Sunday's Bits and Bobs

Well, as you can tell, I'm not quite fully active yet with my toy soldier hobby. Unfortunately, I am still sorting out my attic hobby room and so haven't found all my tools, cleared my desks or unboxed all my crafting materials, etc. It's a slow process, but I'm getting there (so, eventually, you will start seeing figures being produced again, honest, bear with me).

Today I am prepping some materials for the two 'refresher' projects I mentioned in a previous post; the figure test where I am experimenting with additional accessories and the little peg plane.

First thing I wanted to show you is a little thing I mentioned in my 'How to make peg soldiers' video and that is how dolly pegs can vary slightly in shape from one manufacturer to another...

The above example illustrates perfectly the minor variations in 'head' shapes, which is rather nice as it means you can give your figures a little character. I know this isn't a 'biggy' (literally) BUT it' something you should be aware of, particularly is you are the OCD type who likes his regiments perfectly uniform. If that is the case, ensure you source all your pegs from the same company before you start your project.

The plane is a slightly different kettle of fish as I decided I wanted a slightly larger diameter fuselage that the normal wooden peg would allow I am using some wooden dowel instead...

Here (above) you can see how I am sketching out the shape of my plane's fuselage - this will be a 1930s style monoplane fighter slightly similar to the American Boeing P-26 Peashooter - before sanding the final configuration using my orbital sander.

So I will be quite busy today with my little fret-saw and bits of lolly-sticks and what-not as I play with ideas on how to put these projects together. These will be kinda made-up as I go along sorta things as I want to experiment with several new ideas that I've had so they may take some time - with some re-dos - before they take shape. Hope you are patient! 😊

Finally, just a nice little find at a local store (one of the few that is open at the moment due to lock-down), I came across these little 'wooden dots'...

These are really great and I will be using these to add some decorative accessories to my figures and models. I guess I could make these myself - by cutting and sanding thin dowel - but for £1.50 the convenience out-weighs the cost saving (at least while I am experimenting).

Sorry this is such a hum-drum update that isn't very exciting, but I like to record my progress in case I loose track of what I was thinking... Believe me, this happens a lot! 😂