Ghosts!!

I recently got these from an obscure Internet dealer...called "Here today, gone tomorrow Inc! , strange name if you ask me, but each to thier own eh?
The plastic is of the harder variety, comparable to the stuff used by say Italeri. The set has a range of different poses, including, which I find quite original, some animal ghost ones. Not bad at all and the special paints that come with the set can be easily mixed with normal Acrylics.

 As can be seen in the following pics, they paint up quite well. First up, a baby ghost.

This one is a horse..or it could also be a pony...some of them are a bit out of scale, but never mind.

Happy Halloween :-)

My Eyes!!! (Baccus 6mm Napoleonics)

I´m Posting the picture of these as my sister doesn´t believe it´s possible...( Now do you believe me? ;-))
I Got these tiny little 6mm Bods from Benno (Bennosfigures Forum - see link) at the annual Forum meeting in Kampen. I witnessed him painting his 6mm bods without using a magnifying glass and in poor light!! (and thanks again for the painting tips Benno!! :-) ) I did my best, and surprisingly they aren´t really that difficult and I can see the attraction...huge armies in a small area.(also the cost of paint must be minimal!)

Bowstrings in 1/72nd

Thought I might share this one with you all.This is how I put a bowstring on a 1/72nd scale figure...I have tried other ways, thin copperwire (too heavy and it needed painting which made it too thick), human hair..(it drys out and breaks)

and many others.

With this one I use the bristles from a normal 3" house paint brush.

The tools needed;

Second glue, tweezers, paintbrush and fine scissors (here nail scissors)

 

It´s pretty simple really...cut a fine bristle off the brush . It has to be a bit longer than needed to span the two ends of the bow.
Put a bit of glue on each end of the bowstave and attach the bristle. One end can be attached flush to the bowstave, whilst the other end can be a bit longer. When the glue has dried, simply cut off flush to the bowstave and paint over.

This works fine for archers that are loading or have fired, but for the ones that are drawing thier bowstring, it´s more or less the same method except the bristle needs cutting into two short lengths and attaching from hand to stave.

Next article...How to combine a can of  Beer and a normal drinking straw to get a cheap nights drinking :-)

Hello big boy!!

One from the caesers...er?..the set of ceasers..?...the one with bods with guns...

(I can´t remember everything)

 

Whose a pretty boy then ?

I´ve got a bone to pick with you

Ok, they aren´t 1/72nd, a bit of scale creep here, but it was fun painting them.

Airfix Sopwith Pup 1917

Another of those kits that come with a potted history along the lines of..."ooh by the way, this plane was flown by such and such. On the bright but frosty morning of November...bla ..bla..he had a boiled egg with toast soldiers and tea for breakfast then went off to  gracefully shoot down  someone else sitting in another cardboard box with wings!." (I obviously made all of that up*)
The kit is meant to represent the plane flown by J.T.B McCudden.

 

And here he is at the end of the day with a well deserved pint!! (after the eggs he had for breakfast I pity the poor sod who has to share a billet with him!!)

 Again, the bod from DDS Pilots of the first world war

(* or did I?)

"MOI !? ARROGANT !!?"

Monsieur Pam de la Pam has one first prize in the "I have a most wonderfull Moustache" competition.

 

Bod from DDS Pilots of the first world war

"Houston...beep!....We Have a Problem...beep!"

Something has gone terribly wrong, but what??

Northern Goods.....by Michel

This is just one of many great dioramas created by Michel  (Michels Miniaturen - see link ) This little 1/72nd scale scene shows Traders from Sweden and Patricians from Lübeck.
Michel is not only a talented converter, painter and scenery builder, but his dios are among the best in the scale. His use of  bods from all different manufacturers is inspired, he can put bods from such  diverse manufacturers as Strelets and Valdemar next to each other, in a way which makes it hard to tell sometimes which make is which and he makes them interact with each other in a way that looks natural and lifelike.  He has, IMHO, a feeling for bringing an idea to life which is seldom seen in 1/72nd scale, even  in his bigger, more complex dios. Looking at them is inspirational.
Michel is also prepared to share his talents, which he does at German trade fairs and model conventions, the dates of which are also flagged up on his website..
I could express my ideas of what "Northern goods" says to me personally, how I imagine what the characters are thinking for example but I will stop here with my praise of Michels work and let you enjoy this wonderfull Medieval dockside scene and recommend visiting Michels site to see more wonderfull dioramas  :-)

Revell Albatross D.III

The markings are apparently showing the plane flown by Ltn . Werner Voss, Jasta 2 Boelcke, June 1917.
I mean, couldn´t they have been a bit more specific...the actual date, the 15th say, what did he have for breakfast and what his inner leg measurment was?? (:-))

The wood work was a pain in the ****.
It finally came out right more by accident than design.

