Winter Timetable...

Winter Timetable

Blimey, been a good long while since I’ve updated on here; a result of the Day Job (s) which have been busy over the summer, and also working on a major location photography shoot for an upcoming gallery exhibition (details here:  http://ribbonartandphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/home-is-starting-out.html).  However, with work easing down for the winter, the time is coming when I can focus on getting a few projects done in my increasing spare time.  The plan for this winter is to finish a few odds and sods from older projects, but the main focus will be completing miniatures for a series of projects exploring long-exposure/movement photography techniques.  And being as I’m more likely to get things done if I write them down somewhere, the list for this winter (in no particular order) consists of:

“Project: Thunderbolt”

This is the increasingly-sprawling aircraft themed project, inspired by the work of the author Dan Abnett, set in the Warhammer 40K universe, and an attempt to do a huge action picture with loads of different miniatures, without resorting to Photoshop.  It’s nearly ready to shoot, the miniatures just need a bit of fine detailing and painting, and the set assembling… it’s a bit sobering that this ‘quick’ project has grown into something that’s taken 14 months so far, but it’s become a bit more complex than originally intended- my projects tend to develop what the Americans call ‘mission creep’, and this one is no different...  I’d estimate it has about a weeks worth of work left in it, indlucing building the set for the shoot, and actually taking the pictures.  I have one ‘main’ shot in mind, with options on a few others, time permitting (because it would be a bit daft making the models then only using them for one shot).  The above shot only uses minimal digital trickery and extra effects, incidentally, and was taken in the back garden by panning the model over the lawn with one hand and trying to match its speed with the camera held in the other.  The final pictures will be on a similar line, but with a rather more efficient camera rig, and bigger in scale.

“Project: Welsh Pony”

A major long-exposure photography project, this has emerged out of the work I did for “Intercity”/the “Dromology” exhibition at South Square Gallery in 2012, and will be done using custom-made, large-scale miniature trains.  The ‘set’ and the stock are almost built for the first location shoot (slated for mid October- I thought having a deadline might spur me on a bit more to complete it), with other miniatures –including a steampunk-esque Double Fairlie locomotive- designed and ready to build at a later date, depending on how the first shoots turn out.

“Project: Airborne”

Another long-exposure photography project, this time using aircraft miniatures… I’ve built an experimental camera rig for this shoot, and following the results of this shoot I am now working on a rather better rig which will stand up to more use out on location (pencilled in for the same timeframe as the “Welsh Pony” pics, depending on prep time).  It will also involve constructing a couple of large-scale aircraft kits I’ve had in stock for a while; this, if anything, is the more involved part of the project, as I don’t think I’ve actually built and painted a model kit as per the instructions for years. Generally I just use kits as a source of suitable parts for my own designs, so the thought of making something that looks like the picture on the box, and realistically painted, is a little daunting.

“Project: 50PH1E (‘Tanked’)”

Like Project Thunderbolt, this is another build set in the Warhammer 40K universe, and is linked to a possible graphic novel/short story I’ve been scripting... It will probably amount to nothing, but I keep being drawn back to the idea and doodling pictures for it, so I probably need to just make a couple of models and get it out of my system (and the models can always be folded into other projects anyway).  Basically, it needs a couple of freelance tank miniatures, which are already sketched and designed with parts acquired ready to start the build (the above model is an early shot from some concept work I did for a graphic novel; the model will be recycled in some form into this new project... what goes around comes around).  There maybe a few other odds and ends required for the project, I haven’t decided yet- basically I’ll see how it goes.

“Project: Iron Monsters”

Broadly linked to the above project, but set in the Britannia universe (in the ‘Decline Phase’ of its history in the late 2020’s, later than the other projects I’ve done so far).  Basically photographing lots of weird machines in such a way that they look like mechanical mosters and animals, out in real locations; again, as with several other projects this winter I’m trying to do as much as possible in-camera rather than resorting to Photoshop.

“Project: Cube”

Further developments of the Cube concept work I did in the summer, to spin it out into a mixed media project (with photography, miniatures, creative writing, etc).  In a way its linked with “Iron Monsters” so there may be a crossover there.  At the moment there’s no specific outcome for the project, but it may be that bits and pieces can be picked out of it for open calls, and I've a vague idea around a book or possible exhibition.

