Happy Christmas one and all.

Wishing all visitors to '28mm Victorian Warfare' a very Happy Christmas.

It would appear that during the night the Dinosaurs have been having some fun, perhaps brought to life by the magic of Father Christmas?

In other news, I have treated myself to a hobby related Christmas present and backed the 'Rum and Bones' Kickstarter.  Learning from previous dalliances with these hugely successful format, I have only opted only for the core box, figuring that if it turns out to be rather good then I can always add to it later on.

Snow Beast!

"For a moment we thought it was the howl of the biting wind, heavy with snow.  Barely able to discern our frozen and mittened hands in front of our faces; where had this storm come from?  

We discovered, too late, that there was more than just the elements to contend with today…

Well it has been a long time coming, but my first entry to this year's challenge is this rather splendid lump of lead as part of the bonus theme round - 'Cold'. It is a 'Heresy Miniatures' Snow Troll that I picked up a while back for no other reason than it looked cool and was half price - it was surely meant to be.  Suffice to say that it has languished, in its many pieces*, at the bottom of the pile until the fortuitous revealing of this year's themed rounds.

*Ten to be exact and took a fair bit of putting together!

 Scaled for 28mm miniatures, this monster stands an impressive 50mm tall, with an even more impressive span of his mighty arms.  It was also to prove to be my first experience with the new airbrush, which certainly helped speed up the process and made the application of paint to all those difficult to reach areas a breeze.

Given that this creature lives in the frozen peaks of some formidable mountain range, it seemed appropriate to make the base snow themed and once again my tub of 'Army Painter' snow flock mixed with PVA glue came to the reduce all based on a 'Warbases' 60mm MDF disc.  

As a final touch, I couldn't resist, but to add some gore to his gaping maw, gigantic hands and of coarse a trail in the snow on the base.

This is, of course, a shameless re-posting of my first entry to the 'Vth The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge' and forms part of the bonus theme round, 'Cold'.  I was greatly impressed by the other entries in this the first of seven bonus rounds and would employe you to take a look for yourselves and cast a vote or two for your favourites.   Click HERE to see for yourself.

A quick 'before' shot, showing all ten separate parts, well worth the effort though.

Putting the Cart before the Horse.

The 'Vth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge' is well underway, with a staggering amount of high quality entries already posted, yet tours truly is somewhat left tying his shoelaces in the starting blocks!  As we come to the end of a particularly long and busy term there is always much to do and I am afraid that this will need to remain my focus for a little longer.  That's not to say that progress hasn't been made here at 'Awdry Towers'.  The airbrush has had its maiden run over the weekend and worked a treat with the first of the themed rounds all but complete, now I need to decide what to start from  my eclectic selection of primed goodies!  So without a challenge post to share, I though I would offer up this little piece of resin as a stopgap.  

This rather lovely piece of sculpting is from 'Fenris Games' and can be found in their vehicles section entitled 'The Lazy Wagon'.  It struck me that it would prove to be a nice little bit of tabletop clutter for my 'Witchfinder General' project and so snapped one up at this year's 'Salute'.  Simple enough to put together, but I wanted to add just a little more in the shape of a load of hay.  Designed to be removed, the the Lazy Wagon retains its versatility, but sadly can't be counted towards my challenge total as completed outside the agreed timeframe.  

The Vth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge...

… Begins!

Today marks the much anticipated start to the 'Fifth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge'.  The Challenge, the brainchild of the hugely talented and generous Curtis Campbell Esq., is scaling even greater heights this year with more participants than ever before representing countries all round the globe.  In fact so big has the event become that it now warrants it's own internet presence, with Curt setting up a specific blog to make the management of this Herculaneum concept more, well, manageable - the 'Challenge' icon in the sidebar will take you there.

So what of my Challenge?  Well, as in previous years, there has been much restocking of paints and brushes, basing products and tea bags ahead of this momentous day.  My little corner of the dining room table has been dusted and swept with all unfinished or on going projects put away.  In a break from previous years, I have assembled a more eclectic collection of miniatures that I hope to introduce to the paint brush.  I'm hoping that this variety will see me safely through to Spring whilst contributing to such projects as 'Witchfinder General', 'In Her Majesty's Name' and 'Mars Attacks'.  I do like to use this time to rediscover my love of all things Victorian and as such I have included some pieces for my 'New Zealand Wars' collection. 

I have set myself a target of a 1,000 points, perhaps a little more than I am realistically likely to obtain, but I am hopeful that the seven themed rounds, that carry bonus points for entry, will help to make up the shortfall.  It is worth noting that I have a side challenge with Stefan, aka Monty of 'Monty's Wargaming' to enter all seven of these rounds or face the forfeit of supplying him a painted miniature.

Whilst the themed rounds and side duels are certainly entertaining, adding a little spice to the winter months, the Challenge for me is all about  mutual encouragement and support.   I am therefore delighted that my good friend the 'Provost Marshal' has decided to throw his hat into the ring.  A long standing supporter of my hobby progress, I am looking forward to the 'Provost Marshal'  reuniting himself with his brushes and setting about the enormous mountain of lead that he has been quietly accumulating over the years.

So to all those embarking on the Challenge today, I wish you all the very best of luck, may your sables be soft and your pigments pure:

'Strength Through Unity, Unity Through Paint.'

We have a winner!

December is upon us, the Christmas decorations have been carefully unpacked and festooned atop this humble weblog and so it must be time to draw the winner of the '28mm Victorian Warfare' 500,000 page view prize draw.

I really must thank everyone who left such supportive comments and it was fascinating to see which posts had caught the eye of the reader over the years.  Now because every post needs a picture here are some of those posts one more time.

And so the moment of truth, the names of those who had entered were duly listed and pasted into the Random Name Picker and drum roll please; it gives me great pleasure to announce that our winner is:

My congratulations to Stefan and my commiserations to those that missed out this time.  Stefan if I could now encourage you to open up a line of dialogue, I can set about getting your prizes to you.  My email address is:

twenty eight millimetre (the first part written as numerals and abbreviations) little men at g mail dot (just a full stop will suffice) com

My apologies for the unnecessarily cryptic address, (I should also point out that there are no spaces either!) but I am led to believe that this helps to reduced the likelihood of additional unwanted spam, something we are already plagued with.

Dinovember round up...

...and another birthday! 

Another Dinovember draws to a close and I have to say that I've enjoyed myself immensely.  Perhaps not as much got done as in previous years, but the distraction was just what was required ahead of the 'Vth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge'.   It is always good to get miniatures completed that have been hanging around for what seemed like an eternity.

Today also happens to be my birthday, (thank you to all those who sent messages through Google+, I didn't know it did that!) and having fully embraced the concept of the wish list, I am somewhat embarrassed by the generosity of family and friends.  A fabulous array of hobby related gifts have landed here at 'Awdry Towers' - I'm very excited about getting to grips with the new airbrush and I now have my very own Wargaming hat!  For those of you with an interest in all things Steampunk the book is superb,  a real treasure trove of ideas and inspiration - I would certainly love to see some of the illustrations transformed into miniatures.  It is  also worth pointing out, if only to myself, that miniatures given as gifts do not count on the yearly tally - phew!

Speaking of gifts, I should just remind people that there is an on going prize draw to commemorate, '28mm Victorian Warfare' reaching the 500,000 page views mark - thank you all for some many kind comments and congratulations! For those that may not have entered yet I am afraid that there is only one prize, but if you are interested then do please click here for full details as to how the draw works.

Remember folks,

"Everything is better with Dinosaurs!"

T-Rex Selfie!