Workbench Round up – first of the New Year!

My output continues at a steady pace, with my new war room and hobby station making my hobby life easier. The only issue is that there is no over arching theme to my modelling output. I continue to follow the threads from last year. So I have completed a unit of WOTR Pikemen, two characters from the Lord of the Rings collection and a Bren Carrier!

Another unit to add to the army!

The Pikemen were kindly given to me already assembled and primed ( thank you Jaz!), so painting them was straight forward. I used a white and green livery, for no other reason than I liked the combination. This Livery is mostly associated with the Welsh Tudors, although there were plenty of other Welsh houses who sided with the Yorkist cause and indeed, quite a few minor houses in England that had white and green as their colours. I’m not too concerned that my units should represent a particular faction. I’m happy to play fictional battles and scenarios rather than re-fight actual battles. So don’t be surprised if you see this unit marching with Sir Harry Hotspur!

Foundry Pikemen from Duncan’s collection

I’ve also re-based and re-touched another unit of pikemen that came from Duncan Mcfarlanes collection. I still need to add the pikes as the originals have been lost but I have replacements ready. I think that they are Foundry figures and I hope that they will continue to do battle in Duncans memory.

Ugluk of the Uruk-Hai
Grishnakh – basing not quite completed in this photo

I’ve continued with my ‘Battle Games in Middle Earth’ project, painting another three character figures. Ugluk, Grishnakh and mounted Eomer are now completed and in the cabinet. Of the three, I found Eomer the most challenging. Painting his armour was quite difficult as it is fairly intricate and his horse is also a strange grey – dark grey at the back and light grey up front! I’m not entirely happy with this model but he will do for now! I’ve now reached issue 18 of the Magazine and as issue 19 came with paints rather than a figure, I am about 20% of the way through the collection. When I complete the figures with issue 20 ( more Goblins), I’ll have a round up of my progress.

Eomer – basing to be finished

The bren carrier was the next on the work bench and was bit of a trial for no other reason than my airbrush seems to have developed a fault in the compressor. I just about managed to get the basic colours on the Carrier before the compressor gave up. The model is from Curteys 1st Corps and although not as precise as, say , the Tamiya 1/48th kit, it builds into a nice replica and of course is ideal for the wargames table. The markings, as with all of my WW2 armour are conjectural and not based on an actual vehicle. I have hand painted them, apart from the vehicle serial number.

Bren Carrier

Whilst purists might not like the idea of making up markings, it’s my way of ensuring that I get models finished rather than endlessly researching them to get every detail exactly correct. For me, the models are simply a representation of their type rather than an exact replica. Whilst I have total admiration for those modellers that are able to produce museum quality replica’s, exact in every detail, I have very little time for those in the hobby who seem to know everything but produce nothing – their hobby is different to mine!

Bren Carrier side view

To be fair, it’s this attitude that allows me to get my projects off of the work bench and onto the gaming table. I have been largely cured of my desire to seek perfection by my wargaming buddies, who favour practical solutions over fancy models! A great example of this is the latest game that we are playing – Never Mind The Boat Hooks – Billhooks on the sea! Andy Callan has very cleverly adapted his rule set and produced some Medieval Cogs from wood and corrugated card board. This meant that we were play testing and having fun rather than still thinking about how to make the models.

Never Mind The Boat Hooks…coming soon… early play test

Here’s a sneak peak but in my next blog I hope to show you a bit more progress!

The Sarissa Precision Cog on my work bench.

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Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year!

I may be a bit late with my New Year blog and end of year review but better late than not at all, I guess. I had hesitated when trying to decide how I would write a review of the year, hence the late entry. There have been some challenging times during 2021 that I have had to navigate. It felt like that even in a modelling blog, I should set my hobby in the context of some of these events. After much thought I have decided against this approach. Those that know me personally will be aware of them and those that don’t, will not need to hear of the personal challenges that I faced. I am sure that they have had plenty of their own ‘dragons’ to slay.

One consistent help through all of the year has been my hobby. It provides me with a respite and escape from the ‘real world’ and some semblance of control over at least a small part of it. I can only wish that you enjoy your hobby as much as I do and derive the same sense of satisfaction. So without further introspection and with time to fill on a rainy Saturday morning, here’s how I spent my time at the hobby work bench in 2021.

The Gaming year continued to be dominated by ‘Never Mind The Bill Hooks’. Although I had thought that my WOTR army was complete, I still continued to add to it. Without the need to produce units for actual gaming, I was free to take on some side projects such as Artillery, Baggage wagons and some of the more unusual troop types.

Bombard complete!
Completed Landsknechts
The finished Kern War band
The ox cart for my baggage train

As well as the War of The Roses, my attempt to paint all of the miniatures that came with the Part work/magazine ‘Battle games in Middle Earth’ continued. As of last night, I had reached magazine number 16 and completed Ugluk, the Uruk Hai Captain. He is pictured below – not quite finished as the basing needs to be completed. I’ve also pictured some of my other models for this collection.

