Beginnings

I've been interested in Sky Galleons of Mars (SGoM) and Space 1889, since the former was published as a GDW board game and the RAFM produced their excellent range of figures in 1989. I took a gamble on some Game Tech miniatures which languished in an unpainted state for years. Finally I decided to reproduce the GDW map of Shastapsh on a felt mat and made hexes out of it.

Once the mat was made there was no stopping me. Limited by my small collection of Game Tech minis, one not likely to grow much with the demise of that fine company, I acquired some nice scratch-builts, adopted some of the nice Brigade models, and even painted up some of the Houston's plastics from two copies of SGoM. I developed several scenarios that I took on the road from the Breakthrough convention in Surrey, B.C. in 2002, to Dragonflight in 2004, and ConQuest 2008. All of the scenarios were based around an airship campaign to take or hold the city-state of Shastapsh.

I decided to add some three dimensional qualities to the city that could be just representational or be included in the scenarios. The buildings are all from the JR Miniatures 1/300 Middle East range. The domed houses are all painted different colors and glossed for an exotic effect. I also picked up the storage tanks, pipeline, and pumping stations that would be necessary for sustaining a water-starved landscape, as well as the bridges running from the central island to the mainland. I've used 1/600 scale ACW gun batteries, including mortars as the dreaded lob guns, beads on bases for tethermines. The altitude stands are based on friends' designs for a miniature version of Mustangs, the Avalon Hill World War II air combat game.

In 2004, at the final Breakthrough convention, after a my third and final scenario for SGoM, Mark Waddington and I began comparing notes regarding our knowledge of Space 1889, and our unpainted piles of lead. I didn't know Mark well then, but our comparing of notes set me to work the following summer on my boxes of Oenotrian legions.

The top two pictures show my game from ConQuest Northwest last February. The picture at right is of a Game Tech Whisperdeath kite. It is simply an incredible miniature. At bottom you get a view of my Shastapsh map with all of my goodies. This photo was taken in 2004 at the Breakthrough convention, when Mark and I began hatching plans.