Category: Musings

Welcome to this weeks Miniatures & Musings!

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This weeks miniature is a double bill. Two more Levy’s off the list as my Baron’s War foot figures near their end. I’m determined to get this phase complete and desperate to move on now but with eight figures to go I’m nearly there. In a few weeks time I aim to work exclusively on my diorama project while deciding just where I go from there.

Compared to other figures in the range these ar pretty basic and as such they received a paint job to match.

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Well It Made Me Laugh

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Give Me Five

This week I thought I’d take a look at the films of the late great Robin Williams.  Such a sad loss.  In no particular order I came up with this top five.

1. Awakenings (1990)
2. Good Mornjng Vietnam (1987)
3. Good Will Hunting (1997)
4. Dead Poets Society (1989)
5. The Fisher King (1991)

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WordPress … Here We Go Again!

It seems I have finally been forced to install and use the WordPress App. I’m sure it’s not a big deal but at this moment in time for me it is. It’s an aggrevation which has arrived at a time when, as I mentioned in my post Welcome 2022?, I’ve started to get tired of posting. I’m keen to keep blogging but I feeI have become a slave to ensuring I get a post published every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Why? I have no answer to that question but I do know I don’t want to continue in this way going forward. A more random, post when I feel like it, approach is currently looking favourite.

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This week TIM has been listening to …

“Sultans Of Swing” by Dire Straits.  It’s been a while since I sat down and listened to Dire Straits. Long overdue.

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This week TIM has been watching …

“The Outlaws” a six part BBC series starring among others Stephen Merchant, Eleanor Tomlinson and Christopher Walker.  One of those series which comes along where you know nothing about it and it turns out to be very enjoyable. Already looking forward to series two.

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Remember …

Saying to someone “Have a nice day” sounds friendly but saying “Enjoy your next 24 hours” sounds threatening.

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TIM

Welcome to this weeks Miniatures & Musings!

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This weeks miniature is a simple Levy figure from the Baron’s War range and another one off of my list.  A quick count up and it looks like I only have 10 to do.  Hooray!

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Well It Made Me Laugh

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Give Me Five

Having just recently watched Leonardo in “Don’t Look Up” (see below) I thought I would stick with him for my Give Me Five.  He’s actually been in more films that I realised but picking my top five was easy.  In no particular order:

1. Titanic (1997)
2. The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013)
3. Catch Me If You Can (2002)
4. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
5. The Revenant (2015)

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This week TIM has been listening to …

“Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves” by The Eurythmics with Aretha Franklin.  Hard to know what’s politically correct these days.  Pro women or anti men or just a message?  Bound to offend someone but all I hear is a great track.

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This week TIM has been watching …

“Don’t Look Up” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence.  A Netflix original released over Christmas and very watchable.  Done in a tongue in cheek way but but it’s hard to see government’s or the media acting any other way.  Some might argue they already are.

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Remember …

Women who carry a little extra weight live longer than the man who mentions it.

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TIM

Welcome to this weeks Miniatures & Musings!

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This weeks miniature is, I think, my final Bannerman.  Another simple paint job and an equally simple banner but another Baron’s War figure destined for my army bites the dust.

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Well It Made Me Laugh

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Birthday Girl

It’s She Who Must Be Obeyed’s birthday today so I thought I’d give her a shout out in my blog.  Anyway that’s enough of that, no point spoiling her.

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Give Me Five

This week I decided to take a look at Jack Nicholson.  A great actor who has been in a lot of excellent movies over his lifetime in cinema.  As ever some good films left out but I came down to the following short list.  In no particular order:

1. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
2. Batman (1989)
3. A Few Good Men (1992)
4. The Shinning (1980)
5. Chinatown (1974)

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This week TIM has been listening to …

“Santa Claus Is Coming (In A Boogie Woogie Cho Cho Train)” by the Tractors, a rarely if ever played track so I thought I’d plug it.  The track is a revamped version of the original Tractors track “Baby Likes To Rock It” which I’ve also linked below simply because I like it!

