Archive for the ‘Ford Cortina’ Category

Really enjoyed the first episode of Ashes to Ashes on BBC 1 tonight. I’ll avoid saying much more because far too easy to drop a spoiler if I do. I did enjoy the switch from Life on Mars’ take on the Sweeney to something more akin to Dempsey and Makepeace or, maybe, The Professionals. Fingers crossed they can keep up the good work and don’t slip in to too many issue based episodes.

Which reminds me I really must dig out Serious and Organised and get it finished.

A month ago I posted a beta version of a simple models house for wargamers and role players. I’ve had some feedback on it: a request for chimney stacks, variations of the ends and an extension for the ends. I’ve also added some assembly instructions too. I’ve posted the first of the PDFs this morning (25mm House Model) and I’ll make the other PDFs over the next few days and upload them as I do.

Update: These models are now available free from the impworks web site cardboard buoings page.

I started work on a set of simple, cardboard building models using pepakura originally for Serious and Organised but which, like Serious and Organised, I’ve yet to finish. A discussion on the SFSFW mailing list kicked me into finishing a simple one of a house. It can either be used as a single, semi-detached house or by putting several together a terrace. I’ve got additional bits that can be used to customise this model in the works including chimney stacks and extensions for the ends and rear but I’ve not textured them yet. I’ve made versions for 28mm, 25mm and 15mm gaming and I suggest printing them on thin (160gms) white card for use. Assemble the walls together first, then add the roof and finally add the base. You can leave off the base if you want as they are reasonably rigid without it.

Download the PDF of the models:

• 28mm House Model
• 15mm House Model

Any comments or suggestions either drop me an e-mail or leave a comment on my blog.

Update: The 25mm model is now out of Beta and available free from the impworks web site cardboard buoings page.

Not a huge amount of cop (or other stuff done) today. Spent the morning at the eye clinic and the rest of the day in a darkened room recovering. What I can’t figure out is why every time I go there I come away with a bad back. Did do a little bit of polishing or Serious and Organised.

More robbers than Cops tonight really. Just finished watching The League of Gentlemen which arrived from Amazon today. Not the situation comedy but the film from 1960 that the series took its name from in which Jack Hawkins and a hand picked crew of ex soldiers stage a bank robbery. The focus is on the build up to the main heist and builds the tension gently along the way. The ensemble cast are nicely drawn by a cast including Richard Attenborough and Terence Alexander. The score is in the style of classic British war films and some of the montage sequences also remind me of the sequences found in 1940s war films.

But this is a film with its feat planted in the 60s. I’d only seen it on afternoon TV before and there were some subtle cuts to the version I’d seen before. Jack Hawkins swears, we see the dirty magazines one of the crew is selling for a living and their are oblique references to one of the crews sexuality. While not a laugh a minute comedy there are humorous moments. The League of Gentlemen certainly isn’t a gritty social commentary. I’ve always thought the ending is a little rushed and the outcome a little weak however the process of getting there is enjoyable.

So tonight wasn’t quit as good a cop show night as expected. My VCR tried to eat the tape I’d put in for Life on Mars. Did get to see CSI which continues to be enjoyable fluff. Got one with the equipment section of Serious and Orgainsed and also made notes for descriptions of British cop shows.

I feel a Cop Show theme coming on this week…

So Waking the Dead’s run ended with a romantic twist for Boyd. Slightly subtler than CSI’s Sarah/Grisham matching dressing gown crime scene and foreshadowed a little more in the plot too.

I’ve also been working on Serious and Organised. Boring equipment list creation. I’m torn between generic kits for different tasks and long lists of actual equipment or a mix of the two approaches.

The picture is another test render of a model of a black cab model from Design Modélisation Image. Black cabs have a way of appearing in British police shows so it will probably appear in the artwork somewhere.

I was thinking about the artwork for Serious and Organised tonight. Cars play a pretty big part in a lot of crime shows so I knew I was going to need some suitable models. Fortunately a thread on Renderosity reminded me of Design Modélisation Image that has some very nice free models of vehicles. The picture above is a simple test render in Vue of one of the models.

Did some work on polishing the system for Serious and Organised tonight. The basic game is now there it’s just a case of deciding what extra rules and other bits and pieces it needs. Then I can stat up the characters in the background up and the core game will be done.

Just noticed this blog was a whole year old last week. So here’s a round up of projects started and progress so far.

Serious and Organised / Men of Action / The ABC System: system written needs play testing.

Arædan: Originally called Untitled Fantasy #1. In need of editing.

The Seer: About 50% written and waiting for me to go back to it.

Fairy Tale Noir: Heading on towards the 40,000 word mark with no sign of ending till it’s at least 50,000. A little longer than the 15,000 I was aiming for. May do a second draft to try to kick it up to 100,000+ and call it a novel.

impworks logo: Done and in use.

impworks website: Live since last year and growing. Recoded into Smarty templates almost as soon as I finished the first version. Some stuff (mostly pictures, scripts and tutorials to add when I find time).

Vue Python scripts: I’ve produced a growing list of free Vue Python scripts.

STEEPVM: Turned into a wednesday night post sequence instead of an article.

Characters on the Couch: Serialised here too.

Vue: Vue 6 is a huge leap forward in making my pictures look like I want them to. The new spectral sky model is worth the upgrade alone as far as I’m concerned.

Poser 7: Using it pretty much like Poser 5 and 6 at the moment need to dig into the enhancements.

Xfrog: Got a working copy again and now I’m back to exploring making abstracts with it.

Virtual Fashion: Starting to get good results from this especially when textured elsewhere.

Pepakura Designer: Need to find more time to play with this.

Blogs: This one is well established. The Vue News Blog is getting growing readership. I’ve a couple more in the pipe line too for specialist topics.

Underwater Secret Base: Redesigned to include obligatory volcano.