“Project: Sunken”

Basically some experimental underwater shots using miniatures- a development of the shoot I did a few years ago, but out on location (rather than shooting pictures in a bath, as above).  I haven’t decided what form the final images will take, or the subject matter yet.  It may also be a shoot for the spring, as shooting pictures in an ice-cold winter pond isn’t that appealing- at least with the bath I could run the hot tap for a bit.

“Project: Space”

A long-intended shoot doing photos using miniature spacecraft, very much inspired by the likes of Battlestar and Space:1999.  This is one of those projects I’ve been wanting to do for years- I got to the part-built miniature stage, and ‘miniature’ was stretching things a bit to describe a model spaceship that was 4ft long and so big it was never going to be finished, and I keep ending up putting this off in favour of other work.  I do however keep watching old episodes of “Red Dwarf” or the “Star Trek” films and thinking how wonderful space shots are with miniatures instead of CGI- as with ‘Tanked’ this is something I’m determined to actually get on with this winter.

“Shed”

I had hoped to complete a graphic novel based off some old webcomics I used to do- mixing cartoons with miniatures.  I have a story done, storyboarded, and a shots list, I just need to find time to complete the miniature ‘sets’ and do the proper artwork.  This summer has just been way too busy to do non-commission and speculative work…

Railways

As if the above wasn’t too much to get done, I also have a number of model railway projects on the go as well, the main one of which is a 009 narrow gauge layout set in Britannia.  These are fairly long projects not particularly intended for completion this winter (nor intended for specific photography project outcomes), just something to be going along with as a hobby more than anything else.  The above model is a "Britannianised" Double Fairlie model, a rather wonderful piece of 3D printing by a nice chap called Chris Ward, who's doing his best to make 009 narrow gauge railway modelling more accessible to the novice http://www.chrisjward.co.uk/ .   The below poster mash-up was done as early concept for the project (and an evolution of the Britannia Angel logo, based off the nose-art done for the Thunderbolt Project) sets the tone. 

These are the main projects to get done this winter; most are at a partially completed stage, its just a case of getting on and finishing building or detailing miniatures so I can do some pictures.  A lot of them were started last winter, but I ended up spending more time at work than I’d expected, meaning I had to shelve completing a lot of stuff until this winter… it does at least mean that I should be able to get stuff done fairly quickly.  There’s also a few odds and ends to finish off from other projects (so I can complete all the half-built models, shoot pictures, then dispose or recycle things and get some space back at home), plus whatever unplanned bits of work I might end up doing for open calls.  I’ll update as and when things get done, but I mainly intend to focus on the above, particularly projects “Thunderbolt” and “Welsh Pony” in the immediate term.In any case, it will all be documented on the blog over the winter…

Anything else?  Well just the one thing relevant to here, a print from the Steampunk project (the Salts Mill shot) is on display at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford as part of the Bradford Open exhibition…  I’m pleased its on display, but the Steampunk project is fast becoming (like the Model Village before it) what I would classify as a Project That Refuses To Die.  I’m still sort-of drawn towards doing Steampunk stuff though, even if as a genre its gone so mainstream it probably has by now well and truly jumped the Clockwork Mecha-Shark, but I may end up revisiting the project and the vast amount of unused plans I came up with for it.  I did plan and even get as far as starting a model railway in N scale with working monorails, mechanical horses etc, but found time an common sense got in the way, thankfully.  But anyway, the image is on show at Cartwright for a few months, so we’ll see what comes of it.



Cube

This is a box.  A magical Box.  Shall we see what's inside?  That's right, broken glass and Christmas tree lights.

I've exhibited work a few times at the rather nice Cupola gallery in Sheffield.  Along with established artists, every year they do an open call for mixed shows, which gives people like me a chance to get their work into galleries, and one of the calls this year ("Kilter Kelter") was based on using recycled materials.

I struggled with what to do for it, but in a rather charged evening of jotting down ideas whilst listening to "Boards of Canada", I ended up with a slightly mad, science fiction concept.  Harking back to programmes like "Quatermass" and "Dr Who", I ended up with the idea of a fake documentary project, set in the whole alternate dystopia Britannia universe that plays host to a number of my projects.