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This week TIM has been watching …

“Home Alone” starring Macaulay Culkin.  With Christmas upon us it was time to watch a festive movie and I settled on this one.  My kids have grown up but I haven’t!

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Remember …

No matter how old you are, an empty Christmas wrapping paper tube is still a fun thing to bonk someone over the head with!

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As Christmas Day is this coming Saturday I will not be posting so I will end by wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas.

TIM

Welcome to this weeks Miniatures & Musings!

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This weeks miniature is a very unexciting one but it clears another Footsore Baron’s War figure from the diminishing pile.  With my mind preoccupied by other projects it really is just about getting the lesser figures such as this archer done and out of the way.

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Well It Made Me Laugh

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Give Me Five

I thought as we are in the festive season I would list my five Christmas films this week.  I’ve probably done this one before but I can’t be arsed to look back through my blog posts to check!  Plenty of great flms left out but I settled on these.  In no particular order:

1. Home Alone (1990)
2. Love Actually (2003)
3. Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)
4. The Holiday (2006)
5. Die Hard (1988)

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This week TIM has been listening to …

“Fairytale Of New York” by The Pogues with Kirsty MacColl.  With Christmas rapidly approaching I thought I’d go with a festive song for this week and next.  Clealry this isn’t the most festive of tracks but it is popular at this time of the year and it is a big favourite of mine.

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This week TIM has been watching …

“Paul” starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.  Needed something lighter to watch and all of Simon Pegg’s films deliver on that front, none more so than this one.  Great fun.

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Remember …

Next time you go on a roller coaster take some spare bolts with you and tell the person in front of you, “These came out of your seat”.

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TIM

Welcome to this weeks Miniatures & Musings!

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This weeks miniature is a Spearman from the Footsore Baron’s War range and gets me one more step closer to completing the figures I have.  I reckon I still have another dozen or so to do but right now they don’t require me to think to much and as such they are working nicely in parallel with the other things I’m doing.  The good news is I’m maintaing my discipline to reach my end goal, the bad news is it’s becoming a bit tiresome of late.  Another little break may be on the way.

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Well It Made Me Laugh

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The Wizard’s Tower

One of the things IPMS do after the judging has been completed at Scale Model World in Telford is to arrange for photo’s to be taken of the winning models and in due course some go on to appear in ther magazine and website.  I was lucky enough to be around when Chris Ayre of Amos Ayre Creative took some photo’s of the Wizard’s Tower so I asked him if he would be kind enough to email me a copy in due course.  He very kindly obliged and the image he sent me is below.  As photo’s go it’s far better than anything I could do so I am very grateful to Chris who kindly allowed me use the image for my blog too.

Image reproduced with the kind permission of Chris Ayre, copyright Amos Ayre Creative

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Give Me Five

This week I thought I’d take a look at films starring Sean Connery.  He has been in some great movies over a career which has lasted a life time although he oddly never mastered the ability to handle an accent!  As always some great films have been left out but I short listed these five.  In no particular order:

1. From Russia With Love (1963)
2. The Untouchables (1987)
3. The Hunt For Red October (1990)
4. The Name of the Rose (1986)
5. Outland (1981)

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This week TIM has been listening to …

“No Regrets” by the Walker Brothers.  Something a bit different this week as I’ve been in a tired state of mind and this was pitched at the right mood level.  I’m reminded of the fact that in this musical period you could hear the words that were sung!  Scott Walker has a great voice.

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This week TIM has been watching …

“Jaws” starring Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss.  This film came out in 1975 and had it’s first showing at the Odeon Leicester Square on Boxing Day when I bought tickets to take my mum and dad and my brother and his wife to see it.  It remains one of my all time favourite films.  You can say what you like about the shark but the film is a classic of its time and a real adventure.  The book by Peter Benchley was a massive hit too and although the film deviates slightly it’s pretty true to it.

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Remember …

If you want to save money at Christmas now is the perfect time to tell the kids Santa didn’t make it through the pandemic.

