BillWerks: Miniatures and Modelbuilding

Ship bases: group photos

2012-02-05T21:07:00.000-06:00

As promised, the current fleet based and ready for action, sailing the brown waters of my painting stand. (As always, click a picture to view it close up.)

Next in the queue, marines from Pulp Figures. I'll post next Sunday with what progress I've made.

Ship bases: painting

2012-01-29T13:00:00.000-06:00

Continuing the ship basing from last week...

I trimmed up the edges of the bases with a knife, then started painting. Pick a base color and several highlights. I started with a bright blue, covering the texturing on the base top. Also paint the plastic along the edges of the texturing, to make sure none of the white base shows next to the ship.

The first highlight was a heavy drybrush of Ceramcoat's Ocean Reef Blue. I hit every surface, only leaving the original blue visible in the deepest troughs and crevases.

Folk Art's Light Blue is next. I hit all the high points with this to pick them out from the surface.

Last, I used white on the tops of the waves and the churn at the back, places where the water would foam up.

When finished, the ship should just fit in its place in the texturing. A couple dots of superglue hold it tight.

And that's it. Once I get the rest of the bases done (and pick up the ships I left at Jay's place after showing them off at last week's game :/ ) I'll put up a group shot.

Ship Bases

2012-01-22T17:40:00.000-06:00

I wanted some nice bases for the Uncharted Seas ships I painted up. Like everything else I do, I looked for a method I could steal rather than trying to figure it out for myself. While poking around, I found some very nicely done ships on the Lead Adventure forums, and a (very) brief description of how the bases were made. Here I show how I copied the idea.

First, materials. You'll need something to serve as the base; I used 0.040" styrene sheet because I had it, but you could use any material you can cut to size and won't warp when glue is applied. You'll also need white (PVA) glue and toilet tissue, torn or cut into small pieces. I used a sculpting tool and a pair of tweezers to apply the glue and tissue to the base, but anything convenient should work.

Naturally, you need a ship to base. I wanted about 5mm of exposed base around the ship, so I added 10mm to the length and width of the model; for this ship, that came out to 33mm x 77mm. I cut a piece of styrene to size and lightly tacked the ship in place with a few dots of white glue. You will remove the ship later, so don't do anything permanent here. The lines are 5mm from the edges, and are just guides I used to ensure I had the ship centered and straight.

(Here I've tinted my glue blue so it is visible; white base, white glue and white paper do not make for good photography.) Spread a thin layer of neat PVA glue on the base, being careful to keep it off the ship. Start placing pieces of tissue on the glue, using your tools to tuck it down on the base until it sticks in place. Don't worry if it overhangs the edge, you can trim it up with a sharp knife once the glue dries.

Once the tissue has been stuck in place, put a thick layer of glue on top of it. This will quickly soak the tissue through and break up the fibers in it.

Using a sculpting tool of some sort, push the tissue and glue into a wake shape drawing off from the edges of the ship. Start at the back of the ship, and push the tissue toward the back to raise up the waves. If you keep the edge of the tool at the bottom of the wave, the top of the wave should angle forward like it's crashing over.

At the bow of the ship, push the "water" up against the hull so it is rolling off and forward, and extend the wave off the edge of the base to the side. Then do the same for the other side of the ship.

Give it a few hours to dry, then carefully remove the ship from the base. If you got too much glue on the ship and wait too long to remove it, part of the sculpted water may come up from the base. Just add a bit of glue under the part that came loose and hold the water in place as you remove the ship.

Once it has dried thoroughly, I'll paint it. I'll show how that goes in my next post.

What have I been up to?

2011-11-20T16:05:00.010-06:00

The answer is, not much of anything. Various things have kept me from the painting table, and so I haven't had much of anything to say here. But now I've made some progress on some projects, so here we go again.

Here I have a test paint of a Dwarven ironclad for Uncharted Seas, which Ed got me interested in recently. Behind it are the other two cruisers from the Dwarf starter set, waiting for drybrushing and detail work. Once they're clearcoated I plan to use dot filters on the metal armor panels to make them subtly different. I expect it to work, but we'll see. I have some destroyers and a battleship (the rest of the starter box) to follow these, and an Imperial starter box to paint up as well. I want to make sculpted water bases for the ships, which will be a new thing for me.

Next up are Rebel Minis' Earth Force Marines, done up in a desert/scrubland scheme. The four sticks in front are done, the fifth stick needs a wash, and the heavy weapons and sniper teams in back are just basecoated. This is about half the pack, I have eight more sticks that aren't in the picture. Four (including the ones pictured) are basecoated, two just need washes, so I should be done with these pretty soon.