The basic idea is that a mysterious scientific research body has begun finding and documenting sightings of strange, glowing cubes in the Cumbrian countryside.  The project is a snippet of these findings, with photographs taken on-site, and some excerpts of official reports and news cuttings. 

As it happened, it wasn't suitable for the Open Call, but at the moment its something of an exploratory project to see how things go; I'm rather enjoying doing it, and working out how it fits into the established Britannia time line.

From a practical point of view, the main focus of the project is the cube itself.  With the exception of the light source inside, everything came from my Day Job- the cube is some sort of broken display stand.  A hole was drilled into the base, allowing the installation of an upturned jar (so the internal lights could be sealed-in, watertight).  The rest of the cube was then filled with smashed clear and green glass from pop bottles.  A lid from scrap 5mil perspex was cut and glued in place, and the bottom of the box covered in electrical tape to disguise the base of it.  The lights were simply what was to hand, some old battery operated LED Christmas tree lights, blue tinted.

Location shoots were done at night, mainly around Rydal Hall in Ambleside (Lake District) whilst there for the gallery visit LINK.  The cube looked a bit bland by day, but in the pitch-black looked infinitely more sinister.  Long exposure shots were done near water to add to the strange look of the photographs.

 

I'm still working on ways to expand this project- the Cubes thing has been done to some extend actually by "Dr Who", but the basic concept seems alright; the next step is to to try and make a more elaborate illuminated shape...

Smack the "Pony"...

   This is another project born out of my desire to do an extremely complex bit of photography, and having neither the budget nor the resources to pull it off.  Basically, this is a development of my “Inter-City” project from last year, produced for the “Dromology” open call at the South Square gallery, which was a slightly abstract night-time rail journey through a city.  Not being able to get into the cab of a real train to get the pictures, I built a camera rig on an 0 gauge coach chassis, and cobbled together a set from odds and ends.  Keeping with the theme, but exploring it further, I want to replicate a shot I saw in a magazine a while ago, and I cannot remember the photographer…  It showed an American diesel loco seen from the cab of another loco coupled in front, so the camera was travelling at the same speed as the train; in effect, it was a lovely, moody shot of a train in focus with the surroundings blurred by motion.

   Now in order to replicate such a shot in real life, I would need to either arrange to be on a train travelling at speed a few feet in front of the ‘target’ train, or go to somewhere like the Welshpool and Llanfair where they have balcony coaches, and not mind that it would be a shot of a train travelling away from the camera and not towards it.  So, the usual solution then, do it with miniatures, and have the camera rig towing a model train along at speed.

   A quick check showed though that using 0 gauge trains wasn’t going to work due to the height of the camera compared to the size of the trains, which meant larger trains were needed.  And the mission-creep effect of this problem meant that I would then need to buy a larger gauge of train track, larger trains, and thus it would commit the capitol crime for one of my experimental projects, and cost money.  Or I could go down the narrow gauge route, which for those of you not wearing anoraks can be basically defined as big trains on rails that are narrower than ‘normal’ railways.

   As I mentioned in the last blog post, this is basically going to be a nod to the locomotive that had a fairly large influence on my becoming a railway enthusiast/ nerdy shut-in, the Ffestiniog loco “Welsh Pony”.  Said loco stopped working on the Ffestiniog in the 1930's, and by the 80's/90's was displayed on a plinth up at Porthmadog station, allowing people to clamber all over it.  Which I duly did whenever visiting Porthmadog during holidays.  Being very fond of this locomotive, and being as it has finally just been cosmetically restored for the 150th anniversary of steam haulage on the railway, it seemed fitting to do a model of it. 

   Anyway, to the model…  Being as I am working on a budget, and this was more about creating a striking, experimental image rather than an award-winning scale model.  Starting from the requirement to have a powered chassis, I’ve attacked some of the stock of 0 gauge battery-powered toy locos bought for the Britannia Model Village project.  These cheap and cheerful toys formed the majority of the stock for the model railway, and were converted heavily for that project.  One of them will form the basis of “Welsh Pony”.

The chassis is 6 coupled, and was therefore stripped down and had a wheelset removed.  My attempts to build slightly more accurate pistons and rods was abandoned due to the first attempt causing the wheels to jam and a motor to burn out.  It also occurred to me that moving at speed, the wheels would be blurring anyway so it didn’t matter too much.

