Paul´s Bods

Palm Trees ( "scratch Built" )

2012-05-27T05:44:00.000-07:00

Sir Henry Botherington Smyth is having a relaxing rest under the shade of a couple of palm trees. The well is re-cycled from the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem Dio.....

The palm trees..how to make them. A couple of weeks ago Michel from Germania Figuren visited and we discussed, among other things, Palm Trees. He told me that Erik Trauner makes his using the middles from Pinecones. Off I went and got one and we both tried (without success) pulling the scales off with pliers etc. A few days ago I was again thinking how to make palmtrees for the Khandibar set up and bingo!!!

What do you need ? A pair of scissors, some clear silicon, some plastic decoration leaves (the sort with a metal or plastic spine welded under the leaf, the ones used for roses seem to be the best) a Pine cone...AND!!!!!!...................

..........A Squirrel. One of the visitors to our garden...:-D

Squirrels like the seeds in pine cones and to get at them they strip the scales off. and then throw the core down. After just a quick look under a pine tree near our house I collected over 50 such "cores". The only thing the squirrel doesn´t do is remove the "tuft" of scales at the top, but as this can be easily snapped off, I´ll let them off.

The Plastic leaves. Simply cut down to the rough size wanted, and with scissors cut irregular strips all along the sides. When that´s done, turn the leaf over and remove the last 1/2 cm of the spine near the base of the leaf. This gives it a nice flat area for attaching. Bend the leaf to shape(the bending also spreads the fronds apart)....and using silicone, glue to the top of the pinecone core in an overlapping clockwise (anti-clockwise) pattern.

If anyone is interested, Valdemar are looking for sponsors to help fund a set of Bods.

The concept:
It costs 50 euro to be part investor in the set, these money are used to help cover some of the development costs. What you get are that you help the range grow and you get 1 sample set from the first testshots, so you will get the figures way before anyone else.

How:
You sign of for 1 share (10 total) and when all ten are sold the project will begin. If the project are not completed you will get your money back.
It will be a "brutal" battle set..so if your interested, contact Jens on the Valdemar site

Orc warriors 2 (Conversions)

2012-05-25T05:10:00.000-07:00

A bit of snipping and another 5 orcs are added to the warband.

Bottom half of rider and horse from Zvzda´s Carthaginian Numidian Cavalry I´ll give the rider a wolf when I find a decent sized one.

Orc knight after head swop onto a Zvezda English Knight of the 100 Years War

They even make good Wildmen (Cavemen) after a head swop using Zvezda´s Medieval Peasant Army

The weapon changes..how´s it done? Quite simple really

Tools....cork, pliers, sharp blde (I like to use cutdown Razor blades..easier to handle) a pin and a Darning needle. The 0.8mm florist wire is for making lances/flagpoles etc.

Simply remove any previous weaponary. With the pin, make a hole right through the hand, being carefull to make sure it goes exactly through the middle. I´ve found it´s best to use a pin first for the harder type plastics and even the softer ones (HaT) It opens up the plastic a bit before the proper hole is made. If you see any whitening of the plastic put the bod into boiled water for a minute. This will destroy the plastics "memory"

After making the first guidance hole ust the darning needle to expand the hole. Slowly push the needle through and at least once hold in hot water to further destroy the plastics memory. Go all the way to the thickest part of the needle, hold in hot water to again destroy the memory and retain the hole and take the needle out. Fill the hole with a weapon .Told you it was easy :-D

For bods that end up with say a spear hold in both hands and previously they had only one weapon (the orc archer above) it´s just a matter of looking at the bod, working out if the pose suits and then giving it a go. Conversions like the orc archer are a bit more difficult..you seem to need 2 pairs of hands to hold, twist and insert the lance through each of the two hands but with practice it works fine.

Orc Warriors (Caeser )

2012-05-23T04:41:00.001-07:00

Medieval fantasy? Well....Sort of..:-D
There´s a few more fantasy sets planned and some more available, like the Orion/Dark Alliance orcs, and at some point maybe PSR will have to add a new section to the listings and move the Caeser sets out of the Features section.

Even using just one pose of each from the set they make a decent sized warband.