Saruman – issue 14
Boromir
Ugluk – with his bren carrier….

As you can see, I am also gradually adding to my Word War Two collection. This year, I added a Cromwell, Churchill and Beaverette Armoured Car as well as a couple of Home Guard units – A Northover Projector and a Blacker Bombard.

Churchill ready for action.
Cromwell!
Beaverette Armoured Car

Ny Napoleonic collection wasn’t entirely forgotten. I added some commanders, a Vignette and a Battalion of KGL.

Secure the Colour!
New Command bases added.
8th Battalion KGL

And finally, I manged to paint Mr Giraffe, who had been stood on the workbench for over two years…

Mr Giraffe!

Those are just some of my favourite models The actual count stands at 170 infantry figures, 8 Cavalry, 14 Personalities, 4 Artillery pieces, 3 Wagons, 4 Draft Horses, 4 Oxen, 6 Pavises, 3 Tanks, 1 Armoured Car and 1 Giraffe! All painted and based and housed in their new home.

Which brings me on to the most important development of the year in my hobby life – My very own war games and hobby room. Yes at the tender age of 64, I finally have my own hobby space into which I can relax and paint and game. It’s been a long time coming but is certainly a highlight in the year. I still have work to do to finish it but it is gradually taking shape. Even better, I have a home for my collection.

My new painting station.
My Figure cabinets – nearly filled already!

To bring this blog to an end, I must add that I have also managed to enjoy a fair number of games, both with my regular Gaming Buddies, Pete and Andy and with other good friends. Perhaps the highlight for me was the Bill Hooks Bash, organised by ‘Other Pete Harris’ over in Derby. The day encapsulated the very best of the social side of the hobby. A full day of gaming against various opponents , all of whom were friendly, gracious and made the day inspirational. As the song goes, ‘One day like this a year will see me right’

Billhooks Bash

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Command Bases and Vignettes

If you follow my blog, you will know that I have now occupied my purpose built ‘war room’ or hobby room. In the process of moving my figure collection into it’s new home I came across a number of unfinished projects and some unpainted figures in my cabinet. I thought that it was time to get these figures completed.

First up was the ‘Secure the Colour’ vignette from Perry Miniatures. This set depicted Captain Clarke and Corporal Stiles of the 1st (Royal) Dragoons capturing the 105e eagle at Waterloo. I had already completed the other Vignette that the Perry’s make for the British at Waterloo, ‘A Hard Contest’ with Sgt Ewart capturing the 45e eagle, so it made sense to complete the pair! You can see my attempt at the Sgt Ewart vignette in my earlier blog here:

A HARD CONTEST PART 1

A HARD CONTEST PART 2

My version of ‘A Hard Contest’ – I still need to add the flag!

You can see how far I have progressed with the next vignette ‘Secure the Colour’ in the photograph below. It’s still not quite finished as I need to add the long grass and flag. I have ordered both the 45e and the 105e flags from GMB, so once they arrive, I can finish off both vignettes.

Secure the Colour!

The other projects that were nagging at me were the command bases that I had started some time ago for my Black powder army. I have a number of Wellingtons and Pictons in my collection, but I thought that it would be useful to base them on 40mm round bases, along with another suitable figure to make ‘brigade commanders’ for my army. I had a couple of nice figures from Trent Miniatures, given to me by Duncan and it was time that they were painted and added to my collection.

Warlord Picton with Trent Miniature Scotish Fencible officer

There are actually three bases that I have made. One with a Front rank Ensign and the other two with the Scottish figures. The Trent Scots figures are designed for an earlier part of the Napoleonic Wars – one is a Scottish Fencible officer, the other represents Sir John Sinclair who raised the Rothesay and Caithness Fencibles, the first of the Highland Fencible corps. The Caithness Fencibles would go on to serve in Ireland during the rebellion of 1798. I was happy to paint the Officer with the raised sword as an officer of the Black Watch and Sir John Sinclair was given a Cameron Tartan. It seems unlikely that these officers would have been dressed as such for the Waterloo campaign but they make a colourful addition to my army.

Sir John Sinclair and Wellington

You can see from the pictures that I have once again used home made ‘sabot’ bases for the figures. Should I wish to change the setting in the future, it is an easy process to transfer the figures and replace them with something else.

By the way, if you would like to see just how many models of Wellington that I have, I have covered the issue in my blog here:

HOW MANY WELLINGTONS DOES IT TAKE…

Just to finish off, here are pictures of my new command bases/vignettes.

The completed Sir John as a Cameron Officer with Wellington
Picton and Friend from the Black Watch!
Yet another Wellngton and Front Rank Ensign!
All three bases together

STOP PRESS!

