And the Liebster award goes to...

me and my blog!

A new post just the next day after my previous one. That's odd enough for me, but, oddly enough as well two good fellows Leif (figurfanatikern), and Jack (plasticgeneral) have nominate my blog to theirs, to get the Liebster award. I feel very lucky that they visit my blog, and it seems that they like it also.

From what I've seen, and in order to make this thing continue, I have to nominate five blogs that I like (and have less than 200 followers). You may see that the ones I'm going to talk about may have more followers than 200, but, I like their work so much, I couldn't left them out. Yet, as my blog was mentioned in the two blogs above, I feel that I have to nominate ten and three more, so as to get it right! :-)

So here goes (in no particular order - please excuse me for that, it's been a very busy day for me today):

1.  Anne, my sweet Irish from Anne's Attic. She is new to our nut house, but, from her work you can't tell. She has proven to be so good at modelling and painting, that I feel we are soon going to learn many things from her work. Inspiring. :-)

2. Andreas (aka Dr. Mork) from Morksminis. One of my first followers and one of the guys I really missed during his absence from the blogsphere in the past. He is a painting machine, and he paints the figs by the dozens. A real gentleman. :-)

3. Alan from Another Slippery slope. A great guy who is 'infected' with the WW2 bug, and paints his models in a wonderful and unique way. I've learned a lot from him. He knows how to take photos. :-)

4. Fran - aka The Angry Lurker. Who doesn't know this one of a kind Irish fellow? He and Ray, who I will present you shortly afterwards, are making me smile each time I read their posts, and help me learn all sorts of stuff about our hobby. Fran, knows how to write and paint. Invaluable gifts that he knows how to use them. A small gem in this nut house! :-)

5. Paul from Plastic Warriors. One of the guys that I value for his sense of humor and his ability to post on his blog, on a daily basis. I wonder how he does that. I call him Dr. Frankenstein from time to time, for his one of a kind ability to resurrect old models and make them stand as new and shiny. I can't do that, and I am very glad that I found Paul, and I am constantly learning from him and his work. :-)

6. Al from 20th Century wargames. One of my first blog followers, and one of the guys that first mentioned my blog in the blogsphere. I cannot forget about that. He's helped me a lot expand my work in the blogsphere. He is interested in painting models and figures for the WW1 period and early WW2. His collection is very big and covers a wide range of figures and models. A great fellow from down under as Paul. :-)

7. Michael from 28mm Victorian warfare. A real gentleman he is, and he paints soooo nicely. Every time he posts his work, I cannot stop looking at the figs and the level of paint work on them. Simply impecable! :-)

8. Jay from Jay's Miniatures Enterprise. Jay who is also a writer, at least in my eyes, has a unique style and choice of work that gets out of the norm for us mere cynics and history junkies. He has invented stories with the help of some amazing and unique models (he makes wonderful conversions also). A multi talented person he is! :-)

9. Eastern Funker's 'Panzerfaust (aka Me). A fellow from Australia who does some excellent work for WW2 Eastern front. He is collecting, painting, modelling and playing and he manages to have his life also. I am wondering how he does that. I like his work very much and I feel that I must start some Eastern Front projects myself. :-)

10. And last but not least, John from Jacksarge's Wargames Ramblings. What can I say about this guy? I stole his idea for my plucky WW2 Brits (43rd Wessex Division) and I am learning a lot from his work. I follow his work and try to reach him in his modelling and painting abilities. Great work, honestly. :-)

11. Greg from Greg's Wargaming blog. He follows my blog from the beginning, and he helps me with his nice words and insight to get a grip about this hobby. He produces some excellent work, both in figures and terrain pieces, and he comes from South Africa. And he visits my blog. For this reason only, I consider him a friend! :-)

12. Ray from Don't throw a 1 blog. The alter ego (or vice versa) of Fran the Angry Lurker. He paints some really nice models, mainly from 17th and 18th centuries periods. I have learned a lot of history from him and I follow his work as a junkie. I hope he doesn't beat me, since I called him the alter ego of Fran. I like them both. :-)

13. Peter from Peter's Cave. A fellow from Belgium who produces some really cool work. I especially like his dioramas which are full of life and historical features. He knows his work and you can tell by simply looking at them. Truly inspiring work. :-)

And that's about all....I would really like to add some more, but I am afraid I'd had to write all night - that's how many blogs I like. :-)

Have a great Tuesday night everyone! :-)

T.

You give me a button, I do the rest.

Hi everyone,

After a peaceful and quiet weekend, Monday has come and with it, comes the result of my efforts to make a new terrain piece with the help of my Hirst Arts molds and a bit of plaster (and not only...).

