Flintloque War in Catalucia

With the latest Flintloque 3rd Edition supplement Bier & Bones due out in February (I've already pre-ordered it) and the fact that I already have Death in the Snow. I ordered the first book War in Catalucia which arrived yesterday morning with the limited edition complimentary Bombe Bunny figure which is being given away free until January 6th. For more details see the AA Web Pages at this link

I have already got the original Flintloque book, but was beginning to feel left behind as the 3rd Edition Gaming Books grow in number. My first impressions are very positive, the clear pages are full of back-story, gaming ideas and ready-made gaming sections. Once again the bulk of the illustrations are black and white, although there are some colour images of actual gaming miniatures which are set in gaming situations.

As I said - I have still to properly study the rules and will have great fun reading all of the background history, but first impressions are good, very good and I would have no hesitation in recommending this rule set. A rule set that has now been around and available from Alternative Armies for some time.

I now look forward to receiving the Third book Bier & Bones in the New Year. So for now, thanks to all my Followers and those that comment on my Blog, it is much appreciated.

Happy New Year, I hope it's a Good One.

Tony

Christmas 2010

We've had a great Christmas with Holly, Gary and Beckie all enjoying the day and the pressies that Santa brought. This year I was particularly lucky and received a great selection of books;

An Age Of Barns by Eric Sloane - a beautifully illustrated 'coffee table book' that is just jam packed with fantastic illustrations, a gift from my Wife - Susan, and for me my favourite Christmas gift. Thank you.

My Daughter, Holly, bought me a number of books, this by Neil Gaiman looks like fun, a selection of short stories called Smoke and Mirrors. Holly also bought me a Shire book called Discovering Cottage Architecture by Christopher Powell. I look forward to reading more of the Neil Gaiman book once I have finished the Simon Scarrow book.

Band of Brigands by Christy Campbell is the fascinating story of the first men in tanks. I was not aware of this book, but look forward to reading it. Thank you Gary and Beckie.

I have also received two books from the Railway Detective series by Edward Marston, the first was The Railway Detective and the second (actually the fourth book in the series) The Iron Horse. One from Holly and the second from Sue.

The next book is a thriller by Damien Lewis called Cobra 405. A book that details a bank raid in Beirut in 1976 and the repercussions for a group of SAS soldiers.

Finally in this section we have Forged by Chaos by C. L Werner, a Warhammer or Black Library book from the Warhammer on-line game - Age of Recokoning.

As you can see - I've been a very lucky boy this year, with more than enough reading material to keep me going for months. I hope you have been as lucky.

Tony

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS - 2010

Tony

Barking Irons - the future?

It is with some sadness that I recently read that Barking Irons from Alternative Armies will no longer be produced as a paper product and that the Barking Irons Blog will be closing down. The publication was launched by AA earlier this year and the BI Blog was to support it, but Gavin at AA has decided that the BI format will continue as a Web based Magazine or set of updates.

I was lucky enough to have two articles published in BI, one in each of the issues and was looking forward to seeing more in the future. Hopefully these articles will not be lost but published either in the electronic version of BI or elsewhere, I'm thinking Orcs in the Webbe which is also an electronic resource for Flintloque/Slaughterloo.

Regular followers will know that in 2010 I wrote two articles for the Modelling Magazine The Ancible which has also converted from a printed format to an electronic one. In addition I was a keen follower of the gaming miniatures magazine Harbinger, which also went the same way. Is this the way that this type of publication is going? Recent experience says YES.

I am not sure that I am OK with this development, being of a generation where magazines were always printed and in my case stored as reference material, hence my huge collection of White Dwarf, Finescale Modeller and (lots of) others that are currently insulating the attic!

I would be interested to hear other views on the direction that modelling or hobby magazines are going.

For now - I am staying warm reading and checking the Internet, with no real hope of visiting my shed-at-the-bottom-of-the-garden for some time. We still have about 6inches of lying snow around and I would have thought that the paintbrush cleaning water is frozen solid in my glass jars!

Tony

Book Review/Reviews

More of a 'What am I Reading' post than a full review. The main bedtime reading is this book by Simon Scarrow, The Fields of Dreams. A fictionalised story giving details of the rise of Napoleon and Wellington and the lead up to The Battle of Waterloo.

