Figure Painter Magazine - issue #1

Last night while searching through some of my favourite Blogs I came across this new on-line magazine - Figure Painter, for full details go to this link.

At just £1.00 for the download I thought it was worth a punt and with only one exception (I could not find the link to download the magazine) the purchase via Paypal and download went smoothly.

The on-line magazine follows a similar format and layout to The Ancible, and Portal, with painting, modelling and gaming articles interspersed with adverts. Edited by Shane Rozzell, and with 56 full colour pages I think it is worth while watching/supporting although I do question if there is enough new content to support anything more than a quarterly publication.

I think the single tutorial, Dark Carnival by Sean Fulton (which won Best of Show at ReaperCon 2013) was worth the £1.00 on its own! There is also an in-depth review of X-Wing, a game that I have yet to play and an interesting build review of The Forest Guardian a resin cast bear and rider by AX Faction.

As an old dinosaur, I am still not entirely comfortable with digital magazines, and prefer the feeling of gloss paper in my hand. I know that in this age of electronic pads and e-readers I am a lone voice. But this is my view.

Considering it is only issue one, I think this is an admirable attempt at producing a special interest e-magazine. I will keep an eye out for future issues and report back here.

Check out the official site here and if you do decide to buy, please mention this Blog.

Tony

War Paint - Euro Militaire guide Vol. 1

To regular readers and followers it should be obvious that I enjoy painting model soldiers. I also like to browse both images and magazines of beautifully painted model soldiers such as Military Modeller. In fact my modelling focused bookshelf if crammed full of both 'how to' and 'eye candy' publications featuring model soldiers in all sorts of scales.

I have never believed that my model painting is anywhere near the same standard as those featured in these books and magazines, but I still enjoy both my hobby and seeing how other modellers approach their subject.

This Euro-Militaire and Verlinden's guide features winning entries from the Euro-Militaire competitions 1988 - 91 and is packed full of beautifully painted and staged figures. For me it 'ticks all the boxes', with figures from many different scales and genres - all painted to a standard I can only dream of achieving.

I picked up this copy from e-bay earlier this week. A real treat for me to enjoy.

I am aware that there are others in the series, Volume 2 and Volume 3. I will keep an eye out for them.

With just short of 30 pages, each one packed with full colour photographs of model soldiers this is a book for the true 'Lead Head'. First published in 1992 by Euro Militaire and Verlinden Publications.

Tony

40mm Sharpe and Harper - part three

The Pledge for May 2013 continues. Sharpe and Harper from Graven Images sculpted by Jim Bowen.

Photos One and Two - Sharpe has had his flesh areas and the jacket 'blocked-in'. At this stage I am trying for a neat effect, but not too worried about defining either the details or the edges.

Photos Three and Four - Sergeant Harper at the same stage.

Photos Five and Six - I have painted the trousers (or overalls) in a bottle green colour, although this does not show up too well in these photos. The sash is Gore Red with Blood Red highlights.

Photos Seven and Eight - Not much to see on the Harper figure, the shoes are painted and the sack has been blocked-in and highlighted.

There is still lots to do but I am pleased with progress so far. To see the earlier posts go to this link and this link.

Tony

The Hobbit - on audio cassette tapes

I recently had to repair my Mother-in-Laws personal cassette player (she likes to listen to audio books - the ones on old fashioned cassettes which Sue and I pick up for her from charity shops). Having repaired hers, I thought I would try to repair my own cassette player - it has not worked for ages.

I spent about 30 minutes cleaning and making sure all the rollers were in place and tested it with this 4 cassette audio book - The Hobbit. I had intended to just check if it was working properly, but ended up listening to all four cassettes and really enjoying it.

Over the years, I have listened to a number of audio books (on cassette and CD) while down my shed-at-the-bottom-of-the-garden making or painting models. I find them the perfect accompaniment, well that and Radio 5 Live - the sports radio station.

Not much more to add - a great little story tape, one that I really enjoyed.

Tony

Darker Horizons from Miniature Wargames

I recently picked up this magazine from e-bay. Darker Horizons was a one-off publication by Atlantic Publishers - the publishers of Miniature Wargames. The magazine is a 52 page standard format layout and published in Winter 2011 with a cover price of £4.25. Until quite recently DH was featured on the Atlantic Publishing Home page, see this link.

Until I saw this mag. on e-bay, I thought that Darker Horizons was a planned publication. I had not realised that there had actually been a printed copy! Silly me.

The first illustration shows the cover and the second the contents page. for more detail you can 'click' on the image for a larger view.

This introduction was written by Andrew Hubback (editor) and Dave Clubmember. Once again you can 'click' on the image for a larger view and a great read.

(Images taken from the Internet for review purposes only and used without permission - should there be a problem, I can and will remove them)

With the decision of Atlantic Publishing to re-launch Miniature Wargames with Battlegames under the new editor Henry Hyde, the DH title will remain in-house for possible and future Sci-Fi themed publications.

I have not yet read the magazine from cover-to-cover, but the articles I have read have been well worth the bidding cost and postage.

I regret that at this moment there is no traditionally published Sci-Fi/Fantasy focused magazine like DH, with Ragnarok (SFSFW) being published on an ad-hoc basis and others like The Ancible being downloadable only. In the current economic climate I would suggest that there are few brave enough to take a chance on launching such a publication.

For further comments see this post.

Tony

Russian Church

Continuing with my plan to highlight some of my older terrain pieces I have chosen this huge Russian Church. Which I built nearly twenty years ago.

The model is one of my largest pieces of terrain standing nearly 18inches (450mm) tall. The main structure is foam-card with plain card cladding and DAS modelling clay roof tiles. The golden dome was scratch-built by constructing a card skeleton and then wrapping masking tape around the form before cladding with newspaper scraps and uPVA glue.

The building is unusual in my collection, being built on a cardboard base rather than plastic card or MDF.

I based the building on a small 15mm Russian Church that I saw in a model shop in France. I was able to make some sketches and then built the model on my return to the UK. Just in case it is not obvious - the model is a solid construction, no lift-off roof. While the colour scheme was inspired by a small painting from the Russian artist and illustrator Ivan Bilibin.

The miniatures are Alternative Armies, Bog Orc Zombies from the 1st Moldsk Guard (LEU02). See this link.

The images are taken in shaded sunlight on my flock-covered gaming board with a large holiday brochure poster as a backdrop.

Tony

40mm Sharpe and Harper - part two

I have mounted both figures on to a short section of old paintbrush with a dab of superglue. 

Photo One - The Sharpe miniatures has had the right arm completely re-modelled and the expose joint filled with green stuff. As I stated in the first post - the original casting had a very strange right arm that if connected as intended would have looked very awkward.

Photo Two - Harper has had some additional green stuff added to his otherwise thin legs.

Photo Three - I have spray painted the models with a GW Skull White 'rattle-can' taking care to ensure that there is not a build up of paint which might hide the beautifully sculpted detail.

You can also see how the re-modelled right arm is now in a more natural position.

Photo Four - The undercoated Harper

Photo Five - Prior to starting the painting, proper - I have given the miniatures a light wash of Badab Black from GW. I wanted to exaggerate the sculpting to make it easier to paint.

Photo Six - It is unusual for me to paint over a White undercoat, preferring either Black or very dark Brown. The Black wash was my attempt at a compromise.

I think it is apparent from these images, just how very well sculpted this pair of figures are. Jim Bowen had done a fantastic job of capturing the features and uniforms of these iconic characters.

In part three, finally some coloured paint!

Tony