Castle Aching

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

It’s been done, and there is a tinplate French railcar that has a resonator that makes “engine sounds” (a horrible noise actually), made by Joustra I think, in the 1950s.

 

6 hours ago, Annie said:

I think I had some old Marx engines at one time that used a similar system.  They certainly produced a sound, but the sound wasn't really what a steam engine should be making unless it was in need of repair.

 

28 minutes ago, brianusa said:

 

One of the first basic sets of the "New" Lionel years ago included a plastic engine with a enclosed wheel in the tender containing ball bearings which rotated by running on the middle rail.  I've heard worse imitation chuff effects

        Brian.

Tri-ang did the sandpaper trick many years ago (wrong scale, sorry...).

[Regularity]

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

 

 

Tri-ang did the sandpaper trick many years ago (wrong scale, sorry...).

Probably sounded a bit rough...

[Compound2632]

8 hours ago, Edwardian said:

I'm on a virtual holiday, in Middle Earth, so a postcard to say I'm thinking of you all...

 

 Thistle & Rose

 

 

Only a postcard? You could at least have given us a ring. Hope you don't run into any orc-ward situations!

[Annie]

10 hours ago, Edwardian said:

I'm on a virtual holiday, in Middle Earth, so a postcard to say I'm thinking of you all...

 

 Thistle & Rose

 

Nice model figures.  After the Peter Jackson movies were released Games Workshop did a large series of plastic wargaming figures based on the movies and I think I still have some in a box somewhere.  I wasn't especially keen on them though and I think those Thistle & Rose figures look much better and more characterful.

[drmditch]

18 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

The alternative, of course, is to stand in the centre of the room as a train circulates going “chuffa-chuffa-chuffa .......” (obviously varied according to number of cylinders, valve gear type, load, regulator setting, cut-off etc).

 

Works for me!

 

I prefer Radio3 myself.

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

Nice model figures.  After the Peter Jackson movies were released Games Workshop did a large series of plastic wargaming figures based on the movies and I think I still have some in a box somewhere.  I wasn't especially keen on them though and I think those Thistle & Rose figures look much better and more characterful.

 

I agree.  For me the film-based figures can only be as good as the visualisation of Peter-make-it-bigger-Jackson and his team.  Some of this was superb.  I rather liked the interpretation of the Hobbits (even though Frodo is supposed to be plump and middle-aged (like me!) rather than the youthful willowy ingénue portrayed by Elijah Wood)).  I thought the Rohirrim were dead on, absolutely superb. Architecturally, Romanesque Minas Tirith was very appropriate, but all that plate armour John Howe (War of the Roses fan) foisted on the Gondorians was dead wrong to my eyes.  The Elvish stuff was attractive, but not really true to the books. 

 

For me, Tolkien has a Dark/Saga/Heroic Age feel to it, as his linguistic, literary and historical borrowings tend to dictate that.  Aside from the film-franchised range, fantasy seemed dominated by Warhammer. I really don't care for the huge, grotesque, exaggerations of Games Workshop's dribbling, knuckle-dragging Orcs, or the absurdly spiky Elves or chiseled Heroes with swords too heavy to pick up. It's a poor cartoon parody of Tolkien and most generic fantasy figure ranges came to ape it.  Besides, Orcs are not green.  

 

Then Colin Pattern, a sculptor who had created the go-to Dark Age historical wargames range, Gripping Beast, sold up and started to produce a Dark Age fantasy range as Vendel Miniatures.  The Norse Dwarves and Dark Age Orcs were a breath of fresh air; much more how I had imagined things and, as it turned out, a joy to paint.   

 

So, about 14-15 years ago I found myself sitting in the paradise of the sunny Caribbean, missing the cold, dark, damp and rain of home, and re-reading Tolkien.  Not otherwise doing any modelling, I ordered these little orcses and painted them up.  Recently, news that the Vendel range (which Pattern had sold to someone who then failed to produce it - a sadly familiar tale to railway modellers), had now been revived, prompted me to dig out my dusty old figures.  I realised that I had not made too bad a job of them, though they were rather let down by the use of thick plastic "slotta" bases, so I spent last weekend re-basing on washers.  

 

Anyway, I'd been in correspondence with the new owner of the Vendel range (Thistle & Rose, which I take as a reference to the other staple of the Vendel range, Border Reivers) and he asked to see some pictures of my old figures.  Then he asked if he could post them on his Facetube page and, rather pleasingly, he put one up as the banner picture.  Miss T thought this very cool, so some cred gained there. 

 

Normal service will, doubtless, be resumed before too long.  Blame the narrow gauge station; I suspect I was subconsciously channelling Rivendell.

[webbcompound]

best orcs on film so far are the ones in Bright. Pity the film isn't as good as it should be.

[wagonman]

Oh, they're Orcs! I thought for a moment it was the local UKIP candidates...

[Compound2632]

13 minutes ago, wagonman said:

Oh, they're Orcs! I thought for a moment it was the local UKIP candidates...

 

Orcs are capable of organisation and planning, at least when in thrall to a malign intelligence.

[Compound2632]

... but left to their own devices will rapidly descend into infighting, drunkeness, antisocial behaviour, and golf.

