Things have been pretty hectic here. The summer holiday has meant I have not had the same amount of time to dedicate to the hobby and most of the time I have had has been devoted to the clearout to make room for focusing on my Quar project. It has been nice to have so much time with Little GG but with him returning to kindergarten I should be able to get more done, more quickly.
Hope dies last.
Some of the good news making me happy has been releases of test shots of the upcoming plastic Quar from Wargames Atlantic. This is a bit of a touchy subject for me. As I have fallen out of love with Wargames Atlantic, like many broken hearts there is a bit of bitterness that lingers, but I have to say I think the WGA plastic Quar look great. Notice the WGA & Zombiesmith plastic Quar test shot above.
And here is a WGA teaser photo of one of the sprues…
And as shown by Zombiesmith here is a photo comparing the plastic sculpt to the metal, plastic on the left…
I like that they are similar but not identical. It will help create a sense of diversity I think. And this is still early days. If they do well we could see even more plastics released. And Josh over at Zombiesmith, the creator of the Quar, is talking about launching new metal sculpts along side the plastic kit.
Speaking of metal Quar… 80% of my recent order was ready to ship so Josh @ Zombiesmith decided to send those along first.
It was a little confusing for me as there was no packing list and the baggies are not labelled. I would encourage Josh in the future to do as Mike has done with his Anyaral: World of Twilight figures… which also arrived.
In addition to these joyous deliveries there have been a couple more additions to the project…
Yes, those are 28mm scale vehicles. The biplane purchase was inspired by this Quar blog post…
So as you can see, a lot to be happy about.
But there has been some sad news as well. I was offered an excellent deal on some fleet scale Brigade Games Imperial Skies Aeronefs for an excellent price. Three fleets, two built and painted while one was unbuilt. Unfortunately they were lost for weeks in the post, finally returned to the sender and reposted. When they arrived the state of the painted fleets, despite the packing efforts of the seller, were heart breaking.
I should be able to restore them but it will be a lot of work. I have tucked them away until I can find the heart to face that project. My hopes are to one day have Aeronef fleet battles as part of my Quar project.
https://www.brigademodels.co.uk/ImperialSkies/index.html
All of the above, the happy and the sad were only possible due to my big project materials clearout.
There will be more to come. At some point I will be ready to let go of my Napoleonic and First Indochina War French troops…..
In other news, we finished season four of Babylon 5. Great stuff! Absolutely brilliant. Now, before we start the final season, we need to watch a couple of the movies it seems according to online viewing order recommendations.
https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/babylon-5-watch-order/
Of course there are a lot of other shows fighting for our attention, Star Wars: Ahsoka for example is looking amazing in the trailers.
Until next time, take care, stay safe and keep having fun!
Home of the Grumpy Gnome 
Lot’s to be happy about there GG, what a nightmare with the posting, I’ve been seeing a lot of problems with posting recently, hopefully that will improve soon.
hope you enjoy the B5 movies, and the series you want to watch.
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I have to say that I have had remarkably good luck with the post although there have been delays and minor damage to the exteriors of boxes. This is the worst example I have seen in a very long time.
We decided to give season 3 of the Witcher a try, as a break from our usual sci-fi political shenanigans.
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Great post. Good luck with the Quar project – you have me almost tempted!
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Just wait until I eventually get things painted! Eventually….
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Those new Quar minis look really good! 🙂 Hope you enjoy getting started on them. Such a shame about the aeronefs! I have a few of those models myself and I can see some of the early metal Japanese aeronefs in there. I’d probably use blu-tak to fix them in a parcel, but with the metal nefs being glued to the plastic stand they’ll be vulnerable to vibration causing the plastic to fail unfortunately. I drilled and put brass pins into the bottom of my ‘nefs and glued brass tube to the stands to take the pins so that the ‘nefs are only on the stands when they’re in a game. For storage, each ‘nef has its own little card holder with a hole to take the pin and a couple of bulkheads to keep it all in place – bit over the top but it seems to work well enough. Hope you get them all repaired – using them in a Quar setting sounds like a good idea to me!
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I am pretty excited about all this but I still have quite a bit of clearout work ahead of me.
For the Aeronefs I am thinking of putting a small magnet on the bottom and then a matching magnet on a flight stand, like I did with the Dropfleet ships I used to have. I am still undecided on exactly what kind of flight stand though. I want to be able to easily display altitude.
