JANUARY 28, 2018
This has been a slow week at the old workbench. In part that was due to shopping for some new sofas (actually one large sectional sofa) for the family room plus a dentist appointment at the end of the week, but the main reason for my slow down in productivity this week has to do with a trend in my work on my projects that I have seen recur over the years. Work on each of these projects/collections tends to last between six months and a year, and I tend to work on them in blocks… buildings, figures, vehicles, accessories and interiors, and end-of-projects odds and ends. What happens is that at the end of each block I slow down before moving ahead on the next block. It’s almost as though I’m a little nervous about starting something new. Since October I have done a bit more than 30 structures (mostly Plasticville and K-Line) for my post apoc desert community, and last week I was wrapping up the last of the figures painting for this project which brought that number to about 450 figures… about 200 more than I thought this project would involve. Next on the agenda is vehicles, but I had trouble getting vehicle focused. So this week I worked on another version of Molly Hayes. This time I gave her a Gatling gun taken from the Heroclix figure Skullbuster. When Molly was done, and I really like the way she came out, I decided to make use of some Heroclix Nightrider heads that I had removed from their original figures and replaced with Kings of War zombie heads. I took the removed Nightrider heads/flaming skulls and mounted them on posts with new paint jobs… warning to zombies to stay away; not sure if zombies can be warned, but the mounted heads look pretty good.
Next on my workbench were a couple of Reaper/Bones Great Worms that for some reason had been pushed to the rear of my figure painting throughout this project. I did one as it came, but I decided to modify the second one by cutting a section out of its neck (3/4” at the back and ½” at the front) to give it a different look. Despite removing that large chunk of neck/maybe body (hard to tell with a worm), it’s almost impossible to see any difference between them. After the worms, I returned to playing with some Clix. I cut the cat woman off one of the Heroclix bombshell figures, did a little touch up work, and rebased the unexploded bomb… might have a place in a post apoc desert community. I also removed the TNT boxes from the Heroclix figure Mr. Immortal. I rebased the boxes on the rock slab from the Molly Hayes figures and gave it new paint… I like it. While I was at this little stuff, I decided to base and paint a couple of little plants taken from a broken toy I got at the swap meet months ago… definitely not for the post apoc, but I’ll find a use for them with some collection.
Finally my mind began to turn toward vehicles and the next stage or phase of this project. I’ve been collecting cars and trucks for this project for years… most of them coming from my local swap meet. But my transition into vehicles had one foot in the figure world. During my figure-painting phase of this project, I painted up more than a dozen standing bikers (as opposed to riding bikers), and they needed motorcycles. A month or so ago I painted the Blue Moon Road Kill Human Biker Gang and really loved the figures, but I also discovered in putting them together that the riders are completely separate from their bikes which meant that the bikes could be made as stand alones for my “standing” biker figures. Because I share a membership in the Old Glory Army with a couple other guys, I get a 40% discount, and I share the shipping cost. That said I felt I could afford to by the Human Biker Gang just for the bikes, and I did. They came out great, and eased me closer to the vehicle phase of this post apoc project. Finally I took out a box of cars and trucks and completed work on a couple of VW vans and station wagons plus one little hot rod. It’s a start.
JANUARY 20, 2018
I’m posting the workbench for this week a day early because tomorrow will be a busy day that will probably not offer time for picture taking, and this week’s workbench requires a lot of pictures. When I began the weekly workbench section of my website just a couple weeks ago, I was well in to my post apoc figure painting. Today pretty much brings my zombie brushwork to a close with about 200 zombies done. This posting includes zombies from Box 3 of the Blue Moon Things That Go Bump In The Night zombie collection. My work this week also included zombies from Kings of War and Eureka. In addition to the zombies, I painted some casualties from Old Glory and three Clix… two Heroclix and a mutant bunny from Horrorclix. Without question my favorite workbench figure this week was Heroclix’s Molly Hayes. I originally bought Molly because I wanted the three yellow ducks. My plan was to use them as targets in a circus shooting gallery sideshow. But the more I looked at Molly herself, the more I saw her potential as a zombie fighter. Rather than do a long write-up of the change Molly has undergone, I’ve photographed her in her before and after state.
JANUARY 14, 2018
This week work continued on my zombies… lots still to do. I completed the rest of the Project Z female zombies, several Reaper zombies, three zombies from Brigade Games, and Box #1 of the Blue Moon Things That Go Bump In The Night Zombies. For a little break from zombies, I decided to paint up four voodoo figures for this collection… two are Reaper and two are Clix (one Heroclix and one Horrorclix). My work on zombies will continue for the next week or two. Tomorrow I will start Box #3 of the Blue Moon zombies and probably get started on some zombies from the Kings of War.
JANUARY 7, 2018
Having completed my Spaceport Gallery in October, I have been working for several months on my next collection which is a post-apoc collection roughly inspired by the work of member of Lead Adventure Forum who were involved in a game called Atomic Cafe. The setting for my post-apoc drama will be a small desert community located between LA and Las Vegas. I have currently painted about 250 figures for this collection, and I am now deep into my zombie horde. This week I have been working on figures from Warlord Games’ Project Z/Zombie Horde. This week I completed the male Project Z zombies, and about half of the females.
