The heat of summer

 Summertime in the city

This summer is seeing hot and humid weather come and go so my normal terrain building binge is smaller this year, I normally use spray cans for terrain and spray outside. But in the heat I managed to hit the Iron Maiden concert at Tinley Park, with Ghost opening.  An awesome show!
We had another painting challenge and even though my output this month is less, I predict a big pile of completed items next month.  Here's what was accomplished this month:
 I completed 6 1/600 non-combatants from PT Dockyard.  They were based up like my other ships and I just used boring names like "750tn coaster" instead of coming up with actual names, more generic that way?   I also tried out some soldering on the masts.  I've had bad luck with pieces breaking off my minis, after they were painted and done, and it's a drag.  So instead of using the supplied rod I took thin brass and knocked together some sturdier ones.  My soldering skills are very rough but hopefully with more practice it'll get better.

The rest of the new stuff.  We have 7 French 1/2400 GHQ destroyers (labels are on them now) for Naval Thunder; battleships are next for the French.  I also finished some 6mm sci-fi tanks from Adler/Darkest Star that I've had in bags for about 7 years.  There are 3 pieces of 6mm modern UK microarmor that were done.  These were bought in 1986 at GenCon and I've painted them 3 times already.  This is their final strip and repaint and will show up in some what-if Cold War games.  The garbage cans are resin from Scenic Express and will be used for scatter terrain, nothing fancy but useful.

 I finally got decals on my Timmee 1/48 AC130.  I found an old set of Microscale gunship decals among my modelling stuff and threw them on.  They aren't "historically accurate" for this particular bird but the bird is a plastic army plane with imaginary guns.  I think it dresses it up nicely.

I put the "Ghost Rider" nose art on it.  The big seam line is pretty pronounced on this toy and since the plastic is flexible it doesn't go away easily.  I could have gone all out on it but it's a game piece and if I put in that amount of time it'd never see time in a game.  

In progress...

  Here's what's in the pipeline so far.  My wife challenged me to build buildings for my imagi-nation modern Africa so work begins.  These are 2 foamcore buildings I started.  They'll get time in my 28mm games and will be generic enough to possibly fit into colonial games as well.  They need some paint and extras (doors, awnings, etc) but a few more of these and I'll have a nice base for commandos to raid.

While working on the buildings I thought I'd knock together some brick buildings for it, but realized I needed a few more.  Casting time!  And since I was messing around with my Hirst arts molds why not order his new brick sets and some sci-fi ones?  I don't like scribing brickwork but also don't want to always have to buy brick buildings.  These fit that middle ground nicely.  Shipping from Hirst was fast, I know there's more to order.

An MDF ruin that was sitting on my shelf for years came out of storage and was constructed.  Some rubble was glued on and I'll add a bit more of detail.  

The last 2 sections of my Hudson & Allen castle awaiting some dry brushing.  They were washed along with some homemade scatter terrain and an O scale RR building.  

The corral for 28mm western games.  It's mdf fencing from Gamecraft minis.  

More stripped down micro armor primed and ready for paint.  The 6mm pile is slowly going down.

A closer shot of one of the African buildings.  The roof is towel glued to a cardboard frame and is removable.  

Another challenge completed!!!!

 Picture time!

We had another painting challenge for the month and I cranked through some more bits and pieces that have been sitting on the desk.  Some minis even got a final coat of paint and basing after 30 years!
     Here's part of the finished items for the month (missing are the 30+ UFOs painted and magnets on, and some planes).  The gaming table is currently cluttered with my reorganization of storage containers, so this was an open and flat space available.  By the way, the blue box is a photo album "container" that Michael's sells. They are about 3" tall and 15x15 inches, and they usually go on sale for a couple of dollars each.  They don't have interior dividers but if your minis don't travel far they work out pretty well, and they stack.

