Back in June (where did the summer go?) I painted up this Footsore Baron’s War figure with a bit of freehand painting on the shield to depict a knight by the name of Sir John De Belloows. At the time I did it I thought I’d quite like to have another bash at the heraldry at some point and over the last week I finally got around to doing so.
I decided this time that I would have a go at applying the heraldry to a mounted knight. I also chose to go with a different colour scheme, yellow instead of white, and a slightly different design. As you can see there isn’t much to choose between them other than the head really. Having done three paint jobs of the Eagle(?) – two at the back of the horse and one on the shield – I couldn’t be asked to do two at the front of the horse so I went for crosses instead. Lazy I know.
I really have no idea if there is a real knight with anything close to this heraldry, if there is then it is purely coincidence on my part. Accordingly the knight was in need of a name so once again I returned to my family tree for inspiration and thus settled on the name of my great grandfather, James Kimber.
This weeks miniature is another Foot Sergeant from the Baron’s War range and alI I had time to get done this week. The shield design is known as a “Party Per Pal” and is a first for me. I rather like the three colour mix so may well do this design again at some point but with different colours.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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WordPress Stats
On a monthly basis I check my stats with particular attention to the countries which have viewed my blog. As I’ve mentioned before I get a buzz seeing where my blog has been viewed even if it is only one view and the likely result of an accident. On the positive side I’m pleased to report Estonia, a lovely country I visited briefly a few years ago, has now been added to my list. On the negative side I noticed that my other stats have seen a steady decline.
I’m not entirely sure why my figures have fallen as there could of course be numerous reasons. Blog content could be one of course but the slow downward trend has been over many months and coincides with the ending of lockdown in the UK. There is no doubt that my stats peaked during lockdown and now it very much looks like they are returning to normal.
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IPMS Scale Model World Telford
IPMS announced a while ago that they would make a decision on whether or not the Telford show would go ahead at the end of August. They have been true to their word and I was delighted to learn that the show is confirmed to go ahead in November. More details will be released in due course and doubtless there will be some inevitable changes due to Covid. The wearing of masks and the need to produce a Covid passport to gain entry are likely I would imagine and it remains to be seen just how many overseas visitors, traders and exhibitors attend. For now though all I can do is keep my fingers crossed and hope things don’t get worse than they are and the show can go on. 🤞
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Give Me Five
This week I thought I’d take a look at disaster movies. To some extent this is a very wide genre so I chose to restrict it to films which were either based on real events or had a “realistic” feel to them rather than, say, being Science Fiction based. In no particular order I came up with the following five.
Apollo 13 (1995)
Titanic (1997)
The Towering Inferno (1974)
The Perfect Storm (2000)
Twister (1996)
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“Too Late for Goodbyes” by Julian Lennon. I have just finished reading “John”, a book written by Cynthia Lennon, his first wife, which my brother passed on to my mum who in turn passed it to me. An excellent read and quite an insight to the legend which is John Lennon and the early days of the Beatles. His son Julian had a pretty tough time and knowing he later produced a couple of albums of his own I checked out a few tracks on YouTube. Years since I had heard this and I’d forgotten just how much he looked like his dad. Spooky.
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This week TIM has been watching …
“Erin Brockervich” starring Julia Roberts. This film came out in 2000 and completely passed me by. It popped up on a list of must see films so I thought I’d give it a watch, especially as it is based on a true story. All in all an excellent film and glad I sat down to see it.
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Remember …
The phrase “Don’t take this the wrong way” has a zero percent success rate.
Another week, another Footsore Baron’s War knight and another opportunity for some freehand painting. This weeks offering is Richard The Lionheart, King of England. The figure comes as a twin pack, the other figure being mounted and in a slightly different pose with his helmet on. I think I might start on the mounted version sooner rather than later but look at doing the freehand heraldry a bit different.
For some reason I couldn’t get the shield to photograph as well as I’d like. Not enough of a photographer to understand why but the end result is reflective light so the three lions do not show up as well as they look in the flesh. My best guess is that it is down to the metallic paint. Gold was appropriate to use but maybe a yellow would have photographed better? It is what it is.
This weeks miniature is another 28mm Footsore Baron’s War foot knight.
