DAW - No 4 - The 1972 Annual World's Best SF

 

This book encapsulates what I loved about DAW books when I was just starting to read SciFi. Different writers telling their own stories in their own style. In this case 14 different stories in the single collection by 14 different writers. Some of whom I've heard of and some I haven't. 

It may have been a book like this that first introduced me to one of my favourite authors, Larry Niven.

Some very interesting ideas amongst these stories but the idea that remained with me after finishing it was that of technology out of time. Now we're all used to having it be portrayed as magic to more primitive cultures but the idea that a primitive technology could actually be of benefit to someone living in more advanced times is a good one.

Imagine a cave man, protecting his village, throwing a spear at a more advanced invader who has a force field that deflects particle beam weapons. The far superior spaceman wouldn't actually have a chance as the spear passes through his shield, his space suit and his body.

Working on some new table display items for this year's Comic Conventions.

Those of you who popped over to our table at last year's events, and particularly Thought Bubble where we had some for sale, will have seen out 3D miniatures. Little figures of some of our WesterNoir characters.

I thought it would be cool to get a few printed much larger to help make our table look a little more interesting at Conventions.

I'm no expert on 3D printing but our printer (Gary's son Jason) told me it needed to be filament and not resin, due to the size...

and warned me that I'd need to do a bit of cleaning up, as little bits of filament stick out here and there. This is not a problem with the resin prints.

The first thing I do with all the figures I paint is to choose a good base colour, so if you miss a crack, or hard to reach area, then it will be this base colour (which should blend in better with the finished figure) that would be visible rather than black (the original 3D printed colour).

The first figure is of Cassidy McRae, and the base colour of choice is brown, which will work equally well with skin and leather cowboy garb.

I always start with the head. This needs to work well otherwise the figure won't be worth completing.

I paint the eyes in and then build up the skin colour to cover the white as much as needed. Much easier than paining all the face skin colour and then trying to add white eyes with a blue iris.

Once I've got the face looking good enough (and more highlights etc will be added later) I sort out the hair.

I'm happy with how Cassidy is looking and so will now continue with the clothing.

Forgot to mention that, in order to get a consistent colour, I do all the parts of skin showing at the same time as the face.

Going Back To The Future a final time with Lego

So, there ended up being a few pieces missing.

And the phone number on the box seemed to be just for show, as it was unobtainable.

I had to resort to Ebay for each missing piece but found that the task of searching was made much easier once I'd worked out the words to use 😐. 

Thankfully there seems to be quite a market for the odd Lego piece which leads me to believe that I'm not alone in this.

Happy with the end result though, it looks nice in my cabinet.

Fencing with the storms

 Well, the last two years of really bad storms have taken their toll on my fence.

It really was held up by two pieces of string I the end. One to my back door and the other to a tree.

The back fence gets such a hammering because it's a row of gardens with no buildings to really block the wind. I used to look out at it during the storms and watch it ripple in waves down its length, wondering if this would be the storm to bring it down (or blow it away more likely).

It really needed replacing.

And  needed something strong.

I needed concrete polls.

I also needed plenty of cash.

Two guys were in the team, quickly taking the fence down...

And then putting the new one up.

They did a pretty good job, and worked pretty much non-stop all day (until I popped out and brought them back a sausage bap from down the road).

Very pleased with the end result.

I told them not only did it look storm proof but should also keep any zombies out, you know, if a Zombie holocaust should happen.

Going Back To The Future once again with Lego

 Well, I was progressing pretty well...

It's starting to look like the DeLorean from the films.

And then what I had dreaded, happened.

A piece was missing.

Luckily it's a pretty common piece, but I've long since passed on all my old Lego.

Ebay will save me, I thought.

And it did.

I just need to wait now.

And 'Yes, I searched all of the other bags in case it had been put in the wrong one'.

With this in mind I ordered 4 just in case it's needed later as well.

Now I just need to wait for the mail.

Going Back To The Future again with Lego

I'm progressing nicely with the build.

I'm amazed by how intricate it all is and as I put little round pieces into square pieces and then into other sometime same sized square pieces I can't but keep thinking about how on Earth someone created this design. It's mind boggling. Yes, they'll have CAD software to help, I'm sure, but blimey.

Thankfully the build is broken into sections in the booklet and each of these sections has its own bag of Lego pieces. 

So, all the pieces needed for section 3 are in Bag 3.

I did notice that there are always a few 'extras left when each section has been finished.

Initially I feared that this meant I'd not put something in at the right time, and was reminded of working with my Dad back in the 20th Century as he fixed our car (back when cars were almost completely mechanical, with not a computer in sight). We'd always end up with a washer left on the curb when he'd thought he'd put everything back together again.

The other worry about the extra pieces is that if they can add some by mistake, could they also not leave some out.

I had a momentary scare when it came to Section 4. Some of the pieces weren't in the bag. Checking the box I was released to find that or some reason there were two bags for Section 4. Disaster averted. Phew.

Daw - No. 4 - The Book of Van Vogt

I've had a hectic few months with family, work and comic things all going on.

This has reduced the amount of time I've had to spend chilling out with an old Sci Fi book.

The latest Daw Book is a collection of tales from A E Van Vogt, one of my childhood favourites. I remember really enjoying Slan, Voyage of the Space Beagle and The World of Null-A to name but a few.

This volume has a real mix of subject matter, from time travel twister, through Intergalactic Empire conquest to a brain in a jar.

I enjoyed them and the message behind the ones that had a message to deliver (or the message I took from them as I'm not entirely sure it was the one intended).

It all felt a bit dated but was easy to read and enjoyably readable throughout.