Category: thoughts

Depth of Field

The simplest way to explain this, is depth of field is how much of the scene is in focus.

With a low f stop (or large aperture), something like f5.6 you will have a shorted depth of field (less in focus) than if you use a higher f stop (small aperture).

The aperture is how wide the lens opens for letting light in. A low f stop means a wide opening, a high f stop means a narrow opening.

Virtually all my photographs (digital excepted) are taken on the highest possible f stop setting (in other words the smallest aperture possible).

Depending on the lense you are using, this should be from f22 to f32.

As a result and depending on lighting this means very little light is getting through, therefore to compensate you need to leave the shutter open for longer.You are looking at a shutter speed of 2″ to 4″ (as in two to four seconds), therefore a tripod is essential.

This is a shot using an aperture of f 5.0 with a shutter speed of 1/6th of a second. Notice how blurred the rear and front Orks are.

f 5.0

This shot uses an aperture of f 32, but a six second shutter speed, notice how all the Orks are in focus.

f 32

More on photographing miniatures.

Foundation Paints

Yesterday Games Workshop released their new Foundation paints, a range of pigment heavy paints which reputedly are better at covering black undercoats then their usual paints.

Initially they are releasing the eighteen paint range as a boxed set, with individual paints been available later.

I did manage to get a box yesterday, the Games Workshop in Cribbs Causeway had something like sixty boxes, but most of them were reserved. I bought one of the few remaining boxes that weren’t reserved.

I have not used them yet, but the jars are smaller than the standard citadel colour jars.

It will be interesting to try them out.

Sharpe’s Challenge now available to pre-order on DVD

An India based Sharpe mini-series on ITV in April and on DVD in May…

Sharpe is back on the telly in an all-new mini-series based in India.

You can now pre-order the DVD or Blu Ray which will be released on the 1st May.

Sharpe’s Challenge will be on ITV on the 23rd and 24th April and BBC Worldwide will be showing it in other parts of the world.

Plot

Sean Bean is back as the swashbuckling hero in Sharpe’s Challenge, an action packed mini-series to be shot on location in Rajasthan, India. Two years after the Duke of Wellington crushes Napoleon at Waterloo, dispatches from India tell of a local Maharaja, Khande Rao, who is threatening British interests there. Wellington sends Sharpe to investigate on what turns out to be his most dangerous mission to date. When a beautiful general’s daughter is kidnapped by the Indian warlord, the tension mounts, leaving Sharpe no option but to pursue the enemy right into its deadly lair. Deep in the heart of enemy territory he also has to keep at bay the beautiful but scheming Regent, Madhuvanthi, who is out to seduce him. The fate of an Empire and the life of a General’s daughter lie in one man’s hands….

The Truth is Out There

I am re-watching first season of the X-Files…

I am currently enjoyed (again) the first few episode of season one of the X-Files. I remember the first time I watched it and thought then as I do now that the X-Files was a very influential piece of television.

The first season (as with most first seasons) lacked the charm and sosphistication of later seasons, but the first few episodes have all the elements that made the X-Files the success it came to be.

I enjoyed Deep Throat (episode 2) and the pilot, whereas Squeeze still makes me squirm a little.

If you have the chance do watch it again.

Who designed Matchbox figures?

BNF Models did…

When I was much younger I had a lot of plastic Matchbox infantry (both the 1/76th and 1/32nd version) which I thought were done very well.

I have now found out that the masters for these were done by Bill Farmer (BNF Models) who has a website.

This is something I like about the internet, you can find things out that would be really difficult or impossible by any other means.

It also means you can find out what other stuff he sculptured.

Scenery for Moderns and WWII

Try your local model railway shop…

I was in my local toyshop looking for presents for my son, when I checked out the model railway section.

Two things caught my eye for having a use on the gaming table, Hornby’s Skaledale range and the Cararama range of 1/72nd vehicles.

Hornby’s Skaledale range is a superb range of ready painted resin UK 1/72nd buildings that would be excellent for any Operation Sealion type game. This pub is typical of the quality of the range.

There is also a range of modern stuff that could be used for a modern type scenario. These skips are an example of the Skaledale range.

You can see pictures of all the range on the Hornby website.

There is also a N gauge range which could be used with 15mm figures at a push. 15mm is approx 1/100th scale and N is 1/160th scale.

The Cararama range of vehicles would be ideal for any moderns game in providing some real background scenery. These are highly detailed scale model cars.

There are also quite a few for a scenario set in the 1960s.

Secret Army

Secret Army, just as good as I remembered…

Secret Army

Back in 1977, the BBC broadcast a series, called Secret Army about a group of Belgians who helped downed aircrew escape from occupied Europe. At the time I thought it was excellent and extremely well made.

Today I often think I won’t watch that old programme as the memory of it will be ruined by seeing it again. Having said that I borrowed the first season of Secret Army from my father-in-law who had purchased it on DVD.

I did wonder if it would be as good as I remembered and thinking nearly thirty years has passed since this was first on, and time can play tricks on you. I knew that it would be a combination of film and video (as was virtually any drama made in the 1970s) and that maybe the plots and acting would be a disappointment.

Boy was I wrong.

It was excellent and though I having only watched the first two episodes it was certainly as good as I remember (if not a little better). It was very powerful stuff and well made.

I have now seen a few more episodes and it certainly is gripping stuff and well made television which has stood the test of time.

Certainly recommended.

Ork Gargant Weapon

Ork Gargant Weapon, actually a brown coal mining machine…

I use to often look at my Epic ork miniatures and wonder if they could exist for real or was real-world physics going to get in the way of the fantasy of the game.

Then I saw this on the web…

It is a brown coal mining machine, but the resemblance to the buzzsaw of an Ork Gargant (or even Imperial Titan) is rather striking.

it just shows that one day there could be huge fighting machines…