The Big Box Project - A Mobile Miniature Painting Workstation

Having gotten back into painting recently I have consequently developed a living space problem...

My dining table has succumbed to The Law of Flat Surfaces and is covered in painting tools and half completed projects.  It has just frankly gotten out of hand. 

I am a a firm believer in the reuse part of the recycling mantra, so when I found a wooden Carpenters Tool Box abandoned on the stairs of my apartment block a few months ago, I had to grab it.  I knew that when time became available it was going to be put to good use and become my mobile painting workstation.

This is no vintage hand crafted thing of beauty.  It's a roughly made carcase of 1/2" (57mm) thick pine with the front and back skinned in thin plywood, the edges of which are splintered in places but the box is solid enough.  The front hinges down to create a sort of sloped shelf.

The plan is to get the majority of my mini power tools and accessories installed into the box permanently.  I want to include a power strip and some form of worklight.  This is not an exhaustive list of what needs to go in their but it's a start:

Power Tools

• Rotary Sander (aka a nail file)
• Air Compressor (& airbrushes)
• Micro Drill
• Anglepoise Worklamp

Accessories

• Paints - A mix of Vallejo / Scale75 / Army Painter dropper bottles and various GW / Tamiya / Daler Rowney pots and bottles.
• Big Bottles - Airbrush thinners & cleaners
• Paint Palettes - Wet and Dry Palettes
• Water Cups - 2 water cups, one clean and one dirty
• Glues - Superglue
• Brushes - a good selection of miniature painting brushes.
• Sandpaper - Sanding Sticks
• Miscellaneous Tools - Pin vice, side cutters, needle nose pliers, tweezers, painting handles, coffee stirrers, clamps, sanding papers and sticks
• Cutting Mat - I'd like this to fit one inside the lid.
• Collapsible Spray Booth - I want this to double up as a spray booth so need to create a stowable cardboard spray shield  

As you can see this is quite the project and fitting everything in the list above into the box would challenge even the best TARDIS designer.  Lockdown is the perfect opportunity for me to get this done. and I have already started to tackle some of the exterior panels.

I'm going for that distressed WWII Warbird meets Cyberpunk aesthetic.  For the back I think I'll have to have a go at painting the "Bug Stomper" noseart from one of my favourite 80s films "Aliens".  I should have it done in time for Aliens Day on the 26th April 2020.

Progress on the interior has begun with a shelf and a storage flap in the base.  The exact configuration of the interior is likely to be very moveable flexible as I learn what works and what doesn't.  For starters that shelf needs a lip because as soon as you lift it up, anything unsecured falls off the shelf.  Don't ask me how I know...

A Trick of The Light? Prismatic Wall - Part 1

It's very rare when a paintjob blows my mind so thanks to the YouTube algorithm for suggesting this video from ReadBeardBoss's painting channel.



I was so impressed that I wanted to do this myself but a search on the interwebs for a printable model drew a blank.  I guess I have to model my own then.

The spell description describes two modes:

A shimmering, multicolored plane of light forms a vertical opaque wall—up to 90 feet long, 30 feet high, and 1 inch thick—centered on a point you can see within range.

Alternatively, you can shape the wall into a sphere up to 30 feet in diameter centered on a point you choose within range.

This lenticular paint job won't work on a sphere (no straight lines to hide the colour shift) but six straight wall sections could be arranged into a 15 foot circle (ish) or a 30ft semi-circle (ish).  Two birds one stone... Job done.

I design my models in Sketchup, which turns out is not the best software for printable models, but I love how easy it is to use.  It often creates STL (STereo Lithography) files which are a bit sloppy and not what is known as "Watertight" or solid.  In practice this means that they can often have faces missing, internal geometry and be unprintable.

My workflow to getting a printable model is to export the STL from Sketchup and import it into Tinkercad.  Check that there are no holes, if there are go back to Sketchup and delete any faces which might be hiding inside solid areas of the model and repeat the process until Tinkercad is happy.

I also use a fabhouse service called i.materialise.com where I can do a second pass check to see if the model can be printed.  This also allows those without a 3D printer to order a model in their material of choice.  The example above in Polyamide (Selective Laser Sintering) would cost £11.14 ($13.85) each and discounted to £55.68 ($69.23) for 6 copies in white.

