October 30, 2022
I began the week painting more of the revolutionary troops for my 28mm Gordon Institute expedition to Mexico.
Mid-week I took a break from that because a friend of mine/Dennis agreed to help me cut some huge plastic terrain that I plan on using as my coastal ridge line for my 15mm Normandy invasion layout. I got two of these HO plastic terrain boards about 15 or 20 years ago at my local model train shop (Arnie’s). They were on the bargain table for $10 each. They are 4 feet x 2 ½ feet (or they were before we cut them), and I saw immediately that if I cut them along the ridge line I would have a perfect, easy way of putting together what would otherwise be complex terrain. It took about two decades to get around to doing it, but I think they will work out great. The German staff car is 15mm by Flames of War and provided for purposes of showing scale.
That detour done, I returned to painting my Mexican revolutionary figures for the Gordon project. I also found and painted a figure that I purchased more than a decade ago from the old Rafm Cthulhu line of figures… I think from a pack of Professors. He will be added to my Gordon Institute staff.
With the Rafm professor done, I returned to the Mexican revolutionaries. I ended the week modifying one of the Federales machine gun crews by giving them new heads that would allow the revolutionaries to have a machine gun of their own. The crew on the right is the original. The one on the left has the replacement heads.
October 23, 2022
I began the workbench week by painting three figures that on the surface - given their style of dress - are unlikely to have been seen in Mexico of the early 20th century, and yet fit in terms of the strange scenario I have planned for my Gordon Institute adventure in Mexico. These three figures are by Boot Hill Miniatures (beautiful figures); the pack is entitled General Santa Ana. I will withhold further explanation as that would give away the crazy plot I have planned.
With those done I decided to paint a figure from North Star/Wargames Illustrated that will serve as an homage to a movie I love entitled The Wild Bunch. I decided to give my Federales a German military advisor. The Wargames Illustrated figure is a nice representation of Bismarck, but for my purposes it represents a generic German military advisor.
The swap meet offered up a nice bendy plastic sleigh for fifty cents that I painted up for use with my Gordon Institute Frozen North collection. The figure beside it was painted several months ago and is presented for purposes of scale.
With that small detour done, my agenda returned to the Gordon Institute Mexican adventure. I began painting the revolutionary troops. The majority of the revolutionary figures (men and women) I will be using are by Old Glory 25s. They offer a lot of variety, but there are also a lot of duplicates so I decided to paint duplicates together to ensure I would not duplicate color schemes. By the end of the week I completed 40 of the revolutionary figures, male and female.
October 16, 2022
This week has been completely devoted to my 28mm Federales for my Gordon Institute expedition to Mexico. I began by repurposing a die cast car I found at the swap meet several years ago. It will serve as a command car for the Federales. Since I could not find a driver or a seated command figure purposely made for a car, I used two Old Glory Federales figures from their artillery pack… slightly modified the left hand on both… the driver’s hand turned slightly and added a cigar to the commander’s left hand. I did three officers by Pulp Figures. All the rest of the figures are Old Glory… other officers (mounted and unmounted), infantry, artillerymen, and cannon and machine guns with crews.
Years ago on impulse I bought the Eureka Tachanka machine gun carriage. Whether historically correct or not I decided that this was the time to use it. I gave the driver and gunner the heads from two Federales. I used two rather than three of the horses, and I left the fenders off mainly because I couldn’t get them to fit, but I think the cruder look works well for this project.
I also gave the Federales a troop transport truck repurposed from a Corgi Thornycroft brewery truck I found at the swap meet… it was missing its barrels. I added bench seats made from Evergreen plastic in the rear and lined the rear with wooden rails taken from a ERTL 1930 Chevrolet truck also found at the swap meet.
October 9, 2022
This week the workbench was all about painting Old Glory Federales for my 28mm Gordon Institute adventure in Mexico. I did the Federales’ uniforms in Vallejo Khaki Grey. Their hat visors and shoes are Burnt Umber.
October 2, 2022
This has been a unique workbench week. I came close to not painting or building anything. I can’t remember the last time the workbench produced nothing or so little. In part (very small part) this was a result of the fact that I just finished my WW2 North Africa collection and hadn’t made a firm decision on what my next project would be, but in large part it was due to the fact that I was in a funk. For months we have been doing some home remodeling… complete remodel of the downstairs bathroom and new floors on much of the first floor of the house. With the bathroom done and in my opinion beautiful, we began having the Spanish pavers removed (a dirty process) and the installation of the new Cortex Ralston Walnut floors. At a point where the floors were almost done, it was noticed that we had a hairline crack in the 4” drain pipe which was slowly leaking a tiny amount of water, but enough to be seen in terms of the results once the baseboard was removed in the laundry closet. Fortunately, it had caused no serious damage to the house as yet, but it had to be repaired. I won’t bore you with the details, but it required a lot of coordination of several different players in the project, and most frightening of all was that it looked like the repair work might require the destruction of some of the work that had been done in the new bathroom which sits next to the laundry closet. I was significantly dispirited… significantly!
After much preparation in getting the different players lined up (the concrete scanning team, the floor team for removing what had recently been put in the closet, and the plumbers), the work began this week. On Thursday the plumbers came in to tear out the concrete slab and see if the drain could be repaired without touching the new bathroom. I had great faith that they would do all they could to avoid that… all the players made a point of telling me how beautiful the new bathroom was and that they didn’t want to touch it if that was possible, and our contractor was kept informed that she might have to come back and put the pieces of the bathroom back together. The slab scanner and plumbers arrived at 9 am. The scan was needed because our slab is strengthened with post tension cable and that is dangerous stuff to mess with, so you have to know where they are located in the slab to avoid them. Our plumbers had post tension cable experience. The slab is thick… 8”. The work lasted about six hours, but about 4 or 4 ½ hours into the work, Jesse (one of the plumbers) let me know that it could be fixed without touching the bathroom. That was a wonderful relief and one that I don’t think I have completely absorbed, but it feels so good. With that going on this week, I have not had much interest in painting or building miniatures.
On the workbench upside, I ended the week with a pretty good idea of what my next project will be… a Gordon Institute expedition to Mexico around 1912 (during the revolution) in search of a lost Aztec temple known as El Tepozteco. That decision led me to take out my paint brush on Friday and begin painting the Old Glory 25s Federales that I will be using with this new project. I completed five.
