Taylor Anderson

Archive for October, 2011

Model Contest Winners

Posted by Taylor on October 31st, 2011 | 0 comments

Well, I did my best to make a decision, but I just couldn’t do it. All the participants did a great job as far as I’m concerned and the effort they put into their offerings was clear and in some cases, amazing. In any an event, because I “know” what the subjects of the models are “supposed” to look like, I was forced to rely on the advice of more objective advisers. Those advisers had a little trouble designating a “Grand Prize” winner based on the specific “rules” of the contest, but I believe the compromise they came up with was fair. The next contest will evaluate the models on a simple “best,” “second best,” scale, regardless of how they are made. “best” will be based on the quality of the model, and how well it represents its subject.

For the current contest, the “scratch-built” category still exists, but compromises were made.

Drumroll!

There were 3 “runners up” to the “Grand Prize,” and all three artists will receive 2 signed books–the 2 most recent, unless they have a preference.

Todd Garrepy must be rewarded for his imaginative use of LEGOS???!!! to make a model of USS Walker. Building anything that looked like a ship, much less something that was clearly a 4-stacker out of LEGOS must have been like planning and executing a sphere made of Rubik’s cubes!

Rick Essert made an outstanding model of Walker sinking a Grik Indiaman. I don’t know why it seems to have disappeared from the website, but it IS very nice, and I had the pleasure of seeing it in person while on my book tour on the west coast. I will try to figure out why I can’t find the picture, and if necessary, re-post it.

Wayne Hawkins built a virtual fleet of ships, entirely from scratch. Very nice. His detail–particularly on non Destroyermen specific ships, is amazing for the scale he chose.

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By unanimous agreement of the “judges” and myself, the “Grand Prize” must go to Bill Early, whose model was almost perfect for its depiction of USS Walker as she appeared in “Rising Tides.” The foundation of his model was the 1/240 Revell kit, but he went to a tremendous amount of effort to “personalize” it. Ultimately, the detail he included on the scratch-built “Nancy” was sufficient to take the cake, and make him the overall winner, regardless of category.

Congratulations to you all! Give me a shout and send me your contact information and I will send your prizes! Thanks for participating, and I hope everyone had fun!

New model contest begins!

Based on how many contacts I had from people who were “building” Walker, or some other subject in the series–but couldn’t finish in time–I decided to “re-boot” the contest! I don’t have a “finish” date just yet, but I will give plenty of warning. Let’s get them started ASAP and when posted, we’ll try to make sure they are all together this time so they’re easier to find and compare. I hope the “winners” of the previous contest will join me as judges for the next–unless you choose to compete again! Prizes will be the same, but will be based on absolute “Best,” with two “runners up.”

A Synopsis of the NYC Comic Con Panel by Io9.com

Posted by Taylor on October 21st, 2011 | 2 comments

Over at Io9.com, they do a mighty fine write-up of the panel I was on this past weekend. I flew to New York City and attended the Comic Con which was quite an interesting experience! The panel was entitled: “Accelerate to Attack Speed” and consisted of moderator and Ace/Roc editor Ginjer Buchanan and authors Myke Cole and Jack Campbell.

You can read the article here.

An Update to the Fan Art by Brian Alexander

Posted by Taylor on October 20th, 2011 | 0 comments

An update from our fan artist Brian Alexander who sent in pictures mentioned in this post:

Anyway, in the new book I discovered a big mistake in the artwork I previously sent. In the technology blog back in March there was some discussion about how the 25mm’s were at torpedo tube locations 1 & 2. However, that obviously changed before book 6 came out like so many things need to do as a story progresses. Maybe the torpedo tube mounts will be back on locations 1 & 2 as those heavy things would be more towards the center of the ship and will have room to swing. Hmmmm. Just maybe, but I guess I’ll have to wait and see on that one!

So… I have updated my artwork with that change as well as a few other minor corrections.

Kirkus Reviews FIRESTORM

Posted by Taylor on October 19th, 2011 | 3 comments

Here is a snippet of the review:

The action, which rarely slackens, features splendid naval battles pitting destroyers against wooden-hulled fleets with cannons, land engagements where vastly outnumbered humans and Lemurians face hordes of vicious but none-too-bright dinosaurs, and inflexible Imperials terrorized by fanatically loyal Catholic armies.

You can read the whole review here.