I’ve received my flags from GMB, so I was able to complete the ‘secure the flag’ set:

Captain Clarke and Corporal Stiles take the Eagle from the 105e
The view from the rear.
Another view with enhanced lighting! It makes my painting look sharp!

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The War room is finished!

Well, the building work is and I have now started to occupy the new space! The final task was completed on the 16th November, with the new floor being laid. The next stage was to get my cabinets and figures moved in from the shed and to purchase and build a desk. It’s worth reminding myself as to what I was trying to achieve. It wasn’t just a case of converting the garage but part of a plan to improve the house generally and to de-clutter my hobby. Like most of my friends that are involved in this strange hobby, I had accumulated a large collection of books, board games and a considerable ‘lead pile’ and heap of miscellaneous ‘stuff’ that might come in useful one day…. Of course you can add to that a large collection of painted figures.

The war room is finished – now to start moving things back!

The other issue was that I was painting at a work bench in the garage, perched on a bar stool, sometimes in the freezing cold and certainly not in the most comfortable or inspiring environment. So when planning the conversion, I had three objectives in mind. Firstly, I wanted a pleasant space in which I could model and paint and perhaps sit quietly away from the hustle and bustle of the house and do some research and planning. I also wanted to bring my collection of painted figures together and display them, as much for my own pleasure as anyone else. Finally, I wanted to create a space in which I could run my own wargames.

The desk is built and everything is moved in – just needs sorting out – Oh! and I need a new chair!

After two weeks of ‘put and take’, I finally have my figures in their new home and I have bought and built my new desk. There is still much to do, as you can see from the pictures. This has meant that I have done very little in the way of painting or modelling other than the occasional repair as I moved everything around.

My painted figures and models now have a new home!

There’s still much to do though. I need to upgrade my storage, particularly for my scenery and most of my book collection is still out in the shed. Something that I need to remedy quickly before they spoil in the damp and cold. So I think that I will be spending more time in IKEA and B&Q whilst I continue to work out how to get everything in it’s place and cull the stuff that I don’t want.

Just a part of my GW collection – theres another cabinet full of Space marines and Imperial guard in my office upstairs!
My Necron Collection, including a few conversions!
More Necrons – I still have some in the lead pile to complete…one day they will be back!

One of the many diversions that has occurred as I have moved everything is that I have been reminded of all the projects that I have started and perhaps not quite completed. This has given me the urge to revisit some of these ideas and perhaps finish them, in as much as you can finish anything in this hobby!

My Japanese collection. I have plans to expand this army in the future! ‘Never Mind the Bushido’ is bubbling in the back ground!

As I moved my Necron collection, I started to think about some of the new models that had caught my eye. But then I was saved from this madness when I started to move my Napoleonic collection and realised that I still had plans to expand into some of the other allied nations and then there was my Japanese collection….Of course, as I moved the ‘lead pile’ I came across plenty of models that I have had for years. Maybe it’s time to complete them.

My Early WW2 cllection – the home guard are ready for battle!

So, what about the wargames table? Well that will be one of the last things that I will either build or have built for me. I have a cunning plan to make something that is easily stored when not in use but will give me a reasonable playing area when I need it. If my plan comes to fruition, I will of course show the final results on my blog.

My growing collection of 1/48th scale tanks – the sheep have just lost their way!

For now, here are some more pictures of my collection! Now I must get some painting done!

Napoleonic Collection – a couple of vignettes
The Light Cavalry
A rare French subject for me – Napoleons coach! and some of my wagons and limbers.
The naval and Caribbean contingent
A few more for Napoleon to fight!
My latest obsession – War of the Roses
I have more than enough troops to play Never Mind the Bill Hooks but I keep finding excuses to add to my army!

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Ox Cart – Final touches

The final part of the project was to paint the ‘crew’ and base everything. Painting the figures was fairly straight forward – as they are supposed to be civilians, there was no need to worry about whether the figures would be in livery or not! I did check pinterest and Google images for pictures of medieval clothing and the general impression that I had from these sources was that the clothing would be mainly muted colours.

Passengers block painting in prgress.

So the driver was painted in Gold brown 70877 for his leggings, and deep green 70970 for his jacket. The finished figure was actually brighter than I intended but he looks OK and adds some colour to the diorama. The female figure (the driver or drover’s wife?) was painted with a light grey 70990 apron over a burnt red 70814 dress. The baby and her hat were painted white to add interest and to show the baby off. The little lad was painted with black grey 70862 leggings and a khaki 70988 smock. I gave him a bright red hat to make him stand out against the luggage!

Edith Cavell – the free figure from Partizan 2021

You may have noticed that there is a WW1 nurse in the picture above. It is the Edith Cavell figure that was being given out at Partizan this year. It made sense to paint her at the same time as the passengers, as I would be using similar colours. She is not included in the final diorama but here’s a picture of the finished model that I have added to my collection!

All aboard!

