Been busy, but actually used my time wisely...

Been pretty busy since my last post. We moved from the suburbs to the City, drove down to Austin, Texas for a week’s vacation and started new jobs.  Living in Chicago is great, so much to see and do. I also like the fact that I can walk to the grocery store, liquor store, library and restaurant. Did I mention there is also a small brewery about four blocks away? Just too good to be true!

I did manage to finish three Scotia Grendel Dungeon Creatures since the move. I picked them up sometime in the 90’s (I think?). They’ve been primed/painted/stripped several times. I wanted to paint something fantasy based but am trying to steer away from the really small stuff. They’re cast in a grey resin, surprisingly well detailed and even though they’re game based pieces, they’re not tiny.  Their latest paint job had been at the hand of my son when he was maybe six or seven. I put them in a zip-lock of Purple-Power All-Purpose Cleaner and once stripped of paint, primed them with flat black and started painting.

Once I got into a painting groove, each creature only took me a night or two to complete. I then used JB Weld two-part epoxy to attach them to a small section of finished oak and went to town on the groundwork. I think they turned out pretty good.

  

I also tackled a Scotia Grendel "Lesser Goblin Horde". I bought this around the same time that I bought the three Dungeon Creatures and its nothing but a big-chunk-of-resin. Like the creatures, it had a few false starts followed by a numerous baths in oven cleaner. Anyhow, I finally decided to give it a go. 

To be honest, it was a pain-in-the-ass to paint. The shields weren't too bad (just a freakin' ton of them!), but the goblins drove me crazy. They're everywhere and some are sculpted well and others are half-assed. At first, I was going to paint them green, just like everyone else does. This is the Games Workshop influence on goblin painting. I got real geeky and Googled "goblins" and was rewarded (odd term, but it works) with images from GW and "Lord of the Rings" (LOTR).  The LOTR goblins looked just right: disgustingly putrid. 

The GW goblins look clownish, I wanted something that would reflect the goblins true nature—sneaky, cowardly and prone to bouts of excessive theft. Now, it’s impossible to portray these attributes with paint, but the flesh-like colors I used did a better job than green (or something like that).  The kit came with a couple of spears and swords that were intended to be sticking out of the mass. Of course I misplaced them, so I had to come up with something to fill the holes. One is a banner made from plastic rod, wire and lead foil and the other is just a piece of plastic rod fashioned to resemble a sharp stick. I’m not 100% happy with the way the paint job on the banner came out — I may go back and redo it. 

I put it on a base, used tile grout/adhesive for the groundwork, covered that with fine sand, added sections of dilapidated fence plus some dried plants and it was done. Now on to other things...

RJH

10.2.13

Finnish FT-17 and Alpine Russian Tank Commander – Part One

About 15 years ago (give or take a few years), a friend sent me a copy of a fantastic book on Finnish armored vehicles: Suomalaiset Panssarivaunut 1918-1997 (The Finnish Armoured Vehicles) by Esa Muikku and Jukka Purhonen .  This book is superb, it has both black and white and color photo's along with several pages of color plates. If you like your armor outside the box, track this book down, you won't be disappointed.

Back then, I was just an obsessed armor builder and this book was a great addition to my reference library. Anyhow, one of the pictures from the Winter War always intrigued me—it’s a photo of a FT-17 dug in as a bunker/observation point.

The Finns had a couple of companies of FT-17’s during the Winter War.  Very few saw any action — the Russians captured most of them in February 1940 — they were still on the railcars that had transported them to the front. The few remaining tanks that weren't picked up by the Soviets were dug in as strong-points with the main guns removed.  Over the years, I’ve searched to the point of ridiculousness trying to find another picture of a dug-in FT-17 in Finnish service. I’ve seen one or two, but they were tourist style picture taken in 1942-1943 during the spring/summer/fall (no snow on the ground).  So, I finally gave up my search and decided to plunge ahead and build a small vignette with a dug-in FT-17 and a Russian officer standing nearby. I used RPM’s FT-17 and Alpine’s #35039 Russian Tank Commander.

