Hasslefree Kalee

Painted this now-classic miniature some time back but not had the time to post it till now. I decided to make the living axe red-faced, to give it more of a horror vibe.

More Gamezone Orcs

Gamezone Orc Blackguard

So, the wife has finished painting up a new Gamezone Orc.


Actually, I do feel a little jealous at how quickly she manages to complete a new miniature. When I paint one, it takes a lot of time and a lot of hemming and hawing before I am ready to put in the finishing touches and then varnish, but she does it very quickly and gets the miniature varnished.

She has also finished up her Boar Rider, which you can see on her blog, along with more pics of this fine fellow.

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.

Fag End: Drongo's Room (WIP)

Our hobbit friend Drongo Faggins, whose front garden we took a look at the last time, spends a lot of his time lounging around in this room. Although, like all hobbits, Drongo does enjoy reading, he is not quite as intellectual as his distant cousin Bilbo, and his reading matter does not consist of scholarly treatises or great works of literature. Instead, Drongo prefers the livelier pamphlets that are circulated in his neighbourhood, many of which can be found strewn around his little hobbit-hole.

Drongo's Room

Some Additional Thoughts on the Hobbit Movie

Tolkien

The release of the new Hobbit movie has led to a great deal of angst on the internet about its “serious” deviations from the storyline in Tolkien’s book. Purists seem to be especially unhappy with the appearance of the orc-chieftain Azog, who is supposed to have been killed long before the events described in the book take place. Much of this complaining, however, as I shall demonstrate, is based on a simplistic reading of Tolkien. It is also the result of a failure to think in depth about the nature of Tolkien’s work, and, in particular, about the role of the narrator in it.

The Hobbit Movie Review

Go and watch this film! Do it now! Do not wait for payday. Do not wait to read anymore reviews before going. And do not worry about all the whingeing and complaining there has been about it in the media.

Fag End: a Not-so-Posh Hobbit Hole (WIP)

So with all the excitement about the new Hobbit movie over the last few months, I decided to have a go at building my own little hobbit hole in 28mm scale. Unfortunately, progress has not exactly been rapid in the construction of Fag End, due to numerous constraints, and only the front entrance, mounted on an MDF base, has been completed so far.

Fag End

Printable Miniature Pamphlets

Like greeting cards, pamphlets are another set of items that would fit nicely in a hobbit-hole, as hobbits are comparatively well-read creatures. One can easily imagine an educated hobbit like Bilbo Baggins, for example, reading and chuckling over a well-written pamphlet.

Pamphlet 1

Pamphlet 2

Raging Heroes Blood Vestals Review

Raging Heroes are a new company making 28mm scale miniatures using 3D computer technology. Most of their figures are designed to be used in place of official Games Workshop miniatures. The Blood Vestals discussed in this post, for example, are clearly meant to represent Witch Elves from the Warhammer universe. Similarly, their flagship Asharah figure is supplied with three different heads that allow her to be used as a heroine for either a Dark Elf, Vampire Counts or Chaos army. Other Raging Heroes figures that are obviously designed as alternatives for Warhammer include their Mantis Warriors (Chaos Daemonettes) and a Dark Elf Sorceress.