I finally figured out how I will base my 6mm Seven Years War figures: 20mm x 25mm bases from Litko, with figures based three ranks deep on a stand. I plan to use these with the Batailles de l'Ancien Régime rules, to see how the table looks with something closer to a 1:1 figure scale. This will actually come out to 1:4, at 1:1 a battalion would be unmanageably big in 6mm, stretching four feet across the table. Doesn't someone make 2mm 7 Years War figures? :)

One regiment; I've got notes around here somewhere saying who these guys are supposed to be, but I don't remember off the top of my head, other than Prussian. I'll find them again when I don't need them, or the painting notes that are with it. Each of these stands will count as three figures in BAR, and casualty rings or markers of some sort will mark stands with partial casualties.

The unit's flagbearer and drummer, or at least one of them. There's one more stand on loan to Jay, who wanted to paint up the French figures I bought along with these. All of these figures are by Baccus 6mm.

A cavalry squadron of 12 stands, each stand counting as a single cavalry figure in BAR. I'm not entirely happy with the horses, the greys and bays may get pulled out and repainted. Basing was simple: I glued the figures to the Litko base, then glued down sand to smooth the bases up to the strips. I painted it all with brown ink, then glued on a mix of Woodland Scenics earth blend and green blend flock. I'll stick some static grass on soon, and hit it all with a thin layer of pva glue to lock the flock down.

The cavalry banner, still awaiting paint. I'll probably find an appropriate banner image somewhere and print it on label paper rather than trying to paint anything that small by hand. Or maybe I'll print it on decal film and basecoat the banner white. I'm not sure yet.

Artillery and crews in progress. I'll base each gun and crew as a single unit, I may have to go up to a 25mm square base to fit them all in place.

So that's where I'm at. I've got some plans for the future, and Jim and I are scheming on a Bayou Wars game that may require me to break out my Hirst Arts block molds in addition to painting up some more figures that have been waiting on the sidelines. And the Martians should see some more time on the workbench soon as well.

Post Bayou Wars

2011-06-15T06:06:00.000-05:00

Another Bayou Wars has come and gone, and great fun was had by all. I have photos, but they are still on the camera. I'll post them once I've recovered a bit. I came out of it with one very important lesson: my game for next summer will be completely ready by Christmas! None of this frantically preparing the night before for me, I'll be done with months to spare. (I also have bridges for sale, cheap, just one owner.)

I have several projects to work on this summer and fall. My plan for Bayou Wars is a 6mm scifi game, part of a campaign of 6 games I hope to run for the club next year. I also want to get some more Aeronef painted up and build some more shipping vessels to go with it, and get enough figures painted for a playable Colonial Mars game. I have some plans for a gladiator game as well.

This week, though, is spring cleaning. I'm tearing down my painting desk (and much of the rest of the house) to clean and organize things, because it needs it badly.

Archaeologists and Germans

2011-05-30T17:25:00.000-05:00

It's been a couple months of slowly plonking away at figures as I find the time. But I've finally completed the archaeologists I'll need for Bayou Wars, as well as another unit of Zeppelin Troopen.

This week I want to build some hills, rocky outcroppings, and jungle vegetation to fill out the table. I also need a narrow trail that will cross the table; I can use my road pieces, but I want something less built-up, more like a track that's been hacked out of the jungle. We'll see how it comes out.

Rise of the Jurassic Reich!

2011-03-28T20:28:00.000-05:00

I'm getting back into the swing of things after some unpleasant events. I'm still running my game Saturday, so I have some work to do this week. Since they'll be big and bright and the center of attention, I've started on my Kriegsclaw figures from Eureka.

Sure, they're just partly basecoated, but I like where they are going. We'll see how it turns out, and if I can get them close to done by Saturday morning.

Nothing much to say today.

2011-03-09T22:40:00.000-06:00

I realized this weekend that the test play of my pulp game is in four weeks. I've got fortysome figures to paint (some still need to be purchased, even), terrain to build, game aids to make and scenario details to write up. I should have some interesting things to look at next week.

In the meantime, over on the Jackson Gamers blog there is a writeup of the Liftwood and Steam game I ran this weekend at my place.

More photos of the zep troopen

2011-03-01T18:24:00.000-06:00

I've been poking along at these guys. Still not happy with the bases, and the photos are still coming out squirrelly as well. But, here are some closeups. As usual, click on the photos for larger images.

A quiet week

2011-02-21T17:53:00.000-06:00

I didn't get much done this week, just working on the shading and bases on the Germans and preparing some GZG starship minis for painting. I'll get pictures next week.

