For the first time in quite a while I came close to missing a blog post. Having been fully absorbed by my army project I became completely side tracked and suddenly Saturday was almost upon me and I had nothing to offer. Fortunately I remembered that I had an almost completely painted dwarf which I had set aside and the day (well post in this case) was saved. Ho-ray for dwarfs!
The figure in question, Borin Ironbrow by Reaper, was originally bought for my recent Diorama Lite post but in the end I decided to go with a different figure. Although I liked the figure I didn’t think he was the right fit for my little diorama. Now he has been lovingly given a little base of his own.
The figure is from the Reaper Dungeon Dweller range and is a very crisp and clean casting. Compared to some Reaper figures the level of detail is relatively plain but it was none the less a nice little one to do.
The biggest challenge was getting him completed in time for this post, a problem I think I will continue to experience with other figures which aren’t part of my army project. In an ideal world I would like to produce something each week for Diorama Lite on Monday, a mid-week figure for my medieval Knight army and a figure from another genre for my Saturday post. It is clear that balancing this through the spring and summer is going to be a challenge. What this week has taught me though is that modelling and painting time is becoming stretched, mainly due to the time of the year and my release back into the wild following Covid lockdown. Add into the mix my desire to do more and more on my army project and it is becoming clear that three posts a week is going to prove a significant challenge, at least until the return of the winter months. For now I will continue as I am doing, if only to clear some of the lead pile, but I suspect blog changes are a foot.
This weeks miniature is the first in what is sure to become a very, very recurring feature of my Wednesday posts and maybe some Saturday ones too, a figure painted and based which goes towards my medieval army project. All the figures are from the Footsore Barons War range and this is one of the four figures which comprises the pack titled “Foot Knights 1”.
The paint job was pretty straight forward and as I have no plans to use decals and have never had success with masking tape all my work on shields will be freehand. The aim will be to try and get more adventurous but I will be driven by heraldry as I learn a bit more about it. As much as possible I want my knights to be authentic. As far as basing goes, whilst there may be some slight variation this will be the standard.
More on the project below but in terms of completed minis we’re up and running.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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The Knights On TIM’s Modelling Table
As headings go it’s not a great play on “The Knights of the Round Table” but it was the best I could come up with. So, an update on the project.
Firstly a big thank you to those of you who very kindly provided encouragement for this project along with words of advice and valuable details on figures and numbers for an army. I have taken it all on board but for now I thought I would focus just on painting, specifically for now foot figures. I have every intention of doing mounted Knights but that will come later. Whether I do the whole Baron’s War range of mounted figures remains to be seen. I’ll see how the range grows because it appears to be expanding quite fast, by which I mean quicker than I can paint. For now though and with Footsore offering a 20% discount when you spend over a hundred pounds I thought I would take advantage of the offer while it it lasted. After almost no deliberation whatsoever I piled straight in and pretty much bought the lot.
As things currently stand I have purchased packs of Levy’s, Crossbowmen, Spearmen, Bannermen and Musicians, Bowmen, numerous Knights and various Character figures giving around 90 figures to paint. Whether they all make it in to my army remains to be seen. Although I will make the effort to clean and prime all the figures in one hit the painting will not be in batches. I don’t enjoy production line painting, regardless of time efficiency, so I fully expect to adopt a random approach.
Here’s a quick look at some of the figures on parade.
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Give Me Five
Not sure what inspired me this week, nothing I can recall watching or listening to for sure, but I decided to try listing my top five movie villains. Not an easy choice but after some deliberation I settled, in no particular order, on the following:
Darth Vader (Star Wars Franchise)
The Joker (Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight)
Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins, Silence of the Lambs)
Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes, Schindlers List)
Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes, Harry Potter Franchise)
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“Voodoo Child” by Jimi Hendrix. In response to my Give Me Five music intros in TIM’s Miniatures & Musings No: 97 my brother kindly emailed a couple of links to some classic tracks of which this was one. Well worth a listen to on a high volume and after a few beers.
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This week TIM has been watching …
“Red Joan” starring Judi Dench. A good film “based” on a true story with an interesting justification for being a spy and giving away official secrets.
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Remember …
If you are having a bad day things could always be worse. You could be a Siamese twin attached to a gay brother whose on a date and you’re the only one with an arse.
This week was an easy week in the sense that I really only needed to paint the figure. He’s a nice little 28mm Reaper mini with quite a lot of detail and he had a pretty good pose for a chap standing outside his doorway before he goes off to hit some poor unfortunate over the head. Dwarfs I am given to understand can be a bit like that.