Once the figures were completed, they were based ( in the case of the drover) or added to the cart. The lady with the baby looks as though she’s is in a precarious position, perched right up on top. I’m sure that the Health and safety executive would not be pleased! However, this is where she is designed to go and from an artistic perspective, looks good!

Sabot base under construction
Test fitting everything.

The next stage was to construct the base. For some reason, I have a tendency to go for ‘sabot’ style basing for my dioramas and vignettes. It allows me easier access to paint the bases and should I wish to change things in future ( I have no idea why I would want to….) I can do so. I used a piece of MDF for the base – I think it was part of a discarded movement tray that I had in my ‘bit’s’ box. It was then a question of using Plasticacrd and some spare renedra bases to block in the spaces around the wagon, Oxen and drover. The picures show how I did this.

Texture paste added

Once this is done, I covered the whole lot in Vallejo Dark Earth texture paste. I also added some ballast for some extra texture on the edges. I used my sculpting tools to stipple up the earth where the oxen would have walked, and created the cart wheel marks in the cart base.

Painted and dry brushed

When dry, everything was painted with my choice of emulsion ‘Delhi Bazaar’ and then dry brushed with Iraqi Sand. I was going for a dry look to the base rather than a muddy winter or autumn finish.

Green Turf added

I then added some green scatter from the woodland scenics range, a blended green Turf.

The finished diorama – oops! I need to touch up the sides…

The final touch was to add a variety of tufts and flowers. My friends say that I use too many flowers on my bases but I like the colour that they add! I think that it adds to the rural look!

The final result with the edge of the base touched up!
The view from the other side!

So the Ox wagon is compete and added to my collection. There is just one more thing that I will add. I need a length of chain to connect the front oxen team to the wagon but unfortunately, I am O/S of the size that I want and more annoyingly, I’m sure that I have some buried out in the shed somewhere! For now though, I’m calling this done and it’s on to the next project!

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Medieval Ox Cart

My latest project is a Medieval Ox cart from Perry Miniatures. I seem to have a growing collection of wagons and although they are of little use in most wargames, they do look nice on the table as scenery pieces. They also look nice in the figure cabinet as part of my collection, so I seem to keep adding to my baggage train! As an aside, I must get around to writing a scenario or two involving either rescuing or raiding a baggage train. It would at least add some variety to our games.

Wagon and Arrow barrow from my collection

I am a great fan of the Perry Miniature sculpts – there are other company’s out there with some fantastic ranges but I like the style and proportions of the Perry’s figures. The Perry’s have also been involved in Medieval re-enactment, so they know their stuff when it comes to the period. There is just two minor grumps that I have with their products. Firstly, the casting quality is not always as good as it could be., particularly with their horses and wagons. It took me a couple of evenings to clean up the parts for the Ox wagon – the wheels were a particular challenge. The other issue is that there is no assembly instructions with these kits and I think that they are complicated enough to warrant some sort of guide. If not supplied with the kit itself, a bit more information on the web site would help.

There are plenty of parts in the Ox cart kit!

So here’s how I went about assembling the wagon. I hope that it is useful. The first place to start is of course, the clean up. I used a couple of differently shaped needle files and a Scalpel with an old blade for scraping the mold lines. For assembly, I use Expo Thick Super glue. I find it ideal for assembling metal miniatures. It’s thickness gives the glue some ‘fill ability’ on the joints so they don’t have to be perfect to stick together. Also the slower set time allows me to make sure that everything is lined up before the glue sets. The set time is about 10- 12 seconds, depending on the size of the bond. You can speed things up by using an accelerant. Despite being careful, I usually end up sticking parts to my fingers and usually get enough glue on my finger tips to stop me logging into my iPhone…

The Cart components after clean up.

One other thing, I always wash resin pieces in hot soapy water before assembly. Resin seems to be particularly likely to have a residue of the mold release agent on it, which will cause problems when painting. The picture above shows the main components for the wagon all cleaned up and ready to assemble.

Front wheels assembled. Load ready to glue to wagon base

The small wheels fit onto the front assembly. The Wagon load is fixed to the wagon bed. Note that the front of the wagon bed is the rounded bit and the rear of the load has the poles sticking out.

The sides look a bit wonky! They will straighten out once the top components are added.

Next, attach the sides to the wagon bed. They locate into the cut outs above the axle and may need a bit of filing to get them to fit. The two pieces in front of the assembly are the top connectors – they hold the railing sides together at the top.

Basic Wagon assembled

Here’s the wagon with the wheels on and the top connectors in place. The next part of the assembly is to fix the ‘elbow’ reinforcements to the wheels ( I made that term up – I’ve no idea what they are actually called!). They will need a bit of careful bending to go around the wheels and attach to the railing of the cart. It’s important that the joints are cleaned up and I cannot stress how important it is that you test fit everything before getting out the glue! It was during this part of the assembly that I stuck myself to the cart a couple of times! Those joints are difficult!