   An early plan to build the body separate was found to be a bit impractical due to how the batteries are held in place on the chassis, so I’m building around the plastic loco body.  Working on the usual budget of nothing, the saddle tank has been formed around a gravy tub, clad in thin card.  The majority of the bodywork is being built up in mountcard and foamboard.  By a happy coincidence, the gravy tub has worked out as being about right in proportion compared to the wheels and chassis.  I like it when a plan comes together… 

With the saddle tank attached to the body, the smokebox was then built up around a length of cardboard tube, and the cab from reinforced mountcard, both built up around their respective parts of the original donor loco body.  Access into the cab has needed to be maintained to change batteries, so the back doors of the cab have been modelled open. 

   The smokebox presented a significant issue, in that I struggled for some time to find a suitable door- by one of those freaks of coincidence which has somewhat characterised this build, the perfect slightly dish-shaped door was actually discovered whilst hunting through the bits-box; its the transparent plastic lens from a push-button LED torch.

   The cab was estimated in size, compared to the rest of the proportions of the saddletank and smokebox.  I did manage to make a bit of a cock of this, and had to re-draw and cut a modified version.  Its made from mountcard, and reinforced with foamboard on the inside edges.  The rear doors of the cab are rather wider than on the real loco, a compromise dictated by the size of the batteries that need to be accessed through the cab. 

   So this is the state the loco is in at the moment...  Needs a lot more detailing and tidying, not to mention the construction of the tender.  Updates as it progresses...

Projects Update

Well, another few months have gone past, so I thought I had better update- its partially a result of using a dongle for Internet access, as we tend to only get decent Internet signal in our part of the valley for about 10 minutes a day, once a month, when the moon is full and when a unicorn walks in a clockwise direction round the nearest hill during a thunderstorm.  I’ve also generally held off on putting anything up on here because I keep starting projects then finding I don’t have time to finish anything, largely a result of having to work at the day job on my days off during the busy spring season- the ad-hoc time off to make up for the overtime isn’t conducive to organised project work.  Also, being of slightly low self-esteeem with my work until I have a finished product to show, I generally try to hold off posting stuff (mainly because my ‘ex-art student, bodge it together and make it up as I go along’ work practise seems to confuse and annoy some other model makers).  Still, I reckon its time for a little recap on where some of the projects stand:

Project Thunderbolt is on hold for the time being, largely because I need space and a good couple of days to set up what will be a very complex shoot.  I really need to crack-on with it though and get something done before the inevitable ‘damage by neglect’ happens with the models.  My biggest problem with model making is actually safe storage, as we have very little room in our house for this sort of thing, and the alternative option of a second shed in our small garden, or possibly some sort of bunker under the lawn, consistently meets with negative appraisal from authorities both domestic and financial.

Likewise the “Iron Monsters” project (which is set in the ‘decline’ period of my Britannia universe) is at a standstill, having got as far as the design stage.  I’m nearly ready to start making things ready to photograph, but until I’m sure of the final ‘look’ I want for the images, I don’t want to start making things.

The model of the model village from the original BMV shoots

One big project that is underway though (mainly because I have a tight deadline of September) is a mini-revival of the Britannia Model Village, in the form of a diorama in 7mm scale for the NGRM-Online forum.  This will be my first time working in 7mm scale, and this is only because I need to exploit the available footprint of an A4 piece of paper, which is one of the rules of the challenge.  When it has moved on a little beyond the present card mock-up stage, I’ll do a proper post on this.  I’m actually a little embarrassed my lack of proper progress so far on this project, not least because my mistake-laden, make-it-up-as-I-go-along progress documented on the forum seems to have provoked a somewhat confused or mildly sarcastic response from the ‘proper’ model makers on there.  In hindsight, when proper model makers are hand-crafting exquisite miniature mechanisms from brass, my shoving up badly-lit snaps of cobbled-together cardboard and old Thomas the tank engine toys is maybe not a move that’s going to inspire confidence in my ability to hit the challenge.

The very advanced mock-up for the NGRM diorama... and the likely reason proper model makers may be somewhat sceptical about the project...