This model is free to download at: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4292839. If you like or make one click the heart, post a make photo and add a tip to the jar.

I will be painting my wall in Part 2 so stay tuned to see if I can master the lenticular paint effect.

Savage Dredd

The current pandemic predicament has given me a lot of free time which of course I am spending wisely (there's Fuck all else to do!!).  

I am currently busy familiarising myself with the Savage Worlds system and the unofficial Savage Worlds conversion by Randy Mosiondz and Teller.

I will also be incubating some fresh Judge Dredd ideas so that when we are released from Lockdown I can potentially run a game in one of my favourite settings.

I am also busy gathering models into a Judge Dredd collection on thingiverse and printing as many as I can.  If you are following my printed miniatures series Jessie's Prints you will probably see a few homebrew Judge Dredd models in there as well.  Hopefully the current worldwide PLA shortage won't scupper my plans.


 

Jessie's Prints: Episode 2 - Alien Cube, The Awoken

This week, I are mostly been printing... 

 An Alien Cube - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1741021

A great prop model and easily worked into any game.  Perhaps it is a magic item, a bomb or maybe the lines are a map or maybe, just maybe, it is a key to unlocking ancient secrets...




The Awoken - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1640837  

Another great model for fantasy roleplayers.  The Awoken is labelled as being a 15mm scale miniature but he cuts quite the imposing figure at 30mm scale.  The base is 3inch in diameter so that makes him HUGE by D&D standards and IRL he is 120mm tall so that would make him 24 feet tall.

Nice!

Reaper Bones #12 - A Monstrous Menagerie

12 episodes in and we have only painted one big monster mini.  Let's fix that with this monstrous menagerie.  

In alphabetical order we have the:

Clay Golem (Ben Siens SKU: 77170)

Muscles upon muscles upon muscles, this is such a great multipurpose mini.  Imagine your heroes surprise when the weakling they thought they were going head-to-head with transforms in to this Jekyl like man beast.  I thought it was too good a sculpt to give it a terracotta warrior treatment.

Eye Beast (Julie Guthrie SKU:77043)

Reaper's homage to the quintessential Boss Monster that is the Beholder.  A two part mini which came preassembled.  Judicious use of miliputt was needed to hide the seam between the top and bottom sections of the head.  The addition of eye stalk tentacles at the bottom are a great way of incorporating a flying base and the abandoned sword is a neat touch.

I've been a fan of Julie Guthrie's sculpts for years and loved this mini from the first moment I saw it.

Griffon (Jason Wiebe SKU:77156)

Probably one of the best Griffon sculpts on the market and an essential creature for your wandering monster collection.

Marsh Troll (Jason Wiebe SKU: 77152)

I love the addition of the spine plate reminiscent of some 1950s B Movie dinosaur.

 Owlbear (Jason Wiebe SKU: 77156)

A bit of a contentious "more owl than bear" sculpt on this one and the one legged stance makes the mini droop towards the floor.

Bones Progress

Reaper Bones: 245 - Painted: 42

Related Posts

Reaper Bones #1: The Marathon Begins - Where I paint a dozen Giant Rats.

Reaper Bones #2: Kobolds, Are They Dogs or Dragons? - Where I paint a dozen kobolds.

Reaper Bones #3: A Carcase of Skeletons - Where I paint a half dozen skeletons.

Reaper Bones #4: A Shuffle of Zombies - Where I paint five zombies.

Reaper Bones #5: Introducing Shaina Coppervein, Dwarven Orc Hunter - First PC mini.

Reaper Bones #6: Mimic, Treasure Chest and How I re-base my Bones - Where I paint furniture.

Reaper Bones #7: Fire Elemental Meets Novelty Lamp - Where I hack a mini with LEDs.

Reaper Bones #8: Flaming Sphere LED Tealight Hack - Another mini LED lighting project.

Reaper Bones #9: Elliwyn Heatherlark, Gnome Bard - Another PC mini.

Reaper Bones #10: Horace "Action" Jackson - A Baddass disco dancing Motherfucker.

Reaper Bones #11: Pirate Captain Thorin Stoneheart - A Swashbuckling Philanthropist.