Time for a Desk Tidy

Sometimes you have to admit your hobby space needs a good tidy. Jeremey takes us through his latest tidy attempt and subsequent creation.

If I spent as much time actually painting as I did tidying up my hobby desk I would have defeated the lead pile by now.
My current hobby desk is a 1940’s bureau I got from the local charity shop. It has a number of spaces for putting your letter writing paraphernalia, but plenty of potential for hobby related equipment.
I originally bought a couple of desk tidy/pen holders for my paint brushes, files and sculpting tools. They worked but as you can see there was a lot of wasted space in the desk.

The original desk tidy units

During the latest desk tidy session I suddenly hit on the idea of getting something that made better use of the desk spaces. I tried finding other pen style holders that would fit better but couldn’t find anything suitable.

Interlocking EVA foam floor mats

It was at that point I decided to make my own. I decided to make some boxes out of foam floor mats since the contents would not be that heavy and the desk tidy pieces themselves didn’t need to be too robust, just survive being pulled out like draws.

The finished boxes loaded with paintbrushes, files, sculpting tools, knives, cutters, basically everything I need at my finger tips

I started by making simple boxes and stuck them together using the hot glue gun. I measured the space available to ensure the boxes used up all the space available. Once that was done I got out all of the items I wanted to store and cut internal foam pieces (again stuck on with the hot glue gun) to create the various spaces for my equipment. The last thing was to add a handle so I could pull out the boxes.

The first one worked so well I made a second (slightly better than the first, shown on the left), which meant I could have on the desk even more equipment I’d previously put away in other draws. I’m now wondering if I can build myself a rack for my paint pots out of the foam!

WIP Wednesday 01/09/2021

A tad late today, apologies all. This week the vast majority of work was done by Eric, with one small addition from Tony. Where’s everyone else gone?

Eric says his painting mojo has really sunk it’s teeth into him at the moment, and he’s been prolific in his output. First up is Inquisitor Greyfax from Warhammer 40k, Eric says she’s a work in progress, and will make a great “psyker” captain for Stargrave in addition to appearing in his 40K army.

Inquisitor Greyfax

Next, an old piece of scenery he finally got round to paying attention to.

Ruined Cathedral?
Some random robot that was found in the desert just before the locals decided to handball him on to their transport. Will likely serve as a data loot cache marker for Stargrave.
Stargrave R2D2 data marker
And for a complete change of direction, some Roman Legionaries.
Early Imperial Romans

Back to the Sci Fi theme, a small Adeptus Astartes Reiver squad for either 40k or Kill Team (maybe Stargrave, who knows?)

Adeptus Astartes Reiver squad
And 3 x runners/recruits for Stargrave and a robot. The runners were kitbashed from 40k spares, the robot is based on Claptrap from Borderlands. Model by Crooked Dice Games.
Stargrave Runners and Robot

And, finally from Eric, some Stargrave Loot markers.

Stargrave Loot markers

It’s not quite an Eric monopoly this week, Tony has finished a few figures. He’s decided to start on Thorin’s Company, so here are Thorin, James Nesbitt Bofur and Gandalf.

Thorin, Bofur and Gandalf.

That’s it for this week, hopefully we’ll be back on schedule next Wednesday.

Driftin’ Along

Tony F builds a shuttle craft…

Inspired by the imminent arrival of Osprey’s new Stargrave rulebook, Marcus suggested that we have a shuttle scratchbuilding contest (this was several months ago, the book is of course out now). Although the rules are aimed at 28mm figures, this very loose ‘contest’ was for 15mm models.

A while ago I saw a 15mm scale spaceship made from a Nerf rifle on Facebook – it was probably the size of a corvette or small frigate. While I had no desire to make anything that big, the idea still seemed sound for a much smaller vessel made from a pistol or similar. So I picked up an X-Shot branded gun from a supermarket for a fiver … which then sat untouched in its box for over a year. The shuttle building competition seemed like the ideal time to dig it out and make something of it.

