Friday, June 26, 2009

targets -- Ernie is a genius

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Ernst Osterham is one of those guys like Caed Aldwych and Lockmort Mortlock who just astonish me with what they can make, and how good it looks when they've finished.

Ernie has made some new targets for shooting, which makes him one of my current SL heroes--you know how much I love target practice, cuz it just makes me feel better plugging away at something that isn't shooting back. And here Ernie has come up with two excellent functional and authentic targets for a later 19th (or early 20th century) context.

In the image above you can see on the left, his paper target with numbered concentric circles (sorta old NRA style?) that registers your hits and then clears with a click. (I humbly draw your attention to the fact that if you look close you can see the nice group I got with my Galiko Remington at about 12 meters). It's just elegant, classic and totally appropriate for the period--none o these silly goddam "man" shaped targets, or even worse the fucked-up, silly-ass lookin' "perp" targets that seem to be standard issue in-world (Have you seen the ones where Mr. Perp is using some feckless bimbo with a huge rack and an expression of vacant panic as a human shield? Those particularly make me want to hack up a hairball and then go track down someone who desperately needs a serious kick in the balls).

Anyhow, in the background of the picture, to the right, I call your attention to the other classic target Ernie's made--the glorious, delightfully detailed set of fish tins sitting on a fence rail.

Holy Christ on roller skates I love this target.

You hit the can and you not only get a satisfying "plink" noise, the damn things either drop off the rail or sometimes fly up in the air. The one you've hit will de-rez after a bit, while new fish cans rez in their place. At present we have planks set in the ground at the DW range indicating distances of 15 and 20 meters.

Ernie has also come up with an individual can that you can rez on the ground and then shoot, over and over, making it skip and hop and roll.

Sweet Mother o' God an her fuzzy lil' donkey, this is just too much fun.
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2 comments:

  1. oh there's some of that inthe upcoming stories Hon. Hope you'll keep reading.

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  2. Ha! Considering I trawlled the forums to read more of your work, what do you think? ;-)

    ReplyDelete