Update August 2010

Over the last couple of months I have been busy building masters for Dave at Grand Manner, they are all planned for release at the Newbury Show in early September and so I have held off posting comments or pictures here.

I will be uploading a load of images in early September to link with the show and the official launch.

Tony

Ancient Greece in 28mm

No pictures with this post.

Yesterday afternoon, I was dropping off the latest Ancient Greek terrain pieces, some more ruins when Dave showed me the very first resin casting of the Greek Temple. I know I should be a little more humble, but these castings are truly fantastic, the detail is astounding and having worked for the last month on either the actual masters or plaster of Paris copies, I was really very pleased and proud of the finished resin model and cannot wait to see one painted up.

At the same time, I picked up a 28mm model of the Tudor Style Dovecote, a three piece casting - main body, roof and top of the dove or pigeon entrance. I will try to get one painted and photographed soon.

Tony

Ancient Greece in 28mm

Here are images of the latest additions to the Ancient Greek themed terrain pieces.

Photo One - A sacred Olive tree.

Photo Two - A Greek Statue.

Photos Three, Four and Five - Ruined walls, the inspiration came from the film Jason and the Argonauts, where the animated skeletons are fighting Jason on ruined wall sections.

Photo Five - The finished Potters House, using a new tiled roof casting that was also produced by me and the novel feature of a stone well.

Photo Six - A small display of finished pots or market stall.

Tony

Ancient Greece in 28mm

Two more Greek models, the first is an early Greek Kiln, taken from a number of illustration on the Internet and featured in children's Greek History books. The un-cooked pottery is placed in the upper section with a charcoal fire in the lower. Once the fire is burning, both the furnace entrance and smoke chimney are sealed off and a chemical reaction bakes the pottery and turns it black.

The pots are either sculpted by me or modified beads, which have in turn been cast in resin (green resin in this case).

The second photo is a small decorative piece, based on The Oracle at Delpi. The story goes that sacrifices were made to a priestess who sat on a tripod over a volcanic vent and would answer questions posed to her. It is believed that the toxic fumes would place the priestess in a trance. Other stories talk of the priestess chewing laurel leaves to induce a trance.

The model uses a number of materials - stones, foam, plaster and resin castings. (I must apologise for the poor quality of this photo).

Both models are now with Dave at Grand Manner. Finished castings should be available very soon.

Tony

Ancient Greece in 28mm

These images show the latest set of models I have produced for Grand Manner. In addition to these there is an alternative temple base which features on my Dampf's Modelling Page site it was originally produced for me as a personal or custom feature piece but - which has now been modified and is with Dave awaiting mold making and casting in resin.

In both of these photos of the temple, the miniature is a 40mm Spartan Miniatures Argonaut.

Tony

Ancient Olive Press

The latest in my Ancient Greek project is this stone olive press. The first image shows a donkey-worked stone press from the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean.

I was looking to produce a terrain piece that would add atmosphere to a Greek/Spartan game, while still being generic enough to have other uses - for example the same style of press was used in Portugal/Spain during the Napoleonic Wars and similar presses were used on the island of Cyprus during WWII.

Photo One - The raw material is a sheet of 1inch Pink Foam, which was cut with a snap-off blade knife and sanded to shape.

Photo Two - The central beams are Balsawood, which has been distressed with a knife and a wire brush. In addition the mill stone and trough have been coated with watered-down filler and some DAS modelling clay.

Photo Three - I have based the trough on to a piece of 6mm MDF, adding small sticks of Balsawood to the base to act as steps to aid the workers. In addition I have carved a small step (again from Pink Foam which has been blended in to the trough with some DAS).

Photo Four - The finished Olive Press with ground clutter and some resin pots.

The whole project took less than three days - and this while working on other models. I am pleased with the outcome and am now waiting to see if it will be cast in resin. If not I will paint it up for use with my Flintloque miniatures and part of the Ancient Greek Project.

Tony

Early Greek Temple (wooden)

I intend to produce a number of Ancient Greek inspired structures for my 2010 project based on the Alternative Armies game Typhon. My intention is to use Spartan 40mm miniatures and others to produce yet another gaming/modelling project.

My first piece of terrain is an early Greek hut or temple based on these (and other) illustrations. You will see that both show their ancestry to the more usual stone/marble structures so typical of illustrated Ancient Greek books.

The finished temple is a hybrid of these two illustrations with a lift-off roof and full internal detail. At this stage I am uncertain if this model will be cast in resin! The miniature is an unpainted 40mm Spartan Miniatures Argonaut however the temple is also suitable for 28mm figures.

I was looking to produce a general purpose building/structure, one that could be used as a game objective and isn't the more typical Greek stone building. When I saw these sketches, I felt this would be a good first building.

Construction is mainly wooden dowel, Balsawood and DAS modelling clay.

Tony