New Release: 28mm 1:56 "New World Station" July 14, 2023 12:53

I bought a train sometime in lockdown and designed this model for my ACW Sharp Practice games and "What a Cowboy". 

New Release: 28mm 1:56 Pantile Gates (Pair) June 26, 2023 20:08

New release Pantile Gates (pair) gives the option for pedestrian access to gardens and walled enclosures as opposed to horse / cart main front access which is provided by Gates 1 & 2

New Release: 28mm 1/56 "Pantile Station" June 12, 2023 11:18

New Release "Pantile Station", designed for "What a Cowboy", "Dead Mans Hand" or "Dracula's America" the model is for gaming in the deep southern States of America and across the border into Mexico. 

The kit carries an introductory price of £29.75 this will increase slightly after the Attack! show in Devizes. 

The next release will be additional gates for the Pantile Collection. 

New Releases: "Pantile Mirador" & 40mm Tree Bases April 27, 2023 07:49

New releases 28mm 1/56 "Pantile Mirador". 

The name aptly suggested by Lee Hezzlewood means: 

mirador noun: a turret or tower attached to a building and providing an extensive view.

The model has been designed to have EITHER high or low walls and is fully compatible with the Pantile Walls also on this website. Lookout post, grand folley or fortification? 

The 40mm Tree Bases are available in 3 sizes: 2, 3 or 4 trees and the option to have them drilled for magnets may be useful for taller trees like these poplars from K&M. 

Salute 50 April 23, 2023 18:33

I went to Salute 50 this year to see the "Attack on the Saigon Embassy 1968" table put on by Gringo40's. Ged had the vision, did a lot of research and commissioned  me to make the main structure, covered walkway, perimeter walls and planters while Geoff from Purple Lion Creations made the supporting buildings and did the painting and scenics. Tony From Debris of War made the trees and affixed them to my bases. The 3d Printed cars, tuk-tuks and scooters were made by Paul Edwards from Sabotag3d and I slapped the paint on them. 

This massive kit will not be on the website. It is purely a showcase piece done for Salute and will go into Ged's private collection. It has been a great experience working and collaborating with good mates who are such talented people. 

Here are a few of my favourite pictures. From left to right: Me, Tony, Ged & Geoff. 

The table looked so much better with a game in progress with Ged's beautifully painted 'Nam miniatures. Once a game got underway, too many people were around for photographs and once the fight went inside, the buiding was taken apart for multi-level gaming.

Holiday Notice 13th - 20th March. March 6, 2023 19:38

The West Midlands Military Show is on Sunday 12th March. I will be going to the post office on Thursday 9th and any orders taken up until 11th March will be processed and posted after the show (13th March).

From 14th March I will going through the Stargate and will be off-world so I will not be responding to emails or processing orders until my return on 21st. For this short break, I will be leaving my laptop at home. 

International Shipping Resumed February 21, 2023 17:00

Today, 21st February, the Post Office have opened their counters for new International Shipping. 

I had all orders prepared and dispatched all of my outstanding work today. It comes as such a relief to be up to date again.

I would like to sincerely thank all customers who placed orders with me and have been very patient waiting for UK Royal Mail to resolve their haching issues. 

It has been a long time coming but I can now say "business as usual".

cheers

Colin

In other news, I am taking orders for Hammerhead and will be attending Salute. Not to trade; but as a paying customer. I will be bringing a back pack of goodies for International customers. First come first served as I will be limited to what I can carry. I hope that this is of use to some of you. 

International Shipping issues. January 16, 2023 19:37

Notice for International customers:

I am sad to say that I was turned away from the Post Office on Friday 13^th January as I tried to ship a number of international orders. 

The UK Royal Mail has been subject to a Russian Cyber Attack effectively shutting down all international mail. The hack is affecting international distribution and tracking systems. We have been assured that this is a temporary issue however there is no indication as to when normal service will resume.

A Royal Mail statement said: "To support faster recovery when our service is restored and to prevent a build-up of export items in our network, we're asking customers not to post international items until further notice. Items that have already been dispatched may be subject to delays."

I sincerely apologise in advance for the delay in shipping your order. 

For  UK Customers it is "business as usual". Internal post has not been affected. 

Colin  

Pending Price Increase on selected ranges. January 5, 2023 17:09

I pride myself on getting the majority of orders packed and in the post in 2-3 days. 

Prior to Christmas my laser started losing power. Today (5.1.23) it has had the plug pulled now that performance has dropped. An engineer is calling to install a new £1056.00 tube and machine bed on 11.1.23. I will quickly clear any back log after this date. Please expect a slight delay beyond my usual quick turnaround. Thank you for your understanding. 

I received a wood delivery just before Christmas and was shocked at the increase in the cost of MDF. I placed a resin order for Pantile Roofs etc. and was advised of a price increase in resin. 

I hold reasonably good stocks of Pantile Kits and will honour the displayed prices until 1st Feb. After that date, there will be a slight increase in listed prices on this website. 

I have not changed the price on the majority of bases for 8 years. Bases and movement trays will sadly need to increase in price however, I will keep the increase to a minimum. I have a great deal of bases and movement trays so it may take a few months to complete the task. 

This "heads up" is to alert you and avoid queries for the difference in prices of similar packs. 

Apologies if it is all doom and gloom to greet the new year. 

Colin

p.s. As I am unable to run the laser for a couple of days, I will be designing to prototype new kits once the order backlog is cleared. 

Tutorial Rivers & Streams part 5 December 19, 2022 19:56

For this brief tutorial I have used some river sections to be used on my North African table for DAK and 8th Army games or my El Cid themed "Oathmark" table. 

I took a River Sections 1-6 starter pack and assembled them along with a few of the 60 degree and 30 degree sections. I followed Tutorial 1 up until the Sculptamould phase then applied my texture. 