Elbow joints….?

With the elbow joints in place, the cart assembly is complete. What ever those things are that connect to the axles, they do make the cart look more substantial so I think it is worth persevering to add them.

The completed cart.

The next part of the assembly is to make the draft oxen. After cleaning up the pieces, you will need to glue the heads on the Oxen at the same time as placing the yolk over the animals neck. I haven’t glued the yolk into place, it will stay there without the need for glue and the movement will allow me to prime and paint the animals later.

The forward ox team awaits their heads!

Once the Oxen are assembled, I cleaned up the ‘crew’ and you can see the finished wagon below ready for priming. I’ll cover the painting process in my next blog – all being well!

Wagon ready to roll!

One final note, You get two types of Oxen – heads up or heads down. I decided to pair them. With hindsight, it might have been better to have one’ heads up’ with one ‘heads down’ as their horns tend to clash the way I have assembled them!

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Another work bench round up!

As we approach the end of October, I thought that another work bench round up was in order. My on going painting projects are still, to some extent, curtailed by the work that is continuing to convert my garage into a proper wargaming den. The good news is that all the building work on the room is now completed, with one exception….We haven’t been able to get the floor done! The date for this work is 16th November and until the floor is laid, I really cant move anything back in. So patience is the key word. I have been over to Ikea to check out desks and storage and I’ve been out chalking up possible arrangements on the concrete floor for the cabinets and gaming table. However, until the floor is laid, the project is really on hold.

Furniture in place but still no floor!

Meanwhile, I have been pursuing my hobby as best that I can, given my restricted circumstances. On 10th October, I attended the Partizan show over at Newark. As it is just down the road from me, it wasn’t too much of a hardship to get there! Unusually, I didn’t take any photos of the actual show, even though there were some superb demonstration games on show. I was too busy talking to people that I hadn’t seen for so long thanks to the issues with Covid. I did purchase some more Perry Miniatures whilst I was there and for once they have gone straight onto the painting table rather than into the lead pile. I treated myself to some Irish Kern and an Irish Command set. I don’t intend to build a full Irish army but I thought that another unit of Kern would be useful and I intend to have a couple of units of Gallowglass so that I can add some Irish mercenaries to my WOTR army.

Another six Kern join the collection!

I painted the first batch of Kern in exactly the same way that I painted the Crusader miniature versions in my collection. You can see how by clicking here:

KERN SKIRMISHERS

Gallow Glass.

When it came to painting the command group, I primed the two Armoured figures in Black and the rest in Desert yellow rather than the flesh undercoat that I had been using for Kern. As you can see, the two armoured figures are ready for basing. With hind sight, the Dark red cloak was a bad idea. I should have gone for a Dark blue or Green cloak as the red effect is slightly reminiscent of Father Christmas!

The pipers

The remaining Kern are also nearly finished – the two pipers are about ready for basing. I was tempted to go for a tartan finish to the bag on the bag pipes but my references show them as being a plain leather bag. In this case, I went for the easy option rather than let my ‘artistic interpretation’ run loose! The two other Kern are also near to completion. One will make a good standard bearer, so I will have to add a flag. The other is sword armed and perhaps represents a ‘Bonnacht’ – a more professional and experienced Kern, perhaps a bodyguard for the Standard bearer.

Kern – or Bonnachts

So another 12 figures are nearing completion and my WOTR army continues to expand, despite me thinking it finished a year or so ago! I did buy one other item at Partizan. A medieval Ox cart. I think that I might take my time on this project and perhaps provide a step by step guide to making and painting it.

The six figures that make the Irish Command Group
Every thing is still a bit cramped! My photo set up is not quite as I would like!

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Rainbow Spitfire and other stuff – Workbench round up

Work is progressing slowly on the war room. I now have plastered walls and electrics! The second fix of cupboards, skirting boards etc is due next week. The bad news is that it is unlikely that the flooring will be finished much before the end of October..

Slow progress but progress at least! Plastering done and electrics in.

So I am still using the granddaughters craft tray in my office as a temporary paint station. Talking of whom, Emily, now aged eight, decided that she would like to make a kit after seeing the stack of models temporarily stored in my office. I went through the kit pile and found an Airfix 1/72 scale Spitfire that I thought would make an nice easy subject. We sat down together and spent a most enjoyable couple of hours assembling it during the rainy afternoon. I let Emily clip off the parts and sand them down before using the glue to assemble them. I didn’t let her use the scalpel to trim the parts – I’ve cut myself too often to risk letting an eight year old re-model her fingers!

Emily’s Spitfire!

On her next visit she wanted to paint it. I had showed her the painting instructions and explained all about camouflage but Emily wasn’t to impressed. She had her own colour scheme in mind, based on summer visits to the beach, starry nights and unicorn rainbows… I tried to influence her towards something more authentic, telling her tales of the brave female pilots that ferried the Spitfires around during the war. Yes, Granddad, that’s all very interesting but I want to paint the model in the colours that I like….

