NASA is preparing to launch its flagship mission to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa. Launching sometime in October 2024 and arriving in 2030, the mission will explore the icy world with a subsurface ocean that scientists think could have conditions favorable to life.

Cameras on spacecraft are our eyes into the Cosmos. Sometimes they teach us things, sometimes they reveal gaps in our knowledge.

Weeks before the new fiscal year, Congress still hasn't finalized NASA's 2025 budget.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to launch a mission to study the aftermath of DART's impact on the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos.

Catch this once-in-a-lifetime comet over the next few days.

A Martian cloud atlas, LightSail wins big, and multiple missions coast toward launch.

Europa Clipper will soon head for Jupiter's icy, potentially habitable moon. Without the advocacy efforts of The Planetary Society and our members, the mission may never have been possible.

This week we look forward to launches, gaze at glowing auroras, and get creative with glitter.

The European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft launched on Oct. 7, 2024, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It will travel to the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system to study the aftermath of the first-ever field test of an asteroid deflection technique.

Asteroids that come in pairs, matching volcanic features on Mars and Earth, and the potential space policies of two administrations.

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft launched today aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The Planetary Society is upgrading systems that will offer us many new capabilities and features that will enhance your membership experience.

An overview of what U.S. space policy might look like under a Trump or a Harris administration.

Cast your vote for the best of space exploration and science in 2024!

Perseverance faces a hard climb, but New Horizons proves it’s worth going the distance.

It’s been a great year for space exploration. Now you get to pick the highlights.

How the inclusion of Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano on the bill legitimises the carnival of Mike Tyson v Jake Paul in Texas

Sneak peek — Christmas jewelry in progress.

New in the shop — Starry Woods and Tardigrades! scarves.

Milkweed fluff and magic gold mica — love how these bookends came out. They actually are magical. ????. In the shop!

Native wine-cups (aka purple poppy mallow) bookends. This is one of my favorite native flower, so particularly pleased with how nicely it shows up in bookends.

Christmas serving board in progress.

Got a light for the little rose house. So cute.

Learned something new today— resin fidget spinner. ????

We just made the decision to ship the remaining copies of Feast to us. There are about 800 left, out of the original 2000 copy print run. Which is a lot of copies, but given that we were originally scheduled to launch March 2020, and had to cancel an entire summer’s worth of scheduled bookstore […]

The great bear himself finally turns up... bloody late as usual.
After waiting a while for the second bear to arrive...the cutting and hacking could begin.
The plastic was very tough to get through with my craft saw. After what seems an age, the great heavy head fell off and the Orcs cheered. They soon stopped when they saw the angry head being wired into place.




I had to try a couple of different fur techniques, for this chunky, thick fur, I went for the classic GW wolf pelt look. This is the one where you cut lots of little triangles into the putty and push them up.
Beorn laughs at his new coat... Hopefully that's a good sign he likes it.
I did take the opportunity to bulk up his hump while applying the putty. I will also add some to his forelegs and make them a bit more shaggy.

The new Deception medic 'Wrench' gets his first taste of combat.

 I love this little cassette bot, he's so cute. I must make some more.

Skyfire brings the rain.

I've been messing around adding to the bear to days and trying not to rush myself. I'm so desperate to get some paint on it that I almost started today. However, I stopped myself and just added a bit more fur. This time I also ad buyded some to the bears face and now I'm finally happy with it.




Cheeky!
Some more help turns up to bolster Lake town and just in the nick of time.


Two of these bases are really shoddy militia types. Pitch forks are a great short hand for 'rabble'. I can't imagine they will hold for long against the goblin horde.

Another hero base .

I think he looks angry, ragged and damn right mean now...let's get him painted up.


I've added hints of blue so the whole force will tie together.


 The men start to suffer from the fierce wolf packs.

The men with their long swords and the tough veterans from the Iron hills.

 

I have an idea of making a few stands of Draugr, the Viking dead. I have bought some nice Colin Pattern sculpts but thought I'd have a go at making some.
I have loads of Viking sprues left over from the Lake town project, these I mixed with some Oathmark undead sprues. I will add some greenstuff to these to make them a little more Viking.


 

A Dwarf king and his elite guard take to the field.

 Amongst the Eagle helms of the shield wall is the kings champion himself. Nothing must get to the king and the champions blue axe, will see that nothing does.

I could use this base for King Balin when he tries to retake Moria. A future project of mine.
The King points out floors in the enemies formation to the chief engineer.
The Dragon standard flies over head echoing the Kings mighty dragon helm.
This base has been created for the upcoming Hobbit battle, replacing Dain's base in the ranks. This allows Dain to roam freely as a character on the field.

 The figures are beautiful old sculpts from Asgard and Citadel. There has been a bit of tweaking on a couple of them, like the axe and the standard.

Here is Beorn in his full fury. He has been given a Matt varnish that really helped. This proved even more effective once his mouth, eyes and nose was given a coat of gloss varnish. This brought him to life and gave him a sparkle in his eye.

I ended up putting more and more greenstuff on him until he was completely covered. It's good to have him covered in thick, shaggy fur as he looks more wild and rugged.


