Flintloque Buildings - Last chance to purchase at discounted price

This is your last chance to purchase the Limited Edition Flintloque Building Set at the discounted price. At the end of April the basic cost will rise and the free postage offer to the UK (reduced postage to rest of the world) will end, for full details see;

http://www.grandmanner.co.uk/shop/prodtype.asp?PT_ID=73&numRecordPosition=41&strPageHistory=cat&strKeywords=&strSearchCriteria=

You now have five days to place your order/orders. Any queries, you can contact me direct or order via Grand Manner.

Tony

Flintloque Building Set now available from Grand Manner

Regular followers will know that work on the Flintloque Building Set was completed in February. I can now confirm that the set is not only available from Grand Manner, but the models are featured in the latest GM advert which appears in issue 270 of Wargames Illustrated. (Just released). The reason for the delay in me commenting on this until now, is that Dave at GM had informed me some months ago that he was to run a Salute 2010 offer - All orders placed in April 2010 and to UK addresses will be Post Free!

Full details are;

28/40mm Spanish Napoleonic town buildings - LS43, 44, 45. I would suggest that anyone looking to purchase this model/set orders in April and saves themselves the postage.

This building set is also suitable for 28mm and 40mm Napoleonic games, (in fact it think it maybe the first commercially available 40mm Napoleonic building!) I can also see the same set being used for Carlist Wars, and Pirate games as I have tried to make it as generic as possible.

I will post photos of a painted example as soon as I have one completed. If anyone wishes to order the details are;

Grand Manner, Unit B, Smiths Way, Saxon Business Park, Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove B60 4AD. Telephone 01527 - 578766/558071 and e-mail; www.grandmanner.co.uk

In addition to the Flintloque Building Set/Spanish Napoleonic town buildings featured in the advert. I can confirm that both Hartwell Tavern (AMC80/81) and the European Windmill (ME34) were also modelled by me. In fact a fourth model, the 40mm Generic Log Cabin (AMC84) is also one of my sculpts.

I am also aware that a number of new Grand Manner models are due for release in April, Dave has set himself the target of producing 150 new models this year. I can confirm that he is well on the way to realising this aim and I am proud to say that some are by me. More news to follow.

Tony

Flintloque Buildings Set part twelve

As I come to the end of this particular project - I feel it would be worth repeating the reason behind this set. I wanted to produce a Flintloque themed set of terrain that could be cast in resin and sold via Grand Manner. The three buildings can be used either as individual buildings or combined as a single larger feature piece. In addition and following comments on this Blog plus personal e-mails I have also modeled a bell tower which can be used on the roof of the main building, adding even more variety and 'game-ability'.

It is also worth repeating that there is no official connection between these models, Grand Manner or myself with Alternative Armies, the producer of Flintloque/Slaughterloo.

Photo One - Shows the completed 'masters' - the main building, tower and 'lean-to' out-building.

You will also notice that the bases of each building have been reduced to allow the three buildings to sit closer to one another with less of a gap between them (see earlier posts).

Photo Two - The finished Main Building with the separate bell tower.

Photo Three - A photo showing the internal detail of the main building, a tiled floor, plastered walls and barrels.

Photo Four - Detail of the main door and entrance. I wanted to model a more decorative and solid door.

Photo Five - All seven pieces, showing the three main buildings, the three removable roofs and the (new) bell tower.

The masters will be with Grand Manner next week and once I have a finished resin casting I will post a photo.

The Limited Edition, resin model sets should be available for early February and via this Blog, my personal e-mail at;

dampfpanzerwagon(at)yahoo.co.uk

or Grand Manner at;

http://www.grandmanner.co.uk/home/index.asp

The cost is £70.00 per set.

On a personal note, I wanted to thank all followers and personal e-mailers for the messages of support and orders. This has been a long-planned modelling project that I have wanted to produce for quite some time. Now that it is finished I am very pleased with the final result and even more pleased that it will be put into production as a resin set. I now look forward to painting a set (or two) and seeing the terrain on a Flintloque/Slaughterloo wargame table.

Once again - thank you for all the support during this project.

Tony

Flintloque Buildings Set part eleven

As mentioned in the earlier post - the Tower is now finished and these photos show the Outbuilding fully modelled. A simple, single storey 'lean-too' outhouse that can be used either as a stand-alone building or attached to one of the larger buildings such as the Tower.

This model has a 'foot print' of 75mm x 58mm and a maximum height of 65mm, although small, it is full of character and would make an ideal shed or store house.

The model has a lift-off roof with a plain interior, featuring a tiled floor. The door is cast shut, but can (with a little work) be modelled open or ajar.

This final photo shows the outhouse alongside the tower. As unmodified castings there is a slight gap between the walls, but (again with a little work) this can be reduced by sanding both castings and re-modelling them as one larger model.

As stated earlier in this series of Blog entries. I intend modelling two Flintloque Building Sets - one as three separate castings and a second as a fully integrated, larger single structure (see earlier illustrations).

Now that the two lesser buildings are completed, I will be concentrating on finishing the main building and the promised Bell Tower.