Apparently, Unicorn rainbows have pink and purple in them…

The good news was that we used colours that rarely see the light of day when I am painting and Emily proudly took her Spitfire home to Mum and Dad, so mission accomplished! I’m not sure whether I will tempt Emily into the world of Wargaming and modelling but I do know that we both enjoy the chance to do something together. I also believe that ‘People who make things, don’t break things’ so she is learning a valuable lesson regardless of whether the hobby sticks. By the way, the pilots name is Emma and she has long blonde hair, although you may struggle to see this in the pictures!

Cart and driver – the horses need a coat of Matt varnish

Despite my restrained circumstances, I managed to get quite a bit of stuff off of the lead pile in September. The only thing that is not possible is using my airbrush and of course, I have to wait for a dry day to do any spray undercoating or varnishing. So projects completed or nearly completed, include the Draft horse team for my Medieval cart (Matt varnishing, basing and traces still to be added) – I hope to do a more detailed blog on how I painted the cart and made the canopy once the model is completed on it’s base.

Twelve of The KGL ready for action!
Another unit of Duncans figures ready to take to the table. The end two figures ( on the right) are Crusader miniatures that I have painted to make up the unit.

I’ve completed twenty four figures representing the 8th Battalion KGL ( flags still to be added), Rebased and repaired another 12 pikemen from Duncans collection for the WOTR, Painted a DeeZee Giraffe and completed Six mounted Riders of Rohan.

Riders of Rohan – another unit for my LOTR collection.

So, despite the restrictions that I am working under, my collection is steadily growing, and my lead pile is gradually shrinking….

DeeZee Giraffe – painted and based at last!

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Happy Modelling!

Boromir and Gandalf

A much shorter blog this week. As I have already noted, work on the upgrade to my new wargames den is progressing well but I am still relegated to painting at the desk in my office. So rather than buying any new models or starting any new projects, I have continued to work through my lead pile.

Boromir was the ‘free’ figure from issue 11 of the ‘Battle Games in Middle Earth’ magazine series that I am working my way through. I actually painted him just before I lost the use of the garage but he hasn’t featured in my blog so I thought I would include him for continuity. As usual, I used the magazine as a reference as well as Youtube. I quite like the Planetmithril youtube channel and there is a wealth of painting advise and step by step tutorials to be found. There’s a link to the planetmithril web site below, if you would like more information.

Boromir in black!

I dont follow the guides exactly but use them as a help, particularly if I am not sure what colour to use. With Boromiir, I went for a much darker finish than the one in the video but this suited my style of painting.

Gandalf on the paint station

The next figure was Gandalf the Grey from issue 12 of the magazine. Again, the magazine and the you tube channel gave me all the help that I needed and again, I went for a darker look than the videos seem to show. The paint pallet was fairly limited – Gandalf the Grey is predominately , well, grey…

Gandalf, based and ready for action!

As these are fantasy figures, I feel that there is no need to slavishly follow a particular colour scheme. So long as the figure looks about right, it’s good enough for me. I have to confess to never having finished reading the ‘Lord of the Rings’. That’s probably heresy as far as Tolkien fans are concerned but for what ever reason, the book never caught my imagination. Quite the opposite, after 600 pages of second breakfasts, singing nonsense songs and endless descriptions of characters that seemed to do nothing, I gave up on the book. I think that I had come to LOTR too late in life and had been spoilt by watching the Peter Jackson films. Mind you, in the last of the films, the bum numbing rendition of ‘The Return of the King’ I was crying out for Bilbo to get on the fecking boat with the Elves at the end so I could go for a pint with the missus…It’s fair to say that whilst I did enjoy the films, I am not by any means an enthusiast of LOTR in particular and fantasy in general.

I digress slightly, I do like the painting the figures and they make a nice change from historical subjects. Perhaps when I have a large enough collection, I will try out the game. For now it’s back to the lead pile to choose my next subject.

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

The magazines that I am referring to are long out of print but still available on ebay should you wish to collect them.

If you need help in completing a project of your own we have a massive range of stock in the Arcane Scenery shop. Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available from my shop here:

ARCANE SCENERY

You can find plenty of links to the paining videos as well as painting tips on the Planet Mythril site here:

PLANET MITHRIL

Happy Modelling!

No Fighting In The War Room

Yes, I stole the quote from the internet, via Dr Stangelove but it sort of sums up where I am at the moment. I decided to convert my integral garage into a proper games room/hobby room. I was spending a great deal of my spare time out there and at my age, I decided a bit of comfort would be nice. I had in effect closed the garage up and used some big sheets of marine ply, polystyrene foam sheet and some expanding foam to seal the door in an effort to make it a permanent den. My work bench was hand built and whilst functional, was not the greatest piece of carpentry that you would see! Add to that, I was sitting on a bar stool to paint and it’s little wonder that I have back issues!

