African Figures

Now don’t get me wrong as Hornby do a great job, but why on earth do they produce Circus wagons, Big Tops, Helter-skelter’s and the like when there are no 00 scale circus figures? I know that we can go out and pay a fortune for the Continental pre-painted small packet branded ones; but that sort of defeats the object i.e. fun figures for fun time.

Having suffered a few mental health episodes, I recognise the therapeutic benefits of doing a bit of art now and again. So to ensure that Mr Tister could have his fun-time, and I had my therapy, I went off in search of Airfix Circus or Zoo sets. The idea being that Airfix 1:72 is as near as needed to 00 scale. A Circus set would be the perfect solution, but failing that then the animals of a zoo box would assist with the Circus theme. Little did I know when I set off on this adventure that Airfix no longer made a zoo set and the closest thing A.K.A. a Tarzan set was also out of production. Now I can see a gap in the market forming here. If you make colourful trains, lorries, tents and the like, then how about a few people and animals to populate imaginary Circus land?

I also found that the few remaining Airfix zoo and Tarzan boxes were pretty costly items, indeed so much so, that some fools were buying the empty boxes! Not to beaten by these set-backs, or should I say, absent sets? I managed to track Down the Hat 1:72nd scale Jungle Adventure for a few reasonable pennies. I haven’t used every moulding contained in set No.7018 as I had no call for an African boat, or numerous warriors. But what I did have a call for was a ‘Tarzan’ who is now the ‘Circus Strongman’ and an African grouping complete with drum and traditional attire, a Circus Elephant, and numerous other animals suitable to the Hornby Circus theme for Mr Tister to enjoy.

After the figures were carefully removed from their sprues, they were washed in water and detergent and then rinsed and allowed to dry overnight. This removes the chemicals that adhere to the plastic during the factory moulding process. The figures were then carefully trimmed with a modelling knife and filed where needed with emery paper. Humbrol primer was applied by brush and the figures were left overnight. Do not use Halfords grey plastic primer on Airfix or Hat 1:72nd scale figures as the flexibility of the figures will cause the paint to crack. When dry the figures were painted with Games Workshop and Tamiya brushed acrylics. The finished paint job was allowed to dry for two days and then coated with quick drying varnish after which they were left for three days before Circus play.

Merry Christmas everyone

Celebrity Chair’s

This morning we woke up to see the light house flashing in the distance as the Rock of Gibraltar started to loom up from afar.

Now it’s one thing working out like a quasi tri-athlete (46 minutes on the treadmill this morning, walk around Gibraltar, 52 lengths of the pool this evening, 15 minute Jacuzzi, and 10 minute Sauna) but a chap has to have a sit down now and again. You can make use of a variety of Celebrity Cruise sun loungers, Celebrity Cruise Wicker Chairs, and other seats scattered around the ship. With piped and live music in different areas, it’s a great way to relax. Two days ago I sat in a padded wicker chair and drew the bit of artwork shown in this Blog post. It is a little study using water colour pencils. Which was no mean feat seeing that I have had the art products since January 2010! Yesterday I sat on a wooden chair and table and tried a water colour of two ships that we overtook. Being relaxed is great, and I doubt that many could do it better than the crew on this ship. Good food, tranquillity, and exercise. A great recipe for anyone wanting to re-charge their batteries and we are both enjoying the pampering.


Celebrity Cruise Tip 7: Read your ticket before any excursion and it should tell you where to be and when

Celebrity Cruise Tip 8: You can buy pre-paid drinks packages for you Cruise and probably save a good bit of money

Stop rushing and top up the 'to do list'

In addition to my airbrushing blog post (You know, the one about things that you can't do and then suddenly it clicks) the following points have now been learnt:

Yellow paint airbrushed onto grey primer = gold and not yellow. It's best to prime with white when using light colours for the top coat.

Thinners isn't paint cleaner and that is now on my 'to do list'. I need to go and buy the correct cleaner for the paints that I use. The problem is I am using so many different kinds of paints. Model car paints, real car paints, and non car paints. Some water based and others not. I have cleaner for my water based paints, and Tamiya thinners works a treat with Tamiya paints; it's the other lot that are causing the problems. Now there's a lot of trial and error going on here, but I am pleased to announce that my current bit of spraying is all done. My mini air compressor is almost silent running, and my large cardboard box spray booth works a treat when resting on top of my donkeys years old workmate.

