panelling WIP

ok, not the best pics, and a very messy WIP (g/s mainly and some black paint as I realised I had some overhangs that would only prove trickier down the line) 

Upstairs view of the hall - upstairs window still to be cut out in case you were wondering:

And the downstairs main hall, the little laser cut panels don't half show up some hinky angles. The Tudor panesl are a very cool new product from Fenris - but even the slightest out right angle is visible, so that's been fiddled and hidden as best as I can. Final paint job should hide all of that:

Also, a couple of doors have been shifted slightly to allow for the panels to fit nicely, annoying, but minor - although I hadn't really considered the panels back when I did the basic build, so still a learning curve...

Fireplace is scratch built after all, as are the stairs and bannisters (toothpicks and Empire Knight heads for the panther heads), hatch in the back has a ring courtesy of some Empire bit I forget, need to do the render in there. Still pondering stone for the outer lower walls...

Frothers Charity Thingy - now with added Tanks...

sigh... Tank Girl...

Here we go again in another shameless attempt to raise as much money for Charity as possible
Description
The Next Frothers Charity Thingy

Most of you will know how this works by now but, those who don’t, here’s what it’s all about…

Every year(ish) we try and raise a few bob for Charities; specifically Cancer Research and the MS Society...

We do this by producing some very special miniatures and you do this by making a donation direct to the charities via two dedicated Just Giving pages. But, more of that later.

We’re extremely pleased that this time, in addition to our ‘usual suspects’ we’ve recruited a few new ones

Cast & Crew:

Miniature sculpting genius (read that as you will) Kev White of Hasslefree Miniatures needs no introduction (although he does regularly need a stepladder if anyone has a spare). Friend to the Gurkhas and all round top bloke.

http://www.hfminis.co.uk/

Ian ‘Geronimo’ Brumby of Fenris Games and Cthulu Wars is also back again and this time we’ve let him off basing duties so he can make something bigger, much bigger assuming the tentacles don’t get him first…..

Jo ‘Snuurg’ Brumby is also back for a second year on creature duties – we’re really grateful both the guys are finding time to help us especially with how busy they are – stars, the pair of them.

http://www.fenrisgames.com/home.html

Steve ‘Relic’ Blunt is another who’s a glutton for punishment – he’s a relative newcomer to the putty pushing lark but, as anyone who saw last year’s Aquila knows, he’s a bit handy

http://paintsplats.blogspot.co.uk/

And where would we be without a mould maker and caster? Nowhere, that’s where. Luckily they don’t come much better than Pete Brown. He makes a lousy cup of coffee but, thankfully, he’s much better with rubber and white metal.

http://cart.themouldmaker.com/

The Mystery Frother – once again we’re incredibly thankful to the assistance of the MF who has, most generously, offered to subsidise the postage – without his help this project would be almost impossible to run.

And joining up for the first time we welcome aboard

Nigel Higgins, a man who had enough sense to get out of the gaming industry but still, thankfully, retains several odd habits like supporting West Ham and searching for ghosts. He’s also a master of cutting up and sticking little bits of plasticard together so we’ve put him in charge of the fiddly bits.

Offering advice and assistance to Nigel and Ian is Ian Crouch; a danger to Kentish wildlife and a man once described as ‘looking like a psychopathic Russian hitman’. Personally I think that’s a bit hard on psychopathic Russian hitmen.

Last, but by no means, least, we’re incredibly grateful to top artist and all round good egg, Rufus Dayglo for the artwork for this years’ postcard. Ruf is possibly best known for his work drawing the Nesquik Rabbit (ducks and runs for cover) as well as 2000AD, DC Comics, Tank Girl and many, many others.

http://rufusdayglo.blogspot.co.uk/


We thought long and hard about the subject for this years’ Charity Thingy (no we didn’t) – trying to find a character that accurately sums up what Frothers is all about; loud, anarchic, foul-mouthed, probably a bit smelly and having an unhealthy interest in animals, guns and armoured vehicles. It could only be the one, and only…

TANK GIRL

Last time we raised £9,000 for the 2 charities – this time we want to raise a lot more.

