December 25, 2022

Just finished the command vehicle for my Mexican revolutionaries. I bought the figures from Brigade Games in 2012 during my trip to Historicon (I'm on the other coast so I've only been once, but it was fun). I was sure I had several 1:43 cars from the period, but none of the ones I have are open so I decided to use a Rafm Cthulhu piece (M.U. Expedition to the Outback) that I have had for years but never before built or painted.

I finished painting the last three Old Glory stucco buildings (one medium and two small).  To give some of my basic stucco buildings in my Mexican town a little more character and differentiation, I’ll be adding some removable cloth awnings/canopies to their exteriors.  The green awning pictured here is by Kobblestone Miniatures.  It was a gift sent to me by Kobblestone’s owner with one of my orders… he often sent a surprise or two with an order.  I am also including somewhat different awnings that originally were part of an Action Fleet playset entitled Star Wars Episode I/Mos Espa Market.  I did three of them previously for my spaceport collection, but this week I discovered that I had a fourth, so I based and painted it, and gave it a dark red canopy cover. 

I also bought a set of six Spanish/stucco-style buildings during that one and only visit to Historicon back in 2012. They are by Brigade games. Each building comes in sections (four wall sections and at least one roof section), and they don't go together easily. I used a lot of glue, Milliput and putty. That said, I love the buildings and knowing what I know I would buy them again. The first one I'm posting here is by far the largest. I will not attach the balcony or its roof until after it’s painted because once it is attached it would be difficult to reach areas of the balcony with a brush. The rest of the buildings shown here are complete and awaiting paint. These six buildings combined with the Old Glory stucco buildings I have completed give me 18 buildings for my Mexican town. In addition to those, I have two very grand buildings by Kobblestone Miniatures yet to do.

I finished painting six of the six Brigade Spanish/stucco-style buildings by the end of the week. Christmas tomorrow.

December 18, 2022

I began the week notching out a section of the base of one of my Old Glory stucco walls so I could insert a Verlinden shrine.  While the shrine is 1:35 scale, I think it looks fine with this project.

With that done I turned my attention to the Old Glory stucco cantina for my Mexican town.  I have done this building before as part of my pirate collection, but I did that one in a beige color scheme and I wanted the color scheme for my Mexican town to be a darker color, so I did a second one.  It is not an easy job because the building’s walls are not square and it takes a lot of work and Milliput to bring it all together in a reasonable fashion.  Even then there are imperfections but I actually think they work well as part of a Mexican town during the Mexican Revolution at the turn of the 20th Century.

Next on my list were two “Aztec” ruins that are from Monolith Designs (no longer in business).  I added Milliput shrubs.

Some years ago, Brookhurst Hobbies was clearing out the last of its Foundry packs, and I picked up a number of nice things that included one that in 1998 was called Infantry in Kepi Vignette but today is Drunk on Duty & Surgeon’s Detail.  When I did my pirate collection, I cut the head off the soldier in the barrel and added a pirate’s head in its place, but until yesterday I hadn’t done anything with the rest of the figures.  Yesterday I decided to cut the heads off the soldiers carrying the wounded figure and replace those heads with the heads of Federales so I could use the figures with my Gordon Institute Mexican adventure.

I then completed the last eight Old Glory stucco wall sections for the Mexican town.  Four I painted just as they came, but the last four I modified.  Three were modified by cutting notches in the end of the bases to allow them to be corner pieces (notches are circled in blue).  The fourth was also notched but that notch was a large notch cut in the center section of the base wall to allow me to slide a Kobblestone Miniatures well next to the wall.  It’s a beautiful well. Unfortunate that Kobblestone Miniatures is no longer in business.  I am very lucky to have a number of wonderful pieces by that company.  I used a lot of the Kobblestone buildings with my Egyptian town, and I will use two large Kobblestone buildings, three water features/well with my Mexican town.  Two of those water features I have had completed for a long time (used with my Egyptian collection), but the third, a revolving water wheel, I completed this week.

With the walls and water wheel done, I returned to do two more “Aztec” ruins.  These are unique in that I got them years ago at Olvera Street which is part of El Pueblo de Los Angeles across the street from Union Station in LA.  I added Milliput shrubs before painting.

At this point it was time to return to painting the stucco buildings.  Old Glory makes three relatively large stucco buildings… the cantina, a two-story building, and a church.  The two-story building was my next project.  It went together very easily compared with the cantina.  I did use some Milliput to do some smoothing of the roof section with the body of the building but that was a minor patch job.  I’ll probably set the small Kobblestone well against the side of this building.