I had already left a suitable whole in the base for positioning the figure so other than some minor adjustments and a few touch ups there was very little else to do. Overall I am pleased with the outcome but I hope over time my imagination will inspire greater things but you have to start somewhere. For me identifying nice figures holds the key and I have a few already lined up so we will see where we end up. For now though the journey has begun.
I mentioned in last Saturday’s post that I am attracted to figures which I consider have a nice pose. Of course this is a personal thing but this is another figure which ticks the box as far as I am concerned. I like the casual stance of Ulfred. It’s simple but effective and he has a “don’t mess with me” feel about him, he exudes calmness and complete control.
I went mostly for muted colours as theses seemed appropriate. The wolf head on his tunic was embossed so no claims to freehand on this one. Base wise I went for a simple bit of landscape comprising of a a couple of slate chippings, a bit of a twig to form a small broken tree and some Milliput and plaster board dust to complete the groundwork. Bits of grass tufts were added to the 25mm base to provide some much needed colour.
This weeks miniature is again from Hasslefree and goes by the name of Dakota. Originally I bought her to go with a zombie theme I had running around in my head but then I lost my way. Just to many ideas right now which in some ways is a nice problem but on the downside I find myself losing focus. I’ll put it down to age. In the end I settled for a quick and simple base job with an old rusty barrel hopefully conveying a bit of an industrial and post apocalyptic feel.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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Time To Build An Army?
After much deliberation I have decided to do something I have never done before, I’m going to paint an army. I’ve never been against the idea but I couldn’t settle on an historical period. I had other concerns too. Would I get bored? What would I do with the army once complete? How would I store it? How would I display it? In truth I don’t have the answers to all those questions but have decided to build one none the less and I’ll figure things out as I go along.
So what has changed my mind? You may well ask. The answer is several things. Nostalgia, Table Top World, freehand painting and Ebay.
Nostalgia — some of you may recall from past posts that I have mentioned Britain’s Swoppet Cowboys and how they played a part in getting me into modelling and dioramas when I was a kid. Well Britain’s also did Swoppet Knights but these were much more expensive (they sell for a small fortune on Ebay as collectors pieces these days) so I never had any. As much as I loved the cowboys I would have loved a castle full of battling knights. An army of cowboys isn’t really a thing but an army of knights is.
Table Top World – If you haven’t seen it they do an amazing Castle. It costs a fortune, it’s huge and being modular can be made as big as you like. How cool would that be? In truth I will probably never find out because I have nowhere to put it but I am going with the Field of Dreams approach, “If you build it they will come”. I’ll build the army first and see where I go from there.
Freehand – Heraldry provides a great opportunity for some freehand and I would like to see what I can do on that front from time to time. There is also a great deal of freedom when it comes to the use of colours too. I’m not sure I could ever paint a modern army, I think I would find it far to dull and repetitive.
Ebay – I see this as my escape clause. If all else fails and I never finish the project or have no idea what to do with it when it’s done I can sell it. In short what is there to lose?
Obviously you will have gathered my army will be one of Knights but it will also feature Archers, Levy’s, Crossbowmen, Spearmen and whatever else exists now and in future releases in the Footsore Barons War range. Those of you who liked the knights I had previously done have a lot to answer for. If you get bored with this project before I do you only have yourselves to blame!
So, does this signal the end of painting Knuckleduster Cowboys, Reaper, Hasslefree and other figures? Not at all. My army is just another project to dip into but one I am looking forward to doing.
I do however have one question for you and would welcome your wargaming thoughts. How many figures would I need to paint and base before I could claim it’s an army? In my head I have settled on a nice round figure of 100 but do I need more or less?
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Give Me Five
In keeping with the tone established above I thought I would select my top 5 films within the broadly speaking medieval genre. Not quite so tough this week but for me all now essential viewing and research. As usual in no particular order:
Excalibur
Kingdom of Heaven
Braveheart
King Arthur
The Name of the Rose
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This week TIM has been listening to …
“She’s Got The Look” by Roxette. There’s a lot to like about this track and video but I was particularly drawn in by the lyrics. 😉
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This week TIM has been watching …
“Keeping Faith”. A thriller series set in Wales (that’s Wales the country just to be clear!). Having binge watched series one and two I am now on to the final series. Not the best of some of the great TV shows currently available but well worth a watch in my opinion.
