October 2024 - day 17

This simple church is drawn to 'Epic scale' and was planned to be built to accompany the Warlord Games Epic Battles of the American Civil War figures and rules. It was inspired by the lower image which was used in a newspaper article about the Alec Baldwin fatal shooting on the set of the film Rust. I have  a number of scratch built buildings based on used CD's which I have built from card, some of which have appeared in Miniature Wargames and which have been built as terrain pieces for this system.

As you can clearly see it is very much a 'working' drawing with notation and modifications.

Tony

October 2024 - day 16

I can't recall where I copied this particular building from. It is a stone built hovel with a huge Dolmen style roof and should be fun to build with large foam blocks and a one piece roof.

With half the month gone, it should be clear - but ALL of these images are of structures I have NOT built and remain un-used in my collection of sketch books (I have dozens). I could just as easily have had a series of sketches that I HAVE used as inspiration, maybe another month of sketches!

Tony

October 2024 - day 15

As you can see this sketch was inspired by an image in the Rackhams magazine Cry Havoc, volume 05, page 49. I was lucky enough to find a number of these old Rackham magazines in a charity shop some time ago and although I have since sold them on I did sketch a number of images and even scanned some of the pages, which I still have. I have modelled a number of buildings that were inspired by these publications, but this one remains a to-do and I would hope that one day I will get around to scratch building a model of this charismatic house.

Cry Havoc had some fantastic 'how-to' articles and I have used both these and the tutorials as inspiration in many of my terrain builds.

Tony

October 2024 - day 14

Today, two sketches for the price of one.....

Both sketches were inspired by a historical pamphlet on early Scottish buildings on the Outer Hebredes and in particular a simple mill built into the side of a hill and using a vertical wheel to turn a milling stone that was situated in the upper structure.

I'm not sure how I could model this model as the building would need to be built in to a hill, but it would make a great Burrows & Badgers themed piece of terrain.

Tony

October 2024 - day 13

 A pigsty. I think it is called a bee hive pigsty. It would be easy enough to model and then include a couple of miniature pigs just to finish it off. Not a very large model but something a little different.

Copied from an illustration found in a book about early farm buildings.

Tony

Miniature Wargames issue 499 - Covered Well

The latest issue of Miniature Wargames - issue 499 (November 2024) includes an article/tutorial written by me showing how I built and the painted this covered well that was inspired by a well featured in the Shardlake TV series currently available on Disney.

I replayed and paused the TV episode (episode 2) and sketched this simple plan. Then using plastic card I built the basic frame well and wheel.

The 'pagoda style' roof was constructed over card pyramids before I smoothed out the shape with DAS modelling clay and ready-mixed filler. The roof was then clad with cardboard tiles and detailed with plastic rod and egg box card.

The model was then mounted on to a base cut from 3mm thick plastic card and textured with sieved stones and sand applied over PVA glue.

For more information and details of how the covered well was finished and painted see issue 499 of Miniature Wargames. Or see this link.

The magazine also gives details of my very special, commemorative article written especially for the 500th issue. and paying homage to Ian Weekley - a truly inspirational model maker.

Tony

October 2024 - day 12

This sketch of an Majorcan burial chamber is from one of my very early sketch books and is well over 20 years old. It was done when Sue and I were on holiday with the children on the island of Majorca and copied from an information leaflet I had seen. The original was 'boat shaped', but I do believe that there were also rectangular versions.

This early sketch goes to show just how long I have been filling various sketch books with my designs.

Tony