Writing against type and the "Heinlein Effect".

A number of years ago, I noticed that you could almost never mention author Robert Heinlein on certain message boards without some flaming idiot uh, enlightened superior intellect flying off on a tangent about Heinlein's alleged "latent fascism". I had been aware of this debate since I was a mere young 'un back in the late '70s and knew that it had been raging for a good number of years prior to that (and prior to me, thank you! hehe). This near- knee jerk reaction is part of what I've dubbed "The Heinlein Effect" and essentially it is the (I believe dubious) contention that an author only writes what he or she knows or believes. The supposedly "logical" conclusion is that an author's writing reveals their true nature or beliefs. In the case of Heinlein, the story goes that readers in the 1960s who were enthralled by his more mature novels of the era (such as Stranger In A Strange Land) went back to read his "juvenile fiction" of the '50s and were appalled by the brutal, simplistic, anti-utopian tales they found. In particular, Starship Troopers drew their ire for it's apparently positive depiction of a harsh, militaristic and seemingly fascist future society on Earth. Never mind that Heinlein espoused and tried to live a highly individualistic and libertine life, or that many of his stated philosophies are essentially "Libertarian" in nature. Clearly, having written one book from the point of view of a heroic character who serves a militaristic world government, the reader must conclude that Heinlein is (or well, was) some sort of jackbooted Neo-Nazi.

Obviously, lacking any other solid evidence to substantiate this claim, I have taken the position that it is total crap. Norman Spinrad faced similar accusations after the publication of The Iron Dream in spite of its obvious satirical nature and Spinrad's long stated Anarcho-Syndicalist political philosophy.

My bottom line belief is that a good author can write against type. Many do use their work for a philosophical "soap box" but not necessarily everything someone writes should be taken as a window into the deep, hidden recesses of their soul. Having attempted to write against type myself a few times, I have gained a good deal of respect for those who can do it well. I tend to get bogged down in disliking protagonist characters with whom I would normally disagree or even find reprehensible. I see where cardboard villains with bumbling subordinates and cannon fodder minions come from. It's hard NOT to write such characters as silly, maniacal, violent but wretched buffoons who ultimately destroy themselves with a bit of help from "our hero".

In part two of this little diatribe (dear God, a part two? NOOOOOO!), I'll discuss my own descent into madness while attempting to create a believable and maybe even somewhat likable "good bad guy" that has consumed a fair amount of my limited spare brain power over the last year or so. Stay tuned and keep some extra strength aspirin handy!

Poking my head in

Back from my extended and unintended summer break. I have some hobby-related thoughts and rants but I'm not in the mood to get in to them at the moment. I did want to let my readers (both of 'em) know that RoG is merely resting and not dead.

My first big rant is the entrenched persistence of brand loyalty and how it ultimately harms hobbies as a whole. I hope to get to that in the next few days. I've also had this idea floating around about discussing why I blog more and participate in message board and similar "social network" groups less and less. I've actually written a few drafts of that but I haven't been happy with the results. This isn't Twitter but it still pays to communicate your thoughts in as concise a manner as possible. Rambling manifestos turn readers off and have a funny way of being connected to authors who are, frankly, often nuts and possibly homicidal.

I'll try to spare you from that!

These are a few of my favorite things... uh, TANKS!

So, an idea for a project has been brewing in my mind the last few days and I thought I'd put it here as a way to solidify a direction. Basically, the idea is to build a collection of model tanks based on a list of what I'd consider my top favorites. The major rule here is that each subject has to be pretty readily available in model kit form and preferably in 1/35 scale. Ideally, each model should be constructed with minimal amounts of aftermarket conversion pieces or major kitbashing. Several of these I already have in my stash and none of them are hard to obtain as of this writing. In more-or-less chronological order, they are:

French Char B1 bis
US M4A3E8 Sherman 76mm
US M41A3 Walker Bulldog
UK Centurion Mk. 5/2- Mk.6
US M48A3 (or possibly 'A5) Patton
Israeli Magach 6 (modified US M60A1 or 'A3)
German Leopard 1A5
*German Leopard 2A6- see UPDATE below.

