A Contest to build a Ship

Well,

I frequent the Lead Adventures Forum http://forum.backofbeyond.de/ and an interesting subject came up. While discussing Pulp stuff, a thread was started about Tramp Steamers. Well Richard Johnson of Rattrap Productions http://www.rattrap-productions.com/ and Pulp .45 fame thought it would be a neat idea to have a Tramp Steamer model building contest.

Here are the guidelines for the contest:

1.) Steamer must be at least 12" and can be no more than 24" (60cm) in length.

2.) Participants must chronicle the steps in its construction.

3.) Hull and cabin must be scratch-built, though detail pieces can be purchased.

4.) The members of Lead Adventures will vote on a winner and I'll come up with some prize for it (though I will also build one so I may get to give a prize to myself).
5.) Deadline September 15th
6.) Primed only

We will be documenting the event on the TLA and I will also document mine here on Cursed Treasures. So with that in mind I started looking for good Tramp steamers to model, i think I have narrowed it down to 3 ships I will try & model or just use as inspiration. Those ships would be,

SS. Venture from King Kong

The Bantu Wind from Indiana Jones

Or the Tramp Steamer from The Mummy, but having a hard time finding pictures of that. So I guess tonight I will be watching a few movies for better pictures of said ships.

I also plan on building the ship either out of Wood (3/8" MDF and thin Plywood) or I will build the ship out of PVC plastic and regular styrene, will have to see what I have more of. So now I'm off to build me a boat!

TK

Its a Small World after all...

No,

I'm not going to be talking about the famous Disneyland attraction, but I just realized that the Web makes this planet very small. Last night I was talking with a friend of mine, Rob, and we were discussing our hobby of war gaming. Now as a few folks know, I wrote the soon to be released Warhammer Historical book, Legends of the High Seas. What were discussing last night is how are hobby is such a small global community, because of the web.

I never really thought about it until today when I was doing my usual Google search for topics on LotHS. I came across many forum hits (in a few different languages) discussing the soon to be released book and it dawned on me, that even this little spot in cyber-space is getting read in different parts of the globe. It also dawned on me that when the book comes out people all over the globe will be playing this game! Wow!

I guess I really never thought about it until now. I remember back in the day when I used to go to Brookhurst Hobbies http://www.brookhursthobbies.com/ and I would marvel at the different GW games that I never had heard about. Now there is a buzz all over the globe for a game that has not come out yet due to the Internet.

I also realized that I now have friends all over the globe not just here in my town. Because of this LotHS, I now communicate with folks in Germany, UK, France, Australia, New Zealand and all over the USA. I never would have thought about that before I started writing this book. I have also been in contact from a rather large gaming convention in the east to come out & demo the game (as well as play in some tournaments). Also I have been in contact with many figure manufactures that produce the figures I buy.

All this because of the web & the Internet. It truly is a Small World...

TK

Legends of What?

My pirate project (LotHS) is moving along well, I'm going to be sending 15 figures across the pound for photos over at GW Headquarters. It will be nice to see my stuff featured in the book that I wrote. Now I have to give credit to Brandon Forrey for painting 10 out of the 15 figures that I put together for this project. Also the book is still on track for a late October release so lets keep our fingers crossed.

So now that the Pirate project has run its course, I've started thinking of what I would like to do next. I have been searching for a good set of rules to cover the "Pulp Era" (1930's - 1940's). I have played or have read many of the current rules that are out there and none seem to do anything for me. Perhaps my good friend Rob is right, I'm turning into a Beardy Old Guy" that only wants to play his own rules. Although I would disagree with that statement, I think writing my own rules is in my blood since I did just do LotHS.So what do I want in a set of rules that I can't find anywhere else?

Well I want a simple streamline set of rules that can be learned rather quickly, but take some time to master. This set of rules must also be something that can be played within a hour or two. It must also be something that characters can advance in experience or get worse due to injuries. It must also be something that is story line driven and allow games to be linked together into a cohesive storyline.

So after looking at these requirements, it looks like I will be heading back to where the Pirates game came from, Lord of the Rings. This set of rules seems to cover every option on my list as well as a few other folks I have talked too. So do I think this set of rules will make it to GW as a new Legends of the book, probably not. Will I have a set of rules that my friends & I like to play, I think so. Now I must get to writing and start becoming that "Beardy Old Guy"...
TK

Back from Camp!

Well,

We survived another Jr. high Camp this year. You see my family and I volunteer at our church (Christ Church of the Valley http://www.ccvonline.com/ ) in the Jr High ministry. My wife, Son & myself are all leaders and once a year we take a few Jr. Highers to camp. This year we had 306 kids & 50 leaders that went up to UCYC (United Christian Youth Camp).

Since the kids are Jr High age (12-13) you can imagine what sort of fun this is. You basically have very little sleep & run yourself ragged all week long. But the payoff is that we baptized 45 kids this year which is the whole reason we go.

Here is a group photo of our camp, see if you can find me in the picture!

TK