Zeppelin Troopen

2011-02-13T18:38:00.000-06:00

I've almost finished the Zeppelin Troopen soldiers. I need to do some highlighting, and a wash on the exposed skin, and work up the bases.

Painting was pretty straightforward. Charcoal grey uniforms, black boots, reddish brown for the leather, etc. I pulled out a new trick for the goggle rims. The lenses are light grey, with sky blue "reflections". I colored the frames using a Tombow pen with a brush tip. The very fine tip of the brush pen let me get just the edges of the frames without straying (much), and because it's a pen, I don't have to worry about paint consistency or overloading a brush. I bought the pens for edging on paper models like the Hummingbird, but I'm glad I had them around for this. There's a recent thread on TMP about using pens for outlining, and I'll have to see if these will be useful elsewhere.

Walling off the world

2011-02-07T20:08:00.000-06:00

I spent much of the week building walls for Saturday's game... which didn't get used, because we rearranged things at the last minute and didn't need them. That's ok, I figured out enough throwing these together to do up a lot of them for later games.

The first set of walls were made from cork. I just cut 2" wide strips from a (almost) 12"x12" piece of cork tile and glued them onto 1" wide bases of hardboard, then worked the bases up with some filler. I painted them sand, then drybrushed with a cream color.
(click for a larger picture)

The second set of walls were more complicated. I wanted to get some relief and structure in them, so I drew up some facings in a cad program (cadstd, a cheap and decent program for simple stuff like this) and printed them out on cardstock. One set of facings had rectangular openings, the other had arched openings. I carefully cut these out, then after a few I quit trying to be careful. :)

I glued the arched facings onto a piece of foamcore, then glued the rectangular facings over them. I glued each 2"x9.5" wall section to a hardboard base, then glued a half-inch balsa pillar at one end to make 10" sections. A quick coat of paint and they were usable. When I do these again, I want to put stonework on the tops of the walls and dress up the end pillars.

For this week, it's the Zeppelin troopen (again) and gladiators you can see in the background.

One step forward, two steps back

2011-01-29T16:30:00.001-06:00

When I started painting up the Zeppelin troops, I discovered that the gesso had left a lot of bubbles and webbing, probably because the bottle was mostly empty and had dried out a bit. Fortunately, I've got a new bottle waiting. So they went in the drink (Simple Green) for a bit, spent some time under a brush, and are ready to be rebased and primed again.

That's life, I guess. I've been getting some other things ready to paint as well.

Clearing the workbench

2011-01-23T15:35:00.000-06:00

This week I've been finishing up an old project, some more bocage for Crossfire, while getting my Pulp Figures zeppelin troopen ready for painting.

These were built as shown on This Very Blog. It's a quick and straightforward method, and looks good on the tabletop.

Balsa wood, sand and small rocks, Woodland Scenics trees and clump foliage, and GW static grass.

The zeppelin troopen are great figures, easily cleaned up. Here I've done my usual prep: black gesso for primer, followed with a heavy white drybrush.

Converting this guy was quite fun. When I looked at the guy on the top left here, he looked to me like a big burly type who should be lumbering around the battlefield firing a machine gun from the hip. So I took the guy on the right here, and hacked the gun out of his hands. I took an extra Maxim I had laying around and cut it down a bit to fit. Then I cut off their heads (muttering "Ach! Mein Kopf!" all the while, of course) and glued them on each others' bodies.

Papercraft: Mel Ebbles' Hummingbird

2011-01-14T17:12:00.000-06:00

The past week I've been building another papercraft model, this time a Hummingbird attack skimmer for one of my 15mm scifi forces.

The model is designed to a 25mm (1/60) scale. To build it in 15mm scale, I simply scaled the print to 60% and printed it on photo paper that I cut down to 5.5" x 8.5". After that, I built it like normal. I found that the existing glue tabs did not work well at this size, but cutting off the existing glue tabs and making new ones from colored paper worked out fine. Some pieces ended up a little fiddly and hard to put together, especially the engine thrusters and intakes and the chin gun and sensor pods.

(Click on the images for larger pictures.)

The model is very lightweight. I was going to glue a washer inside the hull to give it some heft, but I forgot. The file includes patterns to make a flying stand, which I'll put together after I find the necessary transparency sheets. I am planning to glue that washer to the bottom of the model, and stick some magnetic sheet to the top of the stand so the model is easily removable.

No in progress shots, but here are the tools I used to cut out and build the model.

I did my cutting on a glass cutting board. That self-healing mat is under the glass, and I only put it there to give me some contrast for the brown bits of paper I was using for tabs. The white tool is a bone folder, used to crease the cardstock without cutting it. This lets the heavy paper bend much easier and in a more controlled manner; just drag it across a fold line like it is a knife.

