Boxes

One of the things I like most about this hobby is making and painting things, particularly if you use scrap to do it.  To this day, when I see an empty cereal packet or some polystyrene in a skip, my first thought is always "what can I make out of that?" 

"Digestive biscuits, Sir!  Faahsands of 'em."

So this is what I created this week: boxes (plus a few rolled up carpets).  All very simple really.  The wooden crates are just balsa offcuts bound with thin card, and the ones with the tarpaulins over them are the really scraggy balsa offcuts and/or bits of polystyrene, with tissue paper glued over them.

"The party of the first part..."

The carpets started off as some pieces of T-shirt material, rolled up and tied off with thread, with some PVA glue to hold them together.  The idea was to make some more accessories for my 28mm Copplestone figures and here they are, on one of my scratch built cardboard and balsa river boats (note use of IKEA pencil for the funnel).

"Just keep schtumm Carruthers and the customs officers won't notice a thing."

I've been toying with running some skirmish games so these will come in handy for that.  We did play some Indian Mutiny skirmish games quite a long time ago and I still have some of the items that Geoff made at the time, including a welsh dresser and, my personal favourite, a war-weary billiard table.

This is what happens when you play billiards with a shotgun.

I did consider making an upright piano (or a pianolla?) this time round, but thought that might be taking it a bit far.  Maybe next week.

River Boat No.3

I was rummaging through some boxes in my workroom/office recently and found again the other river boat that I'd made.  It's approximately 1:72 scale and I had called it 'Marlene' (written underneath) with the date April 1993.  It needs a wee bit of repair work though (not to mention painting).

It is actually based on an illustration used for the cover of the Penguin Classics edition of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (mine is the 1988 reprint).  The illustration is by someone called F Hens (I couldn't find anything about him on the internet - I'm presuming it's a 'him' - although there were plenty of results about poultry), being a detail of a painting entitled 'The Steamer Stanley', presumably on the Congo or somewhere.

I did try it out with my recent Copplestone Darkest Africa figures (see earlier posts on this blog) but it is a little small.  28mm figures weren't really on my radar when I built it, obviously.  Maybe it's not small though, maybe it's just far away...

Construction techniques were my usual balsa off-cuts for the hull with cardboard superstructure held up with matchsticks.  I remember being rather pleased with the paddle wheel at the back (matchsticks and thin card) as I'd made it match the waterline.

Yet again, another lesson on the importance of knowing one's literature.

River Boat No.2

There seems to have been a naval theme over the last month or so (and it's not quite over yet) and contributing to this I finally got around to finishing off the Darkest Africa river boat I'd been working on.  Over the black undercoat (see earlier post) I added a base layer of dark grey to the 'steel' areas (Revell Acrylic Mouse Grey) and gave the 'wooden' areas a rough layer of my trusty Raw Earth (from a Fired Earth tester pot).  Here is Coppletone's Col. Spalding (or is it Rufus T Firefly?) trying it out for size.

You can see that I've added more detail to the wheel house since last time including panels on the doors, a window frame for the front and a couple of louver-like vents.  All additions were made from strips of thin card (old business cards).  I also added some planking to the side wheels (just some scored cardboard).  Most of the woodwork was then painted with another tester pot emulsion, this time Farrow and Ball's "James White" (I wonder if they do a "James Brown"?), and then highlighted here and there with some normal white acrylic.

Steelwork was painted with progressively lighter shades of grey (although you can't really tell) and the windows were done with some gloss Revell Ultramarine Blue.  Decks were painted with Revell Dark Earth.  Finally, after re-scoring the planking on the side wheels (as it had got a bit clogged up) and a bit of touching up, I dry brushed the Raw Earth with some James White.  I then daubed rust spots and staining on the cabins and other white areas using thinned Revell matt Brown (an orange-brown, actually).