[Edwardian]

43 minutes ago, wagonman said:

Oh, they're Orcs! I thought for a moment it was the local UKIP candidates...

 

29 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Orcs are capable of organisation and planning, at least when in thrall to a malign intelligence.

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Edwardian
Wrong Dark Lord

[Compound2632]

I'm sorry, I see no connection with malign intelligence in the photo you've posted. For that sort of thing, you want to keep a sharp eye out of your front window...

 

Edit: comment no longer applies, as @Edwardian changed his original photo of a misguided and foolish hobbit.

Edited August 25, 2020 by Compound2632

[Nearholmer]

Maybe the suggestion is that he is in the thrall of malign intelligence, which is likely half true, given that his strings are probably being pulled from both sides of the Bering Strait.

 

EDIT: You'll have to work out for yourself who the photo originally showed. Now that he isn't there I can give clues without being sued for defamation (hopefully): braying fool; friend of the US Alt Right; rumoured recipient of Russian meddle-funds; all round useful idiot for those who have interests in damaging the EU by scuppering the UK; possibly daft enough to believe the clap-trap and dog-whistles that he gives vent to.

Edited August 25, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Compound2632]

8 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Maybe the suggestion is that he is in the thrall of malign intelligence, which is likely half true, given that his strings are probably being pulled from both sides of the Bering Strait.

 

An orc of the White Hand? Classic Sauron / Saruman set-up.

[Edwardian]

17 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

I'm sorry, I see no connection with malign intelligence in the photo you've posted. For that sort of thing, you want to keep a sharp eye out of your front window...

 

10 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Maybe the suggestion is that he is in the thrall of malign intelligence, which is likely half true, given that his strings are probably being pulled from both sides of the Bering Strait.

 

You are both quite right, so I have made amends

[Edwardian]

On the other hand, could they be related?

 

[Compound2632]

Well, maybe, but now you're saying he's a hobbit of sorts too. Gollum never gave out rings of power to keep government ministers obedient to his will.

Edited August 25, 2020 by Compound2632
sp.

[Edwardian]

33 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

... but left to their own devices will rapidly descend into infighting, drunkeness, antisocial behaviour, and golf.

 

Wah!

 

[Hroth]

12 hours ago, Edwardian said:

I'm on a virtual holiday, in Middle Earth, so a postcard to say I'm thinking of you all...

 

4 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Only a postcard? You could at least have given us a ring. Hope you don't run into any orc-ward situations!

 

Lets praise him with great praise*!

 

Then we'd better skedaddle back to the Shire and sort out Saruman......

 

I'd say DC IS Saruman, an underling with great power and little responsibility.

 

* One of the most winceworthy sections of the book.

Edited August 25, 2020 by Hroth

[Edwardian]

4 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Well, maybe, but now you're saying his a hobbit of sorts too. Gollum never gave out rings of power to keep government ministers obedient to his will.

 

By analogy, that sort of makes Michael Gove the Lord of the Nazgul, which idea I rather like!

[Compound2632]

The whole Lord of the Rings analogy worked best in 2010, with Blair as Isildur - back at the end of the second age (1997) he had the opportunity to destroy the power of Sauron for ever but was enamoured of the ring and kept it. For a short while he had the strength to bend it to his own will but it inevitably led to his downfall.

Edited August 25, 2020 by Compound2632

[Regularity]

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Maybe the suggestion is that he is in the thrall of malign intelligence, which is likely half true, given that his strings are probably being pulled from both sides of the Bering Strait.

I would suggest from one side of the Bering Strait.

One set of strings directly from that side, and the other set of strings indirectly via the other side, which are being pulled by the original side.

 

There are roughly 7,800,000,000 people on the planet.

2,095 of them are known to be billionaires. In percentage terms, that's diddly squat having more money than many countries.

[Compound2632]

4 minutes ago, Regularity said:

There are roughly 7,800,000,000 people on the planet.

2,095 of them are known to be billionaires. In percentage terms, that's diddly squat having more money than many countries.

 

That would be 477 (of whatever currency unit we're working in) per capita - which would make a bigger difference in some parts of the world than others. I'd pass on my share if it would do more good elsewhere.

[Edwardian]

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

The whole Lord of the Rings analogy worked best in 2010, with Blair as Isildur - back at the end of the second age (1997) he had the opportunity to destroy the power of Sauron for ever but was enamoured of the ring and kept it. For a short while he had the strength to bend it to his own will but it inevitably led to his downfall.

 

No, Blair was hilariously parodied as the White Wizard (the nicest man in the whole of Lower Earth) in Series 3, Episode 5 of the BBC radio comedy ElevenQuest. 

 

Incidentally, the "third way" actually does crop up somewhere in Tolkien's LoTR, IIRC.

[Nearholmer]

I'm not into LoTR, but if The White Wizard was a chap who made a truly enormous mistake, because he was too caught-up with his belief-systems and his friends, sort-of eventually half-realised that he had been party to creating a disaster, and afterwards spent eternity wandering around trying his best to do good, and to wheedle his way back into public affection, instead of going off to live the life of a penitent hermit, which is what everyone wanted him to do, then I can see that working.