Wednesday 30 August 2023

1/35th Scale Narrow Gauge Wagons - part seven

The new narrow gauge wagons have now had their couplings fitted (Hornby R8276) and some additional weathering. Here are the two coal tubs on a section of PECO O-16.5 track.

And the image below shows the same two tubs with the finished bolster ended wagon.


Tony

Friday 25 August 2023

Flintloque - One figure at a time part six

The painting continues.....

The basic tunic was painted in a dark bottle green colour with red facings and the bicorne was done in traditional tar black. Other details were picked out with various acrylic paints and washes.

My favourite part of the painted mini is his tongue which I painted in a pinkish red!


Tony

1/35th Scale Narrow Gauge Wagons - update part six


The painting of these two coal tubs was done with a large brush and involved lots of drybrushing and washes. I wanted a very worn old metal look. The wooden beams were painted with acrylics in a very similar manner to the earlier wooden wagons and the remains of a long forgotten load was done with fine cat litter and some weathering powders.

Prior to taking these photographs, I have varnished the tubs with Galleria matt varnish and added some streaks with gloss varnish. The final detail was to add some graphite (2B pencil) to the exposed edges, particularly the top edges of the tubs.

I still need to add couplings but for now the bulk of the work is finished.


Tony

Wednesday 23 August 2023

Flintloque - One figure at a time part five


The painting started with the green flesh. I used a variety of different green paints to build-up the deep green skin colour then washed the area with both black and green washes. The eyes were originally picked out in white but later tinted yellow.

Tony

Tuesday 22 August 2023

Weekend visit to Swansea

Sue and I have just returned from a long weekend visit to Swansea where we had Joe's ice-cream and a walk along the promenade down Mumbles, before meeting up with family. On Monday Sue and Mum had some time in Swansea city centre shopping and I took a walk along High Street to check out some of the charity shops.

This collection of 20 second-hand magazine was just some of the collection I spotted in one charity shop. I was very good and only picked up 20. There were a lot more for sale at just 25p each and it took ALL of my willpower not to purchase the full collection! The images below give more details of exactly what I bought.






Before leaving with this hoard, I spotted some fantastic Railway books and magazines in another charity shop and after telephoning my Uncle John and informing him of what was for sale at bargain prices, I picked up a number of magazines and books for him. Later when I dropped of the books to John, he rewarded me with these two books. They are part of a series and I already have book one in the series.


All in all a very enjoyable break and a very rewarding one.

Tony

Friday 18 August 2023

Flintloque - One figure at a time part four

The modified miniature was spray painted with black rattle-can paint, then sprayed from above with grey paint and finally drybrushed with white on the upper surfaces. My version of Zenithal Basecoating.

The second image shows the model from the rear all ready for painting proper. 


Tony

Flintloque - One figure at a time part three


With the major sculpting/conversion work complete, I textured the Milliput base with sieved stones and sand applied over PVA glue. I will now be undercoating or basecoating the miniature so expect an update soon. 

I had thought of adding either a bayonet or sword to the right hand, but in the end decided to leave it off.

Tony

Wednesday 16 August 2023

1/35th Scale Narrow Gauge Wagons - update part five

In addition to the standard flat and modified flat wagons that have featured on this Blog, I have also been working on these two coal tubs. The inspiration came from an image I found on ebay and the tubs have been built from plastic card on cut down HO-OO wagon frames. 

Once built, I used heat to distress the tubs and give them some wear. I've never seen a true tub that has not had some damage or repairs. The coal tubs are slightly shorten than I need, so I will have to come up with some way of lengthening them before I start adding paint.

The final image shows the two tubs alongside the Fireless engine on a section of PECO O-16.5 track.


Tony

Monday 14 August 2023

Flintloque - One figure at a time - part two

Progress on my Alternative Armies Todaroni character continues with more Milliput and Green Stuff. The modified figure has now been mounted on to a 2p coin with the groundwork built up from Green/Grey Milliput.

In the second image, you can see how I have added the traditional Todaroni headgear feather - again sculpted with Green Stuff.

The miniature has been inspired by a comment and competition being launched on the Orcs in the Webbe Facebook page, where you can take any Flintloque figure and modify or convert it. For more information, see this link.


Tony

Saturday 12 August 2023

The Ruined Chapel - Miniature Wargames September 2023

Issue 485 of Miniature Wargames (August 2023) has the second of my two-part series on how I first scratch built and then painted a model of a ruined chapel based on the ruin at Brockhampton, Worcester.

In this article I give details of how the ruin was painted and based. for more information, see the magazine at; link.


