Thoughts on - Arrival (Spoilers)

Hi all,
         My feelings after coming out of the cinema was that this was a bit of a missed opportunity. The alien spaceships looked more like floating giant seeds than spacecraft, as you can see in the trailer. Rather boring. (They could have omitted the spacecraft landing out of the trailer, at least that would have been one more surprise to be had, even if it may have been a bit of a wet blanket moment.)  The aliens were shrouded in mist. Quite possible for their atmospheric needs, trying to add to the tension, but boring once again. Not much texture or colouration in their skin, another opportunity missed.
         The alien language and its actual decoding was handled in an interesting way, but why would the aliens have evolved its written / squirted usage in the first place? Just sound would suffice, unless they have genetically modified themselves at a later date. How were they able to control the smoke / ink once it had been emitted from their "hands" and into their atmosphere ?
         How had they managed to contact Dr. Bank's mind and not everyone on the planet (I know, that would blow the film), she was in the right place at the right time.
         I will confess that I had to leave before the film had finished, (about 5 mins to go, she was talking to an ambassador) so I may not have gotten some of the plot details, but I did not miss much, according to my friend who had seen it earlier.

A qualified 5 out 10.

Ivor

Terrain - Junkers Base Test Bed

Hi all,
           I'm just tinkering about with bits for my 6 mm scale Junkers base. Nothing set in stone by any means.  I did a very rough paint job on the "tents and garden" (not sure on the colours either) and nothing on the "junk pile". There has got to be a junk pile to go along with a junker base, probably with most other bases too.
           Its not exactly the Ritz hotel standard, but that's the way it is when you pick a new planet to play with.

Junker Base Prototype

Lower View

The items were formerly sauce holders, drink caps, old store cards and broken tags. An armed soldier (Pendraken, I think) is shown for scale.

Added soil.

Tags and modelling clay were used in this partly constructed Fortified Vehicle Entrance.

Fortified Vehicle Gate 1a

From outside - lower angle

Better view of ditch

Gate from the inside.

The gate itself is under construction and I need to make some supports for the pulleys.

 The gate in blocked position.

 The gate now open.

 Resting on the ramp.

From the rear.

It is still missing the pulley system to raise and lower the gate. I should also have made the rampart bigger, so that the figures could stand on it easier. But it is a learning curve, as they say.

Ivor

Thoughts on - TV Supergirl Series 2 Episode 1 (Spoilers)

Hey folks,
               I have just watched the latest TV episode of Supergirl (Series 2 Episode 1 - October 2016), change is very much in the air.
                There is a new base for the Defense force. Fair enough, a new set to stop the audience from getting bored. We are just suppose to ignore the fact that there was no mention of it before, no intelligence etc. came from it. Such is life.
               Superman and Kara finally get together in the same place, it should have happened ages ago, possibly it was supposed to, but we never got to see it. So Clark / Superman is going to be in the show some more ? So this must mean there will be stronger baddies to go up against.
               Kara and Jimmy's relationship, is it all systems go ? yes / no, yes / no, just keep us guessing. Par for the course.
               Is Lady Lexx a goody two shoes ? I doubt it very much. But she looks like an interesting new character to develop. I am glad they had not forgotten Lex and co.
               So Kara's new job is a reporter. Hmmm, so hopefully there will be less of her as a  Catco runaround person, I thought it was it was getting a bit stale. (Good luck, Miss Tesssmacker. Is she a spy for Lady Lexx ?)

Lets enjoy together.

Ivor

Pause 6

Hey folks,
               This is just to fill you in on why there has been a pause in the action of late. I work in a national retail store, which shall remain nameless, but it is now stocking up and swapping things around for Christmas, So I have been getting overtime when it is available, as you do. That means I am playing catch-up with all of the other stuff I have to do. I did manage to fit some new lights and reflectors to my pushbike, ready for the darker nights.

                I have got some more 6 mm items from an online store, but these still need painting. I have done running repairs to a couple of critters that needed a bit of attention. I have been gathering some raw materials for my next area, bases which will need cutting, painting etc. you know the drill. Things are moving forward, but slowly.

                  I have made a bit of terrain for my Junker Base, some tents, a rubbish pile and a partially completed fortified vehicle entrance, with a swing drawbridge.

                  I may do a quick fantasy game to keep my dice warm or possibly something based on the Ultramarines board game. (This is still in the planning stage, my fingers are getting twitchy for lack of dice play).

                  I have just started getting into the wargame scene on Youtube, a bit late, I know but better than never. I have watched a few diy tutorials and a few demo games of  SAGA games. If you have any recomendations, please leave them below in the comments.

Time Commanders was back on the Uk TV, yaaay.

I did get to see Star Wars : Rogue One on Saturday. (See my Review.)

While passing a railway hobby shop, I purchased a few goodies, landscape wise.

Also purchased, a command post in a ruin made by airfix.