The Eagles are coming! Eagles and White wolves get their various layers of flock.
A lovely new Reaper miniatures Dwarf joins the latest group of Dwarves. Reaper make great 'hero' figures to adorn any warband. They can be quite large sculpts so it can be a risky business ordering them, this one is perfect though.
Beorn's base has to be 24cm wide for the game I'm playing, so two side bases were made. These bring the base up to the right measurement and allow for more bear carnage.
Beorn with his slobbering maw but cute adorable shiny eyes.
More goblin wreckage. Wargs too have not escaped the Bears fury and lie amongst the fallen. A few goblins still cling to life.
It was fun to sculpt great claw wounds in the orcs clothes and equipment. Everything has been torn and crushed to pieces.
Beorn's base with some Bodyguard of Bolg behind him. I'm not sure I'll have time to finish this big orcs before the weekend.

Bard of Lake town with his new fixed banner. This banner was a bit too tall for the storage box and the spearpoint snapped off, twice!. So using my flattened brush bristle technique, he's got a new much tougher one. The plastic used for brush bristles make them fantastic for super glue!

As Bard needs to be free to roam around, another replacement base was needed. Here is Bard with a fellow command stand. Bard is another Reaper Miniatures figure and is slightly bigger than most. This is fine as he is a hero and it suits his manly character.

More carnage, this poor Warg has been disemboweled. This is pretty grim but I did have fun sculpting it. Facing a giant werebear was never going to end well. Again, a coat of gloss helps bring it to life 
Another shot of the basing production line.
Bard of Esgaroth.

 The blue theme really helped to tie these militia type troops together. I tested the new banner tip and it comes below the storage box height, hopefully it won't get crushed again.

The last Dwarf base done just in time for the big weekend. It's the Other Partizan show this weekend and I'll be there with my armies. So if you fancy seeing a massive Hobbit battle...pop along.

The battle will be fought using the new Midguard rules by James Morris. It proves to be a great Sunday especially if you're a Tolkien fan.

Today I have collect everything together and pack it as best I can to stop any travel casualties. I have always painted my figures to play at home so have never magnetised them onto metal sheets.Finally the two meet, Bolg and bigger Beorn.
My old Beorn figure is dwarfed by the new addition. The new bear has a lot more presence to him and should look the part on Sunday.

well, we made it safe and sound. James Morris has done a fantastic job on the Lonely mountain.
My figures are on the board and will be joined by many others tomorrow from other collections.

 The 'really useful boxes' certainly earned their name today.

well...what a bloody marvellous couple of days I've just had. Taking all my figures to a show for the first time was a little nerve racking, but the effort really paid off. I had an excellent time and met some great new friends too in the process.
The board and mountain were excellent too, crafted by the talented James Morris. I had never deployed my whole army in one go before, so what better time to do it than on a set up like this. Everything seemed to come together perfectly.
I started my battle with the orcs at the bottom of the hill advancing across the mountain river. However, due to my terrible dice rolling and the luck of the Elves, I was cut and shot to pieces. It wasn't long before my tattered ranks were tumbling back through the freezing water. The Elves just had time to redress their lines before another dark wave of Goblin folk arrived.
I love the walled up gate that James made, the little gaps in the stonework were perfect. It really reminded me of one of Alan Lees illustrations. Also a very clever use of silver fabric for the river...very effective!

The Eagles arrived later in the game and swept the Goblins from the mountain sides. The game was masterfully run by David Hunter, who made sure the flo was just right.
My Eagles looked very realistic on the slopes of the mountain too, better than I had hoped for. The extra poses were well worth collecting over the last ten years. The flying ones on stands were a very recent purchase and they really stood out.
The game in full flo, it drew a big crowd and it was great to talk figures with people. A lot of people wanted to know where I got my Orcs from and of course the answer was...everywhere. Also the amount of plastic model kits used was very hard to calculate. Just about every Dark age and Fantasy box set all mashed up and mixed together.



I love my Wood elves after lovingly creating each one individually and got a huge buzz from seeing them in action. I didn't really care they were cutting my forces to ribbons, just seeing them used in anger was enough for me.
Hordes of Goblins still plagued the mountainside, their numbers were too much even for the Eagles.
Thorin was cut down by Bolg's bodyguard as he tried to cut through their great shields. Bard of Laketown too, fell to the hacking Goblin blades. Dain of the Iron hills was holding his own but was badly wounded. At last it seemed like the Free people's luck had run out. 
Then with a roar like a thunderclap Beorn burst onto the scene. He tore through the Goblin ranks and made his way to Bolg. Approaching the rear of Bolg's bodyguard he shattered their formation.

It was at this point the Orc's morale was lost and the game was called. The rules were James' new Midguard ones and were perfect for this Dark age epic clash of men and monsters.

I had a great couple of days and it was a real treat to get out and do something exciting like this. To my amazement I didn't suffer any spear snaps of breakages and everything survived intacted. I was expecting a few casualties and had even taken a little repair kit but didn't need it.

Dain's Iron hills Dwarves push the Goblins from the ridge, supported by a group of Lake men.
An earlier shot of the swirl of battle.
The nine Black riders with their Dark lord 
My beloved Silvan elves holding their own against ravaging wolf packs.

I said it once, I'll say it again, what a bloody marvellous couple of days!

 I'm sure I'll have some more pictures soon to post on here of the day...
 

 Here's a shot of James Morris' Lonely mountain with the only missing element...thousands of blood drinking bats. 

 A Fomorian checks out the smell of new resin on the table.