April 25, 2021
As the workbench week opened, I turned my attention to a piece of background terrain for my Gordon Institute Frozen North collection. It was originally a display shelf for Game of Thrones’ figures. I found it at the swap meet a couple years ago for $2. I added some additional rock formations to the top and some Milliput to hide gaps and blend the different pieces. I haven’t gotten around to painting it yet. I’ll do that when I have some more large pieces that need to be sprayed with a Bright Blue undercoat. The piece is about 15 inches tall by 12 inches wide.
Next on my workbench agenda was the crashed spaceship that will also be part of the Frozen North collection. I got it at a Brookhurst Hobbies’ Bring and Buy several years ago for a dollar or two. It was originally part of a Games Workshop set called Planetstrike. The only modification I did to this piece was to add a Milliput surround to the edge because the flat edge that came with it had nothing to do with the actual look of the piece. I then painted it to give it an ice and snow feel.
Midweek I turned my focus to building and painting some Dusty Studio Nissen huts… two singles and one double. The Nissen hut was designed by Peter Norman Nissen in WWI and became the design for the US Quonset hut in WWII. I painted them Vallejo Model Color US Field Drab. After painting the three Nissen huts, I decided I needed two more singles. I also painted three more of the small Reaper crystals (I only included one in the picture; my mistake).
The week ended with a return to another set of Gordon Institute staff. This group is being set on Evergreen v-groove bases to give the look of wooden flooring. I completed eight and have about twice that many to go.
April 18, 2021
I started this week by finishing the snow bases for the last of my 28mm Neanderthals (Acheson Creations) plus completing two campfires (WizKids’ Deep Cuts) and a small crystal by Reaper.
An informational note: The Arctic Circle region includes land below the tree line. As one nears the tree line, the number and size of trees gets smaller. Along the tree line there are trees characterized by the word krummholz which refers to stunted trees. My Neanderthals would be hunters ranging for food and what wood they could find… namely stunted trees for weapons and firewood.
With that done I turned my attention to completing my five Gordon Institute Frozen North igloos. They began as 101 Dalmatian toys… igloo dog houses. I removed the dog, set in place an Evergreen plastic insert in the igloo entrance, and then gave the igloos a paint job… sprayed them Testors’ Bright Blue and then dry brushed Vallejo Pale Sand followed by Vallejo White. They were okay, but I wasn’t really happy with the look of the entrance. I decided that a bright group like the Gordon Institute team could create modular entrances for the igloos made of wood (actually Evergreen plastic) that could be attached to the igloos once on site. I’m much happier with them now. I have no idea what an actual igloo entrance looks like or if these modular entrances would be possible, but this is all for fun so why not.
I ended the workbench week with a project based on an eBay “lot” sale of Atlantis the Lost Empire vehicles I purchased a couple months ago. Included in that “lot” were a pair of tracks that didn’t seem to belong to anything else in the “lot.” Those tracks caused me to think about repurposing an Atlantis Happy Meals’ tank truck into an armored vehicle. I built the armored cab and rear armored box around a skeleton of Legos covered by Evergreen plastic. The gun(s) was taken from a cast-off/broken Teenage Ninja toy I got at the swap meet.
April 11, 2021
I finished the Gordon Institute Frozen North research team. This last batch of team members is largely Tiger Miniatures’ Winter War figures plus one last dog sled from Coppelstone. It’s been an emotional struggle, but I decided to go North thus the Walrus and Polar Bear won out over the Penguin. Mother Nature says I can’t have all of them together, so I went with the big guys.
A hobby friend of Lead Adventure Forum who goes by the name FifteensAway inspired a new investigative arena for the Gordon’s Frozen North research team, and this workbench week ended with a focus on that new arena… the discovery of a colony of never-before encountered (or at least recorded) Neanderthals. For this I am using figures by Lucid Eye and Acheson Creations… I completed all 27 of them this week. The Mattel Ice Age musk ox was painted several years ago and is included here just for fun. The mammoths are cast-off toys I got at the swap meet over the years for a dollar or two each and repainted (awhile ago). This week I dug around and found the mammoths and gave them new, snow-covered bases.
April 4, 2021
Just finished my second Mater Saves Christmas Santa Car for the Gordon Institute’s polar expedition. The first I did in Vallejo Saddle Brown. I wanted to give the second one an olive color scheme, so I used Vallejo Russian Uniform for it. After I took these pictures, I decided that I didn’t like the fender bundle on the olive car, so I took it off… luckily it just popped off with no damage to the fender. Took one picture without the bundle when I finished that. When I completed the second car, I had a moment when I was so excited by the fun of repurposing these two Cars’ cars that I looked on eBay to see if someone had accidently posted one at a reasonable price… they hadn’t.
After completing the second of my two repurposed Mater Saves Christmas Santa Cars, I decided to paint some resin ice crystals for my Gordon Institute polar collection. These pictures represent most of the ice crystals I have. They were purchased from Acheson Creations.
Here’s a little scene from The Thing from Another Planet… 1951. The alien is by Sally 4th. The dogs are sled dogs by Rafm that I didn’t use with my sleds because they are small compared with the Copplestone sled dogs which I prefer. I cut the Rafm dogs off their bases and placed them on their sides on a base. I painted them and then covered the base with a mixture of Elmer’s School Glue, Arm and Hammer baking soda, and water to serve as snow. Once the snow was reasonably set, I used Tamiya clear red as blood on the snow.
This week in terms of figures I modified and painted one Lead Adventure Miniatures figure (the fisherman) and six Sally 4th figures associated with the 1951 and 1982 versions of The Thing from Another Planet. Because I am not absolutely sure where I am going with the Gordon Institute’s polar expedition in terms of the sources of drama and threat, I decided to invest in both the 1951 Thing and the Thing from 1982 as well. Both the 1951 version and the 1982 versions are by Sally 4th. The 1982 Sally 4th Thing is not easy to put together, but once together it is nice and unique. In terms of painting, I knew I had to give it a raw fleshy look, but I wanted to include some green so, if necessary, I could link it to the 1951 version.
By the end of this week, I made a decision about the location of my Gordon Institute polar expedition… I decided I would go with polar bears and walrus rather than penguins. I’ll miss the penguins, but Nature says I can’t have both. The polar bears are bendy plastic toys that I bought at the swap meet for fifty cents each. I painted two polar bears shown here with one that I haven’t painted yet. Most of the walrus are also bendy toys that I got at the swap met for fifty cents each. I painted five of them and they are shown here with one I haven’t painted. I painted three more walruses. Those are pewter and came on two bases, and they are extremely heavy. They are part of the Dept 56 Snowbabies line of figures. I’ve provided a separate picture taken off of eBay. I got mine at the swap meet. I think I paid $3 for each of them.
