Diorama with rain

 

I've just completed a diorama for the FourBricksTall Bad Weather contest, but unfortunately, the limitations of my smartphone camera are evident.

Despite following the fantastic tutorials from FourBricksTall, I couldn't quite capture the rain effect I created using a water spray.

In this diorama, I wanted to evoke a sense of nostalgia, starting with the skeleton launching itself at the knight. The helmet the knight wears is none other than Basil's helmet from the Fright Knights line, which I modified about twenty years ago by removing the wings and part of the helm.

Moving on to the knight, wearing a sallet from BrickWarriors (a highly recommended site) and a standard LEGO armor that isn't visible in the photo. The cape and horse barding are my own creations made using tutorials found on classic-castle.com. The heraldry is inspired by the 1990s Playmobil knights line, one of my favorites.

The arm holding the sword, also from BrickWarriors, is a modified arm purchased on AliExpress. Lastly, the other skeleton wears a classic LEGO helmet that I painted twenty years ago after watching Braveheart and deciding to add leather to all the helmets.

The skeleton is clad in a classic armor, with a gambeson underneath that I made myself using graphics from the torsos of the Fright Knights. The graphics are available on classic-castle.com.

Although I used water spray for rain effects, I added a Photoshop filter to enhance the rain for better visibility.

Basil The Bat Lord

The Fright Knights are a series of LEGO sets introduced in the '90s featuring a medieval fantasy theme with a touch of horror elements. This line included castles and knight figures, but with a storyline and style that incorporated vampires, ghosts, and mysterious creatures. It was a unique interpretation of the medieval LEGO genre, adding some darkness and charm to the classic castle setting.

Basil the Bat Lord is a prominent character from the LEGO Fright Knights series. He is depicted as a sinister and powerful figure, often adorned in dark, elaborate armor adorned with bat motifs. Basil commands an army of spooky knights and creatures, including vampires and ghosts, in his quest for dominion over the medieval realm. With his menacing appearance and strategic cunning, Basil the Bat Lord embodies the eerie and adventurous spirit of the Fright Knights theme.

Recommended Soundtrack: Cemetery · John Carpenter

Custom Parts:

Armour by BrickWarriors

Flag remade by me

Thank you, Play_Maxx!

Today I am proudly sharing this beautiful diorama created by Play_Maxx! I invite you to visit his Instagram page, where you can admire his incredible creations. He's truly talented! It was a great honor for me to see that Max included one of the shields I personally crafted in the diorama, using Lego knight heraldry.

To thank him, I created three new Playmobil shields for him using images of triangular Playmobil shields (historical shields from the 90s and perhaps the 80s) he sent me. I adapted the images to make the emblems compatible with oval shields.

The new shields are available here

More Playmobil & Lego Shields to download and print

Due to overwhelming demand, I'm thrilled to announce that I've added not one, but two new sheets to download and print with images for creating Playmobil and Lego shields. The images are sourced freely from the internet, featuring heraldic themes related to Playmobil, Lego, and even some inspired by the Game of Thrones series. Additionally, a few images have been kindly created by the artist Nico Pogarskiy.

Playmobil Shields ID

30207960
30516962

Lego Shields ID

6076677
4211465
6139813

Please note for printing for 6139813, unfortunately, I haven't found the best configuration yet to ensure the image adheres perfectly to the shield.

Other LEGO shields have been taken from the website Classic-Castle.

You can download the files in JPEG format here.

If you liked them, send me a photo to be published on the website, or tag me on Instagram!

Italian Heraldry: Scaricamazza

Again I find myself unable to finish one project without new ideas flooding in. In the upcoming months, I've resolved to also delve into creating mantles, flags, and shields inspired by the heraldry of noble Italian families, focusing particularly on one of my favorite historical eras, the Renaissance.

For each coat of arms, I envision crafting a flag, shield, and mantle. The inaugural coat of arms for this endeavor belongs to the Scaricamazza family. I extend my gratitude to Dario Scaricamazza, the coat of arms' owner and manager of the Instagram profile Heraldry.art.

As an additional touch, I've decided to include a leopard fur atop the mantle, echoing the coat of arms. If there's a coat of arms you'd like to see brought to life, do let me know!

Give me 26 lead soldiers and I will conquer the world

Today is a day for celebration! And it's a double celebration!

First, I'm celebrating because Mark, on his fantastic blog at https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/

shared an email of mine along with a link to my website, and he greatly appreciated the photos with the Playmobil figures!

But I'm also celebrating because Alexei from distant Russia has had freed from the printer the tournament knights by Hans Burgkmair the Elder, which I had prepared some time ago by extracting them from images found on the internet.

You can find them in the "Print & Play" section.

I invite you to visit Mark's blog, which contains many interesting gems if you're a fan of toy soldiers in all their possible variations.

The title of this post is actually taken from his blog, a quote I had never heard before.

This particular quote has left a strong impression on me.

26 lead soldiers are none other than the letters of the alphabet found in typewriters, the letters were made of lead and letters alone have a very limited meaning. However, when letters are combined into words we are able to communicate thoughts and ideas.

This quote, dating back over 200 years and attributed to Benjamin Franklin, is still relevant today.

If Franklin was referring to the printing press, the power of written communication has gained an even wider reach thanks to the Internet. Letters and words remain powerful weapons, regardless of how they are delivered.

It's truly beautiful and exciting how passions and interests can bring people together, even those who are far apart, especially in times like these.

Here are pictures of the tournament knights made by Alexei

The author, Hans Burgkmair visibly pleased

Peter's Paper Boys March Again

 

Finally, I managed to complete this project, although I'm not entirely satisfied with the result. As a fan of American Military History, I've been following several authors on YouTube for some time. Among them, one of my favorites is Chris The Redcoat. I took the liberty of using a photo of him in uniform to create a paper miniature version, which I then adjusted to the scale of Peter Paper Boys.

The initial idea was to create a diorama of an entire brigade consisting of 4 regiments, but in the end, I managed to complete (almost) only one: the 54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot. The other three, including Chris's regiment, are ready, but I still need to print and cut them. Trust me, this work is not as time-consuming compared to working on the originals and modifying the color details of the uniforms.

The choice of the 54th infantry regiment is because it is portrayed by another of my favorite authors, Brandon Fisichella. I populated the diorama using the Von Lossberg Hessian regiment that I snipped some time ago. Unfortunately, the limitations of my smartphone don't do justice to these beautiful paper soldiers created by Peter Dennis. But don't worry, we're only at the beginning of my journey.

Playmobil meets Warhammer - Grudgebringers from Shadow of the Horned Rat

 

Playmobil Recoats

 

Playmobil Knights with custom fabric flags

 

Blue Dragoons with fabric guidons

 

New Cape

New test, this time I devised a type of cape for use on characters with full armor.

I am continuing to experiment with new solutions to create fabric tabards featuring heraldry from Playmobil and Lego, as well as Game of Thrones. What do you think?

Capes! Flags! Tabards!! made of fabric

Some examples of my new experiment, making flags similar to the original Lego ones.

During this experiment I also had the idea of creating tabards and gambesons suitable for Playmobil characters.

Crest Design by Old Skull Minis