I found a image online of a couple of snakes entwined around a flame and thought it would look quite cool on a shield so I thought I’d give it a go. Not sure it scores points for authenticity but it was fun to try and do and didn’t come out looking to bad.
Having been originally determined to make my knights authentic I’ve started to move towards doing my own thing a bit more often. Does it matter? Nah! It’s All good fun and for a change I thought I’d paint some hoops on the tabard.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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BBC Gaming Articles
By chance I came across an article on the BBC News Internet app which was interesting and led to a couple more articles which I checked out. All the links are very short but worth taking a look at. The first is about lockdown gaming and the therapy it provided. The second and third are short video’s. The second focuses on the revival of gaming and is set in Games Workshop HQ Nottingham and the third is about the creation of Games Workshop.
I do Iove a film which contains a surprise or an element of mystery. The downside of course is they are best first time around although that doesn’t mean they can’t be watched again. All in all there are a lot of films which are able to meet this criteria but my five short list, in no particular order, is as follows:
Gone Girl (2014)
The Girl on the Train (2016)
Prestige (2006)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Seven (1995)
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Footsore Miniatures
Mark Farr who runs Footsore Miniatures produces a weekly newsletter which is emailed to those who choose to subscribe, myself included. In each newsletter Mark includes a “Community Spotlight” highlighting the work produced by people who have caught his eye and one source for this is the Baron’s War Facebook group which I have begun to post weekly to.
Reading through the newsletter I was very pleasantly surprised to read the following written by Mark under the Community Spotlight section which also included a couple of photographs.
“I spotted this too late for last week’s newsletter so here it is this week. David Green has shared some pictures in the Barons’ War. The freehand on the shield is especially skilled, mine would look like roadkill”.
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“Morning Glory” by Oasis. I always considered the Gallaghers to be a right pair of nobs and to be honest nothing I’ve seen, read or heard about them has changed my mind. Quite how they came up with some great music and a couple of excellent albums I’ll never know. Just one of life’s mysteries I guess.
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This week TIM has been watching …
“Man Of Steel” starring Henry Cavill as Superman. On the positive side I guess it’s fair to say the special effects are OK but alas I don’t have much else to add. The story line was all over the place as far as I’m concerned and I found Henry Cavill unconvincing in the role. For me the 1978 film “Superman” starring Christopher Reeve, Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman was a far better film and hit all the right notes for a comic book production.
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Remember …
Don’t believe everything you read in public toilets. It’s highly likely that Sharon isn’t up for a good time and that it will lead to an awkward phone call.
Mounted knights are a bit like buses, you wait ages for one and then along comes another one soon after. This mounted knight is another with made up heraldry and name.
This particular one takes its name from my dad, Aubrey Green. Unfortunatley my dad who’s 94 years of age, 95 in October, went into hospital last week having had a heart attack. He was sent home earlier this week but yesterday was readmitted as he had had further chest pains. He hasn’t seen this knight yet but I’ll let him see it when he’s fit and well. Verde if you weren’t aware is the Spanish word for green. There is no family connection to Spain that I am aware of other than holidays which have been spent there.
The colours of green and white pretty much chose themselves and the “Howling Wolf” heraldry was based on a YouTube video I found searching for an easy to draw wolf. Credit here must go to “Art Ala Carte” for her simple drawing method which I was able to replicate reasonably well at the first time of asking.
This weeks miniature is another double act. For some reason I’ve tended to overlook the Footsore Baron’s War crossbowmen. No particular reason for doing so but I thought I ought to address the imbalance. Some of the figures have crossbows cast with the figure while for others the weapon is seperate and needs fixing in place. In this instance we have one of each. I kept the painting simple on both figures but will see what I can do with the others to pimp them up a bit, maybe add some stripes.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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The Knights On TIM’s Modelling Table
According to my rough calculations I’ve now done 5 mounted knights and over 40 foot figures. Somehow I thought I had done more but I reckon that must have just been wishful thinking. That means I’m left with about 14 mounted figures and 60 or so foot figures still to do. I think I’ll count them up again just to make sure I’ve got it right.