The cutting was done with a snap-blade utility knife. Cutting on the glass goes through blades pretty quickly, and these are cheap but still sharp enough to get a good cut. The sculpting tool next to it I used to apply glue, and I used the tweezers to hold fiddly pieces while gluing and to clamp glue joins together until it set. I used the pen (and another brown one) to color exposed paper edges and the backs of pieces so the white bits don't show through.

At the top of the picture you can see leftover paper I used to make glue tabs. I just cut a 1/8" strip of paper, folded it in half lengthwise, and colored one side with a pen. I measured a join edge, cut the paper to length, then cut off the corners as needed so it would fit properly.

I glued it up with regular pva (Elmer's) glue. the blobs at the top right of the cutting board are where I dabbed small drops of glue before using the sculpting tool to apply them to the cardstock.

Plans for 2011

2011-01-03T18:33:00.000-06:00

Well, looks like I failed in that whole "post every month" thing. Based on the idea that "If I can't clear my height, why can't I clear one inch above my own height" (thanks Bill), let's see if I can manage a post every week instead.

I've got a few things in the project queue for this year. As mentioned before, I'm planning to run a pulp game for Bayou Wars this year. For that I need to acquire and paint more figures (I want 15-20 figures per player, divided in 2-3 squads each), and make a lot of terrain.

I'm working on some Ebbles Miniatures vehicles and ground equipment to go with my 15mm sci-fi. The pieces are actually 25mm scale; the miracle of print-your-own lets me rescale it to 60% to match my figures.

I've also got a secret project. I am calling it "Highway Robbery", and I'll let people guess what it might be as progress develops. If it's done in time, I'll run it as a Sunday brain-dead game at Bayou Wars.

Rocketeers, Day 7

2010-10-09T20:53:00.000-05:00

I didn't make it, too much else I had to do today. But all that is left are some washes and highlighting, and cleaning up the rocket packs and painting those. It shouldn't take long to do that tomorrow. Maybe I can claim Thursday didn't count. :p

Rocketeers, day 6

2010-10-08T23:18:00.000-05:00

No work done yesterday, I spent the evening playing operation on my computer and then reinstalling everything. What fun.

Today, I painted up the harnesses for the rocket packs in Ceramcoat "Charcoal", ammo pouches for the SMGs in Timberline Green, and pistol holsters in Autumn Brown same as the jackets.

Tomorrow is my last day. Hopefully I can get gloves, weapons, helmets and the occasional bare head, plus some washes and highlighting, done in one day. We'll see.

Rocketeers, day 4

2010-10-06T21:54:00.000-05:00

No pictures today, computer problems. You will have to imagine an even coat of paint on the pants and boots. Hopefully I'll have the computersorted out tomorrow.

Rocketeers, day 3

2010-10-05T22:11:00.000-05:00

A quick post; I had a late day at work today and not much time to paint.

The pants are FolkArt "Camel". Again, two coats are needed for good coverage. I'll do a second quick layer tomorrow, then get to the boots and etc. And get the rocket packs ready, I hope.

Rocketeers, day 2

2010-10-04T21:54:00.000-05:00

Today I started with a heavy drybrush of white over top of yesterday's black primer. This should give them a subtle shading under the blocked in paint, as well as bringing out all the details so I can actually see what I am painting. I didn't worry about the boots, since they will be painted black anyway.

I then painted the jackets in Ceramcoat's 'Autumn Brown'. Coverage isn't great, so it took two coats to even out.

Tomorrow I'll do the pants and boots, then start working on the details if I have the time.

A new one week project: Rocketeers!

2010-10-03T20:38:00.000-05:00

I've decided I want to run a pulp adventure game for Bayou Wars 2011, using the "I Ain't Been Shot, Mum" rules from Too Fat Lardies. I've painted up a test Rocket Corps figure to try out the paint scheme, and now we'll all see if I can paint the other 17 in 7 days.

The figures are well cast and well sculpted, with only a few small bits of flash and one or two figures with a slight mold misalignment. A bit of filing cleaned the worst of it to where it isn't noticeable. The metal is soft enough that it files down quite easily, which is good since I am cutting the wings off of the jet packs to get more of a "Rocketeer" look to them. Some quick work with the Dremel should take care of it quickly.

Today all I did was prime the figures with black Liquitex acrylic gesso. Because primer is boring, I've got some pictures of the test paint for you instead. As always, click for a larger image.

Front

Left side

And the right. I am planning to make flag decals for the shoulder patches, which is why it is painted white at the moment. I won't have that done this week, I want to fill up a sheet of decal paper rather than using just one corner of a sheet.