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Season 4 of B5 was the last great one one. Season 5 was meh. The reason was that the writer, J Michal Straczynski, and the rest of the crew had written a five year saga, but it looked like they would be cancelled halfway through year 4. So they hurried it all into an ending. Maybe you did not feel the rushed plot towards the end of it all? I knew, because I was following it all in real time. When the show was renewed for the fifth season, they kept all that they had done, which I understand. But the fifth season happened…not going to try to influence your thoughts on it any further. So I’d be interested in how you see it without the baggage that I had, I guess?
Quar: Yes, good to see you back on target. More specifics of what you and Mrs. GG have planned as far as plot? Interested in seeing how you decide to document everything. I was so looking forward to your Napoleonic Horror, and disappointed when Silver Bayonet’s quality sidetracked the project. I’d love to see you develop this to fruition.
Have a great day, mate, and thanks for your service to freedom for all.
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I have heard that before, about the troubled production of Babylon 5 with the results that produced. Mrs. GG and I look forward to seeing how it develops.
For the Quar, I am thinking they share the same planet at the critters of Anyaral, just different continents. Perhaps throw in the Mantic Mars Attacks Martians as alien invaders… or perhaps evolved human scientists from the Mars Colony and GW Misty Mountain Goblins as Morlocks under what used to be the surface of Earth.
Ideally I would use an app to turn our games into a sort of graphic novel but that seems like a lot of additional work and time is already pretty precious.
As for my service, thanks for the kind words. I recently realized I am a ronin these days. That said, I still believe injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. More than broken models, the state of the world and humanity makes me sad. Democracy is a constant struggle.
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I’m glad to see the new acquisitions and to me, the plastic quars look easier and more enjoyable to paint since they’re a bit less lanky. You’ve got a lot to chew on with all of these new minis and terrain coming through the door. Hopefully you’re able to have a productive rest of the year and show off a lot of cool new stuff to us.
Its a shame on those damaged minis too. That is my worst nightmare when I sell stuff on eBay. I’ve been lucky to not have any issues because what happened to you can happen to any of us, I figure.
I’ll be curious to hear what you think of Ahsoka. I have to admit that I have complex feelings on the existence of the show. I don’t know what strategy Disney has for Star Wars any longer. It seems like they make these very casual friendly Star Wars shows like Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett which has things in them that I don’t like as a long-time Star Wars fan (but more casual fans don’t mind or even like). But then they also make these shows that are really deep in the canon like Ahsoka which is based on old shows I’ve never watched. That is why I’m so confused by what they’re making these days. I don’t want to sound salty though and I’m glad for everyone who is excited for the show as well. I may be drifting away from Star Wars and Marvel TV and movies, I’d like to have the time and interest in both again one day.
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I do wonder if I will ever get to be as productive as I was in the past. I notice I have had increasing fatigue of late. An afternoon naps makes sense for an older gentleman of leisure but gone seem to be my days of online gaming until 4 am. I have been more productive than it may appear on the blog due to not documenting all of my clearout efforts but nothing like I was a few years back. I have gotten rid of considerably more than I have acquired. Inspired by you, I decided to focus on more quality and less quantity.
I never watched much of Clone Wars or Rebels. Bits and pieces. So liking Ahsoka in her cameos was a bit of a surprise. Mando was largely excellent with some terrible bits. Book of Boba and Obi-Wan Kenoibi were largely terrible with some good bits. Andor was amazing. From the trailers I am optimistic about Ahsoka. Maybe it can make me interested enough to pick up Clone Wars and Rebels when Little GG is old enough. Not long now. I watched the original Star Wars when I was seven and I believe it played a part in who I am today. It was literally my favorite movie and arguably one of the most influential. Although Sands of Iwo Jima at age four convinced me to join the infantry prior to Star Wars convinced me to fight against tyranny.
Allegedly Ahsoka was made in a way that is open to casual viewers. We will see. But I understand the idea of product/IP fatigue.
