My Painting Room... er, Corner. Hope for those in tight places.

I feel compelled to share a small part of my own personal hobby, mainly because I know there are others out there in similar situations.  Many of you are blessed greatly by the existence in your homes of a dedicated Hobby Room; I sadly am not so gifted.  In fact, with 3 kids and a wife who hog the whole house, I have little room to myself.

My solution:  entrench myself in the laundry room!  For me, this is actually not such a bad thing as it's surprisingly quiet and the laundry machines get little (if any) use.  Honey, if you're reading this, I'm just joking :)

I think the key for any hobbyist with limited space is to use it wisely...  keep what you frequently use within arms reach (neatly organized mind you) and then find organized storage for the rest.  Keeping your working surface clean will add to your enjoyment when you do finally sit down to paint or model for a little while...  These are all my own opinions keep in mind.

In the space behind my laundry room door, I built in the basic framework of my hobby area and it wasn't expensive.  I keep everything clean and out of the way and there is plenty of space for both laundry and hobbies.

My working surface is an inexpensive Formica counter top cut to fit my wall (I got this on clearance at Home Depot for $15); it is mounted on a basic steel frame that is anchored into the wall; caulking applied to give it a finished look.  This allows me to place a cheap Ikea metal cabinet underneath on one side, and my airbrush compressor on the other; still affording plenty of leg space.

My paints are stored in some basic wood-trim shelves that I easily mounted and painted.  Other Items like tools, paper towels, etc. are all stored near by.  The framework for my shelving and baskets are all Closet-Maid wire shelves and accessories (again, pretty inexpensive).

Lastly, all my supplies are stored in matching baskets up on top of the shelving above my counter top...  out of the way so that they don't clutter up my working surface.  It's clear to see when you walk in, that it's my hobby space; but when I do finally sell my house, with the baskets and paints taken down, the area looks just like a laundry folding counter top and shelves.

I look forward to the day I'll have my own hobby room to claim...  but for now, I'm pretty happy.

German Infantry - The Plastic Solider Company 1/72

I think I may be getting to a style that I like with my infantry; here are a few pictures.  I think the only drawback for me is the time and effort involved.  These took a few hours to complete.  Overall, I continue to be impressed with Plastic Soldier Company's offerings...  great detail and value.  I'm anxious for more releases, even though I'll never have enough time to paint them all :)

Feel free to post some comments and let me know what you think. 

With just the primer coat...

1/72 Painted German and Soviet Medics

It's been several weeks since I last posted...  mostly I've been busy catching up at work.  Fortunately, I have found a few minutes here and there to paint a couple of infantry figures from my recent order from The Plastic Soldier Company.  I will start by saying that Infantry has always been a touchy subject for me...  I enjoy it, but I don't do it very often.  Mainly because I can't seem to find my unique "Style" of painting infantry and so I get frustrated and give up.

I am, however, determined to find my style and plan to do it by slowly painting my 1/72 infantry and experimenting with techniques along the way.

I wanted to start with a couple of figures that I didn't care much about ruining...  the medics from both the Soviet and German infantry boxes.  I used a high contrast painting scheme with a coat of black primer.

If I keep practicing and painting, I'm sure I'll eventually get to what I'm looking for.  I do like the richness of colors on these figures and 1/72 is just big enough to provide a "canvas" to work on.

The bases are 3/4 inch washers and the landscaping is a mix of Vallejo pumice gel, ground foam, and Silflor grass tufts.  I'm excited to move on and try some figures in action poses and with weapons...  this guy and gal are a little docile.

I'd love to hear your thoughts (and critiques) so let me know what you think.  Take Care!

Plastic Soldier Company 1/72 Goodies!

This week I got my Plastic Soldier Company 1/72 Panzer IV boxes that I've been waiting for.  I pre-ordered these in early May and once they were available it took about 2 weeks to arrive from the UK (not bad).  I also picked up a box of the new 1/72 Soviet 45mm Anti Tank Guns.

