Monday 9 May 2016

Twoflower!


There is a generosity that pervades our cosy corner of the Blogosphere unlike anything I have seen in other communities. The frequency by which fellow Bloggers celebrate milestones with Prize Draws or giveaways is truly staggering. This is often further enhanced by random acts of kindness where little packets of lead will drop unexpectedly onto the doormat with no other motive than to pass on some good cheer; it is to one of these acts that I now refer.
'Carrion Crow’s Buffet' is a delightful place to spend some time, rich as it is in creativity, but taken in conjunction with a healthy dose of ‘Rantings from under the Wargames Table' and a smattering of 'Fantorical' you find yourself with a heady mixture of hobbyness that is truly addictive.  Just look at their most recent idea, ‘Forgotten Heroes’; an opportunity to convert and paint a miniature to represent a long lost super hero.  It is exactly this sort of fun and creativity that sees me return, time and time again and is credit to its author, who we will simply refer to as Jez.
To celebrate a year at the helm of the ‘Buffet’ Jez decided to send out little packages of joy to regular contributors as a thank you for our continued support, totally unnecessary, but a wonderfully generous gesture nonetheless. Having passed on contact details, I was duly rewarded with my gift, some splendid plastic dinosaurs! Now these will be making an appearance in ‘Dinovember 2016’, but they were not the only inhabitants of the padded manila envelope…
I think that it is fair to say that whilst a generous chap,  Jez also has a mischievous spirit and so once the dinosaurs were safely corralled, I had a closer look at what else inhabited my parcel and lo and behold, I discovered - well I wasn't sure what I had discovered!  Closer inspection revealed a primed  miniature, with fine casting and a beaming smile.   This devilishly handsome character reminded me of someone, but for the life of me I just couldn't think who?  Still a little web based research later, I had discovered that this was in fact a 'Clarecraft' figurine representing Twoflower, a character from Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.  Now I have to confess that I haven't read much Pratchett, I've always intended to but just haven't got round to it yet, so I was a little unsure as to who or what Twoflower was.  
Having now read a little more and watched the rather enchanting 'Colour of Magic', I now know that Twoflower is an optimistic, but naïve tourist of Discworld, in fact Discworld's first tourist who has all manner of adventures with his guide the wizard, Rincewind.  His generosity of spirit and belief in the goodness of human nature make him a charming character, if perhaps not the cleverest!  This bespectacled, and reluctant, hero of the piece has been beautifully realised in pewter and Twoflower now adorns my painting rack, camera in hand, ready to assist with any photography assignments that '28mm Victorian Warfare' might require.

So thank you Jez, I thoroughly enjoyed painting this little treasure and he shall remind me just how lucky I am to be part of a community that really is rather lovely. 

74 comments:

  1. Beautiful paintwork as always Micheal, and many thanks for the plug. I'm really looking forward to what you come up with for "Forgotten Heroes", on the subject of which, I've now set up a blog so that all the participants (including those without blogs) can post up their submissions, with Jez's approval of course.

    Here's a link, not much there yet....

    https://forgottenheroessite.wordpress.com/

    But at least we're getting ready for the off.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thank you Roger and you are more than welcome with regards to the plug. Thank you also for the link, I really must get my head around this project. I keep starting and then get totally distracted.

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  2. Fantastic figure. Do love a good pressie. As for Pratchet well he is very funny until you start to work out the jokes and then you can spot most of them 1 page earlier. So not a massive fan although I can recommend small gods

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    1. Thank you Martin and I'll have to have a look at small gods at some point. I might give the first couple of Discworld novels a go, but not sure when that will be!

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  3. Cute and beautiful...excellent job Michael!

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  4. Excellent miniature, Michael! Indeed, this is a fine community - reading my "virtual friends" kind comments and visiting their blogs is sometimes my daily moment of Zen! :D As always, thanks for sharing, for your visits - and for the links ;) Cheers!

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    1. I couldn't agree more, we are all very lucky.

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  5. Very generous gifts from Jez and a wonderful paintjob of Twoflower :)

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  6. That's a delightful surprise, especially being hidden there with your other goodies. As for the miniature, you really did a fantastic paint job on it.

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    1. I am a sucker for a nice surprise and this was a great one.

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  7. Wonderfull figure Michael! And the smile on his face tells us that he is happy that you painted him in an excellent way!

    Greetings
    Peter

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    1. Thank you Peter, that smile certainly raises the spirits when I see it beaming down on me from my paint rack.

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  8. Briliant figure! The books are great, the movie less so...You have captured him more or less as I imagine him to look!

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    1. Thank you Sander, initially I didn't know where to start, but thrilled that I ended up somewhere in the right direction.

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  9. Discworld isn't my cup of tea as well but this figure is a nice one. And your paintjob is a beauty as always.

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    1. Thank you Stefan, I must try and give the first couple of Discworld novels a go at some point, but so much to do first!

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  10. Great paintwork on a really characterful figure!

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  11. Very nice work on Twoflower, sir.

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  12. A great job on a great character, I wonder do they do his travelling luggage?

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    1. Thank you Fran, I'm sure they must do the luggage, but I wonder what colour sapient pearwood is?