My aim was to get them all done before the third Footsore Baron’s War kickstarter is released at the end of September. To be honest it is looking unlikely. Come September I also aim to start on my next big (for me) diorama. One way or another it looks like I have my work cut out. To be fair it’s not a race, simply self imposed timescales to keep me motivated and as I am far from bored yet (you might be but I’m not!) I have no problem extending my deadlines.
A display base remains a concern but I’m in no rush to resolve the issue. Although the movement trays arrived and were fine I’m having second thoughts about using them. For expediency I might look at buying some sort of mat instead. I can’t say I’m struck on that idea either so I’ll continue to give the matter more thought.
Looks like I’ll have to use SWMBO’s green table cloth for a group shot for now at least.
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Give Me Five
I do like Romantic Comedy, not least of all because they make for some good family viewing. It’s also a well represented genre and therefore gave rise once again to some difficult choices. In the end I settled on these five. In no particular order:
Annie Hall (1977)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Serendipity (2001)
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“Gimme All Your Lovin'” by ZZ Top. I was in the mood for something a bit louder and settled on ZZ Top. This is a great track with a great intro and the video features a great car and great girls. What’s not to like?
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This week TIM has been watching …
“The Tudors”, a Channel 4 series which I am watching via catch up online. There are four series in all making up 40 episodes in total and I’m near the end of series 3. I’ve no idea how factually correct it is, I’ll assume it’s 50:50 but I’m finding it a good watch.
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Remember …
If it wasn’t for Thomas Edison we would all be watching television in the dark.
I thought I’d try something new this week in respect of heraldry and decide to have a go at painting a stags head on one of my Footsore Baron’s War knights shields. I wasn’t sure how authentic it would be in an historical sense but I figured it might look quite cool. The thing is I’m not a natural artist, I can’t just do something like a stags head without the need for some very easy reference material to copy from.
My default position is to revert to YouTube and see what I can find. A search under “easy animal drawings” threw up several ideas aimed at five year olds and I settled on a combination of two very short but very good video’s. The first video showed how to draw the head of a Doe, a deer, a female deer (there’s a song in there somewhere) and the second gave me the idea for the antlers. Essentially all I had to do was draw a basic triangle and flesh things out from there. Simples! And as it turned out it did prove pretty simple much to my surprise and on top of that I was pleased with the end result too.
As this was another made up knight I needed to give the little chap a name. My uncles christian name is Edgar and a good friend of mine has the surname Edgar and as I felt it had a certain medieval feel to it I settled on that with the Grun being a germanic play on Green.
Black over white is always a good combination in my book for easier touching up so I went with that colour combination and added a couple of white lines at the bottom of his surcoat to break things up a bit.
This weeks miniature is one I originally received free from Footsore because I placed a qualifying order for Baron’s War figures above a certain amount. I then got another one with a further order and that one is still in the to do pile. At the time the figure was not part of a particular pack but it has since been released in a three figure pack entitled “Veteran Sergeant Group”. In that pack the figure has also been given a shield. As shields can be bought separately I may add one at a later date or simply buy the three figure pack as one of the other figures is particularly cool.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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TIM World
As I have mentioned on previous occasions I don’t get to excited about my WordPress statistics, not least of all because they are far from impressive, but I do get a kick from seeing where my humble little blog gets viewed. whilst I am sure most people simply stumble across my blog having been searching for something else entirely the fact remains it was viewed all the same, even if only once! So, whilst I have not gained a new follower I am pleased to report that I am now big in Jordan, which is to say I have a single view which is good enough to take my country total to 86.
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Give Me Five
This week I took a took at Monster Movies. There were far more in this genre than I imagined and once again I could have come up with a top ten quite easily. In the end I needed to make a self imposed choice and decided to go with films I have seen loads of times and could easily sit down and watch again and again. So much so that I think I’m going to have a Monsterthon and watch all of these back to back very soon. In no particular order:
Jurassic Park (1993)
The Thing (1982)
King Kong (2005)
Jaws (1975)
An American Wherewolf In London (1981)
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“Praire Rose” by Roxy Music. It’s been a while since I listened to my Roxy Music albums and I’ve promised myself to work my way through them again as they are one of my very favourite bands. Accordingly you can expect more of them in future posts. There was also something attractive about their album covers too.
