Monday, 24 February 2014

Wargaming the Traction Era

A few weeks ago, while I was looking for some images of Mortal Engines online to illustrate an upcoming event, I happened across this blog by Xander Warren, in which he muses about how the Mortal Engines and Fever Crumb books could be used as a scenario for wargames. I've mentioned elsewhere that some of the first stories I ever wrote were wargames scenarios, and the big set-piece battle in Scrivener's Moon certainly owes something to fond memories of laying out Napoleonic armies all over my bedroom floor, so it's nice to see it all coming full circle! Apparently Xander's project never got off the ground, but is still on his 'to do' list. I hope to be able to post more links and photos here if it ever gets up and running. In the meantime, there is plenty of reading (and some nicely painted figures) here.



And while we're on the subject, over at the Lead Adventure Forum, someone called MuddyPaw has been painting 28mm figures based on Hester Shaw and Anna Fang...



The same trawl of Google Images also threw up a Fever Crumb illustration which I've never seen before, by an artist called Erysium. It's a picture of my favourite part of Scrivener's Moon; the journey that Fever, Cluny and Marten make by mammoth down the Longshore. I love the golden light in this, and the strange, feather-like plants. (And the mammoths, of course!)




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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous24 February 2014 at 13:41

    I may have commented on this before, apologies if this is the case. But I just want to say that this is brilliant. It captures the characters and the scene and the spirit, perfectly. Well done. Cheers. JH

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  2. Tim Knight24 February 2014 at 16:10

    Thanks for linking to these, Philip. I was particularly taken by the two figures on Lead Adventures (my two favourite characters from the Mortal Engines books) - even if MuddyPaw admits this is a "the slightly airbrushed, soft focus Hollywood movie ... PG friendly" version of Hester.

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  3. MEh3 March 2014 at 02:48

    Philip, if I may, I was wondering if you could inform me to who illustrated this cover http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1182466461l/1280709.jpg
    I always image Traction London and the airships like those on this cover, so I was hoping to give the Illustrator a tip of the hat.
    *Furiously hopes Reeves ignores the "The Hungry City Chronicles" banner across the top*

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  4. Philip Reeve10 March 2014 at 14:12

    Hi MEh. That's an old US edition, and the artwork is by someone called Christopher Vacher. I like it too, but I wish you could see London's wheels!

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