SEPTEMBER 30, 2018
Painting continued with regard to my 15mm Boxer Rebellion figures. I completed the Russian infantry by mid-week, but rather than plowing on with the fighting European civilians I took a day-and-a-half detour to work on the Star Wars’ Republic Attack Shuttle by Revel. For some time now I have found myself more and more interested in Star Wars and this week I watched Episodes 1 through 7 in addition to some hit-and-miss view of The Clone Wars on Netflix. While the Stormtroopers have always been a fascination going back to the original release of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, I now find myself more and more interested in the Republic vs. the Separatists (the Clones vs. the Battle Droids). Fortunately back when I was putting together my Spaceport collection I discovered the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars range of figures and used them to help populate my spaceport town. It’s a large range of figures and covers the period of the first six episodes extremely well. What became apparent quickly was that to do the Clone forces justice I need their attack shuttles. My trips to the swap meet over the years had never revealed any of those craft of a size that would work with 28mm figures, but while looking for TIE fighters at Brookhurst Hobbies a couple weeks ago I discovered that they still had three of the Revel EasyKit Republic Attack Shuttles in stock which is remarkable given that they are no longer in production. I bought all three. These Revel models are admittedly a bit small for 28mm but they are as close as anything I can find, and at $35 each they were a good buy.
Let me note that the only Revel EasyKit Republic Attack Shuttle I have seen on eBay had an asking price of $159. The downside to the EasyKit Shuttle is that it ain’t easy. It comes pre-painted and it is supposed to snap together. Maybe someone was able to snap them together but I couldn’t. The male posts were far too big for the female holes. The multi-page, multi-color direction book is almost useless. I had to ream out all of the holes for the insertion of the posts, and to bring the pieces together in the correct order and in the correct relationship with the other pieces was a trial-and-error process. That said, after hours of work I got the first one together, and I think it looks pretty good. Once that was done I returned to painting the fighting European civilians for my Boxer Rebellion, but I’m sure I will take another time-out at the workbench soon to put another shuttle together.
SEPTEMBER 23, 2018
This past week the workbench has continued its focus on my 15mm Boxer Rebellion collection. I completed the painting of 51 figures: 7 German Seabataillon, 15 Japanese infantry, 8 Russian infantry, and 21 Chinese Imperial Artillery crewmen plus 7 cannon. 20 Russian infantry and 10 US Marines remain of the Great Power military forces. I hope to finish the Russian infantry and begin the Great Power fighting civilians next. The US Marines are on order.
SEPTEMBER 16, 2018
I completed the painting of the last 29 15mm Royal British Marines, 15 French sailors, and 8 German Seabataillon figures.
I picked up another Caesar’s Palace resin statue at the swap meet. At $7 it was too good to pass up. Not completely sure which of the two Caesar’s Palace figures will be the center piece for my gladiator arena, but it’s nice to have the second option. The only work I had to do on this figure was to hide the word Caesar on the base and cut off the baby angel next to Caesar’s right leg. Fortunately, resin is nice to work with.
I had a little time on Saturday to start the last 7 German Seabataillon figures.
SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
I completed the painting of the last 29 15mm Royal British Marines, 15 French sailors, and 8 German Seabataillon figures.
I picked up another Caesar’s Palace resin statue at the swap meet. At $7 it was too good to pass up. Not completely sure which of the two Caesar’s Palace figures will be the center piece for my gladiator arena, but it’s nice to have the second option. The only work I had to do one this figure was to hide the word Caesar on the base and cut off the baby angle next to Caesar’s right leg. Fortunately, resin is nice to work with.
SEPTEMBER 2, 2018
Despite the interruption caused by cataract surgery, I was still able to complete the painting of an additional 43 Chinese Imperial troops.
