Merry Christmas!

Well that's all my wee men packed away for the year so I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

  

 

See you all in 2011.

 

Best regards

Paul and Mai

Tyranids & Marines

Sorry for neglecting my modelling blog, I have been pretty occupied by our club and my Napoleonic blogs. There are hundreds of figures and vehicles I should be taking pics of, my brother has scatch built a thunderhawk gunship (needs painting) and loads of ACW, WW2 and 40K

For the moment here are some 40k stuff my brother and nephew David have been working on. This big beast has still to be finished off so I'll post more pictures when it's complete

This has got to be 1 of the most frightening sights in the 40K world, a swarm of tyranids coming at you!

Young David is really getting his eye in with his painting.

Pendraken 10mm ACW

A few of the guys down the club are into 10mm ACW in a big way and soe it was inevitable that I would end up joining them. My brother and I decided to go for a couple of the army packs to start us off. These are the 1st 10mm figures I have ever painted and the level of detail on them is surprisingly good.

This is a little unit of dismounted cavalry I have been working on.

These are the regular infantry figures from Pendraken with the guns altered to look like shot guns and rifles. I believe they also do the dismounted cavalry figures as a seperate pack?

I have added in some extra items to give a little interest to the bases.

My brother David picked up a bag of 10mm ACW figures and Accessories from an unknown manufacturer in a bring and buy last year. Amongst it were loads of casualties as well as destroyed and discarded items.

I have had the figures finished off for a good while but didn't get around to posting the finished units. I should have added in some of the little accessories to these guys too as they have loads of space on the bases. I think I will probably go back ad do that later?

10mm WW2

It's been a good long while since my last post basically because I have been busy with my 2 other blogs:

http://napoleonicsinminiature.blogspot.com/
http://carlukewargamesclub.blogspot.com/

So I thought it was about time I posted a little report.

Here are a couple of pictures of a superb 10mm WW2 battle last Saturday. You can see more over at the Carluke Wargames Club Blog above.

Not taking part in the battle but from my personal favourite period of interest from WW2.

Vehicles are from John M's collection. I think I will be getting some of these soon.

Just like from my childhood only smaller. I think almost every wargamer and modeller has build an Airfix short barrelled PzIV in panzer grey?

Russian T60

Well it has been a mega long time since my last post and I was beginning to think I may have begun 1 blog too many as I also maintain our club blog and my Napoleonics blog.

I had started to plan putting all my works in the 1 blog but I decided no, I need to keep my main interest Napoleonics seperate.

And I am sure in the near future I will be back building and painting more 1/76 and 1/72 scale models again.

This is a model I finished a few years back a Soviet T60 from Milicast. I airbrushed the vehicle with dfferent greens and added a few little extra's. The figure is from Cromwell Models.

The idea in my head was somewhere around the prippet marshes at the start of 1941.

Army Painter 28mm ACW2

And that's my Berdans finished off.

I might actually give them a bit of a highlight later on and a spray of matt finish to take them a little duller but for a unit put together really, really fast they look fine for me.


My brother David has put together a shocking amount of 28mm ACW troops now!

Infanrty, Artillery and some beautiful cavalry. I will get some pictures up soon.

Army Painter 28mm ACW

Well at the 2 wargames clubs I attend there has been a bit of a bug going around.

It's been quite infectious and it's ACW 28mm. Chris let me in on a not very well kept secret of the Army Painter Quick Shade and I decide to give it a go. ACW isn't really my thing anymore however with the thought of being able to paint like a child again and still get nice looking results.

The cry went out "just slap the paint on, you don't have to undercoat or highlight just paint on the colours and give it a dip!"

These are my sharpshooters all ready for the magic to be cast! I'll post some pics of the finished figures soon.


I have decided that once they are varnished that's them. No repainting or highlighting as I want a force ready to use fast. We will see if I manage to stick to that!

German Tankers Winter Uniforms

This is another set I did for Tom at Milicast a number of years ago. I really need to get some better pics of these as Tom took the pictures when he was just getting into the whole digital camera and computer thing and they are too small. Also you can see with the first figure in this set Tom has had a little tinker with photoshop removing a little beard I painted on him.

You should never reveal the secrets of the dark arts to new blood as when you leave them on their own there is no telling what they will do!!!

As These guys are in Tom's shop they have had a hell of a lot of handling as you can see. Not even 2 coats of revell matt varnish could protect them from the greasy hands of passers by!

I was pretty proud of them when I first done them as the camo was a bit of a challenge.

Germans at Rest or Prisoners?

Yip more figures I done for Tom down at Milicast

These excellent pictures were taken my a modelling friend of mine Alex Clark who was writing a book for Osprey at the time on 1/72 scale tiger tanks.

I believe Alex has done 2 books now, 1/72 scale PzIV's and Tigers?
I was lucky enough for Alex to include a picture of 1 of my hanschar figures in the tiger book for size comparisons

I have recovered from my big swollen head. I haven't painted any WW2 figures for a few years now as my brother, nephew and I have moved onto wargaming with Napoleonic and ACW figures.

I think this picture was taken by Tom for his website?

And this is the set in it's original form. I think this is a really nice set and I always planned on putting some of them in a little scene in normandy sitting at the side of the road with a couple of British (or Canadian) soldiers drinking wine as a Sherman firefly rolls past. One day I'll get it done as I have the shermans built and packed away in the loft.

Scotland Visit 2009

This summer my wife Mylene and I were very lucky to have a visit from Tony and Megan Ivey from the US of A. Tony and I share a passion for smallscale modelling and have exchanged emails from around 1998 or 1999? We lost contact for a while as I spent a little time living and travelling abroad and moving from house to house before settling in Scotland again a few years back. So when I heard Tony and his good lady wife were planning a visit to Alba I was well looking forward to meeting up with the guys.

In the grand plan of life my wee wife through no fault of her own unfortunately lost her job in the spring of 2009 meaning life became a little hectic for myself working months straight to keep things ticking over. So by the time the guys arrived I was well strung out and it was a great relief to finally get a break. It also gave me a chance to catch up with some old friends. The guys were only here for a short stay so we planned to take them to the usual tourist traps. From left to right Mr Ian Hanratty, Megan and Tony Ivey and wee Mai Provan

We took the chance to take some touristic photos of the castle!

This time I managed to sneak into the photo (nice pic Ian). This is the entrance to the castle. Once you reach this point you have already been robbed by the cashiers for your entrance fee.


In true Scottish fashion I'll have a moan about the price for entry into our historic buildings, they are lovely places but boy do they screw you for your pennies! I feel sorry for the tourists coming to the UK as the fees everywhere are extortionate!


The gang all happiness and smiles. That's the way we like to see you!

I try to get as many people as possible into my photo's. Here a couple completely oblivious to the camera. I would guess they are Polish? Answers on a postcard

Mylene working her charms on her new best pal.

The 2 Megs: I thought it was really decent of the Edinburgh people to name 1 of their main attractions in the castle after our visiting guest Meg.






My wee wife with Grey Friar's Bobby.


The Iveys on the Edinburgh skyline.








A shot from within the little chapel at the top of th Castle.

Here we are in the Heart of Lothian on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

For those of you who are not aware of the ritual surrounding this place the custom is for you to spit in the centre of the heart on your 1st visit to the spot!

We had a great day.

We managed to pick Calum Melrose up later on and Tony got a change to have a look through his excellent WW2 German models afterwards Ian invited us all back to his place for some pizza and beer. Guess who was driving :-(