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This week TIM has been watching …
“Deadwater Fell” a mini series on Channel 4 starring Daveid Tennant. I found this one watchable but predictable. I think I need to change genres for a while.
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Remember …
There is a big difference between a guy and a girl saying “I went through an entire box of tissues during that movie”.
After allowing myself to get side tracked by painting “Hubert de Burgh” last week I was determined that this week would see another 28mm mounted Baron’s War knight completed. This little chap is a made up knight, which is to say the heraldry is not one I have come across but one I have made up. If it does exist out there then it is purely a coincidence as far as I am concerned.
Although it was made up it was inspired by other images I have seen. The light blue and yellow colour combination I have seen used before and rather like it and the cross hatching, albeit in a different way, I have also seen used a good many times. From a painting perspective it represented a nice challenge and overall I’m pleased with it even though some of the squares aren’t quite as even as I would like but that’s something I can work on when I next undertake a square pattern.
As already mentioned this is a made up knight and therefore in need of a made up name. On a previous figure I referred to my family tree for inspiration and decided I would do this once again. In this instance I elected to go with my maternal great grandfather’s name, James Newton Langley.
This weeks miniature is a single knight and not one based on a real character. The aim here was to experiment with some more freehand painting and I settled on the idea of a rearing horse. The head isn’t quite right but given the actual scale of the figure and the size of the shield I think I can just about get away with it for a first attempt. The positioning ended up being a little off centre which I didn’t like either, leaving the top right hand corner a little bare so I added a cross which again kind of works.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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The Knights On TIM’s Modelling Table
With a reasonable number of figures now painted (I need to do a proper count but it must be close to 40 or so) it’s time to give more consideration to how I will display my army. Getting my head around this will also enable me to start taking some larger group photo’s too. Well that’s the plan anyway!
I have a few ideas circulating in my brain but have yet to fully decide on what to do. I do know that I want to keep it very simple. The figures are unlikely to be on display at home, the usual issue of space, but I would like to take them to the occasional show. There are two things I am clear about though. The base is not intended to be a diorama, I don’t want to distract from the figures themselves, and it will need to built around movement trays so the figures can be easily placed. With the latter in mind I ordered some movement trays to experiment with. Hopefully they will arrive in a few days and then I can play around a bit.
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Taking Photo’s
I came across this article on the BBC website (link below) and thought I would share it. When it comes to taking Photo’s of my figures I really need to up my game. It’s certainly an area where I would be happy to invest more time. If I only had more of it!
I’m older, losing my hair and wondering if SWMBO will still send me a Valentine Card next February along with birthday greetiings and a bottle of wine next August. I cannot imagine being out until quarter to three unless it is in the afternoon but I suspect I might be locked out regardless. Will SWMBO still love me, will she still feed me even though she will be older too? Questions that only the future will answer.
I’m still capable of mending a fuse when the lights have gone and SWMBO retains the dexterity to knit a jumper by the fireside. Going for a drive on Sunday mornings remains an option as does doing the garden and digging the weeds. I can’t ask for more.
Perhaps next year we might rent a cottage on the Isle of Wight if it’s not to dear otherwise we will have to scrimp and save. No grandchildren yet to sit on my knee but I’ll send a post card and drop the kids a line stating my point of view and indicating precisely that that I’m wasting away now that I’m 64!
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Give Me Five
This week I thought I’d take a look at the “Spy” genre and within it my favourite films. To some extent it would have been easy to just list most of the Bond movies but there are plenty of other good films out there. My short list in no particular order is:
Casino Royale (2006)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
Eye of the Needle (1981)
The Bourne Identity (2002)
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“She Drives Me Crazy” by the Fine Young Cannibals. It’s been a while since I listened to this band and this particular track. Not sure why that is but I reckon it has a lot to do with the fact that it reminds me of She Who Must Be Obeyed!
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This week TIM has been watching …
“The Accident” a four part mini series I discovered on Channel 4 and another one based in Wales. I’m beginning to think that Wales is a dangerous place to visit. Not a bad series and worth a watch I’d say. Most things with Sarah Lancashire in usually are.
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Remember …
Women always have the last word in an argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.
