Orcs in the Webbe Advent Calendar

Regular readers and followers of this Blog will be well aware of Orcs in the Webbe an on-line resource managed by Craig Andrews. The New Orcs in the Webbe has been running for a couple of weeks and tomorrow we see day one of the now famous and traditional Advent Calendar, 24 days of content - instead of a tasty piece of chocolate, we have an article, a story or a feature updated daily in the run-up to Cryptmas.

In the past years, I have contributed content for this festive feature and no doubt one of my stories will be included this year. For further details go to these links for content of previous years; 2010, 2011 and 2012.

I think Craig needs to be supported in this venture, so pop along and see what daily goodies he has to offer this year (or check out the previous Advents).

Good luck Craig.

Tony

Joccian War Haggis for Flintloque - The Haggis Herder

My final post detailing the War Haggis from Black Hat Miniatures is this Highland Haggis Herder, a converted Glasgee Lowland Rat (56503) from Alternative Armies, see this link for more details.

Photo Two - The Lowland Rat had the flintloque removed and a length of wire inserted in its place. I fitted the three-headed prod from the Black Hat Dwarf miniature (see earlier post) and added some small details from Green Stuff. The modified Rat was mounted on to a 2p coin and the groundwork built up with Milliput.

Painting followed my tried and tested technique of building-up a base colour and two or three highlights over a Black undercoat. The scheme was copied from my existing Glasgee Lowland Rat regiment.

When the painting was complete, I varnished the whole figure and base with quick-drying Gloss Varnish from Wilkos and then two coats of Galleria Mat Varnish to finish off. The clumps of static grass were added over small blobs of diluted uPVA glue.

I've enjoyed modelling and painting this unusual set of Haggis and Haggis Herder and look forward to seeing how I can use them in future games of Flintloque. Earlier posts detailing this particular On-Line Build can be found here and here.

Once again, I apologise for the total lack of work-in-progress shots as these were some of the lost images when the computer hard-drive played-up, earlier this year.

I hope you like the fun element of this group. I do.

Tony

WHSmiths buys ModelZone name

This may very well be 'old news' to many but earlier today I was visiting the Frankfurt Christmas Market in Birmingham and on the way back to the car I called in to WHSmiths. The Birmingham store now has a ModelZone section selling a limited collection of both plastic construction kits, diecast cars and model making books.

I checked the internet and it appears that WHSmiths have bought the ModelZone name and will be selling plastic kits under the ModelZone name and in dedicated model making areas in their larger stores.

For more details see this link.

Look out for special offer vouchers giving 20% off throughout the ModelZone store (valid until 8th of December 2013).

Tony

Something for Nothing

I have recently seen some Blog articles or tutorials showing how different modellers have built rocky outcrops from wood chips. These are some that I made from a handful of wood chips picked up in a Supermarket carpark.

The chips were cut at an angle and superglued to a rough oval of 3mm thick plastic card. The groundwork was built up with DAS modelling clay and further textured with sieved stones and fine sand.

The painting was simple drybrushing over a Chaos Black undercoat and further refined with some Citadel Washes. I painted the groundwork with my usual Snakebite Leather, highlighted with Snakebite/Skull White and picked out the odd stone with Grey, highlighted with Skull White.

The 'flocking' is simple railway modellers dyed sawdust - which is the same as the covering of my gaming table and I have added a couple of tufts of static grass and even some dark green ground foam to add colour.

The small evergreen tree added to the final piece was picked up at a Toy and Train Fayre some time ago and is glued in place with my hot-glue gun.

Total cost for all three pieces was less than a couple of pounds in paint, DAS and plastic card. In addition to these three rocky outcrops, I have also modelled a road-side shrine which I will feature in a future Blog update.

I apologise for the fact that there are no work-in-progress images - as I stated earlier in the month a whole host of images were lost off my computer when the hard-drive played up, luckily some images were still stored on the camera.

Tony

Figure Painter Magazine #7

I have recently downloaded issue 7 of the on-line publication Figure Painter Magazine. Regular readers and followers will know that I have downloaded a number of these magazines, but not every issue.

The magazine follows a tried and tested format of a mixture of reviews (or open box) articles a couple of tutorials and at least one interview. The rest of the pages being adverts and images of beautifully painted miniatures.

Given that I have in the past been very complimentary of the content, I found this issue my least favourite of the four I have downloaded. I'm not sure why? Issue 7 has 100 pages of content which is more large-scale figure orientated as opposed to wargame figure scales, but has the potential to be a great magazine. At just £1.00 per issue I find the magazine good value and would recommend that anyone interested in figure painting (what ever the scale) would find something of interest.

For further details go to this link.

