HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!

A happy new year.!!!!  :-D
Thanks to all of you who have looked in, made comments and are following this little blog. I hope to see you all well and active next year...Cheers Paul

Both looking a bit worse for wear eh??? :-)

ACW Gun emplacement

A little dio using Atlantic and Airfix bods to represent  confederates preparing a gun position.
Happy new year :-D

  

Young knight

Well...Troubadour actually. :-)  Another of Alex´s great sculpts.
I have a feeling that I have seen this bod before...in fact I may know him personally.;-)

Still needs basing as he will be used in a large project I have in mind, involving about 2 - 300 other bods.

Old Knight

A Valdemar bod...metal...not my favourite material to paint for some reason but I learnt a little trick with this one. The metal areas I didn´t paint..just rubbed them up (ooer madam) with the tip of a toothpick :-)

Wenceslaus

My representation of  Wenceslaus I (c 907 - 935  ) Duke of Bohemia  ( see here for more info  )
He is created from the Italeri Crusaders set...the cloak is from ....yep! Toiletpaper :-) His flag is copied from the web and then resized and printed.

Pining for Basing

Odd titel but I couldn´t think of another.    (and I´ve got a headache from yesterday :-/ )
This method I use for bods that are going to be based on a preprepared dio and I´m not 100% sure of where they are going to end up...or they are only intended for being on the dio for a short while (they will be used for something else later.."waste not want not" as Auntie Dorris used to say.

I use thin steel wire...this stuff comes in a roll and is nearly half the thickness as a normal pin.

I cut off a 4 - 6 cm length, stick it into a winecork which acts as a handle so my delicate pinkies won´t get scorched....heat it up over a candle.......

............and gently, slowly push it into the foot of the bod. This takes a bit of practice to get it right but once you´ve got the idea it´s easy. When the "pin" is in the foot...wait a couple of moments until it has cooled otherwise the weight will bend / stretch the plastic out of shape.

Works the same on Nags.Here it was easier to just lay the hot "pin" onto the supporting leg and then fill with woodglue.

Big red and the gang

He´s got some mates and he want´s his x-mas dinner!!!!!

Banana Plane

Another go at the Revell Fokker E.III...this time in gaudy yellow...about as historically correct as a Machine gun at the battle of Zama but I like the look of it. (and I  finally got my entry in for " Plane month" :-D )

Airfix American War of Independence British Grenadiers

The army that appears to be suffering from backache...a lot of them have very hunched poses...maybe that´s why the drummer in this set isn´t smiling.

Airfix Washingtons Army

Not a bad little set...the 3er group is a nice touch. What the drummers got to smile about I don´t know!!

World War II Deserters

Got these through the post this morning. I ordered them from a firm on the internet.

 Imagine my suprise when I opened the box!!!
I´ve tried to contact the sellers but, like the Contents of the box, they´ve gone A.W.O.L!!

Airfix DAK grenade thrower

IMHO, The most  iconic pose from Airfix....he just looks great...wether the  Model 24 Stielhandgranate would actually go far when he released it I don´t know...not having ever thrown one :-)

Peasant Cavalry

Not well known for thier mounted element but my great unwashed have got themselves some 4 footed friends.

Firstly....The HEAVY cavalry

 

 and now for the light cavalry

 

Teutonic knight

This one was a quick conversion job...the helmet from the Italeri teutonic Knights set...the body from the Zvezda English knights of the 100 years war and the cloak...Toilet paper

 

Geoffrey the Orc

Well...what else would he be called...?  Found this poor little guy lying all alone in a pick and mix box at a model exhibition...he wailed to be taken home and looked after.

It looks like Geffers  is going to get a dent on his noggin if he insists on holding his morning star like that !!

Medieval Houses 1/72nd

This is one of a set of houses produced by Conny of  fredericus-rex.. There is a range of houses already available and many more planned. They come as a flat pack of Photoetched wood which you build and paint up yourself...real model making :-) Buildings with top floors can be seperated to allow acess to the rooms in which you can re-create medieval scenes of family life, the pub..whatever. Later, seperate doors, windows, stairs are planned.
The following house was built and painted by Conny and his wife..

The stonework!!  The woodwork!!! It´s hard to believe that these are made out of wood!!

I have seen these beauties for real and I can tell you they look EVEN better than in the pics.. An absolute must for every medieval or Fantasy fan.

