Hello,
A bit of news, a bit of eBay, a bit of painting and also a bit of time and space travelling for today's blog post. Let's get started!

First off, the Phone boxes I mentioned last post are now on eBay! As well as some unpainted ones, I have also painted ones for sale.

When I painted the K9 Phone box, I found that giving it a good black primer coat first was the best way to go. The black would be the colour of the windows, so rather than painting in each windowpane individually which would be very difficult, painting just the red of the window frames and box while leaving the windows black would lead to far better results. After the black undercoat, I painted a couple of coats of red before the white detailing on the top and the silver of the handle, then a dark wash before dry brushing the entire thing with more red. Painting the Postbox and Phone Box are pretty similar.

With the RAC and AA boxes, you have to be very gentle painting the badges. Thick paint will ruin the embossed detail but too watery a paint will fill the detail also. So when painting the AA and RAC call boxes take care to get the paint thickness just right and keep a steady hand! Painting yellow onto black is a headache as the yellow shows up green and will need many many coats of paint to ensure the black paint doesn't show through. I found that creating a small mix of 2 parts yellow, 1 part white and 1 part metallic gold acrylic paint did a good job of looking yellow and blocking out the black in only one or two coats. If you have other ideas about the best way of painting yellow onto black, drop me a line!

Dry brushing with a dark grey on the black AA Call Box is a must and it really helps bring out the shape of the unusual roof. A dark wash on the RAC box really adds definition to the woodwork around the entire structure.

I hope those painting tips help.

More models are on the way! I should have another 1:100 item going on sale soon. If you play the tabletop wargame Flames of War, I think you're going to like it! It's a V2 rocket! I'll be working on the building instructions this week and with a bit of luck it should be flying it's way to eBay next week!

And now a bit of time and space travelling! I'm a fan of Doctor Who, so it's no surprise that I made a resin Police Box. I'm also a fan of Community, so it's also no surprise that I've made Inspector Spacetimes space and time travelling Red Phone Box as well! If like me you want to follow the Inspectors adventures, there is a link to a new hilarious fan made web series... but where is it? Or do I mean when is it? It's here but watch out for the Cyber-Chaps!!!

Hello,
Here are some AA, RAC, Phone and Post boxes, hot off the press! I'm rather happy with them! The AA and RAC call boxes were requested by a TT Gauge model enthusiast who wanted them to go with the Police Box model I've made. I thought that a Post box and Phone Box (it's a K9 phone box in case you were wondering) would make nice companion pieces.

They are all 1:100 scale and the sizes range from the smallest Post Box (16mm) to the biggest AA Call Box (28mm). Not on eBay yet but they 'll probably go on next week. I'll also be painting some of them up. Will blog about that when the time comes.

Bye!

I've put some new items on ebay today.

First off for all you HO Gauge train modellers I have a solid resin nissen hut.

It can be found here.

I have also made the same hut at 1:100 for you TT Gauge peeps although there are currently none on ebay. If you want one, please message me.

the other two items I have made are a bit of a departure from the normal miniatures. They are bas-relief badges/pins and keyrings/fobs for Roller Derby! Being a fan of Roller Derby (my teams being The Atlantic Breakers from Cornwall and Cardiff's Tiger Bay Brawlers) I thought it a fit subject for some badges and keyrings. Both are resin with a bas-relief image.

The badge is a yellow resin with black paint (spayed to seal and protect it) with a brooch pin on the back. Find it here. It measures an inch diameter. The angry face keyring was based on a drawing I made a few years ago and is made with red and black resin. No paint needed! It measures an inch by an inch and a half. Find that one here. I have also made both of them to be either a badge or a keyring by adding or removing the loop on the top. Overall I'm quite happy with them. The two tone resin for the face is rather nifty I think. I made a rectangle bas-relief badge using the Tiger Bay Brawlers logo. I think it came out quite well. I will upload a picture of that in my next blog post. I would like to make more badges based on Roller Derby teams.

Well, the new series of Doctor Who starts soon, so I'm going to watch that... and so should you!

A little update...

Up on eBay now are solid resin Police Box's in four different scales!

The image of the Police Box is probably best known as The Doctors TARDIS from the excellent TV show Doctor Who (new series coming soon!!!) but it does have a real history that you can read about on Wikipedia here.

You can find my models at eBay with the following links...

1:100 (Flames of War and TT Gauge)
1:87 (HO Gauge)
1:72 (20mm figures)
1:56 (28-32mm figures)

The amount of detail increases as the model size gets larger. The 1:57 is the only miniature to have the words 'Police Public Call Box' embossed on each side. In my research, the lamp on the roof of the Police Box looked very different from police box to police box. In the end I went for a round tube like lamp and lamp hood with 4 little supports. There are handles, lock and sign detail on the front doors of each scale model for you to paint up.

In other modelling news, I'm currently working on a 1:100 V2 rocket from WWII, and next week I should have the first resin casts of 1:100 AA and RAC call boxes as well as a Classic British Red Phone box and post box miniatures.

Other items are in production but I'll tell you more about them nearer the time.

Bye!

Hello World!
Welcome to a Blog all about the miniatures I'm making.

First up are the famous Ironclad ships the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (also known as the Merrimack). These miniatures are 1:1200 scale and have been cast in resin. I've created the miniatures, painted a pair of them and put them on ebay here...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ironclad-USS-Monitor-CSS-Virginian-1-1200-scale-ship-Painted-/120972905827?pt=UK_Collectables_Nautical&hash=item1c2a8c0d63

The USS Monitor measures 44mm x 10mm x 5mm
The CSS Virginian measures 70mm x 13mm x 13mm

Making these miniatures was a lot of fun. I exaggerated some of the detail on the Monitor to give the hull some interesting texture elements, but the most complex was the Virginia. Many of the plans I found of this ship contradicted each other. I took as much information from Primary source photographs as I could, but parts of the ship are based on museum models and plans. Overall I think I captured something of the 'Frankenstein's monster' nature of the CSS Virginia - a ship created by cutting, slicing, tearing and adding to the old USS Merrimack in 1861.

Choosing the right colours for the CSS Virginia was a little difficult too as all the photographs of the actual ship are black and white, and paintings and models of the ironclad that I saw had a range of colours from red wood and black metal, yellow wood and almost silver cladding or what I chose in the end, a brown wood and Citadel's Gunbolt Metal colour. If anyone knows of the accurate colouring of the CSS Virginia, please drop me a line!

Well, that's my first post. I hope you like it and come back for more miniatures!

If you have any questions, want to contact me for more details or would like me to make a miniature for you, please email me at yeomanmodels@gmail.com