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Remember …
Even if you are useless you can be used as a bad example.
Welcome to the first Diorama Lite post. The concept of this series is to feature based figures which offer a little bit more than a typical wargaming style base, a micro diorama if you will. Whilst the work involved isn’t in the same league as a larger diorama churning these little models out on a daily or weekly basis simply isn’t going to happen. I anticipate each one taking a couple of weeks to do on average. Slower in the spring and summer perhaps and maybe quicker in the winter when more time is spent indoors may become a factor in the fullness of time. Without further a do let’s get under way.
The featured figure for this model is as the title indicates a Dwarf. All being well you will get to see him next week in part 2. The concept for the base is a simple affair. Our hero dwarf is simply standing outside his front door. Now that’s got you excited hasn’t it?
First up there was a need to make a door. Wooden coffee stirrers, a bit of polystyrene, lead foil and pin heads for the hinges and wire for the door handle were all used.
Slate chippings from the garden were used to create steps leading to the door. The model is being built on a 40mm x 40mm MDF base which will then be mounted on a 40mm oak cube plinth.
A piece of plant root was used to make a small tree.
I made a couple of giant toadstools using Milliput mounted on top of pin heads.
Thereafter it was pretty much all about adding some filler to the polystyrene and once it was dry painting and weathering everything followed by a little bit of assembly. A mixture of paint colours and paints were used – acrylics and oils. Finally some plant life was added.
Some touching up here and there will be needed once the figure has been positioned but for now the scene is pretty much set.
This figure came from North Star Miniatures and features under the Lucid Eye heading and is produced by Ziggurat. The title for the figure is given as “LI-BEL – Fall of Bell”, make of that what you want. The figure itself is 28mm and in my opinion is a stunning sculpt and one which is most unusual.
Why unusual TIM I hear you cry.
Well, as you asked, it is a sculpt posed in a way which to my mind is far more 54mm scale or bigger and not a typical 28mm one. By this what I mean is the sculpt is a miniature figure painters dream not a wargamers style of figure. As I primarily consider myself a figure painter the pose of a miniature is what often attracts me the most and in 28mm figures the poses are far more often than not sculpted in an action stance. Nothing wrong with that at all but any figure which isn’t is bound to catch my eye when it crosses my path. Such was the situation here. Unfortunately for me the Ziggurat figure range is pretty small and only a few of them have an appeal to me. I do, however, have my eye on a couple of others including a variant of this figure which I will also purchase in due course.
I’m not entirely sure if this female figure is intended to be a Greek Hoplite but I have based my painting around the idea that she is. Not a great deal to say about the paint job itself other than that the horse on the shield was embossed rather than freehand but the edging on the shield was freehand and took a while to do. Every time I looked at it the pattern wasn’t as evenly spaced as I wanted so I was touching up constantly. I’m sure it is still out in places but I eventually called it a day because I knew I would never ever be 100% satisfied with it. That’s not to say I am not pleased with it because I am.
I went for a straight forward little bit of base work with just a splash of colour in the red flowers. I think there is scope to set this figure on a really nice bit of base work so I may well do something with the variant when I purchase it. I wont rule out doing this figure again at some point either. The quality of it is superb (as are so many others I might add) and it is hard to believe that it is only 28mm so to prove it is I have included a perspective image too.
This weeks miniature is one I have posted before but there are a couple of reasons for posting it again. Firstly I simply ran out of time to get a figure done this week. All my energy was been spent elsewhere leaving me with less time than I would have liked on modelling and painting with what time I did have spent finalising the Wizard’s Tower. There was therefore nothing for it but to go back through my backlog and pull out images of a past figure, something I might have to do more often now that spring and summer has hit the UK and the outdoor jobs are mounting up. The question of course then became what figure?
Much to my surprise my first Miniatures and Musings post was published back on the 22nd May 2019 and featured a Crooked Dice 28mm figure of James Bond. By coincidence Mark Morin invited me to observe an international online wargame involving him and some of his global buddies a couple of weeks ago which was based upon the exploits of James Bond in the film The Spy Who Loved Me. The game was called Nobody Does It Better with the name taken I presume from the films title song. It therefore seemed highly appropriate to go with this figure as a thank you to Mark for the invite.
