What's that coming over the hill?

Is it a Monster?

Yes, the Steampunk Jabberwock.  Having had some interest from a model-making mag in the redesigned and rebuilt Jabberwock miniature, I needed to get some better photographs with a more spooky angle.  Then lots of other projects happened. And then Spring also happened, flowers bloomed, trees erupted into leaf, and I lost the spooky backdrops I'd need.  But then on the plus side, thanks to one of those distracting projects which had intervened, I now had three mini steam-generators to provide a bit of atmosphere.

A trip to Wales sans The Childs meant I'd have room in the car for the model (which slightly stretches the term 'miniature' by my usual standards, fully set-up it's about three foot long), and I reckoned the backdrop at our usual haunts would nicely set-off the model.

The problem was that, despite wrapping the model well for transit, winding Welsh B roads and potholes didn't do it any favours.  So out came the superglue and the hit glue gun.

Problem two; the model was built with working lights (for the lamp 'eyes' and the firebox), but typically, despite testing right through construction, they packed-in right after the model was painted, and there was going to be no way of dismantling to find the wiring fault.  Of course.  The solution for the shots were two micro-LED torches.

Did the trick.

Problem Three; the heavens opened ten minutes before I was due to start shooting.

The next day the weather remembered it was meant to be summer.  I got a few general, normal-angle shots for the model mag...

Then set-up something a bit more creative amongst the ferns and the slate, with a few suitable bits of set-dressing.

Then later it was back outside for a night shoot.  I improvised a bridge from a length of garden border edging, a bit of fencepost, and a chair.  There were a couple more problems though; during the day shoot, the back off one of the new mini LED torches had dropped off, and I'd lost the batteries.  Which wouldn't have been a problem, were it not a bank holiday Sunday and all the shops shut early.  Much improvisation with a bigger torch, the original mini lens, a ton of duct-tape, and some creative camera angles hid it.  Then there were the midges, but there didn't seem to be a lot I could do about that.

The mini smoke generators did the trick though- the only lighting I bothered with (apart from the eyes/lamps) was a single inspection light.

Overall very happy with how the pics turned out, just the effect I was after, and the first model of what is planned to be a range of Alice in Wonderland-themed garden railway items.  Hopefully this should all appear in print at some point towards the end of the year...