A player's perspective.

Another angle.

Two squads, plus a few extras, in their lovely black primer.

Back to work

2010-08-15T20:24:00.001-05:00

Wow, I didn't realize how badly I've failed that "post every month" thing. Lots of work going on, very little of it interesting. To get something out here while I get some projects ready to photograph, here's a peek at some decals I've been working on:

Once I've got my new spray booth in working order, I'll be ready to prep the models, print the decals and see how well it works. I've also got some other things on the workbench, I'll try to post some photos of them soon.

Who let Bill have the airbrush!

2010-04-18T15:57:00.000-05:00

Work progresses on my preparations for Bayou Wars. I'm just about finished "prettying up" the shoreline cloth with my airbrush, adding sandy beach and some broken up patches of color to represent farms and so on. I'm not entirely happy with it - in hindsight, the field bits should have been much smaller - but it's good enough for government work.

Here you can clearly see where I let the airbrush hose drag across the lake in the corner :/ I'll touch that up once it's dried.

And, from the seaward side. Next to (and under) the compressor you can see some of the masks I used while spraying. In some places I used the masks, in others I didn't bother. Overall it went pretty well, except for the numerous times I forgot myself and dragged the hose through freshly applied paint.

Once it's all dried (and I fix the lake in the corner) I'll set up with my hex grid template and put the hexes on in white paint. Once they are in place, I'll lay out the ocean cloth, put this one on top and see how it looks.

Preparing for Bayou Wars

2010-03-19T18:24:00.000-05:00

I've slipped a bit (ok, a lot) from my New Year's resolution, due to some unpleasant family events. Now I find myself with just over two months to get ready for a playtest of my game for Bayou Wars this year. To keep track of where I'm at and help me stay focused, I put a list of what I need to do in the sidebar. As I complete tasks, I'll mark things off the list. When something interesting happens, I'll post about it as well.

Basing the SG teams

2010-02-21T13:27:00.000-06:00

For those who are interested, here's a quick walkthrough of how I am basing the SG teams. The bases themselves are 3/4" fender washers. I filled the hole with wood putty then glued a figure on it with white glue. Once that was dry, I built up around the figures' cast on bases with Golden's "Light Modeling Paste". The paste dries white, so I painted it brown.

To texture the surface, I used white glue and Woodland Scenics railroad ballast and earthblend turf.

I put together a magnetic stand that I used while painting the bases and putting on the ground cover. It's simply a small wooden spool I got from Michaels, with two holes drilled in it and two magnets glued in the holes. It holds the figures firmly while I'm working, and I can move the figure around however I need without worrying about getting my fingers into the areas I'm working.

First, I paint the base with undiluted white glue. I do my best to not get any on the figure (I think I failed in this photo); if I do, I clean it up with a clean wet brush.

Next, using the scoop end of a sculpting tool I pick up some of the ballast and sprinkle it onto the base.

I'm not going for thick coverage, just a scattering of rocks on the base.

Once the rocks are in place, I drag the base through the turf flock.

Then I turn it sideways and firmly tap on the bottom of the base a few times to knock all the loose flock off, and I'm done.

The process goes pretty quickly, maybe a minute or two per base.

SG team closeups

2010-02-20T21:54:00.000-06:00

I've been working on the bases on my SG teams, and took some closeup pictures of the nearly finished figures. I need to clean up the base edges, but that will depend on how I want to identify teams.

One Week project, day seven

2010-02-05T19:25:00.000-06:00

Yesterday's work looked just like day 5, except shinier, so there wasn't anything interesting to look at. Thus, no post. Today I used Minwax Antique Walnut polyurethane stain to wash the figures. Not much to say about it, I just brushed the stuff on and let it do its thing. All that is left is a matte coat to take off the shine and basing them.

I'm not very happy with how the black uniforms turned out. They would have worked better with a bit of contrast; maybe using different shades of grey on parts of the figure. A lesson for next time.

One Week project, day five

2010-02-03T20:37:00.000-06:00

This really should be day four, since I couldn't paint yesterday, but I'll be a good boy. :)

As I said before, today I painted unit badges (I know that's not the right word, but my brain isn't cooperating at the moment) and other bits I'd missed before. The Javelin launcher tubes (back row) were painted with Ceramcoat's Green Sea to get a subtle difference form the uniforms. The sniper teams' hats got the same color as their uniforms. Badges are a black circle with a Rain Grey dot in the center; at this size, any more detail than that wouldn't be visible. Pictures are below.

Tomorrow, after all the paint dries completely, I'll give everyone a coat of Future. And then Friday they'll get the dip, and I'll be done with them. Once I have a stack of figures ready I'll hit them all with a matte coat, and then I'll worry about basing.