The question is, which of the modern "big growlers" should I consider? It would basically be between some version of the US M1A2 Abrams and the German Leopard 2A6. I like both and each vehicle has its pros and cons. I might also skip the Magach 6 and build an Israeli version of the M48, modified to more-or-less 'A5 standards in the early '70s. Then there's the question of whether to go for a purely aesthetic "odd man out" choice and build something like the Japanese Type 90 or the current version of France's Leclerc.

*UPDATE- After giving it some more thought, I've decided to go with a Leopard 2A6 as my "modern big growler". The version I have coming to me is the Spanish 2E from Hobby Boss, although I understand that it's not a fully accurate 2E but based on the 2A6EX demonstrator. That's fine with me since I plan to build and paint it as a vehicle from the army of my fictional Republic or Aventine. Since Aventine uses the M240 GPMG (General Purpose Machine Gun- aka MAG 58), I'll need to replace the kit's MG3.

This is by no means an exhaustive list and there are many more favorites and side projects to consider. (Tamiya's up-coming M4A1 76mm Sherman as an Israeli M1 is a definite buy for me.) There's also the sci fi tank project that would include kits of Miyazaki's "Bad Guy Tank #1",  Kow Yokoyama's Nutcracker hover tank, the two tanks from the obscure anime feature Technopolis 21 and a Rhino APC from Warhammer 40,000 built from the current kit but painted and marked as a Rogue Trader-era Imperial Guard version (I usually remove all Imperial insignia anyway but that'll certainly piss off the die-hard fanboys who live and breath the current rules).

You will notice, of course, an absence of many of the usual "awesome" tanks that post-war revisionist historians would insist must be included. Most notable are the Soviet T-34 series and the German Panther and Tiger series tanks. In the post-war category, the Soviet T55 and T72 are also missing. To be honest, while these are all worthy subjects, none of them fall in to my "favorites". Sorry if that bothers you,  gentle reader, but feel free to post your own list of "Awesome Panzers" on your own blog and start building your own collection. These are the vehicles that I have come to like over the years for various, often aesthetic reasons, and they are the ones I would like to build.

Rambling dissertation on scale modeling.

I've been doing some research in recent days to try and decide whether I want to give model building another try. In addition to some real-world subjects I'm interesting in, I've also been considering a few "What If" (aka "Whifs")... alternate, proposed or just made up designs for tanks, aircraft, etc. With this in mind, I went to my blog archives and found something I had originally posted a couple years ago. With a bit of editing, it still feels relevant and still reflects my general views.


As I said in my introductory post, this blog is about my hobbies. Although it's my intention for now to focus on 1/6 scale action figures expect some occasional side steps in to my other areas of interest. Scale modeling being one of those....

I'll have to admit that nowadays, I'm more of a model kit buyer than an avid model builder. Of course, I intend to get around to building these kits eventually but it never seems to pan out. For me, some of the issue is that scale modeling seems to be the exclusive domain of *cue dramatic music* REAL DAMN SERIOUS MODELERS! The simple pleasure of buying a kit and doing a nice, clean out-of-the box build seems lost on today's RDSMs. You can't really be a modeler unless you are willing to create a painstakingly detailed, 100% accurate miniature replica of your desired subject. Building a kit out of the box or doing simple kitbashed conversions (taking parts from different kits to create a model) isn't enough. You must start with the latest, most accurate (and expensive) kit of your subject then pile on photo etched and machined metal, cast resin, scratch built and parts from numerous kits to make it "perfect". Then there's the finishing which requires layers of paints and art materials that must, when finished, rival the best photo realistic paintings you've ever seen. The old days of painting on the base coat, detail painting and some washes and drybrushing to weather and bring out detailing are no more. And while I'm primarily thinking of 1/35 scale armor and military vehicle modeling, no scale or subject matter is immune. Even sci-fi modeling, once a bastion of creative building, is in the grasp of this trend.


 I have a huge amount of admiration for people who are willing and able to do this kind of work and create these strikingly accurate and detailed miniatures. However, I'm a little dismayed by the attitude that some of them have that if you don't also do what they do, you are outside of the "club", so to speak. What seems odd about this is that, supposedly, people today have less time for leisure activities (something I doubt when I compare the lives of myself and my fellows to, say, my grandparents) and yet, there doesn't seem much leisurely about dumping hundreds of dollars (or whatever currency you use) and hundreds of hours in to a single model. Obviously, I'm not alone in this perception since there's a rather sizable market of pre-finished miniatures, often very reasonably priced, in a variety of scales and subject matters. It seems kind of funny to me that I can buy a reasonably accurate 1/32 scale M1A2 Abrams tank, completely finished and ready to be displayed, for less than the cost of a 1/35 model kit of the same subject. Of course, that does preclude the simple joy of build a model, which to me is the primary reason to be a modeler in the first place.

