Another summer, another annual challenge from Curt!

Summer is just around the corner for us Southern hemisphere types... and in the miniatures hobby world, that can only mean one thing; Curt's 'Analogue Hobbies' Painting Challenge...

This years challenge

I have taken part in the last couple years events, with varying amounts of output, but its always great to be part of the global challenge, no matter where you are placed at the end. There are some painters out there who can churn out vast quantities of quality figures, that I could only dream of matching in output, so for me its not about the winning, just taking part...

Whilst our northern cousins can take solace in the poor weather and long dark evenings, that are thus perfect for guilt-free indoors hobby painting, the challenge is exactly that for those of us in south enjoying the summer weather. But I guess that is in effect part of our challenge too, finding the time to squeeze in some time when possible at the painting table - almost praying for a wet weekend! ;-)

This year, Curt has widened the subject matter allowable to include sci-fi and fantasy, and that I think is a great thing, which I openly applaud! Nice one Curt - we are really in for a visual feast of varied submissions! And I can't wait to see what starts rolling in... you are going to have your hands full judging this lot my friend. But no doubt you have a few years practice under your belt to know how this is all going to run...

For myself, well I have a few things lined up as potential entry material... as always there will be 15mm Flames of War... also I have yet to start work on my Requiem Empire of the Dead figures... there are still 'tons' of LOTR/Hobbit figure backlogged stashed away to do... and there are some Foundry Saxons that are scheduled for possible SAGA service... So lots of scope for the paint brush...

However, a couple of caveats to my potential output... I still want to make more terrain for my Victorian London board for EotD, and that is time consuming work and beyond the scope of the challenge...  on top of which, my father is visiting with us, from the UK,  for a month over January/February, which typically will mean family activities together, and evenings chatting and imbibing a dram or three of whiskey... my liver has been in forewarned!

But that all said and done, we will do what we can!

So what my real output will finally be, it's hard to judge, but I have set myself a nominal challenge score of 600 points. Its at least, something to aim for!

Wish me luck.

And of course, best of luck to all the other participants!

Victorian Terrace #2 - Completed!

Finally finished Victorian Terrace #2 today, despite coming down with the lurgy earlier in the week and not really feeling like doing any hobby work. I visited the local apothecary, was prescribed a suitable potion, kept calm and carried on! ;-)

 So without further ado, here's the completed building, all painted and lights in working order...

Front view

I decided to go with a different brick colour, after reading an interesting blog post on East London buildings by the Legatus, here.

Side view

I also added some posters to the gable ends, some themed from EotD and other general Victoriana I found on the web.

Rear view

I also added some grassy weeds to the rear yard, just to give it a little life and contrast.

Another side view

Close up posters

Infernium, the fuel of the future, rumored to be the crystallized blood of fallen angels!

More posters

Some street scenes...

Having two buildings complete now means I can start to get some decent cameos, with one building providing the back drop to the other. As you can tell I also went back and added posters to the original red brick terrace building and again added weeds to its rear yard too.

Lights go on as twilight approaches (main room lights off, just display case halogens on)...sorry pics get a little blurry here, the camera struggles with the low light and shaky hand! Sorry.

Proper night time shots (room lights off completely)... very pleased with these, rather atmospheric I think!

And finally the two buildings together, on the 4' x 4' base board I made for goblin town. It will do till I sort out a board with a fully cobbled surface.

So final total build time on second house was 7.5 weeks. Much better than the 5 months the first one took me! But I did concentrate more purposefully upon it, once I knew Requiem was immanent and I had learnt a lot from building the first one...

What next then, I hear you cry? I need to clear the painting table, as its currently got some FOW begleit troops on it before I can make a start on the Requiem figures... And as for the next building... I am thinking about doing a corner public house...

AliExpress refunded!

For those curious, I received my refund from AliExpress, on behalf of "Miranda Irene'" the seller.

Communication has been OK through the website, though admittedly their English was a little broken but I could get the meaning...

So I didn't get the cheap toys I hoped for, but didn't get stung either.

Not sure whether I feel like trying again...

A cheap Gaz? Close but no cigar...

Victorian terrace#2, WIP 10 - 'detailing'

Another couple of quick pictures, to show finished assembly, pretty much...

Clay clad the pavement and etched in the paving slab pattern... sand filled the rear yard area and added paving slab path... added Evergreen 'plastruct' for guttering, drainpipes and chimney pots... and some bent wire for door handles...

I have drilled the holes to take the Gaslamps at the front corners of the pavement...

But next up we are ready for paint...

Victorian Terrace #2, WIP9 - LED lighting, Curtains and base.

With the long weekend here in NZ, I had three days, in which to make some more progress...

First job was to ready the lighting rig; 20 twinkle effect yellow LEDs, wired together in a parallel circuit, so only one resistor was needed, which was wired in first to the positive terminal of the twin D size battery holder.

Lighting rig.

The lighting rig was then hot glued to a piece of MDF cut to fit the internal shape of the house, with 10 lights to either side. Another piece of MDF went across the top, so the battery holder could be placed in the roof void.

Lights and battery holder

Prior to installing the lights, I had put up the curtains. I found a supply of white material that would do for a net curtain effect, glued into place, over the lower half of each window. Then strips of material were glued in to effect curtains (handy having a mother-in-law who sews, and has an endless supply...)

Lighting and Curtains.

So with curtains fitted, and lighting in place; a quick picture. Not much to see in daylight;

...but with the lights out,  the effect is quite pleasing; imagine these twinkling...

Night time lighting effect

Th last thing over the weekend, with the internals complete, was to add the perimeter pavement. Another piece of MDF. This will be clad with DAS clay, and a paving slab pattern etched in...

MDF pavement perimeter added

Also over the weekend, to get us in the mood for some Victorian era drama, I downloaded the Dracula sound track from ITunes...

... so we could have it playing, while playing Fury of Dracula, with my son Chris. Great fun :-)

Victory went to the Count! I vant to byte you neck, blah blah blah,...a little bit of Hotel Transylvania there too!... ;-)

Next up for the house, once pavement done, will be to add the Gaslamps, wire those in, add chimney pots, gutters and drain pipes and paint the whole thing... Nearly done now.

Victorian Terrace #2 - WIP8 - Roof tiling finished!

Just another quick post to show the roof tiling now complete, on main dwelling and outhouses.

Front

I had hoped to get this done by last weekend, but one or two other urgent projects got in the way!

Back

Still, back on track now...

Outhouses

Long weekend here in NZ, for 'Labour Day' weekend, so will press on with rigging up internal lighting, if time allows...

Getting clever with Blogger? An appeal for help!

Guys, and Gals, in the wider blogging community, I am looking for a little help in ways to jazz up my blog posts a little...

One thing I would like to do is to be able to use more interesting Fonts on my blog posts.

For example, how would I add more options to the Font drop down menu in New Post, see pic below:

More Fonts wanted!

I am aware of Google Fonts but can't figure out how to add them to this...

Another thing I would like perhaps, is to create a little 'mood' with certain blog posts, via musical accompaniment. I don't just mean a Youtube video clip in the post you have to click on, but something a little more automatic, such that once a blog post is clicked on to view, its accompanying music will start to play automatically...

I've got a bunch of movie soundtrack stuff on my Ipod, and for example having an excerpt from say Sherlock Holmes playing alongside a Empire of the Dead post could be quite cool I thought...

Any clever people out there who can help please, comment below, or email me ( Email link in sidebar below Pirate picture).

Cheers and happy blogging!

Scott