AWI Project - Fife and Drum Primed

I wanted to make a painted comparison of the Fife and Drum against the Perry plastics so I cleaned up and primed eight minis last night. I have been working on painting stick work of Perry's of and on for a while now so I'll see if I can catch up with the Fife and Drum minis. I want to get a feel for how quickly the two different brands actually paint up. I have heard that Fife and Drum paint up very quickly while the Perry's are kind of start and stop. One thing I don't like about plastics, in general, is that at some point the detail disappears and you are left guessing on how to approach something with the brush. That's definitely true on the AWI Perry Continental Infantry. Typical areas of soft detail are on the minis right side below the arm. The coat just kind of loses all semblance of detail when there is really a lot going on.

The Perry's are definitely a bit taller and overall bigger than Fife and Drum, I don't think that will really be noticed on the table as long as they aren't mixed in the same unit.

Continental Infantry in coats

Continental Infantry in hunting shirts

Primed and ready to go.

Random - Big Tire

I try not to use my phone camera on the road, but this load of tires was pretty interesting. I think these might be for those big dump trucks that work the open pit mines.

A Night at Mile High Stadium

This is my second visit to Mile High Stadium. The first visit was to see the Packers play the Broncos in an exhibition game way back in 2001 the first year it opened. My second visit was Saturday again to watch my Packers take on the Broncos. The end result was a 17-20 Packer loss but I did finally get a chance to see Aaron Rodgers play even it was only for two possessions. The first time I was in the south stands about half way up (below the huge jumbotron). This time we were nearly at the top of the stadium row 34 out of 36 but the view of the field was great and we were almost on the 50 yard line.

There he is, the Packers had the first possession of the game.

Lined up for the first snap

And Action!

A look at the elevation here in Denver

The sun is going down fast

I like the reflection off the horse

Sunset

The moon is visible by the 3rd quarter

Up and down these stairs is interesting, quite steep!

Reaper Con 2017 Project - Lt Dick Winters - Prepping

Reaper Con is edging every closer so I felt it was time to get my Scale 75 entry up and running. I did a quick once over of this kit a couple of months ago I think, some days its just hard to keep track of everything. Since its time for prepping I really gave this casting a good look and I can say that I'm not to happy with it.

From the top down, the head and helmet are fine although the helmet has quite a tab on the backside which not only has to be trimmed off but requires a little re-sculpting of the edge. Not a huge issue in and of itself but it could have been done better. The strap castings are okay, but there is a lot of flash on them, indications of a production mold starting to go bad. The body also has a lot of flash, again not a big deal, no detail is missing and its relatively simple to clean up with a knife and then a file. the only real issue with the body is the pitting of the metal across the back from shoulder to shoulder. The primer should be enough to cover this. I'll find out! The arms though, those are on the not good side of the equation. The right arm has flash and slipped, i.e. the mold didn't align properly and the arm is not cast quite correctly. I have seen worse and this wasn't so bad that I couldn't fix it. The same thing happened with the left arm and the Thompson SMG. The left hand, the grenade and the canteen are all fine. The base had a considerable amount of flash as well, again it just took more time than I expected it to.

Needless to say, prep time took a little longer than I expected. I then did as much assembly work as I could. In this case the body to the base and the arms to the body. I also glued the Thompson's strap in place and did some preliminary bending. Its close but I'll do the final adjustment once its actually glued to the body after painting is done. The head, helmet, left hand, right hand with SMG, helmet straps and the grenade will all be painted separately.

With assembly done I put it all in the booth and primed them in grey. Badger's Stynylrez grey primer has become my favorite airbrush primer at this point. I have a couple of other colors that I want to start experimenting with especially after watching James Wappel's videos, he has developed some very interesting techniques.

A few pictures of the evenings work:

I managed to get the box open without cutting myself. When I cleaned up the desk so I could use the new painting station I found the British Airborne Jeep that I have been looking for. One important note on the Hobby Zone Paint Station, it is a lovely white surface but it is not a cutting surface, you will scar it up pretty quickly if you don't use a cutting mat.

The pieces

The assembly

The rest of the pieces

Primed, sorry the lights are pretty stark in the airbrush booth, but he really is primed at this point.

I don't see any immediate flaws after priming so I think its okay to start the painting. I intend to do the initial work with the airbrush and then follow that with the brushwork.

Calamity Railroad Project - Thinking of Cabooses

I am off on another tangent. While looking at 1/56 scale armor on Shapeways I somehow came across running gear for a DSP&P RR waycar. I have been toying with the idea of building and actual C&NW RR caboose from plans that appeared in the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette and this would provide a firm foundation on which to build that. If all goes according to plan, and rarely does that happen, then I would eventually build two of these and that portion of Calamity's railroad would be done. I have two of the Bachmann cabooses, one has been converted from and eight wheel to a four wheel caboose and the other is waiting for the same treatment. I just need to decide if I want to build or convert at this point.

The Shapeway parts were designed by Michael York and sold on Shapeways through the Oahu Railway and Model Company. He has some interesting parts and I would certainly recommend his work at this point.

DSP&P Waycar running gear. These waycars were flat roofed in the beginning and when taken over by the C&S had cupolas added. These should work well for some of the C&S cabooses

The original conversion from some 4 wheel running gear I stumbled across on eBay. Not quite right.

Back to the drawing board with some new wheels and Grandt Line pedestals

This looks much better with this parts.