Hand Tool Restoration - another wooden mallet

This is our 'old faithful' - a wooden mallet that we've had for years and years. I've used it for camping, caravaning and gardening. Recently it was lent-out to my daughter who took it camping in South Wales - Three Cliffs Bay Holiday Park.

I thought it deserved to be restored.

After taking it apart, I re-cut the mallet faces and sanded all the surfaces smooth. In addition, I trimmed about 30mm from the base of the handle which I always thought was too long.

And here it is waxed and finished.

Finally, alongside the earlier charity bought wooden mallet that has featured in earlier posts.

Tony

Airfix Hurricane - part eight

The tail sections have been added. In addition I have glued the radiator housing to the lower fuselage and the model is nearing the stage where I will be adding paint.

It's beginning to look like a Hurricane.

Tony

Ragnarok - The journal of the Society of Fantasy & Science Fiction Wargamers

This is my most recent e-bay haul. ten copies of Ragnarok - The journal of the Society of Fantasy & Science Fiction Wargamers or SFSFW.

I already have two of the issues as I've been a collector of these magazines for some years, but to get 10 copies for just £10.00 was too good an opportunity to miss out on.

Details of this now defunct society can still be found on the internet - for details see this link.

I have always found these enthusiasts and fan produced magazines to be full of great content and inspiration and during the most recent 'lockdown' period they should supply me with great reading material.

Tony

Orcs in the Webbe Advent - just one week to go

Just one week to go before the start of Craig Andrew's Orcs in the Webbe Advent Calendar 2020. This will be the 14th year that Craig has hosted an Advent on OITW and I'm sure it will be another great success.

Not sure what the OITW advent calendar is?

Check out this link for loads of free content.

Tony

Airfix Hurricane - part seven

The wings have now been fitted. They went together well and fitted the fuselage perfectly although I had to 'snap' them in place as the fit was a little tight.

Tony

Cranky The Crane Bird Table

I was asked to build a bird table for my Grandsons, Charlie and Finley - this is the result. Cranky the Crane - a Thomas the Tank Engine inspired bird table built from scrap wood.

Here are some initial sketches and work-in-progress shots.

I can report that they loved it.

Tony

Airfix Hurricane - part six

The one thing I like about this particular project is that I'm NOT rushing it. Unlike Airfix models that I built as a child/teenager, this model is being constructed at a much more leisurely pace.

The fuselage has been glued together with liquid polystyrene glue and then taped and clamped together.

I still needed to add some filler across the top of the nose section, but the main body is now glued together. My main disappointment is that now the two fuselage sides are glued - you can see very little of the interior - actually almost nothing!

I'm glad I added the seat belts as these at least add some interest to the cockpit. I'm wondering if these new Airfix kits are a little over engineered for their own good after all, I've spent almost a week detailing and painting the cockpit but so much of it can't be seen.....

 Tony

Airfix Hurricane - part five

I built the seat belts from some blue masking tape and plastic card and glued the seat to the cockpit rear before spray painting all of the interior with Tamiya grey primer.

The cockpit was painted in a yellow/green British cockpit colour before being stippled with a darker shadow colour and then 'washed' with a Dark Tone wash from Army  Painter. The dash board and seat belts were then painted with a fine detail brush before drybrushing with a lighter green colour.

The next step will be gluing the fuselage together.

Tony

Trugs, Totes and Crates

Over the last couple of weeks I've been working on a number of projects using scrap wood (ex-pallets) to build trugs, totes and crates. Now that the weather has changed, I don't expect to be spending as much time in the garden as I've be used to.

Here are just a few examples of what I've been up to.

 Tony

Bleak Falls Gaming Board - part one the construction

Issue 452 of Miniature Wargames (December 2020) has this very special modelling article written by me - Bleak Falls. The model was initially built as a display piece for Modiphius Games Bleak Falls or the Skyrim miniature wargame to be used at wargame shows and as the background for some gaming scenarios and photographs.

The finished gaming board is very much inspired by the Skyrim computer game.

Part one shows how the gaming boards was constructed, using lots of blue foam, modelling compound and DAS modelling clay.

Throughout construction, I was continually sketching plans and ideas as to how best I could model the dramatic terrain and mountainous landscape.

The finished model is 1200mm long x 470mm wide and 780mm tall.

For more information and loads of images, see Miniature Wargames issue 452.

Tony

Airfix Hurricane - part four

Progress has been slow, but steady. I've sanded back all of the filler and the seam on the wing front has been eliminated. I used some fine sanding sticks and a little bit of Vallejo filler/putty to smooth out the join, then a seam scraper to reinstate any panel lines.

Cockpit detailing was added to the upper wing. these are very fine plastic mouldings and needed a lot of care to remove from the sprue and clean up. Hopefully I'll be able to add some paint soon.

Tony

Airfix Hurricane - part three

Even after clamping the upper and lower wings together I still had a nasty seam on one side of the front wing, so I filled the join with Milliput and isopropolene alcohol (Milli-butter) and allowed the mix to fully set - it doesn't take too long.

 I'll sand back the join later.

Tony

Airfix Hurricane - part two

My first impressions of this kit are that it is a million miles away from what I had expected. Old Airfix would have had a 'L' shaped seat with a simple pilot placed into the fuselage sides in step one - this kit has loads of small detail for the interior and surface detailing that is just beautiful to behold. The difference is as chalk to cheese from the kits I used to make and paint in a day (sometimes an afternoon)!

I've included a shot of the first two pages of the instructions to show what I mean.

Step one for me was building the internal walls of the main undercarriage bay and then adding the upper wing to the lower wing. This was done with liquid polystyrene cement and some small dots of superglue to strengthen and fill the joints.

I did have some issues with the fit of the upper to lower wing, but after applying the glue and four spring loaded clamps I left it for the day.

I'm not planning on rushing this build - I want to see just how different these new generation kits are to the ones I remember as a teenager. So far I'm very impressed.

Tony

Airfix 1/72nd scale Hawker Hurricane Mk.1

In a break from the usual, I thought I'd try something new.....

I saw this Airfix kit in a charity shop on Wednesday and thought I'd try making it. This will be the first Airfix plane model I have built for over three decades. The boxed kit cost me just £4.99. I checked all the pieces were sealed and that the decal were still included before picking it up and bring it back to my workbench.

My plan is to build it as a straight from the box project - I'm not interested in buying any resin updates or changing the colour scheme. So stay tuned to see how I get on.

 Tony

Lots of old metal miniatures for sale on E-bay

I have recently cleared out a number of old metal miniatures from my spares box. You can find them on ebay;

ebay auctions

Thank you.

Tony