The spraying job was for 50mm edges for a Scalextric layout that I am building on a 4' by 4' board. The 50mm wide curved edges allow the cars to splay out on the bends. The edges are cut from laminate flooring (which is the same height as the Scalextric track) and smoothed with glass paper. Thereafter each edge was sprayed with Halfords Grey Primer. When dry, I used masking tape to break each piece into 50mm segments from either end and then decided on blue, green, white, yellow, and red colours. The next type of edging that I am modelling is the barriers around the outside curves and inside the tunnels. This barrier will be out of 60mm high strips of hardboard that are sprayed white base coat and then a single colour along each length. Possibly 'change purple' (changes colour with varying light). But that's tomorrow or the next day and today is about today's problems and solutions. The downside for the Scalextric track widening edges, was that the second lot of masking lifted the yellow as if it was plastic. The yellow paint was a water based paint with 'reducer' (like a thinners but also aids drying) added. I decided to re-mask and re-spray the yellow, and this time I used 'low tack' masking tape bought this afternoon. Not that low tack mind you, as it managed to lift bits of the red paint.

Lesson to learn: don't be in a rush and let things dry out properly.

The Eyes

This is a Master Class delivered by one of my daughter on how to draw eyes. The first image consists of three sketches. The left hand sketch shows the areas where light could fall in your final drawing. The areas where light will appear are show by some squiggly lines and three small circles. The central sketch has lines drawn from the centre of the eye in both sections and these lines will be smudged in the final image. The right hand sketch shows some extra shading along the periphery of the eye.


Where the light appears is important part of the drawing and the second image shows both the creation of light through darkening, shading, and erasing as well as the creation of an eye that is not a perfect circle.


The left hand sketch in the third image emphasises this point; the shape of eyes in artwork are random and not engineering drawings. The middle sketch shows how light and dark are created through shading and smudging the pencil. For these sketches the artist used a 5B pencil. The right hand sketch demonstrates that an eye drawing consists of three circles (akin to the RAF aircraft emblem), but the middle circle takes on a form similar to an egg shape.


All of the various components and techniques come together to form the finished drawing of an eye.

Gallantry Awards

This is my new artwork in progress. I have been working on this image for a while as I take a break from the car drawing. Well I have to, as my watercolour set and brushes are still in "The Beast" over in Italy, and both are needed to finish the 'car'. As for this image there is still an awful lot of work to go. I need to improve the detail on the face and eyes, add more colour, and blend the lot. As well as adding a lot more pen and ink detail to the uniform and cap.

The good news is that I feel that I am heading in the right direction with the artwork. The progress so far, should spur me on to complete separate images of a Victoria Cross winner, and a Medal of Honor winner.

Work in Progress

Without any wheels, I am reduced to working out the Public Transport Timetable and the daily battle between the two Service providers from our village (that's a long story and readers are directed towards the Cambrian News for more information). If I get lucky, then I hitch a lift from the village into the town with one of the girls or the wife. Maybe buying them all a car wasn't such a bad idea after all! Although when I do make it to town; I tend to mooch around for a bit longer than usual. It's always a stealth visit, as I like to spend time with friends, but you have to watch out for those really horrible people that you sometimes notice walking past, when you are near the bank. But that's the joys of adulthood, you don't have to spend time with the sh*ts of this world, but you can spend many a good hour with those that you like.

I done that today, and again yesterday with good friends who run the ART SHOP on Pier Street in Aberystwyth. They are lovely, lovely people and always have the time of day. Costa is another favourite haunt. Ed and the gang are also lovely people and Costa is a good place to keep up the mental exercise reading one of my current three books. Now that I no longer have to work, it is great to once again dabble in art. My latest creations are ink and watercolour, and oil based. Although I am going to try some oil pastels and pencil pieces as well.

While I wait for the Volvo S60 D5 SE, AKA 'The Beast' to be brought back to Wales from Firenze in Italy; maybe it is a good time to think of my ideal car. This drawing is of a Hyundai i30 that I spotted outside Cambrian Hyundai in Aberystwyth on their Open Day. I quickly took a few photographs on the Xperia X10 from different angles ready to create some artwork. I balanced these shots with more detail taken from other images that I found on-line. This particular piece is work in progress. It has already gone through the pencil drawing stage and I was really pleased with that result. I used a 2B pencil as I could easily remove the pencil strokes with a Daler Rowney Mystic Eraser. This is a rubber compound based product and not a harder plasticise rubber that tends to smudge the lead onto the paper. I am using pulp water colour paper. It looks good, but in reality it is relatively poor quality for the task. The main reason being that the Rotring Isograph 0.25mm pen skips as the paper has ridges and a sizing agent. Although the thicker 0.35mm nib works well.

The pencil drawing could have been worked into a finished piece with shadow and tone added. But I want a pen and ink drawing complete with a watercolour wash and water colour detail by applying several coats of colour. So this pen and ink drawing is starting to look good, but this is just work in progress. I need a few more days of adding detail and then have to take the brave step of applying the water colour. The upside being; that the longer 'the Beast' is away, the better are my chances of honing my artistic skill.