20/25mm Miskatonic U (Newhaven campus) finished!

 Took a while and I'm sick of cutting out windows and sticking them on buildings!

So this is the finished set. I did break one self imposed rule - actually bought the walls and side gate!. They are Busch set HO 6014, Wall and Gate.

I confess - didn't allow for the saw blade width and cut the walls a few mils too small!

Side view with a few 20mm figures for comparison. The smaller scale allowed for a much grander building setup. Didn't always get the windows right... main building has an attic and slightly lower ceilings!

Another side view  showing the size of the building. Looks really solid. 

Back view. Probably shouldn't have put windows over the joint but...

Courtyard is very much compressed for use in city sized use. If I do scenarios based on just the university I would add a few more wall sections and possibly also do a separate wall not connected to the buildings. The roof wasn't painted, just had a couple of layers of PVA glue covering it - I thought it looked more realistic than paint. Must do something about the camera date staming pictures. Possibly set the right date and time on it?

Size comparison with the Sarissa manor house and gate house- haven't got an annex for the Sarissa version, beginning to regret that!

The 20/25mm version allows a much more believeable size building to be made.

The gate house comparison really gives the game away! 

Overall I'm really pleased with this set of buildings. I can see them being very useful in the future.

Miskatonic University and town update

 

Getting on with the university buildings - probably half way there!

The most obvious unfinished part. The two buildings in the foreground are just place holders for a U shaped building to create a central courtyard. A couple of gateways and the base itself need sorting of course...

The 'original' having that fantastic Sarissa gatehouse I thought I had to do something. The green gate is from that pile of bits and pieces I'm finding so useful!

Things are buildng up quite nicely!

I've got a large pool of HO buildings I can use - nothing in this picture is what I could call canon though, it's all just there to give me ideas.

I really like the idea of a town square/shopping centre for instance.

Roads, fences and other 'fillers' are an obvious requirement.

An Antarctic expedition Epilogue

Radios were down and the expedition hadn't signed since the message that they had found the site... It was decided to send a plane there to find out if there was a problem...

The location was accurate and the rescue plane soon found the expedition camp.

The camp looked deserted...

So the crew checked it out...

There was no sign of any of the men or the dogs. But it looked like a lot of something like blood around together with patches of translucent slime and strange marks in the snow...

A clear trail of what looked like blood led towards the opening in the ice wall. It was as if a bloody something had been dragged there... two of the rescue party headed towards the opening to investigate...

An Antarctic expedition - the underground city

 

As Carmody and Pilbury entered the crack it opened up into what seemed to be a city of  deserted and desolate buildings. The ice above didn't cut off all the light - they found that, after their eyes had adjusted for the dimmer light, they could still see.

As they walked down the corridors (roadway?) they found themselves being surrounded by the apparent source of the previous night's noise. Dozens of large white penguins... the creatures advanced on the explorers in a disorderly sqawking mass...

They fired on the hapless birds, two of which fell as the rest rushed away in a panic.

They continued along the dank, moss covered passageways looking inside various buildings as they went - some of these seemed to have been decorated with pictures of strange, unearthly creatures...

Finally they found what looked like a central courtyard containing a raised pool. The worrying thing was... two flaming fire pits that were still burning... not something penguins would make...

 

And the sounds, whirring and unearthly, they could hear suggested that the fire lighters were still around and getting closer... Discretion caused them to start back for the entrance, but then they found a large greenish... creature... blocking their way...

As they backed away they could feel headachy tendrils of pain wrapping around their brains as the creature tried to take control of their minds... Rapidly pumping bullets into it the pain went as the creature keeled over.

Fleeing in panic they raced back towards the entrance, listening for any sounds of pursuit...

 

The dead penguins had gone! In their place a number of gelationous protoplasmic amoeba-like blobs... which started a slow advance towards the two scientists...

Bullets had no effect! They just went straight through! The crreatures swarmed over Pilbury as Carmody fled...

As more of the monsters arrived Carmody was forced back into the room containing the dead alien... More of the gelatinous creatures swarmed in, surrounding Carmody as others started to dissolve the body of the alien creature...

A few notes about the city itself...

Modular terrain I came across on ebay... most things made when ordered so about a 3 week wait, but frankly worth the wait. Those pieces left front foreground can have pieces like those on the right front foreground added to make a very flexible way of creating turn offs or cross roads.... bought from here. The set also came with an S&A desert terrain cloth to stand on... should be a useful supplement to my current 6x4 one!

An Antarctic expedition - arrival

The Boeing charted by Carmody headed for the coordinates described in the bound notes...

 

Flying along the snowbound wastes they found a strangely uniform mountain range. In the middle of the range, a crack in the ice...

They were lucky - a suitable landing site was found close to the crack.

Tents were quickly erected. Carmody and his staff, Pilbury from the University and the pilot, offloaded supplies, etc, and as the crack was close enough to the plane the dogs wouldn't be needed and they were tied up outside the plane. It was starting to get dark so operations were suspended for the short night.

 

But the Antarctic night was far from quiet... the dogs were pulling at their leashes as they tried to get to the source of eery noises in the dark...

Carmody and Pilsbury looked around to try and find the source of the racket as the pilot calmed the dogs.

Next morning Carmody, Pilsbury and the pilot headed towards the crack. Evidence of large bird-like tracks heading towards the crack suggested the cause of the noise.

 

Reaching the crack it was obvious that it led deep inside the strange mountain. It was decided that the pilot would head back to the Boeing while Carmody and Pilsbury explored the crack.

An Antarctic expedition - the book

The University was in a bad way after the Terror. Many of the faculty and students dead, others left for  new 'challenges'... the parent site in Arkham sent a few of its' faculty to Newhaven to see what could be saved.

Enter Dr Carmody. His main interest was finding the works of an ancestor, a famous occultist and noted explorer, whose collection was rumoured to be in Newhaven.

The attic of the main building held many treasures...

Including the bound notebook of his ancestor!

The notes were in code... but it was the family code! Carmody had no problems there!

But some of the writings... references to the bible and other religious works woven in amongst tales of forgotten cities...  of Kadesh in the Cold Wastes and of a city on the frozen continent of Antarctica! Further, the text gave the location of the lost city...

Carmody lost no time. He gained the support and finances to mount an expedition...

 

 

Note: The book is pretty much genuine. I like old books and one day bought a box of the things at an auction... Titled 'Notes on the Old Testament', signed Edmund Kell, 1821, York...

A disturbance in the aether

 The world was in turmoil as scientists tried to make sense of the rifts... scolars in the major universities of the world as portents continued to multiply. In Newhaven, in the offshoot of Miskatonic University, candles burned as strange tomes and artifacts were studied...

Then one of the 'experiments' seems to have given a response...

A quiet weekend in the Miskatonic University buildings in Newhaven.

A strange, unearthly sound filled the air - a high pitched whining sound that cut through the atmosphere in an unnatural fashion as tendrils of vaporous light swirled out of the upstairs windows in the West Wing of the Paranormal Science block...

Tendrils of light that changed colour in a disconcerting way as they seemed to seek out passers bye.

Tendrils of light that travelled as far as the park and nearby tenements.

Then, travelling along the light filaments drifted strange, unwordly jellyfish-like creatures, canopies of shimmering ever-changing colours over orange tendrils.

Into the tenements as if engaged in an intelligent search for bodies.

And the people... as the aethereal creatures sought people, so to were the people drawn to the creatures.

Police from the nearbye station house rushed to the sceme but there was nothing they could do.

Then each jellyfish seemed to...merge... into a human before the two collapsed together...

Leaving slimy, pulsating masses that seemed to just... sink... into the ground before vanishing completely...