Wargames Illustrated - December 2009

Issue 266 of Wargames Illustrated has just arrived at WHS and there is yet another set of photos featuring the 40mm terrain and buildings from Grand Manner. In particular pages 56 and 57 have a two page spread by Dave Bodley showing The Battle of Guilford Courthouse, with the British advancing from Hoskin's Farm, towards the first line of American Militia. All of the building are from my personal collection, where the 'masters' were sculpted by me for the 40mm AWI/ACW range from Grand Manner. The additional terrain is from Dave while the miniatures were lent by Front Rank (some of their 40mm AWI display miniatures that you can normally see on their stand at trade shows).

I know that as a collector and painter of model soldiers rather than a true wargamer, illustrations or 'eye-candy' such as these photos are true features and great gaming or demo. inspiration. I must also congratulate Dave on the fantastic photos.

In reviewing the contents of the magazine - I felt that this Vietnam themed issue was not quite as interesting as the previous AWI themed issue, although I can complement the publishers on once again putting together a beautifully illustrated and very colourful magazine.

My favourite articles (so far as I am still to read all of the contents) are;

Warning - this hobby may contain nuts, a tongue-in-cheek review of various characters that inhabit this hobby! Great fun.

The Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935-36, a subject matter that is completely new to me and was very well written.

Finally in my attempt to paint up some 40mm AWI miniatures (one at a time), here is the latest. Once again a 40mm Front Rank figure painted as a minuteman. The paint scheme was built up over a dark brown base, painted with mainly GW and Vallejo colours and washed with black and dark brown GW washes.

The model is mounted on to a round metal washer and I have used some Grass Clumps (see earlier review) rather than static grass.

Tony

HELLBOY - On-line painting article part seven

The story of this particular build has gone on a little longer than I had planned, but Hellboy is now finished!

Photo One - Shows the painting completed. Since the last post the base has been tidied up (I have also sponged on some very dark brown to break up the stark plain black) and the detail painting has been finalised. I am very pleased with the Lego base, both the modelling of and the ash grey colour. I also think that the coat has worked well.

Photo Two - The model varnished, flocked and finished. The shrub work is ground-up foam which has been mixed with uPVA glue, some water and flow improver, then 'scooped' on to the groundwork with a couple of small cocktail stirrers. Once fully dry this mix is very strong.

Photos Three to Six - Show the finished miniature from different angles. I personally think that the 'straight-on' view shows the figure best.

Photo Seven - A final close up.

Varnishing was done with Ronseal Gloss Varnish, then water-based mat acrylic varnish/medium, before the ground foam was added.

The bulk of the painting was carried out with one of the new Games Workshop standard brushes. I have nothing but praise for these, they perform very well and are sturdy enough to take some quite rough treatment.

The finished model was recently shown to my son - my toughest critic. He wanted to know why I had not painted in the models eyes as they are just white? I said that in the comic books Hellboy had glowing white eyes. Gary said that the model would look better with the eyes painted in! So far I have left them as pure white.

The Hellboy model is 45mm tall or 80mm tall, base of plinth to top of head.

Tony

STONEHENGE - an alternative theory

I have recently unearthed a collection of notes and illustration from the Victorian eccentric A. J. Copperthwaite who although ridiculed in his day has put forward a number of interesting and quite controversial theories and proposals, one of which is included below.

Stonehenge - a true description of the monuments original form and purpose dated 1858. (Click on image to super-size).

A further associated paper suggested using a much modified Stonehenge as the centre piece of a nation-wide early warning system in the event of an invasion. The Early Warning System was 'mothballed', much to the disgust of Professor, who did build a miniature version of the system on his Yorkshire estate, where marbles were shot in place of cannon balls and the 'enemy' was invading rabbits!

For anyone interested in seeing additional papers by Professor Copperthwaite, a selection of some of his works are available in a Scrapbook. Full details are;

The Secret Scrapbook of Professor A. J. Copperthwaite, The lost genius of English Architecture, edited by Alan Robertson and Michael Taylor and published by Grafton Books. ISBN 0-586-07043-5

Tony

I would hope that readers would find this illustrated paper of interest and maybe use these ideas in gaming scenarios or modelling projects.