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TIM

Welcome to this weeks Miniatures & Musings!

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This weeks miniature is another Footsore Baron’s War, a basic bowman but one which takes me closer to the end game of completing all the foot figures I bought.  More have been added to the range since of course but I have no plans to buy more once this lot is done.  Besides I still have plenty of mounted knights still to do and plenty of projects not yet started.

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Well It Made Me Laugh

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Another One (and Two and Three) Bites The Dust

Regular followers will know that when it comes to my blog statistics I get a thrill from seeing where it has been viewed in the world.  Even if it was only viewed once, and then by accident, it was still seen and the other day someone, most likely a stunningly attractive Viking style temptress, tuned in from Iceland.  A couple of days later and surprise, surprise I got my first views from Georgia and Gibraltar.  Total countries now reads 91.  Still plenty more to bag.

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Dio-Bolical Monday

All being well Dio-Bolical Monday will return next week.  There are a couple of things to note though.  Firstly, the project I will be undertaking is by my standards a big one.  I mention this because it is going to last a very long time and you may well get bored.  Please don’t feel obliged to comment on every post, some will be very dull and even the better ones might not be exciting!  Secondly, as things currently stand I have, like many of us I suspect, a lot going on.  It’s that time of the year.  Consequently I may not post every week but I’ll do my best if only to ensure I make progress.

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Give Me Five

I thought this week I ought to go with an actress rather than an actor in an attempt to even things up a bit.  I confess to being male biased when it comes to the lead characters in films but there are some exceptions and in this instance the exception is Jennifer Lawrence.  It helps of course that I think she is extremely hot.  In no particular order:

1. Red Sparrow (2018)
2. Joy (2015)
3. The Hunger Games (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
4. American Hustle (2013)
5. Winter’s Bone (2010)

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This week TIM has been listening to …

“Oh Well!” by Fleetwood Mac.  A classic track from way back when with some great guitar work from my name sake Peter Green.

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This week TIM has been watching …

“Angela Black” a six part series available on the ITV Hub.  Not a series I had heard about but one I came across in a search.  Took a punt on it, was hooked early doors and binge watched the lot.

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Remember …

Believe in yourself.  You were the fastest sperm.  Never forget you came into this world a winner!

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TIM

Welcome to this weeks Miniatures & Musings!

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This weeks miniature is another Footsore Baron’s War crossbow man.  For some reason these figures have been the most neglected of those I have been painting.  I can’t think of any real reason for that.  They are just as good as all the other figures and just as relevant to my army.  It is what it is though and more crossbow men and archers will be the order of the day as I try to bring this phase of my project to an end.

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Well It Made Me Laugh

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Give Me Five

This week I thought I would take a look at Clint Eastwood films.  I’ve always been a big fan of Clint’s and over a long acting career he has been in a wide variety of films.  In his early days he was very much mister cool but his level of acting has significantly improved over the years.  As with many actors and actresses who have been around for a long time it is hard to select just five but I have gone with those that I enjoyed the most at the time even if some of them are quite dated now.  In no particular order:

1. Unforgiven (1992)
2. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)
3. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
4. Dirty Harry (1971)
5. Kelly’s Heroes (1970)

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IPMS Magazine

Whilst at Telford Dave Berryman, editor of the IPMS magazine asked if I would write an article.  It sounded like a good idea until I started to do so earlier this week.  I’m close to having something completed but whether or not he will find it of any use is another matter entirely.  Unlike my blog where I can write what I like and use expletives as and when I see fit this was like being back at school and writing an essay.  The next step after I submit it will be to see how much red pen it has on it, how much crossing out there is and what remarks have been made … “must try harder”!

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This week TIM has been listening to …

“Blitzkrieg Bop” by The Ramones.  I great track set against some excellent clips from the Addams Family.

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This week TIM has been watching …

“Happy Gilmore” starring Adam Sadler.  As I’ve started playing golf I was recommended this film from 1996 as it seems to reflect the way I play!  not the greatest movie you will ever see but it had a few moments which made me chuckle.

