An Overdue Update...Part 2 (Pic Intensive)

 Continuing from the first part....

So with the figures getting painted as I said in the previous post, I started alternating between figures one week, and scenics/terrain the next. This has been working out pretty well for me. 

I've also been able to do some scratchbuilding too.

Piers and hovels....

One of the things that I realized I needed for my pirate games, (besides houses on the island), were piers, wharfs, etc.

So I decided to try my hand at a little scratchbuilding.

Two buildings and two piers later, I am pretty happy with the results.

(Buildings are made out of foam core with coffee stick timbering. The roof is cardstock and will be thatched using the cheap towel method. The piers are made out of dowel rods and coffee stir sticks.)

(Both docks showing the variation...)

(A little bit larger hovel build of the same material as the previous one. A Foundry figure is for size/scale. The roof will be "thatched" using the bath towel method.)

Once I get the thatch done on these two buildings, using the bath towel method, I'll go ahead and post up pics of the completed project.

The Wharf....

My wonderful wife, (Gawd bless her!), and I were having the discussion the other day about piers, docks, wharves, etc. It all came about because of the song by the late Otis Redding "Sitting on the dock of the bay".

I looked at her and said "You know, I simply don't understand this song title, because if he was truly sitting on the dock of the bay, then he would actually be IN THE WATER!"

So my wife patiently explained to me that people use the term "dock and piers" interchangeably. 

"Or perhaps they are too stupid to understand which is which?" I asked her.

She rolled her eyes at me.

So I realized that I needed wharves for my upcoming pirate games. The piers need to have the wharves.

So it was "scratch-build time" (again). 

For this project, I used a piece of packing cardboard to make the main body of the wharf, approx 1 1/2 inches thick, E6000 adhesive, a couple of sheets of G scale dressed stone block plastic sheet, and some thick dowel rods.

(Packing cardboard from my box of "odd stuff that I might be able to use.)

(This is good stuff...)

(The plastic sheeting for the stone siding...)

(This is what the sheet siding looks like. Easy to cut, glue, and paint....)

(The main form sprayed black.)

(The final product assembled. Now all I need to do is paint it.)

(With some 28mm figures for scale/size...)

These were actually pretty easy to do and the hardest part was making sure the cuts were straight and then the holding them together with the rubber bands while the E6000 dried.

I have two more in the making....

The barn....Yes, another barn....or something....

A while back I was wandering through my local Goodwill and found yet another toy barn for sale. My Goodwill is finally getting to the point of having some cool and nice stuff coming into it that can be possibly be used for gaming.

So I saw the $1.99 price tag and grabbed it.

I decided to go with "kinda-sorta" the same method I used for the Western one that I did a while back.

But decided to go "half stone-half wood", to give it a little more variety.

(The barn as brought in from Goodwill. Notice that the doors are missing. This is usual for Goodwill playset toys. Parts are always missing, but this can be easily remedied....so I hope.)

After cleaning it up, I rand a spray of black primer over the inside and outside of it to get rid of the orange read color and to help cover up much of the maker markings on the inside.

(A black primer base, courtesy of a rattle can...)

Afterwards, I used the remaining dressed stone sheets from the wharf project onto the bottom half of the barn and then the upper half was the coffee stirrer sticks again. Some rubber bands to help hold some of the more issue prone sticks in place and it's done. 

(The product under construction....)

I think overall, that I am happy with the scenic builds and the "Week of figures, week of scenics terrain" process is working pretty well for me. I'm getting more done, and not burning out as much, although the apathy still comes.

A Modge Podge Comparison....

I like Modge Podge.

A lot can be done with it terrain and scenic wise. It just requires some knowledge and patience.

I've been looking at building up watery areas and was curious about how Modge Podge compared to areas painted with straight paint vs areas painted with watered/thin paints.

So I grabbed a stick and did a quick comparision.

I used an Apple Barrel Bright Blue and painted the left half of the stick with straight paint, (not thinned at all), while the right half of the stick was painted with thinned water. This took a little longer as I need 3-4 coats of paint to get a good solid blue color.

I then applied a coat of Modge Podge Glossy onto both sides and let it dry.

A few hours later, I came back to check it. 

(The results...)

