Amazing Tomes!



So my buddy Chuck had taken the dive into craft commerce. In addition to being a great friend, fellow gamer, and all around good guy, he's also a talented book binder and makes custom, leather bound, journal-sized books. He's recently started up a blog, called Portobello Road,  to chronicle his efforts to make a business out of his craft.

I cannot say enough just how lovely his books are. All the work is done by hand, including the graphics on the covers. The papers are imported from abroad where they are also made by hand. Check him out and drop him a line if you are interested in seeing more or perhaps contracting a tome of your own. Perhaps you need a snazzy campaign journal or a spell book for your LARP. Maybe you need a prop for your latest campaign? I'm sure Chuck can make it happen.

Take care,

-Eli

28mm Vikings

In an effort to try to get some of my collection painted and playable, I have resorted to outsourcing some of my painting. I have a friend who has had a lot of free time who had asked if I had any figures he could paint. I gladly sent off some of my 28mm Vikings. The initial offering was a collection of Plastic Wargames Factory Saxons and Crusader Viking command in metal. This was capped off by a dwarfed skald, sculpted by me. The Saxons had  been "Vikingized" by the generous application of some Green Stuff to give them proper hair and beards.

I think my biddy did a good job of painting them all to tabletop standard. I intentionally had him avoid any shield markings beyond colored sections. I can add transfers to the shields later.

I've sent off a batch of 28mm cowboys and US Cav to see how he does with a different subject matter.

-Eli

Why So Quiet Around Here?

You may have noticed that things have slowed down around ISLP. I am sorry for this, but there's a good reason for most of it.

First of all, I've been trying to put a little less time into my hobbies and more time with the family. This is something I must admit being a bit remiss on in the past.

In addition to this, I have been joined the crew of Dropship Horizon and have been doing a fair bit of work with the behind the scenes stuff there. I haven't been posting much to DH, but I am also the keeper of their mailbox.

I've also been putting a lot of time into my sculpting and designing for sculpting. As well as my own sculpting projects, I have been working with various folks in a behind the scenes capacity. Nothing major, but enough to occupy some of my time.

This is all on top of the the grass roots miniatures gaming "activism" I've been up to on The Miniatures Page. Believe it or not, years worth of making noise on various topics on the forums there seems to finally be rendering some results. The squeaky wheel really does get the kick!

I haven't abandoned the blog by any means, but I've just been busy elsewhere. I've got stuff I am working on and the occasionally topic worth posting does come up, but the time to sit down and create interesting blog posts is what I really seem to lack these days.

Rest assured that I will post something here when I can put together something that I feel is interesting enough to post.

Perhaps you could take a moment and chime in to let me know what all you have enjoyed about ISLP over the years. It may just give me an idea!

Thanks,

-Eli

Minis Ready to Go!

Alright folks,

It's been a bit since I've posted any sculpting pics, but I have been working on some stuff. I've got about ten figures ready to go on their way to 15mm.co.uk for their SHM miniatures line. These greens/greys will be looked over by Gavin and hopefully will go into production.

The first shot is just to show scale. The Uhul on the left in about 20mm tall.

 

  






Uhul shaman

 

Starport scum

   









Alien Raider Captain



Alien w/ Cane



Alien bystander



Alien Mercenary



Robed Alien



Starport Urchins & Friend



Tangoing With Rango

Alright, I may be a little late to this parade, but I recently bought the DVD and have to say I absolutely loved Rango. Johnny Depp offers us another great oddball characterization among a cast of other oddballs. The presentation of a cracked version of the Wild West is as memorable as the character design and the animation in this movie.

Rango's fish out of water journey from faux hero to true grit western type is quite entertaining to watch. Familiar western tropes are handled with style and agility throughout the movie. Cameos of familiar faces or homages paid to classic movie characters are also sprinkled through the entire picture. In many ways it sort of plays like an offbeat Wind in the Willows from an American point of view.

The picture below shows many of the memorable character designs. So taken with them am I that I am tempted to try to give them the same treatment that the fellow over at Mutton Chop Miniatures did with the characters from The Wind in the Willows, transforming classic animal characters into their human counterparts.

