Old "converts"

So, it´s the end of the month and for me, the end of one year of blogging, well, this is post number 365  :-D
I´ve reached my target..a Post everyday, and then most of them Hobby related.
Virtually everything I have posted is from the last year or so or is actual...ie; Just painted, made or whatever.
I´ve seen a lot of other peoples work and learnt a lot,  made contact with some great people  and!!...It´s been great fun!!!!! :-D

This little lot are from the begginings of my obsession, some 35+ years ago...In the days when there were few manufacturers and you had to make do, always wishing that Airfix would bring out the 1/32nd stuff in HO..or the other way around....oh what Joy!! :-D

I´m not sure anymore what regiments these lot are supposed to represent!!

Wagons roll!!

In those days it wasn´t a matter of accuracy..it was the having the "different pose" that counted.

A testimony to the holding power of Humbrol gloss paint...

Add a drawing pin and the bod on the left gets a shield  

As can be seen, I liked bods with MP´s. The one in the middle has had his MP40 replaced with a Panzerfaust (a pin)

Hello to Andy from Modest miniatures. Very nice VBCW in 28mm and as Andy says;
However unfortunately I never seem to actually get to game; I just spend hundreds of hours modelling and painting, occasionally producing the odd bit of scenery and a scary amount of time making endless army lists for devastating forces that shall never see the light beyond the end of the miniature display cases.
I Know what he means :-D

Emhar Vikings (conversions)

After getting back from hols in the UK a couple more conversions from the Emhar/Imex hard plastic Vikings.
During my visit I finally found an excellent modelshop, one which reminded me of the sort of model shops from my younger days...the Hereford Model centre. If anyone lives in the area and hasn´t heard of it, it´s well worth a visit..Great range of models and kits and helpfull friendly staff.


The whole gang so far

Saxon Houses (how to)

A little article on how I made the saxon houses

Tools needed...some green insulating foam, Matchsticks, some thin woodsheeting (an old drawer bottom) sharp blade, scissors, woodglue, Bailingstring, pins and paint.

Cut the foam into a triangle, cut the doorway out

Cut matchsticks to size and glue into the doorway as the door frame. Make sure they stick out a couple of millimeters above the foam.

The "planks" are made from the bottom of an old drawer, the type that is made up of layers of thin wood. Leave it oustside for a week or so in the rain...then lay it in sunlight...it starts peeling apart, so no unecessary work manually parting each layer. ;-D

Paint the front of the foam triangles dark brown, and glue the "planks" on

When dried, simply trim the "planking" with a good pair of scissors.

Glue the sides on and paint them brown, glue the whole structure to the base. It´s best to paint the inside area of base which the hut covers with dark brown...it´s easier now thantrying to paint through the doorway later

Using thing pieces odf wood glue the above structure on.

When all is dry, cut off finger width sections of bailing string, dab one end in some wood glue and attach using a toothpick or whatever to spread the "sraw" evenly, occasionaly pressing the "straw" into the glue.

Keep going, layer for layer until the above effect is achieved. When it´s all dry, snip the straggly bits of straw off....bit of base decoration...finished!!

Medieval camp (knights tents)

The upperclass of the medieval era have got some canvas cover whilst on campaign.
Scratch built with card. The tent pegs are bits of metal rod. The flags are stuck on with pins so they can be swopped or removed completely for storage.

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Strelets dacian cavalry

They got a bit of a bad review at PSR, due mainly to the addition of bods waving falx´s above thier head whilst on horseback...a two handed weapon infantry weapon, and the fact that Dacia didn´t really have much cavalry of it´s own..so these are more likely to be Sarmations.

I painted the standard with a bull´s Head because....well because I couldn´t come up with anything else :-/

Just to say I was on holiday this last week...I had access to a PC until tuesday when   the bloody thing lost contact with the broadband reception....!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All the recent posts were saved and put on schedule...so I haven´t been ignoring anyone and it looks like you´ve all been busy so I´ve a lot to catch up on...:-D

Strelets Germanic Horsemen

Strelets ancient Cavalry week??? Why not...I´ve got a bit of a soft spot for Strelets figs.
They got a bit of a bad review at PSR on the historical aspect but they are still not a bad set..usefull for supporting J.Caeser in vanquishing vecingetorix´s  Gallic Hordes. There are some good little touches like the heads of enemies hung on the horses!!!

Two of the "wolf riders".....

OOOH my aching head!!!

Strelets Roman cavalry in battle

As with the Strelets roman cavalry on the march set, every bod of the 12 is different. The only real alteration I made was the swopping of the standard for a home made one..
PSR review here 

Strelets Roman cavalry on the march

One of the last sets of Romans I painted. They were intended to go with the Roman legion on the march set but I never got round to basing them...which I have now done.
PSR review here.

I like the original poses that strelets come up with, like the one of the officers struggling  (it looks) to pull his sword out of the sheath.