I am currently 100 pages into a 700 page book and enjoying the way in which Scarrow has personalised the two main characters, it reads like a film script and it is very easy to imagine the scenes being played out before you.

My second book review is a very (very) old Airfix Magazine Guide, in this case Guide 1 Plastic Modelling by Gerald Scarborough which I picked up in the Acorns Charity shop for £1.50.

I have in the past had most of these guides but for some reason I never picked up this first guide! I realise that a lot of the text and images are intended for 'starters', but even so, I have enjoyed this little bit of nostalgia from 1974.

Full details are;

The Field of Dreams by Simon Scarrow

Published by Headline Review at £7.99

ISBN; 978-0-7553-2440-8

Airfix Magazine Guide 1 by Gerald Scarborough

Published by Patrick Stephens (1974)

ISBN; 0 85059 153 8

Tony

Should read 'The Fields of Death', for more details see comments!

Grand Manner on Facebook

Dave at Grand Manner has just uploaded a whole load of images to his new Facebook page. They are well worth checking out. Go to;

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Grandmanner/112357495481045

Tony

IPMS Scale ModelWorld 2010 part nine

Yet another post inspired by my conversation with Ian Sadler at the IPMS model show earlier this year.

Firstly, I apologise for the poor quality - I had inadvertently changed the setting on my digital camera and the auto-focus went a little askew! Even so I would hope that the ideas shown in these two images would be of interest and use to scratch-builders or diorama modellers.

Photo One - Shows how the simple ball-point pen can be scavenged to produce some interesting terrain items.

Photo Two - Has even more examples of the creative use of pens and various other items of stationery!

A short but informative post.

Tony

IPMS Scale ModelWorld 2010 part eight

In this post I am showing a selection of images taken at the IPMS Show in Telford earlier this year. As you will see there is a real mismatch of subject matter, but all are superb models and well worth checking out

To begin with we have a beautifully rigged model ship - the level of detail is just awe inspiring!

The next three are either submarines or attack boats.

Then some more aircraft images, I think my favourite is the Sopwith Pup.

Finally in this section we have a Games Workshop/Forge World Tyranid. I took two photos of this model as I was so impressed with the natural material used to model the base. There have been many Forum/Yahoo Site comments recently about the improvement of standards in figure bases, this example is very special. As with all of these posts - just 'click' on the image for a larger view.

There are still a few images I have not used from my visit to Telford - these I will keep back for specific posts. I hope that you have enjoyed the reports and the photos

Tony

28mm Medieval Buildings from Grand Manner

This morning I had a phone call from Dave at Grand Manner, he has a number of the larger Medieval buildings painted and ready to be parcelled up and posted to customers prior to the Christmas break. Armed with my trusty camera, I hot-footed it across to Bromsgrove and took these photos.

Photo One - The Wealdon House with tiled roof

Photo Two - A different Wealdon House, with cream walls - again with a tiled roof.

Photo Three - Wealdon House with thatched roof.

Photo Four - The Merchant's House, with a Small Gatehouse/Gateway added to the side.

Photo Five - The European Barn.

Regular readers of this Blog will know that I produced the 'masters' for each of these buildings and there have been regular posts about the development of the masters - to mould - to raw resin castings, these painted examples are just fantastic - the first time I have seen painted examples of these larger buildings. I am sure that the new owners/customers will enjoy playing with these beautifully painted terrain pieces.

The painting was done by Dave and his daughter Kate, very well done.

It is at times like this that I really appreciate great painting. Dave has taken my plain white masters, made some truly spectacular gaming terrain and then to cap it off, painted them to this standard. I would hope that you would agree - fantastic. (OK - I should be a little more humble, having produced the masters - but I just want to go WOW!)

For full details of these and others go to Grand Manner or search this Blog for more posts detailing the work I have done for GM.

Tony

PS/

I think my favourite is The Merchant's House.

Orcs in the Webbe Advent Calendar - Day fifteen

Craig from Orcs in the Webbe had asked me for some Flintloque/Slaughterloo images to illustrate a number of the entries for this years Advent Calendar, in particular a few from the Lady Wintermore's Fang's Boxed Set. In addition I volunteered to produce an On-Line Build, showing how I paint my Flintloque miniatures. Here is the result - Orcs in the Webbe Advent Calendar day fifteen

The whole report is a little tongue-in-cheek, however it was cold (minus 8 at some points, and that was daytime temperatures, I have no idea what it got down to at night). I hope that you like it.