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Remember …

Every girl wants to be swept of her feet.  It’s when you put her in the boot that she starts to freak out.

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TIM

The lead up to Telford, in addition to the weekend itself, left me with no time to paint.  Accordingly my normal Miniatures and Musings post has been hit on the head for this week.  I’m also up against it for a weekend post too but I have a couple of days so maybe something very basic will get done, we’ll see.  Thereafter I hope to return to normal as I do like some semblance of order in my life whenever that is possible, a rare occurrence these days it seems.

What I do have this week is a post on how my models fared in the competition, really done for me as an audit trail because at some point in the future I will have no idea of what did what and when!

Commended

Models which fail to win Gold, Silver or Bronze but catch the judges eye can be awarded a certificate of Commendation.  This is an achievement in itself and I was awarded three.  In Class 54 – Foot Figures 60mm and Smaller I received Commendations for The Old Fiddler and another for Zonkers The Clown.  In Class 84 – Diorama Figure I was commended for Fools Gold.

Bronze

I won two Bronze medals.  The first was for Oh My God! which was entered in Class 86 – Diorama Sci-Fi Fantasy and the other was in Class 73 – Single Figures 60mm and Smaller for my wizard Viharis Tenspire.

Silver

In Class 56 – Mounted Figures 60mm and Smaller I received a Silver for True Grit.

Gold

My first Gold was also in Class 56 – Mounted Figures 60mm and Smaller and was awarded to Sire Huge Thalemache.  Personally I would have awarded gold to True Grit but I’m not complaining!

The second Gold I received for a model I had done a couple of years back and thought I’d have a go and enter it.  The model in question was named Wells Fargo 1881 and won Class 83 – Diorama Civilian Vehicles.  I was very pleased with that as this has long been one of my personal favourites.

The third Gold was, as several of you guessed, awarded to The Wizard’s Tower in Class 86 – Diorama Sci-Fi Fantasy.  I was told by one of the judges that it was the class winner as soon as they saw it, a compliment I was more than happy to receive.

Best Diorama In Show

Individual Classes feed up into a hierarchy of categories, so for example there are eight classes within the diorama category.  Once the winners within each class have been determined they are judged against each other to determine the Best In Show Diorama.  I had Wells Fargo 1881 and The Wizard’s Tower competing against  each other for the award but there can only be one winner and the judges determined that The Wizard’s Tower was it.  To say I was chuffed would be an understatement.  To coin a football expression, I was over the moon!

The winners of each of the eight categories are then judged against each other to determine the Senior National Champion.  For a while The Wizards Tower was, along with seven other amazing models, being considered for that accolade.  Alas it was not meant to be the winner.  There is no second or third awarded so The Wizard’s Tower could have been the runner-up or anywhere down to eighth.  In any event I have no complaints.

If anyone had ever said my work would one day be judged by modelling experts and awarded a Best in Show I would have said there was no chance of that ever happening.  It’s a funny old world!

A Couple Of Things To Note

In closing I thought I would share something with you and bring to your attention something you may not have noticed.

Firstly, the level of detail the judges look at is incredible.  The chap who was one of the judges of The Wizard’s Tower who I mentioned earlier also asked if I had done the Oh My God! diorama too.  I said I had and then he took me to where the model was to bring something to my attention.  He pointed out a mold line about an eighth of an inch long that I had missed.  Apparently that blemish cost me the Silver medal!

Secondly, Scale Model World which is run by IMPS UK is not a war gaming show, it is open to models of all scales on an equal footing.  Interestingly all three of my Gold medal winning models were won using 28mm scale figures.  

TIM 

Thankfully I had a better night’s sleep although this was largely due to consuming more beer than the evening before.  Fortunately I manged to avoid any sort of hangover and got up on time.  The main aim for getting into the show early was to take photo’s while it was quiet.  As an IPMS member you get an hour head start over the general public so as soon as arrived I took the photo’s which all appear below.  I will keep them attached to this post for as long as I can but as they will make a big dent in my WordPress capacity I will delete them at some point.  If previous years are anything to go by then there will be plenty to see on YouTube for those who are interested.  As and when I may include some links in future posts.

