September 25, 2022
I spent a lot of workbench time basing and painting plants I got at Michael’s Arts and Crafts. While these will work with a number of projects, my immediate focus in doing them is terrain for my Gordon Institute King Kong adventure. I also did three Mega Mini turtles left over from another project.
When the plants were done, I turned my attention to modifying and painting a Heroclix figure called Jess Blacklock that I got a few years ago at the swap meet for a dollar. I bought it because it reminded me of Cad Bane from Clone Wars. I decided to see if I could capture that Cad Bane look. It’s not a perfect Cad Bane, but not bad.
September 18, 2022
This week’s workbench was completely devoted to terrain that will be used with my Gordon Institute King Kong adventure. It began with a cast-off toy I found at the swap meet a couple weeks ago. I love waterfalls, and increasingly I have been thinking that the Skull Island (Kong’s island) will have a number of waterfalls as terrain features. This is a small waterfall but a nice and not insignificant terrain piece. I used a good amount of Milliput to hide holes in the rock face and to expand the pool that the waterfall spills into. The toy only cost me a dollar and I probably used about $5 worth of Milliput so it was a pretty cheap piece of terrain.
During the course of the week, I completed episodes six and seven of the King Kong adventure which takes me to episode eight which will serve as the conclusion (I hope). In clearing out some boxes of swap meet finds that have passed their shelf life, meaning their projects are done and they weren’t found to be needed, I discovered more plant terrain that could be used for the Kong adventure. I also found that I had a great Heroclix figure called GRANDMASTER. What I like about this figure is the gameboard that is part of the piece. I like including gameboards with collections and decided that I would include this gameboard as part of the basecamp on Skull Island. I set it on a barrel and set the barrel in a base of Milliput. I then painted the board and barrel.
I also found a simple camp tent that I bought for fifty cents or a dollar at the swap meet and gave it an equally simple paint job. In addition to the tent, I found a camp cooking stand (not sure what it is really called) that I believe is by WizKids. I set it on a Milliput base and created a fire pit out of rock made from Milliput.
In writing the episodes I included gifts that the Institute team was giving to the islanders, so I had to piece together a base with those gifts represented. I kept it simple. Two boxes, a bundle, some colored cloth made of facial tissue and a shovel cut off another Heroclix figure.
I had some resin bowels of fruit that I based on Milliput and decided to have them as part of the islanders’ village.
I ended the workbench week by painting about a dozen toy plants I found over time at the swap meet. Most were probably originally from some Playmobil set. I based them on Milliput and gave them a simple paint job.
I’m writing this last piece on Sunday which is actually the beginning of the next workbench week, but we are usually a day or two behind in our posting of the workbench week, and I feel the need to write about a sad moment that I am experiencing as I write. For many years my two go-to hobby shops have been Brookhurst Hobbies and The War House. Brookhurst Hobbies is well known to the hobby world well beyond So. Cal. The War House is very different. Located in Long Beach for more than 40 years, it was not widely known beyond the immediate miniatures and gaming community though I have been a customer for more than 40 years. It was owned and operated by Steven Luckey. In many ways it was a sad little shop not known for good housekeeping, but it was a place where you could sometimes find a wonderful treasure if you were willing to search the dusty shelves of the backroom(s). Steve and I were not friends. I know very little about his life beyond the walls of that shop. But over the years we developed a unique relationship… not personal friends but more than customer-shop owner. We had a hobby relationship. I have not been to The War House since just before March 2020 (Covid), but today I had the urge to make a visit. Before going, I checked the shop website, and it appeared to be in business… shop hours were posted. But when I arrived, there was a closed sign on the door. I looked through the glass front door and into a dark space where empty shelves were pushed into the center of the shop. On my drive back home, I called an old friend who knew Steve and asked if he knew the shop was closed. He said he did and told me that Steve had died about six months ago. He assumed I knew since I was a more active customer than he was. I should have known that Steve was dead when I saw the dark, empty store. That store was Steve’s life. He ran the store and played games (D & D style) in the shop after hours. In 40 years I have never heard Steve talk about a life beyond the walls of The War House. As I said above, Steven and I were not close personal friends. We probably weren’t personal friends, but Steve Luckey was part of my life, and I feel very real sadness at the news of his death.
September 11, 2022
This week has been devoted to home remodeling so not much done at the hobby workbench. I did manage to complete the Playmobil pool that will go with the repurposed Playmobil rock formation and waterfall. I also got some palm trees and plants done… repurposed from toys found at the swap meet.
September 4, 2022
This has been a week complicated by home remodeling. That combined with the fact that I have recently completed the 15mm WW2 North Africa collection that I worked on for more than a year has left me a little unfocused in terms of hobby projects. Just before the remodeling began (before the house was full of noise) I was working on writing the episodes for the Gordon Institute’s King Kong collection. I need that written before we can do the photography associated with that collection. But that work had led me back to the Gordon Institute in terms of figure painting and work on terrain, and so that was what has occupied the workbench this past week.
I put together a large rock and waterfall formation using a Playmobil rock formation and what is probably a Playmobil waterfall. I connected them with a lot of Milliput.
I followed that with another rock formation found at the swap meet, and three Pulp Figures that will be part of my Gordon Institute collections.
As the week neared its end, I began painting more repurposed trees, plants and a couple small rock formations that will be used with the King Kong collection.
The week was a little crazy and certainly unusual, but I got a few worthwhile things completed.