EDIT: Rather than spamming RSS feeds with little of interest, I'll just say here that day six looks just like day 5, except shinier. Tomorrow should be more interesting.

One Week project, day three

2010-02-01T21:47:00.000-06:00

Day three is done, and I've painted the flesh on all but one stick of figures. Since I expected to only get about half of them done, I'm doing better than planned.

I put several colors (Dark brown, bambi brown, medium flesh and fleshtone, all Ceramcoat; while on the topic, the uniforms are wedgewood green) on my palette and switched between them from figure to figure for variety. I slopped it a little bit, but I can clean that up once I finish the skin.

Tomorrow evening I'll be busy, and don't plan to do more than get the last of the skin painted and clean up my sloppy brushwork. Next post on Wednesday, after I get the shoulder badges painted and take care of the details I missed (like the Javelins).

One Week project, day two

2010-01-31T21:27:00.000-06:00

For day two I painted pants and sleeves green on most of the figures getting green uniforms, though I didn't manage to get the last five done. The green appears too light now, but I plan to finish these off with a dip and that should get it to about the right shade.

(click to view larger)

I'm pleased with my progress so far. Tomorrow's plan is to finish the last guys getting green uniforms and start on the flesh.

One Week project, day one

2010-01-30T23:29:00.000-06:00

Over on MacPhee's Miniature Men, Scott posted daily updates on his project to paint 250 figures in one week. I decided to try to push myself into painting more (or at least stay on a project until its finished), and try the same with some 15mm US Army figures from Rebel Minis. I bought their Force on Force US Army platoon box (about 60 figures) to use as Stargate Command teams and mid-tech troops for scifi games. I like the figures; they were molded cleanly and have good detail, with little flash to remove. They should be fun to paint.

I plan to have about 2/3 of them in the early series green uniforms, and the other 1/3 in the black uniforms that showed up later. I cleaned them up for painting a few weeks ago; today I glued them to craft sticks, primed them with black gesso and followed that with a drybrush of Ceramcoat charcoal grey.

Figures hot-glued to their craft sticks. Click the image for a closer (but not particularly interesting at this point) view.

Primed and drybrushed.

After some problems with the hot glue not holding the figures very well, I grabbed some more sticks and glued the figures down with Elmers' glue instead. I'll go back in the morning and touch up the spots where I scuffed paint off raised surfaces while switching them. Hopefully they'll come off the craft sticks easily when I'm done.

Resolutions

2010-01-17T16:59:00.000-06:00

I've realized that I haven't been keeping this updated, or getting much work done on much of anything for a while. No real reason for it, I'm just easily distracted. Thus, in addition to the usual New Years' resolution failures (lose weight, keep up with the housekeeping, etc.) I've also resolved to put paint on figures every day I'm at home and to update the blog at least monthly. So, to further that, photos of the month's work.

First, some German Aeronef from Brigade Models, ordered from Wizard's Workshop.

(As usual, click on the pictures for larger versions.)

This is the German Fleet Pack #3, mostly completed. I still need to detail the windows and finish up the bases with nametags. I misplaced the labels I use for the nametags, and need to find them or get new ones.

All were primed with Liquitex grey gesso and painted (Ceramcoat color names unless stated otherwise) with Hippo Grey hulls, Bambi Brown covered with Golden Brown decks, and Folk Arts' Parchment for the windows. Tail markings are Black, Parchment and Vallejo's Flat Red.

A Moltke class Battlecruiser

Prince Heinrich heavy cruiser

Karlsruhe destroyer leader.

The pack should have had two of the Karlsruhe and a VA7 patrol nef, but mine had three Karlsruhe instead.

These are fun and pretty quick to paint up. The tail marking suffer from my inability to paint a straight line, so I'm going to try to make decals (with the Testors decal kit) to replace them. We'll see how well it works out.

We'll also see how well the resolutions work out. Maybe I'll manage to finish up some of these other projects on my workbench.

Some progress on the British

2009-05-10T20:41:00.000-05:00

I'm painting up some of the British now; the martians need some file work before I can start painting them. Below are some in-progress shots, up to what I completed today.

I'm using a method I read on TMP (I think), painting from the bottom up rather than the inside out. It works well for me when I do it right, because I'm less worried about staying "between the lines" as I paint. I just have to worry about one line, the other side will be cleaned up when I move up the figure.

The earlier martian test was painted top-down. I didn't like that as much, because it turns out often will rest the figure on its head so I can get to the bottom of weapons and equipment. This scuffed the paint off the already painted helmet. Bottom up works much better.

Also, I really hate painting white.