On the subject of Britannia, my model railway set in the Britannia universe is finally taking shape after some 5 years of planning, re-planning, and house moves.  To get past the ‘chicken and the egg’ stage of model railways (what do you build first, trains to run on a layout or the layout which will decide what trains you need?) I’ve just got on and have been building trains ready for it, which is oddly fun- working in 4mm narrow gauge (009) means there’s almost nothing to buy ready-made anyway meaning everything has to be built from kit or scratch; the nature of Britannia means that stuff looks even madder anyway, resulting in (for example) narrow gauge police armoured trains.  So far the project consists of two parts, the main layout and a smaller ‘shelf’ being built on a budget of as close to bugger-all as possible, using recycled materials from work.  Again, it will get regular posts to itself as work progresses.

Very Britannia-esque locomotives under construction...

And a teaser for the model railway, based heavily on photography projects done along the Cumbrian Coast whilst at Uni.

Two big projects of sorts are on the horizon- “Cardboard City” and “Welsh Pony”.  The cardboard one is a potential for a recycling-themed open call, using a lot of the materials which end up accumulating in the Day Job, and will be inspired very much by the likes of the Megacities in ‘Judge Dredd’ and the like, but in a Britannia context.  I’m still trying to hammer the details for this one out, but expect something soon as the deadline is in July.

Project “Welsh Pony” is another train-themed project, and basically a love letter of sorts to a locomotive which helped get me interested in transport stuff in general (along with history, steam power, mechanisms, all the stuff which would be of great use should I ever discover time travel and head for the late 1800’s where a number of my friends think I belong).  Who knows, maybe if I hadn’t spent many years crawling around on the loco when I was a small child, I might not have developed the social stigma of being a train enthusiast, and would even now be a lager-swilling football fanatic who buys ‘Nuts’ magazine.  In hindsight though I’m not too unhappy about the outcome.

   I digress; “Welsh Pony” is an England Tank loco on the Ffestiniog Railway in North Wales, and one of the oldest surviving steam locos in the world.  When I was a child, the loco was sat on a plinth at Porthmadog, gently rusting in the sea air and somewhat neglected.  To me this engine was a symbol of childhood holidays to north wales, and my sisters and I climbed on and around this engine rather a lot during days out in Porthmadog.  Recently though “Welsh Pony” has been stored out of sight, but in time for the anniversary of steam traction on the Ffestiniog this year she has received a magnificent cosmetic restoration; hopefully I will get chance to get a few photos this year.

   In the mean time, I shall be scratch-building a model of “Welsh Pony” to use as the subject matter for another experimental shoot, loosely following on from the “Inter-City” series I did last year for an open call, and looking at motion blur shots using a miniature camera rig.  The project is presently awaiting my finding a suitable toy train chassis of the right size, but I’m ready to get going with it as soon as possible, so hopefully updates will appear soon.

The highly-advanced camera rig that will be used both for the "Welsh Pony" and "Thunderbolt" shoots... I'll do a bit more on this in a future blog.



Intervention in the Workspace

One of the perennial struggles of being a self-employed photographer and artist is trying to balance artwork with earning regular income (and as you can probably tell from the frequency of updates so far this year, I’ve had a little bother with this balance).  Earlier in the year I saw an Open Call which called for an ‘artistic intervention in your workspace’ which would have neatly allowed me to combine the two.  As it happened, I sacrificed one of my days-off from said day job to go into work anyway and shoot the pics, but still felt guilty that I should have been in there working instead (because another of my perrenial difficulties is leaving the job at the door when I go home, even on my days off).  As if to make up for this personal angst and possible deep-seated psychological problems though, I ended up missing the open call because I spent so long trying to find time to combine editing the pics with the day job, I thusly missed the deadline. 

For the sake therefore of having something to post on this blog then, and to make sure it wasn’t entirely wasted effort, here are the pics from the project which was provisionally titled “Café Culture” (because I couldnt think of anything less cliche when I was typing up the blog)

The Concept

As can be seen, this was an attempt to find something to do with some of the old Britannia Model Village figures which had been gathering dust for some time (pretty much everything else from the project is gone now).  In recent years a lot of photographers seem to have done projects using little figures, usually shop-bought ones in HO scale which are bought ready painted, and they pose them out in streets, with food, etc.  In this case, I thought there would be opportunity for doing something with the larger (1/32^nd) figures from the BMV, and slightly Project Britannia in tone too.  A selection of figures were chosen, repainted or repaired where required, and then the shoot was undertaken one sunny morning...

