March 28, 2021

I began the workbench week by painting another dog sled team and more members of the Gordon Institute research team, but the big focus, the terrain focus, was adding the snow.  Adding the snow to the single figures’ bases was no problem but adding it to the oval bike base with a figure and a dog sled or to the oval bike base with a dog team was difficult because that involved a lot more maneuvering of the brush carrying the snow mixture.  Once it is all dry (took the picture while it was still wet), I will be able to clean off the sides of the bases, and that will enhance the look, so generally speaking I’m pretty happy with the way it came out.  

I did two dog sleds by Copplestone Castings.  While I like the Rafm sleds, and I used two of the Rafm polar expedition figures in my collection, I think the Copplestone Castings’ dog sleds are the nicest that I have seen.  In fact, Copplestone sells a separate pack of their sled dogs that I used with my Rafm sleds.  Included here is also another Copplestone pilot and a modified Pulp Figures’ female member of the Gordon team.  I took this picture just after I finished painting these, so I hadn’t had time to apply the snow to the bases.

By mid-week I got the snow on the bases of the dog sleds by Copplestone.  I left one of the cargo pieces loose so I could use one of the sleds for other things but still use the cargo if that was needed.  The man-powered sleds are by Sally 4th.  They come two to a pack.  One sled had a covered cargo-option, and one has an ill or injured man as an option.  I kept the ill figure loose and made a second (loose) cargo option out of stuff I had among my odds and ends.   The Sally 4th figures didn’t photograph well, but I like the figures so don’t hold my poor photography against them.

One of the things that led me to create the Gordon Institute for Archeology and Paranormal Study was the fact that I was often attracted to toys and miniatures that I had no traditional use for within the context of the hobby… thus toys in search of a purpose.  One of those toys that led me to the idea for the Gordon polar research station is the Santa Car from Mater Saves Christmas.  If you look for this car on eBay you will be in for a shock… it is extremely expensive.  Fortunately for me, I found two of them at the swap meet… one for $3 and one for $6.  Yesterday I began repurposing them for use with my 28mm Gordon Institute team:  replaced the Santa hat roofs with Evergreen plastic; cut off the tiny wheels for rolling; added gear racks using Plastruct HO handrails.  The gear is from the Tamiya 1:48 Jerry Can Set.  I conclude with a picture of a real version of this type of vehicle.  As the week came to a close, I was able to get one of the two cars painted, but since this is a photo session weekend, Friday and Saturday were all about setting up the Loch Ness tables, taking the pictures, and putting everything away… that took hours and hours.

March 21, 2021

Last week I completed two Gordon Institute collections I have been working on since June (Loch Ness and the King Kong expeditions).  Over the weekend I did a practice set-up of the Loch Ness layout in preparation for our photo session on March 27.  I have already written the 7-episode Loch Ness adventure and will begin to write the King Kong episodes soon, and that will take some time, but while doing that I needed a new project, and I decided to start another Institute project to keep me busy.  It is one that I have been collecting pieces for during the last few years.  It will be a relatively small project and one that doesn’t have a clear storyline yet.  That project is the establishment of a Frozen South or Frozen North Gordon Institute research station.  

For my terrain I’m relying on a lot of odds and ends that I have picked up at the swap meet and bargain tables over several years.  There will be a lot of ice crystals.  I got the idea for the ice crystals from the AT-43 Operation Frostbite game set.  I got it on the bargain table at a local hobby shop for the remarkable price of $15.  Those crystals will be supplemented by others that I purchased from Acheson Creations (not pictured here).  The Institute’s research station will be housed in igloos that will be repurposed from 101 Dalmatians’ toys… swap meet finds.  The problem I am having with the location of the research stations is that I want penguins and walrus and apparently Nature doesn’t think they should live together.  I’ll probably ignore nature and use both together… probably Frozen North.  This is all pretend anyway.  

This week I began painting the Gordon research team. I got a little more than a third of them done… figures by Pulp Figures, Sally 4th, Copplestone Castings, and one by Rafm.Once again, I used a mixture of Elmer’s School Glue (white glue), Arm and Hammer baking soda, and water to create the snow on the bases.I ended the week painting three Sherpas (Pulp Figures) that the Gordon Institute included in their expedition to the Frozen North because of their knowledge of freezing conditions and methods of transport in those conditions. I also completed my first dog sled team (Rafm and Copplestone). I didn’t have time to add the snow to the bases.

March 14, 2021

I opened the workbench week putting together and painting a driver for my modified Atlantis chuck wagon.  I used one of the figures that came with the toy.  I gave that figure new arms and legs (the figure didn’t come with legs).  Once the figure was assembled, I gave it a new paint job.

With the chuck wagon done, I turned my attention to two figures that just arrived from Old Glory 25s.  One of those figures is an artist and the other is a photographer.  These figures will be used with my Gordon Institute King Kong collection.  

This week I also received an Atlantis Aqua Evac truck complete with crane, so I decided to put it together and use Evergreen plastic to add a flatbed cargo area to the rear of the more incomplete version of the Aqua Evac truck that I already had.  With those two complete, I gave both of them paint jobs.  

As the week drew to a close, I decided to keep my focus on the Atlantis vehicles.  I still had several left from the eBay “lot” that had recently arrived.  I repurposed and painted the Wing Launcher as a panel cargo truck… I now have six of those finished.  I ended the week with the Atlantis Vinny’s Tinderbox truck.  I removed the explosive cargo on top of the cargo area (fortunately the truck is screwed together and comes apart pretty easily).  I set Legos in the cargo box to fill the space and then I covered that with facial tissue to serve as a tarp.  Once the tissue was in place, I gave it several coats of clear enamel to help it stick in place and to harden it.  Once it was reasonably hard, I gave the tissue a thin coat/squeeze of Krazy Glue to make it really hard.  With that done I painted the truck and its driver.

The week ended with a practice set-up for the next photo session… the Gordon Institute’s Loch Ness adventure.  I do this with every project… just need a concrete moment to make sure that my vision of the project can be matched by the space I actually have.  It’s looking good in terms of the space needed.

March 7, 2021

I got a lot more done this week than I thought I would.  I painted another Mage Knight Behemoth.  I then painted the last two figures from the Artizan Designs’ order I received about a week ago.  Previously I had painted one of the Activision Skyland Soda Skimmers to serve as a time machine and two figures (one Pulp and one Victorian) to use with it (they were removable).  But I had three of the of the Soda Skimmers so I decided that this week I would paint the other two so that each figure would have its own time machine, and I would have one time machine with no one in it.  

The middle of the week found me not spending much time at the workbench.  It was raining and cold, but as the week came near the end, things began to take shape.  I was looking at one of the FB miniatures groups I belong to and someone had done the Atlantis chuck wagon as a vehicle minus the small towing vehicle it came with.  What he had done looked good.  In the “lot” of Atlantis stuff I purchased a couple weeks ago was the chuck wagon without that towing vehicle.  I had already done another Atlantis chuck wagon in its complete form and was giving serious thought to throwing the broken one away, but seeing it done without the towing vehicle caused me to decide to give it a try.  I’m pretty happy with the way it came out.  As the week came to an end, I decided on a driver for my chuckwagon but that will probably have to be painted in the upcoming week.  On Friday my order from Old Glory arrived and with it the last of the native huts for my Gordon Institute King Kong collection.  I already had 8 huts that needed to be painted so with the arrival of 4 more huts I decided to start work on the 12 huts I now had.  I got 8 of them done before the workbench week end.