The one on the far left..a female?

I haven´t added bowstrings. Their big ugly heads are in the way.

My favourite poses from the set. I haven´t yet added a symbol on the standard..I can´t decide on anything appropiate yet..and I don´t want the usual red eye or white hand....

Hello to Dead Guy from DeadGuy´s Ditch blog. He´s not been blogging for long and has just posted an excellent post called, The One Wargame Book To Rule Them All about a wargames book called Games of war.
Hello to Don Carlos Suratos from DC23 Hobbies Blog. The "just short of " 2,000,000 hits shows how popular his site is and no wonder, he´s got some pretty amazing stuff...the tutorials section is really something else!!

Elves as Adventurers

2012-05-21T06:37:00.001-07:00

Elves? I´m not too keen on them myself...bit to "high and mighty" for my liking, so these got thier ears trimmed and have joined the human adventurers.

Ok...she lost her long pointy ears but the eyebrows are still a problem

An attempt at getting a nice glittery dress effect..

Alan Assassin aims an arrow accurately at an apple-

Talking of assassins...coming soon.... the full guild of assassins from Alex...

Hello to Vortrey..thanks for following :-D

Converted Medievals

2012-05-19T05:57:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about 1/72nd plastic bods..they are comparatively cheap and therefore there´s no great loss when experimenting with conversions.

A group of medieval conversions, using Miniart, Zvezda, Airfix, Redbox and Italeri Bods.

An easy conversion. Normally this pair are from Miniart´s French Knights with Assault Ladders, and are supposed to be at the top of the ladder. The odd " ladder clips " removed, Pin in the foot to attach to a base..finished, two charging knights.

Another easy one. The Archer´s body from Aifix´s Sherriff of Nottihgham set and a head from the Zvezda´s French Infantry of the Hundred Years War. The standard bearer (from Redbox´s Town and county Levy ) lost his Halberd and gained a flag.

More complicated. A couple of bods from Zvezda´s English Infantry of the 100 Years War, with a bit of arm twisting / swopping, the hands re-modelled and the seigepark gets a couple of new workers.

Body transplants. Always a bit dodgy. The top half has to look "natural" on it´s new legs. This isn´t difficult when creating a riding pose but the foot bods are a pain. Both tops halves are from Zvezda´s French Knights. The trumpeter´s legs are from Zvezda´s French Infantry of the Hundred Years War, the Knave´s from Italeri´s Medieval Tournament and Medieval Challenge.. (one thing..the hand of the trumpeter, the one holding the trumpet..try that at home!!!! )

Edward Lear Animals

2012-05-17T05:26:00.002-07:00

It was the birthday anniversary of the artist and writer genius, Edward Lear or as he would introduce himself, Mr Abebika kratoponoko Prizzikalo Kattefello Ablegorabalus Ableborinto phashyph.
Born on the 12th of this month, 200 years ago, there was a lot of discussion on Radio 4 LW about him..and it got me thinking.. :-D

A Hamel..is a camel,

with the head of a horse.

A Corse..is an animal

the other way around...of course!

The very ungainly looking Hamel

The almost feasable looking Corse

Hello to Mr Lee
Hello to Michigentile from Michigentile´s Microworld blog. Member of the Valdemar Forum (the place for medieval fanatics) A fan of medievals and he creates some excellent dios on the period.

Colonial Beer Wagon

2012-05-15T07:02:00.001-07:00

After seeing Michael´s Excellent Water cart I had to have one myself..ok, the medieval ones got in the way but finally I have produced one for the Khandibar colonials. if..and when Hat releases it´s Colonial General service wagons and Oxen carts I will make a small supply train..which will never live up to the genius of this supply column. Some of the photo´s are damm near to looking real, well worth a look...(he said jealously :-D)

Even after a bit of work, the Renedra barrel still has visible misaligned mold lines. Still, they are cheap and Renedra do make some lovel terrain pieces.

