October 2024 - day 21

Another tower. I have sketched quite a few and some day I will get around to modelling one (or two). This sketch was inspired by an image from the internet, a small tower built in to the side of a hill or mountain pass. I liked the timber framed upper section but I think if I were to build a model, I would need to add some additional window openings or more look outs.

A coloured pencil sketch on smooth sketch paper.

Tony

October 2024 - day 20

This is another 1/35th scale narrow gauge railway engine - a battery mechanical that I drew from an old photo image I found on the internet. My intention is to scratch build it on a HO-OO Hornby 'Smokey Joe' chassis and run it on HO-OO Peco 'Crazy Track' which represents a two foot or 600mm narrow gauge  scale/gauge.

Once again, I am not pretending that this is a detailed and scaled drawing, but close enough for me and my purposes.

I already have a spare mechanism and with slight alteration, I have to widen the body slightly, it should easily hide an unmodified chassis. I would expect the model to be constructed from plastic card - my preferred material with a 1/35th scale driver donated from some military figure.

Tony

October 2024 - day 19

This sketch was inspired by one of the Manga cartoon films we watched on TV. As usual I paused the images and got out my sketch book. This 'quick and dirty' drawing was then coloured with pencils. It is a typical rough and ready drawing the type that fill many of the pages in my sketch books. It may never be used as inspiration for a piece of terrain, but I do enjoy just scribbling.....

Tony

October 2024 - day 18

Today's sketch was inspired by The King's Man (2020). It is the main barn that features in the final act which takes part on the huge outcrop which is accessed via a cable car or crane. This image is of the front or main entrance I have also sketched the side view. It was my intention to build a smaller more compact version but even so this would have been a huge building.

Once again it is a working drawing with loads of notes and even colouring details added in coloured pencil.

Tony

October 2024 - day 17

This simple church is drawn to 'Epic scale' and was planned to be built to accompany the Warlord Games Epic Battles of the American Civil War figures and rules. It was inspired by the lower image which was used in a newspaper article about the Alec Baldwin fatal shooting on the set of the film Rust. I have  a number of scratch built buildings based on used CD's which I have built from card, some of which have appeared in Miniature Wargames and which have been built as terrain pieces for this system.

As you can clearly see it is very much a 'working' drawing with notation and modifications.

Tony

October 2024 - day 16

I can't recall where I copied this particular building from. It is a stone built hovel with a huge Dolmen style roof and should be fun to build with large foam blocks and a one piece roof.

With half the month gone, it should be clear - but ALL of these images are of structures I have NOT built and remain un-used in my collection of sketch books (I have dozens). I could just as easily have had a series of sketches that I HAVE used as inspiration, maybe another month of sketches!

Tony

October 2024 - day 15

As you can see this sketch was inspired by an image in the Rackhams magazine Cry Havoc, volume 05, page 49. I was lucky enough to find a number of these old Rackham magazines in a charity shop some time ago and although I have since sold them on I did sketch a number of images and even scanned some of the pages, which I still have. I have modelled a number of buildings that were inspired by these publications, but this one remains a to-do and I would hope that one day I will get around to scratch building a model of this charismatic house.

Cry Havoc had some fantastic 'how-to' articles and I have used both these and the tutorials as inspiration in many of my terrain builds.

Tony

October 2024 - day 14

Today, two sketches for the price of one.....

Both sketches were inspired by a historical pamphlet on early Scottish buildings on the Outer Hebredes and in particular a simple mill built into the side of a hill and using a vertical wheel to turn a milling stone that was situated in the upper structure.

I'm not sure how I could model this model as the building would need to be built in to a hill, but it would make a great Burrows & Badgers themed piece of terrain.

Tony

October 2024 - day 13

 A pigsty. I think it is called a bee hive pigsty. It would be easy enough to model and then include a couple of miniature pigs just to finish it off. Not a very large model but something a little different.

Copied from an illustration found in a book about early farm buildings.

Tony

Miniature Wargames issue 499 - Covered Well

The latest issue of Miniature Wargames - issue 499 (November 2024) includes an article/tutorial written by me showing how I built and the painted this covered well that was inspired by a well featured in the Shardlake TV series currently available on Disney.

I replayed and paused the TV episode (episode 2) and sketched this simple plan. Then using plastic card I built the basic frame well and wheel.

The 'pagoda style' roof was constructed over card pyramids before I smoothed out the shape with DAS modelling clay and ready-mixed filler. The roof was then clad with cardboard tiles and detailed with plastic rod and egg box card.

The model was then mounted on to a base cut from 3mm thick plastic card and textured with sieved stones and sand applied over PVA glue.

For more information and details of how the covered well was finished and painted see issue 499 of Miniature Wargames. Or see this link.

The magazine also gives details of my very special, commemorative article written especially for the 500th issue. and paying homage to Ian Weekley - a truly inspirational model maker.

