Monday 28 September 2015

Hawk Walk - Feathers & Fur

  My family discovered the wonderful Feathers and Fur on the way to Reading and we have visited them several times to experience some really beautiful birds of prey that have been rescued.

  You can look around at the birds in their aviaries at the garden centre it's attached to on most days.  There are event days when they encourage children to learn about the birds, the owls especially. 



  On these days the volunteers bring out a couple of the better socialised birds and only charge a couple of pounds to handle them.


  Just today, I went out with my Dad and the experienced handler, Sadie, on a hawk walk.  We took a Harris Hawk called "Echo" out with us.  It's more the case that we have the privilege of witnessing him chase things in the fields and have to lure him back with bits of chicken, than that we are engaging in falconry!


   The above shot shows Echo sizing my arm to clamber up...


  And here I feel rather complimented that he's decided that my shoulder is an OK lookout to try and see a pheasant that escaped him earlier in the day!  We were blessed with some beautiful weather, a low autumn sun that seemed blinding to us but not to Echo as we went on his usual circuit around the fields.

  My Dad took some excellent photos but the one above is definitely my favourite!

Saturday 12 September 2015

First steps in EPIC: Armageddon


Whilst I love Warmaster and am prioritising that for painting, I have been giving myself a "break" to do modelling and painting for other scales and systems.

The smaller lead mountain I have for EPIC contains Space Wolf, Eldar and Grey Knight forces.  My aim for Epic is the same for Warmaster in that I want to be able to put out good looking and unobtrusive terrain and markers.


These are 5 official resin Forge World markers that are now OOP, and a scratch objective made from 3 Warhammer 40k Terminator squad teleport beacons.  They are based on 40mm steel washers for transportation and weighting.


I got distracted by the idea of a Grey Knight army and am using the provisional fan list on the Tactical Command forum.  These are Inquisitorial Chimeras, for transporting retinues; hodge podge mixtures of highly disciplined shock troops... And insane fanatics!



These are the first real Grey Knight unit group I completed, rhinos painted in the GK scheme.  Might have to make more depending on how the fan list evolves.  Really proud of these.