I started by dismantling it (it was held together by screws) and removing the trigger, grip and the spring mechanism that propelled the rubber projectiles. This left me with just three pieces – the triple barrel and the two body halves, which I superglued back together. The screw holes were filled with green stuff which I tried to hide as best I could by sculpting in detail to match the surrounding area. The plan was to turn the pistol round so that the gun barrels became the engines and the cockpit would somehow be grafted onto the trigger end. This was all a very vague concept, since I had no idea of the details and what I was going to use to make it all (this make-it-up-as-I-went-along theme ran through the whole build…).

I had to tidy up a couple of bits – I took a razor saw to what would be the nose and removed a protruding bit of plastic, which I covered with a hatch from a Games Workshop vehicle. The hole where the grip came out was boxed in with plasticard with a view to becoming a well for the nose landing gear.

After hunting through my spares box for a suitable aircraft cockpit I came up blank, so in the end I built a simple frame around a curved protrusion which should look like a cockpit when painted up.

Engines were my next issue. Try as I might, in my extensive pile of half-built kits I could not find three identical engines to cover the three muzzles of the original gun. I did find two Mirage-III engines which I used for the lower two. For the upper, central engine I found a rather odd finned one which came from a Japanese spaceship kit. I rationalised the different designs by designating the lower two as the sublight drives, while the upper one is the ship’s FTL or Jump drive.

The final major subassembly that I had to work out was the landing gear – it would have to be robust enough to hold the weight of the ship and stand up to the rigours of gameplay. I’d originally planned to scratchbuild something with skids or feet along the lines of the Millennium Falcon, but during my various delves through my kit pile I came across the landing gear of a 1/48th Rafale which looked like it would work. Having wheels rather than skids also made sense as it would make the shuttle easier to manoeuvre in the tight confines of a carrier bay or hangar. The nose wheel fitted perfectly into the well I’d made earlier – I just superglued it solidly to the back of the well. I drilled holes in the fuselage sides to secure the two larger rear wheel struts and added some extra supports to make them even more secure.

The forward hull had a circular recess on each side – on the left I put the main hatch, originally from a GW Rhino. I gave it some hinges and a grab rail from various kits, and an entry keypad which is the only 3D printed piece on the ship. On the right is the ship’s main armament – when the shuttle was originally built this would have been a second hatch, but now it’s in private service the captain has added a twin heavy cannon mounting, which came from a GW dreadnought. I’ve never played Warhammer 40k, but once upon a time I worked on a video game project for Games Workshop and ended up with number of WH40K sprues in my bits box, which have finally proved to be very handy.

Then I was into full-scale greeblie mode, covering much of the surface of the vessel with all manner of bits and pieces – there are aircraft weapon pylons, bits of superstructure from 1/1200th battleships, a metal radome, some windows and shutters from model railway buildings, helicopter rocket pods and many other unidentifiable bits. There’s also a small defensive gun turret under the main hatch. The engine body got lots of pipes and valves made from plastic rod and strip, and a couple of lengths of old bass guitar strings.

Eventually I called a halt and declared the build finished, and moved onto painting. The overall colour scheme reversed the original colours of the plastic gun, with the main body in white and the nose in orange, and the engines bare metal. I sprayed it overall with Halfords’ white car primer and then washed it with light grey acrylic paint thinned with Johnson’s floor polish (I had planned to use Citadel Apothecary White contrast paint but I’d run out and had to improvise…). This was then heavily drybrushed with pure white with some edge highlights thrown in. The nose was painted with Gryph Hound Orange (another contrast paint) and drybrushed up, and then the engines painted with Citadel Leadbelcher before washing black and drybrushing silver. Contrast paints can be a bit patchy on large flat areas, which just what I was after – this is meant to be an well used, battered vessel that has seen plenty of use.

I painted the gun housing in dark blue-grey, along with the numbers etched into the sides of the fuselage, the cockpit glass in a variety of blues to give a graduated shade and the undercarriage in silver. I then picked out lots of details in different spot colours – a red and white striped probe, yellow emergency gas tanks, grey sensors, a green radome and orange and blue dorsal fins. I even had a go at a rainbow-like heat distortion effect on the engine using washes.

Finally I raided my collection of decals to finish things off – a mixed selection of aircraft markings and GW Tau symbols.

