Radio Riel HQ rebuild

Previously the building that was the headquarters for Radio Riel was built some 5 years ago for Caledon Penzance. It moved twice more before coming to rest in Seraph City. While I am proud of what I did with the building at the time I felt it needed an upgrade.

Originally the new building was going to be based on the WJR Radio transmitter building in Detroit. But some discussions about the influence of Egyptian Revival on 1920s & 30s architecture inspired me to go for another look. So far I haven't seen any other 1920s sims that have an Egyptian Revival building. I'd certainly enjoy seeing more, even if not in so flamboyant a style.

This building has taken inspiration from Egyptian movie theatres as well as Egyptian style Masonic Temples. The Egyptian Theatre in Boise, Idaho being the most direct influence on the colour scheme. It's not completely finished yet: the power room needs some work and I plan on upgrading the broadcast booth.

But I'm quite pleased with things like the mesh railing around the stairs. 2 prim land impact for the section above!

Remember to check out the hieroglyphics in the foyer! Radio Riel Headquarters

Winter in Babbage

Clockwork Close in Babbage Palisade

Winter in Babbage would be my favourite time of year. People make the effort to add snow on all their buildings and the decorations go up.

Of course it also helps to offset the fact that my typist has moved into summer and is often dealing with high summer temperatures while looking at snow on the screen.

There's also lots of parties and events at this time of year. Much like real life.

Seraph City sim surround

For years the edge of the Seraph City sim headed off into water. But being a pushy sod I bugged Pumpkin about it and finally said I'd give it a whirl myself. They're probably a bit primmier than I'd like but it may be that rerendering them in mesh may reduce the land impact further.

Until then we at least have an immersive feel to being inside a city. I think it will help a lot with photography too.

Eastern sim wall looking north.

Southern sim wall looking west

Northern sim wall looking west

Ronald's Rayguns. Might need a bit more work

Llama Cigarettes. Inspired by the billboard ad from The Shadow

Lucky Break Cigarettes. From a Lucky Strike original

Changes to Seraph City

Seraph City has been a bit of an enigma. It's a fantastic build of mostly Art Deco inspired buildings, but it's often so empty. Too many people come for events or to shop, and then go home elsewhere.

But more recently its profile has increased, partially through the regular events at the Java Jive and more recently through the Noir adventure story The Blackened Mirror. BM has certainly raised the awareness with people coming into the sim to try and unravel the mystery.

Other changes of a personal note though, in about the middle of the year I reluctantly demolished the Seraph Club. It had been idle and I thought it prudent that I save my lindens if I wasn't going to use it. But the city drew me back and I decided I would make more of an effort to have things happening there. It was gone long enough for its original spot to be taken, but some judicious pleading and bribery and the Seraph Club has a new home.

The Seraph Club, now located on Champagne Street

On top of that there's been a long running debate on a sim surround for Seraph City. I've always pushed for the idea, finding the streets ending in ocean a little odd for a city. To that end I've been tinkering with some prims in collaboration with our good Mayor.

Seraph City skyline

It's only temporary at this stage but with luck there'll be something more permanent soon.

Lastly, an offhand comment about all the buildings in Seraph City being either shops or nightclubs lead to the inspiration for a Police Station. Inspired by a picture of the Milwaukee Police Station

The exterior of the station

Squad car!

With two jail cells for reckless drivers or inebriates it should see some revenue from bail money. The interior is still progressing but should be finished soon.

Explorations in Mesh II

 As I build the alleyway in Clockwork Close, I'm learning mesh.

This little tudor style house is 17 prims impact, down from the 103 of the original build. Inspired by a shop in the Shambles in the city of York,  it includes all the wood rendering on the facade. Originally I was just going to make it textured.

As the Emporium stands in situ in the Close

It's more prims than would have been with just a couple of big prims and some textures, but it looks far better in my opinion.

