Zvonimir Grbašić: The Templars at War

Some of you who follow our social networks may have noticed our Ana reading an interesting book at our last Hobby Corner on Wednesdays. As part of the Library and Reading Room, we have acquired a new title. This time it may be a bit of a strange combination. A book by an author with a Zagreb residence, but in English. It is The Templars at War by Zvonimir Grbašić.

Zvonimir Grbašić is the author of hundreds of illustrations and paintings published in books, magazines, graphic maps and calendars, in Croatia and worldwide. Military history is the main theme, and the technique is acrylic paint, tempera and pencil. This book follows the history of the Templars from their beginnings to the end of the order.

It is a true historical book that explains to the reader the history of this, perhaps the most famous, knightly order in an enjoyable way.

It is a true historical book that explains to the reader the history of this, perhaps the most famous, knightly order...

Quest for my new favourite washes

Note from the editor: This is an article published on Ana’s blog that she kindly agreed to share on our club web pages. If you like the article, go for more on her site Gardens of Hecate! 

Sometime in November I had reached the end of my stock of old formula Agrax Earthshade and Nuln Oil, and cracked open the new ones (I say new, but they’re a few years old by now). I was disappointed with the currently standing product… I’ve been steadily using Citadel washes since they were first introduced. Originally it was Badab Black and Devlan Mud, and they were fantastic (yes, there were inks before that - but I never used those). At some point they got replaced by Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade, respectively. Frankly I don’t recall how big of a change that was; it was a fairly long time ago. However, I know that I’ve gradually phased out most Citadel paints from my arsenal in favour of other brands (predominantly Scale 75, but there are several others represented) - while still...

Framed diorama – Mos Pelgo, part 1

During the weekend, 20-21.5.2023, we held a new weekend diorama making workshop called Vignette in a Frame. Over the course of two days, participants created a staged representation of a haustor/entrance of their own choice from about 10 offered designs, both historical and fantasy/SF themed. The subject of the workshop was the creation of a diorama with elements of stone, wood, metal, concrete/plaster. They placed a representation of the entrance to a building in a frame with internal dimensions of 10 x 15 cm. As part of this workshop, this SW base was assembled, which took almost two years to find its purpose. In the next two articles, we will describe how we painted it and how we painted the characters we placed on it.

The work at this stage was probably completed in the spring of 2023. In early 2025, I got an idea of what to do next. I decided on characters from the SW world – Cad Bane and his henchmen. The figures are from the game Shatterpoint and seemed to me to...

Making a Winter Forest

In this short article, I will follow the process of creating a winter terrain – a forest as I showed it to the participants of the demonstration workshop as part of Advent in Agram 2024. Over three sessions, I went through all the steps necessary to create a forest under the snow.

I decided to use a 5mm thick MDF board for the base.

I cut it to the desired dimensions using a jig saw.

Then I sanded the edges using a belt sander.

Then I mixed up a mud/slush mixture consisting of: PVA glue, textured crackling paint, modeling snow, glossy varnish, and clear water gel.

I applied the mixture with a brush and covered the entire base.

Since the plan was to cover the pine trees with snow, I could afford to use the cheapest pine trees I found at the hobby store (approx. 1€/piece).

After determining how many trees per base I would use, I drilled holes in the base using a model drill (in my case an electric drill, although...

Alps Diorama part 2

In the previous article, I started making the Alps diorama. The main “actor” of the diorama is a 1/87 scale oldtimer bus. In addition to it, the package also included a few figures. In this article, I will describe the end of the diorama.

In the previous article, we went through everything from making the base to painting it and adding vegetation. The next step was drawing lines on the road. First, I protected the rest of the base with masking tape.

Then I painted the lines on the road with white paint.

Finally, I painted the gravel part of the parking lot a whitish color and added weathering of the tire tracks on the asphalt.

Then I placed the bus in the desired position.

This completed the creation and painting of the diorama base and all that was left was painting the miniatures. Since they were pre-painted at the factory, I decided to use that scheme, but due to poor execution, I did the entire painting from scratch. From the ba...

Agram 2024 – A Year In Review

The end of this year 2024 has come, in which after the chaotic 2023, things have returned to normal again, and in which, in addition to traditional programs, we introduced two new programs and published two new books! The first program builds on the 2023 partnership with Back to Basics and consists of miniature coloring workshops for the youngest that we conducted in the City of Zagreb Libraries, while the second program is the Agram Lego Section. Read about all of this, as well as the two new books, below.

I n s t A G R A M

Another novelty is that since 2024, UMS Agram has its own Instagram profile . During 2024, we published around 150 posts and gathered almost 200 followers!

But let's go back to the beginning of the year, which, like every year, began with our traditional Exhibition...

E X H I B I T I O N   O F   M I N I A T U R E S   A N D   T A B L E T O P   S C E N E R Y

We started the year with preparations for our annual Miniatures and Models Ex...