The colour scheme is not 100 % as it should be, but if they aren´t prepared to give out specific  information such as Mr Voss´s hat size then I´m not prepared to stick to an exact colouring plan !! 

The pilot is as usual from the DDS WWI pilots,  seen here shooting pigeons with his trusty mauser "whilhelmina".

"Run Rabbit, Run"

It´s the year...er?...well it´s sometime in the not to distant future in a place, the name of which I can´t even begin to pronounce. The poor bod running,  has just made his last mistake....!!

Medieval Citizens set 2

This set of bods is sculpted by Alex (Valdemar miniatures) It is not the full set, to see more of these incredible sculpts, link to Valdemar miniatures....it´s always well worth a look there anyway :-)

Here we see a "better off" medieval type, telling something funny to the lower orders. The poses and the faces!! It all looks so natural...lovely!

This guy´s face. It says, "my lord, I am humble to your wishes" and this is echoed in the body posture,not just the outstreched arm but the whole body.

I don´t know about you, but I wouldn´t want to argue with either one of these pair!!

 

OOPS!! Looks like someone has been a naughty boy!! The distant expression of the guard on the left ..it´s as if to say "I can´t be bothered taking any part in controlling this prisoner, my mate on the right has the situation well under control"

This guy!!! I know the face, I just can´t place it!??? He is sculpted using  an  image of someone, sent to Alex. He then sculpted the face using very basic information and I can tell you...it´s incredible work when you know who this is. The resemblence is uncanny...and this was sculpted in less than two days...also you have to take into consideration  Alex has a full time job as well !!!!  

                                                                                                    

Revell Fokker E.III

This was my first plane after over 30 years of being away from the hobby. More a test piece than anything else, just to see wether I was capable of actually making a kit.The "rigging" was created using black nylon sowing thread and was not to bad to do.

It looked a bit silly sitting there on it´s own, so I created a little dio, using a couple of bods from the DDS WWI pilots set.

"Contact!""

"Hopefully, Willy moves his head away in time:-)"

Dios using the DDS WWI Pilot set

I can´t really get my head around making big dios....the question of storage always pops up,  time making them with so many other things to be getting on with...OK! I´ll be honest..I haven´t the patience :-)
Who guards the Gardener ?

Walk in the Park

Airfix merry men and Marion

A pretty usefull set all in all. Although the bods are a bit on the wee side (they didn´t have proper breakfasts and lets face it, woodland life aint all that it´s cracked up to be) they are still a good set for Medieval levy types.

They lend themselves to conversion quite well too (wether they like it or not!!)The happy looker (and maybe even the odd unhappy one) may notice a couple of survivors from the

"Snot River NO TAXES !!" battle.  

These bods are from left to right; Gunner, Halbardier, Gunner

These, also from left to right, Another gunner, Man at arms, Halbardier

That naughty Serrif of Notty wood and his hencemen better watch out the next time they are out walking the deer in the woods............Deer!? Did I say Deer? Obviously I meant Camels...silly me!

Medieval casualties

I did these just for fun....as is all my painting actually :-)

Even though badly wounded himself, sir Cobbleweed uses his shield to protect Geoffrey, his faithfull nag.

Stuck in the mud like a sticky thing that´s stuck in sticky mud.

NO TAXES!!!!

The evil sherrif of knotty wood has come around demanding more groats from the poor peasants.

The local yokels have had it up to here though and send the ugliest bod in the village to hold off the evil sherrif while they gather their men (and women) together

Maybe it has worked..it looks like a stand off ! A bridge too far for the sherrif ?? We shall see!!Well we won´t actually as there are no more photos and this is meant for family viewing. What I can say is that the snot coloured "stream" got a bit redder as the day went on.