Regards all,

Ivor

Thoughts on - Suicide Squad

Hi there,
             I watched this film in 2d, I'm not sure if it came out in 3d, but I did not see any obvious shots that were put in for the 3d viewing audience. Its a nice little film. It is set in the DC Comic universe. Superman has died (or at least, is not at all well, as they say.) Batman is holding down the fort for the time being and the Government is wondering what they do now ?
             Their answer is to gather up the biggest bunch of baddies they can get their hands on and pit them against the uber baddies who will naturally come crawling out of the woodwork next. As they say "Fight fire with fire", a tried and tested solution.
              This is another "turn your brain off and enjoy the scrap" film, as I had expected, with a few plot twists along the way. The scraps are ok. Lots of wisecracks. Will Smith gives a fair performance as Deadshot, but there is nothing to tax him here though. I doubt if I will buy this on DVD.

Smiles rather than belly laughs. Rating 7 out of 10.

Ivor

5P - Ship Log 3d - Job 1 Droids - Trouble pt2

Hi all,

Previously 5P - Ship Log 3d - Job 1 Droids - Trouble pt1.

On the Bridge of the Magic Carpet

Dave and Martin are still trying to troubleshoot the problem of a stuck sensor turret.

Mike, "Rosie to the bridge please. Just to let you know, we do have a technical issue at the moment, but it is not life threatening. Out".

"Maybe she can spot something that we have missed."

Rosie soon appears and they fill her in on the problem, "Well, our options are, we could limp back home to Hougemonte, but having the turret sticking out into the atmosphere would throw us off balance during re-entry, so I would have to manually retard our speed, it could also be damaged or totally wrecked in the process."

She pauses, "We could dock at Wheel One or Two with no problem, then see if they could somehow modify a large safety bubble, attach that to the hull with someone in a spacesuit, they could then remove the spacesuit and make the repair. Time consuming and messy.. But that would violate all sorts of safety regulations along the way, very costly to us."

They all have glum faces, looking at the display, when there is a knock on the door.

David, "Enter."

In walks D 834, "I have been listening to the problem. There is another option that you have missed."

David retorts, "Rubbish."

Martin looks puzzled, "I'm listening D 834."

D 834, "The one thing that you have overlooked," it pauses, "Is that you now have me on board. I do not need a spacesuit and I can fit into Aperture Port 23. I can splice the wires together and repair them at a later date."

Martin considers this, "Ok, D 834, you are our best option, you can give it a try. What do you need ?"

D 834, "Just a heating module, a number 4 toolkit, plus a standard safety line and clips."

Martin, "We will want to monitor your progress, so Ted will fix you up with Hologram capability as well".

-------------------

A short time later.

D 834 was just about to enter the airlock.

Martin, "Comm Check."

D834 , " Coming through clearly.  My eyebrow LED's are  turned on and hologram feeds from my eye cameras are transmitting, as requested. The internal fluid heaters are active. The upgrades are working fine. My battery charge is at 93%.   All systems are ready."

Rosie, "We have Holo and audio links, all comms are ok. Patching it through to the projectors."

Martin saw a small version of himself appear on the Holomats dotted around the area. "Away you go."

D 834 entered the airlock It closed and latched behind him, began the air storage cycle and the warning panel lit up.

PRESSURE DROPPING, NO ENTRY ALLOWED.

It clipped on the safety lines to the eyelets, tested them and moved to the outer door. The inner panel display read.

INNER PRESSURE ZERO. OUTSIDE PRESSURE ZERO.

INNER GRAV PLATE AT 1.00 GRAVITY. OUTSIDE GRAVITY ZERO.

PRESS BUTTON ZERO TO SOUND ALARM.

PRESS BUTTON ONE TO EMERGENCY PRESSURIZE.

PRESS BUTTON TWO TO OPEN / CLOSE HATCH.

PRESS BUTTON THREE TO PRESSURIZE.

PRESS BUTTON FIVE TO BEGIN DECONTAMINATION CYCLE.

PRESS BUTTON SIX TO PAUSE / RESUME DECONTAMINATION CYCLE.

PRESS BUTTON SEVEN TO BEGIN HEATING TO 17'C.

PRESS BUTTON EIGHT FOR HELP / SETTINGS / CHANGE LANGUAGE.
(Underneath this was a translated message in the Screand and Orkragg languages).

D834 pressed button two.

PLEASE CONFIRM SAFETY LINE IS ATTACHED AT BOTH ENDS BY PRESSING BUTTON FOUR BY THE SAFETY LATCH.

D834 pressed button four.

ATTACHMENT CONFIRMED.

REDUCING INNER GRAV PLATE TO ZERO AND OPENING DOOR.

PLEASE USE THE EXTRUDED HANDHOLDS PROVIDED.

D 834 took hold of the handrail as his weight began to reduce. It was not fitted with "Mag Feet" as it was not expected to be operating in a space environment. It soon floated off the floor.

ZERO GRAVITY, OPENING DOOR.

The door swung open to the blackness of space.

It clipped on its second safety line on the point outside the airlock, then began to move towards AP 23, which was on the left side of the nose. At regular intervals it clipped the line to the handholds as it fed from the spool by its waist.

It halted outside Access Port 23.

Rosie on comms, "I am releasing the safety locks now. You are clear to open the hatch, the security code is 3341 Bravo. The faulty wire is in bundle Hotel 22. Power to that area has been cut."

