Apr 272024
 

I’ve been running the 3D printer, with mixed results. Failures and disappointments are the fault of the CAD models; the printer itself (Anycubic Photon Mono X 6Ks) is working as advertised. Printing is not a fast process; some prints took 12 hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 2:32 pm
Apr 232024
 

This is a little outside the usual for APR, as it is satire rather than actual aerospace design. But I thought it appropriate nonetheless; I remember dreaming up just about the exact same ideas when I was twelve. There was something about the design of those pens that just *screamed* for them to be envisioned as spaceships and missiles and whatnot.

The full-rez scan of the article, and a few more bits, been made available as a thank-you to APR Patreon and Historical Documents Program patrons at the $4 and above level, placed in the 2024-04 APR Extras Dropbox folder. If interested in this or if you are interested in helping to fund the preservation of aerospace histgory, please consider becoming a patron, either through the APR Patreon or the Monthly Historical Document Program.

 Posted by at 11:29 am
Apr 192024
 

Here are some hypothetical subjects for metal casting as “minis.” I have three pages (standard 8.5X11) of diagrams, all depicting possible subjects at the size they would be at the stated scales. First page shows what I consider a number of interesting designs… not at a constant scale, but size.

 

 

 

Second page depicts a range of Project Orion vehicles again at a roughly constant size. Constant size means, hopefully, a consistent cost.

 

Third page shows two sets of 8. The US Bomber Projects #1 set has 8 bombers at roughly constant size; US Fighter Projects #1 set has the fighters all at the same scale. 1/285 at least used to be a kind of standard for wargaming, though I’m not sure how widespread it truly was.

 

Sets like USBP01 would probably all be at about the same price, but those like USFP01 might vary since some designs at quite a bit bigger. What I’m kinda hoping for is the individual minis being about $25 each, while the 8-sets be about $100 each. Thoughts?

 

These are of course not the full possible catalog, nor would all these here necessarily come to pass. And scales/sizes could vary substantially. A lot of it would depend on actually trying them and see what works, what fails spectacularly.

 Posted by at 7:47 pm
Apr 162024
 

I’ve achieved a measure of success with getting metal casting up and running. I don’t intend to make too many of these NX-Excelsiors; they’re practice. But I have some spares and can make some more. Anyone interested? Say, $20 plus postage? It is my intention to make some NCC-2000 Excelsiors, and then some NCC-1701-B Enterprises.

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 10:03 am
Apr 072024
 

Artwork circa 1983 depicting a one-man combat tiltrotor tearing up a column of Soviet armor. At this time the Light Helicopter – eXperimental program included the possibility of tiltrotors as well as conventional choppers. In the end the RAH-66 won… and was then cancelled before series production. Tiltrotors showed promise, but also promised to be incredibly challenging for a single pilot to manage.

 Posted by at 11:13 pm
Apr 062024
 

Some thirty or so years ago I took a stab at casting small parts and models in metal… my very early 1/144 lifting bodies, X-20, etc. The results were sad, so the project was abandoned. For reasons that evade me I’ve recently decided to try again. Materials available to me today are much better… high temp silicone, low-melt temp no-lead alloys, a cheap electric melting pot (rather than a massive cast iron ladle and a blow torch), and I’m slightly more skilled, slightly less stupid. Still, it’s disconcerting when it works right out of the gate:

 

 

For those not old enough and nerdy enough to recognize, these are parts from the mid-80’s FASA NX-2000 Excelsior miniature. The flash seems to pick up the crystalline structure in the surface much more prominently than they appear in reality, and there is clearly a flaw with the mold on the underside of the saucer. But otherwise they came though not only with no flash but also fully filled, no bubbles. I’m quite pleased and more than a little baffled. Immediate success is unexpected.

 

What to do from here? I’m not going to recast the FASA ships; this was just a test. However, I might take a stab at some *different* ships (NCC-2000, NCC-1701-B are obvious choices). But mostly I have an unaccountable urge to cast entirely new minis. I don’t think there’d be a market, but *I* want them… gaming scale Orion nuclear pulse vehicles, Dyna Soars, F-108s, etc. are the sort of things I’d have blown my allowance on back in the 80’s.

 

Next up… gotta acquire a good 3D printer.

 

 Posted by at 7:45 pm
Mar 262024
 

Hansen’s “US Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History” is particularly nice. Contact with ridiculously generous bribes if you’re prefer not to wait:

 

 

 Posted by at 3:47 pm
Mar 242024
 

A few days ago someone on twitter repeated some nonsense that getting irritated about canon violations in, say, Star Trek was a sign that you’re kinda dumb, because canon is an impediment to writers who want to tell stories. Well, guess what: established canon is an impediment to only one kind of writer: the lazy kind.

 

Establishing canon can sometimes take a while. Take Star Trek: if you look at the early years, canon was quite mutable. Who did the crew of the Enterprise work for? It seemed to change from time to time. Starfleet, of course… but then also the United Earth Space Probe Agency and later the United Federation of Planets. Klingons went from shiny dark humans with a vaguely Soviet-style totalitarian dictatorship, to bumpy-headed high-tech barbarians with a focus on fun, honor and bloodshed. But these things are *now* well established, and have been literally for generations. Changing them is changing the established rules.