So that’s it – the Empyrean Drifter takes to the spacelanes. Of course it needs a crew, which I’m currently pulling together from various sources. And I’ve now started to think that they need a base to operate the Drifter from, which is a whole new rabbit hole…

Work In Progress Wednesday

While Jeremey is away he handed the reins over to Andy for this week’s post.

Only four items to show this week, not sure if that is the effect of the weather, or that we have now resumed meetings.

First up, Tony continues his 15mm Sci Fi Des Res, made from an electrical pattress box, accessories from the Brigade range, and spares from the bits box.  He has added a few more greeblies including a radar dish, then started painting – undercoat, dark wash then some drybrushing. Front view above, rear aspect below.

Tony’s Des Res (Rear Aspect)

John has added a fourth base to his Chilean battalions for the War of the Pacific.

John’s Chilean Reinforcements (Pendraken 10mm)

Meanwhile Mark has done some more work on his Judge Dread figures and his 6mm Pontic army.

Mark’s Judges and 6mm Pontics

And his son, Felix, has been trying out GW Contrast Paints on his Mega City Block Gang.

Felix’s Block Gang

(Ed: In an earlier edition of this post I credited the Judge Dredd and Pontic work to Eric and his son in error. It should have been credited to Mark and his son. Apologies to all concerned.)

Finally, not so much WIP as just finished. The last of my Dark Ages foot, ready for a game last night at Milton Hundred.

Andy’s Gripping Beast Plastics Warriors

Well, that’s it for this week. Back into Jeremey’s safe hands next week.

Spear of Destiny

Club member Jeremey takes us through construction of his new measure for the game Saga.

I’ve been playing Saga for a number of years now. My original cardboard measuring rulers are long since gone being old and tatty; so needed to either buy new ones or make my own. I had some 5mm thick foam card that seemed ideal for the job.

I created a simple set of measuring sticks in a similar way to the official ones. A 12″ ruler with Long and Medium distances and a second showing Short and Very Short measurements, these served me well for quite a while; but during a moment of boredom I felt I could come up with something more visually pleasing.

The new Spear blank next to my early measuring stick attempts

I still had some of the 5mm foam card so dug out a piece and cut it to the standard 12″ length. I had already decided to create a spear as a measuring stick and cut a piece wide enough for the spear blade.

The basic spear shape

I then cut out the spear shape after measuring the foam so that the blade was the same length as the normal ‘Short’ measure. I didn’t try doing any fancy curved lines for the blade spear, I kept it simple.

Thin EVA foam wrapped round the shaft

Next to provide a way of measuring the ‘Very Short’ length I decided to use a thin EVA foam sheet cut into strips. I superglued the end to the spear piece and stretched the foam round the shaft.

The strapping in place

I now had a way of measuring all of the distances required. The strapping for ‘Very Short’, the blade for ‘Short’, the remaining shaft for ‘Medium’ and the entire spear length for ‘Long’.

Painting of the blade

Next up I turned to painting the spear, the blade was painted with a standard Silver colour with a splash of black ink to give some contrast to the flat silver blade.
For the shaft I painted it dark brown and then with increasing lighter brown shades drew lines down it like wood grain. Finally I decided to paint the strapping as well, I used the darker brown paint watered down to add some shade.

The finished Spear

Here we have the finished spear next to the old rulers. As this would be handled during games I also covered the whole spear with a brush on Matt Varnish.

The Spear in action

With luck the spear went into action sooner than I expected with the re-opening of the club. It also worked as a good omen with me winning both games of Saga played on the day.

Work in Progress Wednesday

It’s Wednesday again and we have another selection from the club members.

This week we will start with Tony since he has been very productive, above we have Tom Bombadil to go with last weeks painting of Goldberry and below Tony has some more Rohirrim with some Helmingas.

Helmingas command figures

For the last contribution from Tony I’ll let his own words speak; “a small utility building made from an electrical pattress (the sort that fit into hollow partition walls – £1 from Wilko) dressed up with resin doors/windows/vents and other bits.”

Inventive use of other parts for a sci-fi building

Next up Mark has on his work table the last of his Pontic army, the fleshy bits done just the rest to go. Also recently purchased Judge Dredd miniatures have been started.