Tony

October 2024 - day 12

This sketch of an Majorcan burial chamber is from one of my very early sketch books and is well over 20 years old. It was done when Sue and I were on holiday with the children on the island of Majorca and copied from an information leaflet I had seen. The original was 'boat shaped', but I do believe that there were also rectangular versions.

This early sketch goes to show just how long I have been filling various sketch books with my designs.

Tony

October 2024 - day 11

This roundhouse was copied from an illustration I found on a sign in a car park in the Cotswolds. I sketched it on site and used coloured pencils I had to hand.

Tony

October 2024 - day 10

This sketch is of a Moes CL narrow gauge (or 600mm gauge) locomotive re-drawn to 1/35th scale to run on 16.5mm track. I found images of this interesting engine on the Internet and taking dimensions from another site, I drew this plan. I'm not saying that it is 100% correct but close enough for me should I ever decide to build a model based on a Hornby HO-OO 'Smokey Joe' chassis.

For more information, see this link.

Tony

October 2024 - day 9

This is another Oliver Chipping inspired sketch (The Jabberwocky Tower that appeared in Miniature Wargames issue 497 and 498 was also inspired by Oliver Chipping/Disney for more information see this post).

The sketch was done with coloured pencils - my new preferred sketching technique. I have a couple more images inspired by the same artist and look forward to scratch building terrain based on them.

It would be interesting to read which of these sketches are your favourites - but not yet as I still have a number to post - stay tuned for more images.

Tony

October 2024 - day 8

This coloured pencil sketch was inspired by a building from the Disney/Marvel TV series Loki - series 1. I thought it would make a great 28mm scale Sci-Fi building or terrain piece but so far I have yet to even start the model. 

Maybe one day.

Tony

October 2024 - day 7

And now for a bit of fun.....

This coloured pencil sketch was copied from the Disney animated film Robin Hood. It is the church mouse house that appears towards the start of the film - a rough stone cottage built into the roots of a large tree. I would have thought it would make a great Burrows & Badgers themed piece of terrain.

Tony

October 2024 - day 6

In a change from sketches of wargame buildings or terrain, today's sketch is circular water tower re-drawn from an illustration in Continental Railway Modeller. I have drawn the European water tower to 1/43.5 or 7mm = 1 foot (O gauge) with the intention of one day building it, but it is way too big for any of my model railway layouts and the wrong scale as I have been working in 1/35th and 1/27.7th scale.

The sketch was done in pen over pencil.

Tony

October 2024 - day 5

 

Today we have yet another roundhouse with a thatched roof. Over the years I have produced a number of similar structures from a wide variety of different materials and for games such as Pax Bochemannica, Slaine and my Pen & Sword book Wargames Terrain & Buildings North Africa but I can still find inspiration for new versions. This sketch shows another variation with rough stone walls and a canopied doorway.

This quick sketch was done with pencils.

Tony

October 2024 - day 4

This particular sketch is well over ten years old and although based on the iconic La Belle Alliance is way to small to be an accurate representation of this building. It would be a perfect small cottage model, similar to a number of compact model I have made for Miniature Wargames being about 6 inches long. Maybe one day I will get around to it.

I should also note that I have built models of La Belle Alliance in the past, the first was a master for Grand Manner and the second a highly modified MDF kit for my Pen & Sword book Wargame Terrain and Buildings - The Napoleonic Wars.

Tony

October 2024 - day 3

Some time ago, I watched a review on you tube for a game called Mork Borg, for more information, see this link. I found the illustrations in the rule book to be full of inspiration and this Demon Pump is a sketch I produced copying an illustration from the rule book.

I could imagine a similar pump either free standing or mounted alongside a large building, maybe dripping blood rather than water! I would hope that one day I will produce a model of this pump for either Flintloque or The Silver Bayonet.

Tony

October 2024 - day 2

Today's drawing was inspired by a simple image of a cottage that I found on the internet. The original was a rough drawn cartoon but had enough going for it to want me to re-draw it in a more realistic form. I particularly like the door and window design.

Tony

October 2024 - a sketch a day

And now for something completely different.....

Regular followers of this Blog and readers of the many magazine articles I have written will know that I enjoy sketching various terrain and models prior to scratch building them for example - The Jabberwocky Tower post from last month. As you can image I have books full of sketches of these models but occasionally illustrations that have not been used as inspiration or models that are yet to be built. It is my intention to post some of these sketches during the month of October and give details of when and where the inspiration came from.

Sketch 1

A Scottish cottage or croft sketched in pencil and inspired by an illustration I found in a tourism leaflet on the islands and history of northern Scotland.

Tony

Flintloque original artwork by Edward Jackson

I am lucky enough to be the proud owner of a number of Flintloque Themed original artworks by Edward Jackson. Following a comment on the new Retroloque Facebook site I went searching in the attic for some of these. The first is The Princess Juliana Chasseur Elite regiment that were sculpted by me and released by Alternative Armies as a limited edition regiment.