The garage – empty but still boarded up and my trusty work bench in place!
Nearly stripped out!

That all said, it was a permanent set up that allowed me to pursue my hobby and paint and play when it wasn’t too cold or too hot. I was inspired by the gaming rooms that two of my friends have and I decided it was time that I had my own purpose built war games den! That was in October 2019 and I approached a local builder with my plans. These plans also included erecting a new shed in the garden to take the over spill of ‘stuff’ from the garage and a replacement for my 25 year old garden shed at the side of the house, that had rotted out so badly that I could see the house wall through the holes…

Boarding on door removed and insulation for floor going down
New floor laid
First fix electrics

The builder provided an estimate and work was due to start in the Spring of 2020. Well, we all know what happened next and thanks to the various COVID lock downs, massive pressure on the building industry and the difficulty in getting building materials, the project has proceeded at a slow pace. The sheds were completed back at the start of the summer and work was pencilled in to start on the garage conversion in August. In order for the work to start I had to empty the garage. Quite a task, not quite the Augean stables, the only live stock there being a huge number of spiders! This meant that all the ‘stuff’ ( an accumulation of 30 years of ‘That might come in handy one day…’)was moved either to fill my new shed, into the dining room or up into my office. Mrs W has been very patient as my ‘lead pile’ also occupied the tops of the wardrobes in the bedroom…

My new shed is full of my wargaming stuff….
So is the dining room….
And then there’s my collection of figures and book overflow…
And just some of my ‘lead pile’ stashed on the wardrobes
My temporary paint station

The result was that I no longer had a permanent set up and was reduced to painting and modelling on my office desk, using one of the granddaughters crafting trays as a paint station! If I have complained that my painting output was slow in the past, it was even worse now. Every time that I needed a new paint colour or tool, I had to ferret around in the various locations to try and find the required item.

The outside garage door – it’s seen better days!
Window to the right bricked up and new wall to replace door
How it looks from the outside.

At last, though, the project is moving along with an end in sight. As you can see from the pictures running through the blog, the main building work has been completed and the first fix for the electrics has been done. The next phase is to get the walls plastered, the carpet or flooring down and of course to move everything back in. Well, perhaps everything…The plan is that the new ‘big shed in the back garden will be home to some of my ‘proper’ tools and decorating gear and any other paraphernalia that you usually find in a garage. The gardening tools and such are already neatly stored in the rebuilt garden shed at the side of the house.

So in theory, all that is going back in will be a nice new desk, my figure cabinets, a very much culled book and magazine collection and of course a war games table. Oh! and as part of the deal, Julie will have some proper cupboard space to store some of the cleaning stuff and ironing board, as well as a new fridge and freezer, both easily accessible from the kitchen. The fridge being particularly useful for storing my beer!

I hope to be back in and painting comfortably by mid October! An up date will follow!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – remember that our web site will have much of what you need! Click here to see our shop:

ARCANE SCENERY

Happy Modelling!

More Reinforcements for my WOTR army!

This blog is a bit of a catch up on some of the side projects that I have been working on. First up, I inherited some old foundry WOTR figures from a very good friend. They were unbased, a bit chipped and some of their spears had broken off. That said, they were beautifully painted, complete with hand painted standards. I thought that they deserved a bit of TLC so that they could return to the table top once again!

Foundry on the left, Perry plastics on the right

The Foundry figures were sculpted by the Perry’s so they are obviously very similar to my existing Perry Plastic army but a bit on the short side. I remedied this by re basing them on thicker MDF bases and used the basing texture paste to give them a bit more height. I then touched up any obvious paint chips, re painted the helmets to give them a bit of shine and re attached the spears. Once they were in their new movement tray they looked fine next to the newer Perry Plastics – as you can see from the photograph.

Whilst I was working on this unit I also thought that I would add some extra flags to my units. Pete Harris had kindly given me a sheet of Freezy Water Yorkist flags. Rather then leaving them languishing in a folder unused, I cut them out and attached them to 100mm spears that we sell at Arcane Scenery. I had to cut the spears down as they were a bit long. Be careful if you do this. I was using my Xuron cutters, that will go through the steel pins with ease BUT the off-cuts fly all over the place, so make sure that you protect your eyes! Once the flags were mounted, I painted the edges of the flags to cover any white that shouldn’t be showing with approximately the matching colours and then drilled the back of my movement trays to add the flags.

Extra Flags added to the movement trays adds interest to the units!

Now purists should sit down now. I didn’t worry at all about what flag should go with what unit or even who the flags should represent. So long as the colours were close to the livery of the figures, I added them to the tray. Should I decide to re fight a specific battle of the WOTR in the future, it is a simple matter to remove the flags and find the correct ones, but for now my units look prettier on the table!

