November 2024 — War In 15mm

November 17, 2024

I began the week painting 28mm Star Wars figures.

On Tuesday I went to my local Savers thrift shop (Tuesday is 30% off for seniors) and found a large Star Wars U-Wing. It was missing its swing wings and one of its engines had a gap between top and bottom. The gap was easy enough to fix; for my purposes I didn't want the swing wings, and the price for me (the senior) was $4. My plan is to use it as a large "tramp" freighter for my 28mm Star Wars collection, so I cut off its bow guns and made a cargo slide/ramp out of Evergreen plastic for under its nose. By the end of the week, I had it painted.

November 10, 2024

Yesterday I was at a thrift store and found a Hasbro/LucasFilm broken toy spaceship. Under its canopy it was missing its nose. I really liked the general look of the ship and thought there was a good chance that in my pile of cast off, broken toys I might find a good replacement for the nose portion that was missing. The ship was $5 which is only a couple dollars more than what I would pay at the swap meet, so I decided to buy it. I took it home and began work. The restructuring gave a look that I think does the job. I’ve provided three pictures that show the before and after of restructuring and the final paint job.

With the ship makeover complete I returned to painting Star Wars figures.

November 3, 2024

Last week I posted a scratch-built version of the Cobb Vanth speeder. As far as I know, no one makes a version of Cobb Vanth’s speeder that is reasonably compatible with 28mm figures. I then modified that scratch-built version (shown on last week’s posting) by replacing the seating and steering element with a new seating platform I made from a broken toy motorcycle I found at the swap meet. After looking at the new modification I realized it was still too chunky, so I cut the lower half of the seating platform away to give the entire speeder a more sleek look. The blue oval shows where the cut away portion of the seating platform was. I believe this final modification comes very close to capturing the essence of the Cobb Vanth speeder and gives me a look I am happy with.

I brought the week to an end painting more Star Wars figures.