From a gaming perspective there is a lot to borrow here. From interesting Old West characters to an inspiration for a post apocalyptic mutant animal community.

Give Rango a peep and enjoy!

-Eli

Back From the Woods

So, I've been back for a week now but just finally got some pictures. I'm afraid I don't have any stunning pictures of the wild this time around. I wasn't feeling my best and with recent knee problems wasn't much up for hiking.

Family Camp was pretty cool this year. We had a new (to us) two-room tent with room to stand up and some good solid camping lights and a new air mattress this year. My oldest daughter insisted on sleeping in her own tent instead of in the main tent with the rest of the family. The group camp space was filled to full this year with every tent pad used and even a previously unused tent space well away from the main site also in use. Heck, Anna's tent had to be pitched on a grassy spot off any of the prepared tent pads.

All the wood we had left for the last day at camp

As usual there was much food to be had as well as many adult beverages to be consumed once the day wound down. We had three full camp stoves available to us this year and enough fire wood that the fire ran almost constantly the entire time we were there except for a brief period between breakfast and dinner.

I mentioned adult beverages. The family we camp with has their own home brew and brought A LOT of it to camp to go with the various beers, coolers and other hard alcohol. The tastiest treat of the weekend was a drink called Caramel Apple that tasted so good and so innocent despite being built off a backbone of Everclear. Tasted just like a candied apple.



Anna's tent w/field expediant rain fly. She's so handy.

The river had diverted to the far bank by this summer and it made finding a swimming place difficult. Because all the water was on once side of the river it was running faster and deeper than in previous years. Fortunately, our usual backwater that serves as a kiddy pool was still there, if not a bit shallow. We were also able to construct an effective wading pool about 3 ft deep at the edge of the main river which proved quite effective for kids to float around on rafts and for adults to dangle their feet to escape the heat.



Getting hussled at a game of Cosmic Cows by my nephew. He kept adding the extra cow to the board or using it to switch cow positons.



We did attempt to go up river again to last year's great swimming spot, but found it running fast and deep and incredibly cold with the late melt off. I did risk a dip in the water and found myself swept away on the current and actually fighting to get to the bank before the river shallowed again and buffeted me on the smooth, but still hard river rocks. This began my adventure for this year.

As I was riding the current, my foot hit a rock and knocked my slip-on shoe off. I watched it go down river without me and was faced with a long walk over an endless wasteland of rocks and sand. I tried walking it with just one shoe and finally gave up. I resorted to tying my Superman t-shirt around my foot and using it as an add-hock shoe. This foot wrap helped with the walking, though I now found my body exposed to the slashing of branches in the underbrush I was cutting through to avoid more rocks. Surprisingly, the shirt survived the trip. It's now one of my favorites.

Anyhow, a good year and the beginning of the long wait until next year's family camp.

Take care,

-Eli

Music and Gaming

   Greetings again, ladies and gents.

   I was just perusing another blog (gasp!), and ran across a clip to some music from YouTube. The song was "Men of Harlech," along with video from the classic film Zulu - an old favorite of yours truly, both song and film. One of the comments attached to said post got me to thinking about music, its ability to set moods, and how often it is, or at least should be, used for such when gaming.

   I have used music in the past while playing games, both as simple background music to highlight the social aspect of wargaming or roleplaying, and as specific music for tone of the game. Nothing makes a game of Call of Cthulhu better than playing late at night, by candle or, even better, oil lamp light, with some spooky music playing low in the background. Or the soundtrack from, say Conan the Barbarian while playing Old School D&D. Or Carmina Burana ("O Fortuna" especially) during the climactic cult sacrifice scene. All that Latin chanting that is obviously not part of a Catholic Mass... seems sinister to me.

   For Car Wars, I'll play road songs: "I Can't Drive 55," "Radar Love," "I Want You to Want Me," that sort of thing. Fast paced stuff. For cyberpunk games, I like punk music (duh!).

   Anyway, for me, it is all about helping to set a mood, something which music is well known for doing. Don't believe me? Play some Barry White next time you're feeling romantic. Oh yeah.

   Until the next time I rise out of the muck that is lurking... have fun!