I gathered a collection of pebbles, coarse grit, fine sand and finally powdery Chinchilla dust" from a local pet shop. I used an old stiff bristle artists brush and coated the top of each piece with PVA. I worked through the texture large to small, ending in the highly absorbent chinchilla dust. NOTE: I left a bare wood area at the bottom of the "river bed". 

With each wadi section gritted, I set them aside overnight to dry. 

Using a wide selection of Crafters, Americana and artists acrylics, I painted the pieces to blend onto my table. 

I painted a mix of charred brown and black onto the parts of the wadi I had left without grit. 

Next I painted over the dark base coat with paler sand tones.

The next step is really interesting. Using a clean brush, I daubed on the "crackle gel" and left it overnight to dry. 

The top layer shrinks and cracks revealing the dark base coat. The crackle glaze did leave the sand areas shiny but this was taken back with a spray of Testors Dullcote. 

Lastly I applied some dry grass tufts and dark green small pieces of clump foliage, 

Tutorial Rivers & Streams Part 4 November 22, 2022 08:08

This last quirky piece has a back story: I was staying with good chum LLoyd Lewis for "Attack," the Devizes show in July 2022. (Thanks again mate). 

Lloyd, being a Sharp Practice fan, was showing me his miniatures collection when I noticed his French Indian Wars deployment point. Beavers! The idea was brazenly pinched as the next day I bought a blister pack from Bad Squidoo. 

I offered up the beavers to a 60mm base and thought it looked too crowded. I had 2 left over and a though occured to me.......

I dried a pile of dead twigs picked from the garden and "baked" them on top of the log burner.  

The "Estuary Section" from the Rivers collection was the obvious choice (I had this project in mind when drawing it). I took the section up to brown basecoat stage and then started work on the dam. Firstly I took one of the larger twigs and split it lengthways and then sanded the base to fit flat to the estury bed. 

I wanted to be able to use the estury "as is" in a variety of games; the beaver dam needed to be removable. I came up with an idea: cling film.  

I built up the dam using progressively thinner twigs and bonded each in place with cheap, runny superglue.

As the structure developed and grew, it began to feel sturdy enough to lift off. Only one part had adhered to the cling film which I gently trimmed off. The result was a robust, removable dam. 

Next, I painted the beavers and positioned them onto the base painted structure. I sat the painted minis on a blob of greenstuff and left them to dry.  

The metal bases of the beavers were then disguised by adding small, thinner twigs until  I was happy with the effect. The twigs were then painted to match the rest of the dam. I then picked out the cut ends or areas where bark had been removed. Blotches of pale, watery grey were added to some twigs and dabs of GW Agrax Earthshade to others. The bleached bone ends and a few selected twigs were fiven a Flory "Grime" wash. 

The next stage was adding some green foliage to represent floating debris getting filtered out by the dam. Moss pads were also added to break up the expanse of wood. 

And when stored away for another day, the estuary can be "opened" for different theatres. I can just see canoes coming upriver on this piece. 

Tactically sound? Of strategic importance? I will let you decide. It was a fun build and will certainly add "flavour" to my forthcoming French Indian War table. I have since noticed that Annie also offers a Bad Squidoo Moose....that is on my shopping list! 

This project still has a little way to go and I will be adding to the thread in a few weeks.

Colin

Tutorial Rivers & Streams part 3 November 20, 2022 11:11

This next technique is valuable to show movement in the water and how different scenic pieces can be enhanced by white water. 

On this river tributary section, I completed the modelling like all other sections and made the following enhancement. I used 2 part clear epoxy resin from the pound shop and "daubed" it with a cocktail stick in places where I felt the water would be agitated. I left this to partially dry for some 15-20 minutes (try on a scrap piece first!). My next step was to mix a small amout of clear epoxy resin and stir in a small amount of white acrylic paint. I then added the whitened epoxy resin again using a cocktail stick and dragged, swirled and daubed in the direction I thought the water would flow. 

For an extreme highlight, I added a further dab of white acrylic to the mix and repeated the process on the "crests of the waves". 

This technique has been used for a number of my "special sections". 

First being the Ford. The Ford Section is part of the River Starter Set and provides another crossing point. 

The Ford Section was made with lower river banks at the widest point. Small pebbles and gravel (rounded from a fish tank) and sand was glue onto the banks and along the centre where I wanted shallower water. Note alos the dark brown of the river bed did not fully coat the piece and a paler "shallows" was left.  

The gloss varnish, epoxy resin and finally flock and tufts were applied. 

A close up of the ford section shows how the addition of white water enhances the illusion of water flowing. 

This stepping stone piece provides a crossing point over a stream. The white water I wanted deeper and with more movement. I followed the same steps as the ford section and using clear epoxy resin I built up an area before and after the painted pebbles. I allowed this to set overnight then repeated the clear, clear with white acrylic mix to get the desired effect. 

Multiple crossing points are, in my opinion, essential on the wargames table. Just one provides less tactical options and all focus is directed on one point of the battlefield. This idea was more "rustic" a fallen log bridge. I searched the garden for a suitable long dead twig and placed it on the top of our log burner for 3 succssessive evenings to thoroughly dry it out. Why 3 evenings? I was not ready to work on it until then! 

I built up the riverbanks and trimmed the twig to sit flush with the river bed. The unpainted twig was then pressed into the still wet sculptamould giving an indentation to use as a locating point later. 

The log was painted in a variety of browns and greys and glued into place. This was follwed by the usual flocking, tufts and white water. I then used self adhesive "mininatur" moss pads along one side of the fallen tree. 

I am working on another, final section for my collection and will post " Tutorial Rivers & Streams part 4" soon.