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

Pub Kit and Saucy Jack

New Release!

You may have seen on my eBay page a new item, a Victorian Pub Kit. 

The 28mm scale street furniture kit contains 3 barrels, a sandwich board in 2 parts, Pub sign to hang on a wall, fire hydrant, 4 road drains and a Pub cellar doors. It can be found on eBay here!

Painted Items

These Police Boxes I sell have been painted by Stefan and will be used for an ornaments to put on a shelf. They are unfinished but will look great I'm sure :)

If you look on my previous post, you'd see a Victorian Diorama made by Roger that needed some extra pieces and a lick paint - well I have been emailed an update and here it is!

Can you spot Saucy Jack being chased by the police?

An update to his Doctor Who diorama is on the way!

Geeky Jewellery

In a previous post I mentioned a Steampunk necklace made by http://amonseuldesir.net that features a Police Box. Well now they are back but with earrings too!

The set is available to buy at this link. http://amonseuldesir.net/Parures.php?id=3152

Painting Inspiration

If you are looking for some painting inspiration and just some lovely painted miniatures check out Flare Miniatures at https://www.facebook.com/flareminiaturepainting?fref=ts

I particularly like the colourful Daleks

Happy New Year Everyone!

Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to the first post of 2014! This blog is a catch up of some fantastic work people have been doing mixed with a little news of upcoming events.

A Christmassy Who

This is a photo of an excellent Christmassy Bauble present made by a gifted lady using a HO/OO scale Police box with a big helping of some artistic talent and skill. I'm also happy to say that the Whovian who received this gift was delighted with it :)

Keeping with Doctor Who, this is a picture of an expertly painted Doctor and K-9 standing outside a half materialised TARDIS. Great Stuff! If you like this painting work (and why wouldn't you?!) then check out his blog http://talesfromthemaelstrom.blogspot.co.uk/ all about old school sci fi and fantasy wargaming!

Well I'll be Blogged! 

You may have seen on my Twitter or Facebook pages, but I'm happy to say that some of my Victorian miniatures have been written about in a very complimentary blog! Read the post by Gavin here! http://ggreig.livejournal.com/132526.html

Yeoman Models and the First Crusade!

The Penarth Crusade model show is happening on Saturday the 25th January and Grekwood miniatures will be there selling some of my items! Very exciting! If you can, get along to the show - go! It'll be great!

To the slotties! 

This combination HO train track and slot car road is new to me but here it is all the way from New York. It's made by Scott and is awaiting some HO miniatures to place on the layout.

Roger is bringing a little bit of Victorian London to the USA in his Sherlock Holmes diorama. He's putting together and painting some 28mm Victorian items for his layout on top, and there is a Primeval layout underneath!

And also another UK character is being honoured in this tableau! If you look on the right you can see The Doctor by a Police Box. Lots of people awaiting a lick of paint as you can see but it'll look terrific once finished I'm sure! 

Blog Fan

If you are a fan of bogs about miniatures, then I can recommend  http://handofjunk.blogspot.co.uk/ It's mainly about Warhammer 40K but he's branching out. Check it out!

I can also recommend http://www.blackpyramid.co.uk/ if you are looking for a variety of figures from Spartan, Steam Punk and Weird World War II! I have a Steam Lancer from them and it looks great! I can't wait to paint it and when I do - I will of course post it on the blog!

Hot and Cold miniatures

Hello everybody,
This is just a little update of some new models for I have for sale and some great model work that people have been doing!

Lets build a snowman!

As it's winter and Christmas is on the way, I made a little 28mm scale Snowman miniature!

The little cold chap is available from eBay here-
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121223406142?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

He comes as a body, textured base and two metal arms.

My name is Ozymandias!

From slightly warmer climes we have Ozymandias (also known as Ramesses II or Younger Memnon) statue ruin at 28mm scale. and also a 28mm scale Easter Island head!

Ozymandias is a solid hand cast resin miniature of the famous Younger Memnon (Ramesses II) statue as seen in the British Museum and made famous by Shelley's poem Ozymandias.

The statue is depicted half buried in the sand awaiting excavation. In later life the real statue had a small hole made in its chest but this model is made with out the hole. You can add it if you wish! The Hieroglyphics on the back of the statue are accurate.

The Easter Island head or Moai is also hand cast solid resin and its size is based on a typical Easter Island head. It's quite big!