In the pic are (top left and clockwise): 4 1/300 mi-24a's, some extra 1/1200 zeros (3 others are on a base ready for a game along with a Betty), 1/300 resin church, a bunch of 1/2400 ships, and the black-metallic thing is my observation chamber/death ray housing for the secret base.  It was part of the 1/32 plastic toy soldier space set.
      Now some close ups.  These are the mi-24s.  I have magnets on the bottom so these stands are temporary, some CorSec Engineering ones are coming that are my usual game stands (powerful magnets and multiple base sizes).  The rotors were cut from a thick plastic tray we had at work for printer toner.  They were in a bundle of 20 and were getting tossed, so home they came.  It was thick enough to use the circle cutter on since the center point didn't drift like it does with thing plastic  The tail rotor was punched out.  The windows look a bit "modelly" but they look like windows and that's what I need.  The red stars on the side are from I-94 and the numbers (green for these, on the tail boom) came from MSD, they have a good selection of plane decals.  

  In the background is the resin church I've had stashed, originally bought from ODGW when they discontinued their resin terrain line.  I picked up a damaged and undamaged version of it and some other buildings.  The front right has a GHQ 1/2400 Tarantul and on the left is a 1/2400 Juliet.  I picked those up in Norfolk, VA back in '89 while visiting a friend stationed there; I was at MCAS New River.  Harpoon was the game they were intended for but as many owners of Harpoon can attest to, it's not always easy to find opponents for a quick game.  So they sat and sat.  I based them in the same manner as the 1/2400 WWII ships we use for Naval Thunder, 1cm wider and 1cm longer than the mini.  The labels were printed on some label sheets and affixed to plastic strip.  I think this will be their final paint job.

    Some more 1/2400 ships, this time French WWII destroyers. 

   The last update is that I received my Bones III kickstarter order from Reaper!  I got the core set along with some bigger pieces (giants, giant maw, nyarlathotep, stonehenge type shrine).  A lot of minis that were definitely a bargain.  A lot of RPG types were in the set but I can use those for warband games like Frostrgrave, Blood Eagle, etc.  I have a nice Lizardman group and of course the giants will be seeing combat against vikings.  It's a lot of minis so I don't think I'll get into another Bones until or unless I make some serious headway on these. 

Upcoming:  

   I hope to start up another painting challenge to keep churning out the pieces.  There are 6 1/600 freighters in progress now and I'm toying with the idea of picking up some photo-etch for the next batch of 1/600 boats.  They could add some nice detail to the models but they could also be an exercise in frustration.  There are only a handful of aftermarket sets for 1/600 and it will be good practice before I start up on 1/700 ships.  

Odds and Ends part 2....

Some work in progress (wip) pics of pieces and minis I worked on over the winter are next to be covered.  I've read a lot of how-to articles that used electrical boxes (plastic ones for outlets) to make buildings, equipment, and other game pieces that use a lot of 90 degree corners.  I picked up 5 at our local hardware store (Menard's) and after sitting for a few months started work on them.  I'm a 6mm and 28mm gamer so these first ones are for my secret underground base, that covers WWII to sci-fi, to act as power plants and other much needed machinery.  Years ago I picked up a Waldron punch set, pricey but very useful, for my 1/35 modelling but never had much use for it until now.  I also grabbed a punch set from Amazon that handles bigger circles (very nice for my 1/300 WWII plane props).  Scrap plastic, some old wiring bits, and various plastic pieces helped flesh out the boxes.  Here are the wip shots:

Some model pieces jazz up the top and you can make out some of the punched plastic (hex and circle).

The bottom piece is part of an X-Wing counter sheet and the big gray piece is the back-end of a soviet brdm kit by Dragon.

More model pieces and scrap plastic to jazz up the other side.

Bits of wire, some old model pieces and punched plastic make the "control" end of the generator.  The whole thing gets a coat of primer (I use the same hardware store, Menard's, brand of primer/paint) and then i worked on it with my airbrush.  Pics to follow.

For a Christmas present I ordered from Europe.  In addition to an order from Greenstuffworld I grabbed up some goodies from Puppets War.  

The whole haul!

Odds and Ends:

 It's time to cover some of the odds and ends for my gaming hobby.  I'lll start with plastic toy soldier equipment.  For 28mm gaming these tend to work out well, size wise, and some are to an actual scale.  After priming and painting them they look fine on the table and if they're the right item you don't need to do modifications to them. 

M48 tank and cheapo truck, both from the C130 set.

 I picked up this boat along with a space set for a project.  I picked this up off ebay with another set for about $29, quite a deal considering the price and availability of 28mm sized boats.  The boat isn't being worked on right now but this summer the dremel comes out and the modifications begin.  The missiles that came with it are way oversized, as is the launcher, but they'll be useful for something else.  The bridge is too small so I'm planning on moving the exhaust stack to the back end, taking the top of the bridge and remaking it. 

