tournament play. But I was getting antsy about paint schemes, numbers of miniatures needed, and other details.
Then I decided to do a rethink from a graphical perspective. An old wargaming magazine called S&T ("Strategy & Tactics") bundled games into their issues by reducing the pieces to a map, a rules booklet and a sheet of punch-out cardboard counters called "chits". They're a simple design and would do double duty, as both labels for miniatures and a "cheat sheet".
So I came up with a blank:
Which I could color and overlay with numbers or military symbols. From there, I filled out one for my Billy Joe's Boys troop:
This set uses military symbols from the current NATO symbology system to describe 104 miniature pieces in the still-hypothetical troop. As my force is nearly all mounted in vehicles, I use the triple-circle icon on the lower center of the inner box to mean "mounted" in the majority of my chits.
Explained, one by one:
* Two command vehicles (Billy Joe Davis and his deputy)
* Eight Security teams
* Ten Carbine teams
* Ten Flamethrower teams (tho' these may be replaced by other weapons)
* Ten Heavy Machine Gun teams
* Ten Light Antitank Weapon teams
* Ten Medium Antitank Weapon teams
* Ten Heavy Antitank Weapon teams
* Three additional Carbine teams
* Four Mobile Observation Post teams
* Four Tank Destroyer vehicles
* Five Antiaircraft Gun vehicles
* Three Heavy Mortar teams
* Twelve Motorcycle Recon teams
* Three Ground Attack Airplanes
This total force is bigger and far more powerful than the troop in the old movie, but perfectly legal for Flames of War once it is arranged into platoons. That's why I call it a "Doomsday Roster"--it is the unit at its maximum level of organization and equipment.
Thanks to Gear Krieg, statting out the vehicles wasn't tough. Plus I'll use a few off-the-shelf pieces to keep my force "sanitary" for tournament play. But I was getting antsy about paint schemes, numbers of miniatures needed, and other details.
Then I decided to do a rethink from a graphical perspective. An old wargaming magazine called S&T ("Strategy & Tactics") bundled games into their issues by reducing the pieces to a map, a rules booklet and a sheet of punch-out cardboard counters called "chits". They're a simple design and would do double duty, as both labels for miniatures and a "cheat sheet".
So I came up with a blank:
Which I could color and overlay with numbers or military symbols. From there, I filled out one for my Billy Joe's Boys troop:
This set uses military symbols from the current NATO symbology system to describe 104 miniature pieces in the still-hypothetical troop. As my force is nearly all mounted in vehicles, I use the triple-circle icon on the lower center of the inner box to mean "mounted" in the majority of my chits.
Explained, one by one:
* Two command vehicles (Billy Joe Davis and his deputy)
* Eight Security teams
* Ten Carbine teams
* Ten Flamethrower teams (tho' these may be replaced by other weapons)
* Ten Heavy Machine Gun teams
* Ten Light Antitank Weapon teams
* Ten Medium Antitank Weapon teams
* Ten Heavy Antitank Weapon teams
* Three additional Carbine teams
* Four Mobile Observation Post teams
* Four Tank Destroyer vehicles
* Five Antiaircraft Gun vehicles
* Three Heavy Mortar teams
* Twelve Motorcycle Recon teams
* Three Ground Attack Airplanes
This total force is bigger and far more powerful than the troop in the old movie, but perfectly legal for Flames of War once it is arranged into platoons. That's why I call it a "Doomsday Roster"--it is the unit at its maximum level of organization and equipment.
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