Three new Men At Arms

Whilst I was in the mood to finish things off and get figures off of the lead pile, I decided to complete the three last figures that I had left over from a Perry’s Plastic WOTR command frame. I decided to give them heads from the mounted men at arms. I was influenced by Pete Harris ( the other one… yes, there are two Pete Harris’s that I game with and I thought that everyone in wargaming was called Dave) and my memories of the Crescent knights that I had as a child..

Cry Havoc!

The final figure that I painted was a limited edition Cry Havoc’ Games Workshop figure that I had acquired years ago. I realised that he was based on a Landsknecht and thought that he would make a good ‘Martin Schwartz’ should I ever get around to adding a German contingent to my army! He is a bit on the tall side but will make an imposing command figure. So despite ‘finishing’ my WOTR army, I keep finding excuses to add to it. It has now grown to well over 300 figures and there’s more to paint!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

I hope that you all enjoy your hobby as much as I do – remember that our web site will have much of what you need! Click here to see our shop:

ARCANE SCENERY

We also have a category devoted to Never Mind the Bill Hooks:

NEVER MIND THE BILL HOOKS!

Please have a look at our tools section to find the Xuron clippers

EXPO TOOLS

Happy Modelling!

Beaverette Armoured Car

I’m not sure why I am so attracted to Early War British Armour. In my youth I was obsessed with the more ‘glamorous’ German Armour and the idea of Blitzkrieg. But as I’ve got older, the quirky nature of the British Armour and the ‘Dads Army’ attitude to making the best of what they had has taken a hold in my imagination. So my focus now is building a collection representing these vehicles and weapons.

Beaverettes of 53rd Reconnaissance Regiment on manoeuvres in Northern Ireland, 1941

A perfect example of making the best of what you have is the Standard Beaverette Armoured Car. It really is an armoured car. That is, a car with armour bolted on to it. The first version of the vehicle was a Standard Motor Company chassis with 11mm steel plates bolted on to it. The steel was backed with 3 inch oak planks for extra protection. The driver could barely see where he was going and needed the help of an additional crew member to watch the roads. It was named the ‘Beaverette’ after Lord Beaverbrook, who was desperate to get some sort of replacement for the Armour lost in France and Dunkirk. The armament generally consisted of a Bren, Lewis gun or Boyes Anti Tank gun. Later models were used by the RAF for airfield defence and had twin Vickers or even a Turret from the Bolton Paul Defiant night Fighter.

The Beavette was never used overseas and production stopped in 1942. It was used mainly by the Home Guard and as has already been mentioned, by the RAF. Indeed, I first was made aware of the Beaverette when researching the ‘Rogation Raid’ on Torquay ( my home town), a ‘tip and run’ air raid that occurred in 1943. Beaverettes formed part of the towns Anti Aircraft defense that shot down 6 of the 21 Focke wulf 190 raiders.

I decided I had to have one for my collection.

Beaverette Armour car from 1st Corps

After a great deal of searching, I found that 1st Corps made a lovely model in 1/48th scale, complete with crew. The model consists of a resin body with metal Accessories – wheels, hatches and of course, the crew. It was a simple matter to wash, clean and assemble it and prime it ready for painting.

Beaverette crew painted & car primed
Basic colours added

I used my airbrush to base coat the model with Mig Ammo Khaki Green (1939- 42) MIG113. I then hand painted the camouflage using British Olive Drab (1944-45) MIG0112. I should have masked off the model and used the airbrush again but I was too lazy and it seemed easier to use a brush. I wasn’t too worried about the colour either. Clearly, a 1944 olive drab isn’t going to be exactly the right shade but it gave me the effect that I wanted. In some of the reference pictures that I found, modellers had used a green/black combo but I quite liked the version below, which looks to me like the dark green on Khakhi green used by the BEF and so I based my scheme on this.

After the camouflage, I weathered the model with a pin wash of Dark tone ink around the rivets and panel lines and then I dry brushed the model using the original camouflage colours, lightened with Iraqi sand. The tyres were painted using Mig Ammo Rubber and tyres MIG0033 and darkened with a wash of dark tone. The markings were added using a combination of generic 1/56th markings that I had spare from Warlord games and I hand painted some of them. the vehicle number is ficticious. I then airbrushed the whole model with Mig Ultra matt varnish and when this was dry, I added some weathering in the form of pigments on the sides and wheel arches.

Weathering, crew and markings added
The other side!
The front view!

I had previously painted the crew in normal British army Khaki and added them, together with the bren gun to complete the model. So another model goes into the cabinet!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available from my shop here:

ARCANE SCENERY

You can see our range of MIG ammo paints and accessories here:

MIG AMMO

we carry a huge range of Vallejo paint and accessories here:

VALLEJO

We dont carry 1st Corps models but you can order them direct here:

1st Corps

Happy Modelling!

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