LOOK!!! The one at the far right is waving!! :-D

I added some bed/cloak rolls (pinched from 1/32nd Tamiya German infantry) and instead of having the shields attached to all thier backs as intended, I attached them to the sides..it gives a more varied and realistic look.

The Hanged Man

No picture here...I´m not too keen to show scenes which may upset anyone, especially younger viewers, and as I don´t want to put a warning etc  on the front of my blog...the warning is now here...
So as I precaution I´ve linked it internally to a neutral post here 
Things like this did happen so that is why I have re-created it...
I know there are already models available of such events, like the Atlantic Outlaws and Sherrifs set but I feel it´s not necessary   to splash it all over the net so younger viewers can see it without being warned first.

Arrow catcher

Bravely he ran to the fight, but alas he caught an arrow!!! :-(

He was part of a duel over at  Bennos Forum...I got a deserved kicking from Rich ( West Models & figures Blog ) 

I am at the moment using another PC, ....I can see that I have two new followers but only on the dashboard(thanks to both of you) but I can't see who, on front of page or on the dashboard..it won' t load up...sorry...I' ll say hello properly in a few days :-)
Same goes for commenting on other blogs or forums!!!!!Nothing works at the moment!!! I can only edit posts..which are all saved as drafts and set on automatic posting

Saxon Houses

The ones the poor folk would have lived in....:-(

Saxon conversions (Emhar)

A busy day yesterday, cutting off arms and heads, twisting arms and legs with a bit of gentle persuasion and a small pair of pliers :-D

The whole gang, so far

Saxon Warriors (Emhar)

Or, as with the Vikings...Emhar or Imex. as is shown in the PSR review.
Like the vikings, these are made of hard glueable plastic, and I´m in the process of converting a few now. The head swops are a dream...cut the head off one bod and glue on another (obviously the recipient has had his old head removed first)  using normal plastic kit glue.

These were sent to me along with the Vikings by Dan from the Command tent..and I say again, thanks mate...they are real fun to paint and convert. :-D

I went for a toned down colour scheme, no brightly coloured shileds etc.   I consider these the levy type of foot soldiers, no chain mail, basic helmets and weaponary.

One thing to watch out for...the thin parts like the shafts of weapons...only use a very tiny bit of glue on them...they melt very quickly!!!!

Federation Force Troopers (Dark Dream studios)

The only thing I´ve found that comes close to a review of this lot is at Toy Soldier HQ (scroll down), PSR haven´t covered them...yet :-D
A big thankyou to Alex for sending me these weird and wonderfull bods :-D 
I´ve also got the machines but so far have only managed to work out how one of them fits together. If anyone knows where I can find the build instructions, especially for the Imperial Force Cyborg Destroyer "Long Shadow" I´d be very gratefull.

Rifle group

Heavy weapons. From left to right, MG, some sort of ray gun, missile launcher, grenade launcher

The whole team in the ruins of @°§*'! (sorry, the alien for this place doesn´t translate) backed up with my scratch built A.P.U

Hello to Sasha (Zed1) from Zed´s Napoleonics blog Sasha is into Napoleonics...and a great job he does of them...some of his conversions are inspirational...he even paints their eyes!!!
Hello to Haarken from Martians & and Machine Guns blog .Colonial & Science Fiction Wargaming in the Victorian Age, very HG Wells, his Martian Tripods are lovely.
Hello to Smillie from Painting Diary Blog. A great painter with a sense of humour...his lateset post about PVA gold is well worth a read...I agree entirely with it..
Hello to Andrew. I´ve found you on Google + but no blog??

Revell Albatross D.III (Lt B. Loerzer 1917)

I´ve already built one of these, painted up in the colours of Ltn . Werner Voss, Jasta 2 Boelcke, June 1917.  but I really like the look of Albys so I couldn´t resist doing another.
This one is in the colours of Lt Bruno Loerzer, Jasta 26, westen front, summer 1917.

 Stringbags!!!! I love em!! :-D

Hello to Chasseur...from For Honour´s Sake blog. Long time member of the Bennos forum he´s now gone over to the "dark side"...the bigger than 20mm stuff!!!!!!!! :-D
The idea of making a drill into a mini lathe is a great one...I´m going to pinch that one mate.

Coates & Shine Indian Elephants

Coates & Shine, sounds a bit like a firm of solicitors in a Charles Dickens Novel. Still, their eles are a vast improvement on the Hat War elephants set

Hello to Christopher from Moodys adventures blog, the Professor Elemental´s Fighting trousers vid is well worth a look :-D
Hello to Nuno Mata. He has 4 blogs, the Action Figure Hospital one has some great stuff...I didn´t know there was a Matrix Morpheus figure.
Hello to Santyago and Vin...Thanks for following :-D
I can´t link back to your blogs..either blogger is acting up or your friend connect isn´t  set up...??