The Bell (Die Glocke)

The Bell (Die Glocke) is the supposed anti-gravity Nazi war machine. It has been written about for a few years now and has appeared many times in pop culture - everything from Doctor Who novels to Computer games and movies.

It has been mentioned in a few documentaries concerning Nazi UFO's but the validity of its existence is still very much in doubt. Some clips of these documentaries can be found here on YouTube.

The Bell is believed by some to be a superweapon, an anti gravity machine, a new source of power, a time machine and some sort of Occult object.

It was supposedly built in an underground research laboratory near the Wenceslaus mine which is also near a structure called The Henge where The Bell was tested.

If you do a Image Search of Die Glocke you will find that it has been depicted many times in various forms like an otherworldly Sci Fi pod or a simple plain streamlined object. For my version I decided to read the description that was written by the Polish author Igor Witkowski and focused on making it look like a real 1940's machine. As well as adding panels, air intakes and exhausts I also added elements derived from V1 and V2 rockets as well as aircraft to help give it a 'real world' feel.

The Bell kits have been on sale for a while now on my Yeoman Models ebay page, but they are now on Shapeways at 1:144, 1:100 (suitable for Flames of War) and 28mm/32mm scales.

The ones on sale on eBay are resin garage kits and are in two parts. The lower ring and the upper bell shaped hull. The Shapeways model is a little different. It's the full Bell but the grill on the bottom has to be separated from a sprue and glued inside the hole in the base.

A few months back I was commissioned to paint a 1:100 and a 28mm/32mm Glocke. The 1:100 in a copper colour and the larger 28mm/32mm one is steel. Below are two GIFs sowing the 360 rotation of the final pieces.

I added some rust to the steel one with the use of some textured paint and a dry rust pigment. Plenty of verdigris was added to the copper one by use of the verdigris paint from Games Workshop. Dark Dry pigment were also added to the three exhausts. Some of my Horten Ho 229 decals were added to the model for extra detail.

Remember to check out my blog and shop at yeomanmodels.com!

Liubo – The Forgotten game

I first read about the game of Liubo on this webpage that I saw back in November 2015.

I thought the look of the 14 sided die that archaeologist found in a 2,300 year old Chinese tomb looked rather cool. And the fact that it was used for the mysterious game of Liubo who’s rules have been long since lost for over a thousand years intrigued me no end.

Only a few days after after reading the article I decided to make a 3D model of the die and put it up here on Shapeways. Sort of instant archaeology!

I’m interested in maybe making other Liubo game pieces to go with this die even though no one can play it!

Read more about the game on this website that has some great images or on it’s Wikipedia page!

Remember you can also read my blogs at yeomanmodels.com

Recreate the Battle of Hampton Roads at 1:1200 scale with these models of the Ironcalds USS Monitor & CSS Virginia (USS Merrimack)

The USS Monitor and CSS Virginia were the first and most famous ironclads, and their unique designs changed the warship forever.
The USS Monitor was a wholly new ship with revolutionary design and rotating turret. She launched on the 30th of January, 1862. The CSS Virginia was the wooden ship USS Merrimack that was burnt down to the waterline in 1861. The Confederate army raised the remains of the hull and converted it into an ironclad.

Both ironclads fought at the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 8, 1862 but neither ship could get the upper hand in the battle. Both ships sustained damage and in the confusion of war, both ships believed they won the day!

After the Battle of Hampton Roads the CSS Virginia retreated and unable to manoeuvre further up the James River, the captain scuttled the ship and destroyed it.

The USS Monitor sank in high seas off Cape Hatteras on December 31st, 1862 - only 11 months after her launch.

The Turret of the USS Monitor can be seen at the The Mariners’ Museum in Virginia, USA at the USS Monitor Centre.

The image above are ones that I painted from unpainted resin casts that can be bought from yeomanmodels.com or my ebay page, but they are now available on Shapeways!

Happy New Year everyone!

Remember to check out my new webiste and blog at www.yeomanmodels.com

 To start the new year here is a little blog post about some models that are now on sale. The Victorian Cabbies shelters.
 
I was asked to make scale models of a Victorian Cabbies Shelter by a customer who just couldn't find these for his model train layout. I had never seen or heard of them before but found some great info on this Wikipedia page and also a little video about them from the BBC! These links are well worth a look and give some history to these little London buildings!

A quick Google search brings up many pages like this one about the Cabbies shelters as well as many photos of surviving ones and drawings and plans of ones long gone!

As many shelters had a unique design details of their own, I decided when making my Cabbies shelter miniature that I would take individual elements from numerous shelters and make a sort of Chimera Cabbies shelter!

So taken was I by the look of these buildings that I decided to make them in 4 scales! N Gauge, TT Gauge, HO/OO Gauge and 28/32mm scale. Each model is slightly different to get the most detail and retain the character of the building at its specific scale.