Tony

Thursday 10 August 2023

Flintloque - One figure at a time. A new project.

Over the last couple of weeks there has been some talk on various Flintloque groups, particularly Orcs in the Webbe about a possible Todaroni themed challenge based around the new Todaroni releases from Alternative Armies. When nothing came of the challenge, I thought I would search through my Flintloque 'bits box' and see what I could find.....

As a result of the search, I came across these two identical models of Sharke from one of the AA boxed sets. I have already painted up one for my collection and thought he would be a good base for a conversion.

In the same 'bits box' I had this single Todaroni, one of the original AA releases and a figure I had both based and started painting. Of note is the fact that it was the only AA Todaroni I had in my to-paint collection!

'Off with his head'. I used a jeweller's saw to remove both heads and some files to clean up the figure before pinning and gluing the miniature. I have used both Milliput and Green Stuff to tidy-up the join. The most difficult part of the conversion was deciding on the placement of the new head - I wanted to keep the 'head down and hunched stance of the original Todaroni sculpt.

'Hiding the join'. You can see how I have used more Green Stuff to add detail to the front and the rear of the figure. This was the first part of the conversion and I will now need to wait for the Green Stuff to fully harden before adding even more detail.

I've not converted or painted a Flintloque miniature for some time and the Orcs in the Webbe posts have re-kindled my Flintloque/Silver Bayonet interest and I look forward to posting more.


Tony

Wednesday 9 August 2023

1/35th Scale Narrow Gauge Wagons - update part four


Today's update shows all six narrow gauge wagons awaiting couplings. I think this image shows the variation in natural wood finishes better, plus how I have weathered them.

My intention is to have eight wagons so I can have an Inglenook Puzzle layout and I will post details of the last two wagons soon.

Tony

Monday 7 August 2023

1/35th Scale Narrow Gauge Wagons - update part three

The three new wagons were all painted with acrylic paints. A basecoat, some highlighting and then washes.

The old wood colour was a mix of various browns, linen and grey to add variety.

Finally, the wooden panelling was given an oil wash with small dots of oil colour thinned out with odorless white spirits,

Each of the flat wagons were then further detailed and weathered with more acrylic paint and some watercolour pencils.

Light rust was added in small amounts which was mixed from Charred Brown and Hot Orange (Vallejo paints) before I added some graphite (2B pencil) to the metal areas.

The final image shows the three wagons ready for couplings to be added.


Tony

Saturday 5 August 2023

1/35th Scale Narrow Gauge Wagons - update part two

This most recent post shows how I have used the same flat wagon as a basis for three unique narrow gauge railway models, A box van with a pitched roof, A framed flat and a custom flat wagon with tie-downs. All three models were built from scrap plastic card over the same ESSO or Milk tankers seen in the earlier post.

I have use various images found on the internet as inspiration, adding custom detailing as I went along. Of note is the use of blue painters tape for the roof of the closed box van and scrap aluminium for the strapping on the framed flat wagon.

The last three images show the finished construction. I now need to paint them and will add more images when this is done.




Tony

Thursday 3 August 2023

1/35th Scale Narrow Gauge Wagons - update

I found these better images of the flat wagon and one with the Fireless Engine.


Tony

Wednesday 2 August 2023

1/35th Scale Wagons for my Fireless Locomotive

With the 1/35th scale Fireless Locomotive finished (see earlier posts), I needed to work on some wagons. I chose a simple flat wagon to start and thought you may want to see how this and others were built.

Photo two

A second-hand HO-OO ESSO Tanker. Bought for £5.00.

Photo three

Now with the tank removed - I'm sure I will find some use for the tank - stay tuned for more information.....

Photo four

Modified by cutting off all of the solebar and brake detail and sanding the top flat.

Photo five

The modified wagons cut in half with a new wheel base of 30mm. I used a simple wooden jig to get the dimensions correct and keep all the wagons uniform.

Photo six

Various thicknesses of plastic card all ready to be cut and then glued together.

Photo seven

The finished flats - suitably weathered and aged.

Photo eight

The finished and painted flat wagon with a load of cardboard boxes and displayed on a scenic base. I still need to add couplings, but this can wait for now.


I have three finished flat wagons and am working on a couple of variations. The models were obviously all scratch built and have no 'real-life' inspiration. I was very disappointed that there are so few plans or drawings for simple narrow gauge wagons and had to design and built my own.

The flat wagons are 68mm long x 40mm wide and ride at 16.5mm above track level. Each wagon took about two hours to build and about the same to paint, but I now have some original stock for my 1/35th scale industrial layout. I just need to build it.

Tony