These molds are very handy, even if they are destined to be used for Medieval projects (castles etc.) and similar terrain pieces. As I've already told you in one of my previous posts, I like to explore Normandy towns with the help of Google Map explorer. While doing so, I came up with the idea of making a small terrain piece that could be used and be put between two buildings located in a street's corner. I decided to go and make a small town drinking fountain. I didn't know if it would be correct in terms of historical accuracy (in the mid 40's), but, I thought that it would add a nice form of variety to my never ending town-building project.

With this idea in mind for quite some days now I thought about the materials I had in hand, and what I could make out of them. I used some basic rectangular blocks, made from plaster (Hirst Arts), a small button (yes, button), a small lion-head made from plastic (I had it in my drawers for years), a piece of a vinyl tile and a piece of some Slater's plasticard (PVA glue, gesso and paints as well).

Below you will see the result of my 'block' molding process.

Now, you see the fountain piece, with it's button glued on top of it! :-)

And now you see the finished piece. It was painted grey, and the moldiness is thin strips of Vallejo's Russian Uniform.

On its own:

And between the big houses' walls:

Providing cover to some advancing Brits. :-)

I am preparing one more terrain piece, I hope to finish it soon (I am looking for a WW1 French Infantry man figure (standing position) - preferably in 28mm scale - any suggestions???).

I hope you like it.
T.


P.S: Revell has announced to re-release an old but very good set of figs, on the first quarter of 2013. I am talking about the old Australian Infantry (#2501) set, if you know it, which has a lot of useful figs, that I can use for my 43rd wyvers (with the help of a modelling knife and some super glue - for some minor conversion works - i.e helmets). It's production has been stopped for quite some years now, and during all this time the choices for some nice British figures (in plastic) were not very many - even though there has been an improvement recently, with new sets emerging. So, if you are interested, go to your local hobby store in a few months (03/2013) and get as many sets as you can (you never know, when they'd be done for good for a second time)! :-)

Have a good Monday night everyone! 

W.I.P - Molds and plaster

Hi everyone,

Been googling the maps of Normandy towns these past few days, to get some ideas for terrain pieces. This tool is simply stunning at what it does! I strongly recommend it to you guys. You can explore the town's streets without even having to travel there!

But, since I haven't prepared anything - yet, I can only show you a photo of the materials I am going to use for them. 

So stay tuned, and we'll see how it will turn out. :)

Have a good Thursday night everyone! :)

Airfix (#2318) M3A1 Half Track

Hello my dear friends!

It's Monday, and as usual it is a blog post day. I apologize for writing it so late in the night, but as we all know, many things must be done during this inglorious day, and we are only left with a handful of time available for our leisure. 

From my last post, you must have noticed that I was about to show you some photos of two Airfix's M3A1 Halftracks, that I acquired quite recently. I didn't deteriorate myself in simply painting them, but I also put some additional figures on them, so as to give them a bit of character. These figs are coming once again, from AB figures. I thought that it would be nice to make them stand officers in HQ Halftracks (you know, the ones that always stand behind the first line and give orders to the men who take all the s...t - exactly those)! I stayed in assembling the halftracks only, and not the ammo trailers as well - they will get handy somewhere else in my future projects.

I thought to try to make the painting procedure as a blog tutorial, but when I came to think about it, it was already too late - most of the colours have been applied. Cleverness and me don't get along to be honest. I will try to do it next time folks, I promise! :-)

Anyway, the finished lot follows below. I hope you like them.

The observing officer....

C&C are always welcome!

Have a good Monday night all! 

T.

AB Figures - WH9 Officers/Staff personnel - Part 1

Good afternoon l&g.

Most of you that are following my posts and are regular readers, you must have noticed that most of the latest posts were 'British' oriented. As a person that doesn't fed up easily, I could keep on posting similar subjects, but I guess that you would get bored. And you would be right about that. 

With this in mind, I present to you my newly acquired and painted German Staff officers from AB Figures (WH9 Officers/Staff personnel). These figures are so nicely sculpted (as most of the AB range offers), that I decided to dedicate more time in painting them, so as to be able to extract all their details. For this reason, and in this post, I will share photos of two painted officers, out of six that are contained in the pack.

I got the inspiration from photos in the web, since I lack basic knowledge regarding WW2 German Officers insignia. I hope that I managed to be as historically correct as possible.

On with the photos then:

The whole lot primed and painted in their basic colours:

And now the Hauptmann with his superior officer Generalmajor (without any washes applied):

And now 'washed' and varnished:

I hope you like 'em. Hopefully, there will be two more posts related to this pack of figs, so there will be a sequel... :-)
Have a nice Thursday nights folks!
T.

And last, but not least the teaser photo of my next post:

Stay tuned! :-)