An eclectic mix from Mark

Any Finally this week John has made a start on Allies for Pacific war with some 10mm Peruvians from Pendraken figures.

Peruvian Foot

See you next week when Andy will be sitting in for me.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Another Wednesday and quite a little selection this week. Above and below we have Mos Arun from Tony who has declared this impressive build done.

Mos Arun ready for the battlefield

Next up Eric has continued work on converting miniatures to make more crew for Stargrave.

Early WIP shots of recruits for my crew made up of old Space Marine scouts with Imperial Guard head swaps and extra bits from the bits box

But in Eric’s own words “I suddenly had the urge to paint another Space Marine”.

Primaris Reiver, just the basing, chapter livery and squad markings to apply

Andy is making progress on the Sergeants.

And last but not least this week Marcus has painted up yet more tanks! This time conversions using different turrets from Brigade Models.

Warlock turrets on GZG Paladins on the left, Ral Partha Chevalier light tanks with Brigade laser turrets on the right

See you next week for more progress from the club.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Another week and more progress from the club. As expected the drop in temperature has seen a rise in club member productivity.

First up Stephen has created more loot tokens above for Stargrave. Stephen has also added to the space fighters from last week with these four.

More Star fighters take to the um… stars!

Marcus is next up with more progress on the Ground Zero Games Moongrunt unit.

Love that Moon cratered terrain

Eric has made more progress on the conversions for a Stargrave crew. I love these custom jobs and I’m in the progress of converting some Dreadball miniatures for my own crew.

Fresh meat for the crew

Tony has managed to paint up another miniature from the LOTR collection. Not a mighty warrior or wizard this time but the little known character Goldberry.

Goldberry, not sure what her abilities are in the game?

Last up is my effort, I picked up some wood/bark pieces from a walk in the woods and decided to make a fantasy Viking/Druid/Witches house in the woods.

Impressive dwelling for many settings

Join us again next week for more little snippets of inspiration from the club.

When you can’t see the wood for the trees.

Andy succumbs to the wargamer’s bane, rebasing…

Some time ago I bought a bag of 2 dozen trees from a model railway shop, they were of various heights from about 2.5” (65mm) to 4.5” (115mm) the largest with a diameter of 2” (50mm).

I originally based these on either 1p, 2p coins or some 25mm diameter mdf bases, depending on the height of the tree.

The trees on their original bases

Unfortunately, these bases were generally too small, the slightest knock on the top of the tree and over it went. They needed bigger bases.

A few weeks ago, while browsing in The Works, I saw a pack of various sized wooden discs, of 20mm, 30mm and 40mm diameter, each 2mm thick. The pack cost £2.00 and had just under 40 of each size, so about 2p each.

Examples of the bases from The Works

My original plan was to make some explosion markers similar to those Jeremey made, using the discs for the bases and some foam sheets for the explosions.

But then a thought stuck me, I could use the 40mm diameter discs to rebase the trees!

I decided not to remove the original bases, I just used Bostick general purpose glue to stick the original base to the 40mm diameter disc.

Trees rebased.

Once the glue had dried I used Polyfilla to build up the exposed outer ring of the new base, and then applied a layer of green basetex to finish off the base.

Three of the finished trees

Overall this project took me a couple of hours (excluding drying time) and I now have a much more stable wood!

Work in Progress Wednesday

Just a few offerings for this week. I’m blaming the heat. It certainly saps creativity and painting.

Above we have some space fighters from Stephen (really need to find out who makes these). And below Stephen has been creating more Loot tokens for Stargrave.

Physical and Data Loot ready to be salvaged

I’ve also been creating Loot tokens for Stargrave only I went with some blank indented dice and some free sci-fi textures to turn them into Loots tokens.

The dice were undercoated first before the textures added, then some dry brushing to get them blended in.

After about 10 years of sitting in a box I also managed to stick some previously purchased plastic aquarium plants into the start of a jungle.

Multiple plastic plants stuck together with the hot glue gun

And finally this week Andy has made a bit more progress on his medieval Sergeants.

The heat is definitely slowing down painting

See you next week for the next glimpse of our club activity.