Tuesday, 28 July 2009

Dampfwerks - 40mm resin buildings

NEW NEW NEW
At long last the range of 40mm American War of Independence/American Civil War resin terrain pieces are available to purchase. These are some of the very first resin castings painted for an advertising feature due to go to print this month and to be published in August.

The Covered Well AMC40-1 £6.00 (please note that although there are two painted models featured below there is only one in the pack).


Valley Forge Log Cabin AMC40-4 £20.00 and already featured on this Blog.

Small Plank House with Porch AMC40-5 £30.00 A generic AWI/ACW house.

Hoskin's Farm House AMC40-6 £40.00. Based on the painting Guilford Courthouse, Greenboro, N.C. by Dale Gallion

Hoskin's Farm Kitchen House AMC40-7 £22.00. Also based on the painting by Dale Gallion.

In each case the figure is a 40mm Front Rank Continental Armies miniature. The full range of pieces and pricing is;
AMC40-1 Covered Well £6.00
AMC40-2 Wood Shelter £6.00
AMC40-3 Cooking Caldron £4.00
AMC40-4 Valley Forge Log Cabin £20.00
AMC40-5 Small Plank House with Porch £30.00
AMC40-6 Hoskin's Farm House £40.00
AMC40-7 Hoskin's Farm Kitchen House £22.00
AMC40-8 Stone/Plank Stable (Yalley Forge) £46.00
AMC40-9 Guilford Courthouse TBC
AMC40-10 Snake Fence Straight £8.00
AMC40-11 Snake Fence Corner £8.00


All houses feature removable roofs and internal detail, with Hoskin's Farm House and the Stone/Plank Stable having removable first floor castings.

The resin models are available from;
Grand Manner, Unit B, Smiths Way, Saxon Business Park, Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove B60 4AD Tel/Fax; 01527 578766 or see the website; http://www.grandmanner.co.uk/ for more information and notification of new releases.


Tony

PS. Thank you to all those who have helped set this new venture up, in particular thank you to Dave at Grand Manner for all the support and advice.

Friday, 24 July 2009

Dampfwerks - Log Cabin

I am really excited to present my first resin casting in the new range of 1/48th - 40mm buildings I have been working on. A Log Cabin.

Photo One - shows the finished model painted and about to be photographed for inclusion in the catalogue. The figure is a 40mm American War of Independence Continental Soldier from the new Front Rank range of miniatures. The model comes complete with a detailed interior and a removable roof. Final details of availability and price should follow later this month.

Photo Two - is a photo of a reproduction of one of the log cabins built by George Washington at Valley Forge - the basis for the model. For more information, Google, Valley Forge.

Photo Three - The very first resin casting!

Photo Four - the 'master model' built from individual balsa logs and DAS modelling clay. The original was destroyed during the moulding procedure.

At this moment there are five buildings, the Log Cabin (seen above), a pair of buildings based on Hosking's Farm and the AWI battle at Guilford Courthouse, a Generic Cabin with Porch and a Carriage/Tack House based on a stone built building at Valley Forge National Park. In addition I have the Covered Well (seen on this Blog), a Log Store and a small Cooking Pot and Fire. Other models are being worked on.

As stated earlier, this is a brand new venture and a huge step forward for me. The castings are due to be available later this month. Once I have the details I will post links here and on the Web.

For all those who have written and commented on my previous buildings, thank you for the support. Here are the fruits of those earlier conversations.

Tony

Wednesday, 22 July 2009

Flintloque - Halflings

My latest TMP Workbench article went live, earlier today. A painting tutorial featuring the Flintloque blister - 57001 or the 1st HEVC Native Foot (six Halflings). Check out;
http://theminiaturespage.com/workbench/293924/

In addition to this article, there is a second one to be featured in the Alternative Armies 'in-house' magazine 60 Bloody Rounds. The article will be similar in style but feature the Halfling Musket Artillery (57000). I will highlight it once I have more details. As a bonus I have included two miniatures that were painted at the same time - they are the infamous Dotti from the Obidiah's Army boxed set (5006) and the officer from the Connartist Rambler Command blister (54034).

The miniatures will be used in both the Dwarf Sauerkraut Wars collection as well as my more traditional Flintloque battles. They were all great fun to paint.

