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Hi All, here's a WIP of an Empire Standard Bearer that I built and painted a while back. I used an Empire Captain (who now seems to have been promoted to 'Freeguild General' !!) as the basis, with a little bit of cusomisation to get the appearance of a battle-hardened campaigner grimly defending his banner. The pose of the figure lent itself to standing on steps - I decided to represent the figure on part of a spiral stone staircase. I decided to scratchbuild the base around the figure, keeping with the Empire/Freeguild theme of castles and the like. As the figure was for display I felt that the kit cloak was too thick and I wanted a large banner that I could paint a freehand design onto. I chose to make both of these from copper foil - it would also be easier to paint freehand onto a flat banner and add folds later. I cut away the body of the cloak and made a foil replacement, using the original plastic part as a template, pressing the foil onto it to transfer the folds. I used cyanoacrylate to join the foil to the plastic. I then made a square banner with tabs to form loops around the pole; here it is in a prototype mock-up and after priming. I ceated folds by wrapping around a brush handle although flattened them back out prior to painting. I cut the figures left arm off at the elbow to make painting easier and to reposition it later. Traces of red paint from a previous abandoned project with this figure are still visible on the left foot. More to follow...... Thanks for looking, Andrew

This is Bandai's latest addition to their ever growing Star Wars range, and probably their best one yet. They've done an incredible job both with the moulding, and with the engineering, meaning the kit has some stunning detail, and will slot together perfectly. The only thing they need to do is make it BIGGER. The original studio models famously featured a raft of parts from various classic Tamiya, Revell and Airfix kits, and Bandai have faithfully reproduced all of these, the most obvious one being the German Sd.Kfz 222 Armoured Car that sits on the back of the AT-AT's hull. For this build I've gone with a non-movie dark colour scheme, which was based on some profile artwork I produced for the project. You could see it as a special forces version, or anything at all really. I'm leaving it open to interpretation. The full build is here The original artwork that was used for inspiration And the build itself And some scale comparisons, first with the proverbial paint pot With Bandai's 1/144 Y-Wing... (at this point @Gekko_1 will be thinking up plans for a AT-TC (All Terrain - TIE Carrier)) And, obviously, with a Nigel top hat Thanks for looking Andy

RAAF Short 'C' Class Empire Flying Boat Conversion 1:72 Red Roo Models During the early stages of WWII before Aircraft production was kicked up a notch many air arms found aircraft in short supply and looked for civilian aircraft to fill the gap. The RAAF was particularly short of long range assets. There were though a number of Shorts C Class Empire Flying boats in the country which were pressed into service. The RAAF would use five of these aircraft which would be serialed A18-10 through A18-14. Aircraft from Imperial Airways were impressed into service, where as Aircraft owned by Quatas were subject to a formal charter. Some of these aircraft would be fitted with bomb racks, and a nose aiming position, and they would receive upper defensive gun mounts. Other aircraft not fitted for bombing would also receive upper gun mounts. In all cases the gun mounts were open with a wind deflector fitted in front. Two of the aircraft would also gain camouflage colour schemes. None of these aircraft would go on to survive the war. Only one was lost to enemy action, the others to accidents. The Conversion The conversion from Red Roo is for the CMR Kit and contains; 1 clear resin bomb aiming copula, 4 bomb racks, 2 browning 0.5cal machine guns, 2 Lewis guns, 2 scarff rings, 2 azimuth arms, 2 wind deflectors, 1 template; and the decal sheet. There is a clear acetate sheet which contains a template to scribe a new hatch on the left rear of all four aircraft. This hatch retracted internally and allowed use of a Lewis gun from this position. A similar but larger hatch was located on the right hand side. This allowed engines to be loaded into the aircraft, and again a Lewis gun to be deployed. The instructions are comprehensive and need to be studied depending on which aircraft is to be modelled. Some had the bomb racks and associated bomb aiming window, and some did not. Again top armament options varied between aircraft. The metal parts are brass and so quite soft, care will be needed in handling these. A full sheet of decals is provided for all marking options. This includes serial numbers, code numbers, roundels, and fin flashes. The look to be colour dense, with no registry issues. Conclusion The service of these Flying boats is only a small part of the RAAF in WWII but still worthy of note. With sets like these the modeller has a chance to build one of these 5 historic aircraft. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

I was recently lucky enough to visit Games Workshop's HQ, Warhammer World, in Nottingham for a game of 40k - and somehow ended up buying these dudes. This is the start of a slow project to build up a few units of Empire so I can play a few skirmishes with a mate of mine who is desperate for an opponent! They would also make a great Mordheim war band. They fellas are known as Manann's Blades, and come as a resin set of 10 figures from Warhammer Forge, although the arms (minus the shields, which are in the set) have to find from one of GW's plastic sets. The guy in the middle is called Captain Edvard Van Der Kraal, and he comes from a 3 figure command set that also contains the standard bearer (behind him) and a musician. Here's another shot. Painted using Citadel Acrylics and washes over a Halford's white spray undercoat. Excuse the wonky angles and out of focus blokes, I find photographing models exceptionally hard! There are 6 more guys in the works for this detachment - although I also have a cannon and crew I may move onto next. Cheers for looking!