Orcs in the Webbe Advent 2019

With December nearing an end, I thought I would review this years Orcs in the Webbe Advent Calendar. For anyone not familiar with this annual event, see this link.

I had two articles published this year and thought both came out OK, but my favourite read was Revenge of Tidy Mun written by Mattehw Hartley which I though caught the flavour of Flintloque perfectly - for full details see this link.

Once again, I think Craig has done a great job in collating these stories and articles to give us yet another treat for Christmas. Thank you Craig.

Earlier Advents can be found here. Enjoy.

Tony

Snowmen from Alternative Armies - part seven

At last the three snowmen have been finished and varnished. For more information see this link from Alternative Armies.

These super close-ups tend to show up all the mistakes and poor brushwork, but I've included them so you can see how they turned out. I'd like to build a whole regiment of animated snowmen, giving them different weapons and headgear. I think they would make a 'cool' group and with very little conversion could be used in so many different games.

Tony

Christmas 2019

Another 'what I had for Christmas' post.....

Regular readers and followers will know that I usually receive some model-making or modelling related gifts for Christmas and 2019 was no exception.

I'll start with issue 2 of Fantasy Figures International, a reasonably new, bi-monthly publication from Guideline Publications with issue 1 being reviews earlier this year. For more information see this post. Issue 2 was a gift from Sue.

I've only had chance to quickly browse issue 2, but first reactions are another great read. I particularly liked the WW1 Giant Robot diorama featured in Angela's Hammer Time.

Out of Steam, a book from my Brother-in-law and Sister-in-Law looks like a good read.

Village Buildings and Language of Buildings both by Matthew Rice were gifts from my Daughter. I already have a different edition of Village Buildings (a larger portrait layout book), but this smaller edition still has all of the beautiful illustrations.

Language of Buildings is one of the very best architectural 'primers' or introductions I have ever come across and I found myself sneakily reading sections of it all through Christmas day. This really is a fantastic book and the illustrations (see below) are just marvellous.

Curiosities of Worcester (a charity shop find) and another gift from my Daughter has loads of quirky stories and illustrations.

Finally on the book front we have Making Rural Buildings for Model Railways by David Wright. This time a surprise gift from Flo, my Mother-in-Law. Once again, I have only had time to browse the book, but first impressions are very good. In fact the opening chapter - The history of rural buildings in Britain is the most informative chapter giving details of the styles and types of buildings that I have ever come across and for this chapter only, I would give this book a 10-out-of-10. I'm really looking forward to spending time reading the whole of this book.

This one really is a very good book and one that I would have no issues in recommending to model building enthusiasts everywhere.

Earlier this year I was fortunate to see some of David's models at the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association show in Burton, where David was giving instructional tutorials. I didn't pick up any of his books then, but now I know I should have.....

I've also received a new cutting mat (I tend to go through these quite quickly) and a slab of DAS modelling clay, both from Sue. Holly bought me some Palomino Blackwing pencils (if you have never tried these - you are missing out. They are recognised as some of the very best drawing pencils available) and Flo bought me a sketch book - you can NEVER have too many sketch books.

Tony

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all.

Tony

Wargames Terrain & Buildings - North Africa and The Middle East by Tony Harwood

Wargames Terrain & Buildings - North Africa and The Middle East, a book written by me is now available and being shipped by Pen & Sword. For full details see this link.

Wargames Terrain & Buildings - North Africa and The Middle East by Tony Harwood
Published by Pen & Sword
List price £14.99
152 pages with 10 complete start-to-finish modelling and painting projects including 15mm scale and 28mm scale models.
264 mm x 171 mm
Fully illustrated in colour throughout
ISBN 9781526716439

AVAILABLE at the offer price of  £10.49 (12.08.2020)

PLEASE NOTE - the book is not available from me but through Pen & Sword (or via other book sellers). I have updated this Blog post with an image of the contents page.....

Wargames Terrain & Buildings is the second Pen & Sword book by me, the first; Wargames Terrain & Buildings - The Napoleonic Wars can be purchased from P&S. For more details see this Blog link.

