February 28, 2021
It was a busy week at the workbench. My figure order from Artizan Designs arrived on Saturday and I began painting the next day. When I put together collections, I generally don’t limit myself to a single manufacturer for the figures I use. That is true with regard to the Gordon Institute, but with the Institute I rely heavily on the Thrilling Tales figures from Artizan Designs… lots of figures that have a professorial look to them. Anyway, I painted 26 figures this week, 24 from Artizan Designs and two seated figures… one for my Brumm horseless carriage and one with a Pulp look for my time machine.
A couple weeks ago I lucked upon an eBay sale of a “lot” of Atlantis the Lost Empire toys… most of them the blister pack rather than the Happy Meal versions. I’m a big fan of the Atlantis vehicles and repurpose them for use with my 28mm collections. Over the years they have gotten more and more expensive on eBay, but when I realized that this lot included all of the trucks and the command car plus many other random pieces, I bought it, and at $56 for the lot which included shipping, it was a great deal. The box arrived this week. I separated the trucks and command car and began looking at the random pieces to see what else I had. I immediately recognized that I had the launch frame/crane from the Aqua-Evac set and the tracked portion of the Spanner. I decided to combine those pieces with some other odds and ends to form a new vehicle… a tracked crane.
With the crane completed, I got the urge to try and make an armored vehicle out of the Atlantis Happy Meal water tanker. I did that with the Atlantis Disney Store version of the water tanker and it came out great (my opinion). The Happy Meal version is a far less refined toy and while the Disney Store version could be taken apart by unscrewing the different sections, the Happy Meal version had to be cut apart… much more difficult. Nonetheless, I wanted to give it a try and since my recent eBay order included one of the Happy Meal tankers that I had no other use for, I decided to see what could be done. Like the Disney Store version, I used Legos and Duplos to create the core of the armored cab and rear box, and like the Disney Store version I covered those boxes with Evergreen and JTT plastic. The roof gun is one taken off the same Ninja Turtle toy I used on the Disney Store version, but in this case, I used a single barrel gun rather than the double barrel I used on the previous vehicles. It looks chunkier than the previous version, but the Happy Meal toy is chunkier to start with. I’m happy with the outcome… just needs paint.
February 21, 2021
A couple weeks ago I came upon the resin kit for the Merrimack Miniatures Ironclad Walker, aka The Warrior Walking Monitor. I bought this at Brookhurst Hobbies many years ago, stored it for the future, and forgot I had it. At the time I bought it, it was an old kit. Recently the figures from The World of SMOG by CMON have caught my interest and drawn me to Steampunk and Victorian strange. With my interest in Steampunk already sparked, I couldn’t resist building the Warrior Walking Monitor as a little break from my work on two Gordon Institute projects I’ve been working on since June. The Walker is a simple model… very few pieces. Unfortunately, the stack was missing, but it proved to be an easy fix using Evergreen tubing. The one thing it needed was a large base to keep it upright. I provided that using two large metal washers covered by Milliput. By the end of last week, it was built and awaiting paint. So, I began this workbench week painting the Walker.
A few year ago, I found a couple of the Mage Knight Dwarven Steam Behemoths at the swap meet. I thought that, if I ever got going on a Steampunk collection, they would be good to have. After finishing my Merrimack Miniatures Ironclad Walker, I decided to see what I could do with one of the Behemoths. I removed its base which proved to be easier than I thought it would be to do. I then did some selective repainting. It’s a little crazy, but I like it.
Probably a decade or more ago I purchased two plastic float planes by Processed Plastic (Wilderness Resort Float Bush Plane) at the swap meet. They were in a pile of cast-off toys. They are not a high-quality toy. The floats are hollow. The plastic is bendy. The design is a little crude. Nonetheless, I like float planes, and since they only cost a dollar, I bought them. I’m not sure I seriously thought I would ever do anything with them, but while I’m awaiting the arrival of an order from Artizan Designs, I decided to see what I could do with one of the planes… the blue and white version. It turned out okay; not great but okay.
I still had the red and white version of the same plane and thought about throwing it away. It was missing the clear plastic for the cabin, and the struts between the floats were broken. But with the first one done I decided to turn the red and white version into a wrecked plane. Because it’s a float plane, I decided to make it as a water crash that had just happened so the plane was still floating with its flotation pods broken off the plane and drifting away. It came out okay, too. Neither are masterpieces, but they are interesting additions to my terrain collection.
