The Pork Chop Express

I finished this bad boy up today. Now I just have to paint up my Jack Burton Mini.

 

Some zombies for scale purposes.

 

Aliens!

It took me awhile to get around to buying these as I feel they are kind of pricey. Like $4 a piece pricey. I'm glad I did cause they are really cool. Thinking about picking up the whole AVP: The Hunt Begins game now.

Also, 5 more towards my painting goal bring the total to 93 of 120.

Barrels

I'm totally counting these cause they worked out so well.Which brings me up to 88 painted miniatures!

They started out as part of a set like this. Not this one but a cheaper version that I grabbed at Walgreen's or CVS.

Anyway, I sprayed them with a Krylov gun metal spray that, I think, is now discontinued. I can't find it anywhere. Next I "rusted" them up with some orange and brown paint. Then I printed out some poison and biohazard signs on sticker paper. I cut them down and stuck them to the barrels. Viola!

Here's a shot with a mini in it for scale.

WWII U.S. Soldiers

Here are a batch of WWII era soldiers. These are Wargames Factory miniatures, which are maybe not the most period accurate minis around but are just fine for my wargaming needs. Plus, they were a great deal with 30 miniatures in the pack.

Here are some shots of my finished paint job. I printed out the patches on my ink jet printer and stuck them on the arms. They're a bit bigger than they should be but I wanted them to be noticeable and legible.

Also, the colors are a little off on the uniforms but, again, for my needs they work just fine.

15 more miniatures done, which brings my total up to 80.
40 more and I meet my goal (from last year).

I plan to alter the remaining 15 soldiers to be more of a 50's - 60's style. So they'll match up with the Mars Attacks cards.

I might even try to make a flame thrower unit or two. Hmmm....

Mars Attacks! Martian Replacement Helmets

Somewhere along the way a few Martian helmets went missing. They're small and clear and easy to lose. Mantic is pretty good about giving you extras but, even so, I managed to be about 8 short. No big deal as I happened to have some extra clear plastic lying around. 

Start with a dowel. I'm not sure how big this one is, probably 1/4".

Sand the end until you have a nice round tip.

Like this.

Then grab some clear plastic. This is from a used salad container.

  

Apply some heat to soften up the plastic. Not too close or you'll burn it!

Then, slowly, push the dowel into the heated plastic. Make sure you go far enough into it to make a good helmet. I'd say about 1.5 inches. Let it cool down a bit before you remove the dowel.

Then clip it off with some scissors.

Here's shot of a martian with my homemade helmet.

Here it is with the original helmet. Or is it?...

Mars Attacks!

I picked the Mars Attacks! Miniatures game with my points from using the Bing search engine. The core game was free, then I purchased another box of martians and soldiers on clearance from an online shop. then I grabbed the Big Stompy Robot on ebay, and I picked up the flying saucer using more Bing points on amazon. I also decided it would be cool to have some older era soldiers to play around with the actual Mars Attacks cards as a game idea. So I bought a pack of 30 Wargames Factory WWII soldiers. I'm painting 15 as actual WWII army soldiers and converting 15 of them into a 60's era Army uniform. I'd like to get some trucks and tanks for both eras as well. I'll post on that when I get them done.
So far I've only managed to get 20 martians painted. Which I'm counting towards my painting goal. Bring me up to 65 of 120. I'm working on some soldiers now and hope to have them done soon.
Someday, I'll get around to finishing everything for this one. Someday...

Here are some with helmets

And some without.

The Painting Goal Continues...

So... it turns out 10 miniatures a month was a bit too much for me to handle with everything going on in my life. I hit a quick 20 and then had very little time to do much more. I've been busy but haven't had much luck finishing things lately.
I did manage to make 10 Zombie Santa Claus ornaments and sell them on Etsy. I sold out at $20 each, so I made 15 more to sell this year.

I still have to finish the bases and then they will be ready for Etsy.

So... for the purpose of my painting goal, these guys are going to count.
Sadly, at this point, that puts me at 45 of 120 and a year and a half behind. Maybe 45 of 240?
Ugh.
Well, I do have some more painted (post to come) but its still WAY WAY WAY behind where I'd like to be.

Miniature Storage Idea

From time to time I find old wooden silverware boxes at yard sales and thrift stores and if they're under $5, I grab them.

I have to say that I had other ideas in mind when I grabbed my first couple of boxes but, ultimately,  I decided to use them for miniature storage. I know it's not the most practical solution. The tool box type containers are more practical but this is cooler looking. :)

To start, I grabbed some 2" thick foam rubber at Hobby Lobby. Remember to grab your 40% off coupon at their website!

Alternately, you could grab some of the 1" thick foam and lay out a bottom piece, then cut a second layer and add whatever size miniature spaces you'd like.

Remove the silverware holder insert thingy inside the box. There are usually only a few nails holding it in place.

Next, cut the foam to fit the space inside the box. Measure a tad small and things will fit much easier.

Then, I recommend making a template for cutting your spaces out. 

I went with a piece of cardboard and cut mine at 1" x 1/2".

I cut the foam with a "sawing" type motion. Meaning I "saw" into the foam, pull it up and move it slightly forward before going back in again.

Here's a shot of the finished piece. It holds 42 miniatures.

Bonus: The "loops" that hold silverware on the inside of the lid can be used to hold pencils.

I can't really imagine a game where you would require a dozen pencils though.

All that's left to do is to give the box a light sanding and then apply some stain to it. It'll look (almost) brand new! 

UPDATE
Here's a pic of the sanded and stained box.

 With some miniatures

6446

Time... She really does fly.

A year has passed. Man... that feels so right, on so many levels, and so wrong on others.
I've been busy. We fixed up our condo, bought a house with a big yard, started fixing that up. There's yard work and house work and regular work and through it all I have to find time to be a dad and a husband. It's tough to do but not impossible. I have to sacrifice my hobbies a bit to make it all work. I still work on stuff but it's 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there. The hobby suffers but not as much as the blog. I HAVE been working and I PLAN to post about it but it's just not very high up on the list at this point. My daughter/family is first (of course), then the job (so we can keep the house and make it nice), then the house/yard work. THEN comes the hobby time. Don't mistake this as complaining. I LOVE my family and my house and I have no issues with putting them first. I just want a balance that allows me to do what I like to do as well. Maybe someday I'll even figure out how to do that. Maybe...

In the meantime, I'm still working on my zombie stuff and plan to post on that soon.
I also grabbed a copy of Betrayal at the House on the Hill and Mars Attacks. There will be posts on that soon as well. Soon = less than a year.
:)