To aid this…

Kev will be sculpting Tankie
Steve will be sculpting Booga
Jo will be sculpting Camp Koala
Ian (assisted by Nige & the other Ian) will be sculpting the Tank. Yes, you heard that right, the Tank!

Tank Girl, Booga & Camp Koala will be cast in white metal and limited to 200 casting initially and each Tank Girl miniature will be accompanied by an exclusive Rufus Dayglo postcard.

The Tank will be cast in resin and will be available in much more limited numbers.

So how do I get one?

Simple make a donation to one (or both) of the charities via the Just Giving pages:

Cancer Research:

MS Society:
http://www.justgiving.com/TheNextFrothe ... ityThingy2
http://www.justgiving.com/TheNextFrothe ... ityThingy1

And then, AND THIS IS IMPORTANT, send us an e-mail to charitymini@gmail.com including:

1) Your Name
2) The address you want the mini(s) sent to
3) Your Just Giving donation reference number

If you don’t do this we don’t know where to send them!

How much of money should I donate?

All of it, of course! Seriously, we want to raise as much as is possible.

Suggested donations are:
Tank Girl £20
TG, Booga & Camp Koala £35
TG, Booga, Camp Koala and the Tank £70

When will I get them?

We’re hoping to have the sculpts ready to show by Dec 1 and going off for casting as soon as possible afterwards – veterans will know that this doesn’t always go to plan; everyone involved is doing this in their spare time for nothing – no individual or company makes anything out of this so please be patient and we’ll try (for once) to get everything out to you as soon as humanly possible.

Cheers, and many thanks,

Dags

Tank Girl was created by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewitt – without them this wouldn't be happening

sadly, all the tanks are now allocated, but that shouldn't stop anyone...

Snatch Land Rover

A terrible picture, but not much to see anyway. I took advantage of the Model Zone liquidation sale and treated myself to the Airfix 1/48 Land Rover Patrol box set for £15. One of which of course, will (should) work perfectly alongside my very old (15 years plus) white metal Lanny. Of course, it's scaled correctly and as you can see from the picture, lines up frame wise quite nicely, but it's probably about 20 years older in design times. According to the bumpf it's been used since the 90's so I could fudge that into the mishmash of the UNIT timeline without too much trouble. I may pick up another set so I can have two armoured hard tops for the troops and the older soft top can be a command/scout vehicle. Ideally, I'd have got a Bedford 3-ton truck, but they go for a bomb as diecasts on eBay.

The second Lanny in the Airfix patrol kit is the WMIK, which is probably a bit too hardcore for fudging into the UNIT fluff as is. I may try and UNIT it yet, but somewhere in the back of my head I keep thinking it may work as a more realistic basis for the SAS Force Panther...

can't see the wood for the trees...

Well, the trees were de-sponged and re painted (and in the case of the smaller plain woodland scenics trees replaced), colours in the photo don't quite match for some reason. The bigger trees had additional branches added, so there was quite a bit more to redo on those, they look ok, but I won't know for sure until I come to add the foliage, which I have been trying to do for a couple of days now. On consultation with a few folks, I've tried PVA and Superglue, but not holding at all (apart from a couple of flecks which you may see), but I may need a better application method.

ooops

well July appears to have escaped me... the manor house is waiting on some laser cut panelling from Fenris Games and I really want to get that bit done before moving on to other bits... I've been working on the trees, but am not 100% happy with the finish look, the heat hasn't really helped I have to admit (and Borderlands has been it's own time sink), but my plan for them just isn't working out - I now need to decide if I glue clump on top of what I have or strip it back and some more branches... I fear the latter is more likely. Just need some decent clump foliage.

basic build done...

ok, basic build is done, some little kinks to fix, narrow gaps mainly where the floors meet, but they are easy enough to solve...

forgot to cut a window in the attic at the very back - will do that later... actually, I had to replace that entire wall as it was a slight warp, measure twice and all that... hell, measuring once would be novel, I tend to cut a piece and then cut the other pieces to match... which isn't really recommended.

and so the attic - perfect for staff quarters, storage, dormitory or strange and vile experiments in the dark arts...

so, next (after the gap filling) is some detail both in and out, bannisters and so on, chimney is going to go here:

but waiting on a fireplace before I commit. Then the beaming begins... I may take a break before then though, just to recharge.