Fantasy Island

A question...did the makers of Avatar and Dragon hunter make up the floating islands they show ?
The Answer..No. They used references from a rare 12th century manuscript, the Libellus Plumbeus  which clearly shows a floating "island" and gives a full and indepth description of thier uses and users.
I have been given access to this document and have been able to recreate one of the scenes shown as shown below.

Here is the recreation of the floating  island (Insula natantes) An interesting fact I discovered is that the real reason for Stonehenge is not a sundial...but it´s a central docking point..a bit like a big harbour. Apparently there were lots of these structures around the country allowing the pilots of the islands to dock to take on supplies etc.

You may ask yourself  "How did these things travel??" This puzzled me at first but on closer inspection of the Libellus Plumbeus, I discoverd that they moved by means of light breezes along leylines, hence the Stonehenge dock  being on what is supposed to be central "hub" of ley lines

Here we see a farmer, who after helping to secure the anchor rope is asking wether his ploughing is straight. Life was much more simple back then eh??

All the buildings of the islands were built of Welsh blue stone, which is thought to contain magical powers. The tower holds the winding gear for the anchor rope and is a common feature of the islands.

What happened to these wonderfull floating mysteries??? Apparently in 1279, there was a massive hurricane which blew a lot of them out to sea, where lacking the powergrid of the ley lines they simply plumeted into the sea. One particually big one is reckoned to have become the isle of skye. The rest?? Who knows...probably all fell victim to soil erosion.

Hat Late Roman Missile troops

Not a bad set, even if the plastic is a bit soft and "paint resistant"
The plumbatii and archers are already incorporated into my  late imperial roman army and only the crossbowmen and Scorpians were left to do. 

Maypole dancers

Just for fun.:-D

Emhar Vikings (1/72nd)

Or theses days Emhar or Imex., anyway, they both use the same box art. These were kindly sent by Dan from the Command tent...again Dan,,many thanks :-D  Saxons and Zvezda Vikings soon.

The plastic, being hard and the glueable stuff, allows a lot of possible conversions

The bod in the middle is the original pose...he´s sporting last years fashion, a gold leafed jacket , Mr Grimbaldson to his right has a natty steel plate coat on while Mr Undwold, to the left has a simple "lets go Pillaging" leather Jerkin. Mr Undwold also carries the gangs crews Flag of a stoopiing Crow, which I got from Ray´s Blog Don´t throw a one, where there are more on the rack to choose from.

Horseshoe tower 1/72nd

A horseshoetower, in german a Backofenturm, Schanzturm, Schalen  oder Halbschalenturm. A combination of a round tower with a square one.. to qoute wikipedia; 

The horseshoe-shaped (or D-shaped) tower is a compromise that gives the best of a round and a square tower. The semicircular side (the one facing the attacker) could resist siege engines, while the rectangular part at the back gives internal space and a large fighting platform on top

This model is designed, made and available from  Fredericus-rex and painted by Conny´s wife, Petra.

A beautifull  looking model..

Here the tower is combinred with the portcullis gate

Zvezda Catapult

This is a  monster of a scorpian device...I can´t imagine how far it would fire the rocks supplied with the kit, let alone how far the bolts would fly if it were life size and real. !!
I´ve seen a Replica catapult (a re-enactment group) that fired a 40kg rock over 100 meters (they didn´t put it on full tension because of limited space) but it was roughly half the size  the Zvezda model would be if scaled up.
The actual size (it looks big next to a bod) isn´t that far fetched, quite small really...look at this beast!!!

This is a reproduction of a Roman catapult that apparently stood 8 meters tall and weighed 26 tonnes

If when you build it and take care not to glue the elavation support etc...it can be put into a downward firing position  (on a castle wall )...........or......

........raised to shoot upwards at a castle wall.

 A lovely little bit of kit...I´ll have to pinch the other from my romans and re-paint it.

More medieval drunks

The medieval drunks set from Alex has been added to...I love this set..an absolute must have for my medieval village.

This guy I´ve nicknamed  Timothy...he has such a resemblence to one of my favourite actors Timothy Spall

Obviously this pair will get a bench or chair...I don´t think even the most skilled drunk can keep his balance whilst doing this. :-D

Thomas De Burgh

Thomas de Burgh   who is actually the ancestor of a famous singer...the things you learn eh??
The standard is taken from the Grimsby Wargames Club site...loads of great WOTR flags and others as free downloads
The set is Valdemars first and last adventure into injection plastic sets.
The set, medieval army on the march  contains 14 bods but nearly half of them are useless due to flash.
The weapons supplied are virtually useless, it´s near impossible to remove them from the sprue,  so these lot all got Florist wire spears

Picture is a bit dark...(overcast) Maybe because they are mourning their comrades who drowned in Flash. Two others were saved and are now hanging about with some smelly peasants in Styrow on the Fome.

Hello to Georges Guynemer..from Gignogne la Plus Brillante Blog.  He´s only just kicked off in the blogging world. The spring pistol for shootng bods...nice one :-D
Hello Rene from Paint_in blog. Another of us who likes huge armies (in Plastic and tin)
Hello to Artar İncidüzen...Facebook?? Thanks for following :-D

Medieval Lovers (1/72nd)

Ok...I´m obsessed with Alex´s sculpting and even if it has absolutely no use whatsoever for wargaming in any shape or form I´ll get hold of it and paint it...

It´s Ok, they are married, she´s wearing a ring

Tom Tiddler

After a couple of beers Tom has to attend to a call of nature :-D

Late republican Roman army (1/72nd)

The last of my ancient armies...well for now at least: :-D
Bods mainly from Italeri but some from Caeser and comand bods (aquilifier and cornicen) from Zvezda

One of the biggest complaints about the Italeri set (PSR review here) is that there is two poses that are repeated 15 times each...but...........

......with a bit of bending ....

...and arm twisting ..................

.........you can get a hell of a lot of poses from them :-D

The  scorpian is from hat. The basket I weaved myself from pins and sowing thread.

The "bugler" is converted from the hornblower in the Odemars Oscan infantry set, the commander from the hat Roman comand set

Celt army (1/72nd)

Or gemanics, or barbarians or whatever...a generic army to scrap with the romans..anytime...anywhere
Painted this lot up about the same time as the roman army.
Bods from Revell, Italeri, Hat and Airfix.

The "Skyclad" boys

Mix of Hat Goths, Italeri and Hat celts

The battle taxis

Queen Beau Dicker getting ahead

A couple of hat foot command converted to mounted command

Hello to Paul from Warriors and wargames  blog. He´s just started blogging and his VBCW pics are great...the G.P.O armoured vehicle is excellent