The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

...so I have no intention of regularly covering Lego in this blog (CounterFett already does a good job at that) but I thought this was pretty cool, so I figured I'd throw it up here.  See, years ago I had a 1972 Volkswagen Westfalia camper that was very dear to me:

Eventually it became obvious that I had neither the time, space, or money to give it the attention it deserved, so I decided to sell it.  I took some solace in the fact that I sold it to one of the most active members of the local Volkswagen bus owner's club, so I figured at least it would get lots of use.  Unfortunately a few months later, the new owner was driving the bus through the streets of Cincinnati when someone ran a red light and T-boned him, totaling the van.

Regardless, I still love the old VW vans, and hope to own another one someday.  A couple of years ago my Mom was asking my wife what to get me for Christmas, and she tipped her off about this:

(Okay, it's a Type I, not a Type II, but still - it's awesome)

(There is long history of my Mom giving me Lego sets for Christmas - when I was kid, I always got the requisite clothes (bleargh), some books (which I actually liked, 'cause I'm a nerd), but my "big" Xmas gift most years was one of the large Lego sets.  Usually one of the "Space" -themed sets.  Those were my favorite).

We had recently moved when I got this kit, so it got stored with my hobby stuff in the basement.  I finally got around to building it and had a blast!

(I picked up a display case to keep everyone's grubby mitts off it!)

New Tools

Picked up a few new tools today:

I have really bad luck with files - I loved the first set I got off eBay years ago, but a few have broken, and the rest are clogged with Green Stuff (no matter how much I've tried cleaning or wire brushing them).  The next set I got just plain sucked - the abrasive sections weren't cut deep enough, and they didn't do anything.  Then I bought a fancy name-brand set where the files screwed into a handle - sounds good, but this really hampered my ability to get into tight spaces.  The ones above finally seem to be what I'm looking for, and there's enough of them to outfit two hobby kits (more about that soon).

I realized lately when I'm pinning a model, I spend more time struggling with the drill and breaking bits than making progress - probably because all my bits were five years old and so dull they wouldn't make a hole in warm butter.  I decided to chuck 'em all and start over.  One of the few places I've found that sells a set with reeeealllly small bits included is Harbor Freight - the quality is kinda crappy, but when you get this many without the "repackaged by a hobby company = 300% markup" factor, I can live with it...

Dwarfs Part XIII: Final Product!

Well, it was a journey, but here's some pics of the finished Dwarf army:

...I'm happy to report that the Dwarfs have already been sold to new owner in Georgia, and are hopefully kicking butt all over the South!

Dwarfs Part XII: Movement Trays

One of the "final touches" that I thought would be a relatively cheap & easy way to give my army a little extra pizzazz was to build movement trays - although I've never played a game of Fantasy, these seem pretty useful when you're playing a game that uses ranked up models.  Games Workshop sells a kit to make your own movement trays, but I would have needed a couple of them, and didn't want to drop $30+ for them.  I decided to see what I could put together more cheaply.

I went buy the local big-box home improvement store and picked up a blank sign made of corrugated plastic (these will be located with the signs that say "Garage Sale", "Car for Sale", etc) for $3.98.  I also got four basswood square dowels for .93 each.  Total cost: under eight dollars.

I gathered up the models for a typical-sized unit:

I arranged them so I had the (#number of models) (width) x (depth) and marked it with a straight edge:

Then I cut it out with a utility knife:

Next I measured the wooden dowels, and cut them using my hobby saw & mitre box so the corners would be neat:

Then I glued down the dowel rods with PVA glue, setting them on some newspaper to dry to catch drips.  (Actually, I used some old glossy mailers in the hopes that the glue wouldn't stick so badly).  I "squeegeed" some glue into the cracks with a spare piece of wood to fill gaps:

Then I backed them with some scrap cardboard:

Then I made some for the artillery units, with cutouts for each model:

Then they all got a coat of primer:

For painting, I mixed up a somewhat close match using mostly craft paint, as it's much cheaper than hobby paints:

Then, the edges got the same basing treatment as the rest of the army:

Finished product:

Next: Final product!

Dwarfs Part XI: Basing

Now that the building, dipping & painting are done for the Dwarf army, its time to finish the bases.  Originally I just started painting the bases with Vomit Brown, but I soon realized that it took a ton of coats to completely cover the Gun Metal primer.  This mainly concerned me because my pot of Vomit Brown was almost empty, and it was bought before The Great Paint Reformulation of Ought-Thirteen - "Vomit Brown" is now called "Tau Light Ochre".  I had heard some forum folks complaining that some of the new colors didn't quite match, and I didn't want to run out of paint halfway through the army. I solved this by giving them a coat of Scorched Brown first, then a layer of Vomit Brown:

Next, the bases got a coat of PVA glue and were sprinkled with Woodland Scenics Medium Ballast:

...they were given a coat of Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement to "lock in" the ballast:

After that was dry, some small stones were glued to the bases as accents, and the whole thing was given a heavy coat of Devlan Mud wash:

When that had dried and the models had been clearcoated, static grass was added: