This weeks miniature is in fact another double act and no prises for guessing they are both Baron’s War figures (are you bored yet?). First up we have a foot Sergeant from the “Foot Sergeants with Hand Weapons Pack 1” followed by a cossbowman from “Crossbowmen Pack 1”. Both nicely composed figures which I’m happy to add the my expanding army. At some point I must do a count up of just how many I’ve now done. Whilst the figure will be encouraging it will still fall well short of even half way. For now though, and with the limited time I have available these days, the figures are filling a need and keeping my painting level up. The summer will come to an end soon enough and then it will be time to mix things up a bit.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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Give Me Five
One of the things which intreagues me is people’s surnames. My own surname is Green, derived perhaps from a family which once might have resided near the village green. Some surnames recognise trades such as Baker or Butcher while others reflect a family member, for example, Jack’s son giving rise to Jackson. Simple actions and occupations often lead to names which stick and are handed down through the generations. I’m sure you get the idea but some names make me curious. All I’ll say is I’m glad my surname is what it is but what exactly were these people once up to?
Lillycrap
Rogers
Woodcock
Blewitt
Windass
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“Victim of Love” but Erasure. I seem to have found my self indulging in another decade of late and as such YouTube has throwing some memorable tunes at me of which this is one of my favourites.
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This week TIM has been watching …
“Timeline – The Victoria Cross” – Narrated by Jeremy Clarkson. My brother brought this documentary to my attention and I’m glad he did. If you haven’t seen it then it is well worth a watch to learn about some truly remarkable people. Even though Clarkson is like Marmite to some (I like Marmite) don’t let that put you off, his narration is terrific.
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Remember …
There is no better feeling than someone playing with your hair or running their fingers down your back. Unless you thought you were alone.
This week saw two more archers done and with it the completion of Archers Pack 1. Two more archer packs to go based on a quick glance of the to do pile. Still progressing well but more impressively I’m managing to maintain my discipline with the project. Although I’m confident of getting all the figures painted, albeit not for a while, the real challenge is not deviating along the way. So far so good but I’m sure a couple of unrelated figures have been winking at me!
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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Give Me Five
This week I got to thinking about cars in movies, particulalry vehicles which have become iconic. Unsurprisingly there are quite a lot, more than I had anticipated in fact. Needless to say opinion will be divided as I have left out some great vehicles but my top five, in no particular order, are as follows:
1964 Aston Martin DB5 (James Bond, Goldfinger)
1963 Herbie, VW Beetle (The Love Bug)
1961 Ferrari California Spyder (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off)
1968 Ford Mustang Fightback (Steve McQueen, Bullitt)
1981 DeLorean (Back to the Future)
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“Don’t Leave Me This Way” by The Communards. An excellent 1980’s cover version of a 1970’s classic. I love this version.
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This week TIM has been watching …
“Salmon Fishing In The Yemen” starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt. A quirky little film which came out ten years ago but caught my attention this week. Easy going and very enjoyable and not what I was expecting.
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Remember …
Always live within your income even if you have to borrow money to do so.
This weeks miniature is Robin Hood. Last week I painted Friar Tuck who is paired with Robin as a pack of two figures in the Baron’s War range and this week I manged to get the prince of thieves himself done. Images of the iconic rogue below along with a couple of him together with his religious side kick.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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“Florabunda”
Well my little ninja turtles I discovered three websites a few weeks ago which I thought I would share with you. All are very much geared to basing, specifically in respect of flora and fauna and although they may not be new to you they are to me.
Tajima1 is based in Cornwall, not a million miles away from me, and a small order I placed arrived very quickly and the quality of the items I bought was excellent. They don’t have a huge range of items compared to the other two sites but still we’ll worth checking out in my opinion. I’m sure I will be buying from them again.
I also bought a couple of items from Model Scenery Supplies. They are a railway accessories stockist but OO gauge is more than good enough for 28mm. In their blurb they rated MP Products as the dogs bollocks so I targeted a couple of those items and was again most impressed with the quality.
Finally I came across an Italian company, Diorama Presepe, who I have yet to buy anything from. Their range is very impressive and they have some great looking stuff. I will all most certainly be making some purchase once I have trawled the site and decided on what I want to buy.