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Staying productive is hard. This week I feel like I was not that productive myself though I think I can get back to being more productive this upcoming week. I guess it is good that we’re focused on quality over quantity…
I don’t know that I explained my negative opinion as well as I could have with Ahsoka. The two issues I have with it are at a conceptual level. I think Ahsoka demonstrates the lack of any kind of cohesive vision or direction. Too often under Kathleen Kennedy the approach is, “People like X, so let’s do a spin off focusing on that character or bring that character back”. Not only does this make the content stale, its harder to take beloved characters and make something really great and new with them. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why they don’t introduce new characters that are in archetypes that people already love. There should have been a show just about bounty hunters by now (The Mandalorian kind of is this but it kind of isn’t and Book of Boba Fett definitely didn’t fit this mold). There could also be a show about a smuggler like Han Solo or Lando, but it doesn’t need to be one or the other. These types of stories were done a lot in the comics before Disney took over and they were oftentimes good, if not great. That is why I’m puzzled with the insistence on revisiting and reusing old characters which are much riskier.
Ahsoka is a show about a set of characters that were on animated shows that a good chunk of Star Wars fans do not know. While it is obviously going to please fans of Rebels and Clone Wars, and has a good chance of appealing to any fans with an open mind (I think that group within the fanbase is dwindling though I might be wrong), it can also create difficulties. I’ve seen a few early reviews of Ahsoka and they say that its a little slow because they have to explain who everyone is, in the event that you didn’t watch Clone Wars or Rebels. To me, that problem could have been easily solved by just using new and fresh characters. Kathleen Kennedy is basically throwing darts against a wall and hoping they stick so she keeps leaning on old ideas and characters because its what she thinks will be successful or that it will excite fans.
Also, it is a bit annoying to me that Disney threw out the old canon but will bring back characters as suits their needs or their favored creators’ desires. I think that is the most obvious sign that nobody has a coherent vision for Star Wars and they’re desperately trying out anything and everything. People just want new and fun Star Wars stories and I don’t think the current approach will lead that to happen as much as it should.
So that is why I think Ahsoka is a bad idea at the conceptual level. That said, I’ve seen it get fairly average reviews thus far so that means it could really improve and be one of the better Star Wars shows in the end. So maybe all my cynicism is for naught! I hope so and I hope you enjoy it and I look forward to your thoughts. Perhaps in a future update, I’ll reread and talk about some of the best Star Wars comics that were written before Disney took over the license. I’d like to spread some positivity about Star Wars (for once!).
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Lately it feels like something always conspires to replace my hobby time. Another distraction next week will prevent getting much done.
I hear what you are saying about Ahsoka. To a certain degree I agree. It certainly seems like the Star Wars universe lacks a single guiding focus. Lucas, for all of my disagreements with many of his decisions atleast seemed to have a core view that kept the threads of the tapestry from unraveling. Same as Roddenberry did for Trek.
The thing for me about Star Wars is that I think it is at is best as pulpy space opera. Andor, much as I enjoyed it, went a bit too far from pulp. At its best it was something of a pulpy hard boiled wartime spy thriller. The further it got away from the pulp adventure and leaned into the much darker side of the things, the less I enjoyed it as a Star Wars show even though I enjoyed it without the Star Wars connection. The Mandalorian was at its best when it was a pulpy space western. As time went by the show seemed to lose itself.
So in large part I agree with you.
While I have not watched much of Rebels, what little I know of Thrawn… he sounds like an interesting villain. Hopefully better than Moff Gideon, who was a real let down. I have no problem with interesting parts of the old Expanded Universe being reintroduced.
What I really want now is a pulpy space Top Gun focusing on Wedge Antilles and Rogue Squadron.
There are just so many interesting stories that could be told in the Star Wars universe. They did such a great job of making me care about the Tusken people and then slaughtered the whole tribe I had grown attached to. Not that we need to stay on Tatooine. I just mean that the writers can grab my attention but they seem not know what to do once they have my attention.
I do wonder how I will take to Ahsoka without being steeped in Clone Wars and Rebels lore.
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Thank you for listening to my passionate plea. I was thinking about what I said afterwards and I was hoping I didn’t seem too angry. I really do hope that Ahsoka is good and that people enjoy it. I think of all the shows they’ve announced, its high on the list of ones I’d likely skip. Of course, if you say that its really great, then I would definitely try to give it a watch because I trust your judgement. I do want to see Andor when I can find the time because its Star Wars and its good, if not, great. I’d love to see them do Rogue Squadron or something similar. I think they announced it but its on a hiatus and is potentially cancelled. I can’t believe that hasn’t been done yet and if it is done well, it’d be a huge hit.
