Where do I begin?

...Well, at the beginning I guess! With having such a long 'time out' from all things Molatero I now find I have lost or forgotten a number of skills that I was starting to develop - take my 'Harry' project, I had worked really hard to learn about 1/32 scale figure sculpting but not I don't have a clue about what I was up to or planning next. Likewise, some of my other 'advanced' scratch building projects seem like mystical black arts to me now.

Left: My very first scratch sculpted 1/32 soldier - 'Harry'. Not perfect by any means but I think he has a certain antique charm. Sadly it will be a while before I can continue this project.

So I am going to have to do some prioritisation, starting with some 'easy' projects - like simple plastic figure painting - and working back up to the more complicated conversations and scratch builds. What a shame! It really depresses me when I look back at what I was achieving and now I have to start from the very beginning again...

A job that is probably more within my current skill-range would be my planned 'regiment' of Molaterian Jaegars. This is a simple paint job with just a smidgen of light conversion (replacing hats) which would be a good re-introduction to FLW modelling.

Amusingly, even this fairly basic work has been effected by the chaos that has taken over my hobbies over the past year and a half. Rather foolishly, while not undertaking any Molatero based projects, I gave my little collection of Tamiya paints to my brother who was just starting out on the modelling hobby.

One thing I do remember is that I found that Tamiya paints - while being slightly too gloopy for model kit painting - where of exactly the right consistency to get a nice coverage of coat on plastic soldiers (once suitably primed of course). Tamiya produces a lovely flat but rich colour coat which is very close to enamels but without the inconvenience of having to use solvent based thinners or cleaning fluids - which stink up the house (and annoys the wife).

So...Job number one - start buying some Tamiya paints! :)

Huzzah! Progress...Finally!

I have some good news to relate (for anyone who is interested)! Yesterday saw a very momentous event with joyous implications for the Principality of Molatero. I got my attic ‘man cave’ back!

For at least a year and a half all work on my Molatelo projects have ground to an unceremonious halt due to my ‘hobby room’ (aka attic man-cave) being relegated to being the house's junk store. I couldn’t even see my work desk for the random pile of oddments that had been precariously balanced on it. Hence my concentration on smaller kit projects that I could undertake on my lap-top modelling tray (see ‘Kitnoob’).

But yesterday - getting back to the point - saw the lifting of this embargo and my attic space was finally cleared of accumulated detritus due to some house-wide decorating and carpet fitting (which as a by-product resulted in us having to tackle the enormous mountain of crap we had been storing for no good reason other than ‘it might come in handy one day’, but didn’t)!

The result is I now have this….

Beaty's 'man-cave' 2015 (minus new carpet which has now been fitted).

In effect my attic has not been this junk free since I first sorted it out in April 17th 2013. I know because I took a picture back then too…

Beaty's 'man-cave' 2013!

If anything I seem to be even more junk free and tidy than I was back in 2013, which is a good thing. Plus the missus has promised that - now we have a posh carpet in - we can buy some proper storage furniture to replace the hotchpotch of plastic boxes that I was hiding crap in!

So there we go. I’m not exactly ready to start up production on my Molatero projects again - most are still packed away - but this is a promising move in the right direction. I still reckon it will take me a couple of weeks to get things in place and then I can try and remember what I was doing.

To be honest I may just have to start from the beginning by simply painting some plastic soldiers - rather than the more complicated scratch projects I had on the go - just to get back into the swing of things.

Still, upwards and onwards! :)