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Give Me Five
This week I thought I’d take a look at badass females. Now whilst I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of any of these young women I’d be more than happy to be dominated by Jennifer Lawrence and/or Scarlett Johansson! In no particular order my top 5 female characters not to mess with are:
Ellen Ripley – Alien (Sigourney Weaver)
Hit Girl – Kickass (Chloe Grace Moretz)
Katniss Everdeen – The Hunger Games (Jeniffer Lawrence)
Sarah Connor – The Terminator (Linda Hamilton)
Black Widow – The Avengers (Scarlett Johansson)
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“Lying Eyes” by the The Eagles. I was in an easy going mood for a change this week which is another way of saying I couldn’t be arsed to do much. There is no better music to listen to when in that sort of mood than The Eagles. If I wasn’t horizontal before I put the music on I was afterwards. I should also add what a cool album cover this is too.
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This week TIM has been watching …
“Snatch” starring Brad Pitt and Jason Statham amount others. For some reason this film passed me by but my brother reminded me of it so I finally managed to sit down and watch it.
A most enjoyable couple of hours I must say.
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Remember …
No matter how bad things get don’t let gravity get you down.
This weeks miniature is the Baron’s War take on Friar Tuck. I nice little sculpt which will sit alongside Will Scarlet and Little John who I painted a week or so ago. Tuck is sold as a pair with Robin Hood which surprised me as I would have paired Robin with Maid Marion who is sold as a single figure, not that it matters a great deal. All being well I’ll get Robin and Marion painted soon.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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The Knights On TIM’s Modelling Table
Outside of my WordPress blog I’m not a great one for social media. The main reason for being anti social on the World Wide Web is mostly an age thing but I’m also aware from what others have posted that various platforms have there pros and cons. The biggest con being that far to many people are incapable of being kind to one another, the complete opposite of our little WordPress gang.
Nevertheless I recently posted a few images of my knights on Facebook having discovered by chance that there is a Baron’s War group. On a number of levels it’s not a patch on WordPress blogging but I have to report that so far it has been a pleasant surprise. Time will tell if I continue to contribute but I must say some of the posts have been very informative and as a further research source it has proven quite useful.
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Give Me Five
This week I’ve been pondering unsolved mysteries. In reality there are hundreds to choose from but if I live long enough I’d like to see these five resolved before I expire. Not much chance though! In no particular order:
UFO’s and Alien life forms, do they exist?
Who was Jack the Ripper?
Does the Lochness Monster exist?
Was there a city of Atlantis?
Was George Mallory the first man to climb Mount Everest?
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“You can Call Me Al” by Paul Simon. I remember when the Graceland album came out. It was very different at the time and was a very popular album and one I played a lot. I’d forgotten just how good it was.
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This week TIM has been watching …
“Kill Bill Volume 1” and “Kill Bill Volume 2” starring Uma Thurman. Classic Quentin Tarantino. Totally over the top but fun.
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Remember …
When having sex it is OK to say “Yea”, “Yes” and “Oh Yes” but not “Yep”.
This weeks miniature is once again a double bill. As I have mentioned previously, the Baron’s War range of figures is not just about knights but also other members of the rank and file too. In this instance we are talking archers. Not a great deal to say about them. Both nicely cast figures and, given the historical period, not overly complicated in terms of clothing and attire to paint.
One of the things I have enjoyed about buying so many figures up front is being able to vary what I paint. So far I haven’t found myself bored or stuck in a rut and for now at least long may that contnue.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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Give Me Five
Sticking with the theme of “cool” from last week I took a look at male musicians who, for me, fall within that genre, needless to say I could have included plenty more. I have no music talents of my own, unless in days gone buy putting an album on the record player counts (confused young people please message me and I’ll expalin), but these are people I would have liked to have been in their heyday and my youth given half a chance. So my top five cool dudes in no particular order are:
Elvis
John Lennon
Bryan Ferry
Keith Richards
Marc Bolan
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“Sweet Caroline” by Northern Irish footbaall fans.
Now I don’t mention it very often, mainly because this is first and foremost a modelling blog but I am a huge football fan. With the European Champioships on this, along with numerous other video’s, popped up in my feed so I gave it a listen. It did two things for me. Firstly, it reminded me just how much fans are such a huge part of a game and the atmosphere it creates and secondly, just what a buzz it is being part of a large gathering that unites as one. Not everyone’s cup of tea I know but it is so raw and gives me goose bumps
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This week TIM has been watching …
“Mare of Easttown” starring Kate Winslet. A seven part series which I binge watched over a couple of evenings. Very watchable with a couple of twists and turns along the way together with some good actng and believable characters.
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Remember …
The annoying thing about house work is just when you’ve finally made the bed and washed the dishes six months goes past and you find yourself having to start all over again!
This weeks miniature is actually a couple of figures. As mentioned at the outset, the Footsore Baron’s War range of 28mm figures comprises of more than just knights and here we have my first Crossbowman and Spearman. Individually these little chaps are nowhere as exciting at the knights to paint or look at but hopefully once they are all done they will swell the numbers and make the eventual army look all the more impressive. Well that’s the plan!
