Soldier, Painting
Thomas Wilkinson
How to Paint: Zhufbar Dwarfs

In which I get ready for Dawi to return to The Old World...

With The Old World bringing back two of my white whales from my childhood in the form of Bretonnians and Dwarfs I’ve had a lot of fun projects this year. I wanted to do a slightly different Dwarf scheme than the old green and gold I remember seeing in White Dwarf as a kid and settled on the old Zhufbar livery of white and light blue. It makes for a striking force on the table top and is relatively speedy to paint up as detailed below!

How to Paint: Zhufbar Dwarfs
Soldier, Painting
Thomas Wilkinson
How to Paint: The Dead of Dunharrow

In which I finally start delivering on the promised painting guides...

I have been sat on a fully constructed Battle of Pelennor Fields box for just about a year after purchasing it as a Christmas present to myself at the tail end of 2021. Having signed up to a few "slay the grey" style challenges in the New Year I thought it was time to start with a nice easy paint job.

How to Paint: The Dead of Dunharrow
Puddings, Sponge
Thomas Wilkinson
Vegan Christmas Puddings

In which I modify an old family recipe to be vegan friendly...

After successfully turning my hand to vegan Christmas cake I thought it was high time I adapted my old Christmas pudding recipe to be vegan too.

Vegan Christmas Puddings
Tinker, Web, Python
Thomas Wilkinson
Dominant Colour Extraction in Python (for a ...

In which I discuss getting the dominant colour from an image quickly...

I have recently made a Discord bot that searches for online versions of board games to help people find games to play remotely. This link will add it to your server.

Discord embeds have a colour bar down the side that can be manually set. I thought it would be cool to have this display the 'average' (i.e. dominant) colour of the board game box and decided to investigate the best way to do it.

Dominant Colour Extraction in Python (for a Discord Bot)
Tinker, Productivity
Thomas Wilkinson
The Holiday Do List

In which I plan my holiday tasks…

So it may just be because it is 2020 or perhaps I'm just a bit lazy but I’ve found that I often start holiday breaks with a list of things I’d like to do and by the end of the trip* I’ve not achieved most of them. Whether it’s odd jobs or relaxing activities I wanted to get through I just accidental sit around and don’t do them. This holiday season I decided I needed a to do list and though I’d try out the new Todoist Boards feature.

*Or, let’s be real this year: sitting on the sofa at home.

The Holiday Do List

polystyrene

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Project Thor: Mjolnir Attempt 1

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I have all the materials to craft Mjolnir now - to the Forge! ... or not

Materials

Mjolnir materials

So I now have all the materials for Mjolnir. Polystyrene for the hammer head, wood for the handle, leather for the handle grip and plastidip for coating the hammer head. I'm short the amount of leather needed for the loop at the bottom but I might use string or something for that.

Crafting

Initially I tried cutting the polystyrene with a craft knife but that didn't work very well. I also tried using a saw and a carving knife. These were also all terrible ideas. I finally settled on heating a bread knife over the gas hob. This cut through the polystyrene like butter but if it was too hot caused more to melt than I wanted. Sadly we end up with this:

Mjonir head 1

While the general shape is there it isn't up to my exacting (read: fairly lax) standards.

Where From Here?

I'm going to see if Fab Lab has a hot wire cutter or obtain one from somewhere else. If that fails I'll have to try the Foam Pepakura method (which I'll detail in a future post when talking about the armour).

Tom Out!

P.S. Polystyrene: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290617011792

P.P.S. Wood: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221116725954

P.P.P.S Leather: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190699033294

P.P.P.P.S Plastidip: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000KL5WOI/