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Showing posts from July, 2017

Dieselpunk Manifesto Part Nine: Finally a Real Rocket Ship!

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My second post today because I've been a lazy blogger lately. This post covers Buck Rogers strips 80-89 You can view the archives  here . Killer kane has done a lot of questionable things, but never let it be said he let grass grow under his feet. Mac and Buck go scouting for a Han raiding raiding force and Mac says, "We'll take' my wee rocket ship. She's a bonny crate, the latest model!" It is the first rocket to ever appear in Buck Rogers (discounting ammunition). 'Bonny' is a small two or three man rocket. She has a forward and fixed rocket gun with iron sights and a pintle mount behind the pilot seat. I fid a little fault with Buck's description of it as a rocket. Bonny has large intakes forward and probably operates as a jet most of the time. She has three heavy duty wheels for landing gear and as we will see later she is designed to operate as a ground vehicle at least over city streets. Doubtlessly she has a lot of inertron in he

Dieselpunk Manifesto Part Eight: Air Cavalry and the Flying Scotsman

Buck Rogers strips 70-79 Link . We last left Buck being called out by an outlaw named Lariat Luke. Luke snakes a lasso at Buck from horseback but the Org outlaw surprises him by leaping out of the way (straight up). Buck takes Luke out with one punch to the jaw. the other outlaws tell Rogers they are going to give him what he's got coming to him. They make Buck their Boss. Apparently promotions are pretty quick in the outlaws. Beat up the Boss and you're the new one. Wilma is all starry eyed at this point calling Buck wonderful. Impending canoodling is cut short by the Cyclone Kid announcing there is one outlaw Buck can't beat: a powerful mustang. Wilma has her doubts ("That brute will kill you!") Buck is more concerned with being perceived as yellow by the other guys and he jumps into the saddle. The insertion belt gives Buck all the advantage he needs. The horse bucks him off and then tows him around like a parade balloon until wearing himself out. Buck bows

Luna's Windows

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The spacecraft Luna went through a number of design changes before consensus was reached. One of the longest and most brutal was over windows. Did she need windows? Since the earliest days of space flight windows were valued for psychological reasons. People like to see what is outside using the Mark One Eyeball. You can have as many enhanced, colorized, optimized views on screens as you want. They still want to see what is around them. Luna has excellent viewing systems, starting with the collection of lenses in the bow. Lateral sensors give a perfect image of surroundings. Even the stern ram has viewing apparatus. The windows on Luna still made the command crew feel better. The pilot and navigation advisors were mostly adamant about including windows. It was argued that Metasite could be made transparent and was still strong as steel. many ships had transparent portals or sections of their hulls. But the Luna was a war ship. What about a weapon hitting a window? It was argued