Ironically, about a week after this shot was taken, we really did manage to set off the smoke alarms with the toaster, resulting in the arrival of the fire brigade.  Still, at least we know the smoke alarms still work…

 Yes, horses do not belong in cafes, and this was taken about 2 days before the horse-meat scandal broke, lending this shot a certain irony.

A couple of shots which are rather more “Britannia” in tone…

In related news, a couple of pics from the “Intercity” series will be on display in Sheffield soon, at Cupola Contemporary Art.  More in a future blog entry…



2013

So that was 2012 then.  We had some laughs, we had some fun, the world failed to end (to my, it has to be admitted, slight irritation.  All that hype, then in the end a feeling of slight disappointment and that I had somehow been cheated.  Much like "Dark Knight Rises").  I swapped Day Jobs, exhibited my photography work a few times, didn't visit the Olympics, shouted "Huzzah" for the Jubilee, developed a slightly alarming caffeine addiction, and didn't get anywhere near as much photography work done, mainly for the above reasons.

Projects-wise, I kind of feel like 2012 didn't really feature much.  The "Britannia Model Village" saw a brief revival for an exhibition, and reminded me why I buried that damned sprawling leviathan back in 2009.  "The Century Survey", my attempt at Steampunk also happened, was exhibited, and then completely failed to take off (largely because I feel I can't really get into it heart and soul, like the dress-up-in-top-hats brigade do).  I shot a new miniatures project, "Intercity", which got exhibited at a gallery in Bradford, and the experience of trying to shoot a project with large-scale miniatures in a small cupboard under the stairs made it exactly as clear as possible that I really, really need to either build a bunker-like studio under the back garden, or work in a smaller scale.  As for other projects, there were so many ideas, but I didn't have much time for making models.  Then again, with the country in recession, and a mortgage/car/food to pay for, prioritising earning a crust is probably preferable to building Airfix Spitfires, and stops my wife feeling the need to beat me to death with my own cutting mat, so hey-ho.

"So what will 2013 bring?" I hear none of you cry, but decide to answer anyway.

Well, for starters, I'm almost in a position to start shooting for "Project Thunderbolt", my only slightly fan-wanky (technical term, that) appreciation of the book "Double Eagle" by revered sci-fi author Dan Abnett.  The pic at the bottom of the page shows the state my freelance bomber miniature has got to, just needing a few bits of detailing adding.  The Thunderbolt itself just needs the canopy glazing now, then its ready for photography.

I have some reshoots planned for the underwater series I did a couple of years ago, along with some one-off projects I never really got around to finishing.  The main motivator being the need to have quite a lot less crap taking up space in the house- the spare room being filled with boxes of half built model kits, and it displeasing both myself and my wife, who quite rightly would like the spare room to look a bit less like somebody attacked a model shop with a bazooka. 

The main revision of the projects is that the space-themed stuff has been junked, as I don't really have the time or motivation to do it.  And I've decided to abandon the Steampunk-ery, as I reckon that Steampunk has firmly Jumped The Clockwork-Mecha-Shark-In-A-Top-Hat, and until it rolls around and becomes more niche in a few years there's no point in doing a load of work on a project that stylish-types are just going to sneer at with a "steampunk? that was soooo last year, darlings" type attitude, with the attendant my 'being arrested for kneeing them in the knackers' problems which I tend to feel the urge to do when confronted by trendy idiots with more money than sense, more teeth than brain cells, and black polo-necked jumpers...  Where was I?  Oh yes, pontificating.

 The big theme for this year though is going to be a lot of work expanding on the Britannia alternate universe.  Despite coming to hate the Britannia Model Village project itself, I retain a lot of affection (if that's the right term) for the alternate-timeline Britain I created for it.  I have in fact recently completed an entire timeline for Britannia and the wider world, with important historical events (and when in that timeline my various related projects are set), from the divergence from 'real' history in the 1880's up to basically the apocalypse some time in the mid 21st Century.  Writing the timeline has been a nice return to creative writing for me, has helped me properly document where each of the projects like "The Century Survey" and "Happygoth" fit in, and has firmly cemented my personal suspicions that I am a nerdy social outcast.