I have made a sad realization partly because of this conversation but also the online discourse I’ve seen. I think Star Wars has actually become a franchise that is hurting some fans. You’ve described your love of the original movies and I’m right there with you. Up until Disney took over, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings were the two things that it seemed like I’d always love. Now, I am pretty distanced from Star Wars and I think its because it hurts to care and to be excited about new Star Wars content and then be really disappointed with it or at least that has become my experience. Part of it is that I liked the old canon pretty well and I feel like a good amount of the new stuff is either inferior or just rehashes the old ideas. And then The Last Jedi was a whole other thing that caused a lot of disappointment, me included. That really shattered my confidence and ability to be emotionally attached to Star Wars.
When I see anything Star Wars on Facebook, you can really get a sense of the anger and hurt that people have. There are some people who mad about stuff like Disney being too woke, which is kind of a pointless thing to be upset about in my opinion, but to me, it seems pretty palpable how much disappointment and cynicism there is now. It is a shame that we’ve gotten to this point. I hope that there will be better days ahead and we can feel more like we used to and less of how we do now.
All this is to say, please keep your Star Wars thoughts coming as I find them interesting and I enjoy the conversation around Star Wars too.
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The original Star Wars, I struggle to consider it A New Hope or Episode 4 is literally may favorite all time movie. Star Wars has been down hill ever since for me. I never really got into the extended old lore. I vaguely recall reading Splinter of the Mind’s Eye but do not recall the story other than Luke and Leia featured prominently in it. I used to listen to an audio version of Star Wars on cassette tapes so often I memorized dialogue that I could quote back fully years later. Sadly I can no longer do that. In part because my memory is not what it used to be and secondly I fell out of love of Star Wars.
First it was the prequels. The whole Zen like Force just being microscopic life forms irked me. But there were still some good bits. Ewan MacGregor was the perfect young Kenobi (which made me even more disappointed in the Kenobi tv series), the music was grand and I did not hate JarJar as much as many other folks did. Princess Amidala’s line about this being how democracy dies is classic. But the movies felt less pulp. As if they were trying to be more “serious” and “mature”… I think they suffered for it. I did not like Anikan, either young or older, character and actors. A personal issue I suppose but not liking such a core character can really spoil the movies.
I do not blame Disney. They gave us Faverau and Filoni. But they also gave us Abrahms and Johnson… who slaughtered Star Wars for me. Obliterated it. So much… terrible writing. So many betrayals of original characters. So many elements that either seemed to forget previous lore or intentionally spat on it. Ugh.
Like you, I cared too much. I loved it. I hated what I was seeing even more than if there had been no more. I did not get into Clone Wars or Rebels but the Mandalorian was a revelation to me. Granted it did not stay as good as season 1 but it was the spark that helped reignite my passion for Star Wars. Andor, again a big surprise because in theory I should have disliked if as much as I disliked Rogue One, was brilliant at times if not perfect. It had the depth and subtlety of Bladerunner at times. I am so keen to see more of it. It showed me Star Wars can have different flavors and still be great.
What do you love about Star Wars?
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That is very true about some of the old canon. I was never a fan of Boba Fett being “revived” from the sarlaac pit but I let it go because I never was that into the character all that much either. There is a book about Han and Leia falling in love and I think getting married called The Courtship of Princess Leia and I read it as a child and am almost positive it wasn’t very good. So you’re right that it wan’t all good back then. I think it was easy to ignore the parts I didn’t like or grew out of though I can’t say why.
Star Wars has always been a bit spotty truthfully. The prequels are not great movies for sure even if they were visually impressive at the time. I was a kid when Phantom Menace came out and I liked it as a result even with some dubious acting. The next one was terrible and the final one was better but dour. Anakin’s character as a bratty kid was terrible and the acting was even worse. He pretty much kills the second movie (Attack of the Clones) all by himself sadly.
For me, I really liked the huge galaxy and how it was all interconnected. Minor characters from the movies often appeared in the books and comics. It felt rewarding to know their names and so on. I’m sure that I miss that the most in the current era of Star Wars where there are things I don’t want to watch or would rather forget about (The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker). I also love the opportunity for people to tell different stories. I like that Rogue One is a great war story. The original trilogy is basically one big underdog story which I also liked. Somehow the newest trilogy completely messed up that part of Star Wars. I already mentioned bounty hunters stories and you’re right about the Mandalorian channeling a western at times.
