Monday, 31 December 2018

Post Christmas - Box Sets

Continuing my gathering of those unexpected goodies that can help the model maker that come at this time of year...

I'm gathering up some of the mince pie trays, sweet and biscuit trays that come from the selection boxes to use as moulds for plaster work.

Not sure exactly what I'm going to get from them yet, but I'll be experimenting in the new year.





This one has potential. Certainly the shield shaped tray.

I tried this a few years back when I modelled some stone pillars from an old chocolate selection tray.

Christmas 2011










   

Friday, 28 December 2018

Post Christmas - Crackers

Hope you've all suitably over indulged over Christmas and as a result have plenty of exciting modelling materials now at your disposal.

Even if I don't get much time in the year ahead to make good on some of these ideas, I thought I'd share a few and hope they inspire you.

The humble Christmas cracker offers quite a lot of potential. 

The plastic from the boxes make good windows for models, whilst the crackers themselves offer so many possibilities. The gifts - sometimes tacky - can be useful to modellers.

A shoe pedant might become the hanging sign outside a cobblers, whilst a giant gem could be the focal point of wizard's lair.


The cracker card has potential for being good backgrounds, this one a particular favourite has certainly potential for a Doctor Who diorama at some point



My crackers this year had bit of ribbon around them, these I save to decorate the garlands and Christmas wreaths for next year.



Still wondering what to do with the paper hats, any thoughts?











And finally, not forgetting those unforgettable jokes...






Monday, 24 December 2018

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 

It's been a strange year, and for various reasons I have been unable to work on any models this year, and the writing projects have also suffered. 

At the moment all my model materials and finished work are in storage, so I do not expect a great deal of model work being done next year. I do hope that I will be able to relaunch the blog early in the new year and at least post some model ideas and updates for the new series of books I have planned.

In meantime remember this time of year gives rise to some interesting materials for model building.




Let's see what we can make out of this lot?

Best regards
Derek


Monday, 3 October 2016

Another chance to catch Karl for FREE

This weekend there will be another chance to download the first book of Karl's adventures for FREE on Amazon Kindle.

The Kindle edition will be free to download between
Friday 7th October and Tuesday 11th October 2016

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Sorry this offer has now expired.

A big thank you to everyone that took the trouble to download book one over this weekend. I hope you enjoy the adventure.


So join the good folk of Miltonburg in this exciting adventure...


Saturday, 13 August 2016

Varnished At Last

It’s been a long time coming, but finally the haunted house has been varnished. Last weekend, after blowing up the mower, I decided that Sunday would be dedicated to the models, weather permitting. 

Fortunately the weather was, quite breezy but warm, so with the shade up I finally got the mother of all varnish jobs finished. After a few hours with the tin of varnish and the brush the haunted house is now all but complete. 








The only thing left is to reattach the stone ‘support’ pillar which keeps coming off. I also got four of the larger ghost town models that had been recently painted up varnished as well in the mammoth session. 

The painting of these had not gone as well as I would have liked. The Wilko paint I had been using for ‘Burnt Umber’ has been changed since I originally discovered it. 







Although the tube are much larger, so more paint yay! this new version of Burnt Umber has come out more redder than before and I was forced to add a lot of additional black and white into the mix to tone it back to the darker wood effect I had previously taken to.





With Hobbycraft having had a special offer running this month on their acrylic paints I have taken the opportunity to pick up a selection of black, grey, white, umbers and others from their range and will be trying those out soon. 

Meanwhile, whilst the mower was blowing up, I’ve also suffered a hard drive failure, some data was recoverable from backups but other data wasn’t. Hence the blog silence for a bit. I have however made good progress on the tapestry and will be posting some new photos soon. 

(Oh and I not mention the boiler... They say things come in threes so I hope that’s me off the hook for several years now please!!!)


Friday, 24 June 2016

Karl Gets Kindle Preview Tool

The pages on the blog dedicated to the trilogy that tell the story of Karl Axilion, the boy who should never have been born, now have Kindle style previews courtesy of Amazon.

This allows you to view, Kindle style, the beginning of each adventure as if you were previewing it on Amazon.




Monday, 6 June 2016

June Update

Thought I would share a quick update on some of the models that have been gathering on the workbench.

The four larger additions to the coffee stick ghost town have all now been undercoated and have received their first round of brown shading, the burnt umber & black mix. Next stage for these will be the burnt umber layer.



The other smaller buildings are beginning to start taking shape. These have all been given roofs which have been tiled with tiny pieces of cut cardboard. Chimneys cut from foam board off-cuts which will be covered in putty and the rest wooden exterior walls.


And finally this one, with cardboard shuttered windows – still not quite sure about them, but we’ll see. The wooden overlapped roof has now been finished.