For this year then, there are planned a number of projects which all loosely tie-in with each other, set in Britannia- firstly there's some model railway ("NERRRRRD!") stuff set in the Britannia universe around the same time as the model village is set, and which should prove a pleasant way of either confusing or annoying the traditional railway modeller with his GWR Branch Line Terminus.  There's a photomontage project called "The Iron Monsters", some creative writing, and a couple of other projects planned which I shall expand more on when the time comes.

The other big project of the year will be the rebirth and expansion of my Team SHED stuff, and a webcomic featuring muchos miniatures construction, which will all get its own blog.  There's a post in this blog somewhere detailing the first attempt to pull this off, and its catastrophic failure.  Having learned from those mistakes, I look forward to the project crashing and burning with entirely new mistakes this time. 

So that's the plan for 2013.  Of course, I'm aware that the best laid plans of mice and men, and especially me, tend to come to buggering naught, but assuming the end of the world doesn't arrive with typically British-ly lateness (wrong kind of snowy leaves on the line), then at least some of the planned projects should come off.  In any case I shall be updating more frequently, as this kind of photography work is my stress-relieving way of coping with life in general.

I leave you with this quick shot from "Project Thunderbolt", taken outside in the snow...

Thunderbolt update- nose art, and enemies

Bit of an update on the Thunderbolt Project... First off:

Markings

Something I like doing with these projects is designing my own decals to go on models- for Britannia, everything was designed from scratch, from wording to font to images (such as the winged Britannia Angel that appears pretty much everywhere in the village).  This project offered the same opportunities.

Having redesigned the logo of the Imperial double eagle already, I decided to extend the theme to some of the other markings for the Thunderbolt jet...

In the source novel, "Double Eagle", the Phantine Air Squadron are described as having (as their motif) a "Stylised eagle, clasping the jagged lightning bolt".  Theres an illustration in the front of the book, I took this as a starting point, and drew my own version, based on the bar-winged eagle I'd done earlier:

Being as this would be a bit tricky to cut out, with all the holes in the wings and tail, I designed something like a squadron badge for the Phantine XX instead, to stick on the tail fin:

One thing I've always loved with combat aircraft is Nose Art.  Its something the RAF don't really go in for these days, but I've seen loads of photos (and the preserved section of "Guinness Girl" in the RAF Museum at Cosford) of planes from the First Gulf War, with tons of saucy nose art painted on.  Its something the Yanks still seem to go in for with their bomber fleets, judging by what I've seen at airshows, and given the WW2 vibe that runs through the source novel, I thought it fitting to try something.

   Back during Britannia I started designing a pin-up/nose art pic for the Nuclear Bomber wing, before scaling down that aspect of the project due to time constraints.  Dubbed "Babe Vulcan", she was a development of the Britannia Angel.  Her pose was based on a pic I'd shot at college of a model sitting on an exercise ball (which, to go into further nauseating detail, was initially inspired by a saucy drawing I'd seen on deviantart I think); I replaced said inflatable with a rather poorly drawn missile, and ended up doing her in a somewhat cartoony fashion, as at the time I was drawing in this style for a webcomic.  Anyway it never got beyond the line drawing sketch though, and was abandoned.  Until now, when she was given a new lease of life...

   I reworked the original drawing a little, and gave her a camo outfit and the redesigned eagle wings, just to tie in the imperial theme.  A bit of shading with the dodge/burn tool, and a heavily redrawn bit of armament to sit on, and we have the classic wartime busty-blonde sat on a vaguely phallic missile/bomb, so common to the nose-art genre in the second world war.

   It could be argued that the nose-art approach isn't that suitable for this particular model, which is kitted out for Cdr. Bree Jagdea; in the book she's portrayed as pretty strict and by the regs, and it does occur to me that her character might not sanction something like this.  On the other hand, her pilots in the original book do decorate their planes, and she does demonstrate a sense of humour in places amongst all the earnestness, and thinks of her plane affectionately in the female pronoun.  Maybe by the sequel she'll have lightened up a bit, and as for having a busty lass on the plane?  Well, I'd like to think that humanity of the far future would be open-minded to that sort of thing (I know, it probably comes from my being an irritating lefty liberal who has spent too much watching Dr Who where everyone is space-bisexual in the future).

