A Borg Cube Hovers Over the Largest City on Mars

Woola

 

Here is John Carter's pet calot, Woola. He didn't turn out as well as John Carter or Tars Tarkas, but he looks okay on the table. 

I tried to give Woola's skin some shading, but I think the contrast between colours was too subtle. 

Tars Tarkas

Last night I painted this 28mm-scale miniature of Tars Tarkas, one of the savage Green Men of Mars, loyal friend to John Carter. The miniature sculpt is quite detailed and accurately captures Tars' look from the Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. 

In this case, I painted the model's separate pieces individually and then glued them together once the painting was done. This allowed me to reach spots on the model's chest, abdomen, and arms that I wouldn't have been able to access if I'd assembled the model first. It was a bit of a pain, but the effort was worth it. 
 

Old Worlds

Martin and Dozois are both amazing writer/editors, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how the stories in these books reinterpret the hundred year old visions that informed the early days of science fiction with regard to Earth's two closest planetary neighbours. The covers are fantastic. 

These Should Be Good

The Martian Via StarTalk

Neil DeGrasse Tyson looks pretty amazing despite the passage of several decades in this fake episode of StarTalk, a very clever piece of marketing for Ridley Scott's adaptation of Andy Weir's The Martian. I'm really looking forward to this. 

First Words on Mars

Optimistic scenario, circa 2050:

"To a world named for the god of war, we come as one people, unified in peace."

Pessimistic scenario, circa 2200:

"Maybe we'll have better luck here."