Comfort Station

Not long ago I created a Comfort Station in New Babbage. That was a polite way of saying a public toilet. I'd been collecting reference pictures after seeing a much grander one in the Berlin 1920s sim, but it was waaaay down the list of things-to-do.

But recently I was browsing Baroquen Ethics and discovered a new texture set that matched the cast iron panels from some of the public loos in my picture collection.

And thus was born this little whimsy.

Thanks to Kimika Ying for the wonderful photo.

Explorations in Mesh

I've been a reluctant starter in mesh building. Normal prims I'm quite good at and I've even had build commissions. Sculpts I've had difficulty with. I bought Prim Oven which is a handy conversion tool but it's a little tedious and requires lots of back and forth to get the end result. I bought Sculpt Studio which was supposed to allow you to create sculpts inworld but I found the learning curve extremely steep and haven't really used it much.

However Mesh became the Next-Big-Thing. Initially Mesh looked like it was going to be another tool that you required specialised graphics knowledge to use. However Black Box, the people who made Sculpt Studio, soon came out with Mesh Studio, which converts regular prims into mesh. Unlike Prim Oven you can cut, twist, taper or use prims in any way you feel, and you can use all types of prims too.

So I began my experimentation after a few of New Babbage's builders began rebuilding their prim dwellings in mesh.

My first attempt was this front to the Apothecary's Shop in Clockwork Close. 90 prims down to a land impact of 4. The thing to remember is that each mesh piece may have a maximum of 8 texture faces. That includes shading. If you need more you'll need to make a second piece.

After attending a class on mesh put on by Victor and Tenk, I decided to up my goals a little and see what I could do.

Originally I was just going to do the bottom of the Automaton Service Centre in mesh and leave the rest as textures.

But I decided I could try and redo the texture in mesh and see how I go.

The middle roof section is a Sculpt from a building Rip Wirefly made. The date clock is one from the RFL build from earlier this year. The total prim impact of the build is 85. The ground floor, the first floor window and the top clockroom are all mesh pieces. I've also learned NOT to link the mesh pieces to the sculpt section. This produces a significant prim count blowout. I'm sure if I worked on it I could reduce the prim impact further (redoing the roof would help) but I think I can live with that for now.

Seraph City Soapbox Derby!

Seraph City will be hosting its first ever Soapbox Derby! There will be trophies for:
-Fastest Looking
-Best Looking
-Most Original
-Most Dieselpunk

Guidelines for entry:

* 30 prims
* in a dieselpunk or general 30's theme
* does not have to be drivable though there will be an exhibition race on Saturday
* number of entries will be limited by the number of prims the city has available on the showcase plot, so don't delay!


The showcase is set up to display entries across from the Java Jive.
There will be stock soapbox cars in a rezzer to race starting Thursday, with prizes given to the top 3 track times.
This is the first event where bribes will not be accepted!
So get those wheels turning and wrenches polished up for some small scale action!

Some building projects completed

In addition to Christine's bakery in the New Babbage sim, she acquired a plot across the road.

Most of the building became the grocers.


Named "Eaton & Drynkin".


Christine assembled most of the contents but there are some freebies contained within.


Next door is the Babbage Tobacconists and News Agents


Containing a selection of tobaccos and smoking implements. Also a free pipe and box of matches.


As well as a large selection of magazines and periodicals, both historical and SL published. (Sadly these ones are display only)

It's a nice feeling when you get to complete a project.

Full Scale Enterprise

In my recent explorations of Star Trek sims on the grid (which have inspired a semi-sekret Project) I stumbled across this:



To give you an idea of scale, the little black mark towards the edge of the saucer section is me .


Malic is heading up a group aiming to build a full scale recreation of the movie USS Enterprise. Ultimately, with the use of rezzers, you will be able to configure the interior to your preference, whether Motion Picture, Wrath of Khan, or The Undiscovered Country.

If you want to pop by for a look yourself drop on over:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Vanadiel/125/124/22

Coming Soon...