As with the T-34's that I previously ordered, I'm quite happy.  The detail and accuracy is pretty good and they are easy to assemble.  A few parts required some slight shaving to fit snug but on the whole everything fit together perfectly!

The road wheel detail is the only aspect that is a bit inaccurate; but in reality it's not much different than the detail of some of the other fast assembly kits out there (Italeri Panzer III).  I'm guessing they opted for ease of assembly over splitting the road wheel halves.  With a bit of weathering and mud I think it probably won't be very noticeable.

The kit comes with several options for assembly (F1, F2/G, H) and I opted to assemble the first one as an F1; there are also some extra details that can be added like the two jerry cans on the side of the hull.

Dimensions seem accurate and it appears to be quite compatible with other brands out there.  The photo above shows a comparison with a Dragon 1/72 Panzer IV F1.  You can see the detail is better on the Dragon (and Dragon's road wheels are slightly larger), but they are pretty darn close in dimension.

The thing that impressed me with the 45mm Anti Tank gun was how efficiently they packed 4 guns and crew into such a compact box.  Not that this matters once the guns are assembled but nice job :)  Detail on the guns is very good as well and I was excited to see extra shells, ammo crates, and various barrel options included.  I'm assuming a German Pak 36 is up next and I'd be very excited to see that if it does materialize.

As I've said before, I think PSC puts out a great product and I am eagerly waiting for new and upcoming releases.  Based on the "Coming Soon" section on the Plastic Soldier Company website, I think we can expect a StuG III, Sdkfz 251's, Shermans, and more!

My New Bridge - Italeri 1/72 Stone Bridge

I'm finding that 1/72 modelling has a decent amount of accessories and terrain available; one such piece is a stone bridge by Italeri.  The pictures of this bridge looked nice so I picked one up and decided to give it a try.  Once it arrived I was a little disappointed with the detail of the bricks.  The capstones are nice and look accurate but the individual bricks look like someone sculpted them using a paper clip.  Fortunately, a nice paint job seems to hide this flaw and it ended up looking pretty nice.

I painted the base coat with Vallejo Stone Grey and then the individual bricks with various earth/stone colors. I also applied some pumice gel on the road bed, followed by dirt and mud textures.  I added a little foliage in the form of dried grass in the corners of the road bed and then some creeping ivy growing up from the undersides.

I'm really pleased with the final look of this bridge and I'm looking forward to completing more buildings and terrain features for a more complete landscape.

Dragon 1/72 Sdkfz 222 Model Kit

I wanted to post a couple of photos of a Dragon Models 1/72 kit that I just finished.  It is a set of Sdkfz 222's (2 per box) and as is the case with their other 1/72 offerings these are very nicely detailed.  As for wargaming use I'm not sure how these will hold up; each wheel is supported by only a thin plastic axle that I can see breaking in the near future.  There are some wishbone suspension pieces that could likely work as additional support if they were assembled/glued just right, but I couldn't get this to stay put.

The tires were a very nice touch and actually very easy to paint; the rim is well defined and prevented any rubber colored paint from bleeding over (I hate it when that happens painting tires).  There were some small details that were a bit frustrating to get glued on (tow hooks, brass etched canopy, etc.) but once on they were fine.

I decided not to do any paint chipping and stuck to the smooth Panzer Grey with a few mud splatters here and there.  I always enjoy painting mufflers for some reason and these had some nice big ones, unfortunately they are on the undercarriage so not entirely visible.

This turned out being a fun little project and the painting only took me a few hours start to finish.  Comments and feedback are appreciated, I hope you enjoy!

Italeri 1/72 Tiger I E - Finished Pictures

I won't provide much commentary but here are a few photos of my recently completed Italeri 1/72 Tiger I E.  Paints are almost all exclusively Vallejo.  If you are interested in how I painted this model, you can visit Part 1 and Part 2 of a tutorial I put together.  Feel free to post comments and feedback, Enjoy!