The Hound of the Baskervilles - BBC Going Classical

The BBC 4 series Going Classical features the BBC orchestra and world-renowned singers or musicians performing in some of the UK's most beautiful halls. In this case we have the orchestra performing a new piece with Mark Gattis and Sanjeev Baskar as Holmes and Watson re-telling the story of The Hound of the Baskevilles. 

I think this was the best piece of TV I saw (or more accurate listened to) over the holiday period. For more information see this link.

You can still enjoy it on BBC iPlayer. Highly recommended.

Tony

Christmas 2023

A quick post showing some of the presents I had for Christmas - Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without at least one pack of DAS.

I hope you had some great presents.

Tony

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Old Tom - A Tale from the White Liar Tavern

Day 21 of the Orcs in the Webbe 2023 Advent and a short White Liar Tale written by me. Old Tom is based on the Robbie Burns poem Tam O'Shanter with suitable Flintloque themes. I hope you like it.

For more details see this link.

Happy Advent

Tony

Bro Dawel all Christmassy

The Bro Dawel cottage was scratch built by me some time ago and has previously appeared in Miniature Wargames - see this post. The model is based on the Lilliput Lane Bro Dawel - see below.

I wanted to add some Christmas themed props to the model and then gift it as a Christmas cottage for a seasonal or Lemax style festive table piece. I have used 'bits and bobs' from my spares box and scratch built some candy canes as well as adding DAS snow to the thatched roof.

The final addition was the snowman that was modelled from Milliput with a Shako from my spares box.

Merry Christmas

Tony

A Christmas Movie?

It's Christmas movie time and earlier this week Sue and I settled down to watch one. Holly suggested Die Hard with Bruce Willis. Not your first Christmas movie choice but if in any doubt just watch this You Tube video from Alfie Boe and Disney - link

Merry Christmas and Yippie Ki Ya

Tony

Scratch Built Wall and Gate in 28mm - Miniature Wargames issue 489

The latest issue of Miniature Wargames - issue 489, January 2024 contains another article written by me - this time showing how I built and painted a perimeter wall section with a wooden gate to accompany the ruined wall sections featured in last months MW. For more information, see this link.

As well as the terrain tutorial I have a second shorter article featuring Flintloque - see Community Corner on page 5 in which I contribute a short 'love letter' on this game system.

The latest issue is now available to purchase from WHSmiths.

Tony

Repairing an old and damaged piece of scratch built terrain

Earlier this year I was asked by a very close friend if I could repair a piece of terrain that he had of mine. The model was damaged after it had been dropped and was showing multiple areas of flaked paint and missing pieces.

The first two images show the model prior to any repairs and the chipped roof tiles are very apparent.

The last two images show the repaired model with new roof tiles, repainted walls and re-flocked base. The areas of repair were first strengthened with two part epoxy glue and then textured prior to painting.

It was a real pleasure to work on one of my older pieces of terrain and the finished model has made me want to produce more Flintloque inspired pieces of terrain.

Tony

Orcs in the Webbe 2023 Advent Calendar day five

Orcs in the Webbe day 5 and this time a pencil sketch by me of my Flintloque/Deadlock character Margahrah the former Lyonesse Commissariat and acting Captain that features in the three part Deadlock scenario Getting Ahead as well as the additional two stand-alone scenarios Margahrah's Bane and Margahrah and the battle of Burnehof. For more details see this link.

The character of Margahrah was named after my Aunty Margaret (Marma) and her dog Sally he is based on a maths teacher and head of year called Mr Perrins who had a great influence on me as well as the fictional French police detective and Commissaire Maigret.

The sketch was done some time ago - I had planned on rewriting the three part Getting Ahead or Headless Zombies stories and publishing them as an illustrated novella and this and some other sketches were to be featured, but I never got around to it - maybe one day.

Happy Advent

Tony

Orcs in the Webbe 2023 Advent Calendar day one

Day one of this years Orcs in the Webbe Advent Calendar features some simple spaceship battle rules written by Matthew Hartley. The rules come at a very opportunistic moment as I have a couple of squads of converted spacecraft sitting on my desk just waiting for a game and although mounted on circular plastic bases instead of hexagonal, I'm sure I can find a way of 'muddling through'.

For more details, see this link.

Happy Advent.

Tony

Orcs in the Webbe 2023 Advent Calendar just one day away

With just one day to go - I for one am looking forward to this years Orcs in the Webbe Advent. The free content is a long standing tradition by the Orcs in the Webbe host Craig and this year will be the 16th year of hosting free content (and not all Flintloque/Alternative Armies based, but a wide range of game systems). For more details see this link.

Tony

1/35th scale Narrow Gauge Layout - part six

I have started work on the road over-bridge. I increased the height and built up the road surface with corrugated cardboard before starting on the brick faced front.

I have used 5mm foam underlay and carved each brick individually before painting it with a variety of different acrylic paints.

The brick overlay was glued in place with PVA glue and held in place with pins while the glue set.

This image shows the canal bridge I was using as inspiration for my bridge face.

Finally, we have the Fireless locomotive being tested on a section of scrap track - to make sure it all works.