I have really enjoyed following the Advent Calendar and feel that a great vote of thanks should go out to Craig who works very hard to bring us this festive treat each year. Well done, and I look forward to the next nine instalments.

Tony

Orcs in the Webbe Advent Calendar - Day fourteen

Day Fourteen sees Craig re-writing the classic Deadloque Game/Box Set scenario booklet Lady Wintermore's Fang's (5026) for Flintloque 3rd Edition.

The Box set details the adventures of some Ferach Elves in the frozen Witchlands and their encounters with some Undead. The figures shown below are from either Lady Wintermore's Fang's or Deadloque with a few conversions! Craig has used some of my painted miniatures to illustrate the new scenario booklet. For more details go to this link

Throughout my long association with Flintloque, my favourite race is (and remains) the Dwarves, however my collection of Undead is steadily growing and has already overtaken my Orcs/Bogorcs figure collection!

Tony

IPMS Scale ModelWorld 2010 part seven

Today's post is another tutorial and again inspired by Ian Sadler.

While I was speaking to Ian he gave me an information sheet which detailed the production of rivets. I am using the information with Ian's permission but it is also worth pointing out that the original idea was given to Ian by Norman Robinson of the Wombourne Modelling Club.

Rivets by the Million

You will need to obtain a Boots Own Label Hard Water Filter Canister (Think Brita's Water Filter). I picked one up for less than £5.00, however you may be able to use a different brand.

Cut the top off the canister and open the inner bag, you can now dry the contents by placing on an oven-proof plate and placing them in an oven - use the plate warming setting rather than fierce heat. There are literally thousands of small porcelain beads of different sizes in every canister.

PLEASE NOTE; Do not try to dry these beads in a microwave!

Once fully dry and cooled, place the beads into a jar.

To use, select the right size drill and drill a small depression (we are not looking for a true hole - just the start of one - about three turns should do). Pick up the right size bead (there are a variety of sizes in each filter) and place into the hole. You can glue after the bead is in place with Liquid Poly Glue or as I have by placing a tiny amount of superglue in the hole, use a cocktail stick to place the glue.

There is a life-time supply of beads in one canister and a variety of sizes which can be used to represent rivets, bolt heads and even buttons on uniforms!

There is even a tip on colouring the beads. Place a small square of foil on your workbench and add Gold Printers ink, then roll the beads in the ink, use some more foil to place over the top and roll them together until the ink is absorbed. Once dry the beads will maintain the colour.

"Yet another great reason for you to visit the IPMS Show in Telford next year. You can meet with Ian and thank him for this great modelling tip!"

I will add - that I have used this technique with the larger beads and found it perfect for my needs. Modellers who are a little more 'detailed' than me will find that the smaller beads are perfect for true-scale representations of tiny rivets.

I also use the punched plastic card and the sliced plastic rod techniques to great effect, but as stated above, I am more of a fun modellers and some might baulk at this over-scale and exaggerated modelling.

Tony

Orcs in the Webbe Advent Calendar - Day ten

Day ten already - we are fast approaching Crimbo! Today we have the gaming scenario Mordreds Taste for Bones written by me for the 2009 Advent Calendar but due to timing pressures was never posted. It is great to see it in print and I hope that you enjoy playing it.

Please Note; There are some areas of the story that if you are planning on taking part are marked FOR UMPIRES EYES ONLY!

Mordred's Taste for Bones is a traditional multi-player, multi-objective game with many factions battling it out for control of a metal-clad cask containing some olde bones. Goblins, Elves, Orcs and Undead are all involved, which always makes for a good brawl.

As with my earlier submission I will be asking for your help in securing a much coveted prize - an edition of the very rare Magnum Orcus 2010, full details can be found here

I think Craig has done a superb job in editing the Advent Calendar stories and features this year - the boy deserves a medal! So as Craig would say; "Keep the flag flying!"

Tony

IPMS Scale ModelWorld 2010 part six

This particular post is more of a summary of some of the techniques I picked up at The IPMS Show last month - particularly working with metal/metal foil.

