Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sponge - Tech, Cosplay, Baking & Podcasts

14 July 2024

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

11 January 2023

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

21 November 2021

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

16 May 2021

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)

7 December 2020

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

Thomas Wilkinson

21 November 2021

Puddings, Sponge

Vegan Christmas Puddings

Thomas Wilkinson

21 November 2021

Puddings, Sponge

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.

Thomas Wilkinson

19 December 2017

Cake, Sponge

Christmas Cake: Vegan Edition

Thomas Wilkinson

19 December 2017

Cake, Sponge

Christmas Cake: Vegan Edition

In which I update an old recipe...

I usually make a Christmas Cake around this time of year to take to work.[1] As I now have vegan colleagues I decided to look into making it safe for them to eat. Luckily this is quite easy to achieve with a stodgy cake like this one.

Thomas Wilkinson

21 November 2017

Cake, Sponge

Vegan Flapjacks

Thomas Wilkinson

21 November 2017

Cake, Sponge

Vegan Flapjacks

In which I make some vegan flapjacks...

Several of my colleagues are vegan so what better excuse to modify a traditional recipe?

Ingredients

300 g (10 oz) oats
175 g (6 oz) brown sugar
175 ml (6 fl oz) vegetable oil
4 tbsp golden syrup