Jezebel's Joint: A Sleazy Space Dive...

For the last year or so I've been working on building up a pretty sizeable sci-fi/post apocalyptic space port/shanty town/wretched hive of scum and villainy type table but I haven't posted any of the progress until now.  Here's one of the focal points of the set up....

Jezebel's joint!!!

Jezebel's was a bar with a very shady reputation which I discovered when I was going to college in San Francisco way back in the day.  I lived right around the corner from Jezebel's at about the time William Vollman was writing Whores for Gloria, which mostly takes place within a few blocks of the spot.

The neighborhood was a slice of the third world but Jezebel's had a library full of literary classics and military history and I used to go there after class or work and prop up the bar for hours, reading and draining glass after glass of Hefeweizen.  The place is long gone now.  All things considered that might be for the best but I do have some good memories of the place.

I made the sign out of plasticard, dowel and the cover of the last Jezebel's matchbook I had left.  Come to think of it I've had that matchbook for about twenty years now.  Weird.

The interior of my model Jezebel's captures some of the vibe of the real one.  The picture behind the bar is a sticker that came out of a pack of Varga trading cards an old girlfriend gave me um...about twenty years ago!  It's been floating around in boxes for a long time. I couldn't get that terrible crease out of it but I still think it looks good.  The little movie posters came out of a Blue Underground DVD catalog.  Been saving it for years to use for this very purpose.

The structure is made up of two Armorcast buildings glued together to make a bar room up front and a lounge in the back.  View of fatboy from the lounge area.  Armorcast has retired their line of stucco buildings which is a shame.

Plenty of room on the filthy garbage strewn roof top for fightin' and such...

Stairs lead up to the door shown in the photo above...more smut on the wall there.

Long shot of the lounge...

More lounge.  The booths are made by Miniature Building Authority.

 "Sorry about the mess."...Apologies...I don't have my Han Solo and Greedo painted up yet...The little green thing on the table is supposed to be a napkin holder but I didn't think that napkins were really very much in the spirit of Jezebel's so I painted it the front of each green to try and make them look like intercoms or a monitors or something...

 Exterior with local color and a Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! poster...

 More exteriors...I have lots more stuff that I haven't posted yet...lots of ramps and platforms, shanties and things of that nature...

 Gotta have big fans in your post apocalyptic buildings.  There's no way around it.  I learned that from the eighties.

Jezebel's is open for business again!

Chariot Wars: Hittite Commander and another Canaanite chariot

Just managed to finish a small but Important part of my Warhammer Ancients Hittite army.  Here is the army's general and a fourth Syrian chariot to reinforce the Maryannu squadron that I already have.  All Ral Partha figures from the nineties, just like all the others so far.

Typical late Hittite war chariot with three riders...

...a driver, a stabby guy and the general himself.  Hard to see the General behind the other two...must be crowded in there!

My fourth Syrian chariot...first three were all painted.  I used a cowhide design on this one and I like the look of it a lot.  Going to use that more from now on.

I have two other command chariot models in the Biblical spur of the lead mountain.  I was thinking about selling them off but now I think I may use them for brigade commanders later on.

I knew I wanted some kind of a design on the umbrella.  Researching Hittite symbols led me to all kinds of strange discoveries.  Many Hittite motifs have remained in use in Europe into very recent times.  Polish/Austrian style two headed eagles, Annunaki winged sun symbols, swastikas and a thunder cult undoubtedly related to the Nordic cult of Thor all featured prominently in Hittite culture.  I was also surprised to learn that the Hittites were the first Europeans to use iron.  Thank God for War games.  Without them I probably never would have learned so much about these very interesting people.

I wanted a two headed eagle for the general's umbrella but didn't trust my hand, going instead with this wonky sort of off center swastika which I felt was interesting and even a bit Flintstonian.  If I can work up the skill and courage to try a two headed eagle on another command figure's umbrella I'll probably make that guy my general and demote this fellow to the status of a brigade commander.   Don't tell him that, though. 

So what's left for my Hittite army?  Quite a bit, really.  Two squadrons of four chariots each, 18 more Syrian levy archers, 1 more unit of Syrian spear men.  And I'll need a dozen or so chariot riders and about twenty auxiliary skirmishers.  So I'm about half way there....