Juggling Jobs! June 2021

 Yes, I've been amiss with my posting. This is due to a flurry of numerous diverse projects I've been trying to complete - mainly household jobs - over the past month.

At the top of the list is the tidying up and reorganisation of my man-cave in the attic. I've been busily clearing out junk and eBaying a LOT of stuff that I do not need or have time for any more. I had no idea that eBay was so time consuming, it's a hobby on it's own!

Anyway, modelling has ground to a near halt because of this and I'm having to put what time I do have into my Christmas gifts schedule, as this *cannot* fall behind as I am making ALL my family presents myself this year. Sadly, personal projects - like peg soldiers - has suffered as a result.

Still, it might interest you to see the completion photos of my 'Olde Worlde Christmas Shoppe' prototype as the building process will have will have an impact on future military projects for this blog...

This is roughly 1/72 in scale I reckon and would have been a terrific learning experience for when I was doing WW2 military wargame models (but I have knocked this hobby on the head). It is, however, giving me lots of ideas for toy soldier projects in larger scales (28mm and 50mm), the first of which is quite simple - a sentry box model for my peg soldiers.

So...Onward and upwards...

Back from Holiday - June 2021

 Yay! I'm back! (Well, that should be 'booo' I suppose as it's back to early morning rises for work!) 😩

Anyway, let's have a quick refresher as to what's on the workbench so I can crack back on with the ongoing projects. The first thing is 'Invasion Mars, 1899' and my first Steampunk 'regiment'...

Looking OK, about 75% done I'd say. I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed with the quality of these models, they are a little shoddy. The body of these figures were printed out in one piece, not in separate component parts as I have done previously.

The reason I tried this was to see just how much I could get away with, obviously printing a model in one part makes thing quicker and easier as there are no subsequent assembly required. But the downside is the hit that the quality takes. Printing separate parts means that you can chose the best way to print out each individual part to maximise it's quality - print orientation has a big impact on different shapes of objects - so printing one object vertically might not be the best way to print another, which might be most effectively printed horizontally.

And so, as I said, these one-piece prints are a mixed bag for quality, but the experiment was worth a try as it gives me a bottom line for what I can expect to work. You live and learn.

Anyway, there's not much left to paint on the body, I just have to clean up the arms that I printed and then paint them. At the same time, I'm also painting the prototype model for my Steampunk light infantry unit. This is pretty far on as well...

Moving on...
Aside from this unit of soldiers I was also working on some Christmas gifts (yes, I'm starting extra early) and I think it's interesting to highlight the current project as it might have some influence on future toy soldier ideas. I've been making some festive mantlepiece ornaments based on Victorian Olde Worlde Shops!

What's relevant to this blog is that these little buildings are roughly in 28mm scale, which makes them handy for wargaming related projects. I haven't had much experience in printing 3D wargaming terrain and while this project is overly decorative it's also being very useful in teaching me some of the techniques for making battlefield scenery...

There are a few other bits and pieces going on but I'll wait until they are a bit more advanced before revealing those. But I've plenty to be getting on with in the meantime!

What's Going On - May 2021

 Yep, doing a unit of figures (even a small one) is taking time, so I reckon it will still take something like another week of spare time to finish my first 'Invasion Mars, 1899' unit. Sorry, I'm a slow painter.

I have made some progress on the fiddly steampunk gun models that I had designs - I think I overstretched my design ability here - and I got them to print out OK. I just have to remove the supporting sprues and clean them up...

So, what am I also working on that might be mildly interesting to talk about in the mean time?

Well, my youngest daughter and I have been making a start on our DIY Christmas gifts and one of the ideas we had was based on some little wooden mantlepiece ornaments that we found... (Bear with me)...

What we wanted to do was build our own slightly more detailed versions of these Christmassy ornaments and put some lights in them to decorate out front rooms. So I came up with a prototype of my own...

NOW... What has this to do with toy soldiers? Well, at some point I did want to war game with my soldiers and this would entail making some battlefield terrain and furnishings - like buildings and what-not.

So, this festive novelty is actually an interesting experiment in what I can archive if I want to build some scale buildings. And it's been an interesting exercise.

Scale-wise I reckon that this prototype is around either 20mm or 28mm or somewhere in between. While I might struggle to make something in 50/54mm - my printer having a smaller print area - I think I could do something for my peg figures if I print the models out in parts.

I was very pleased by the level of detail and textures I could get out of my printer and I can imagine some of the possibilities for various types of battlefield accessories...

Anyway, it's a intriguing idea.

Steampunk British Infantry - 18/05/21 Update

 I've given up on 'part numbers' for these posts as I'm working on a couple of related 'regiments' at the same time!😁

So, the story so far...

After getting my recent creative diversions out of the way I have returned to my 'Invasion Mars, 1899' project by starting to paint my first 'regiment' of British for the campaign. These are my heavy assault infantry - Grenadier Guards - with the Mk. 1 (diving suit) space clobber!

