Sunday Woodworking

I hemmed and hawed and finally decided to pick up a drill press this week. The glue joint on the prototypes between the angle block and the back piece is just not strong enough on its own. I managed to break two of them apart this week. The smallest "pins" I could find were 1/4" and since the back piece is only 1/2" wide its going to take some precision drilling, through a 45 degree angle no less, to make this all come together. While I could make my own pegs at what ever width I desire there is a point where the peg itself wouldn't be strong enough and I want to be able to buy off the shelf as much as possible. So enter the drill press. I was able to sit down outside this afternoon and enjoy a lovely autumn day and figure out how to make this work. The two that had broken were relatively easy to do, but the two that were still intact and the second side of the other two were going to present some problems. I did one by holding everything by hand and hoping that blocks didn't start spinning out from the drill. That worked but its not the safest and it kind of felt like a game of Jenga. 

A jig was required. It turned out to be pretty simple, just a little box the right size, a back piece and a 45 degree block and I was set. I need to calibrate the miter saw properly though its still cutting a slight angle when I should be getting a vertical cut. Rather than do that I went brute force and glued the box together and then pegged it as well. Not the prettiest work but it gets the job done and that's all I need it to do.

After I drilled and pegged everything I spent some time sanding everything down in preparation for a little finish work. I hit everything again with the 80 grit sandpaper, then followed that up with the 120 grit and finally a shot with the 220 grit. Poplar is a relatively soft hardwood so this only took about an hour to work through. Since my intention is to match woods with the miniature I went with a natural finish rather than a colored stain. I'm quite please with the final result. I still need to figure out what wood to use for the backdrops but I'm closing in actually finishing these and showing them off a bit. I'll definitely be using a couple of the better looking ones for my Genghis Con entries.

Here is the photo story for today.

Successfully drilled out the first display stand. A good combination square and a mechanical pencil are required tools.

This is a 1/2" fluted "pin" I have applied my favorite wood glue Titebond

See how much glue is forced out, hence why the peg is fluted to give it someplace to go. Use a wet cloth or paper towel to wipe up the excess glue.

The second peg is in. This should now hold up to just about any abuse you care to dish out at this point.

Ready to cut the pegs

Quick work with a hand held miter saw

Followed by more sanding to get them flush

Here one of the display stands that survived the week intact is now pegged from both sides. Working on this piece convinced me that I needed some kind of jig to hold everything while I drilled the holes.

Pegs cut and sanded

Constructed the jig. I couldn't find any rubber bands so I grabbed some hair bands instead.

What goes inside, one of the back pieces and one 45 degree cut block. 

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Works like a charm. Note at this point I hadn't cut the excess pegs from the jig yet.

Finishing everything up with a coat of Watco Danish Oil, natural finish. I even did the jig. Since its going to get a lot of use I figured that it would be best if it had a protective finish as well. You can clearly see that the pegs are made from a different kind of wood. Since these are on the back side and will be covered by the backdrop I'm not worried about matching woods.

And everything put together in the right way.

Another Kickstarter Arrives - Trenchworx WWI Tanks

With the Kickstarters I have supported I figure its on time if it delivers within 2-3 months after the estimated delivery date. This one from Trenchworx arrived today, weeks early! It was scheduled for a November delivery (end of November I believe). Granted my order was pretty simply just 3 FT-17 and a Rolls Royce Armored Car, but I'm still very impressed.

The quality is top notch too, I don't think my pictures really do it justice. The mold release agent was pretty heavy on these so I have already given these a soapy, warm water bath and done a little dry fitting. These are top notch kits, flash is light, the sprue attachment points look like they be well hidden after assembly. Some of the mold lines on the smaller pieces are going to take some work to clean up, but overall its just a great kit. I wish I had enough funds to have picked up some of the British tanks along with a German A7V but maybe I'll pick those up later. Check them out at Trenchworx

UPDATE: I received an email from Dave at Trenchworx this morning. He asked about my release agent comment because they don't use any! They have been able to prime and paint their models straight from the molds. I went back to where I had layed out the pieces to dry and they still feel quite slick to me. But now I believe that its because their mold process produces such a smooth surface that it feels "slick". I'm hoping to get some primer on these today but after emailing with Dave I'm not anticipating any problems.


These are going to do a great job supporting my WWI US Marines.