Test Figures for Colonial Mars

2009-05-05T20:27:00.000-05:00

I've finally finished the Martian native test figure for my Colonial Mars project, and have the pictures to prove it. Here are shots of him and the earlier British soldier I finished.

(Click the images for larger copies.)

Both figurse are from RAFM's Space: 1889 line; one from the Soldiers of the Queen set and the other from Legions of Mars. The British soldier is on a Litko plywood base, with wood filler bringing the surface up to the level of the figure's cast-on base. The base hasn't been painted yet. Paints are all acrylics, with a gloss coat of Future followed by washes and sealed with Krylon's Matte Finish spray.

Both were fun, quick paint jobs. It should be easy for me to paint up both units of figures quickly.

Lightbox

2009-03-20T08:45:00.000-05:00

Lightboxes are all the rage nowadays, and now that I have one I can see why. Photos taken in the lightbox are much clearer and brighter than the usual rigs I set up on my desk.

Construction was simple. I got two sheets of 20" x 30" foamcore, and cut them down to four 20" x 15" pieces. On three of them, I cut out a rectangle in the center, leaving a 2" border along each edge. I taped the four pieces together (with duct tape, of course) into a long box, and cut pieces from the cutout sections to fill the back. If the foamcore is colored on one side, make sure the white side is on the inside of the box. The open sides were covered with tissue paper cut to size, held in place with double-sided tape.

The box is held onto a cheap wooden tv tray with a pair of binder clips. Two cheap clip-on lamps provide the light; each has a 100W broad-spectrum bulb in it. Position the lamps so they are right against the tissue paper to ensure all the light goes into the lightbox instead of reflecting off the outside.

The backdrop is some light blue construction paper taped to a long piece of posterboard. You can use pretty much anything, as long as it's fairly long and can curve. That curved backdrop hides the corner at the back of the lightbox.

And, last, a cropped image of the figure. Right now I'm lacking a lamp for the top of the box. Placing another light there should take care of the shadows on each side of the figure.

Kishi House

2009-02-01T07:08:00.000-06:00

I did a few experiments with cork in the style of Matakishi's generic desert buildings, just to see how well it would work with the cheapo cork tiles you can get in Wal-Mart and Michaels. The first thing I found out is that the tiles you can buy at Michaels for US$10 per pack of four appear identical to the ones you can buy at Wal-Mart for $5 a pack. The tiles shown here I bought at a drugstore for about $5 a pack; they're the same brand as the ones at Wal-Mart, and appear to be identical, but the packaging is slightly different. Once I'm done with these four tiles I'll open up the one from Wal-Mart and see if there's a difference in how they cut.

The cork cut very easily, easier than foamcore. For the windows and doors I cut all the way through the cork, going from a corner to the center of that edge. 8 cuts per window, but it went quickly because I made all the "down" cuts on the sheet at once, then turned the sheet 90 degrees and made all the "left" cuts. And so on, until I'd turned the sheet full circle and could pop out the scrap from the windows. To make the long exterior cuts, I made three passes much like I would with foamcore. If I tried to cut all the way through in one pass it would tear out pieces of the cork, but using several light cuts resulted in smooth, clean edges. There was some mess, tiny (0.1mm or so) bits of cork that came free when I popped the windows out, but there's no visible effect on the edges.

I glued most of it together with superglue. A lot of superglue. Surprisingly, I only glued myself to the superglue tube once. Some parts were glued together with wood glue instead; they both work, but the superglue dries much faster, letting me assemble the pieces in much less time.

Matchsticks (from Michaels) provided the windowsills and ledges for the drop-in ceiling. The cork is 5mm thick; I glued lugs to the bottom of the second floor about 6mm in from the edges to help center it on the bottom floor. It goes on and off easily, while the roof takes some fiddling to set into place properly.

The base is a piece of compressed paper board that I got at Michaels. It's basically the same material as the back of a clipboard, and if I can find a supply of cheap clipboards I'll use them instead. I guess it's time to visit the dollar store again.

The workbench

2009-02-01T06:38:00.000-06:00

I've finally got everything moved into my house. While I'm still unpacking, I've finally got my workbench set up again.

I've also got a table to play games, now. The Jackson Gamers are without reliable gaming space at the moment (Dragon's Lair has closed, unfortunately) and I'm holding the wooden tabletops we have been using for a play surface there. Hopefully we'll have another place to use them, but for the moment they are set up in the "den" in my house.

