Christmas 2021

Another Christmas under lockdown which has meant a low key Christmas day with just my daughter and her boyfriend attending the festive lunch. Hopefully things will get better soon.

Presents were also low key with a haul of model making linked gifts restricted to the above presents. Two packs of DAS (what would a Christmas in the Harwood's household be without at least one pack of DAS), although you might notice that as well as the usual DAS White, I have a pack of DAS Stone which I look forward to testing.

The Fantasy Figures magazine was from Sue who also bought me the Fluid Art Watercolour set. I couldn't resist testing out the vibrant inks and proceeded to wash some Demon skin with the two red inks - I think they look fantastic and I look forward to seeing how the other colours work.

The DAS White and the drawing pens were from Holly as she knows 'you can never have too many drawing pens!'

The main present was the box set of Golden Acrylic Paints - a paint that I have wanted to test for some time. The set was a joint pressie from Holly, Mal, Gary, Beckie and of course the two grandsons, so obviously my favourite present this year was the Golden paints - thank you everyone for the presents and great day.

Finally - The Port?

This year I opened a bottle of Porto Quevedo Colheita 2000 but was disappointed with the wine, thinking it a little watery and lacking in body. So I opened a second bottle - Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 2011 and this was fantastic a real treat over the Christmas period.

Stay safe.

Tony

Foul Mouth Freddy and The Great Pencil Fraud - Orcs in the Webbe day twenty-one

Day twenty-one of this years Orcs in the Webbe Advent features this short tale which tells the story of our 'potty-mouthed anti-hero Foul Mouth Freddy'. Foul Mouth Freddy and the Great Pencil Fraud, for full details, see this link.

The Orcs in the Webbe advent is a regular feature compiled by Craig and featuring articles, short stories and gaming resources for a number of different gaming systems, for more information of this years advent (and earlier advents) see this link.

Happy Advent and Merry Christmas. Stay safe.

Tony

Christmas 2021 Project - part ten

The flocked board was sprayed with a custom mix of PVA glue, matt varnish, flow improver and water to 'seal' the flock and ground foam, then once fully dry I added odd clumps of dark green ground foam and different coloured static grass tufts applied over superglue. The skirmish board was then 'hoovered' to remove any loose scatter before these images were taken.

To recap, the homemade board is 32 inches x 32 inches and designed to be used with the new Osprey Games The Silver Bayonet. My plan was to have some impromptu games over the holiday period, but like many the recent news of a new Coronavirus variant has meant that plans for Christmas have been changed and cut back. Never-the-less, I will try to have at least one solo game to test out the new rules.

It might be a little early, but Merry Christmas and stay safe.

Tony

Christmas 2021 Project - part nine

The board was 'flocked' with a mix of fine ground foam and dyed sawdust (the same mix that I use on my scratch built terrain). It was applied over PVA glue and sprinkled on in a random manner allowing areas of the original groundwork colour to show through in places.

When this was fully dry, I used my home-made static grass applicator (a battery operated fly killer with a metal sieve) to add areas of static grass, again applied over PVA glue.

Tony

Christmas 2021 Project - part eight

The table edges were painted black (three coats over a grey undercoat as I wanted a long lasting finish) and then the whole table was matt varnished in preparation for the flocking.

I'm less certain we will be able to have a game over the Christmas period, not because I think it won't be finished, more because I'm uncertain as to the Covid regulations and the possibility of meeting up.

Progress has been OK, but I was never in a rush to finish.

Tony

Christmas 2021 Project - part seven

Following on from the earlier post, I thought the light coloured drybrushing seen in the last post was to light so I used my airbrush and added diluted wash tones from Army Painter across the surface to add some colour to the board. The washes were used to 'tint' the drybrushed areas rather than cover them completely.

This process continued until I had a more 'earth' coloured base on which to start adding detail.

I then started to paint individual stones in a grey, highlighted white colour similar to the style I use when basing my minis. I'm not sure how much of this will be seen when I later 'flock' the board - but I know it's there.

Tony

Christmas 2021 Project - part six

Painting of the Silver Bayonet skirmish board continued in the traditional manner with lighter drybrushing using a large paint brush. 

The second drybrush was a little lighter in both colour and technique picking out just the highest highlights and exaggerating the texture.

Tony