Weekly Workbench 26 Feb 2017

So this week I came up with a weekly schedule for myself to help both focus and diversify my work to keep from burn out.  Monday is to work on my historical armies, primarily Bolt Action and soon Test of Honor miniatures when they come out; Tuesday I publish the tutorial posts as I have Cub Scouts that night as well; Wednesday I work on Sci/Fi with a focus on Beyond the Gates of Antares and Doctor Who: Into the Time Vortex; Thursdays is a wash due to other commitments; Friday I delve into Fantasy with a heavy focus on The Hobbit/Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game.  As I usually only have 60 to 90 minutes a night I devout to painting/building the weekend allows me to hit bigger projects or finish things up as I see fit.

Bolt Action:

Monday I dug out my Bolt Action army case and pulled out a Browning .30cal Machine Gun Team Firing and a 60mm Light Mortar Team.  Already primed in Army Painter Army Green Color Primer I did the flesh and eyes.

Bolt Action USMC .30cal MG Team and Medium Mortar Teams

Today, I pulled out some of the figures I had mostly completed about nine months ago and started to base them.  The terrain is done, I will be adding flock and paint as needed next now that the Okinawa sand is sealed.  As happy as I was with these figures I have seen some improvement in my skill and definitely would like to update these, though they are perfectly great for tabletop standard.  I will probably do some highlight on the skin to lighten them up some.

Bolt Action USMC various

Beyond the Gates of Antares:

Ghar Assault Squad member front

Wednesday, I initially broke out my Boromite Work Gang and Boromite Gang Fighters but realized the base coat/primer of The Army Painter Skeleton Bone was too light for the scheme I was now looking to do.  So they went into the jars of Simple Green and I started work on a single Ghar Assault Squad member to figure out a color scheme, settling on Blue and Black.

Ghar Assault Squad member rear

Saturday, I pulled out the Boromites and scrubbed them down, first with an old toothbrush and then with a wire brush wheel on my Dremel. I then proceeded to glue heads back on bodies and bodies onto bases with some Gorilla Super Glue.

Boromite Gang Fighters

Today, I took them outside and primed them with Testor's Model Master Grey Primer.

Boromite Work Gang

Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game:

Radagast front

Friday, I worked some on Radagast and almost completed him today.  I just have some touch ups on the model and finish the hedgehog, staff head, and base.  I think he is coming along nicely, though I do not enjoy the scenic base as much as it is a pain to get to all the parts to paint.

Radagast rear

Today, I added the sand to Gandalf's figure and will likely add the flock when I do the Bolt Action figures as well.

Gandalf

Also today, I primed Gollum, who, while not part of the Escape from Goblin Town set, will be added to the end of the tutorials as you cannot have Goblin Town without Gollum.  The stinker did not take the primer well though and I will have to go back for a second light coat.

Gollum

Lots of different things going on in each genre this week.  I would guess in about two weeks everything will be settled down and I will hopefully be getting single models completed each week or majority portions of a squad size units completed each week.  Hope you enjoyed and remember to click on the pictures for a larger view.  See you Tuesday for Kili's tutorial and feel free to leave some comments.

Weekly Workbench 11 Feb 2017

So, in order to have a more timely posting schedule (though, with the Hobbit Tutorials, I have 16 more weeks of posts in the hopper), I am going to start this weekly feature showing what I have going on during the past week.  This should come out on Saturday nights or Sunday mornings while the Tutorials will remain on Tuesdays until I run out.

First up, I finished all 13 dawarves of Thorin's Company to include basing.  All that is left is putting the overcoat to seal everything.  This will take place tomorrow when temps climb back into the 60's.

All that remains for the Escape from Goblin Town set (other than catwalk terrain) is Gandalf the Grey and the special Radagast the Brown miniature.  Those will be getting hit up this week and then I think I will start painting my Beyond the Gates of Antares' Boromites and Ghar finally.

Seeing as we were out at the Fredricksburg Expo and Convention Center for an event I stopped by Hobby Lobby and picked up some supplies:
-Model Master Gray Primer is what I usually use when not using The Army Painter colored primers.
-Model Master Lacquer Overcoat (Flat) is what I use to seal my miniatures now that I am back in the US (I used Tamiya in Okinawa).
-Tamiya Extra Thin Cement, I usually use the regular but they did not have it and I was almost out after a spill.  When I got home the top was stuck on and I crushed and broke the top off trying to get it unstuck.  So now it resides in the regular Tamiya Cement bottle after cutting down the brush to fit.
-Vallejo Retarder Medium, now that Thorin's Company is done and I have a bunch of standard figures (Ghar, Boromites, USMC, IJA, Wargs, ect.) requiring mass painting I want to try something besides water to thin and keep the paints wet on my pallet much longer.  The Army Painter finally came out with a Warpaints Mixing Medium, which is good as their paints (with the exception of Matt Black) tend to be thick, and I am looking forward to getting some of their's soon.
-2 x Hobby Brush Sets.  I bought a set originally for the four year old to paint his Reaper Bones figures with, found they worked as well if not better than the ProArte and Army Painter brushes at a fraction of the cost I decided to pick up a couple more packs and so I could stop being told how I am stealing his brushes every time he comes into the room.

Last item worked on this week is my LCM (6) from Sarissa Precision.  I got this for Christmas two years ago but did not want to assemble it before leaving Okinawa for fear of it getting damaged in the move.  It was a little beat up when I finally found it today buried in a box of books still waiting to be unpacked but went together fine and looks good.  I was reminded of it as one of this week's EWS lesson was on all the "L" ships for Navy.  Looking forward to landing my M3 "Satan" Flame Tank against some Japanese defenders in Bolt Action with it.

See you all next week!