The second is one of two pieces of artwork that I own showing Foul Mouth Freddy (the second is framed in my office) a Flintloque character that was also invented by me and is available as a limited edition metal miniature from AA.

The third image is of a Toadaroni character.

Thank you to Edward and I hope that you enjoy these 'blast from the past' images.

Tony

The Jabberwocky Tower part two - Miniature Wargames issue 498

Miniature Wargames issue 498 (October 2024) has the second part of a two part series in which I show how I first built and then painted this Disney inspired Jabberwocky Tower inspired by the artist Oliver Chipping. For more information about the magazine contents see this post.

The magazine articles give much more detail than this brief Blog post, but I have included a number of illustrations to show how this model was inspired, built and painted.

Image 1

This was a sketch inspired by the Oliver Chipping illustration I found on the internet. My model copies the main themes, but does deviate from the original in some ways.

Image 2

Construction was based on corrugated cardboard and foamboard cores detailed with balsawood, card, blue foam and DAS modelling clay. It is mounted on a 3mm thick plastic card base.

Image 3

Painting commenced with an all over grey undercoat/basecoat followed by the thatch. The whitewashed walls were built up with diluted white acrylic paint.

Image 4

More acrylic white for the walls and the wooden areas picked out in brown. The base was painted in a Snakebite Leather colour that I have had mixed up as a tester pot by my local DIY store.

Image 5

the model Jabberwacky Tower completed, varnished and decorated ready for the gaming table. For more information, see the Miniature Wargames magazine issues 497 and 498.

Tony

Old Glory March 2019

Earlier today I picked up this issue of Old Glory (issue 349 March 2019) for just 50p from a charity shop in Ledbury, Worcestershire. I was initially drawn to the article about Bulmers Cider and its various vehicles but back home and having taken the time to look through the magazine I have found many articles of interest. Old Glory is not a magazine that I would have usually purchased, but I think I have found a real gem with this issue and I might have to reassess my attitude to this magazine.

Tony

The Jabberwocky Tower - Miniature Wargames issue 497

The latest issue of Miniature Wargames (issue 497 - September 2024) has yet another tutorial written by me showing how I built a fantasy tower based on an illustration by Oliver Chipping for Disney and in particular The Jabberwocky poem by Lewis Carroll. Next month there will be a follow-up article showing how I painted the tower.

For more information about the contents, see this post.

The magazine is available from today.

Tony

1/35th scale Narrow Gauge Layout -part seven

It's been some time since I updated this Blog on the progress of my 1/35th scale narrow gauge layout. Earlier today I finished off the main bridge with the upper span being built from 5mm thick insulation foam and odd bits of blue foam. I even got some brown ground cover painted.

The layout is going to be an Inglenook inspired shunting layout - something I can easily house in my office and hopefully get some trains running. There is still a lot to do but I am planning on having track laid before the end of the year.

Tony

Even more wands

I've had great fun producing even more wands for my grandchildren. Here are the complete set of seven scratch built wands that I have made laid out out the order they were constructed with the latest - the bone wand at the bottom.

Most are inspired but not copied from images of Harry Potter wands that I have found on the internet. I think my favourite is the Elder Wand, third from the top.

Tony

Flintloque Elf Grenadiers - update

The Ferach standard has now been hand painted and finished. This image was taken on my small display board with a  ruined tower building and some bottle-brush trees in in-direct sunshine earlier today.

I would expect to show some work-in-progress shots later this week.

Tony

Flintloque Elf Grenadiers

This is my unit of eight Elf Grenadiers from the Flintloque boxed set 5105 1er Velite Grenadiers de la Garde Mordred. The figures were bought secondhand some time ago and the box set was not complete, hence just eight minis. The miniatures have been mounted on to 2p coins with the groundwork built-up with Milliput two part epoxy putty. I will give more details of how they were painted in later posts, but for now here are the varnished and based figures.

The unit was painted in two batches of four minis - the first two started prior to my recent visit to Portugal and the second batch on my return. I find that painting minis in small batches is so much easier.

More to follow but for now, enjoy.

Tony

Pen and Art Shop in Porto, Portugal

Sue and I have just returned from a short holiday in Porto with our daughter Holly. One of the highlights for me was a visit to this pen and art shop on the R.das Flores, Porto. It was one of the most beautiful retail shops I have ever visited and as a bonus was crammed full of both pens and artist materials. I spent ages browsing the display cabinets and even convinced Sue and Holly to re-visit (twice).

Obviously I found something to buy, but now I'm back home, I wish I had spent more.....

If you ever get the opportunity to visit Porto you should make time amongst the many Port Lodge visits and lectures and tastings and seafood restaurants to walk up the hill and visit this little jewel.

Tony