Carriage from Zvezda´s Peter the great russian artillery set, horse from Airfix´s German mountain troops..bod from HaT

Hello to Kaptain Kobold :-D

Airfix WWII British infantry

2012-05-13T02:07:00.000-07:00

After a long pause I´ve finally got back to my quest of painting every set of bods that Airfix has ever produced using only original figures.
63 sets, of which 3 feature mainly animals so don´t count (ok, the Zoo animals set 1 has a bod in it) and the SAS set which is listed but was only ever made in 1/32nd. 5 sets are repeated..they have an earlier version and if I ever get through the PSR list I´ll paint them as well. 59 sets of which I´ve got 31 finished !!!! :-)

I won´t make any comment, the review at PSR says it all.

Narnia - The Invasion Begins!!!!!

Hello to Tarty. I know you have a blog but your friends follower thing don´t work.

Medieval Ale wagon (2)

2012-05-10T07:12:00.000-07:00

The first recorded incidence of Drunk driving..luckily he´s got no number plate!
Same procedure as last time..except with this one I´ve used one of the horses from the Russian artillery of Peter the great (Reins removed and replaced) and a bod form Valdemar.

It´s the second FIGZ event soon!!!! :-D
When: June 3rd 2012 from 10:00 to 17:00h
Where: Dennenweg 106 Arnhem (Click here for a map)
Free entrance, Bring and show, workshops
Look it up on FB;
http://www.facebook.com/events/381701698538295/

Medieval Crossbowmen (Strelets)

2012-05-08T05:57:00.000-07:00

Possibly not the best set in terms of detail, the crossbows for example are pretty crude but for the range of poses, a good set. 14 poses which gives a lot of variety for the battlefield.
As noted on PSR "It would have been both appropriate and appreciated if the set had include some pavise shields which were commonly used by those armed with the crossbow".
Well, I´ve sorted that out :-D

All the bods together in a firing line...one fires while the other loads. I haven´t based them yet....I´m still deciding wether to keep them in one block or base individually or pairs.

Some of my favourite poses. The wide range of clothing styles means that at least one or two can be used for certain periods...for example, the one kneeling..a Norman or a crusader

One big mistake...medievals with trousers!!!! They will get re-done, I´ll add a bit of green stuff to create boots.

A slight upgrade to the scratch made Pavisen With a pin I made a hole up behind the paper and inserted a straightened out Staple, bending it slightly to give the stand the correct angle.

Hello to Martin. Sorry mate.either my bloggers friend link aint on or your´s isn´t..same with Anne´s avatar..click on it..doesn´t show a link. May be something to do with the new PC.
Hello to Anne from Anne´s Attic Blog. I really like the Rabbit Ranger :-D

Medieval Ale Wagon

2012-05-06T04:02:00.002-07:00

Every army needs a drink at the end of the days work.

Driver a converted archer from Miniart`s Fench Knights with assault ladders, Horse from Zvezda, the wagon, a 3pdr gun carriage from Zvezda´s Russian artillery of Peter the great, barrel from Renedra

Tap made from a bit of the wagon sprue from the side of the 3pdr gun carriage.

Scratch built Serpentine

Made with a bit of balsa wood, some card, bit of an old paintbrush and copperwire

Hello to Millsy, Mad wargamer and Liverpool FC Fan...
Hello to Nathan from Napoleonic Military Modelling blog.
Sorry, no back links to your blogs. Due to technical difficulties...my PC blew up, it actually went bang!!!
I´m posting this on a Laptop that has the memory capacity of a goose, which means..I open another tab and have two blogs up at the same time...everything stops!!!!!!

HaT El Cid Cavalry and Pieter De Coninck

2012-05-03T05:19:00.000-07:00

I´ve already painted the HaT El Cid Heavy cavalry as Normans but now they are painted for their intended role.

Recently, Peter from Peter´s Cave Blog painted up a set of the Strelets Medieval levy II as Guildsmen at the battle of the Golden Spurs (this site, De Liebaart, is an excellent resource for the period., weapons, clothing, cooking and life in general )
Well, he can´t be allowed to get away with it, So this is my "answer" , Pieter De Coninck. He had a lively life, a weaver who, along with his mate, the butcher, Jan Breydel, became a revolutionary leader and was eventually Knighted. (The Baker and the candlestick maker aren´t mentioned :-D )

Wether the light blue of the caparison is correct I don´t know..but it looks good in combination with the heraldry

Horse from Accurate´s Hundred Years war Kights of france, Pieter from Valdemar

HaT El Cid Spanish Infantry ( Conversions )

2012-05-01T06:54:00.000-07:00

A couple of head and arm swops to get some variation amongst the troops.