Photo One - Shows the workbench of Ian Sadler who I spent a great deal of time with - exchanging ideas and generally enjoying myself discussing scratch-building techniques. Ian is a regular attendee of the show and I can personally recommend that his modelling techniques are truly inspirational. Ian is a member of the IPMS UK Technical Advisory Service (TAS) and can be contacted via this link

As you can see Ian regularly used everyday items, foil, cartons and even sweet wrappers to model replacement parts and additional details for the Armour TAS. His demonstration desk shows just a small fraction of what is possible with take-away cartons and foil.

Photo Two - Again by Ian Sadler is a better illustration of what can be made from scrap foil - I would hope that this photo alone would be inspiration enough for any reader to experiment.

I am particularly impressed with the replacement bonnet!

Photo Three - Even more of Ian's illustrations, the corrugated fencing being made from take-away carton foil and 'crimped' with an artists tube paint tube squeezer, if you look closely in Photo One, you will see it. White plastic tube squeezer from The Works (UK)

Photo Four - For the more adventurous, what about a stressed metal fuselage? I had originally photographed this Gloster E28 for including in a 'spectacular' IPMS entry - but it just seems to work here! This is scratch-building at its very, very best.

Photo Five and Six shows another exhibit where natural metal has been used to give superb and competition winning results.

Photo Seven - A Hawker Hart (or is it Hind?) Again fantastic natural metal work.

I can only look on in awe at the skill these modellers have shown in producing models and model parts from sheet foil and even beer cans. I hope that you agree and just maybe you will experiment with this everyday material, Good luck and to all Scratch-builders, thank you for the inspiration.

I have in the past used aluminium foil, lead foil (wine bottles or tomato paste tubes) and pieces of soft drinks cans to model detailing parts, but these modellers enjoy a completely different level of skill and expertise.

Tony

Armoured DeLorean by Black Army Products

Here was a surprise! A commission I completed some time ago, a 1/56th scale Armoured Not-DeLorean. The resin model is available from Black Army Productions for $20.00. For full details go to this link

There was a comment on TMP asking if this was a converted die cast or an original scratch-build. I can confirm it is an original sculpt and here is the proof......... A work-in-progress shot of the partially finished master.

I hope you enjoy seeing the finished resin casting. I think Alex has done a great job turning the original model into this fine Post-Apocalyptic sports car! Very well done.

If anyone is looking for a model maker to produce a 'master' please contact me either via this Blog or on dampfpanzerwagon(at)yahoo.co.uk

Tony

To Alex. I was sorry to read of the passing of your father John. My thoughts are with you and your family.

Orcs in the Webbe Advent Calendar - Day Six

Day Six of this years Advent Calendar sees the return of Foul Mouth Freddy in an adventure called Foul Mouth Freddy Fools the ****ing Ferach. For full details go to this link

Foul Mouth Freddy is a character of mine that has now been featured in three stories/scenarios, this one, Foul Mouth Freddy Spikes the ****ing Gun and Foul Mouth Freddy Saves the ****ing Sheep - you may be able to see a theme in how the stories are named!

I can reveal that there is at least one more FMFreddy story which is due to me featured in Barking Irons in 2011, the working title of Foul Mouth Freddy Steals a ****ing ______! was written by Craig Andrews and myself. It is a three part story/scenario which offers some original gaming ideas, but for more details you will have to wait.

Regular followers will know that the character of Freddy is based upon a family friend (sadly no longer with us and much missed). Freddy has since been immortalized in pewter by Alternative Armies as a Very Limited Edition (just 250 miniatures), for more details of how you can purchase him - go to this link

Finally - I need your help. This years Advent Calendar is offering a very special prize to the the best written story, for full details go to this link on the Orcs in the Webbe page and click on the Competition logo, It is my intention to try and win this Magnum Orcus (very limited edition) book, so please vote when the competition is open and help me secure this very special prize.

I hope you enjoy the story of Freddy and his Orcs, keep an eye out for further entries to Orcs in the Webbe Advent Calendar 2010. I have at least two more articles that are due to be published.

Tony

IPMS Scale ModelWorld 2010 part five

It has now been nearly a month since the IPMS Show at Telford and I still haven't uploaded all of the images. This selection covers Sci-Fi, Fantasy and some cross-overs, it starts with a life-size working model of R2D2 and some cars.

I have kept back some of the more spectacular photos for the next post. I hope you enjoy them

Tony