I don't see much of a glossy difference, however, I do a difference in the "blue depth" of color on the left over the right. This shows me once again, that I would do non thinned paints for "deeper water" when using modge podge.

Speaking of Goodwill....

As I said previously our goodwill is starting to get some cool stuff into it toy wise.

I was cruising the store one day and found something on sale for $2.99 cents.

I checked him out. His batteries were weak, but he still worked.

And me being the sentimental slob that I am, bought him and brought him home.

Donated toys need good homes too.

("Welcome to Altair IV Gentlemen....")

(The Goodwill tag.... Classic Robot goodness for only $2.99...)

"Forbidden Planet" is an amazing film for it's time, and even for today, and it is one of my favorite sci-fi films, so thus it was only natural for him to come home with me, get cleaned, and get new fresh batteries.

He now sits in a place of honor on my bookshelf.

TV....

Like a lot of people that work, I often times keep the tv onto something as background noise while I work. Sometimes it is Spotify playing, or WW2 British Homefront Radio. Sometimes it is ST DS9. 

And sometimes it's movies or adventure shows.

One weekend morning I found this...

(If you watched this as a kid, you are awesome!)

(I'll be honest. This is the ONLY Hanna-Barbera thing I actually liked...)

And then there was good old combat action!

And then on March 17th, I had my obligatory watching of my favorite movie.

(Sigh...)

During the month of March, I started experimenting once again with certain drink recipes...

("Aye Murphy....Pour me a good one there laddie...")

(Pay no attention to the blue colored drink that you see, NOR should you pay attention to the Romulan Warbird slipping across The Neutral Zone, on it's way "home"....)

And of course, with the upcoming State of the Union Speech, I HAD to have something to drink to get through that. 

(Alcohol helps me understand his ramblings better.....)

So I decided to suck down one of these...

Remember....it means...."No Worries"....

But it wasn't all drinks...

Yes there was food involved!

Wonderful things like my wife's flat iron ribeye's.

(mmmmm....steeeeaaaaakkkkk.....)

And the rest of the meal....

(My wife definitely knows how to fix food!)

But sometimes neither of us feel like cooking, so off to eat we go.

And a lot of times it is usually off to our favorite Mexican food place here in town...

(Our Eclipse meal. We figured that if the slim possibility that the apocalypse DID happen during the eclipse that we didn't want to face oblivion on an empty stomach. This was my meal. Tostada, tamale, enchilada, taco, rice and beans, and two extra tacos; washed down with a corona.)

And then the eclipse happened...

So the eclipse was happening and our town was in the way of "the darkness".

It was a pretty fun ordeal.

My wife and I ate good Mexican food, (see the previous delicious picture), and then got home as the sky was starting to darken.

(The sky grew a hazy dark gray, and one could see the government jet chem trails...errr.... I mean "Contrails".  Really I need to stop reading those conspiracy sites...)

(This should be interesting...)

So then I started trying to get some pics.

These pics were taking looking through the lens of the standard "eclipse glasses" that everyone was wearing.

The camera is actually the camera from (of all things) and Iphone 8!

Essentially the camera lens is held up to the glasses plastic lens film, and photos are taken.

(And in the beginning....)

(And then it started to happen...)

(Ooooohhh....look at that.)

(My final and best pic taken of it. Yes...with the camera from an Iphone 8...)

During the dimming, I went out and took a pic of our house, aka "The Old Girl".

I wanted to get a good shot of it, and I did.

While not totally dark, you can see the effects of the skies on it.

Another chance to take a photo of this house under these conditions won't be available for approx. 90-225 years depending....

A friend of mine looked at this pic and said "Yes. Definitely haunted."

I won't tell you to pay close attention to the windows.

And then because we weren't swallowed up in an apocalyptic fury, we celebrated with strawberry mimosas!

(Bottoms up and toasting the Eclipse!)

And that my friend is pretty much the end of it.

Oh sure I could show you pics of the wonderful Easter "Boozy Chocolates" that I got for my wife and me, or pics of our flowers in the backyard, etc., and perhaps a few more miniature pics, but we shall leave them for next time.

I hope you have enjoyed this entry, and all comments are appreciated.

Stay tuned! More to come!

Thanks for reading!