Hohum - tidying time.

Anne's off at the dog track tomorrow night, so I have an evening in with stuff to do which requires, apart from anything else, a clear workbench.

Which this isn't.

Time to fix that. Exciting way to extend the hobby streak or what? I promise the result of tomorrow will be more interesting.

Some 95th, and a club notice

I got my first batch of 95th back from my painter last night - very nice they are, too.

They're from either the now defunct Alban Miniatures or Offensive Miniatures - I think the latter -  except the mounted officer, who is, I'm fairly sure, Foundry, and the bloke in the top hat and stolen Rifles jacket, who is from Eagle Miniatures' Spanish guerrillas. Huge thanks to Tom, who clearly sees and wields a brush better than I do :D

In other news, becoming fed up of how easily the newer Army Painter paints separate, such that your first squeeze from a bottle of (say) Desert Yellow can be completely clear, I bought a paint shaker (OK, Amazon sell them as nail varnish shakers, but since neither the wife or I paint our nails, it won't get misappropriated, which is more than can be said for at least two kitchen knives so far :D)

In other other news.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: If the only means you have of getting news about Peterborough Wargames Club is reading my blog, then:

1. Sign up to our forum and/or Facebook group.
2. We are MOVING VENUES for the next three Mondays (1st, 8th, 15th) to HERE, as in where I am typing this, while the St. John's folks redecorate the whole place. More details on the club site and FB group.

On which score, I've just spent an hour rearranging things in the terrain workshop half of the studio so we can fit three scenery cupboards, 36 baseboards and three gaming tables in (which includes solving problems like 'where do the Omaha boards go?' :D

Time for a tidyup part 2

Ok. Now I actually have a workbench :D

Tomorrow, the shelves. And probably a good scrub on the bench.

*gulp*

Time for a tidy up

Well, part one of one anyway.

That's my paints offloaded onto a paint rack this morning (see yesterday) now the glue's all completely set, and a decent sized RUB freed up. I figured having got that far, I probably ought to sort out the rest of the mess :D

So that's half of it, anyway. I need to reorder the shelves with sprays and 'big' paint containers on it (relatively big, anyway - the big can of Sandtex Bitter Chocolate and other 'scenery board' emulsions can live elsewhere), clear away the rubbish on the left, and debate whether I want a bigger and less knackered-looking cutting mat and a shelf for the old Citadel paints.

Then there's the crap under the desk :D

And I have a paint rack...

Waiting for the glue to dry,
before I sort out a lot of
pots of paint into some as
yet unknown order!

 ...courtesy of the folks at Wargame Model Mods - not terribly expensive and pretty decently made. It can store up to 120 Army Painter/Vallejo style bottles, and is designed so the bottles are slightly angled so paint runs to the nozzle end.

Quite easy to assemble: two pieces for each of the sides, top, bottom and centre divide, which are all notched and fit together to make what's initially a somewhat rickety frame.  You then have 30 cross pieces - 20 with larger circular cutouts, 10 with smaller that hold the neck of the bottle - that feed through slots in the frame and then slide down (having slots cut) as well. It's a bit of a painstaking process, but the end result is surprisingly rigid. The only caveat, obviously, is making sure it's all the right way up so the bottles tip slightly down and away, bottoms facing you. That said? Love it.

Subtlety, thy number is 502.

I took Martin-from-Warbases' advice a few weeks ago and acquired the subtle (not) MDF glue. Works a treat on this - just worked with a brush into all the joint slots before letting each cross piece drop into place. It holds in about the time it takes to do the next row of cross pieces, but I'm leaving it overnight to go off properly.

And here it is loaded up.
I don't seem to need another JUST yet.

If you get one of these. I advise once you've built the frame to work with the frame upright (so gravity is helping the cross pieces to drop into place) and start with one of the middle cross pieces, then one halfway in each resulting gap. By the time you've done those three the frame will be rigid enough to stop you worrying :D

In a nutshell? Excellent VFM, holds my paints (so far, I don't THINK I have more than about 100 yet!). There are many out there from various manufacturers, but this one will do me just fine, thanks.