Overall, it's turned out not bad and it is now looking like a suitably disreputable riverboat rust-bucket on the upper Limpopo or wherever.  I'm tempted to tinker a bit but will probably just leave it as I've other things to do, including making a deck gun of some sort and maybe even adding some crew.

River Boat No.1

Developing my Darkest Africa theme (see previous posts) I considered that the intrepid explorers needed a bit of transport through the steamy jungle, and here it is:

This beauty is about 28mm scale and I made it using balsa for the hull and wheel house, cardboard for the sidewheels, lower cabin, bridge, upper deck and louvered doors, plus some matchsticks to hold the deck up.  The funnel is a short pencil from IKEA (it was free!) and therefore usefully hexagonal.

It actually started out like this but I modified it a bit, as you can see.

Some further modifications and additions are intended, not to mention painting, so I'll tell you about this when I've done them.  By the way, that Bell's miniature in the background traditionally holds paint thinner rather than whisky.  Desperate times call for desperate measures (pun intended).

Darkest Africa No.6

Well, I finally finished the Copplestone Darkest Africa/Dinosaur Hunter figures.  It was the first time that I'd really tried painting large figures using the, what appears to be, now standard three stage process, i.e. laying down the dark shade colour, then painting in the main colour (leaving the deep folds and shaded areas) and finally picking out the highlights.

For my first attempt at this technique I think they've come out not bad, although perhaps I should have created a greater contrast between shades.  I had a bit of trouble with the eyes so just approximated these..

I need someone (or somethings) for them to fight now and will be working on that over the next few weeks, assuming I don't get distracted onto anything else.

Darkest Africa No.5

Yet another post demonstrating progress with the allegedly intrepid ones.  I've done most of the shading now and have added in main colours and highlights on quite a few of them.

I couldn't quite manage the detail of the Harris tweed on the stout fellow with the deer-stalker but did give him a gold watch chain.

I'm sure these posts are literally like watching paint dry .... (geddit?) ... so I'll make the next one the last on this particular topic.  However, making myself report progress does motivate me somewhat....

Darkest Africa No.4

Well, making some more progress on my Copplestone figures.  I've blocked in various shade colours and so should be getting on to the main colours and highlights later.

I've gone for various khaki, ochre and green shades with some sensible blue-grey flannels for the gentlemen.

Lofty's in his voluminous KDs (Khaki Drill) of course.

Darkest Africa No.3

I'm not much of a painter in terms of speed, motivation, skill or output but I've decided that I should really try to get those jobs finished I said I'd get done this year.  So, I've been cracking on with the Copplestone Darkest Africa figures and managed to make some progress and get some of the flesh tones done last night.

I'm trying to follow the Foundry three-stage method (sort of) by mixing up/down shades as I need them but it seems to be going OK.

I'm using Revell acrylics as there is a plentiful supply in my local model store (Wonderland, on Lothian Road, Edinburgh).

Darkest Africa No.2

Nothing new to report, just experimenting with the extreme zoom function of my camera, mounted on a wobbly tripod.

Needs better lighting though (and a more steady hand when painting details).  You can see where I've had to go back to re-apply base coat on him where I've cocked it up.  That misplaced streak in his beard makes him look like Billy Connolly on safari, I think.

By the way, I've been reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World which is useful brain-fodder for this era.

Darkest Africa No.1

Trying to get going again and pick up where I left off with the various projects that were put on hold as a result of our southern-hemisphereic sojourn. As we did spend some time in South Africa on our way back (not really Darkest Africa though) I thought I'd ease myself back in with some straightforward painting. Here's where I'd got to so far with these excellent Copplestone Figures.

 As you can see I haven't got very far with them at all.

Overall, the idea was to use them for some sort of dinosaur hunts as my 8 year old son is or was keen on such things.  Mind you, going by past performance by the time I've finished painting them he may be away at university.

I particularly like the Groucho Marx figure (centre - Capt Spalding) and the 'Ain't Half Hot Mum' (left - 'Lofty')  characters.