Medieval Gun

The Zvezda Medieval Field Powder Artillery set is one of my favourite´s among the medieval sets. The bods can be used for a lot of different things. For instance the one loading can be given a pole arm, the one standing pointing can be cut in half and the top half made into a mounted bod. And the guns are just top class....a bit fiddly to construct but they look great and the barrels can be set to several elevations.

Airfix Indians

One more set down and only one set left in the Airfix western range...the US cavalry...eeeek! All those horses to paint!!

The mounted Bods. I went for the classic 60´s/70´s hollywood look

The Big boss and his wife with papoose on her back

Bases for Bods

When I first started back into the hobby, I was mainly concerned with painting up and basing Ancient armies...BIG ancient armies...blocks of Romans and the like. For this I used squares of wood cut out of old drawer bottoms etc..a lot of time and effort involved, measuring , sawing etc.
Recently I have become more interested in the medieval period, and although they organised themselves in large groups they were less likely to be in rank and file or so uniformed as say a Roman legion.
This meant more individual basing and after using loads of old coins or washers it was getting more and more expensive the bigger my armies got. The one day on a Flea market I came across these;

They are, I am told, Plumbers tools used for cutting washers. They come in a range of sizes, from 8 mm to 50 mm. For basing bods I use the 20mm one and for nags the 35mm one. They cut all sorts of materials, either using a twisting action to cut soft stuff like insulating foam (the light green stuff in the next pic) or cork or a hammer for harder materials like my favourite source of bases, old Ikea place mats, not shown in the next pic.  (and you don´t need an Allen key either :-) )

The Smaller "disc cutters" are also pretty usefull for quickly making a mass batch of shields from thin card or old margarine tubs.

Skellie Ellie

Made from copper wire and greenstuff...took bloody ages...:-) The rider is from Ceasers Undead.

 One advantage for her...she will never get killed for her Ivory !! 

disadvantage is...she can never go on holiday....how can she pack her trunk !! ?

Airfix ACW Infantry

In the long and seemingly never ending quest to paint every set of Airfix bods...these were bound to crop up at some point.  Not the prettiest of sets ever made, more functional than anything...and the struggle to get some sort of face on either set of them!!!

Confederates. Both sets share the same poses..just different headgear.

 Union set. Could be painted as Confederates

Robinhood conversions...2

Snip snip...cut, snip....glue...and two more of Robins bods have changed sides....:-)

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

So, this looks very odd (no picture of my work today but to be honest, I´m a bit annoyed) but it´s important to all us german Bloggers or better said, all of us that run a Blog in germany or are a german citizen running a Blog abroad. From the 1st of january 2011 ALL of us who run a Blog, Forum, Online shop etc will have to comply with new Youth protection laws.....See links blow

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Blog-macht-wegen-neuem-Jugendschutzgesetz-dicht-Updates-1144566.html

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/0,1518,732238,00.html

Wether or not the content of my Blog is fitting or not...I don´t know, you never know with laws and the interpretation of them, we´ll see. It would be annoying...seeing as I have just got myself together to start this little old blog and it may (or may not) be prevented from running or as of the 1st it will have to have a stupid. "warning...may contain adult content...go further at your own risk" thing before you get to look at this.
Still..I suppose it is in the interests of protecting children so....????


On a Happier Note :-D. I would like to thank all that look in here, if the name of your blog isn´t up on my blog  list, I apologise..but it doesn´t mean I am not looking at and appreciating  all your work ;.)
Cheers - Greetings
Paul

WWI Gun Crew (Emhar)

So here they are...the most unconcerned looking gun crew I can think of. :-/
The officer? What is he looking at and what is he pointing at?? You can´t place him anywhere with the gun and it looks ok. Not to the left, right, front or behind or even underneath it!!
The one with the shell. He looks like he is taking it for a walk in the park!!!
The only one who even looks involved is the one with his hands over his ears...but why? Who has fired the gun, or is it that he is ignoring the commands of his dippy officer ??

THE THREE "WISE" MONKEYS...See nothing,  hear nothing, doing nothing

ONE WITH SHELL:::"What shall I do with the shell sir?".   OFFICER:::  "Look you orrible little man, put it over there, I´m birdwatching at the moment!!"    ONE KNEELING:::"Stop!! I cant bear the silence!!!"