Tony

Joccian War Haggis for Flintloque - part two

Part Two of this months On-Line Build, jumps straight to the fully painted, varnished and flocked stage as the work-in-progress shots were lost when my computer played up......................

Photo One - The 'Wee Little Beasties', all four of the mad little buggers. I have tried to vary the colour scheme on each of them, to give some variety and also identify different sub-species of Mad Aggis.

Photo Two - Broone and Ginger, reputedly the most fierce of the bunch.

Photo Three - Darge and Blondie. There are those that say Blondie is a girl, but as no one is willing to check, we will have to take this with a 'pinch of salt'.

Each War Haggis was mounted on to a 2p coin with the groundwork built up with Milliput. they were all painted over a Black undercoat and once the main fur colour had been applied, I used Citadel Washes to build up the depth. Detail painting was done with a No2 Rosemary & Co brush (my current brush of choice).

The War Haggis were first varnished with Wilko fast drying Gloss Varnish and then Galleria Matt Varnish. The simple static grass flocking was applied over uPVA glue.

Part one - Joccian War Haggis for Flintloque can be found by following this link.

Tony

Reaper Bones Bat Swarm

This is my first ever Reaper Bones sculpt. I bought it from e-bay last month as I thought I could use it as a marker with my Undead Flintloque figures.

I should start by saying that ALL of the work-in-progress images were lost when my computer decided to play up and so these photos are of the finished miniature or the official image taken from the Reaper Bones site.

I had heard that the new Polymer Bones did not take paint too well and after reading a number of reports on the Internet, I washed the piece in warm soapy water before trimming the base and mounting it on to a 2p coin. This was my first and only problem - Superglue (at least the superglue I use) does not want to stick the plastic material to the metal coin. I persevered and built up the base with Milliput, which helped.

Painting was built-up over a Black acrylic undercoat. I used undiluted Chaos Black from Games Workshop as most comments say that the plastic does not like diluted acrylic paint. The painting is a simple base coat with at least one drybrushing and loads of washes; Brown, Blue, Green, Black and even Purple.

There have been some reports of warping of the plastic material - I did not experience this, in fact the whole miniature was very firm with little flex or 'give'.

I painted the groundwork with my usual Snakebite Leather from GW and then varnished the model with fast drying (water-based) Matt Varnish from Wilkinsons (two coats). The flocking was simple static grass applied over uPVA glue.

The final image shows the Reaper Bones Bat Swarm alongside my Metal Reaper Miniatures Bat Swarm, also mounted on to a 2p coin. There is a huge difference in both scale and size, but I'm OK with it as these miniatures rarely get used on the gaming table.

The lessons I have learnt are;
Wash the miniature with soapy water.
Superglue does not work.
Use un-diluted paint - at least for the undercoat or base colour.

Tony

IPMS Scale Model World 2013

On Sunday 10th November I visited the IPMS Scale Model World show at Telford. This was the fifth or sixth year in a row that I had made the trek up to the international Centre, Telford.

I arrived about 10.30 and after paying my £10.00 entry fee went straight into the first hall that was set out with a huge display showing models and exhibits from the IPMS archive. 2013 was the 50th anniversary of the show.

There were two more halls to see, but before I moved on the Last Post was played at 11.00 with a sombre 2 minute silence which given the amount of people present was very well observed. Then on to browsing the stands and exhibits. I tend to walk around the outskirts of the main halls and then up and down the central aisles to make sure I see everything.

By 1.00 I had made my way into hall three and these 1:1 displays. I sat in the canteen area and had a light lunch before making my way back through the exhibition and at 3.00 spent another hour taking photos of the competition area.

I was back home in Droitwich by 5.00 after a long day out, fully satisfied that my £10.00 had been very well spent.

I did not spend that much at the show and was pleased to report back to Sue that there was still money in my wallet. When I was asked if I had taken many photos I replied, yes. However when loading them onto my upgraded (and NEW) computer I was a little surprised to see that I had in fact taken over 550 photos. Many of which will be posted here on this Blog in future updates.

While browsing the stands, I overheard some exhibitors talking about the possibility of a Harrier (a fully operational Harrier) being the 1:1 highlight for next year. Now that will be something to see.

Tony

Scale Modelling step-by-step

I have just picked up this modelling guide, an Airfix Model World Special and bought from WHSmiths, Tewkesbury. The magazine cost £4.99 and is intended as a advanced modelling guide, covering aircraft, AFV's and dioramas.

100 pages crammed full of both interesting and informative articles which are very informative and beautifully illustrated. So far I have browsed the content rather than read from start to finish and each of the tutorials have been great fun to follow.

I have no hesitation in recommending the magazine to wargamers or modellers, I am sure that there will be something for everyone.