High speed, low drag or just lazy?

Today, I'm setting the Wayback Machine to 2008 and digging some photos out of my files. In this case, a couple "bashes" I did of my character, Col. J.D. Wallace, in some variations on a theme. I often tend to go a bit light on the "battle rattle" with my figures, preferring them to not be so piled down with every possible piece of gear. I've never decided if this is because of personal aesthetics or just laziness.

First up, a version I did early in the year with J.D. in desert camo, carrying an SR25 7.62mm sniper rifle.

Next, my first attempt to create a somewhat "standard" uniform for my fictional military unit, Call Sign: Wyvern.

The second version was inspired both by my local Sheriff's Dept. SWAT team and some photos I'd seen of the then-current combat between Georgian and Russian forces. Just my opinion but I feel the USMC has the most effective of the current camouflage uniforms used by US forces, so I bought a number of set of these MARPAT utilities for my guys. The other gear was chosen to distinguish them from real US Marines and suggest a somewhat "foreign" look.

Oddly, I've encountered a bit of grumpiness towards the Wyvern members in their Woodland MARPAT uniforms. I've explained that both police and foreign militaries use a commercial version of this uniform and that, along with its actual effectiveness as a camouflage, was what inspired me. Still, I'll get some grumbling at certain 1/6 scale boards to the effect that they aren't "accurate Marines". Duh! Really?

At this point, I've decided that J.D. and his team will simply wear what uniforms they find appropriate for a particular mission. They wear both MARPAT and older Woodland (BDU) camo, as well as other patterns as needed.

Operation: L.A.C.K.

Sorry for the lack of updates this past month or so. I actually have a couple of posts saved as drafts and have some photos to add but I've been a bit unmotivated lately. Anyway, with that in mind, I have decided to inaugurate Operation: L.A.C.K. which stands for Lame Ass Crappy Kitbash. Basically, it's just a series of uninspired, quickly done 1/6 figure "bashes" (that's "manly-man" speak for "dressing your dolls") made from stuff I have on hand. Mostly, this will use bits and pieces that most "serious" 1/6 scale action figure enthusiasts tend to disregard and/or over-look nowadays. In other words, most of my collection!

First up is this guy, based (as is often the case) on a GI Joe Super Articulated body. He has a head from the GIJ "Joe vs Cobra/Spy Troops" line's Gung Ho. While I like the sculpt, he never struck me as being the character of Gung Ho... eh, so be it!

(Yes, the photos are totally shite.)

Most of his uniform and gear is from 21st Century's Ultimate Soldier line. It's a carded Navy SEAL set that 21C released in the late- '90s if I remember correctly. This one was still on the card until I opened up this afternoon. I added a couple of additional ammunition pouches and a butt pack (heh!) also from 21C but the rest is from the set. I decided to switch his rifle and boots for items from Dragon. The boots are Altima-style Panama sole jungle boots and the rifle is a common M4 with accessory rails and an added optical sight. I like the boots that came in the 21C set but they're a bit small and lack the insoles Dragon boots have, which I believe help the stability of the standing figure. The rifle is simply more detailed than the 21C piece and represents a later version with the Picatinny tactical rails, used for adding various accessories like the sight seen here. The sight is probably totally wrong for this figure and even now, internet experts are foaming at the mouth and bleeding from the ears over such wretched inaccuracy!

Bass solo! Wooo Hooo!

In addition to being a skilled sharp shooter, ruggedly handsome and an all-around great guy, Sgt. Greg Mitchell is also an accomplished musician. (Or at least he would be if he weren't 11 inches tall and made of plastic!) Here he's taking some time to hone his chops on his Fender Jazz Bass.

Sorry that both of these photos came out a bit "wonky". Greg is a GI Joe "SA" body and his bass is from SD Toys (sold through Diamond Comics in the US).