 

And the thing is, established rules are a *good* thing for storytellers. Yes, they constrain storytelling possibilities, but they force the storyteller to be cleverer than if the rules didn’t exist. And the *vast* majority of the time storytellers accept that rules are there and are good. Imagine what nonsense you’d get in a medical show where medicine had no relation to reality. Aspirin cures cancer. Broken bones are set with a smoldering look from Doctor Hearthrob. AIDS is cured by popping the infected into a microwave oven for three minutes on high. Two seasons back, Doctor Heartthrob won a Nobel Prize for curing Type 1 diabetes with a combination of oatmeal and Tea, Earl Gray, Hot. But now, Type 1 diabetes is wholly incurable and causes the sufferers to spontaneously combust with no reference to the prior treatments. This would be bafflingly stupid unless set as some sort of “Naked Gun” style absurdist comedy.

Imagine a legal/lawyer show where the law had no relation to real-world law. A cop show where cops could simply walk through walls, or where once confronted criminals instantly changed their ways. A western set in 1872 New Mexico with Nazis and an invasion of blimp-borne Samurai played straight, or where the cowboys dealt not only with cattle but an infestation of kangaroos and velociraptors. Come on, cowboys vs dinosaurs sounds fun, right? But if the show isn’t sci-fi or fantasy, having the cowboys, who pack Glocks and drink Bud Light from aluminum cans and ride carbon fiber racing bicycles, just wouldn’t make sense. A sitcom set in a penthouse apartment established as 60+ stories high overlooking Central Park, but the apartment door sometimes opens into the hallway, sometimes the elevator, sometimes the roof, sometimes right onto the street…and sometimes that street is in San Francisco or London. It’s either absurdist… or it’s lazy and stupid.

 

If you want to change the rules you’d best have a good reason. It can be done. Hell, “Young Sheldon” recently changed years of established “Big Bang Theory” canon in a smart way that made things not only make more sense, but made people happy. It was long ago established that as a child Sheldon Cooper had walked in on his dad cheating on his mom with another woman. The sight disturbed, upset and changed Sheldon, and ruined his view of his dad. In the “Young Sheldon” show, the dad has been portrayed as a great guy who was not the cheating type, though tempted from time to time. And they finally got to the moment: Sheldon walked in on Dad and Other Woman. But it turns out Other Woman was actually Mom, who was dressed up in a sort of cosplay. Sheldon simply didn’t recognize her. He misinterpreted. Canon has been changed without actually changing canon.

But the current crop of writers for Star trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Rings of Power, etc. do not seem to be either willing or able to navigate their way through established canon. And rather than write compelling, clever stories within the rules… they simply steamroll the rules, often for ideological reasons.

In Star Trek, it’s long established that 23rd century medicine is damn near magical in it’s ability to fix both physical and mental damage. So wouldn’t *have* characters who were delusional to the point of insanity, or trundling around the decks in a wheelchair. But in the name of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, the fact of 23rd Century medicine is simply ignored in favor of The Message.

So you end up with this nonsense:

on

It adds nothing to the story to have Wheelchair Guy. It doesn’t make sense. It yeets the viewer right out of it if they consciously recognize that it’s wrong; if they don’t consciously recognize it, there is still the subtle, unconscious Uncanny Valley-esque sense of something being not right.

Canon isn’t a problem. Canon is *good.* If you don’t like the canon, if the canon gets in the way of the story you want to tell, there are good ways to deal with it:

1) Write a different story.

2) Change your canon-busting story to fit a different property. That apartment with the wacky door? Change it from straight sitcom to a Doctor Who offshoot.

3) Come up with a *clever* way to change the canon. You have a propulsion system vastly better than warp drive for your Star Trek ships? Great. Set it in the *future* of established Trek, not the past.

 Posted by at 2:24 pm
Mar 072024
 

Published in a magazine in 1983, this artist depiction shows a concept for a 1982 space station by Rockwell. Clearly of the same *kind* of station as the eventual ISS, this is a simpler, smaller construct. However, it also includes a “cargo bay” modeled aft that of the Space Shuttle, allowing payloads (what appear to be temporary science modules) to be readily transferred back and forth.

 

 Posted by at 4:32 pm
Feb 262024
 

Slightly over 4 years ago I yammered a bit about a game company called “Evil Hat” that was putting out a Lovecraftian game while not only hating Lovecraft but also *intentionally* not understanding the idea:

 

“I want your business”

Making a *huge* point about bashing the creator of the IP you’re squatting on, while misinterpreting the importance of some of the most basic elements, points out that you’re just wearing the fandom as a skinsuit, a way to squeeze some of that filthy lucre from the nerds. Something we’ve seen far too often from the likes of those running Star Trek, Star Wars, Dr. Who into the ground.

Anyway, the producers of that Cthulhu game are back with another IP-cash-grab, this time in the “Tomb raider” franchise. I’ve never played any of the games; this franchise is not my thing. But for those of you who care about it… let me know if they got it right.

Someone did some digging around and found out some stuff about some of the people behind the game…

Tumblr art, self-insert deviant weirdos. Sounds about right.

 Posted by at 6:29 pm