You can see more about the models and buy them below!

 N Gauge - Yeoman Models - ebay - Shapeways

   
TT Gauge - ebay - Shapeways

HO/OO Gauge - ebay - Shapeways

       
 28mm/32mm Scale - ebay
            I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Wings of War

Wings of War

This is one of the 1:144 Horten Ho 229 models that have been expertly painted by Erik for his Flames of War game.

I can recommend you check out his Photobucket page for more photos of other aircraft and his army as it's painted and assembled. http://s330.photobucket.com/user/waering/media/Flames%20of%20War/Mid-War%20Germans/724666D1-9A6C-42BD-8469-873A21DBD438_zpshjchusfq.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

And you can read Erik's blog here http://severalgamerstales.blogspot.com/

If you play the game Wings of War and use one of my Horten Ho 229 models, you may be interested to know that someone over at The Aerodrome Forum http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/forum_index.php have made a Horten Ho Info Card for the game.

Head over to The Aerodrome Forum for more info cards!

Blogs

For a often updated blog covering a wide variety of genres from Zombies and Vikings to Star Trek and Batman and all with lots of great photographs, go to this blog by Mike. mikesrandomwargamemeanderings.blogspot.com

Head on over for a look and I'm sure there will be something that will take your eye!

Also, Doctor Who fans may want to jump over to Lead Adventures Forum to see  Stevens great painting work. http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=35262.0

And for train enthusiasts, Chris on DeviantArt is buildig OO scale layout for a client and you can follow his progress on his page http://dirgriz.deviantart.com/

I, Morbius

I, Morbius

Mentioned in an earlier post was the project by blogger Danny from his Hand Of Junk blog where using the Police Box model and some figures from Black Cat Bases and Battleforge to make a diorama of Doctor Who and the evil Timelord Morbius!

"I, Morbius, who once led the High Council of the Time Lords, reduced to this - to the condition where I envy a vegetable."

It's from one of my favourite Classic Who serials The Brain of Morbius. I recommend getting the DVD and it's a must watch before watching the excellent Night of the Doctor!

See the diorama come together with this great blog post here -
http://handofjunk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/brain-of-morbius-diorama.html

Nissen Hut

David has sent me some photos of a HO/OO Gauge Nissen Hut he's painted for his model train layout.

Also, Doctor Who will be making an appearance on the layout with one of the HO/OO gauge Police Boxes I make and you can see in the picture below, that Harry Potter and Ron (in that funky blue car) will be making an appearance too!

Doctor Behind Glass

The Doctor also pops up in this rather lovely looking scene from Stefan. He's placed the TARDIS into a rather peaceful scene as an ornament, and also painted up some of the other larger scale Police Boxes. 

You can see some of Stefans work in progress pictures and a Tenth Doctor figure below.

Resellers

Just a little news that both Black Pyramid Gaming and Decors Miniatures join Grekwood Miniatures as some Yeoman Model resellers! Woo Hoo! Both Black Pyramid and Grekwood travel to model shows and make some terrific products. Please check out their websites!

Black Pyramid Gaming

Grekwood Miniatures

Decors Miniatures

Tweedy

Another photo that was sent to me was the 28mm scale Police Box I make expertly painted from a modeller. He told me that he's gone for the Newbury / Tom Baker colours. the figure for scale is 'Tweedy' from Crooked Dice.

Swiss Trains

If you want to see some great model work of trains and very realistic and detailed layouts, check out this train model site with some fantastic work and lovely photos from Switzerland www.modellkunst.ch

Flames of the Red Scull

Gwen from http://www.frgn.proboards.com/ has done a great job of combining the WWII game Flames of War and the WWII Marvel Superhero of Captain America! But no hero can be without a villain, so a Red Scull Army has also been made! Check out the amazing photos below and the forum for more excellent work from Gwen who's Star Wars Stormtrooper army look great too! 

 

Back Toy the Future

Diorama update

You may remember from a previous blog about a Doctor Who themed scene being built with one of my 28mm scale Police Boxes. Well, we have an update from Roger with new photos of the diorama.

If you like this then please also check out his Victorian diorama in previous posts.

Links

HO scale model train fans may want to check out this site. It has quite a large collection of useful images for reference for your own layouts!

http://www.fuzzyworld3.com/modelrr.html

Wargamers might want to check out this site which offers a war terrain system and painting service.

uttt.com.au

Back Toy the Future

I was sent some photos from Felix of a small police box model painted up with a converted hover car like from Back to the Future! Check out the images below. Great stuff!

If you are a fan of Back to the Future, you may want to see a small YouTube video I made with a friend a while back...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifc13_RjbYA