Reviews;
The first review - this one from Military Model Scene - for full details see this link.
A short Twitter review from Kev Moon, but still worth including - more information here.
A longer review featuring on the web magazine site Irregular Magazine issue 11, Volume 2, Spring 2020 which can be downloaded free from this link.
A review from Smeggers or Army Rumour Service - for more details see this link.
Less of a review - more of a feature. This time on Wargame News and Terrain - see this link for more information.
Another review, this time from History of War - for details see this link.
A review from FireTrench - see this link.

This time a slightly longer and more in-depth review with loads of images from On The Old Barbed Wire, for more information, see this link.

A Spanish Language review from JM Miniatures - you can find it here.

Another review, this time from IPMSUSA. For more information see this link.

Tony

Snowmen from Alternative Armies - part six

Progress on the three 28mm scale snowmen miniatures from Alternative Armies has been a little slower that I had been expecting - the cold damp weather has made trips to the bottom of the garden a little too uncomfortable.

As you can see most of the detail painting has now been done. I just need to paint up the weapons before the minis can be varnished.

Tony

The Crown - series 3, episode 3 - Aberfan

Sue and watched the Crown, series three, episode three, Aberfan yesterday and feel I have to congratulate Netflix on one of the most intense dramas I can ever remember seeing. It's not an easy watch and I admit we had to pause it on a number of occasions but the way in which the producers screened this disaster was both very well done and respectful. Very well done.

As an adult of a certain age and coming from a South Wales community, I can recall being sent home from school on that morning with my brother - the seriousness and horror of that day still lives with me.

Many, many years later I drove through Aberfan and the chilling effect was still as raw then as the day when the disaster happened.

Today, my thoughts are with both the survivors and the families of Aberfan.

God bless them all.

Tony

Snowmen from Alternative Armies - part five

The snow-white areas of the snowmen was painted in layers of white with a touch of blue and then pure white glazes. I chose to add some gloss varnish to the mix for two reasons; firstly - to add some frost effect and then to aid paint flow.

It was only after taking the photo above that I realised I still had to paint the bases!

I used the same paint mix (including the gloss varnish) to paint the bases as snow covered terrain.

Even though I have a number of specialist figure holders. I still prefer to use a simple cork. Lesson learnt, "Don't waste your money on figure holders, just use the old favourites."

Tony

Crashed Rocketship Gaming Board - Miniature Wargames issue 441

This is part two of a two part series of articles written by me for Miniature Wargames magazine.The earlier post showed how I built the scratch-built rocketship model featured in issue 440 while issue 441 gives details of how the gaming board was constructed to go with the crashed rocketship model.

The crashed rocketship gaming board was commissioned and build for Crooked Dice and is 540mm x 540mm.

For full details of Miniature Wargames magazine see this link.

Tony

Annual Away-Day - Birmingham

Another year and another pre-Christmas Away-Day in Birmingham and in particular a visit to Parabellum in the Jewellery Quarter with cake supplied by me and tea from Mark. On the way back I stopped off to see the latest Banksy mural which is painted on the wall just up the road from Parabellum.

A little early, but Happy Christmas.

Tony

Orcs in the Webbe 2019 Advent Calendar - day ten

Image taken from Orcs in the Webbe site - model constructed and painted by Tony Harwood

Day ten and another short story written by me called The Ferach Faery Flag featuring Errole Flynne and his very special regimental banner. For full details see this link.

Further details of this years OITW Advent can be found here.

Tony

Snowmen from Alternative Armies - part four

Not that much to see.....

I've basecoated the three resin snowmen in an acrylic grey/blue colour. I'll be building up the snow white colour later.

Tony

Snowmen from Alternative Armies - part three

In this post, I have glued the heads and arms to the resin bodies. I used superglue and some modelling filler to fill any gaps, particularly around the scarf/neck area.

I found that the heads needed some careful trimming from the resin casting block. I cut the blocks to the shape of the neck (a tube shape running from the head) and then trimming them to length was the best way forward. The metal arms and guns needed some cleaning up, but nothing too difficult.

Tony

Snowmen from Alternative Armies - part two

The basic resin and metal pieces were laid out, checked and cleaned before I mounted the resin bodies onto 2p coins with superglue.

The bases were built up with standard Milliput two part epoxy putty. I also added a couple of snowballs to the bases, again modelled with Milliput.