Tony

Bampi's Shed

I'll start by saying that my shed is where I do most of my modelling and figure painting - in fact miniature figure painting or wargame figure painting is what I would love to be doing....

But over the last three months most of my time in the shed has been repairing toys, producing bits 'n' pieces and finishing Christmas gifts. To give you some idea of the various jobs here is a list (and not a complete list at that!)

Making (and painting) cardboard shields for the two grandsons 

Illustrating two children's books for my son's father-in-law

Re-framing a painting for my daughter - I produced the painting some time ago but was never satisfied with the finished frame and mount

Repair two swords for the grandsons

Produce some Christmas gifts

Making fancy dress props for my son (I'm still working on these)

Re-mend a sword!

Repair a wooden spoon

Print some Christmas cards from lino prints I carved years ago

Hopefully, I can spend some time painting wargame miniatures soon. But I not holding my breath.....

Tony

Mason's Court - Stratford-upon-Avon

Today, Sue and I went to Stratford-upon-Avon and had fun browsing the shops looking for Christmas presents. I particularly enjoyed the art exhibition, where I saw loads of great original work and chatted to the artists. On the way back to the car I took these images of Mason's Court - an open bay house typical of the medieval period and similar in design to Bayleaf House at the Weald and Down Museum.

I have taken images from the front and right hand side to show the timber frame construction. The brick infill is not original.

Tony

1/35th scale Narrow Gauge Layout - part five

I have been building up the area around the road over-bridge with DAS modelling clay - I needed to make it slightly higher to facilitate the Fireless locomotive and carriages. In addition a trip to Tennants Trains, Halesowen to purchase the track and turnouts was supplemented with this box of MiniArt Civilian Drivers.

The final image shows the Fireless locomotive now fitting under the road bridge.

There is still a lot of construction work to complete before I am ready to lay the track, but at least there has been a little bit of progress.

Tony

Scratch Building Walls in 28mm - Miniature Wargames issue 488

The latest issue of Miniature Wargames - issue 488, December 2023 features an article written by me in which I show how I built three sections of damaged walls for use in my Flintloque games. The same models have previously appeared in my self published book Building Wargame Terrain (now out of print).

For more information, please pick up the magazine or see this link.

Tony

1/35th scale Narrow Gauge Layout - part four

Progress has been slow with other modelling projects taking priority and the change in the weather meaning that I have not been able to work on the layout - however, I have made some progress.

The track bed is 5mm thick under laminate insulation - I am hoping that this will cut down on the amount of track noise. It is stuck down with PVA glue. Most of the groundwork is cardboard covered with strips of torn newspaper reinforced with glue and then DAS Terracotta air drying clay over the top.

The tunnel mouth and over bridge have proven to be the hardest part to model as I wanted a sweeping curve and needed enough room for the existing fireless engine and wagons to fit under.

More DAS, this time DAS White applied over dilute PVA glue to build up the embankment on the left hand edge of the layout.

I would expect to get at least one more modelling update before it becomes too cold to work outdoors but hopefully you can see how this small layout is progressing.

Tony

Scratch Built Airships - Miniature Wargames issue 487

The latest issue of Miniature Wargames (issue 487, November 2023) has an article written by me showing how I built a couple of airships inspired by the Amazon Prime TV series Carnival Row. The blimps were cut from insulation foam with plastic card gondolas and painted with a range of acrylic paints before being based.

The models are built to a nominal scale of 1/600th and mounted on to 60mm round bases.

For more information, pick up a copy of Miniature Wargames, or check out this link.

The final image shows the second airship alongside a bottle of paint to give an idea of the scale and size of these models.

Tony

Some long lost bits of clutter

Regular readers of this Blog will know that I have in the past produced a number of masters to be produced in resin. One of my favourite parts of finishing these masters is to add odd bits of 'clutter' to the bases - barrels, sacks and wheels are the most common.

Yesterday I was presented with a couple of bags of bits - the masters from nearly ten years ago. I thought about having them once again cast in resin, but I already have a pile of such bits and I think I will use them on future terrain builds.

The fist image shows a range of mushrooms and fungi which I modelled for the fantasy game Panzerfauste from Steve Blease. I have already used some of the resin models on pieces of Burrows & Badgers terrain.

The second image shows a whole range of different barrels which I have sculpted and once again I will be using them on new wargame terrain builds.

The final image is a photograph of more bits - jugs and urns. 

Thank you Rob. They will be well used.

Tony

The New 1/35th scale Narrow Gauge Layout - part three

The progress has been slow, but here are some work-in-progress shots of the baseboard.

The first images shows the wallpaper plan positioned on the two IKEA table tops. The second image has a layer of polystyrene foam glued on top to define some of the ground contours. I used PVA glue to glue everything together and the various weights were added to make sure it was a firm bond.

Image three - I have used DAS terracotta clay to start refining the small dry-bed river.

Image four - I have strengthened the underside with some wooden strips that I picked up at my local DIY store for free. They should also allow me to add wiring to the bottom of the layout without the wires being damaged when placed on a table top.

I'll post more when I have something to show. I'm not expecting regular updates as I have other projects on the go and they are taking priority.

Tony