Category: thoughts

What camera should I buy?

On lots of gaming forums people often ask about which camera they should get for taking photographs of their painted miniatures.

My answer is quite simple, I would buy a cheap second hand Digital SLR. An old Canon Rebel (EOS 400D or 300D) would certainly suffice and can be picked up quite cheaply.

I have taken thousands of photographs of miniatures at home and at shows. The flexibility and ease of use that a DSLR brings makes it much easier to take decent, in focus and well lit photographs of your miniatures.

Imperial Guard Rapier

You will read a lot on forums and the like about the “importance” of macro when taking photographs of miniatures. That’s very much a myth. The key is having a high f stop, in other words the aperture is very small, as a result you need to keep the shutter open for longer. This is why you need a camera with full manual control such as an DSLR. It’s also the reason why you will need to use a tripod. With a standard 400 ISO (speed of the “film) you may find that the shutter is open for a couple of seconds, so hand holding the camera just isn’t an option. You could increase the ISO, but I have found with high ISOs on the low end DSLRs you do get a lot of “noise” and a grainy picture.

Lighting is just as important and wherever possible avoid using the built-in flash as this will wash out the colours of your beautiful paintjob. Too little light and you will find that the resulting images may be too dark or too noisy. In the main I now use the “daylight” work lamp I have for painting, but I also try and use natural daylight too. More on camera settings.

So what do you use to take photographs of your models?

Flames of War British Sherman Tanks

In a future blog post I will talk about setting the scene.

Kobblestone Buildings

Kobblestones Buildings

I really do quite like these buildings from Kobblestone Miniatures. Their website talks about using them for World War Two, I am not sure if they aren’t a little too “fantasy”, but then again a lot of European villages and towns were medieval in their centres, it wasn’t until the Allies and the Germans bombed and shelled them to pieces that they were rebuilt in a “modern” style. This photograph does show the potential.

Kobblestones Buildings

What do you think?

I think the only thing that is stopping me, is a) I usually play World War Two in 15mm, b) by the time you have bought an entire building, they are not that cheap. Building a town like in the photographs would cost a fair bit of cash, c) they are based in Canada, so the prices would also incur import duty and VAT if I sent off for any.

Statue

This statue is from my collection, I can’t remember who the manufacturer was, but they did a few of these models.

It was painted a dark grey and then dry brushed with lighter shades of grey. There was already moulded foliage on the statue, I enhanced this with some flock from Woodland Scenics.

Never saw the light of day…

I took a photograph of this concept sketch at the Forge World displays at GamesDay 2005.

Now six years later we’ve not seen anything like this appear from the depths of the Forge World studio, though we have seen very similar models.

First impression was that this was a Thunderhawk Transporter.

It carries stuff, it carries a Land Raider. However though it has similarities, which makes me think the sketch is for a Space Marine vehicle, is it a Thunderhawk Transporter? Probably no.

We’ve also had the Valkyrie Sky Talon which does look similar, but the Sky Talon is for moving the Tauros Venator rather than some big infantry pod.

Likewise I don’t think the Caestus Assault Ram was derived from this sketch, much more likely that the Assault Ram was a big Land Speeder!

The reason for discussing the sketch is the current rumours flying around about a mystery Space Marine vehicle.

There’s word of a new Space Marine vehicle in the works. Here’s the latest we’ve heard.

Apparently this is the big “new kit” to accompany the updated Codex:Space Marines.
-The term “Space Marine Gunship” has been mentioned.
-It’s NOT the Stormraven
-It’s NOT the Caestus Assault Ram
-Its NOT an “assault themed” vehicle
-There are whispers of that ancient bit of fluff regarding the “missing link transport” Astartes vehicle.

So it’s not the Stormraven either! Could it be this?

So is that sketch from GamesDay 2005 any indication of what we might see, or something completely unrelated, we’re going to have to wait and see.

Age of Heroes

Inspired by the true story of ‘James Bond’ author Sir Ian Fleming’s creation of one of most important elite units in the history of the British Armed Forces, this spectacular World War II action-thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat. An inspiration to the modern day SAS, 30 Commando was a new breed of special operations taskforce created to carry out some of the most dangerous missions in the Second World War. Starring Sean Bean (Lord Of The Rings, Black Death) and Danny Dyer (The Business, The Football Factory), together again for the first time since Nick Love’s The Outlaw, Age of Heroes follows the unique circumstances behind 30 Commando’s inception and the unit’s first highly classified smash-and-grab mission into occupied Norway, to capture vital radar technology that will change the course of the war. But when their escape route is uncovered, the commandos find themselves in a pitched battle to reach the border against vicious Nazi General Dietl (Christian Rubeck) and his deadly 5th Alpine Division.

I recently rented this movie from iTunes (for just 99p) and really quite enjoyed it. It’s no Saving Private Ryan but it did remind of Where Eagles Dare and The Heroes of Telemark.

I thought it was well filmed and there is some fantastic scenery. The action sequences are pretty good and I like the period feel.

Of course any film with Sean Bean…


…is always worth watching.

Watch Age of Heroes on Amazon Video.

 

Death Rally

In the dark and distant past I use to play Car Wars and also enjoyed the odd game of GW’s Battlecars. I even flirted with Dark Future for a while. I keep meaning to revist this genre, probably Car Wars which was a fun game.

However in the meantime I have been playing the odd game of Death Rally on my iPad.

It’s a great little racing game, but with guns and missiles, very much the flavour of Car Wars.