Next up was “Tea and Medals” and as several of you guessed it was the Wizard’s Tower which won me the Best In Show Diorama.  Hopefully during the week I’ll get a further post done with more details about the competition and the fate of the models I entered.

A spot of lunch followed by a few more essential purchases (potential Christmas presents for SWMBO!) and then it was all about packing up, loading the car and starting the long drive home.  I had planned to spend another night in Telford but SWMBO rang to tell me the washing machine had broken and a replacement was coming on Monday so I needed to be home to take out the old one and install the new one so I drove back after the show.

All in all a great weekend.  I met some great people, talked hobby stuff, drank, ate and generally had a good time.  Fingers crossed for more of the same next year.  The images below will hopefully provide a flavour of the show and the range of models on display.

TIM

 

 

Now there is some good news from today, well for me at least, but things didn’t get off to a great start.  Last night in the hotel was was dreadful and I didn’t sleep at all well.  This isn’t unusual for me these days but having had a couple of beverages as well as a very long day I thought I would get off to sleep in next to no time.  It wasn’t to be.  Well that’s not entirely true, I did in fact fall a sleep but that was about two hours before I was due to get up and having not set an alarm clock I then overslept!  Things then became a bit of a panic and although I remembered to take my Samsung tablet to take some photo’s I didn’t realise until a little later that it hadn’t charged overnight because I hadn’t put the wall switch down!  At least I still had a 30% charge which would enable me to take a few photo’s.  More on those shortly.

The show opened to the public at 09:00 and I have to say there was a lot of people waiting to get in.  I doubt any records were broken but without a doubt the event was going to be successful.  Hopefully tomorrow will prove to be just as popular.

Our display attracted a good amount of interest and I enjoyed a lot of chats with people who liked what I had done and had on display.  I even had a visit from Dave Berryman, the Editor of IPMS who wants me to write an article for the magazine.  I confess to being flattered but am now concerned about what to write.  I’ll worry about then when J get back home.  The rest of the morning was spent either at our club display or shopping for modelling “essentials”.

The afternoon saw the judging of the competition.   Judging takes about 5 hours or so, there are simply so many models for them to look at and judge.  For my part I had entered 16 models, I just thought why not?  After the judging we were allowed into the show area to see how we got on.  In total there are 8 categories and in each category there about 10 sub-categories or classes as they are called.  All in all that makes 90 classes and 90 Gold medals (and Silver and Bronze) up for grabs under each sub-category/class with a trophy awarded too for the best model in the category.  The eight category winners are then judged to determine the overal National Champion.

Of my 16 entries 7 of them won nothing at all but 3 did receive “Commended” which was nice.  Things got better though as I then found out that I had won 2 Bronze medals, 1 Silver and 3 Golds.  Having won 1 Gold at the last show which was held in 2019 I was blown away to have won 3 this time around.  This was beyond my wildest expectations but then I discovered I had won the overall Diorama category.  As winner of the “Best Diorama In Show” I was now one of the eight modellers whose model would be judged for National Champion!  Alas that’s where my story ends.  An incredible model was awarded overal winner but for a brief spell I was in with a shout and as they don’t have a second or third place I don’t know if I would have come runner-up or eighth.   To be honest I really don’t mind.  My day was greater than I could possibly have imagined.

So what models of mine won and which of my models didn’t?  Well you will have to wait for that but feel free to guess.  Tomorrow I will take plenty of photo’s and as soon as I can I will get a post up. 

A very few photos appear below.  I will take a lot more tomorrow and I will have my tablet and phone charged!  The first four are the Plymouth display.  Not outstanding but there were only three of us with models so not to bad really.  The other shots are pretty random and may just give a small flavour.  More will follow, probably via two or three posts, starting Wednesday I hope.

TIM