Small Box, well packed

Somewhere in all this are three tanks and an armored car. They sent along some coasters as well.

Each vehicle bagged up in ziplock. There is a smaller ziplock inside that holds

There are a few more parts to the FT-17 than I expected. There are also rare earth magnets so I can switch out the weapon  between an MG or a 37mm Cannon.

Nice detail on the treads

Turret looks top notch 

The armored hull

The Rolls Royce armored hull

There are few pieces for this one too

Just dry fitting the turret here.

Filling the Troll Gaps

I'm sure this is not going to be quite what you expected. My son recently acquired a large Troll made by Privateer Press. Usually he does his own thing and I see the finished piece. This time he asked for help. There are serious gaps on this model, apparently that's normal for these large pieces from Privateer Press. 

I ended up spending an hour with the green stuff to get this guy ready to prime.

Looking at the gaps I'm not sure anything really fit together very well.

He resembles Frankenstein's monster in this shot. 

Here we go, the first application of green stuff

Another Night of Basing

Tried to pick up where I left off last night. I pulled out the dead wood pieces from the swamp accent stamp and the mortar bombs from the trench accent stamp. Not to bad. The green stuff definitely did a better job capturing detail. I mixed a bit more blue in with the yellow so that while the green stuff hardened it remained a bit flexible. I cut out the various roots with an x-acto knife and glued them to the mud and snow bases I did last night. 

I then used more milliput to try and blend them into the bases a bit better. Probably could have done a better job but once they are painted and some more basing materials added you shouldn't be able to see the transitions. I then used the left over milliput that I had mixed up and tried out the plank stamp on the bases I use for Calamity. This is really a nice stamp and left some terrific detail. Oh and Bert's Lip Beeswax really helps keeping things from sticking to your fingers and to the stamps!

I tried to hit the snow and mud bases with a wash to pull out the details but you still can't see it to well, its just not deep enough and really its not suppose to be terribly detailed just enough to add some dips and folds to the ground.

The milliput did a fair job of capturing the detail. The mortar bombs are going to need some extra work to make look good. I'm not really sure what the tin can thing is suppose to be. 

Here I pressed green stuff into the swamp accent mold. These came out really nice, the green stuff really captured the detail.

Starting to cut up the roots to place on the bases. Here the detail is being applied to a base from Secret Weapon Miniatures

Blending the detail in with milliput

One of the mud and snow bases with a wash to try and show off the detail.

Wash on one of the 50mm bases

Adding some detail to a mud and snow base

I think this is everything

Tried to capture some of the small crater detail with the leftover milliput

Really nice wood detail on the wood plank stamp

Basing with Stamps

I pointed out the Basius 2 Kickstarter in an earlier post this month. These look great but they don't deliver till early next year and I need something similar now to finish up my Marines. I was aware of Happy Seppuku from a Kickstarter they ran back in July of 2013 and one another that funded earlier this month. They use a hard latex as opposed to the resin used by Wargame Bakery. I decided to give them a try and I ordered their mud and snow stamp along with their scenic trench accent stamp. These are much smaller than Basius but are a bit more flexible so using them as press molds may actually work better. Time will tell.

So I gave it try tonight (yea, pretty much from the mailbox to the workbench). I did some 30 and 50mm lipped bases and a couple of pressings in the trench accent. I think the bases came out pretty good but after I ruined one of my "casts" I elected to let the other castings harden up a bit longer.

Here's what I achieved this evening:

Got my materials out. Milliput is my go to putty for stuff like this. Its easier to mix and work with than green stuff and its significantly cheaper! I get mine at Hobby Lobby. It won't hold as fine a detail as green stuff but for what I need that's fine.

Its hard to photograph the stamp, but this is the mud and snow stamp (or pad).

This is the wood plank one. This will be quite useful for my Calamity project

Covered up the slots with masking tape. The grey ones are resin bases from Secret Weapon Miniatures

Milliput mixed up and ready to go.

Applied a blob to the base, spread it out and then pushed it into the pad. Here are the results. Not bad I need to be neater on the application, these will need some clean up.

Tried a close up to try and show the pattern. Its hard to see in the yellow.

Maybe from the side you can see the detail better

A couple of 50mm bases

Here is a pressing from green stuff. I pulled this to soon and it stretched on me. But you can see the detail that the green stuff captured. Hopefully I'll be more patient with the next batch.