Orcs in the Webbe Advent 2019

With December nearing an end, I thought I would review this years Orcs in the Webbe Advent Calendar. For anyone not familiar with this annual event, see this link.

I had two articles published this year and thought both came out OK, but my favourite read was Revenge of Tidy Mun written by Mattehw Hartley which I though caught the flavour of Flintloque perfectly - for full details see this link.

Once again, I think Craig has done a great job in collating these stories and articles to give us yet another treat for Christmas. Thank you Craig.

Earlier Advents can be found here. Enjoy.

Tony

Snowmen from Alternative Armies - part seven

At last the three snowmen have been finished and varnished. For more information see this link from Alternative Armies.

These super close-ups tend to show up all the mistakes and poor brushwork, but I've included them so you can see how they turned out. I'd like to build a whole regiment of animated snowmen, giving them different weapons and headgear. I think they would make a 'cool' group and with very little conversion could be used in so many different games.

Tony

Christmas 2019

Another 'what I had for Christmas' post.....

Regular readers and followers will know that I usually receive some model-making or modelling related gifts for Christmas and 2019 was no exception.

I'll start with issue 2 of Fantasy Figures International, a reasonably new, bi-monthly publication from Guideline Publications with issue 1 being reviews earlier this year. For more information see this post. Issue 2 was a gift from Sue.

I've only had chance to quickly browse issue 2, but first reactions are another great read. I particularly liked the WW1 Giant Robot diorama featured in Angela's Hammer Time.

Out of Steam, a book from my Brother-in-law and Sister-in-Law looks like a good read.

Village Buildings and Language of Buildings both by Matthew Rice were gifts from my Daughter. I already have a different edition of Village Buildings (a larger portrait layout book), but this smaller edition still has all of the beautiful illustrations.

Language of Buildings is one of the very best architectural 'primers' or introductions I have ever come across and I found myself sneakily reading sections of it all through Christmas day. This really is a fantastic book and the illustrations (see below) are just marvellous.

Curiosities of Worcester (a charity shop find) and another gift from my Daughter has loads of quirky stories and illustrations.

Finally on the book front we have Making Rural Buildings for Model Railways by David Wright. This time a surprise gift from Flo, my Mother-in-Law. Once again, I have only had time to browse the book, but first impressions are very good. In fact the opening chapter - The history of rural buildings in Britain is the most informative chapter giving details of the styles and types of buildings that I have ever come across and for this chapter only, I would give this book a 10-out-of-10. I'm really looking forward to spending time reading the whole of this book.

This one really is a very good book and one that I would have no issues in recommending to model building enthusiasts everywhere.

Earlier this year I was fortunate to see some of David's models at the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association show in Burton, where David was giving instructional tutorials. I didn't pick up any of his books then, but now I know I should have.....

I've also received a new cutting mat (I tend to go through these quite quickly) and a slab of DAS modelling clay, both from Sue. Holly bought me some Palomino Blackwing pencils (if you have never tried these - you are missing out. They are recognised as some of the very best drawing pencils available) and Flo bought me a sketch book - you can NEVER have too many sketch books.

Tony

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all.

Tony

Wargames Terrain & Buildings - North Africa and The Middle East by Tony Harwood

Wargames Terrain & Buildings - North Africa and The Middle East, a book written by me is now available and being shipped by Pen & Sword. For full details see this link.

Wargames Terrain & Buildings - North Africa and The Middle East by Tony Harwood
Published by Pen & Sword
List price £14.99
152 pages with 10 complete start-to-finish modelling and painting projects including 15mm scale and 28mm scale models.
264 mm x 171 mm
Fully illustrated in colour throughout
ISBN 9781526716439

AVAILABLE at the offer price of  £10.49 (12.08.2020)

PLEASE NOTE - the book is not available from me but through Pen & Sword (or via other book sellers). I have updated this Blog post with an image of the contents page.....

Wargames Terrain & Buildings is the second Pen & Sword book by me, the first; Wargames Terrain & Buildings - The Napoleonic Wars can be purchased from P&S. For more details see this Blog link.

Reviews;
The first review - this one from Military Model Scene - for full details see this link.
A short Twitter review from Kev Moon, but still worth including - more information here.
A longer review featuring on the web magazine site Irregular Magazine issue 11, Volume 2, Spring 2020 which can be downloaded free from this link.
A review from Smeggers or Army Rumour Service - for more details see this link.
Less of a review - more of a feature. This time on Wargame News and Terrain - see this link for more information.
Another review, this time from History of War - for details see this link.
A review from FireTrench - see this link.

This time a slightly longer and more in-depth review with loads of images from On The Old Barbed Wire, for more information, see this link.

A Spanish Language review from JM Miniatures - you can find it here.

Another review, this time from IPMSUSA. For more information see this link.

Tony

Snowmen from Alternative Armies - part six

Progress on the three 28mm scale snowmen miniatures from Alternative Armies has been a little slower that I had been expecting - the cold damp weather has made trips to the bottom of the garden a little too uncomfortable.

As you can see most of the detail painting has now been done. I just need to paint up the weapons before the minis can be varnished.

Tony

The Crown - series 3, episode 3 - Aberfan

Sue and watched the Crown, series three, episode three, Aberfan yesterday and feel I have to congratulate Netflix on one of the most intense dramas I can ever remember seeing. It's not an easy watch and I admit we had to pause it on a number of occasions but the way in which the producers screened this disaster was both very well done and respectful. Very well done.

As an adult of a certain age and coming from a South Wales community, I can recall being sent home from school on that morning with my brother - the seriousness and horror of that day still lives with me.

Many, many years later I drove through Aberfan and the chilling effect was still as raw then as the day when the disaster happened.

Today, my thoughts are with both the survivors and the families of Aberfan.

God bless them all.

Tony