Wednesday 27 November 2013

Edward the II

..and "friends".

Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray´s Schiltron nearly finished
The man himself
Standard bearer for Gilbert de Clare and Gilbert de la Hay, 5th feudal baron of Errol in Gowrie, Lord high constable of scotland, made Heritable Constable in 1314
And finally Edward II. Born 1284,  he would have been 13 when in 1297,  William Wallace was starting the uprising along with William the Hardy, Lord of Douglas. So yet another reason to scream at the´Historical innacuracy in the  film Braveheart,  as the actor playing him, Peter Hanly, (who was 29 -30 years old at time of making of the film) is definately NOT 13 yrs old!!!  

For Bartek, as requested, A couple of comparison pics of 1/72nd scale Bombards alongside a 28mm Perry Bod .  
1st pic Bombard (same size as the Zvezda one ) in the Zvezda base.
2nd pic,  From left to right.Mars, Fredericus-Rex and and my working bombard (same size as the zvezda one)

Sunday 24 November 2013

Bannockburn - English camp. (pt 20)

Camp Scene. They will end up as part of what will be  more representative of the english camp  than a scottish one, but some of the bods can definately be used for both. All the bods come from the Strelets Medieval Britian set. (from which I´m still missing 12 poses )
Gilbert de Clare (Earl of Glouchester), Thomas de Ufford and Edmund de Mauley
Generic kniggits
Musicians and a Squire

Prisoner and praying kniggit. In the set he´s  posed with a kniggit (Pic above middle) as if he´s getting knighted, but I reckon he looks better as a praying Knight.
Cooks or the "where´s my contact lens ?" scene




Wednesday 20 November 2013

AWI and House guests.

A pause from eating biscuits.This Little lot will end up as part of a wargame for Michel´s  son (Michel´s Miniaturen) for which he´s built this excellent Fort.
First up a Group of Airfix British Grenadiers, 42 years on  and still finding a use.
Close up. The officers nag has been replaced...
Some Zvezda Russian Artillery of Peter the Great painted as american artillery. Not 100% historically correct but  fine for wargaming.
Manning a gun (pinched from the Bodstonian artillery!!)
Lords (Officers) and ladies
These ladies are from Strelets Court and Army of Peter I
And now the house guests. 4 hedgehogs :-D It was weighing day so I though I´d take some pics.

This one we found running about near a busy road during the day. He was covered in ticks and wounds. Weighing only 180gm´s, toes missing on every foot, the sole of one foot shredded,  half the tip of his nose, cut on his left ear and three large cuts on his Body,  in which there were maggots. What had happened to him? Maybe a Motorscythe? A lawn mower?
He was pretty Close to death and The local hedgehog protection People took him in,  looked after him for two weeks and now he`s completely healed (except a small wound on his ear) and weighs nearly 600 gm´s.
Another male, who like his friends, is too small to survive outside through the winter. Even though we´ve got (created) a hedgehog friendly garden, there is not enough naturally occuring food at this time of year for them to gain enough weight for thier winter sleep.
A Female
Another female. when we found her she weighed 290 grams but now she weighs 390gm´s.
Sadly, because we can´t look after all 4, due to lack of space and the feeding costs,  she has gone to another carer.

It´s a bit of work looking after them, cleaning their "pens" out, making up the correct food for them but IMHO, well worth it :-D
If anyone finds one that needs caring for, this site Pro-Igel (the link is the english Version) is a Goldmine of info. For instance, Do you know wether hedgehogs are Born with or without spines ? :-D

Saturday 16 November 2013

Roman Town (4)

The town has grown again..(and so´s my weight after eating all the biscuits :-) )

Another row of Shops.....
...a corn store...
...and an "Administration" building.

The work continues...the Upperclass house and quarry  in construction, a Lupinar(ium) planned.

Monday 11 November 2013

Roman Town (3)

Now with the addition of a small slave market and a reconstructed temple
The slave market.
With "participants!
The temple, built a couple of years ago,  has had it´s roof re-constructed (the new Roof is also removable) one pillar removed from the front and two other pillars re-positioned, statues added,(Atlantic Gladiators and christians set and Revell´s Praetorians set)  an internal wall added, flooring and some wall decorations.