 Here are some of the extra pieces that came with the boat.  The radar mast is the most useful for me since I don't have to make one.

 An overhead shot showing the 2 side guns.  The green bar in back has an unknown use although it does turn.  The small boats are way too small for my use but they're going to hit the chopping block for some naval wrecks.  The midsection of the ship is going to be filled in a bit because there are steps but those are too small. 

 Some shots with a ruler in case anyone decides to get one.  The ship will become a heavy patrol boat for my African imagination.

 This was the other set I got with the boat, a space control set.  All of these pieces will work for my secret base project.  Only one, the radar console, will get much work; the other pieces get paint and they're done. 

 These 3 pieces immediately had a use when I saw them.  The middle item will be my German teleporter project.  These will work for weird war 2 through sci-fi.  They aren't super detailed but right out of the bag they work.  I'll just paint and decal them. 

Little Wars prep :

We're on to another month-long painting challenge and I'm in 13 into the 35 I'm shooting for!  Today is also the prep day for Little Wars, we leave tonight for the whole weekend.  We had another play through of Monster Island last night and it helped iron out some things plus we all had lots of laughs.  If I'm able to I'll have pics throughout the weekend!

Back to the table...

After a bit of a break I finally got back to the painting table!  Playing in games has been continuous but actually finishing stuff on the workbench took a hit.  Getting a PS4 and XCOM2 didn't help one bit, but it almost counts as a wargame.  We had a local painting challenge for the last month and it ends today, 4/15/17.  Not a contest but a motivator to get unfinished items done or start on another scoop from the lead pile, I did a little of both.  Here's what it came to when the sealer had dried:

20 pieces micro-armor: 10xPzkvwIVF2, 5 Valentines, 5 StugIII

6 28mm mounted normans

2 28mm foot normans

4 28mm TAG SWAT

7 28mm Vikings

Nazi Bell terrain piece

Another terrain piece for the secret bunker

10 flights of 1/1200 IJN planes (3 planes on each stand)

3 28mm big salamander things for prehistoric

2 28mm Giant wolves from Ramshackle

2 28mm Dire rats from Reaper

10 scratchbuilt gold piles for Frostgrave

Pics of the achievement:

Treasure tokens and secret base items

Kaga, Shokaku, Hiryu from GHQ based for Naval Thunder

Valentines, PZIV's, and some stugs

1/300 US Army helos, Kiowas and Apaches

Close up of the apaches.

Conquest Games Mounted Normans

1/1200 IJN planes, 2 Reaper dire rats, and 2 Ramshackle games dire wolves.

4 TAG SWAT, 2 Foundry Vikings, 2 BTD Normans, 4 Gripping Beast Vikings

To the rack with you!!!!!

    When it comes to paint I'm a fan of Vallejo, Andrea, and Mig (some Testors & Tamiya as well).  The nipple top isn't too bad and a long pin keeps the small hole clean.  One issue is when the paint runs out there can be a good amount left in the bottom of the bottle, and with the price of paint that was money I'd rather not just toss out.  I used to construct make-shift paint holders out of other paint jars so I could leave the near empty bottle upside down and allow the paint to ooze to the top of the bottle.  After a while my desk was cluttered with these obstacles and something had to give.  Test tube holder to the rescue!!!  At the local American Science & Surplus (an awesome store for the modeller, gamer, and hobbyist), in the medical container section, they had plastic test tube holders for $5 US.  I probably would throw out more than that in paint if I didn't try to get it all out.  It fits bottles of Vallejo, Reaper, Andrea, and Mig well enough that they don't fall out and it lets you have a store of soon to be empty bottles within easy reach but out of the way.  Here's what it looks like:

In it's green glory!

It has 40 square openings and is lightweight, the color is a nice laboratory green.

view from the top

Here are some soon-to-be-empty bottles taking up residence.  The bottles do sit at a slight angle but that's as far as they move.

Side

 

Now a better view of the depth it has.  I've been using this and one other like it (only holds 6) for six months now and it works for me.  Every last bit of paint won't be captured but I'm able to cut down on wasted paint going in the garbage.