On a similar note when walking back to the car I popped in to the old second-hand book store on Tewkesbury High Street and tucked around the back of the shop were ten/twelve blue folders full of both White Dwarf and Dragon magazines being sold at £10.00 a binder. Some of the White Dwarf magazines were old and the Dragon magazines were around the 100/200 issue numbers. I choose not to buy any, as I am trying to de-clutter, but if anyone is interested, they were available yesterday

Tony

My Computer

As a certain Foul Mouthed Orc Sergeant might say - "My computer is totally b******d."

Last ditch attempts by my Son to resurrect the old 'Black Box' have failed miserably and a whole load of 'work-in-progress' images have been lost forever. At this moment I am working off my Wife's laptop with occasional input from my external hard drive, but a whole series of photos were totally destroyed.

Luckily most of the images for the second book - Building Wargame Terrain (book two) had been backed up, the images that were lost were a set of simple tutorials and On-Line Builds that I will now have to update without photos.

I am now in the process of sourcing a new computer. Normal service will be resumed very soon.

Tony

Tudor Monastery Farm - starts tonight on BBC2

A new series detailing life on a Tudor Monastery Farm starts this evening on BBC2 at 9.00pm. The series is based at the famous Weald and Downland open air museum. For full details go to this link;
http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/cp55dr/tudor-monastery-farm--series-1---episode-1

I'll be recording it to watch later but thought it was worth posting details.

Tony

Barking Irons Online - no longer available

This link posted earlier this month on The Notables Yahoo Group by Craig Andrews gives details of the decision by Craig Andrews (Editor - Barking Irons Online) and Gavin Syme (Creative Manager - Alternative Armies) to close down Barking Irons Online.

The decision means that all of my Masterclass Articles, previously posted on BIO are not currently available to view. In the long term, Craig has promised that the content will be moved over to Orcs in the Webbe, see this link for access to the current version of OITW. However, there was quite a bit of content, Masterclass Tutorials, Figure Painting Articles and even the White Liar short stories that are no longer available.

I'm not sure how I feel about this as there was a great deal of work invested in these projects and I know that they were regularly browsed. The work involved in moving these across to this Blog is currently not feasible and not really something I want to do. I will keep an eye on developments and hopefully the content will soon be available on 'Son of OITW'.

After reading the announcement on The Notables earlier this week I had not expected the close down to be quite so quick (or final) but BIO is dead, long live OITW!

In the mean time the embedded links to these articles in this Blog will not work. Sorry. In fact I'm not sure at this moment if they will be reinstated. We live in hope.

Should there be any developments, I will post links and comment on this Blog.

Tony

Joccian War Haggis for Flintloque

My November On-Line Build or Pledge is a set of War Haggis from Black Hat Miniatures. I have wanted to model and paint these little monsters for some time and even looked at buying them over the Net, but it was Newbury Colours earlier this year when I actually picked up this blister of four War Haggis and a Dwarf Herder (SHD005 Highland Dwarf Haggis Herder) as well as some Coat d'Arms paint. Black Hat Miniatures were exhibiting on a stand next to Dave Bodley (Grand Manner) and with my cash in hand I picked up this set.

Photo Two - The four War Haggis and Dwarf Herder.

Photo Three - Looking like hairy Squigs, the Joccian War Haggis will be based and modelled to accompany my Glasgee Lowland Rats (56503 from Alternative Armies).

Photo Four - Mounted on to 2p coins with the groundwork built up from Milliput White. I had thought that I could have mounted them on to 1p coins, but I think they look better on the larger 2p coins.

Photo Five - A close up of one of the fierce War Haggis, or is that Haggi?

I'm looking forward to painting these little monsters, but am not sure what I will do with the Herder, I need to check my Spares Box to see if I still have some Joccian Ratmen.

More to follow.

Tony

At long last!

My computer is back! For the last three weeks I have been without my desktop and having to use my Wife's laptop with my external hard drive to update this Blog and browse the Web. Yesterday I picked up the big black box from my Son who has been restoring my favourite settings and cleaning viruses. Thank you Gary.

Last night I was able to access my latest images - many for the upcoming book Building Wargame Terrain book two which I had feared I had lost when the computer went down last month.

Normal service should be resumed tomorrow with the first post of a new On-Line Build/The Pledge.

Tony

IPMS Scale Model World

Just one week to go to one of the best model shows in the UK, possibly the world! The IPMS Scale Model World model show will be held on the weekend of the 9th and 10th of November at The Telford International Centre, Telford.

I intend visiting the show on Sunday 10th November. This will not be my first visit, see these posts for some images and a feel for the event; link, link, link and link.

For full details of the event go to this link.

See you there,

Tony