Statues made from dowling, bit´s of  Insulation foam and bods from the Atlantic Gladiators and christians set.
Upper class house, admin building and a grain store in Progress.......as soon as I can get some more rolls of bisuits :-D


Thursday 7 November 2013

Roman Town (2)

A couple more buildings have been added to the Town of  "Scalpere Aedificare" along with some paving.The paving is printed out from a free pattern found on the web.
In construction or Planned,  is a slave market, a  Temple, a  quarry, an upper class house with courtyard and one or two more houses.



The cellar tavern.......Tabernus Cellarium


The town guard keeping an eye on any vagrants who might be causing Trouble.
The buildings are detachable so  they can be used in gaming, possibly using the Song of Shadows and Dust from Ganesha Games, which I only found out about from this Review over at Iregular wars Blog


Monday 4 November 2013

Scalpere Aedificare (Roman town)

The Progress so far on the small island town of Scalpere Aedificare. Not a lot, especially considering that it was started in Febuary of this year, but there´s always something else that gets in the way. The two house on the quay side have been completed. The building to the left is from the original Roman town I made years ago, but the Roofing is being replaced, doors, Windows reconstructed and the whole frontage has been shortened.
New style roofing, using the  inner  protective sheet of  corrugated paper from rolls of biscuits.
Not 100% to scale but it looks way better than my previous attempts with insulating foam sheeting. It´s much easier and quicker than sticking on 100´s of individual card tiles, and looks better than my previous method with insulating sheeting. It paints up ok, but as the paper is thin you need to be carefull not to use paint that´s too watery or press too hard with the Paintbrush otherwise the ridges get crushed. One or two isn´t too bad, it gives the roof a bit of an aged look. The ridge tiles are made from thin card curved over a pen.
 

The old style roofing, using thin insulation sheeting. Some of it might find a use for paving or brickwork in some future Project.
For getting some sort of texture on the walls I´ve smeared them with PVA and scattered a thin covering of sand over them. The Card to provide a base for the "tiles"  is cut to shape as in this "how to"

And, a new range of Medieval ship sets from Medieval Model Ships created by Valdemar.
Some of them are a bit pricey but when I win the euro lottery, I´ll get me a fleet of them :-D

Stalingrad 2013.
This looks a pretty amazing film. A handfull of russian soldiers, cut off on the "wrongside" of the Volga,  defend a house and a woman at all costs. The  film set has a life size mock up of Pavlov´s house which was re-captured and then  defended by a  platoon of the Soviet 13th Guards Rifle Division led by Junior Sgt. Yakov Pavlov from the  27 September to 25 November 1942.
 
The Music in the 1st  trailer "What a wonderfull world" is by Brazzaville.
I

Friday 1 November 2013

Roman Guards (strelets)

Taken from  Strelets Caesar Army on the March and Caesar Army Before Battle,. I´m only going to have a Contubernium to guard the town, "Scalpere Aedificare" (which has actually seen some Progress recently) as having any more would mean a barracks, barracks means more officer types and then nags and.....
Anyway, they´ve got the cushy Job of being the face of law and order in Scalpere Aedificare.

For some reason, they have a "I don´t give a ****!" look about them, the poses and the expressions on thier faces. Even when the Decanus is shouting at them on one of the rare moments he´s in uniform and not drunk, they show only mild interest.
The two  from the "on the march" set have different shields to the "before battle" set..which is a pity, but they make good "patrolling around town" bods
Even whilst getting a telling off, one of the legionaries is more interested in Scratching his butt than actually listening.
A Military official has turned up. He outranks them but as can be seen from the way the Legionary on the right is looking at him, you can tell any orders will be carried out grudgingly.
Over at Loki`s Great Hall blog, the Grand Milestone of 200 followers has been reached and there´s a  lovely limited edition Scottish warlord up for grabs in a giveaway. To find out the "rules" and enter get over there and join in :-D
and...there´s another giveaway over at Sam´s Mini´s  world blog. There you could be one of  5 winners of  1 Mithril figure of  choice
and......there´s another Giveaway at Monty´s Caravan Blog. Different prizes to be had on dofferent days.