I got some great news Friday evening. For several months I’ve been in conversation with Wargames Illustrated about having my miniatures featured in another issue of the magazine. This one will focus on my 15mm collections. The word I received is that the layout work is done, and it will be in the issue WI400 which I believe will be out in April 2021.
I ended the workbench week with a return to the Gordon Institute. For several years I have had three Activision Skyland toys that go by the name Nitro Soda Skimmer. These look to me like time machines and that is what I will be using one of them for, in terms of the Gordon Institute. This toy, like the previous Reef Ripper I posted, is beautiful in terms of color, but like the Reef Ripper, it won’t blend with the rest of my collection without a new paint job, so a new paint job is what I gave it. I used the basic color scheme of the original, but a bit more simplified and muted. I gave it a removable time-traveler: the Burger King Kids Meal Toy #5… Dr. Arless Loveless. Both the Activision “time machine” and the Dr. Loveless figure were cast-off toys I got at the swap meet… the time machine was $3 and the Loveless figure was 50 cents.
As the week came to an end and I was asking myself what I would be doing next week, my problem was solved with the arrival of the mail and a package from Artizan Designs in the UK… my Thrilling Tales figures for my Gordon Institute King Kong collection.
February 14, 2021
This was not a week of extended workbench activity. Last week we replaced our home heating system and water heater. In the process of preparing for that I realized that some of the storage cabinets I had been using for many years were cabinets that were intended to be of temporary use that I had simply put off replacing. Since these cabinets had to be emptied and moved for the heating work, this was the time to replace them. Consequently, a good deal of the week was devoted to getting replacement cabinets and reorganizing what had been in the old cabinets for effective storage in the new one.
A few weeks ago, a member of a miniatures group posted a collection that included a 1/48 scale Smer Supermarine Walrus. I loved what I saw and ordered one for myself. (The picture below is what sparked my interest.) When it arrived, I began building immediately. It's an inexpensive model (about $17 which included the shipping) and so it was less than perfect in terms of fit and directions. But less than perfect doesn't mean it isn't good and something I am very happy to have. I decided that it would be a second aircraft for my Gordon Institute… I like seaplanes. I gave some thought to airbrushing it but decided to give it a rougher appearance/long-in-service look by dry brushing instead. I set it in a base of Milliput to serve as a water surround and gave one of the wing-floats a similar water surround. I will be adding some homemade decals but those have not yet been made.
During my storage reorganizing I came upon a very old Merrimack Miniatures resin Ironclad Walker aka The Warrior Walking Monitor (COSFI 02) that I bought at Brookhurst Hobbies years ago and even then, it was long out of production. I decided that with nothing else pressing on my workbench agenda and with a renewed interest in Steampunk (brought on by CMON/The World of SMOG), I would work on it. It was only then that I realized that the smokestack was missing… oh well. I put the walker together and added a smokestack I made out of Evergreen tubing. I then set it in a base of Milliput anchored by two large metal washers. When that was dry, I sprayed it black as an undercoat for the painting that will follow.
February 7, 2021
This was one of those weeks where the workbench had to take a backseat to real life. Our home heating system was long past due for replacement, and our hot water heater, though much newer than the home heating system, was nearing its shelf-life date. They are located side by side in the garage so we decided to replace both at one time knowing that it was only a matter of time, maybe a year, before the hot water heater would need to be replaced. You might ask yourself, what does this have to do with the Weekly Workbench since I certainly wasn’t going to replace the heating system or hot water heater myself. The answer is they are located in the garage. The workbench is in the garage. And because of Covid we have been keeping in a small family bubble since March. Consequently, I wasn’t spending time during the day in the garage. And it was too cold to spend a lot of time at night in the garage. I did get a couple things painted that will be part of my Gordon Institute collection. I decided to provide one of the Loch Ness lake (loch) side villages with a phone booth. And for the Kong expedition I needed a couple of campfires for the Gordon team. For the campfires I turned to WizKids’ Deep Cuts Campfires and Log pack. It a nice pack. That was it for the week though we now have a warm home and hot water.