Warfare 2009 - Reading

I attended Warfare 2009, Reading on Saturday, spending most of the day at the show. On Friday night Dave at Grand Manner phoned to ask if I was planning on going down to the show. I said yes as it had always been my plan to visit. Dave asked if I could help him out with the layout of the stand and so at 6.00am on Saturday morning I left Droitwich, headed up on to the M42, and down the M40, through Oxford on the A34 and across country to Reading, arriving just before 8.00am. Even so Dave had already unloaded the van and the 30 or so plastic cases and even more cardboard boxest then needed either unpacking or stacking behind the stand.

At 10.00am, the show opened and we were still arranging items on the display shelves and table!

For most of the morning I helped out on the stand, I say helped, but really just entered into conversation, long chats and general modelling talk with visitors, then when they wanted to order I passed them on to Dave who is so much quicker than me at knowing either the price or finding the item (there are loads of storage cases, all containing wrapped and bare resin casting of the Grand Manner buildings).

Around 1.00pm I had my first walk around the show, mainly browsing in the main hall but also checking out the Bring-and-Buy stand which was in a second hall, it was very well organised and had a regular turnover of items, see below.

Even though I took my camera, there was very little I photographed. The photo below shows one of the more impressive games, a Marlborough Battle that had a huge amount of painted miniatures and some great terrain crammed on to the table.

The Third hall, for demonstration and participation games was always busy and full of activity and so although I enjoyed browsing I did not take any photos, it was just too busy. From memory the WWW2 game featuring a ME262 was the only one that I now wish I had taken a photo of!

Back to the main hall and after stopping for a quick packed lunch of sandwiches, a pork pie and crisps, I had a second walk around the main hall and trade stands. Even though I bought figures (new and second-hand), paints and magazines and thought the show was exceptionally busy, lots of traders, loads of punters and what seamed to be a brisk trade in items. I was ultimately disappointed with the number and level of trade stands and came back with a huge amount of cash unspent! There was just something about the show that I felt was either missing or not right. I know from conversation I had with visitors and demonstrators that this view was not universal, with many talking of this being the Main Show of the year for them, and again many visitors from Europe coming across for this show and spending for Christmas, but for me I was ultimately disappointed.

One photo that I am pleased to share is this Japanese Aeronef, scratch built and on display on the Oshiro stand. I am aware that there are some commercial pieces used, but this was just beautiful and so well painted. Very well done, Sir. I can see another 1/300th scale Space 1889/Aeronef scratch-build coming.

For the bulk of the afternoon I once again helped out on the GM stand, giving Dave a chance to go off and have a toilet break and something to eat. I also met with Brendan Morrissey an author of some note when it comes to the American War of Independence/American Revolution and someone who had supplied photographs and reference material to Grand Manner prior to me modelling the range of 40mm AWI buildings. We spoke at length about the buildings and the period, exchanged details with promises to keep in touch and search out even more reference photos for future 40mm (and 28mm) modelling projects.

I left the show before 4.00pm, exhausted and tired. The journey back via the M4, through Cirencester and up the M5 flashed by as I listened to the England - New Zealand and Wales - Argentina rugby matches and although the weather deteriorated quite badly I was still home in good time.

Tony

Creating Space by Mat Irvine

For my birthday, my Brother-in-law and family bought me this book - Creating Space by Mat Irvine. A soft bound book full of colour illustrations and lists of space kits and space kit manufacturers.

A journey through the history of the Space Age up to the present and beyond. 352 pages and more than 170 illustrations in full colour, 500 photographs and listings for over 250 modelling subjects and kit manufacturers.

Full details are; Creating Space, The Story of the Space Age Told Through Models, by Mat Irvine and published by APOGEE - ISBN 1-896522-86-6, with a published price of £24.95.

In reviewing the book, I am full of praise both for the content and the layout, to me this is a perfect present, one that A - I was not aware of, and B - a book that I might not have bought myself, however I have had great fun, delving in to this reference work, searching out plastic kits that I either owned or 'longed for' as a young boy.

