February Progress....

 So during this month, it's been a slow meander down the old trail for me. 

I've been painting and working on trying to finish some horrible out of date projects.

Let's take a quick look at this months madness and shenanigans shall we?

(Click on pics to enlarge them.)

And we will start with the obligatory pics of FOOD!!!!

So recently my wonderful wife, (Gawd bless her!), and I were discussing "Food and changing up some of what we eat for dinner.", (we've gotten into a bit of a rut"), and so out of my head, I wandered down to the local stores and picked up stuff to make a nice Cajun style jambalaya.

"Andouille Sausage, crab meat, shrimp, bell peppers, onions, red beans and rice, all mixed and cooked up, with a good dollop of spices added for flavor. I like to use "Tony's" but wife starts to sneeze if she is around it when it is used.

So we fixed it up in the pot....

(Mmmmm.....)

Then it was time to eat...

(Jambalaya, with buttered and peppered Italian bread and peaches for dessert!"

Picking up some history...

So last weekend we went and did the "tax thing", and afterward I took my wonderful wife to our favorite town antique store here in town.
We dropped some bucks but it made her happy.
One of the thing I saw for sale was a "jug/pitcher".
I saw the decor on the side, and said "It must be mine!".
It didn't have a price tag on it, so I asked the guy behind the counter, "How much?"
He said "How does ten bucks sound?" 
I eagerly took it.

 

It's an 1887 pitcher/jug marking the jubilee year (50 years) of the reign of HRH Queen Victoria.
So now I can out drinks out to my friends in a proper period container the next time we play Colonials!

We were also lucky to get a good deal on a display case to display our antique whiskey decanters in.

(Nice and pretty with some of our stuff in it on display...)

(And what it looks like lit up...)

Truly I could have used another display case for miniatures and stuff, but I wasn't going to push it....

Paint Desk Progression.

Checking out my FB memories today, I saw that 2 years ago today I had set up my paint desk in it's current location. Actually, I had set in up in another location in the room, but it didn't do or feel right, so I had to move it. 
After looking at the pic, I decided to take a pic of "What it looks like 2 years later."...

(Feb.19th 2021)

(Feb. 19th 2023)

You can see that there has been a few "changes" made. Mostly the wear and tear of the foam-core I put there for the paint and workings, as well as the addition of another paint rack.  On the table next to me I have three six tier racks, each holding 54 bottle of 2 oz. craft paints and I need about six more. Truly one just never seems to have "right shade of blue or brown when they need it."
Speaking of the painting table...

Projects and WIPS

So the first thing I have decided to to is to simply focus on getting some of these unfinished projects, errrr...finished. As I get this done, I can actually see the progress and get that "Whew! It's done!" feeling in me. Finished projects just feel good, and I think that is something that we as mini gamers seem to have an issue with; the fear of finishing a project, vs the feeling of having it done, and ready to move onto the next one.
And so it is with this one:
I finally got around to finishing the conversion/building of the Livery Stable for my Western town. Years ago, (2012, I think), I started working on converting an ERTL "Cowtown" Barn. I like these buildings but they are crying for work to make them better. So I started working on this and then sputtered, and it went onto the back-burning. 
Fast forward to the end of last year and beginning of this year, and I get the fire lit under me to finally get it done.
So here's the "almost finished" building...
All construction and painting is complete. I just need to seal it and then add the signage.

Once the signage is in place after the spray seal it will be "finally complete".
Also, current WIP's...(far from finished).

(Mister, here's your mule!)

The next cowboy figure that I was working on, is from "The Comic Series That Marvel Wants You To Forget..."

(SWISH!)

(He's just lookin' for a little action....)

(Some no-name range rider with a gun, and a grudge to settle...)

(Ready to dish it out...)

An experiment in progress...

So a while back I was trying the experiment of "one hour a night", which yielded mostly positive results, but always seemed to end right when I was getting into the groove of things.

As a result of this, I am working for the next 30 days on a new process, which I called "Four Figures A Night".

The idea is that I get four figures (at least), painted each night. This does not include basing, (as they should pretty much be already based), primed, (already primed), flocked or sealed, (that's for later). No this is just to get paint on the based figure and get him ready for flocking and sealing.

If I can do four figures a night, that's good, anything more is gravy and I like to shoot for gravy.

So far since last night, I have painted up ten figures, (Six gunfighters, three mules, and a Colonial African Porter). So right now I am a bit ahead. If I can keep this up, (Taking Wed night off), I will be able to crank out (at a minimum) 24 figs per week, for 96 per month. That's quite an increase. 

Let's see how this works. I'll keep at it and report my progress.

More to come. Thanks for reading!