Tony

Flintloque Buildings Set part ten

The Tower is now 99% finished. These four photos show in pictures more than I can ever write about the amount of detail and surface texture I have modelled.

The Main Building and Outhouse are nearing completion and finished photos of these and more detailed photos of the whole set will be available very soon.

The Tower features a lift-off roof and fully modelled upper floor, internally there is a wooden planked floor and a (non-opening) trap door. The ground floor has not be modelled.

In this photo you can see that the tiled roof section sits proud of the background surface - this is because there is a 6mm thick plug, which fits into the top of the tower.

I would expect that all three buildings will be with Grand Manner for casting by the end of this week. I will keep updating progress here on the Blog.

I am very pleased with the progress of this particular project and feel that I have firstly captured in this model the 'Flintloque style', so obvious in the range of miniatures from Alternative Armies, secondly - I believe that this model has improved my modelling or sculpting skills. I now look forward to seeing it cast, painted and featuring on battlefields all across Valon.

Tony

PS.

There is no reason why this terrain piece could not be used with other gaming genres, - 40mm Peninsular Wars, Pirates or Musketeers!

Flintloque Buildings Set part nine

The snow continues to fall, here in the Midlands. It is not quite as heavy as we had last week, but enough to mean that I will not be going out.

As most of my new projects are on hold (they are safely tucked away in the shed-at-the bottom-of-the-garden) - I thought that I would post a detailed Workbench Article on how I model Spanish style tile roof models. I will use as an example the tiled roof of the tower in the Flintloque Building Set.

Steps One to Three - Using cardboard (packaging from an Aldi Roast Pork dinner), I marked out a square just bigger than the size of the tower roof, 80mm x 80mm and then drew four triangles - one to each side (figure 1). I then built an internal strengthening support from the same card, that was 18mm high at the centre and slotted so it would slide together and fit on top of the main roof base (figure 2). I then folded up the four triangles and using superglue on the inside and newspaper and uPVA glue on the outside I was able to produce the correct shape (figure 3).

By using more newspaper, some card fillers and PVA glue I built up the middle of the roof so that the slope was not uniform, but curved upwards (like a pagoda shape). The layers of newspaper and PVA glue make this particular structure very strong.

Photo Three - The individual tiles are small coloured beads from HAMA, each bead is cut in half, length ways and then glued onto the roof profile with undiluted PVA glue, starting with the main diagonals and then building the rest of the roof from the bottom up.

Photo Four - The roof about halfway through. Please note that the beads I am using are second-hand and have already been used to produce a plain resin, roof section 'blank', rather than throw them away after the master was taken out of the rubber, I am re-using the cut beads. In terms of time spent - there is not a great deal of difference between re-using old and cutting new beads as the old beads still needed to be cleaned up prior to use.

At this point I have superglued the cardboard former to a base of 3mm plastic card, the over-sized plastic card was glue to the base of the roof section, then cut and later sanded flush. A 6mm fillet will be glued to the bottom of this plastic card base and this will fit into the top of the tower.

Photo Five - Three of the four sections finished. Note the newspaper on the plain roof section.

Photo Six - The roof section now covered with Hama beads.

Photo Seven - As above.

Photo Eight - After a second coat of PVA glue is dry, I cover the whole roof with a mixture of ready-mixed filler (Polyfila), some PVA glue and a sprinkling of fine sand. I use an old brush and a stippling action to add texture to the otherwise plain plastic beads.

Photo Nine - As above.

Photo Ten - The next step is to use DAS modelling clay to fill any gaps and add some 'mortar' to the tiles and the roof top.

Photo Eleven - The DAS added. I use a spear-headed dental tool to push the DAS into the small gaps and later smooth the joins with a paintbrush dipped in water.

Photo Twelve - As above.

There is still some modelling work to be completed on this roof, I like to fill most of the beads or the rubber moulding compound is very difficult to remove from the master. In addition I may add even more filler-glue-sand mix to the tiles before having the roof cast.

This process takes quite some time, which is why I first produced a plain 'blank' and had this cast up for larger, plain roof sections (see earlier posts). For 'fiddly' roof sections such as this tower, the plain resin blanks would be too wasteful and (more than likely) take longer to produce than gluing the individual tiles.

I would expect to be adding doors and window frames over the next couple of days, then a bit of detailing or adding 'clutter' before taking it to be first moulded and then cast.

Should you have any question - you know where I am.

Tony

Flintloque Buildings Set part eight

The Flintloque Building Set - the plan is to have a three part set of Flintloque themed building that can be used either individually or combined to make one larger structure. The buildings will be cast in resin by Grand Manner and should be for sale in late February, the cost will be no more than £70.00, see earlier posts for more details.

Photo One - Progress to date, all three pieces are based and the wall texture has been worked upon and improved.

Photo Two - All three building feature internal detail, this piece has a tiled floor, the tower has a wooden textured floor and the small out-building also has tiles.

Photo Three - A detail photo of the main building.

Photo Four - A detail photo of the tower.

