Saturday, 21 July 2012

The WarBug JitterBug



"Soon it will come to the folk-attention how close Wernher von Braun's birthday is to the Spring Equinox..."
- Pynchon, 'Gravity's Rainbow'
Arduenn Schwartzman is the creator of the marvellous 'Warbug' range of SL aircraft, as well as many other gadgets, gizmos and widgets - not to mention the BratWurst Oral Valentines Day Gift, the Potato Chip Cruncher, the Terror Bunny shoulder-pet and the adorable Wearable Dogfight Planes.
Tutsy, the Puddlegums and I are big fans of Arduenn's work. His sense of humour, sense of fun and creativity scream out at you in most everything he makes.
Arduenn is currently working on a rather hush-hush project with the much respected MadPea Productions. We look forward to seeing the outcome of that collaboration in a few months or so.
Tutsy and I discovered Arduenn's SL region, Black Forest , by accident when we were looking for a specific scene for my MachinimUWA V entry, "Fwd: Evolution". As it happens, we did find what we went looking for but on another region entirely! And then, the scene in question didn't actually make it into the final cut of the film anyway!
And thus was the circuitous route that the Mistress of Serendipity introduced us to Arduenn's creations! Since then, between the lot of us, I reckon we must have purchased at least one of everything in his stores!
Of special interest to us in this particular blog-post is Ardueen's fabulous 'WarBug' aircraft and the dogfights which occur in them at Black Forest.
The cumulative Combat Score for successfully shooting down an opponent is displayed on this website. I am currently ranked #67.
Rocky Vansant - a charismatic and fun guy that I have met before - is ranked #1. However, he somehow neglected to mention this fact while we were dogfighting...
Last week, I was dancing at Old Lar's House when I received an IM from Arduenn. In amongst our much longer chat was buried this gem in reference to the v2 iteration of the LLab viewer:
Arduenn Schwartzman: I blame V2
Pixie Rain: the WW2 German rocket?
Arduenn Schwartzman: lol
Arduenn Schwartzman: I should make a V2 Warbug!
Arduenn Schwartzman: and I should write 'Wernher von Braun' on them
Pixie Rain: YES!
And so was born Arduenn's latest creation - the V-2 Warbug Rocket - which I am grateful to be recognised as the Muse for and to have received a free copy of.
Saturday morning Tutsy and I piled over to Black Forest itching to dogfight against all comers in our Red Barron and V-2 Rocket Warbugs, respectively.
It is fair to say that Tutsy and my skill level was a tad or two under Rocky and Arduenn's. But, it was nevertheless great fun and highly recommended!
Watch this short film to see us in action - 'The WarBug Jitterbug'!:

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