Happy Christmas

It's been a tough year. So I'm going to wish you all the best Christmas possible. 

Once again, over the next few days, Dec 24th - 27th we are going to make book 1 of Karl's adventures FREE to download from Amazon Kindle, and between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, you can get a countdown discount on the downloads for books 2 & 3 as well.

Amazon.co.uk  Amazon.com

Don't forget to take a second look at those interesting items of packaging you find at this time of year, and let's see what we can make of them in the New Year.

Happy Birthday Karl

I know I haven't posted in a while, but as it's a special night...

Tonight would be our equivalent of Karl's birthday, their Witching Night when the folk of Miltonburg hide from what lurks in the shadows, and like today with our full moon, this is the night both moons are full...

It was one of only two nights of the year when both moons were full together.

Ulmar continued its natural progression through the sky having reached the period of its cycle where it was both full and beautiful.

Mauor, as well as being full, had a red haze cast around it. It shimmered in the sky over the town circled by what appeared to be a ring of blood red light. The face of the moon shone with a pale green glow and cast its shadows over the streets of Miltonburg, making the dark alleyways seem cold and threatening.

Miltonburg was quiet on this night; the streets were silent and empty. No one walked down Dock Road or around Salve Gardens. The inns and taverns were closed to visitors. No one, not even those that at other times of the year laughed at the thought of evil forces, dared to venture upon the streets on such as night as this. This was the night that the month of Panisslorn was named after, the night on which, legend said meant the death of a child. It celebrated the death of a Titan, one of the children of the gods. It was a night for sombre reflection and macabre fears.

#Lockdown modelling part four

Only a quick update today. Most of the frame work for the town gateway has been completed, just the attic room to complete before I start to apply the roof tiles. After that I'll get going with the wood work and the Daz putty to make the stone work.

#Lockdown modelling part three

Some of my modelling time was snatched away from me when I discovered that the shed was collapsing.

My first foray into the shed this year, more than just grabbing something from just inside the door, revealed a staggering hole in the side and roof. I think it may be beyond repair, I've had to salvage what I can.


However, during times when I wasn’t sorting or drying stuff out I managed to progress some more with my city gateway model, the main focus of which had been how I could use that tissue box.

Many small boxes have now been inverted, re-glued and strengthened with tubes, packing tape rolls, toilet roll tubes or rolls of paper and newspaper.

If you are going to roll newspaper I found keeping it folded and rolling towards the folded edge easier, it is easier to glue this end down rather than a lot of flapping pages. Use elastic bands to hold the roll together whilst it dries then cut to lengths as required.

So here we go, almost time to think about last minute gaps and shaping the roof sections. After that the fun really begins getting the wood and stone work on.

I’ve also salvaged the bottom of two meat trays that I want to use to make the cobbled tiles for the roadway out of as well. I will probably cut these into strips so that I can stagger the layout of the cobblestones 

#Lockdown modelling part two

So last night I opened the new pack of paintbrushes and squirted some black paint into a palette with the intention of starting to paint the Doctor Who figures from Warlord Games. I did paint a lot of the old Citadel Miniatures, Fine Art Casting and Harlequin in their time but it has been years since I painted any figures so I’m approaching them with a little trepidation.

I was just going to start with one pack of Gallifreyan Guards, but I had squirted more black paint than was needed, and rather than waste it I ended up starting to undercoat Ice Warriors, Sontarans, Vervoids and Autons. Fortunately they do have some very good painted examples shown on their website so I’ll be making good use of them as a guide when I get started on the main colours.

For more info on the Warlord figures visit their website, link at the bottom of the post. 

Hopefully when this lockdown is over they might release some new material as we’ve not had any new figures since the start of last year. They have made figures from both the current and the classic eras of the show, so let’s keep fingers crossed.

Some of my earlier figures, the Harlequins on a display shelf dad made for me at the time, and some of the larger Fine Art Casting range.

Warlord Games:

https://store.warlordgames.com/collections/doctor-who

#Lockdown modelling part one

It's been some time since I last posted, but I thought during this lockdown period I should make an effort to do so.

First though TOMORROW 2PM UK TIME - don't miss Fantom's THIRD, yes THIRD, online Doctor Who Convention event. The theme this time is Cybermen, and the crew will also be there discussing their favourite Cyberman design, you might even spot me in there. That's on their YouTube Channel tomorrow.

As I'm still working full time from home, I don't have a lot of crafting time, and most of my tools, materials and paint are down in storage. So anything I do will be limited.


I've got my hands on some PVA glue and a delivery today from The Works, bless them, has given me some Daz putty, brushes and paint to play with too.











So when the pollen count come down a bit I'll be tackling the garden, in the meantime I've started work on this, not quite sure what it's going to end up being yet, but a shape is already starting to form, all recycled materials that I've reusing instead of throwing them into the rubbish.


I was going to go for a deserted town look, but having got the tissue box as one of the key parts of the build this part at least will have to be an old world building I think.

I have a small stock of old coffee sticks still here which didn’t get moved to storage with the rest of the materials so old stone and wood will be the basis of this build. I have some firework sticks as well but no sandpaper to clean them up with or the small craft saw to cut them, so the old timber frame building might be a bit limited.

I’m also still working on the Doctor Who tapestry in the evenings, I’ll post some update to that soon and some writing projects also need my attention. Hopefully more on those soon as well.