Search the Community

A sizeable structure! This kit comes with several decals, some for a bank, some for a Carnegie library, plus others. I chose an old limestone look for it. The facade is suitably imposing. Plenty of room for conversions and signs on that architrave, too. Corner view: One side has two rows of windows, the other, a blank forbidding wall. I figured the building should look old enough to have some verdigris runoff from the mullions. It's a good scenic backdrop! The other side is a perfect canvas for some graffiti--will have to work on that. Versatile and well-made!

I hadn't been looking for these two, but when they popped up on a site selling discontinued minis I couldn't pass them up. Here's our knight in rumpled armor, Jack Spade. Reminds me of a line from a book by one of my favorite authors: "...wearing a suit the color of wet concrete, and the expression of a man who has just realized the wetness is piss." I'm pleased with getting the shadow on the door here. Go poking your nose in people's business, and some people hire a plug-ugly palooka to poke back! Fortunately, Jack has Dot Kruckenberg, his girl Friday and amanuensis, to keep him out of too much trouble. Not a dame for mixing it up, but she knows how to handle herself... and how to handle her revolver. Together they...well, not exactly fight crime. But they take steps towards justice, as much as two little people can in a crummy world like this. Coupla extra pics of Crime Not Paying. The only trouble is, Virtue don't have such deep pockets, neither. The motorbike cops are from RAFM Cthulhu, classic edition. BONUS: Noirification!

The Protectorate used to have a stranglehold on the nutrient paste supply, and most of it was unflavored, for logistical reasons that have been discussed. This changed after contact with alien species; the Krodox Incursion could have gone very differently. Many lives were spared by the Solar agreement to provide quality protein with wide-ranging taste profiles and accurate ingredient labels. (For example, before the Krodox Flavor Accords, the "meat"-flavored nutrient paste was labeled as 100% vat-grown clonebeef but often contained up to 30% space-rat and 10% Void Slug. The label is correct now.) As is the nature of causality, one thing led to another and now there is a chain of nutrient paste automats across the Belt and orbiting most of the outer planets. The Kettle Belly Nutrient Paste concern is the result of a consortium of human, Krodox, and Mole Person chefs creating a menu of nontoxic cross-species hits, crowd-pleasers from multiple worlds. Tiny quantities of Venerian spices go a long way and (after a few setbacks) everything should be almost guaranteed non-allergenic to most organic species. (Sadly, this means the popular Peanut Butter And Banana with Toasted Carbohydrates was discontinued and is now illegal contraband. Tubes command a high price. The same is true for Rotting Leviathan Carcass IV, outlawed in the Solar system for...different reasons.) [Side note: the engine on this asteroid was build from a base made of squirt gun parts.] No matter your taste, there's something for you at Kettle Belly's! Might be Crunchy Bamboo, or Bloodworms in Ammoniac Sauce, or Lobster Mayonnaise, or Red Beans and Rice, or Rotting Leviathan Carcass II, or Venerian Zazzberry, or the ever-popular Butter Plankton Algae Surprise, or the fusion-cuisine Bloodworms in Curry Sauce! There are also vending machines for flavored beverages and delicacies. Always hit-or-miss if your favorite flavor is in, though. Some days it's Hot and Sour Soy Product with Mushrooms, and some days you're left with Rotting Leviathan Carcass III. No one's sure why that hasn't been discontinued yet. It's no Rotting Leviathan Carcass IV, that's for sure. The automat is a repurposed Walther's Dairy Queen, with some Reaper Cav Large Storage Tanks (72614) and other greebles added. Featuring Bombshell's vending machine from the Counterblast crew area set, Reaper's soda machines (49035), Reaper's Argamite Explorer (50346), Space Mouseling 04134b, Gray Alien 50255a, and assorted other space weirdos.

Allswell, USA. A small town from a time that seems simpler through the soft-filtered yellow lens of nostalgia. The sort of town where kids bike around after school and well-meaning but foolish teenagers get into minor but non-serious predicaments over the weekend. Neighbors greet each other if they don't have a grudge; a single income can support a family, whether it's blue-collar work down at the [regional industry] or an office job at the recently-opened Institute. Law enforcement is competent to deal with rowdy teens, speeders, and town drunks and that's about it. Weirder problems may require some meddling kids to solve. If you've seen a Stephen Spielberg movie OR a Stephen King movie, or any of their imitators (Stranger Things, The Iron Giant, Super 8, etc.) you know the place. Maybury, Ray Bradbury country. It's a generic backdrop, a place that never was but that we wish had been. The name comes from Chris van Allsburg and Norman Rockwell, plus the nice overtones of optimism and echoes of Roswell. For of course, weird stuff goes down in Roswell. Your average wage-earner or housewife won't notice it or doesn't have time to pay attention; they have their own problems and in any case they can only see changes to the norm through the lens of the Cold War. But there's weirdness all right. Weird stuff down in the mine, or out in the woods at night. Strangers visiting the Institute on strange errands, very strange strangers indeed. Children can see it. They have an unerring instinct for finding differences and exceptions to rules. (Pictured: two Perfectly Normal Citizens, according to a grown-up, and one meddling kid.) Teenagers too can see weirdness; their developing minds and natural antiestablishment rebelliousness are good for dealing with radical, out-there theories and their absolutely terrible judgement allows them to take ludicrous risks to investigate. So can some adults--not influential or respectable ones, but ones at the margins of society. Crackpots, drunks, hoboes, busybodies, cranks and recluses. Not the sort of people authority figures listen to. Pictured here are a handmade quonset hut, a Christmas decoration I found at a thrift store (the ice cream scoop and planters were separate dollhouse furnishings or pewter charms found on the same trip), and two Walther's HO railroad terrain kits, one the newsstands (one converted to a noodle stand) and Vic's Barber Shop. Too small to be accurate for 28mm scale, let alone 32mm, but good for backdrops and terrain. Click for more views. More to come, I hope!

Got a couple of Walther's model-railroad HO scale terrain kits for Christmas, One of them contained two newsstands. That's great value! But I figure one news kiosk will do for me, and am shamelessly jealous of @Othikent and others' magnificent noodle kiosks. Be the change you want to see in the world, they say! Here's the base model with some paint: Used some headphones and sprues to make fryers, a sink, the noodle kettles, and some propane canisters; click to see I'm pretty pleased with the sink faucet/sprayer, converted from a Martian mambele knife (from the Savage Martians set, In Her Majesty's Name--did I never post those?!) and some wire. It's cramped in there, but functional!