2o Bellalugosi Line - The Pledge for June 2012 part two

I can hold back no longer. The Pledge for June 2012 is this group of nine Todoroni from Alternative Armies - The 2o Bellalugosi Line. The miniatures were bought off e-bay for just £6.23 (free postage). A real bargain, but with one miniature missing, the singer. (See image below - front row far left).

This is not the first Todoroni I have painted, as I already have two Fruscati Grenaderia, but these will be my first full Toad Regiment. The miniatures were in very good condition and required only the smallest amount of cleaning up. These really are very good models and show some fantastic sculpting, each with a unique facial grin and huge beady/bug eyes. One thing I did notice about the castings was that they were very 'tinny' and cast in a much more resilient metal than my usual AA models.

Photo One - The main group; just seven in this photo, but there are nine. Honest 'Would-a-I-a-lie-to-you!'

Photo Two - The Officer Toad, a rather skittish green Toad and the Standard Bearer.

Photo Three - The Officer Toad. A real character piece.

In part three, I will give a blow-by-blow account of how the miniatures have been based as well as some minor modifications I have made. For full details of the original set go to the Alternative Armies web page here.

Image taken from the official AA web site

More to follow.

Tony

Stalled Project

These images show one of my many stalled projects.  

Originally I had looked a producing a small collection of themed miniatures to support a new project. Details later on.

Image One - A converted and modified Plastic Wolf from Games Workshop. I wanted a 'beast' of a hound and have used both Milliput and Green Stuff to bulk up the model.

Image Two - A much modified Games Workshop Rat Ogre, converted with Milliput and Green Stuff to build a huge mane and model this Lionman. A real brute of a Lion.

Any ideas as to the theme yet?

Image Three - Finally in this set, a Robotman or more particularly, a Tinman with and axe. The model is based on a Superheroes Bot which modified legs and torso. The axe is a GW plastic axe on a scratch-built tree trunk. I have painted it as a much-worn Bot.

Image Four - Shows all three together. As you can see the bulk of the painting is complete as well as being varnished with Ronseal Gloss Varnish, however there is still some detail painting and flocking to be done.

By now you should have identified three of the main characters from a Steampunk or Dark Fairytale Wizard of Oz; Toto, Lionman and Tinman. I had planned on a Dorothy figure to accompany them, but have never finished the set.

The three miniatures have now been sold via e-bay.

Tony

The Pledge for June 2012

The Pledge for June is quite advanced as The Lowland Rats (see earlier posts) were finished earlier than expected. However rather than give details and post images of the miniatures I am working on for June, I thought I would tease you with this single image of the hand painted flag which I will be using for this particular regiment. Obviously it is a Flintloque regiment, therefore the traditional or historical 'N' has been replaced by a 'M', for Mordred. The flag is painted on to a sticky-back label and will be wrapped around the flag pole with a square of tomato purée tube sandwiched between the images to add some body.

Any ideas? 

The main area of the flag is 24mm x 24mm and was first drawn in pencil before being painted in acrylics. OK, it might be obvious, but I like the idea of keeping my readers in suspense.

More to follow.

Tony

A simple Modelling Masterclass - a Wicker Fence

Barking Irons Online has just uploaded my latest Modelling Masterclass - a simple Wicker Fence. This simpler terrain building article is one of a short series that was written in reply to some comments by Gavin and Craig (Alternative Armies and Barking Irons Online), asking for a couple of shorter or easier terrain building projects. At first I was surprised by the request but after writing three shorter articles, I find that I have really enjoyed these simpler modelling interludes.

The article, written some time ago is actually the third, the earlier two will no doubt be featuring on BIO very soon and should be inter-spaced with some more detailed or in-depth pieces. The crow model comes from the Dreamblade collectable gaming miniature Ravencloak Visionary, details of which can be seen on previous posts. I have picked up three of these 40mm tall models with a view to modelling/painting characters for Flash Gordon and/or Typhon games.

It is also possible to model the upright posts closer together or thinner and have the wicker weaved tighter to produce a different style of fence/barrier. It will be interesting to see how these shorter terrain building articles are received. Should any reader or follower have any ideas or requests for similar articles, please contact me via this Blog.

For full details of how this piece was modelled and painted please go to this link.

Tony

To Publish or Not - a book on terrain modelling

Some time ago I was approached to see if I was interested in writing an article for a book on building terrain - wargaming terrain. I have actually produced three articles, two of which are currently being cast in resin and the third, a 15mm building is sitting on my computer desk, completely finished and looking a little forlorn, although the book idea seems to have 'hit the buffers'.