It felt a small vibration through the handle as the locks disengaged around the port. It entered the code into the keypad. The panel flashed a green light and the hatch sunk into the hull slightly and slid towards the rear, exposing a tunnel. It pulled itself head first inside and looked for section 4a.

Section 4a was outlined with white tape for easy identification. It floated further in to find the optimum working location. Once it had located H22, it locked its feet into a stable position so that it would be operating from a stable base. It selected the snips from the toolkit, then cut the tags holding the wires together, then placed the bits in a waste bag, then spread out the wires for inspection.

D 834, "I have found the cause of the problem. The wire had been rubbing against a protruding bolt end as it vibrated it wore through the insulation, causing a short. Putting some padding over the bolt and a quick splice should fix it. Then I will add some more ties to a bracket that will keep it in a better position."

The job was soon done. It exited out of the port. "Try it now."

Rosie powered up the section again and got a green light on the status board. She pressed the turret deployment switch and it smoothly extended into its operating position.

Rosie, "A green light on the status, initiating a passive low level scan."

A smaller port on the turret slid back to reveal a series of lenses. The turret then rotated 360 degrees. The program mulled over the data returned.

Rosie, "The low level scan has been completed, the results are as we had hoped, our position has been verified. Its not accurate enough to initiate a jump from, but it is good enough to confirm it is working properly. Well done, Droid 834. I will just try the retract and deployment sequences, just to confirm the repair is holding."

The turret obeyed her commands without a hitch and  the board remained green. "All clear, Martin."

Martin, "Come on back, D 834."

D834 retraced its path, retracting in the safety line as it did so, finally unclipping the one outside the doorway and swinging itself inside, then pressed button 2 to close the hatch and begin the entry and decontamination sequence.

--------------

The inner airlock door opened and the Droid emerged to smiling faces and a round of applause.

Martin, "Well done D 834, you have saved us from a very tricky situation. In recognition of that fact, I have decided to keep you on as part of the crew of the 'Magic Carpet'."

The screen noted, "Change of status has been recorded in the Ship Log, this date and time."

D 834, "Thank you, Martin".

Another round of applause and cheers met this news.

Martin, "You can download the ship maintenance logs and review them, always remembering that it states what should have been done, but not necessarily what actually has been done. There could be a difference."

----------

Later, after lunch.

Martin, "I had originally planned to just dump all of  the droids at the first port of call, but they are quite useful, so I am thinking maybe selling one or two per customer and we hang on to 834."

Pinky, "If you don't mind, I would like to keep one too, for a hobby project. You can deduct it out of my pay."

Martin, "That's fine, Pinky."

-------------

If you are enjoying this, please hit the like button. Thanks.

Regards all,

Ivor

5P - Ship Log 3c - Job 1 - Trouble pt 1

Hi all, 

Previously 5P - Ship Log 3c - Job 1 - Coasting to CL.

On the Cargo Deck of Magic Carpet

Ted hits the start button of Droid 834, "Wakey Wakey sleepy head, rise and shine."

Droid 834,"I was not sleeping, I was deactivated."

Ted, "Same thing, same thing. Since you are fond of cleaning and I am on light duties, you can do my share of the polishing. Cleaning materials are in that storage bin there. Start at the top and work downwards, cleaning the hand rails. I want them clean, but not so polished that I cannot get a grip on them if I needed to. Safety is paramount. The same when you do the deck later, clean but not slippery, that is slippery by human standards, as in the safety protocols. You do have them loaded ?"

Droid 834, "Yes, Orakkg."

Ted, "Well, I'm glad to see that your species recognition software is working, You can call me 'Mr.Greene'...on second thoughts, you might as well call me Ted, like the rest of them."

Droid 834, "Yes, Ted."

Ted, "Any questions or problems, I should be in the kitchen. You may begin."

Droid 834, "Yes, Ted."  He walked over to the storage bin, selected the correct items and went to the top deck and began cleaning the handrails.

After a few moments observing the droid, he walked off to the kitchen, thinking to himself *This is the life. I wonder if there is any of that Gerbiloid pie that Dave made left ?*

-------------------

Later, on the bridge.

From one of the console comes "Beep, Beep, Beep" , on comes a red warning light.

Dave is alone sitting at his desk in  Navigation / Science mode,  "What now ?", he wonders.

The console flicks to diagnostic mode, showing that the sensor turret has only partially extended from the hull. He checks for more information and it reveals that the wire to the motor has snapped. "Oh dear."

He flicks a switch, "Martin to the bridge please."

Martin soon comes bounding up the stairs, almost colliding with the droid as he did so and into the bridge, "Whats wrong?"

Dave, "We have a major problem, The Navigation system is down. The sensor turret is stuck, half way extended. It will not budge either way. The fault is a snapped wire, but to get to that wire we have to go through Access Panel 23."

Martin nodded, "Which is only used on planets, and is too small for our spacesuits to get inside, even the ladies. So, we're stumped. We will have to go back, blowing our schedule and our reputation."

Continued in....Trouble Part Two.

Regards,

Ivor Cogdell