Tony

Narrow Lines issue 240

Earlier this week I received my copy of Narrow Lines - The official journal of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association. The magazine celebrates both the 240th issue and the 40th anniversary of the association. The front cover was formatted to look like the first ever issue of the magazine that was published back in 1979. A nice touch.

For more information on the association, see this link.

Happy anniversary.

Tony

Vintage Port Tasting

Regular followers will know that I help to arrange an annual Port Tasting event each December with the proceeds going to charity. Last night we had our event and after a short talk entitled For The Love Of Port we tasted a Ruby Reserve Port and a Late Bottled Vintage Port before trying to guess the shipper and vintage of a decanted Vintage Port.

The Port chosen was Dow's Quinta do Bomfim 2003 vintage and everyone agreed it was a superb wine. I managed to bring back a small sample for both Sue and Holly to try and they agreed with everyone else that this really was a Great Wine.

Tony

Black Powder Snowmen from Alternative Armies

Image taken from the Alternative Armies Web site

It's been a while, but I'm planning on running an On-Line Build featuring these three resin snowmen from Alternative Armies, For full details see this link. I choose the three snowmen with guns rather than the alternative sculpts with swords, shields and spears.

I purchased the models earlier this year and I am ashamed to say that I mislaid them. It was when I was tidying up the shed-at-the-bottom-of-the-garden that I found them and some pieces of resin terrain. I thought that December was the ideal time to brush them off and paint them.

Stay tuned for planned regular updates throughout the month of December.

Tony

Orcs in the Webbe 2019 Advent Calendar - day two

Day two and a short story written by me called The Doily Cart Gift Aid Scam. For full details see this link or pop by for a daily update over on OITW, see this link.

Happy Advent

Tony

Orcs in the Webbe 2019 Advent Calendar - day one

And so it begins.....

The Orcs in the Webbe 2019 Advent Calendar day one and a characterful two player game called The Revenge of Tiddy Mun written by Matthew Hartley. For full details go to this link.

Further daily updates for the month of December can be found by browsing the main Orcs in the Webbe page, here. A big thank you to Craig Andrews (editor of OITW) for this annual freebie.

Happy Advent.

Tony

Orcs in the Webbe 2019 Advent coming soon

Orcs in the Webbe Advent Calendar 2019 coming soon. For those who are not familiar with this much anticipated annual event see this link.

I'm looking forward to seeing what daily Advent posts Craig Andrews has for us this year and will keep the Blog updated with details.

Tony

Russian architecture book

Earlier this month, I picked up this little gem from a charity stall in a Morrisons supermarket. The book is full of both colour and black and white images of buildings and artwork from Russia. The book is written in Russian, but the images were well worth the charity donation and it shows that you can pick up bargains in the most unexpected of places.

Tony

Wargames Terrain & Buildings - North Africa and the Middle East Book

Earlier this week I came across this image of the new Pen & Sword book Wargames Terrain & Buildings - North Africa and the Middle East. A terrain building book written by me and due for release in 2020. As you can see it has a different front cover design showing the Middle East Mosque rather than the Mud Brick Built House of the earlier example (see below).

I think I prefer the Mosque version. For more information see this link.

I will post more details once I have firm information on the actual release date.

Tony

Pencil sketch

This weekend my daughter asked if I would produce a pencil sketch for her to give as a gift. Here is the finished result. A simple sketch for use as a new address notification.

I used a Faber Castell Colour Grip 2001 and a Palomino Black Wing as well as some Reeves watercolour pencils to add some colour tints. The paper is from a Daler Rowney Ebony sketch book.

Tony

Models For Wargamers book still available

With Christmas just around the corner, I thought it was worth reminding readers that I still have copies of Dampfpanzerwagon Guide No. 3 - Models For Wargamers available to purchase for just £12.50 plus postage. For full details see this link.

Tony

Scratch Built Rocketship - Miniatures Wargames issue 440

The latest issue of Miniature Wargames, December 2019 has an article written by me showing how I scratch-built this retro style rocketship from everyday and easily sourced items. For full details of the magazine and contents see this link.

The model was build as a commission for Crooked Dice as part of their retro Sci-Fi range of games and figures - next month there will be a similar tutorial showing how I modelled the crashed rocketship terrain or gaming board.

Tony