I'm in the middle of painting both at the moment and photos of them should be on the blog in the following weeks.

Clever Boy!

Mike from The States has painted up one of the HO scale Police boxes for his new Train Layout and you can see more photos and follow his progress as he builds and develops his layout on his great Facebook page www.facebook.com/CentervilleHO

On the subject of Police Boxes, the new Half blue half transparent Police Boxes at 28mm scale (a companion piece to the solid blue Police Boxes) keep selling out but we should have some more in by the end of the week - so if you do want one, keep your eyes peeled on eBay tomorrow/Friday morning.

We are also making some fully transparent Police Boxes too and they should be on eBay at the same time.

Victorian Post Boxes and Demon Summoning Circles

Hello,

Bit of an eclectic mix this post with Victorian Post Boxes and Demon summoning circles! 

Post Boxes

I've finally had a bit of time off to do a little painting and thought I'd try and paint the newest items I've made, Victorian Post Boxes. Quite a few people have asked for me to make Victorian Post boxes and so I decided to make not one - but three different types. An early, mid and late Victorian. You can read about them here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillar_box

I'm rather happy with the results of these miniatures and managed to get some nice detail on the 28mm scale boxes. I think the Mid or 'Penfold' box is probably my favourite. I reckon that most people will imagine that post box if they think of Victorian pillar boxes. I'm rather happy that you can see and paint the words 'Post Office' on the side of the box.

The Early Grecian Column style post box looks so odd to modern eyes. It even has a vertical slot for the letters! It's also very small but I guess there was far less post back then.

The later box has a VR emblem on the front that I've painted in gold. It's kind of crazy to think that this late post box design has changed very little in all these years.

To paint the boxes first by spraying them with a black undercoat then a dark red. I then gave it a darker red wash before dry brushing it with a rich bright red. Then I painted the black bases, white for the 'collection plate' and gold for the detail. I used the dark red again for painting the little details like the locks and hinges. A very watery black wash was used on the 'collection plate' white to finish off. 

The unpainted post boxes are available to buy on my ebay page.

Early - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121201582902?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Mid - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121201586355?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Late - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121201588492?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Summoning Circle

A model I made a while ago was the medium sized Demon Summoning Circle but I haven't managed to get around to painting it until now. You can see my painted Large summoning circle on this previous posts on the blog.

To paint this one I started with a black undercoat and dry brushed a few dark greys getting lighter and lighter. A liberal amount of brown wash was used to show all the rough detail on the sides. the stonework only really comes to life when a final light grey drybrush was used to bring out the detail of the stonework. I decided to paint the pentagram to try and make it look like lava. I'm not sure if I succeeded but what I did was to paint the lines with a dark red, then a lighter red. A red wash was used before then painting long splotches of orange, then in the splotches I painted yellow, then in the yellow I painted tiny bits of white. I then painted a gloss vanish over it to make it look a bit shiny. Silver was used on the pentangle and the demonic glyphs around the sides. the Glyphs do mean something by the way!

I added a few Lovecraftian monsters I painted a couple of years ago to this picture to help with the atmosphere, or should I say atmos-fear! 

 

This model is available to buy here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111207157764?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Run Doctor, run!

Wayne from http://weirdwars.pbworks.com bought one of my Police Boxes and added the Doctor and Companion to a scene. As you can see he's just started the mini diorama but it's already looking quite promising! I would also suggest if you like Weird WWII sci fi stuff to check out his blog. It's crammed full of crazy diesel punk war vehicles. Tank Tripods and British UFO's! All expertly built and painted. Check it out!

Zombies, Rockets and Boxes

*Klaxon Klaxon Klaxon*

It's a Zombie Plague!!! Run for your lives!

*Klaxon Klaxon Klaxon*

Here's some pictures of my Sci Fi boxes with Greebles that have been expertly assembled and painted by a model maker called David who has made the boxes into decontamination chamber to be used to halt a zombie plague! Look out HazMat guys - there's zombies on the loose!

From the look at the army of zombies in his scene, I think the decontamination unit will be over worked and probably overrun by the undead.

I never envisaged the boxes to look militaristic like this, but I think the colour scheme really works well and the addition of all the little decals that David added to the boxes really brings it to life.