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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Here, There and Everywhere?
Just a couple of weeks ago I had occasion to welcome a few more countries to have visited my blog. New countries don’t come along very often these days but it seems they arrive like buses when they do. Time now to say a big welcome to the Lebanon and St Vincent and Grenadine which takes my total now to 85.
There seems to be some dispute over how many countries there are in the world according to a Google search I made but the general consensus is 196. Whatever the accuracy of the total figure the fact remains TIM has yet to reach out to over half the world. Looks like I’m going to have to travel to some of the missing places and logon to my own site if I’m to make greater progress. Not sure just how much I fancy the Middle East and swathes of Africa though.
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Give Me Five
“Cool” is something we probably all get but is, well for me at least, hard to explain. I don’t think you can simply choose to be cool you simply are or you aren’t. Although I am a legend in my own pants the reality is I would have loved to have been cooler than I am. If I could choose who I would want to be as cool as within the world of acting then any on this list of my top 5 classic actors would do. Next week I might take a look at the music world. In no particular order:
Clint Eastwood
Steve McQueen
Paul Newman
Sean Connery
James Dean
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“The Galway Girl” by Fiddler’s Green. This popped up in my YouTube presumably because I’d been listening to the Ed Sheeran track called Galway Girl recently. The songs are not the same however and this is not the original version of this song either, that was performed by a chap by the name of Steve Earle and is a classic in its own right. Anyway I had a listen and found myself hooked. If I couldn’t be English then I’d choose to be Irish I reckon. As much as the girl in the video is stunning with her red hair it would have made more sense to have gone with someone who matched the lyrics.
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This week TIM has been watching …
“Prime Suspect” starring Helen Mirren. Borrowed the box set from my mum and dad and just watched series one. Hard to believe it’s 30 years old now. Amusing watching how the world has changed with things like smoking in the office for example. Classic TV though and looking forward to working my way through the rest.
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Remember …
Always love a women for her personality, they have like 10, so you can choose.
This weeks miniature is of a Baron’s War Footsore Sergeant, the first of four which comprise of pack No:1. More than a peasant less than a knight would be my description, certainly from a painting perspective. As he isn’t a knight as such I thought I would make up the heraldry using the rules I shared a short while ago. The shield design is a “Pile” with a star denoting this Sergeant as the “third son”.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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Give Me Five
Not sure what prompted this, probably the fact that my daughter has now finished school which had me reflecting on my own school days many, many years ago. It occurred to me that there were lots of things I did at school which I have never done or used since. Here is my list of five. Feel free to add, could make for quite a list!
Used a ruler to draw a margin on every page I write on
Ended the day by putting my chair on the desk for the cleaner
Ever climbed Gym Ropes
Played (or tried to) the Recorder
Used Pi
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The Knights On TIM’s Modelling Table
Now it’s not very often I invent something, in fact I will go as far as to say I have never done so. However, confronted with a problem I needed a solution.
The problem I was having related to my mounted knights. When it comes to mounted figures I generally drill a whole in the bum of the figure, glue a piece of paper clip into the whole and then press the other end of the paper clip into the end of a cork which I then hold to paint.
Now this method has its pros and cons. On the positive side I am forced to drink more wine in order to have a fresh supply of corks. On the negative side the corks often have a slightly curved bottom to them and they easily topple over which is far from ideal. This matter required some thought. 🤔
What followed was hundreds of man hours spent on numerous blue print designs based on mathematical and geometric theorem together with test model, after test model. The end result, a superb example of modern engineering and ingenuity if I says myself, has now been patented and will be going into mass production in a matter or weeks.
I use a specific clamp from my collection to hold horses and using the latest technology added a drawing pin to the base. Before and after images below display this perfect piece of engineering.
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“I Love To Boogie” by T-Rex. As a kid I did love T-Rex and Mark Bolan. Sad he died so young, killed in a car crash in Barnes not so far from where I used to live and I would pass by the site on my way to watch Chelsea play every other week back in the day.
Unsure what track to go with I settled on this dance mash up because it has a brief glimpse of dancing knight’s from Monty Python’s Spamalot!
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This week TIM has been watching …
“The Pact”, a six part BBC series set in South Wales. Notwithstanding that I predicted the ending, all be it within the last half an hour or so, this proved to be very watchable.
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Remember …
Everyone is beautiful, but sometimes it just requires the right amount of alcohol to see it.