Head swops

The two on the left have had head swops, the two on the right thier arms.

A bit of decoration added to the Gunboat´s cabin

Speed regulator, map table and a nice picture of Queen Vic.

Hello to Scott from Scotty´s Workshop blog. Some great looking minis and He says ; I am a 28 year old Miniature-aholic from northern Utah. If I'm not painting miniatures I'm probably thinking about painting them. Sounds great to me :-D
Hello to Sean from Sean´s 10mm World Blog. He´s just started blogging and his first post..10mm WotR´s is great... When I think they are half the size of my bods!!!
Hello to Alessio Palmesano...sorry..I can´t find any link. If you have a blog please tell :-D

Roofing how to

2012-04-29T04:24:00.001-07:00

A question was asked recently over at the Steve Dean forum...how to work out the size of a roof. Normally I would just go for try and error to get the sections the right size, leading to a lot of wasted roofing material but after ´thinking about it I came up with this;

Make the tower (house or whatever..I´ve tested it and it works for all rectangular buildings) measure from each opposing corner and make a cross shaped insert.


Mark a point at the wished height in the middle of the cross piece. Make a mark at the height of the wall and join the two up. Repeat for all 4 sides.

Lay on a piece of card (or whatever) and mark from the top of the roof to each outside corner. Extend these lines to give a bit of roff overhang. If your building is exactly square, the first piece can be used as a template to make the other 3 sections..if not just repeat for the remaining sections.

Add tabs, either to the inside on the cross piece or on the roof sections and glue on. If the wall sections/cross piece are thick enough to lay the roof sections on and just glue, then the tabs can be ignored. The whole thing only took ten minutes with taking pics but would obviously take longer for a better looking finish.

Welcome to Tyla from Obscure creations Blog. She´s building a dolls house and, I don´t know about you but I find the things fascinating. Not only that but some of the techniques used are very usefull in all forms of modelling.
Welcome to Andy from Cold War Gamer blog . Everything cold war period but in 20mm and a huge amount of resource links.

PS; Due to the screw up with the Bloggroll list thingy, I couldn´t go through the horror of deleting ang re-doing the thing so I´ve just added a second one..much easier :-D

Medieval Town House II

2012-04-27T05:03:00.000-07:00

The second medieval house from Fredericus-rex, town house with shops number 1.
I won´t repeat my ideas and details as The Town House number 2 only that I´ll add that I´ve come up with a couple of tricks to speed up the building of the house.
1. Pinning the sides together with pins as I glued the wall sections together. This prevents them from falling apart as the next section is attached. The pins I removed after the joins were dry.
2. Using bits of the lasercut sprues to reinforce the internal (unseen) corners. This lends the unfinished construction stages a huge amount of extra stability and helps keep the walls square when duriing later construction.
3. Prepainting the etched wall sheets before adding them to the building. This is not only quicker to do as they are all on a flat surface but the overall colour is then consistant.

The happy family (and dog) with their new house

It´s even got a garage! :-D

The posh end of Styrow on the Foam is growing.

Hello to Michel from Michels Miniaturen Blog. Everything 1/72nd and mostly in my favourite period, the Middle ages. IMHO, Michel is one of the master dio creators...his blog´s well worth a visit

The Gunboat "Diplomacy"

2012-04-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

Built in 1880 and named after General Sir Arthur Diplo-Macy of the Kensington Diplo-Macy´s.

Due to Navy regulation 2189.section A sub section 12, the names of Boats and ships in her majesty´s Service are not to include any Hyphens, so it had to be dropped.
Sporting an 18pdr gun, top deck gatlings and chugging along at the stately speed of 6 mph, this is the absolute power on the rivers of Khandibar.

The rear door? The entrance to the engine room or the magazine

The roof is removable and I might add some more deko..levers, some maps, a picture of Queen Victoria etc.