I used the RPM FT-17 because it was cheap—I paid about $10.00 for it.  It’s pretty basic as a kit with not a lot of parts and decent detail.  Perfect for what I was going to do. All I needed was the upper hull and turret—everything else is buried. The turret is completely empty — the guns (from what I can tell, all of the FT-17’s that were dug in were armed with heavy machine guns) were removed prior to being dug in. This made things much easier for me, all I needed to do was paint the interior flat black and I was good to go. I also had to add rivets to the turret using my Waldron punch and die set. It was mildly dull, but came out pretty good (and yes, I forgot to take pictures of the unpainted turret after I added the rivets...oh well).

In the picture, the right rear engine deck has been opened and the engine is exposed. I used some Evergreen plastic structural shapes to cobble together a basic interior and then went to the scrap box for a radiator and engine. The radiator is from a long-gone Emhar German A7V (WWI German tank) and the engine is from Tamiya’s 1/35 Jeep.

I added a bunch of “engine looking” stuff to beef up the look of the engine. I found a ton of pictures of Renault engines on the Internet, so I had something to go with. I never intended on building an exact replica of the engine, just something that looked “good” once it was painted/weathered and in the engine bay. I used a section of guitar string to replicate the radiator hose (which is broken/disconnected).

Stay tuned (or whatever we call waiting for some lazy-ass to post on his blog) for the ongoing saga of the Finnish FT-17.

RJH
5.1.13

Drying plants for groundwork

Nothing represents a plant on a figure base like a real plant. Unfortunately, most real plants have the tendency to dry-up and crumble after a few days, if not weeks, when glued to a base. In the past, I had a pretty good collection of dried plants in my groundwork stash, but time and several moves have taken their toll. I now find myself completely out of dried plants and I’m too cheap to order them online. So, what’s a cheap-ass like me to do? Dry my own plants! I live in Northern Illinois (western suburbs of Chicago to be precise) and the small plants that can be picked and dried for the sake of groundwork are minimal. But, by a stroke-of-luck, I found these funky little fern-like things growing in by backyard between my garage and storage shed.

My first adventure in plant drying/preserving was with glycerin. Picked up a bottle at CVS (and damn if it wasn’t expensive, something like $9.00).

Picked a bunch of plants, filled the container with a mix of water and glycerin and then dumped the plants in. I let it sit for a few days and then pulled the plants out of the mixture.

Nothing.

The glycerin turned the plants into a bunch of curled-up rubbery blobs. Back-to-the-drawing-board. I went online a Googled “drying plants.” It amazes me on how many articles there are on drying reefer. After skipping past the drying your own dope sites, I found one that suggested using sand to dry the plants.

Viola!

I had plenty of sand; in fact, I had some sand that was drier than the floor of Death Valley. This was sand that I’ve has since the mid 70’s. It’s very important to use sand that is totally dry. If not, you end up with a mess similar to the water and glycerin experiment. Over my many years of modeling, I’ve collected various sand samples to use for groundwork. I had an empty water full of sand from a beach in California while visiting my brother seven years ago. You’d think it would have dried out by now.

Nope.

Ruined another batch of plants on that one. Then, I had a bag of “decorative sand” and I thought that this was dry too. No such luck. It must have some chemical in it that attracts moisture-when I removed the plants from the sand, I ended up with something that looked earthworms coated with sand.

So, after destroying numerous leaves, I went with the extremely dry sand and the results were much better. Here’s what I ended up doing:

Pick plants

Leave a bit of sand on the bottom and then add a layer of plants and then cover with sand. If there’s plants and sand left, add another layer of plants and cover with remaining sand. Remember, plants must completely covered so all the moisture is wicked out.

Make sure the container has a secure lid (especially if you have nosy pets) and set it to the side for at least 10 days. I put a Post-It with the date on the lid so I can remember when I put the plants in the sand. After the 10 days or so, pour off some of the sand and using a pair of tweezers, gently remove the plants from the sand. 

After that pulling the plants out of the sand, a light misting of medium green paint and you’re good to go. The paint gives them a bit more strength and adds some depth in appearance. I have a couple of cans of Testors spray paint in various shades of green that are perfect for this. There is no need to bust out the airbrush (unless you’re just like that), the paint from the rattle can will do the job.

So far this is the only type of plant I've dried in the sand. Everything else in my backyard looks too big. This spring/summer I'm going to explore some of the nearby nature preserves/parks and see in I can find anything of interest. 

RJH

2.21.13