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
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The Great British Tea Test 2012

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The Great British Tea Test 2012

That tea review data in full...

So we set out to try all the major and supermarket brand teas and decide which was the best this year.

The Tea & The Cakes

We tried the following teas:

  • ASDA red label
  • Clipper
  • Lancashire
  • Marks & Spencer everyday
  • Morrisons red label
  • PG Tips
  • Sainsbury's red label
  • Tesco red label
  • Tetley
  • Twinings
  • Typhoo
  • Whittard
  • Yorkshire

2nd December 2012

In which the elfs and I investigate the publicity of Mediæval Bæbes...

Today's song is the classic Gaudete which you may well know the Steeleye Span version of. Here is the version performed by the Mediæval Bæbes:

I think their album covers show an obvious change in publicity tactics. For example here's their first album, Salva Nos, which is where Gaudete is from:

salva-nos.jpg

A cover which definitely fits with the medieval theme of their music. Their next album then features the artists themselves:

worlds blysse.jpg

Apparently slowly dissolving into the curtains. Then their publicity guy went "Hey they're all women, let's put them in nicer dresses":

undrentide.jpg

Which was followed by the noughties hitting them suddenly:

mirabilis.jpg

Where they look like an extended cast of Charmed. Then the publicity guy clearly came back with "We need sexy dresses and lighting!":

illumination.jpg

Then they went all out on the photoshoot:

Explosions!
Explosions!

While it would be cool to think that the new marketing is due to them being assured women I expect it was a male advertising exec who came up with the idea. Maybe men just don't like medieval songs in general and the need to push into the market?

Tom Out!

1st December 2012

In which I present Christmas Wrapping...

The elfs* here at Tinker Tailor Soldier Sponge have suggested this song today. It's not the rarest (as it definitely features on at least one version of The Best Christmas Album In The World ... Ever!) , however, it isn't as popular as say A Fairytale of New York is. I really like this song as it tells a story and is pretty festive :)

*No elfs† were harmed in the making of this blogpost

†Elfs as in the short Christmas kind, not Elves the tall Tolkienian kind

Tom Out!