Zamoran War Elephant

And in the meantime, after months of hemming and hawing, I have finally gotten started on my Zamoran army project, with the first model, a war elephant, completed.

The Musa Izly Cantina: Initial Basing Done

After leaving the project for some time, I finally got around to touching up with some acrylic paints. This was especially important for the wooden bits, that were painted over with Vallejo Mahogany Brown.

The Musa Izly Cantina: Emulsion Paint Layer

With the papier-mache layers completed, the next step was to cover the structure with a layer of emulsion paint.

The Musa Izly Cantina: Papier Mache Layers Done

Good progress on the Musa Izly Cantina, with the papier-mache layers almost complete. The newsprint layers are finished, and all that remains to be done is a bit of touching up with some tissue paper.

Making A Lid for a 28mm Scale Holemouth Jar

Once you have made your holemouth jar, it is quite a simple matter to make a little lid for it. To do this, it would be best to save a little of the polymer clay that you used for the jar itself, so that the lid and jar will both have the same colour.

The Musa Izly Cantina: First Layers of Papier-Mache

Work continues apace on our papier-mache adobe house. Two layers of papier-mache so far, and fortunately the house is yet to show any sign of crumbling.

Making a Miniature Bed for 28-32mm Scale

It is very easy to make a miniature bed for use inside your buildings. All you need is some coffee-stirrers and ice-cream sticks, wood glue, some styrofoam and some scrap cloth.

Making a Papier Mache Adobe House (WIP)

My wife never ceases to amaze me. I had been casting around for ideas about how to build the frame for my hobbit house project, and she came up with this brilliant suggestion - papier-mache. Light, cheap and easy to make. We are not entirely certain if this will work, so, to test out the method, we have started a new project - an Arab style house made of papier-mache (which should prove to be useful , as my main army is a Zamoran force, using Perry Miniatures Saracens).

Miniature Holemouth Jars for 28-32mm Scale

Ancient Israelite Holemouth Jar

Holemouth Jars were widely used for storage in ancient times. It is thought that they were used to hold things like grain, olive oil and dried fruit. Many such vessels have been found in archaeological sites in the Middle East dating to the biblical period.

These jars are especially easy to make in miniature because, unlike other storage jars, they do not have narrow necks but only a wide opening (which is where the name hole-mouth comes from). In some cases, the opening can even be as wide across as the body of the jar itself.

Jack the Giant Slayer Movie Review

So we finally went to watch this last night, and were both very pleasantly surprised to find that it was a lot better than expected. Perhaps it was because we had been so badly disappointed by the last fairy-tale adaptation we had watched (ruined primarily by Kristen Stewart's truly awful acting). But Jack the Giant-Slayer turned out to be an engaging and enjoyable film with likeable characters, a remarkably well-played secondary villain and eye-catching special effects.

Fag End: a Bookshelf for Drongo

Although our friend Drongo can hardly be described as an intellectual, he still does own a few old books, and so I thought it would be nice to make him a little bookshelf.

Gamezone Boar

As mentioned in an earlier post, the wife is building an orc army to fight against my Perry Miniature Saracens. Most of these are Gamezone Orcs, although she does also have the Orc Shaman from Avatars of War.

So now she has finally made a start on painting her miniatures.