This weeks miniature is another “Two Handed Weapon Knight” from the Footsore Baron’s War range. The little chap has been painted in the colours and heraldry of Roger Bigod who was one of the Magna Carta Barons in the year 1215.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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WordPress Notifications
In case it isn’t just me I thought I would share the following experience.
It took me more than a week to realise that very few emails were arriving in my BT email account advising me of Likes and Comments. In itself it wasn’t a big deal, I just needed to check out the comments directly on the blog instead. It bugged me though so I got in touch with a WordPress Happiness Engineer. It would appear that BT seem to have a very high level of what they consider to be Spam, not that the emails are going into my Spam folder, they aren’t even reaching me in the first place. Why has this just started to happen? Buggered if I know.
My Happiness Engineer suggested I change my email address to Gmail as they have a higher Spam threshold and allow greater control to be employed by the end user. Having made the change it looks as though the email notifications from you guys are now coming through. On the downside, we all knew there had to be one, my Site Icon disappeared and was no longer being shown despite all the various boxes being correctly ticked in my settings. More emails to a another Happiness Engineer has now hopefully resolved that. 🤞
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The Knights On TIM’s Modelling Table
This week the cavalry arrived, literally.
In addition to around 100 various foot figures still to do I have now given myself a further 16 mounted figures to paint. Cleaning has been done but not the priming. I also need to give plenty of thoughts to how I intend to paint them in terms of heraldry. Fortunately I am in no rush so will continue to paint the foot figures that I have plans for.
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Give Me Five
We’ve all had those moments when we would like to take revenge for an injustice we have been dealt. Alas the thought of criminal proceedings holds us back and we are left trusting in divine intervention striking down the bastards who upset us. On a personal level I had hoped Covid-19 might have proven to be one of Big G’s “mysterious moves” but indications so far aren’t encouraging as my nemesis Mad Martin remains a live . No such problems, however, stand in the way of our silver screen heroes who do our bidding for us. The fact that this film genre was the toughest yet rather tells you just how many films are out there and how much the genre is a box office hit! In no particular order my top five revenge movies (it could have been a top 30!) are:
Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
Gladiator (2000)
Death Wish (1974)
Straw Dogs (1971)
Inglorious Basterds (2008)
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“The Beverley Hills Cop” Sound Track album. Not sure what prompted this bit of nostalgia but I did enjoy the music and subsequently the film.
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This week TIM has been watching …
“Beverley Hills Cop” starring Eddie Murphy. A blast from the past but just as enjoyable.
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Remember …
Being kissed while you’re sleeping is one of the purest forms of love unless you are in prison.
This weeks miniature (or should that be this weeks knight?) is one of four from the “The Knights with Two Handed Weapons – Pack 1”. Applying the heraldry rules I decided to make up my own on this occasion and went with two white Chevrons on a red background. It is possible, might even be probable given the colour choice, that the simple design does actually align to a real knight. I will undertake a search at some point but if it does then it is purely coincidental on my part.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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The Knights On TIM’s Modelling Table
Last week I found this image on Pinterest.
As best I can tell at the moment these Baron’s represent 25 of the key figures in the Baron’s War. Therefore if I am to be true to the history then these shield designs and colours are the ones I should be going for. The problem as I see it however is that yellow and red completely dominate.
It maybe there is a reason for this colour dominance, perhaps there are family connections which tie some of the Baron’s together? Perhaps it’s just coincidence or simply a restricted colour pallette given the available paints and dyes of the day? Whatever the reality I will be deviating from it. I will do some for sure, I have in fact already by chance done the blue and yellow of Richard de Percy, but I will look outside of these for more interesting options where I can. I will still aim for true heraldry but if the geezer fought in a different campaign then I will employ poetic licence if I think the end result will look cool.
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Give Me Five
Now when it comes to films I do like a good saga. A film of three hours of more is is just my cup of tea. Watching a film like that on a cold winters night with the fire blazing and single malt in my hand makes for some perfect escapism. One of the other things I like about some of these films is that the scenery can often steal the show. So this week I have gone for my top five films where the cinema photography has for me made a film truly epic. In no particular order:
Lawrence of Arabia
Legends of the Fall
Dances Woth Wolves (extended 4 hour version)
The Last of the Mohicans
Doctor Zhivago
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“Downtown” by Petula Clark. This song was released in 1964 when I was seven years of age (was it really that long ago?) the same year that Zulu came out at the cinema. When my brother and I were taken to see Zulu (I had to sit on the upturned folding seat so I could see the screen) it was, as I recall, a dark and dismall winters night when we all set off “Downtown”. Although this song is not directly linked to the film I have always put the two together. Everytime I listen to it this track conjures up the most evocative images of that time in my life and will simply always remain one of my favourite tracks of all time, not so much for the song itself but the memories. Now where did I put my Zulu DVD ….