In addition there is a fourth article/model which was originally made as an experiment in seeing just how much detail I could cram into a small model - a small Pigsty in fact. However due to some comments and discussions I have started to think about producing a book of my own showing how I make wargame terrain; the inspiration, the construction and finally the painting

At this moment, I think I would like a traditional full-colour book - either hard bound or soft, similar in style and set out to many that have gone before but as new technologies come on-line there is always the option on an e-book or Web-based publication.

At this stage it is still a 'pipe-dream', but one that I hope will come to fruition.

Regular readers and followers will know that I committed to producing an article a month for Barking Irons Online and this continues. Actually there are a number written and awaiting publication, I am sure that Craig is on the case.

This is not an attempt to get-rich-quick, but more an attempt to pass on some of my hints and tips in a more traditional format, and if I'm honest to see my name in print. As things stand at this moment I am still modelling and writing - I just want to see ALL of my articles in a format that is a little more tactile than just the Web.

So, what do you think? Is there really a marked for such a publication? Or am I just being foolish?

Comments as always are very welcome and should anything change, I will of course post details here.

Tony

Games Expo 2012

Back home after a busy time at Games Expo 2012. My immediate reaction after entering the main hall was that the lighting was so much better than previous years as well as being better organised and laid out. On the negative side, there was the usual issues with parking and later as I was walking back to my car, I realised that there was very little new or substantially different from previous years.

I had produced a list of WANTS prior to leaving the house and top of the list was some pots of the old style GW paints, particularly Snakebite Leather - a paint that I use loads of. I had targeted some GW Devlan Mud wash, but just couldn't find any so settled for one pot of Gryphonne Sepia. At £1.00/£1.50 a pot these were a real bargain.

Most of my miniature purchases came from some 'rummage bins' on the Tritex Games stand - 50p or £1.00 each.

These first four are all 40mm (or taller) and should be ideal for my 40mm Flash Gordon collection - particularly the Weird Alien in the purple dress (far right).

I also picked up a collection of Dream Blade miniatures. My intention is to converted some Flintloque Orcs with these 'Green Man' heads as a special Albion force. I picked up three of these plastic miniatures.

I thought this Owlman Preacher (Firebrand) was a spectacular model and although I have no idea how I am going to use him - the sculpt alone was well worth £1.00.

Similarly this Ravencloak Visionary miniature offers both 40mm Flash Gordon and 40mm Typhon possibilities. Even if I just use the raven model on her left arm!

EXODUS - A new company (well new to me anyway) was showing these 40mm lizard Aliens. there are a number of variants - but I picked up just one to test if it could work with my 40mm Flash Gordon figures. If it does I can see a full force being added to the collection.

Another Dream Blades miniature, a Sightless Eunuch which I imagined as part of an Otharian force for Flintloque/Slaughterloo. Change the base add some facial features and a new sword and 'Bobs-your-Uncle'.

Finally for this post - the bargain of the day.  A 54mm resin model of a Dwarf Hero for just £3.00 from the bring-and-buy stall. I can simply use him as a Dwarf statue or if I'm feeling adventurous, a fully painted display model.

Next year Games Expo moves from The Clarendon Suite to The Metropole Hotel (near the NEC). I can understand the reasoning behind this as the parking is a problem at the current venue, however there is  also a certain 'warmth' about this building that a major hotel on the huge NEC site could never mirror.

Will I be going next year?  Not sure at this moment, but more than likely yes.

Tony

Glasgee Lowland Rats - part five

My fourth group of finished miniatures this year - the Glasgee Lowland Rats from Alternative Armies and my latest contribution to The Pledge. 

Since the last post, the miniatures have been gloss varnished, the flag added and then the white areas touched up (I find that Ronseal Gloss Varnish can discolour white). Finally I have matt varnished and flocked the bases.

Photo One - The finished group of eight Lowland Rats based on 2p coins.  The miniatures were picked up from e-bay some time ago as unpainted castings and have waited patiently on my to-do list for some time. I mention this as there has been some discussion on modelling/wargaming Forums about Bloggers contacting miniature companies asking for figures to be reviewed. As you may know I regularly sculpt for AA and do have samples of my sculpts sent to me free of charge, I have never asked for figures to review on my Blog.

Photo Two - The three command figures, a drummer, the standard bearer (with hand painted flag) and the sword armed officer pointing the way forward..

Photo Three - The remaining five troopers.

Photo Four - All eight finished Rats. They make a very colourful regiment; The Thistles!

Round four of the Pledge, my attempt to paint some of my Lead Mountain has gone well, and ahead of schedule. details of round five will be posted soon. And this is one that should please a certain Rob Alderman!

As always, if you want to see more - just click on any of the images.

Tony