The Red Queen

And hubby. Mustn't forget...  er whoever...

The Queen is a pretty imposing figure. The King... well, poor guy...

That face is downright evil. I've allowed myself to be influenced by the 'original' as far as colour schemes go, but with some differences. Weirdly, the black paint pen colour is showing up as bluish here - looks strange on the photo, don't get the effect on the model.

The King isn't really that small at all. It's just that the Queen is so big.

Prehistoric creatures, etc

Latest pictures from Steven, including his water horse that has already been covered... Note that the pictures don't do justice to the actual figures, they are way better than the pictures suggest!

Hi Dad,

It has been months since I gave a proper update, so thought it was about time. First up, the water-horse-dragon thing you gave me a while back:

Figure 1 Toy water-dragon-horse, mainly use as a test piece for airbrushing and glazing

I also painted three Crooked Dice miniatures that obviously represent characters from the video game franchise Mortal Kombat. I apparently forgot to take photo of the thunder god Raiden, but here are a couple of other miniatures. I do like Crooked Dice and look forward to getting to some other video-game inspired miniatures of theirs which are still in my backlog.

Figure 2 Goro, Shokan Warrior

Figure 3 Scorpion, Netherrealm Demon and Salute Painting Competition also ran

I have also painted a couple of 15mm Samurai buildings from Oshiro Models to go with the Sengoku figures I painted some time ago. Spent some time trying to get realistic texture effects, especially on the wood.

Figure 4 Samurai house. Hopefully the wood looks like wood, rather than ‘something that been painted brown’

Figure 5 Shrine. The walls have too much contrast (aesthetic choice) to be realistic, but I hope the doors and beams are reminiscent of wood that has been painted white but is now a bit weathered

Finally, my major project of recent weeks: the first half of a 15mm prehistoric project. I have painted the grazers but need to get some predators and cavemen next (birthday hint). The horses are 10mm Pendraken Miniatures zebras painted as Przwalski’s wild horses (which is how the horse in the Lascaux cave paintings look), the goats, deer and rabbits are all 15mm Pendraken Miniatures. The mammoth, rhino and hippo are toys you gave me, but they have painted up pretty well, even thought they literally have ‘Made in China’ stamped on the underbelly. (And cost about 30p-50p each! - Dad) It was interesting putting much more effort into the bases. I bought a variety of grassy tufts and flowers at Salute and have put them to good use here. A lot of the rocks are carved up lumps of cork from a wine bottle.

Figure 6 I think they look quite good all together, although the rhino and hippo are probably a bit over-sized. I'm really looking forward to adding some predators and cavemen to the mix.

Caliver pulp figures

 I was tempted to say Minifigs pulp figures, but for the sake of accuracy...

Figures from two separate ranges Caliver now own. The back row are described as 28mm, really a bit bigger than that. The front figures are by Matchlock Miniatures and are true 25mm - though optimistically called 25/28mm!

If the Matchlock  figures are 'bread and butter' types, you can't say that about the Rogue Miniatures on  the back row.  Couldn't resist the Britannia or Child Catcher figures... Although described as 28mm, the figure between Britannia and the Child Catcher is actually 32mm.  Described as 'Unidentified. Flying. Officer, it is obviously from UFO  but in fact is also a very good Movellan!  Might get more of these. Incidentally, the bases weren't provided.

Personal view of these? Like them and will be buying more. Delivery took 10 days.

Dorothy's friends

Steadily getting through them...

 

Beside the sea...

 

'Looks interesting' said Alice. 'Let's see where it goes'. 'You're the curious one. You go. We'll wait here' replied Malice.

There was a high hedge and a gate. Beyond the gate it looked like a nice garden with a pond she muttered aloud...

'It's not a pond. It's the sea' said a strange bird... Where did it come from? 'I'm a dodo' it said in a rather smug voice. 'Were you invited for tea too?'

'No, I wasn't.  Anyway, it's a pond. It's too small to be the sea.' 'He's right, you know. It is the sea. It has a beach.' What a curious creature thought Alice.

Another creature flew in behind Alice. 'That's the Gryphon. ' explained the Mock Turtle' 'He's the one who invited us for tea.'

'Quite right' growled the Gryphon in what Alice thought was a very sinister voice. 'Only a bit wrong in one way. I invited them to be tea. I'm really feeling quite peckish.' The Mock Turtle and Dodo made a run for it as Alice started shooting...

The bullets had no effect and Alice had to duck as the Gryphon flew over her head. By the time she had turned around the Mock Turtle was already gone...

The Dodo swiftly followed...

'I suppose you're going to eat me now' Alice said defiantly. 'Of course not. Don't be stupid. I'm not hungry now and besides you're not mythical. I only eat mythical creatures.' 'Dodos are real!' 'Real dodos are extinct and have been for a long time. That dodo was mythical.' With that it flew off...

Leaving Alice in a garden by a pond that didn't really seem as nice as it had been earlier...

Now, where did we leave Alice and friends...

 

'Great' scowled Malice. 'Now we're stuck inside with those things outside...' ' That's OK' from Elvira 'There's a trapdoor leading away from here. It's for escaping those things if it became needed.'

'I'm not going with you, but I can lend you Igor as a guide'. 'Where did he come from shrieked Alice?' ' He's an Igor. They're all over the place. Very useful as guides and things.'

So they followed Igor through the tunnels...

It was a bit of a maze. Even had a friendly Minotaur. Igor spent ages passing news and gossip... Malice just whispered 'But he's green'...

Igor wasn't as comfortable with the snake lady. Got on well with Vicki though...

Now the Gorgon. She wasn't hostile, not her fault people looking at her turned to stone. So everyone was very, very careful where they looked as they passed her...

But eventually there were stairs leading up...

To a church exactly the same as the one they'd left...  Dorothy turned to thank Igor but he was long gone. 

Outside and Dorothy screamed 'It's the Yellow Brick Road!'

She left the group and danced down the road singing her head off!

'That song she's singing... what's it about' 'Not sure. Seems to be something like "We're off to see the Wizard."

Bought in Brighton

 Anyway, enough about the (expletive deleted) Post Office, what did I get in Brighton? From the Toy Museum of course... And yes, well worth a visit...

Lots of Lledo and similar in there so I took the opportunity to grab a load of horse drwan transport - less than £3 each so well worth it.

And a Metropolitan Police car. Already have a couple but frankly Newhaven is the sort of place where you need as many as you can get!

Update - did a little bit of painting on some...