The beautifully illustrated full-colour photos of old and modern kits is like stepping back into an Aladdin's Cave of Sci-Fi modelling kits, all the more interesting for the reference material, detailing the actual kit, its history and the relevance of the source material. As stated earlier, for me a great read and one that I have no issue in fully recommending.

Then the bonus - during the IPMS Model Show at Telford, earlier this month Mat Irvine was attending and I was able to meet him and congratulate him, in person for this book and the fantastic and original model display, see below.

There are many references to Mat on the Internet, but I would direct anyone interested in his work to start with his own site - Smallspace;

http://www.smallspace.demon.co.uk/

Tony

Flintloque Buildings Set - proposal

My intention is to build a group of three generic Flintloque scale buildings that can either be used as separate pieces or combined to make one larger or feature building as seen in these drawings.

The buildings will be built to accommodate the slightly larger Flintloque figures (approx 36mm - 40mm tall) and have a definite Spanish or Portuguese feel. Over the last couple of months I have been busy building 'masters' for a collection of 40mm AWI/ACW buildings that are now available from Grand Manner. However this series will be specifically designed and build with Flintloque in mind, although I would assume that they could be used for other 40mm historical games.

There will be three buildings;

Building A - 16cms x 10cms, the main building, with a large door to one end and at least one other door. The roof will be removable and there will be a simple interior. I am also planning at least one buttress, see illustration and a couple of simple window openings.

Building B - 6cms x 6cms, a two story tower about 13cms tall, with a door on the ground floor and four windows on the first floor. I intend having a lift-off roof with access to the first floor only.

Building C - 6cms x 6cms, a simple lean-too building with one door and a lift-off roof.

Each of the buildings will be modelled with a well-worn stucco finish and large stone blocks to the corners, the roof will feature half-round clay tiles. The drawing below features a Flintloque figure shown for scale.

I intend working on these buildings alongside other projects, but will keep updating the Blog as to progress. I also intend having them cast in resin, (limited editions - exact number still to be decided) however this will only happen if there are enough pre-orders to warrant the investment in the rubber and resin. In the future I would also expect to build a windmill and some stone walls.

Any comments would be much appreciated.

Finally these building are totally unofficial and have no connection with Alternative Armies/Flintloque/Slaughterloo. It is an independent project that I am taking on as comments on this Blog, Flintloque based Blogs and private e-mails lead me to believe that there is a market for such buildings.

You now have notice of my intentions, estimated time to castings for sale - February 2010.

Tony

A Dwarf called Napoleon

I picked this resin miniature up from a company called Scibor, see; http://www.sciborminiatures.com/

The figure is a 28mm Dwarf Napoleon, SF28.14 and comes with a beautifully cast resin base. I chose to mount him on to a UK 2p coin (as are the bulk of my Flintloque collection). I first superglued a piece of plastic card to the coin, then superglued the miniature to the plastic card and built up the base with Milliput which was further detailed with fine sand.

I needed to do some repair work to the bicorne, which had either been broken in transit or had an air bubble in the cast resin. This was done with 'green stuff' and smoothed out with some water and a sculpting tool.

The figure was painted over a black/dark brown base colour with the face being the first thing I detailed. The colour scheme is copied from a 54mm model of Napoleon I saw in the modelling magazine - Military Modelling.

The bare resin casting, without base. The miniature stands 28mm tall (top of bicorne to feet).

The final photo shows the Scibor Napoleon alongside a Flintloque or Alternative Armies Dwarf. There is very little difference in height, although I feel the Scibor sculpt is a little less 'cartoon-like' than the Flintloque sculpt. In fact I feel the Scibor sculpt is more like the HEVC Halflings than a Dwarf.

I have no idea how I'll end up using this miniature, but who cares - I still loved painting it and would recommend this particular sculpt to other Flintloque collectors looking for some variety.

I have also picked up one of the Manfred Von Leftoffen miniatures (SF28.08) and although advertised as 28mm, stands nearer to 54mm tall! I intend building this as a display piece and my idea is to re-build the gun to a flintlock pistol, but not straight away, I have too many projects on the go.

Tony