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Well It Made Me Laugh
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The Wednesday Whinge
I did say last week that my Wednesday Whinge posted then would most likely be my last and that was indeed my intention. Time to get away from politics and back to something a little more in keeping with the overall theme and environment of this blog now that lockdown restrictions have been eased somewhat and I can vent my spleen to my mate John over a beer. However, in trying to write this post on my laptop (I usually use my Samsung Tablet) I noticed that WordPress appear to be up to their old tricks of fucking about. On a sample of one it seems they have changed how you can add and insert photos. Now it might just be me, I’m not the most PC literate guy and unlike Pat am unable to tap into a Technical Advisor. I will have to take a closer look at some point and if I am wrong publish an apology to WordPress.
As of now future whinges, if any, will come under the hobby spotlight. Unless I change my mind of course.
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Give Me Five
This week I thought I would go with song intros. Here are my top five. Some are slow burners but each one blows me away every time. I have even gone to the trouble of including the YouTube link so you can have a listen if you are not familiar with any. I would suggest playing loud! Of course there are hundreds of potential tracks out there so I may have to go with this theme again at some point. In the meanwhile I will, as always, be interested to hear what suggestions any of you make. In no particular order:
“Honky Tonk Women” by the Rolling Stones. This nearly made it into my Give Me Five above but as it didn’t I thought I would include it hear instead. You can’t beat a bit of Mick and the boys and at the time of writing I’m led to believe Keith Richard is still alive. The man is simply indestructible!
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This week TIM has been watching …
“Traces” an excellent six part BBC series. I do like being able to binge watch a series without having to wait week after week for the next episode. Knew nothing about this one but took a punt on it and got straight into it. Apparently a second series is due later this year.
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Remember …
Never in the history of calming down has anyone ever calmed down after being told to calm down.
This week brings an end to the Wizard Tower diorama and the timing could not be more perfect. Not only does today signal the end of this diorama but it is also the end of the end of lockdown and my 39th wedding anniversary. It is also the end of Dio-Bolical Monday for the foreseeable future. This diorama, and Fools Gold which preceded it, have both been great fun but as well as the need for a break I need to create space before I can even contemplate doing another. Until that time does arrive I intend to replace Dio-Bolical Monday with Diorama Lite. The first post should be next week but we will have to see. Meanwhile back to this one.
As at last week I was left with a few things to do. The dragon needed to be finished and was. It was duly tidied up and whilst I can say I hated every minute I spent painting it the end result was OK. It was then just a matter of positioning it and the second figure. I decided to pin the dragon in such away that it can be removed if necessary. I have also kept the tower in its sections rather than gluing it all together. The fit is so good you cannot see the joins and it will also make transporting it that much easier too. Picking up on several comments I also tried to inject some movement into the banner but having already stuck the banner down and put it in situ the scope to do anything was very restricted and I wasn’t about to start again. But hey, that’s why I am The Imperfect Modeller! So, a final few touch ups here and there and that was job done.
On to some photo’s. The first four images show the positioning of the second figure before the dragon was added and then with the dragon in situ. The photo’s thereafter after show the complete diorama along with various close up images. As it was a nice day I decided to take the tower a part and go outside to take the Photo’s Not the ideal backdrop to be fair but then again I don’t have an ocean in my back garden and I don’t have a light box the size of a marque either. The final image is a photo of the diorama in its display case. All in all not an easy thing to photograph, well for me at least, but hopefully you can get a feel for the finished piece.
Well folks I hope you like the end result. Personally I have had a blast doing it. The tower itself is an awesome piece of kit and I would recommend Table Top World buildings to anyone, they’re worth every penny. Obviously it’s the favorite bit of the whole thing but I’d also like to give a shout out to the sea effects. Not my idea as pointed out in earlier posts but it is simple and so cool. Something I’d really like to do again at some point but until then that’s it.
It will not surprise you to know that “Gruff” is a 28mm Hasslefree figure. Before too long I will have exhausted my supply of them and I will have to place another order. Some new releases should be out soon as well and that will provide the ideal time I think. In the meanwhile I have plenty of other things to do but more on that in future posts.
The image on the back of “Gruff” is embossed so freehand opportunities for my imagination were limited. I did however add a stripe and numbers to his shorts and a couple of letters (hardly detectable in the photo’s below) to the can he is holding. Other than that it was a simple figure with no difficult areas to access so painting him was pretty quick and easy. I kept the base simple, mainly out of laziness really. Although I like the figure I wasn’t inspired beyond just painting it, partly I think because my imagination and ideas are now taking me all over the place right now. Quite where that will lead though remains to be seen.
The Imperfect Modeller 