The Blog of Michael T. Murphy and his lifelong obsession with "little army men" and their imaginary glory, miniature wargaming, and other things...

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Projects, and Painting, and MARPAT, Oh my!!!

Okay I have finally gotten up off of my duff and updated this site. The last post about me not having pics was just getting to me. (Makes mental note: Get a new and better digital camera as the flash to this one sucks)...
This morning I took the liberty of sitting down to my painting/work table and cleaning it off...and then putting SOME of my many projects back upon it to just kind of get a "perspective" of how much I really REALLY need to get finished...
And then I started crying...
As you can see by the pic, I got A LOT to do...

The desktop, with oodles and oodles of 15's waiting patiently, (in various stages), to be painted, or finished being painted. Off to the right are my 28's (Mostly Pulp Figs, but my ladys Quactica Orcs have snuck in there primed grey and are now waiting to be painted)... And you can see the bashed trawler that I am working on...among other things...
First off, the trawler...
I don't have a name for her yet, but it'll definately have a "French" ring to it...
The boat itself is a little ornamental knick-knack sailboat that I picked up from Hobby Lobby, and basically dissected. The only part left is the hull. I took out everything, built up the deck, built the structure, etc...I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to go with a mast so it can have that "fishing trawler" look, or keep the deck relatively clear to allow figs (or more figs) to be placed there.

I've enclosed a pic of a 15mm PP Vietnam Sniper Team on the deck for scale ideas, and comparions.

Once I go ahead and get the boat finished, I will put a comparison pic of the sailboat up and the trawler for your observations and opinions.
The next up, my truck conversion and painting...
From my last major posting, readers might rememebr that I took one of my fuel tanker trucks and made a flatbed out of it...

Well here it is in it's "new" Bongolesian paint job...

A little weathering, a little more detail and she'll be done, and ready for whatever dirty work she finds in Bongolesia....
And speaking of trucks...

No, it didn't hit a cotton candy factory...this is the gooey mold residue from a failed attempt at learning how to make a mold using Alumilite HSIII mold making compound (The pink stuff).
It was supposed to have a cure time of 24 hours - 3 days....
Well, two weeks later it was still a pink "goo"...
When it finally dried, there was no mold, just a semi gooey mess that I had to cut away from the truck. EPIC FAIL!
Not sure if I got a bad batch of compound or not. I am going to try again with another vehicle (truck), and see if it works. (NO, I don't NOT plan to pirate these vehicles! I am using them to learn HOW to make molds...)
*Sigh*...Many times I look at my paint desk at all the figures and wonder, "How did I get all of these?" and "When will I ever be able to finish them?"
I see the numbers of figs and sometimes I want to cry...

Rows of figures in various stages of painting, waiting to be finished...waiting, and waiting...

And waiting, and waiting...troops, mortars, civilians, rebels, ....waiting...

All waiting for the day to be done and on the table...so many....it seems an impossible task....
But I shall plod on!
Now...my latest issue...MARPAT!
Just when I get 15mm scale BDU's down the US Military decides to change Uniforms on me. The Army goes to ACU's, (which took a while but I got it), and the Marines went off the deep end with this abomination called MARPAT.
So I decided I didn't want the desert MARPAT, I wanted the woodland MARPAT...
Should be easy right? I mean, Brown, Green, and a little tan?
ha ha...yeah right.
My test subjects are 15mm Peter Pig Modern Marines/US Infantry M249 Saw Gun Teams, and Heavy Weapons Crews.
After reading, reading, and reading some more, I felt as if my eyes were going to drop out on color coordination. A friend sent me an email with a link from a guy that had done "Fleck" pattern on his figs. (Unfortunately they were 28mm and Modern German so the colors were different, but I decided to try the same pattern and see how they came out...)
And they came out...kinda German looking...

Test Subjects #1: Saw Gunner and Asst: Notice that there seems to be more green and black visible than actual in the USMC MARPAT, (which seems to be more Brown and Green based)...Great, my SAW team just joined The Bundeswehr...

A side shot of Test Subjects #1...while feeling that the pattern is kinda right, the colors are horribly wrong...
Okay back to the drawing board.
Test Subjects 2 and 3 are Peter Pig USMC Heavy Weapons Crews:
Subjects #2 are painted in the Military Sage Green color for a base, while Subjects #3 are painted in German Pale Brown as a base, (yes...there's that German thing again, but it's the only brown color paint that I can find that is even close to matching USMC MARPAT brown)

Lab rats...errr...I mean test subjects #2 and 3...

While here, I decided to paint another SAW Team with a base coat of the Pale Brown...and we will see how they do against Test Team #1...
And for this I will keep you advised of my progress, observations, and opinions on USMC MARPAT.
Right now my biggest issue is that with 15mm it's practially impossible to get the paint scheme right due to the fact of the size of the figure, plus with US troops they are covered in STUFF, (ie "gear"), and the most you will see is helmet, some arm sleeves and legs...not really enough, but enough that it has to be there...grrr...
Now onto other things...
15mm just isn't my only obsession...
Here are some pics of my 28mm Pulp figs that I have been working on lately also...
First off..."The Crimson Cult"...

Led by the mysterious "Crimson Leader", he and his evil minions are always on the wrong side of the law...

More figs...the first two from the left are from the West Wind Gothic Horror Line (The Innkeeper: Herr Braunschweiger, and his lovely adopted daughter Katrina Von Teeze), followed by more Pulp Figs, Doktorr Von Glock, and "The Skull"...(all in various stages of painting)...
And last but not least....another project...paitiently waiting completion...
Yes Virginia...those ARE T-80's in the box...
Seems that the Russians are interested in sending "Peacekeepers" to Bongolesia...
More on this as it happens!!!
As always...comments are appreciated...

Overdue update again!

Dang...it's the third week of October and I am waaaay far behind.
Okay no pics yet. I will be working on them this week. As the Armor is finished, and I have to touch up the ZSU23-4 and a T-55 because the f***ing Armory's Sealer left a nice residue on them...grrr...

But I am working on USMC MARPAT again, and I am hoping that this time..THIS TIME, I am successful...