Eagle-eyed followers will see that the Halflings have been mounted on to 1p coins and not the more usual 2p coins (see the Connartist Rambler Orc).

I may include a step-by-step painting tutorial in this Blog at a later stage.

Tony

Saturday, 18 July 2009

First photos of my new project - updated

Following the earlier post, here is an additional photo showing the first two test castings of the covered, wooden well, painted, varnished and flocked.

The second well has been painted in a slightly lighter aged grey finish and has been modified by having the roof shortened and a wooden ladle inserted in to the bucket (as seen in a Google image search).

I think I like the second paint scheme or the one on the right more!

Tony

Friday, 17 July 2009

First photos of my new project

The following six photos show a pre-production test piece that is the first casting of my planned range of 1/48th or 40mm terrain pieces, a covered wooden well.

Photos one and two show the first casting, painted, varnished and flocked with a modified Flintloque figure for scale.


Photos three and four show the bare resin casting, a three piece casting, the main body, the winder and the roof.


Photos five and six show the master - balsa, plastic card, DAS and fuse wire.


I am hopeful that I will be able to give details of some of the larger casting later this month.The models will be released for sale soon, very soon.

Tony

Thursday, 16 July 2009

Flintloque - The Rarest Tin, a collectors resourse

I have just received my edition of the latest publication from Alternative Armies, The Rarest Tin, a collectors resource detailing the limited edition miniatures from Flintloque/Slaughterloo.

The A5 booklet of 64 pages has a full colour cover with black and white photos and illustration inside. For anyone not familiar with Flintloque, there have over the years been a regular supply of limited edition figure, blister packs and even boxed sets. This booklet is a 'must have' for any serious Flintloque or Slaughterloo figure collector, detailing as it does all of the limited edition sets with the addition of background information and 2009 gaming stats.

The booklet is a collectors guide and resource for players, here you will find profiles for every limited edition and very limited edition miniature made by Alternative Armies over the years. The following page; LE001 Sergeant Obidiah gives and example of the detail included.

For more details, please see; http://www.alternative-armies.com/New_Releases.htm

I have collected Flintloque miniatures for over ten years and have most of the limited edition figures, in fact page 58 features a photograph of the XM97 Christmas Vignette set that was painted by me. I have yet to read all of the entries, but see this as a great addition to the Flintloque mythos and my collection.

Thank you AA, for actually going ahead and producing it, I wish you well with the sales.

Tony

Friday, 10 July 2009

The Japanese Patrol Aeronef MONI part two

This week the second part of the Workbench article - The Japanese Patrol Aeronef Moni is featured on TMP, see; http://theminiaturespage.com/workbench/163635/

Here is an additional photo showing the Nef finished, painted and based.

Tony
PS.
I know the Blog has been quiet this month, but that does not mean that I have not been working hard on new projects. I would hope to be able to announce some news very soon.

Wednesday, 1 July 2009

Starblazer Fantasy Fiction

I recently picked up a mixed batch of Starblazer - Fantasy Fiction in pictures. The comic books are widely available on the Internet, check out E-bay. They were produced by D. C. Thompson in the 1970's and 80's and are a great read, filled with inspirational artwork (originals of which are sometimes also available on E-bay!)

The Secret War - issue 178. Including magic and Ork-like creatures, a good story with some interesting characters that could be used in a 'Space Opera' game.

Return of Starhawk - issue 201. The return of a very famous character that has also appeared in The Crunch (see earlier posts). I like this character and the robot companion Droid, once again a good story and for anyone looking for a ready made hero, Rynn or Starhawk is ideal with loads of background information and back-story.

Here is the back cover illustration, offering a great villain Urga Thaad, a semi-human cyborg killer!

Cobra - issue 262. Very 'Judge Dread' in feel, but a twist in the story sees the hero visit a Victorian Science Fiction planet, see the three black and white illustrations below. Great VSF inspiration.




Finally, we have Alpha - issue 277. Again the story precedes later 2000AD stories and characters with a computer engineered private investigator called Alpha. Possibly the best story of the four.

I enjoy searching these early British Sci-Fi magazines out and would recommend them as great entertainment.

Tony