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    2. He´s nice chap :-D
      The Walking box/chest..?..trunk..??..luggage is..er?..was made by Clarecraft. Shouldn´t be too difficult for a fellow of your skills to attach a few feet and add some teeth to a suitable Piece of luggage..trunk..??..box...
      The colour of sapient pearwood.. lighter than sapient rosewood ..and a Little darker than sapient limewood.

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    3. ...and certainly way lighter than sapient yewwood

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    4. ...that is, lighter than the inner sapient yewwood..not the outer, that´d be too light

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    5. Brilliant! I might just have to make one, especially now that I have my colour palette sorted out, thank you Paul. ;)

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    6. You guys know that Microart have an entire range of Discworld figures right? Including the Luggage and sundry others?

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  13. Wonderful painting Sir Awdry, and Jez is undoubtedly a tip top chap (as is Roger and your omnipotent self I might add). I love the first couple of "Discworld" Books (but frankly few of the others), so I'm especially pleased to see Twoflower getting some love courtesy of your excellent paintbrush. I have that mini too... so I am very tempted to paint mine... once everyone has forgotten about your tip top paint-job mind.

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    1. Thank you Simon and nonsense man, go paint your Twoflower, I have no doubt that it will be a feast for the eyes. I have a couple of friends that rave about Pratchett, but I never got there myself - more of a Robert Rankin man myself.

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    1. He is rather splendid, a very generous gift.

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  15. Twoflower looks fab Michael, well done sir. It has been years since I read any Discworld (I have only read a small few), but seeing the post evokes fond memories of those books through the medium of a cool painted mini. Kudos. :)

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    1. That is a lovely thing to say, thank you.

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  16. That's a great figure Sir M.......reminds me a little of Postie!

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  17. well i love the discworld, especially the first few. My faves being Rincewind and of course Twoflower who is totally unaware of the carnage he causes! enjoy the books sir Michael while I enjoy your painting of the little man.

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    1. Thank you and I shall have to put them on my summer holiday reading list.

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  18. What a weird, yet great figure to which, once more, you've done justice bringing to life.

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    1. He is certainly a strange one and small too, but was hugely enjoyable to paint.

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  19. Great work Michael. You've captured him perfectly.

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  20. Twoflower also pops up (along with family) in "Interesting Times". I think Pratchett is probably an acquired taste - but then I'll read anything with print on it!

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    1. Well that will another one for the book list then.

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  21. Lovely paintwork! I highly recommend you read more Pratchett! many snorts and guffaws have been uttered from lips whilst silently (well supposed to be silent) reading them.

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    1. Thank you Simon and I think you are probably right in that more Pratchett is required, certainly the little that I have dipped into has bought about a significant amount of sniggering and guffaws.

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    1. Having seen a preview of this at Salute, I did wonder when it would appear on your blog. And you are more than welcome, Michael.
      As for reading Mr Pratchett, I would suggest starting with the stand-alone "Dodger", which is his take on Dickensian London. Should give you an idea of his type of humour and whether or not it suits you. And Rankin's Brentford Trilogy regularly gets re-read at the Crow's Nest, seeing I originally hail from that neck of the woods.

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    2. Yes, sorry it has taken so long to post, but I had to think of all those nice things to say about you. ;) He really is lovely and brings a smile to my face when I see him perched atop the painting rack, my thanks once again Jez.

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  23. Fantastic paint job as always Michael!

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  24. Cracking job Michael! You certainly did the figure justice! With the last time I read a Discworld book being nearly 15 years ago, this mini really does make me want to go back and pick up some of the books again.

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    1. What better praise could I wish for, thank you.

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  25. Excellent work with the brush!

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  26. Hola Amigo
    Simpático el reportero mas dicharachero.
    Buena esa pintura
    un saludo

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  27. A lovely figure and even more so due to the way it was given/ received. Lovely painting.
    I'm a fan of disc world and Sir Terry Pratchett was a genius in his character creations my favourite being DEATH.

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    1. Death seems to have all the best lines, certainly in the bits that I have seen so far.

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  28. Lovely figure and nice paint job. But most importantly, a nice nod to the generosity of spirit that blogworld seems to foster, as opposed to Facebook. Curious as to why that is.

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    1. Thank you, it is an interesting point you make about the difference between Bloggers and Facebook, perhaps down to the immediacy of Facebook?

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  29. Very nice Michael. I love this piece. If there was a universe that could get me painting its entire cast of characters it would be Discworld. Bah humbug to limited budgets. Again nice work Michael!

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    1. Limited budgets and tine, a curse we all have to suffer I'm afraid.

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  30. Very impressive Michael. Although, I am a little shocked you haven't delved much into the Disc. There are only a few authors that I always pre-order books by and Sir Pratchett was always one of them - he read me a bed time story once, but that's a different story. But great paint job there - I knew who it was supposed to be straight away!

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    1. Thank you Mike and there may still be time for Pratchett to play a part in my life.

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  31. Another excellent addition to your collection. Truth be told however when I first looked at him, I rather thought he was a figure of you. Fear naught Michael, I also haven't read much Pratchett, though I've been snagging novels I find at garage sales.

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    1. Thank you Terry, I think the passing resemblance to myself is what prompted Jez to send him in the package - I just wish I was so svelte like!

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