The main gun. It comes from the Emhar´s British WWI artillery set. A bit of snipping, the shield bent forward a bit and glued to the top of an old syringe for the mounting with a lenth of plastic rod that fits into the deck allowing it to swivel.

Gatling gun from the HaT gatling gun set. It´s mounted on a pin and can be positioned in each corner of the top deck. Mounts made from thin plastic tubes taken from cotton buds.

Hello to Ender from Ender´s Games Blog. He´s just kicked off with blogging and his first post, Zvezda Vikings is a real good one!

And for all you Fans of 1/72nd Bods, plastic, metal, resin or whatever and all associated with them, planes, trains and automobiles, ...look HERE ;-D

El Cid Spanish Infantry (HaT) Crusaders

2012-04-22T04:31:00.000-07:00

A good set this one..you get 4 sprues of 24 giving a total of 96 bods !
I´ve already painted the heavy infantry up as Normans but I lost interest in the light infantry until now and the start of an early crusades Army.

One complete sprue without repeats.

With this lot I´m going for a lot more colour

The one pose that is a bit..er?..rubbish..the one on the far right..he just doesn´t look properly balanced.

My favourite pose from the light inf..the crossbow man.

Part 2 of the Medieval Cog..I didn´t get much further than the planking but I did have a coulpe of bods to paint...

Napoleonic Austrian Pioneers (1)

2012-04-20T04:54:00.000-07:00

These are destined to become part of the Croeburn 1813 dio. Not my usual period of interest and it´s been a right pain trying to find any reference pics for them so any tips would be extremely helpfull.

Is the Ochre colour correct? The covers..are they the right colour? Are the reins the right colour?

Many Many thanks for all the nice comments about the Pirate cutter..you´ve all given me inspiration to have a bash at a couple more.

A bit of a simple build..a colonial gunboat.

Another one with sails and rigging....a medieval Cog.

Pirate Cutter Scratch build...FINISHED!!!!!

2012-04-18T07:48:00.001-07:00

The rigging took a whole day and I know it´s not what rigging would really be like..there are mistakes and compromises all over the place..but finally it´s done and dusted! I´ll add a couple of little bits and pieces, rolls of rope, another gun or two, one of those swivel guns but basically all that remains is a name.

The sails are made from paper..cut to size and shape. Along each edge I made a 5mm fold, added a length of thread and glued the fold over it. Then a layer of micromesh net curtain on each side, glued on with wood glue and finally a covering of white Acrylic paint with a bit of sand brown mixed in.

Because the sails are covered with nylon net curtain it was easy to make holes for the rings etc. I heated up a darning needle over a tealight and burnt them in.

Total cost. In real terms..20 cents for the mast and 50 cents for a roll of thread.Paint and glue..about 30 cents worth (industrial batches bought a while ago)
And now all the stages ..(that I took pictures of) in one go...

I only used three of the blocks..the rest I made using beads

The Yard. The jaws made from a clothes peg.

Wheel made from..a wagon wheeel and some pins

Hold cover made from foamcore with cardboard covering and Anti-Fly mesh for the grate.

It used to look like this!!!!?

Hello to Brovatar from Brovatar´s painting Blog....I love the Isabella Von Carstein!!

Arabic citizens, executioners, Napoleonic french artillery and Female Hoplites.

2012-04-16T08:34:00.001-07:00

Loads of new goodies planned and released.
Before you scroll down, warning...mild nudity.
Arab citizens from Erik Trauner. There´s 4 sets of 5 - 6 bods in each set, Clerics, musicians, market traders and citizens. They fit well to my plans, firstly they are citizens..and I can never have enough of them, but they are also usefull for medieval of khandibars setting. They will be available from may HERE with more pics of the other sets.

Also availabe are set piece scenery and accesories like these;

This lot are a set of excecutioners and victim being broken with a wheel. They were hard times!!!
The last recorded use of this type of excecution was in 1841!
Available now from HERE Apart form the excecution scene, I can see a lot of uses for these bods.

Something completely new, .in 1/72nd anyway and a great addition to an Imagination army...Napoleonic french artillery......as you´ve not seen them before.