One of my favorite Star Wars stories from the comic books is called Dark Times and it is about a Jedi who is not particularly powerful or notable other than he survives after Order 66. He tries to keep a low profile but can’t avoid seeing immoral things happening around him and wanting to help. I think that story would have made a much better TV series than doing Obi-Wan. I don’t know what happens in that show but I think that was always going to be a hard show to do well. Ben Kenobi can’t do too many crazy things or you have to wonder why the Empire couldn’t find him in the first place!
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Again I find myself agreeing with you. Other than I would say Rogue One was an ok war story rather than a great one. Force Ten from Navarone or Where Eagles Dare, it was not.
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Now that you’ve mentioned it, I haven’t seen a lot of war movies truthfully. Platoon and 1917 are some of my favorite, probably because they support my views on war as someone who’s generally against it. They do make for great cinema and reading to be sure.
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I am an old soldier and I think war is a terrible thing. But I still enjoy good war movies. Platoon is a very solid war film. If you have not seen them, I would recommend off the top of my head as some of the best war films…. A Bridge Too Far, Zulu (and Zulu Dawn if you want more context and a sobering counterpoint to Zulu), Casualties of War (a bit depressing but thought provoking and excellent acting across the board), and the Sands of Iwo Jima. All of them are critical of war unless you watch them in the most superficial manner.
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Thanks for the recommendations. I don’t think I’ve seen any of those and I will gladly give them a watch! In thinking about it a bit more, I have seen some WWII movies when I was a child including Patton and Midway. So I’ve probably seen more than I necessarily realized. I enjoyed the Alamo too though I’m pretty sure those movies are not very realistic/accurate and they definitely are very pro-American too. It used to be much easier to find older movies like that on cable but I think older content like that has really fallen out of favor and isn’t shown much anymore. And of course, cable is dying a slow death as it is anyway…
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I tried to give you a selection of films from different conflicts. I noticed afterwards they all have something of an infantry focus, I seem to feel less confident to cite what may be an excellent aviation or naval film. That said, I should have mentioned Master & Commander. Some things age better than others. There were protests in the UK against the colonialism in Zulu for example but contemporary Zulus spoke out in favorvof how they were portrayed in the film… which is one reason I selected it. One of the reasons I selected A Bridge Too Far is that it showed not just the Allied perspective compared to say Saving Private Ryan. While not a movie, and a much greater commitment in time the TV series Band of Brothers is much better than Saving Private Ryan. Sands of Iwo Jima does have the problem of dehumanizing the Japanese but the story of Sergeant Stryker captures a certain hidden frailty of the character that I found quite common in my time serving.
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I appreciate the thought put into the list and its nice to see some WWII movies but also some other stuff. I think WWII is the most glamourized war in the US and I’m guessing its that way in England too though I don’t know for sure. I will report back when I get a chance to watch one of these. I’m sure I will enjoy them.
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WW2 is definitely seen through rose tinted glasses by many in the US and UK, reinforced by Hollywood.
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Had me a bit worried when you said sad, glad it was only a postage calamity that can be remedied in time.
I think the time spent with little GG is well worth the lack of hobby progress.
Curious how the De Havilland will be Quarified, with a converted Quar flying it?
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You are right, of course. And in due time he will be an excellent hobby partner.
At the very least a pilot conversion. I will look to see how else I can personalize it. And I need to settle on a color scheme. I am leaning towards making it a Crusader kite (what aeroplanes are called in the world of Quar).
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Loved the ups and downs in this post GG. Love to see how your Quar dedication is unsullied, as I am very fond of it.
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Thanks mate! It is taking me much longer to clear out old project materials so getting things finished keeps getting delayed but I am determined to work on my Quar at some point, inspired by things like your Aztec and Oz Wars projects.
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Hi pal, really pleased that the quar project is going well. Sorry to see the space ships in bits. I think we have all worn that t-shirt in the past. Like you I’ve done little modelling as yet but we have ditched our old channels and are now enjoying Disney. Star Wars alone will keep us satisfied for many months. Watched the Mandalorian, treated Eileen to a baby Grogue. Hope everybody is well. Cheers Geoff.
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Hello mate! All good this end. Busy, busy, busy! But in a good way. Disney+ seems a good deal to me right now. Lots on there that we like. I highly recommend Ahsoka and Andor for priority Star Wars watching. Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi were definitely not on par with the Mandalorian. Stay safe and keep having fun!
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