Rocket to the Moon

Modeller Peter posted some pictures on Facebook of Wernher Von Braun's V2 Rocket (at 1:144 scale) next to Von Braun's other famous creation, the Saturn V also at 1:144 scale. Rockets certainly grew up from 1942-1969! 

It's hard to believe that the little one is the Granddaddy of the biggest! Here's another pic from Peter of other rockets with the tiny V2 on the left for scale.

Also my 1:144 V2 has been reviewed by Internet Modeller Magazine and you can read it here.

Horten Ho 229

I was recently commissioned to paint two Ho-229's. One in a mottled grey camouflage and one weathered and messy like it was found by the GI's during the end of WWII.

After giving both of the planes an undercoat, I painted the mottled Ho-229 a dark grey before using Blu Tack to mask off the mottled shapes before painting with the light grey. The rust for the older worn out Ho-229 was made by dusting a rust pigment on top of the rough patchy painting and I used some dark pigment to dust the burning behind the engines. I also had some custom decals for them which are now part of the kits on eBay!

Last blog post I started with Ryan's brilliantly painted Horten Ho's and now he's painted more in a different and more menacing looking camouflage scheme. check them out!

He painted the shapes byu hand without masking and I think it looks really good!

AA Call Box

One of the early miniatures I made was of an AA Call box and I could not have made it without the hard work of Team 472 and there website which supplied great photographic research. Team 472 have restored the AA Call Box number 472 during the summer of 2009 and even made the inside a miniature museum! I painted up one of my 1:100 AA Call boxes, had some custom decals made to show 'Box 472' on the side and sent it to the team. John Holley of Team 472 has been very kind to upload photos of the model at these websites...

http://box472.weebly.com/press-coverage.html
http://www.flickr.com/groups/aaboxes
http://www.flickr.com/groups/box472

... where you can also read about their great restoration work!

Painted Miniatures

Hi everybody!
This is a special blog post dedicated to the amazing work and talent of people who have so generously bought and expertly painted some of my miniatures. Just scroll down and take a look at some of the pictures. I'm so jealous!

Horten Ho 229

This WWII Flying wing was painted by Ryan in a maritime/coastal camouflage. Masking tape was used to help paint the camouflage and decals were used for the insignia.

I have recently painted two Horten Ho 229's myself. I painted them with a mottled camouflage using blutack to create the camouflage shapes. I'll no doubt be showing them on my next blog post.

Beside a country lane

This big and detailed scene by Craig is great, and sitting on the side of a lane is a little 1:100 post box.

This is only part of a larger TT Gauge train layout and it looks so rich and fantastic I think you agree. 

Steampunk TARDIS

Some of the police boxes I've made have been made into wedding toppers or chess pieces but recently some of the 1:72 scale Police Boxes have been made into Steampunk necklaces! A Mon Seul Desir.net from France has a website selling all kinds of jewellery like broaches, cuff links and necklaces in a number of different styles like Gothic, Steampunk, pop culture and now you can get a Police Box necklace! 

More Police Boxes

Brian from the USA painted a 1:72 Police box using Testors paints and creating the words by carefully using decals from his stash of decals!

I love the Police Box next to the Aston Martin!

Now here's the 1:100 Police Boxes as part of a fan made Doctor Who themed chess set! You can see that Kevin used them as rooks on the Doctors side of the board. Maybe the rules of this chess can change so that the TARDIS can materialise on any square of the board at any time during the game!

And the last of the Police Box models comes from Justin. The TARDIS isn't quite finished yet, but he's already done a fantastic job not just of the police box but of the set and the figures too! I love the Palace Theatre poster on the wall.

The figs and the TARDIS will be used in a game based on the famous Doctor Who adventure The Talons of Weng-Chaing where the 4th Doctor plays at being Sherlock Holmes in Victorian London. I am ashamed to say that I have not seen this classic serial, but I will hunt down a DVD and see it soon! You can read Justin's blog about his N Gauge model railway here!

It's a real Pea Souper

Keeping with Old Victorian London and Mr Sherlock Holmes, Neil has bought one of my 1:56 scale Victorian water pumps for his Huge and fantastically detailed Victorian London. The Layout was used for an Empire of the Dead game. Check out the pictures below and look carefully to find Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper!

Epilogue

Some amazing stuff there, and although I am - as I said at the start of this post - slightly jealous,  I do also find it inspirational and I hope you find it that way too. :)

All the best!