It's nice to see a unit of my peg soldiers in progress, it reminds me of why I started this blog in the first place (even if they are not Molatarian infantry)!

The scarlet I am using for the suits is Vallajo's 'Gory Red', crimson was a bit to bright for my liking and this more muted red is more to my liking though it's a bit of a pain to paint with and needs a couple of coats to get good coverage. Still, it's worth it.

I'm gone for a coppery brass for the diving helmets and again - just my luck - this paint is a bit of a pain to use as well...

It's going to be a bit of a slow slog to work my way through these five figures in order to complete the unit AND I haven't even completed the 3D printing of the arms yet! The delay here was due to my fancy-nancy 'space rifle' design which is turning out to be a pain to print properly. I think I got a bit over-ambitious for the scale and should have stuck to my super simplified design ethos of my earlier peg soldiers' weapons. 

Anyway, in the end I managed to get a passable print, though it still needs some cleaning up...

Above: Hard to tell what's going on when all the print supports are
on but hopefully it will do the job once it's cleaned-up!

And in the meantime...
While scratching my head over my Grenadiers' guns I cracked on with the prototype for my second British unit - a Light Infantry trooper in a Mk. 2 suit...

You can get an idea from the above pick how the space rifles should turn out as I have primed the arms for this little chap. And while I had my red paint out I made a start on painting his uniform.

In all I hope to make three British infantry units (of six soldiers each), the Grenadiers, a Light Foot and a Marine detachment. I'm going for six in a unit as in this 50mm scale and using a version of the Portable Wargame rules for a small table 'battlefield' this will keep the overall numbers manageable for a game.

Aside from the infantry there will also be a section of 'cavalry' (steam mechs) and a artillery section (one gun). The mechs will pose quite a challenge as they will be quite big.

And that's all for today, it's just banging on with these figures in a little painting production line!

The Curse of Being 'Creative'!

 I'm gone a bit 'off-piste' over the past week or so (not by choice really). I have had to comply to a few friend & family requests and this has cut into my valuable toy soldier making schedule.

However, you have to look on the bright side and think of these unrelated project as 'opportunities for good practice' (I say that through gritted teeth). 😒

So, what have I been up to? And here, I'm not going to try and fool you into believing they were all relatable to my toy soldier hobby...

First of all, I was given a stone garden ornament that the mother-in-law wanted painting up to look like their pet dog. Somehow because I 'paint models' that means I am an expert in doing anything vaguely 'creative'...

I could not conceive of any part of this 'project' that could positively impact on my peg model making except that by doing the wife a 'favour' (order) she would cut me some slack for a while. And that's about it, so I did it. 

The second little job was - at least - my idea. I wanted to make a little gift for my work colleague (we are both NHS operating theatre domestics) as she has been very supportive as we have worked throughout this pandemic.

She happens to have a couple of donkeys on her bit of land and when she saw the 3D models I had been making she mentioned she would love to have a 'little donkey'! I was happy to do this as she has really mad a bit of a stressful 12 months bearable and has got me through the times when my own health issues have plagued me at work. So, I made her a little Eeyore (from 'Winnie the Pooh')...

This was definitely worth taking the time away from toy soldiers to do, especially when she was so pleased when I presented it to her! 😁

And finally...

Now, this was very useful! I've been wanting to have a go at 3D modelling slightly more feature detailed figures which would involve some slightly more complicated 3D modelling using the TINKERCAD software I have been using lately.

Along-side my super simple 'pegs' I wanted to experiment with the possibility of making larger one-off display models of historic soldiers but which would still be modelled in a cartoon format. Trouble is that I needed some sort of initial project idea to spur me on to trying out the idea...

As it happened, another work colleague asked me whether I could 'make one of these' and showed me a blurry photo of his football team's mascot! He supports Barnsley FC and they have a mascot called 'Tony Tyke' (really) and so after doing a bit of research I had a play with TinkerCad and knocked up a rough approximation of Toby!

I decided to start with the head as that was the most identifiable part of the mascot and feature rich element of a model...

It took a while but I managed to put together something that looked a little like Toby, well dog-like anyway! My friend was very happy with this design so I forged on with the rest of the body...

Getting the right pose was a bit fiddly as this was the first time I had tried anything like this, but after several iterations and modifications I managed to come up with a pose I was happy with...

Now, how does this relate to toy soldiers? Well, having worked out a fairly OK anatomy of a cartoon figure - albeit a footballer, in this case - I could now see how I might further modify this into any other figure that I might like. I reckon it might be an easy project to alter this into a uniformed mascot, varying the head into something appropriate for a particular regiment - a bulldog for a US Marine, for example, or a French Bulldog for a Foreign Legionnaire!

You see where I'm going?

Again, I apologise that this post seems a little left field BUT these distractions - particularly Toby - have given me some ideas for future toy soldier projects that I think will be very interesting indeed!