Victoriana closes its Doors

It is with great sadness that I discovered that LittleBlackDuck Lindsay, the Mayor of Victoriana, will be closing down the sims very soon. After a glitch left his account without the ability to edit objects belonging to him (which is 90% of the infrastructure of Victoriana) and LL being unwilling or unable to fix the problem, LBD has decided to stop banging his head against the wall and pack up shop.

While I've only officially had a shop there for some three weeks, I've watched the sims grow and have stood in awe of the texturing finesse LBD displayed on his buildings. From his Caledopoly creation to his Golden Harp Pub the details were always done so that they looked like real buildings.


The main station at Victoriana Square.


Victoriana Town Hall


The Golden Acorn Pub - recreated from the Golden Harp.


The Interior of one of the Victoriana Trains. Each platform had a train announcement in English, German and French. And they run on time!


Victoriana Pavilion. Modelled after the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney the same as my own considerably prim-starved version in Babbage Square.


Mountain rail cars for the unfinished Victoriana Alpine sim


Pavilion Station


Based on Fort Denison in Sydney Harbour


The Pearl - possibly the longest running bawdyhouse on the grid.


The waterfront on Victoriana Harbour.


Victoriana Carnivale


The Salty Squirrel in Victoriana Lakeside.

I know several friends who have homes in Victoriana who will be much disappointed by this turn of events. Apart from being one of the best builds in SL, a community had developed that included tinies (the slightly less manic ones), and lovers of Victorian style. Victoriana was unusual in that it was probably one of the few 19th century sims that did not have steampunk or vampires wandering the streets. Floating castles were strictly forbidden and the sims were much nicer for it.

I wish LBD all the best on whatever future endeavours he attempts and hope that he may find a way to recreate this idea in some other form.

You'll be missed sir.

Shanghaid!

Mr. Ho Ping had asked me to create a shop for him in Steelhead Shanghai. After seeing my Pawnbrokers in Clockhaven he asked if I could incorporate some of the elements into the new building. Apparently a pawnbrokers would be a good front.


It's quite a good front I think. I even got the right character for Pawnbroker. I also installed Elfguard^TM at his request.


Some bric-a-brac within the front shop.


Upstairs for Mr. Ho's offices


I've added the beds I was going to make back when the Taiyou was standing in Steelhead.

The actual Primgraph Press

Back in June I finished the offices for the Primgraph Press. At the time it was mused that it would be lovely if the Primgraph actually did have a Press.

In my spare time since I've dabbled with creating one. I had very little knowledge of how one worked. I knew how a Gutenberg press worked and I'd seen some very modern presses that sped a newspaper through in a matter of seconds. But, thanks to the aetherweb I have a far better understanding of how a 19th century press works.



Today however I was able to deliver to Miss Saffia the finished product. The Primgraph now has a scripted printing press to add that little extra flavour to the offices.

A very special thanks to Professor Avalanche for helping with the scripting.

Redecorating for Halloween

A few cans of paint, some scaffolding and a touch of artistry and the Pearse'd & Cut New Babbage shop is ready for Halloween.

Doctor Obolensky launches his newest scheme

The Flying Fortress of Doom (or something like that).

I'm sure it will come to naught and that there will be fire and explosions in the end.

The man should find himself a nice girl and settle down and work on curing consumption or something.

The Rookery, Clockhaven

Some while ago I bought one of the last plots in Clockhaven on a whim. I've since been throwing together a small maze in my little pocket of the city.


The building consist of the Tudor building on the left through to the brown brick building on the right.


The arched alleyway and the entrance to the Pawnbrokers. It needs a name though. Maybe I.M. Hocking & Co.


Inside the Pawnbrokers.

It's still being built. I've set aside space for Christine to have an outlet of Rosehaven Recipes in there, I'm working on a flat for a tiny, and the connecting section to the Undercity.

But I'm enjoying building it. It's even been suggested to me that someone may wish to rent the upstairs rooms.

In the mean time I've starting work on Ho Ping's place in Steelhead Shanghai. Oriental building is new to me so this will be interesting.