Bomber

   Ages ago, I started building a bomber aircraft model.  This was originally intended for the “Warchild” commission, though was essentially speculative.  Really I started building it because I had a slightly damaged 1/72^nd Airfix Wellington bomber kit part-built, and started cobbling together a future-retro bomber design.  It never got finished though, as the “Warchild” commission ended, and last saw the light of day as a wreck on the seabed for the underwater pics:

   With the Thunderbolt nearing completion, I wondered about reviving this miniature for some pics, and so decided to cobble something together.  Originally I wondered about doing the same as I had with the Bolt, and doing my own interpretation of the 40K design, but in the end I decided to go for something a bit more freelance.  It still has that future-retro 40K look to it, but with hints from other aircraft design.  The livery will be a bit more freelance- for the sake of the pictures, I decided to have the fiction being that this is a ‘native’ aircraft of whatever world the Phantine Thunderbolt squadron has deployed onto.  However, in "Double Eagle" the Marauder bombers are described as being painted silver, and I've always liked the silver livery of American WW2 bomber planes, so plan to carry this over for this model, eventually.

   The original part-built model was literally dusted off, then work commenced.  The basic superstructure is that of the Wellington, but with a new cockpit assembly built up around a bit of misc. transparent-plastic.  The look of it ended up being something akin to a Flying Fortress in shape, which was accidental but looks alright.  There was no proper design sketch for this model, I have to admit, it was literally cobbled together with bits and pieces.  The original turboprop engines had actually been recycled onto the Steampunk Airship, so new engines were built up from felt-pen components… the under slung jets intended to resemble the engine-pods on a B-52 bomber.

   Other bits and pieces were cobbled together in usual fashion, just from odds and ends, though with a certain carry-over with components I’d used with the Thunderbolt.  The extended wings give the plane a little bit more presence, and came from an Airfix Stuka.

 

Now just to start painting and marking it up...

Bats

   The Archenemy aggressor aircraft in the book “Double Eagle”, the so called “Bats”, are pretty loosely described, and frankly for these pictures I decided I just needed something that looked a bit angular, evil, and distinctly different to the Bolt.  The relatively loose description suits me really, as it gives full freedom to just get on and make something really quickly…

      The first of these really are a cobbled-together job, using bits from cheap toy robots bought ages ago from Poundland.  In fact some bits from these toys have ended up on the Thunderbolt, being usefully chunky, angular shapes, but here one whole robot body forms the basis of one of the Bats.  Other components are just anything handy, bits from other model kits, card, anything.  The wings are from the tracks from a cheapo toy train set, which donated other parts to the Steampunk project.  In hindsight a bit of a cock-up this, as all those holes in the wings will make for some problems later on I suspect…

   The second plane is slightly more traditional- it uses as its basis an old model kit for an F16XL- this was one of many kits that I bought cheap off a toy stall on the local market when I lived in Gloucestershire, and I never got around to painting it or doing pretty much anything with it.  The wings were extended with mountcard (actually unused components from the Steampunk Monorail tracks), and a couple of other bits added to disguise its outline a bit more.

   The third Bat is an older  model, built originally (and never finished) for the Warchild graphic novel project.  This plane needed to look like a futuristic fighter plane, though I was never happy with it for that particular project, and it was consigned to the bits-box for possible reuse.  It seems perfect for this one though as an enemy bat.

Its built around a mix of other aircraft components- in my teens I started making, but never properly completed, a large number of Airfix kits, and over the years the grinding effects of being stored and moved around in various boxes pretty much reduced them back to their component parts.  So the body of this particular jet is a combination of Airfix Typhoon, Stuka, Wellington Bomber, Jaguar, and the nose and tail from a verrrry cheap Poundland Transformers "Darkwing" knock-off, roughly resembling a Tornado jet.  The whole thing has that chunky, angular look which screams 80’s-vision-of-the-future.

Next up will be a trip to the painting shop, or the back garden as its known, when this bloody rain stops...