Photo Five - A detail photo of the smaller out-building.

My own plan is to have two sets - the first to be used as individual buildings and the second set will be modified to make a larger hill top feature piece. I have recently written on this Blog about my library of reference books (OK, scrapbooks) and while photographing the collection I came across some old adverts/images of buildings from Snapdragon Studio. The finish of these Flintloque themed buildings is very similar to the Snapdragon style, a style that I believe works well with the 'cartoony' Flintloque sculpts.

The plan for a release date of late February is still obtainable and any comments on these buildings or orders would be very welcome. In the mean time, I hope that you continue to enjoy how these building have developed and how I build models.

For those that are interested, I use DAS White modelling clay for most of my work, preferring it to Milliput and/or Green Stuff which I use in limited quantities for fine detail. I believe that the Terracotta DAS is finer and gives more detail, but is messier to work with and more difficult to find!

Tony

Flintloque Buildings Set part seven

The three main structures are now completed, just some additional detail work and basing to go.

For those who have followed this project - you will know that the plan is to produce a set of three Flintloque based buildings that can be used independently or combined to make one larger building. In these four photos you can see how the parts can be brought together and used to produce different terrain pieces.

The roof of the main building is completed (see earlier posts) and the other roofs are in the process of being finished. I plan on mounting each finished and cast resin building on to small square bases, allowing them to be combined or modelled as one permanent feature.

The progress over the Christmas period has been slower than I had planned but the production date of February 2010 is still very obtainable. The plan is for these to be a Limited Edition release, with lift-off roofs and internal detail.

The questions I still have are;

How much internal detail should I model?

and

Should I include 'clutter' to the outside - adding interest, but cutting down on the ability to produce different variants?

Tony

Flintloque Buildings Set part six

These photos show how the textured filler really 'brings the walls to life'. I've used Homebase Interior Filler, spread onto the plain walls with a small spatula and when partially dry, I have further textured the surface with a stiff brush. I still have some considerable work to do on this and the other two buildings, but I am pleased with the progress.

Thats all for now - I'm off to enjoy Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas everyone.

Tony

Flintloque Buildings Set part five

Even with the freezing weather, I have been able to produce the first roof section. These three photos show the main building which was roofed with a section of resin roof tiles. The resin section was cast for me earlier this year by Dave at Grand Manner. It was produced by me from hundreds of small plastic tubes, cut in half and stuck to a section of thick plastic card. In theory the cast sections should have been easier than scratch-building each roof. In practice the amount of work required in tidying up and the wastage makes the whole project very prolonged and wasteful.

Once the resin sheets were cut to size, they were sanded to shape and glued together with superglue. The ridge tiles were glued on and then blended-in with some watered-down filler and uPVA glue. There is still some 'tidying-up' to be done, but even from these rough photos you can see the progress so far.

The next stage on this particular building is to start texturing the walls, plastering them is typical Spanish or Portuguese fashion.

Tony

Flintloque Buildings Set part four

These two photos show progress to date and although I have also started modelling the roof sections (individual Spanish-style pantiles) these is not shown.

In terms of style and size nothing has changed much since the initial sketches and the production date of February 2010 is still on plan.

For anyone seeing this set of posts for the first time - I am building a set of three Flintloque themed buildings which will be cast in resin by Grand Manner and can be used either as separate structures or linked and modelled as one (see earlier posts).

I estimate that the cost of the full set will be no more that £70.00 and please remember that the plan is for it to be a Limited Edition short-run set.

Should you have any queries, suggestions or like to order a set please contact me at;

dampfpanzerwagon(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk

Tony

Flintloque Buildings Set part three

The latest update on my 2009 Christmas Project details the work carried out on the second building - the tower. The model stands 120mm tall (without roof) and is 70mm wide and 70mm deep. The main structure is built from 3mm Plastic card with a double wall thickness to the upper section and individual carved corner stones superglued to the sides and door surround.

Since these photos were taken the gaps and joins in the stones have been filled with Milliput and the sides will be further detailed with even more stones prior to texturing and filling-in with a typical Spanish/Portuguese plaster finish.

The plan is for one side to have a (non-opening) door and the upper section to be accessible through the lift off roof.

Since the last post, I have been discussing the model with a number of prospective buyers and I have agreed to produce a small bell tower which can (if wanted) be attached to the roof of the main building making it even more versatile. Once I have images, I will post again.

Anyone interested in purchasing one of these sets should contact me direct. Many thanks to those who have already agreed to buy one and for those who have asked, I will try to have estimated pricing prior to Christmas.

The production date of February 2010 is still on plan.

Tony

Flintloque Building Set part two

My plan is to build three separate but associated buildings (which can be modelled as three separate pieces or combined in to one larger structure) that are designed to be used with Flintloque miniatures. These four photos show the progress to date.

The walls are build from two layers of 3mm Plastic card with individual corner stones added from the same plastic card. Progress has been slow, as I have other work projects on the go, but I would hope that these photos will tempt others to commit to buy. I would hope to have some provisional pricing soon, anyone interested should contact me direct.

Tony