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This week TIM has been watching …
“Glory” starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman. An excellent American Civil War film and one which I hadn’t watched in a long time.
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Remember …
When someone says get a grip, as tempting as it is, they don’t always mean around their neck.
This weeks miniature is one of the four which comprises the Footsore “Foot Knights with Two Handed Weapons No: 1” pack and he has been painted in the heraldic colours of “John de Berners”. More on the project below.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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The Knights On TIM’s Modelling Table
This week I spent some time reading and digesting the Wargames Illustrated article I made reference to in last weeks post. Not surprisingly it turns out there are various rules which need to be applied where heraldry is concerned. These rules are useful both in terms of making up your own scheme and deciphering real examples. Now let me say at the outset I am no expert on this subject but I am aware that many of you perhaps are. Apologies therefore if I am trying to teach anyone how to suck eggs and if I have any of this wrong then I am more than happy to be corrected.
The first rule I took note of was on colours. It seems the colour palette is restricted to five main colours namely Blue, Red, Green, Purple and Black. I assume there is scope within each colour to vary the shade but what is significant is you have to put a colour with Gold (can be yellow) or Silver (can be white). Accordingly any of the five colours can be used alongside either Yellow or White but you cannot have Red and Green together or for that matter Yellow and White. The good news here is that by good fortune the few knights I have done so far conform to this rule. Is the rule flexible? In truth I have no idea but I’m happy to stick with it.
It seems you can also add “Furs” to the design of a shield too and the first image below gives some examples along with the colours referred to earlier.
One of the next things I discovered was “Field Ordinaries”. It would appear that shield designs generally use these layouts. I have seen exceptions so I’m guessing the rule can be ignored to some extent, most likely determined by who you are (think King John and the three lions) but this is something for me to try to learn more about. However, for my purposes Field Ordinaries coupled with colour choice will provide a huge number of heraldic options.
In the unlikely event that I should ever run out of heraldic shield options given the possible combinations from the above “rules” I can always fall back on the “English System” below. With medieval families being large in number then shield designs can be used again but with the modification of adding a symbol relevant to the first through to ninth son. Although I was unaware of it at the time, the red line on the figure I painted above of John de Berners defines him as the “First Son”.
All in all I have an almost limitless number of painting options. I suspect further research may even throw up more but for now I have plenty to be getting on with.
For those of you who are into your Space Marines and the such like a thought struck me while I was writing this. Heraldry has been around for a thousand years so what’s to say it wont be around for thousands more? If you are stuck with ideas of symbols to use and how to define your hierarchy it occurs to me you could do worse that revert to some of the above. In anticipation of abuse please be advised I am now ducking out of this one!
As a footnote please note the images used above were taken from Google and not from the magazine article as I am no expert on copyright law.
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Lies, Lies and Statistics
I don’t tend to put much store by my blog statistics, mainly because mine aren’t that great! I never created this blog with the aim of conquering the world and I continue to not be disappointed. What has surprised me though, and periodically continues to do so, is just where my blog has been viewed. As things currently stand it has now been accessed in 83 countries with Algeria, Ecuador, Brunei and Guatemala having been just recently added to the list.
Now I am very aware that some of these countries have only ever given me the one hit and I feel certain that hit was purely by accident (the inevitable search of a testosterone filled teenager googling “models”) but I do get a kick out of knowing a post of mine has popped up somewhere new in the world even if it did come as a disappoint to someone feeling horny.
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Give Me Five
The end of the UK Lockdown continues to gather pace. If things continue to go as well as they have then the country will return to near normal by the middle of June. Inevitably there will be signs of the aftermath but we’re talking mask wearing rather than bombed buildings. Despite the horrors the pandemic has brought to a great many, and still is to vast swathes of the world, there are somethings I will miss. ln no particular order my five are:
The Quiet roads
The additional time spent modelling and painting
The time at home with my kids due to work and school closures
Re-connecting with people I haven’t spoken to in years
Having all my football teams fixtures televised live
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“Pinball Wizard” by The Who. A classic track instantly recognisable from the intro by those of us of a certain age.
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This week TIM has been watching …
“Mississippi Burning” staring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe. A classic and very powerful film in which the performances of Hackman and Dafoe are simply outstanding. A film I have watched many times and that never fails to be move me. Based on a true story.
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Remember …
Alcohol is never the answer but it is a good way of forgetting the question.