Now I just have to get some stuff put together to run games with. :)

The first figures of the year: Carthagenians

2009-01-05T20:08:00.000-06:00

The local club is doing a group paint project, putting together aCarthagenian army for Field of Glory. The guy who bought the figs for the project said he wanted them "grimy", and I think I succeeded. My first unit of 20 (well, 19, one needs stripped and repainted after a tragic primer failure) are done. I may do a bit of highlighting on the spears and swords; I wish I'd noticed the need before I popped them off their holders.

These are 1/76 plastic figures, by I don't know who. They still need sealing and matte, but that'll have to wait until I get my spray booth in the new place and dig the spray cans out of whatever box they ended up in.

Plans for '09

2009-01-04T18:21:00.000-06:00

In the spirit of Matakishi and others, what I plan to do in the coming year:

More Aeronef. I've got a few more ships to paint up and I need to build some terrain, all for a club game mid-year.
Aliens and Colonial Marines. I ordered a pile of both from Wargames in their QRF clearance, and I have some paper terrain files from Ebbles Minis that I can scale to 15mm and build up. This will be run with THW's 5150 rules.
Star Wars. I've got a pile of SWMB figures I picked up last year, and I have a notion to run a Crossfire game with them.
Victorian Colonial Mars. This is a long fourth, and will likely end up a 2010 project instead (or even later). I've got some vague ideas for using TSaTF for British vs native battles on the Red Planet, but I haven't even decided what scale to use yet.

There. Now that I've divulged my plans, I'm sure that I'll end up getting none of this done and doing something completely unrelated.

The ever-popular spray booth

2008-11-04T18:08:00.000-06:00

So, I built a spray booth for airbrushing and spraypainting minis in a controlled environment. Of course, I didn't think to take any in-progress photos, but here are shots of the completed booth.

The cabinet is made from foamcore, and the ventilator is a cheap bathroom exhaust fan. Light comes from three small flourescent under-cabinet lights. The black strips around the fan cover are velcro; they hold a sheet of charcoal filter material in place.

Here is a shot of the back of the cabinet. A piece of 3" dryer duct attached to the fan housing directs exhaust out the window if I'm spraying something with fumes. Yes, that is duct tape holding the cabinet together. The tape on the fan housing isn't holding it in place; it's just sealing the gaps around the opening. For once I'm using duct tape for its intended purpose. :D

Another shot from the front of the cabinet. The filter is a standard furnace filter; behind it, held in place by the velcro strips, is a piece from a replacement charcoal filter for an air purifier.

The shape of the cabinet was driven by three things: the size of the air filter (14" x 24"), the size of the exhaust fan (and it's cover), and the space between them. I cut a piece of foamcore to the width of the filter sheet, then cut a hole near the bottom center of the sheet to fit the fan housing. The foamcore was scored above the fan hole to allow it to bend. On another sheet, I marked out the shape of the cabinet sides, based on the three important dimensions above.

Another sheet of foamcore, cut to the width of the filter, is the base of the cabinet. I taped the cut-out sides to the base. I taped the back of the sheet to the sides, then cut another slightly wider piece for the top and taped it in place.

The fan was wired to an extension cord. I'm using a power strip to switch it on and off at the moment; if needed, I'll wire it into a switchbox. After wiring, I fit the fan into place. Scraps of foamcore were stacked and taped into place below it to match the height of the hole. Last, other scraps were taped into place inside the cabinet as stops for the filter.

It seems to work well. We'll see how it performs once I start putting it to use. One important note: this fan's motor in the airflow. Using this setup with flammable solvents can be dangerous. If you use the same sort of fan for a similar project, be very careful with cans of spray paint.

And now the French

2008-10-08T19:35:00.000-05:00

And now the French 'Nef are also complete. I noticed some little things in the photos that I'll need to sort out, and both these and the British need clearcoats, but they're playable now.

As requested, I also took individual shots of all of the ships. Those pictures are below, first the British:

The Agincourt.

The Britannia.

Two Rawalpindi-class cruisers.

Two Cossacks and a Steadfast.

And, the French:

Two Formidabile cruisers

The Jeanne La Pucelle.

The L'Epee.

Two Descartes destroyers

Two Valliante destroyers.

British Aeronef

2008-10-05T14:40:00.001-05:00

I've been working on some Aeronef ships (Brigade Models figures) for a while now, and finally finished up the British fleet.

I figured people would be interested in the name placards. Here's how I made them. First, I made a table in a word processor, placing the flag images in each one. I gathered the names from lists of period ships (Thank you, Wikipedia) and filled them into the table. I then printed it onto a sheet of adhesive label and attached it to a piece of 0.010" plastic sheet.

I cut the placards out with a x-acto knife and straightedge, then glued them to pieces of 2mm plastic "L" beam.

Lastly I superglued them to the back of the ships's bases.