Well, more than one.
It's Tuesday, 32 outside so I guessed Milliput would dry pretty damn quick today. Using the foam I glued in earlier as a base I layered in Brown Milliput and went to town with some tools. Nothing too neat, I don't have time or energy for that and it's just a scenic piece. Also started filling in the gaps on the base with some detailing in places. It's now drying and I'll get back to it in the weekend.
I'm having fun.
Right, the GI's are on track and can wait for a few days till I clean all the bases.
Grabbed some scenery for 28mm Stalker I had been working on before the move. I finally found a proper star punch at the Goodwill a few weeks back so I put that to good use (and found out my big round punch is on it's last legs so need to keep a lookout for those). Used that for the monument (basically a sports throphy with the tacky symbol (literally a sticker) and the much too big base removed). Will be painted concrete and weather paint as just another of the gazillion ones you see around Russia. LOS blocker and all that.
Also finished the sanding work on the 15mm Gazebo dome. And then decideed to fill in the MDF connectors between the panel sides as well but that's for another day.
I picked up several of of the SP Guard Houses. Simple kits, cheap, with great conversion potential.
When my built one came out of storage I noticed the roof was badly warped. I looked at ways to fix it but in the end decided not to bother and just make a new roof. I've got the skills and the tools, and in an hour I punched out this. Scrap foam, ribbed card and a strip of plain cardboard forma cereal box. Didn't go all out for the panels, I can just paint them that way. Added a star was well, but won't paint it too overly Russian. Red star and some baby blue details. A few scrap Russian newspapers around, and when I finally get furniture for it that can get the same treatment. Roof can be reversed to change the look a bit, always nice to increase usability. I found some proper thick transparancies so might even glass the windows.
And cause I could, I grabbed some 15mm railing that I cut of from the 15mm factory add ons and changed that into a steel grate door with kick panels. Just need to find my bag with fine metal chain that hasn't popped up after the move (yet) to put a chain lock on that door.
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| Well, maybe not a truck.... |
Yes, another fresh start.
Since my last pots a lot, and I really do mean a lot of things have changed. I've moved to another (sleepy) village, have a house now with rooms for the kids, an attic, a garden, my own driveway....and no gaming room.
I made the conscious choice not to invest time, effort and money in a dedicated games room. My girls, bless their little hearts, offered up a room for it so they would share the other one, but that would not be right. They turned 11 a few weeks ago and need their own space, their own privacy and place to just close the door and be themselves. And we have that sorted now, talked with them what they wanted, where and how....and the rooms are lovely (no pics, their space, their privacy)
Moving has been anything but fun (as anyone who ever moved knows all too damned well) and giving everything a a spot while trawling the recycling centers for furniture was .....interesting.
But (besides the odd box of 2) I'm as good as done. The girls settled in, my stresslevel is now at a manaeagble level instead of 120% and my health is....well, still shit, but hey, change.
Right, hobby wise, also change. Switching from from 20mm to 15mm is in process, started selling off stuff. Picked up a 15mm WW2 US Army (by car, not going through the mail again for that). Picked up a used display cabinet and set that up for "motivational purposes", picked up 2 older Billy cabinets for my rules and reference books, and none of this stuff is downstairs.
The only thing left to do is change my hobby/pc desk into a purely pc desk (this one will be replaced for a smaller one) and then I'm done. From now on, the kitchen table is my hobby table for gaming and building and painting. And what a lovely table it is. 100x160, easily extendable to 240. More importantly, forces me to clean up at the end of the evening. See, I'm smartz.
For the next 3 months I've got an open house each tuesday evening for friends to drop in to build and paint stuff and just chat. Motivation for them, motivation for me. Last night Sjors dropped by (no longer a 30 minute drive but 10 minutes by bike), he worked on his book niche display and I managed to clean up a full platoon for Nam68. Sanded all the bases, added notes to the pockets, planned out a few conversions (yes, in 15mm, I'm still me after all), and will need to toss a bunch of coins in the ultrasonic cleaner later today to prep the basing work.
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| Miniature planning or crack dealer? |
Really looking forward to the (hobby) future now....God knows it's been pretty bad in the last few years. Body is still effed, I can barely make out the models with my left eye, hand hurt and i take more pills daily than the average Raver.....but we can do this!
More, somewhere in the future.
After much, much contemplation I finally gave in and decided to purchase 2 15mm painted armies for 1945. I bought a very nicely painted German one and have dibs on a large Russian one.
The German army arrived today, and....
Nothing was wrapped, everything has damage, chips, broken parts.
Ah, life is fun. So much.....fun.
I received a partial refund and lot's of help online. I'll sell off the parts I don't need as is, and strip the remainder after my move and then send it out to friends.
And now I can use some sleep. What a day.
This months build over at the AK-47 group is themed to Checkpoint.
Any kind of checkpoint. No specific rules but at least one Peter Pig figure, vehicle or knick knack should be included...goes without saying really.…
Well, I ordered up some SCW models and heads from Minairons (who also sells Peter Pig). And I like challenge, so here I go.
Used a Israeli para jeep, snipped off the drivers head and replaced it with a Officers cap and removed the insignia. Also filled in the Peter Pig scream with some putty and a fresh scalpelblade so he would finally shut up. De-legged (just the right one) a kneeling SCW commander cause I liked his pose, and pinned him into place so I could sculpt him a new leg. Added a cover over the wheel for some reason, and added a police light. So that's the Police vehicle done and ready for primer.
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And with that, my entire sunday afternoon was just gone. And I managed to make the entrance to a British base cause I fudged up the locations of the guard shacks. Oh well.
Seperate bases as always, so I can use them singular or with different widths of road. The centre section is shelter for the days the weather sucks and is made from card laminated with a sheet of paper rubber banded to my 25mm shell till it set to get that nice curve. The outside colums are just there to hold a few signs and posters of our beloved General Admiral Aladeen, long may he rule.
As always, funny how I spend good cash on models and then just use scrap stuff all the time, but ey....that's me I guess.
13 days to go get em finished and table ready.
Cobbled together a Technical using the 1:100 Revell Rocketpod (B-8V20A 20 shot launcher) and some spare bits of plastic and the Battlefront American militia truck. Excellent combo. Want to get primer on this asap.
Trying my best with 1 fucntional eye, 1 crappy brush (cause I'll be damned where my box of brushes is) and working 1 hour each evening. Quick pic of this for 15mm Vietnam. More later.
