Another new member

[Vanvlak]

Hey, nice Frankenstein emoticons for Halloween...what? We're on air?  

Er - hi all,
Landed here from a TMP link, and it looks like a nice, friendly land, so I've registered. I'm an engineer, I lecture at Univ (should've taken archaeology), and I'm from a place called Mosta in Malta, in the middle of the Med. I'm usually found at the Tactical Wargames board, as I'm more of a wargamer - trouble is, with little time on my hands, I tend to paint and model stuff rather than do battle. Since I have a shorter attention span than most of our cats, I figured that adventuring is the way to go - few models, might get them done before starting a new project. Unhappily, it rarely works that well, still...

My main interests in modelling and gaming would be VSF, pulp, and WWII period stuff, although I end up getting interested in just about anything. Jack of all trades and you know the rest. Currently, most of my armies/warbands/modelling projects seem to orbit Venice, with Malta and Sicily coming into the equation.

Thus my long-suffering, battered warhammer chaos army has found itself attracted to the Venetian lagoon; and my current projects include a VSFF (the extra F is for fantasy) warband based in a town close to Venice; a 9-year war (WWII extended) mess of tanks in 6mm scale and another in 1/35th scale (PzkII with death ray, anyone?); and a couple of VSF bands (on a visit to Venice) featuring a character of Italian creation - the Malaysian freedom fighter Sandokan and his Portuguese adventurer friend Yanez de Gomeira vs his Victorian nemesis, Lord James 'Rajah' Brook of Sarawak (who really existed, incidentally). I'd received as a much-appreciated gift a few Foundry models which fit the main characters to a T.

Why Vanvlak? I lecture on materials engineering at Univ, and my first textbook on the subject was written by a certain Van Vlack.... no vampires or  vampire hunters were insulted in creating this name.  
Anyway, guess I've waffled enough for now.
cheers all,
John (oh, er, yes that's my alter nomen)

[Plynkes]

Hi there, Vanvlak the Ego! (Just kidding: You did kind of walk into that one there  )

Those are actually our normal, year-round emoticons. It's just a complete coincidence that you happen to have arrived at Halloween time. Anyway, welcome aboard. Nice to meet you, as it were.

[Vanvlak]

Hi there, Vanvlak the Ego! (Just kidding: You did kind of walk into that one there  )

Sigh - I guess I should now just add my new title to my signature...  

Thanks for the welcome Mr. Plynkes. Ah - Halloween all year round it is then  :mrgreen: Good job I like the gothic stuff too then.

[Gluteus Maximus]

Hi VanVlak,

I think I'm right in saying you are the first Malta resident here.

Lovely place - me & the Mem-sahib spent our honeymoon there & I even got away with visiting the old Victorian gun emplacement on the north coast [forget the name for now] & the museum in Valletta. Mind you, it cost me enough for the privilege..... ::

That's a great name - it would indeed be perfect for vampire-hunting.

Mine is less heroic, I fear, as he was a particularly inept Late Roman General. He was notably embarrassed by the Goths & retired from active service a broken man.

Then again, all of my Leaders seem to be completely inept ::

cheers,
Ian

[Vanvlak]

Inept leaders? What a common trend...
Anyways - thanks for the welcome, and glad you enjoyed it. The gun would be the 100-tonner at Rinella Battery, part of the VSF - er, I mean Victorian fortifications on the island.

As a self-imposed tutorial in image posting, here's a sample of what I'm working on (hopefully):
[/img]

A PzII turret with compact death ray.

[Gluteus Maximus]

Inept leaders? What a common trend...
Anyways - thanks for the welcome, and glad you enjoyed it. The gun would be the 100-tonner at Rinella Battery, part of the VSF - er, I mean Victorian fortifications on the island.

That's the Chappie! I was given a quick guided tour by Mario Farrugia [if I remember his name correctly], who was heavily involved in organising the re-enactors & the refurbishing of the fort.
I got a load of photos which I was going to use for a, would you believe, VSF project! This was going to involve the defence of an un-named but very Malta-like island, where HM government had some very hush-hush experiments going on. Needless to say, all sorts of Bounders were going to try to steal them......

I also got to see some more of the Victoria defensive lines, which were also going to feature. IIRC, I went for a very quick visit to the fort at Mosta, which I had the chance to do after we had visited the Dome. You're lucky to have such inspirational historical remains so close to home!

The project may yet happen in the future, as I've also just found all the  books I picked up in Valletta dealing with various eras of Malta's history. One was "The Victoria Lines" by Ray Cachia Zammit, a great read with some excellent reference diagrams & photos.

I must get that project re-started  

Cheers,
Ian

[Vanvlak]

I must get that project re-started

That's something I'd like to see - and more correctly, something I should do myself!
The organization at Rinella is terrific