When I pulled the above-mentioned water wheel from its place of storage, I was reminded that I had six outdoor ovens by Monolith Designs that needed painting so they became my next focus; they were fast.  I gave them a black base coat and then dry brushed each of them with Saddle Brown and gave that a light highlighting with a mix of Saddle Brown and Pale Sand.

I turned next to the second of my Verlinden shrines… the cross.  I gave it a black base coat and dry brushed it with the Vallejo color combination provided below.  I gave the Christ figure a light coat of Red Beige and the plaque a dry brushing of Brass.

As the week came to an end, I began work on a Terrain Crate Plaza Fountain and the Old Glory Church, and by the end of the day on Saturday, they were done.  I’ll probably set the Verlinden cross against the side of the church tower.

The color combination I am using for the buildings, statues, and walls in this project is:  I use Vallejo Model Color. I gave the entire building a black base coat. Once dry, I dry brushed the entire building with German Cam Orange Ochre. I then gave it a light dry brush coat of Ochre Brown followed by another light coat of Saddle Brown mixed with German Cam Orange Ochre. That was followed by a light dry brushing of Beige mixed with German Cam Orange Ochre. I ended with a very light dry brushing of Beige.

December 11, 2022

This week was entirely focused on terrain for my 28mm Gordon Institute adventure in Mexico.  I completed six of the Old Glory stucco buildings which will be a central element of the Mexican town (two of the small houses, two of the medium houses, one of the large houses, and one of the stables). 

I followed that work by doing various pieces that I will use as Aztec ruins.  Let me make it clear that I know these are generally not accurate representations of Aztec ruins or even Aztec culture, but they do give off an Aztec/Mesoamerican feel that I think will make a good contribution to the look of this project.  Two or perhaps three of these pieces are by Acheson Creations which I am sad to say is closing its doors in May.  Two of the pieces are by Lemax/Spooky Town/Ancient Statues/2010… purchased long ago.  There are a few pieces that are by Monolith Designs, and a number by Scotia Grendel.   Several I found on Etsy when I Googled “28mm Aztec ruins.”  These are a perfect example of what I mean by pieces that give the right feeling but probably do not reflect Aztec culture.  Two of the pieces I did for this project were marketed by Burger King.  They are identified as Mayan pens.

I filled the holes on my second Akator Temple Race Game town… it arrived in the mail this week.

I brought the week to a close putting together the Old Glory stucco cantina.  This is not an easy task.  The pieces don’t fit together well and a lot of glue and Milliput was needed.  Also the balcony posts were either missing or incompletely cast.  That said, I love the building.  I have another one that I used with my Pirate collection.  The reason I am doing a second one is that the Mexican town will have a different color scheme for the stucco buildings.  I think the cantina will come out okay… it’s not painted yet, and I am waiting to attach the upstairs awning until the building is painted to allow me to have space to reach areas that need painting.  The top of the building is not really on the extreme slant it appears to be in the picture, but the structure is far from perfect (lots of things don’t line up).  That said I think it will look pretty good when done.

December 4, 2022

The early part of the workbench week was devoted to the repurposing and painting of the Fisher Price Aztec Castle that I will be using as a background piece for my Gordon Institute expedition to Mexico.  A lot of Milliput was involved and fortunately I also had a few pieces of plastic rock and a nice leaf canopy to fill in spaces that needed them.

With that done I turned my Milliput attention to the Akator Temple Race Game tower and filled in all the openings on that.  I’ll be painting it soon and at that time I’ll know if my fill-in work did the job or if I have to add more Milliput in the form of shrubs to cover imperfections.

By mid-week my Eureka order arrived.  That gave me figures that will serve as the victims of the Aztec-style sacrifices that will be part of the Gordon Institute project.  The figures consisted of a pack of African Captives and a pack of Aztec Prisoners.  Using Milliput, I added additional hair to the African Captives and new loincloths. 

Throughout the entire week I was taking some time to replace the white glue and baking soda snow I had put on the bases of my Mountain Men Winter collection.  I had been warned that that mixture would yellow over time.  Actually it didn’t, but what it did do after a couple of years was lift off the bases and begin to crumble. Several months ago I replaced the snow on the Gordon Institute Frozen North collection.  They were suffering from the same problem.  I used Milliput to replace the white glue and baking soda snow, and to my great pleasure it worked.  Once it hardened, I painted the snow with Vallejo Off White.  It worked great, so through this week I did the same to the Mountain Men and Indians.  There are about 95 of them so it was a lot of work, but I got it done and they look just fine.