Also coming from the same source and also available from HERE (around about may) are some lightly clad female hoplites;

Finally, part 10 (?) of my Pirate cutter scratchbuild..the rigging has started!!!!

The climbing ropes.

Sewing thread stretched over a home made rigging frame

Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem

2012-04-14T04:25:00.002-07:00

Two members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. (Ordo Equestris Sancti Sepulcri Hierosolymitani, Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem .. try saying that when your drunk)
One of the 5 oldest of the Military orders, along with the Templers, ( Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonicthe - Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon ) Knights of Lazarus ( Ordo Militaris et Hospitalis Sancti Lazari Hierosolymitani -Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem ) the Knights Hospitaler and the Teutonic Knights ( Ordo domus Sanctæ Mariæ Theutonicorum Hierosolymitanorum - Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem )

Enough of the history....
These were painted for a comp at Valdemar forum, Rules, to have at least one horse, one knight or sergeant from one of the military orders, water and sand. After a lot of research I couldn´t find what symbol a sergeant of the Order would carry so I´ve gone for the basic red cross.
During my searches I found a really good site about the military orders..the Catholic Encyclopedia, tons of info and links.

A knight (and or sergeant), sand and water. I´m rubbish at making artificial water so ..a well..it´s got water in it.

Not really apparent from the photo, I´ve tried to get two different shades of white..a brown based one and one black based...

Hello to Milliput Polska...needs no explanation

Richard´s Plans

2012-04-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

Richard, after coming home finds that some Lords, including Sir Hugh Jarse, have been causing a lot of trouble. raising taxes and generally abusing the population. Richard sets up camp near the coast, calls his war council together and makes his plans!

The bods, table and chair were a suprise pressie from Valdemar :-)

Like in any film, lots of tapping of fingers on the map...winds me up something rotten seeing that in films!!!!!

Hello to Ania´s minis..no blogger link?

Waiting for Godot (medieval setting)

2012-04-10T06:18:00.001-07:00

Ok..the play Waiting for Godot was written in 1948 and features two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon. The pair are wearing bowler hats, there´s a tree in the background, Estragon sits on a mound or rock and they wait.
But the names, Vladimir, Estragon, Pozzo, and the name of the writer Samuel Becket, all have (IMHO) a Medieval ring to them and make me imagine a medieval setting..so.................

The Vladimir character is supposed to be used to protray a pilgrim drinking using his cupped hand, but it could also seem as if he is looking at his fingers in an absentminded way as he talks.

Whatever Vladimir is saying, it´s either very stupid and it´s annoying Estragon or it´s very interesting and Estragon is concentrating.

Estragon sits on a basket in my version.

Great news..My Medieval Egg house won Dalauppror´s Paint your egg challenge. Next year..be there or be...er??.....not egg shaped

Hello to Henry from Henry´s wargames and strange tat blog. I haven´t heard the word tat used for a while :-D Loads of Tat (stuff) including this wonderfull TEDDY!!!
Hello to Artur Gorka...no blog link ?

Medieval Egg House

2012-04-08T07:48:00.000-07:00

Rarely written about, these egg houses, built using eggs from the giant Gon-Gon-awey bird of the Blackforest, were a cheap and practical way of getting a roof over your head without having to shell out a large amount of money, in fact..they were very cheep. Apparently the fashion went as they weren´t all they were cracked up to be.
Here, a lokal Yolkel can be seen re-positioning his Egg house after moving a heavy cupboard away from the center of gravity.

After seeing Dalauppror´s Paint your egg challenge..I just had to have a go. Still one day to go Y(F)olks and if you miss the deadline, there´s always next year :-D

HAPPY EASTER !! :-D

Zulus (HaT)

2012-04-07T06:55:00.000-07:00

"The sentries report Zulus to the south west. ...eight of them".
Well, There´s only the 8 poses in the set as seen here
Not historically accurate..but then again they are meant to come from a Jungle type area in Khandibar and aren´t really Zulu´s at all and I liked the idea of a B/W colour scheme on the shields. Zebra skins...with wide stripes..that´s it!!..widestriped Jungle Zebras. Common in Khandibar.

Part of a swop with Peter from Peter´s cave Blog..............he´s been lazy and not yet painted his part of the swop :-D