Reorganising the Workbench

I have been struggling for a while with switching between projects for painting and basing and finding everything to do with the modelling side of the hobby.  Stuff is stored in various different places and I often find myself searching several drawers and boxes for certain tools or paints, etc.

My painting desk has been a bureau that I inherited from my parents which I first adopted when my painting area was in my games room and I wanted to be able to close it up and ignore customers orders when I wasn't working.

It worked well, but it has a very small work area and thus for basing I was using other tables and also couldn't store all the tools, glues, etc in one place.

I finally decided to bite the bullet and do something about this.  I have had my eye on the Hobbyzone modular workbench sets for a while and decided to take the plunge and order some to see how well they worked and what size drawers would be useful.

They have a wide range of paint racks, drawer sets, sprue holders, etc available. I don't need paint racks as my paints are already in racks which were on top of the bureau.  Now the painting area is in the hobby room rather than the games room I have been able to place them on the windowsill.

I ordered 3 different drawer sets (2,3,and 6 drawers), the sprue holder, the paper towel holder and the tool and brush holder.

They are produced using a CNC machine rather than laser cut and are built from 6mm MDF with holes for magnets which hold them securely to each other.  They are thinner 2mm mdf drawer fronts and backs, etc.

The instructions are pretty good and I watched a couple of videos first before tackling the modules.

You need to remove the CNC tabs that hold the pieces togetehr first but then it is simply a case of assembling the pieces in the suggested order using wood glue.  I used Gorilla woodglue which dries in about 30 mins and taped everything together with masking tape while it dried.

I enjoyed putting these modules together and found them quite satisfying to assemble.

The end result:

As you can see, the painting desk is now larger (5' x 2') and well organised with stuff within easy reach which I hope will remove some of the frustrations I had been feeling.

I am looking at adding 2 corner units with 2 open shelved paint racks on them to hold the glue, varnishes, etc.

Austria Versus Prussia

 I played another SYW game at the Guildford Club this week using Honours of War rules.

Chris and I took the Prussians against the Austrian hordes.  We had 4 brigades a side with a single independent Hussar unit.  I asked Chris at the start if he "wanted to make the futile cavalry charges" or he wanted me to.  He said he would.

I hadn't realised that he meant it quite so literally and with poor die rolling for Prussian Dragoons against Superior Austrian Curassier, he managed to lose the entire Cavalry Brigade AND the independent Hussar unit by the end of Turn 2 (and thus the left flank)!  We were only on a 4' wide table which meant that things happened quickly.

Things didn't really improve for the Prussians despite some changes of fortune and the Austrians finally broke the Prussian army after a fairly hard fought 2 hour game. Leaving quite a lot of time for the Pub.

An enjoyable game despite the carnage.

54mm Napoleonics: France vs Prussia

 

Played a Napoleonic game this week using slightly amended Neil Thomas Rules and my 54mm collection.

The scenario saw a Prussian force defending a crossroads from the French who march on to the table from the south. The Prussian reinforcements arrive from the North.Initial forces arriving.  The Prussians have more Infantry but the french have more cavalry.I got caught up in the action so didn't take many more photos.

The French advanced and sent their cavalry round the right flank, the same side as the Prussian cavalry unit.  The Prussians threw their cavalry unit in against the French Guard cavalry hoping to win the melee force it to retire into their own troops and thus be eliminated.  It was a 50/50 chance and unfortunately they only scored 2 hits while the French won the melee with 4 hits.  The Prussians were thrown back and then charged the next turn and eliminated.

Across the rest of the battlefield it was a fairly even fight with units on both sides whittled down but not eliminated.  I made a mistake as the french of exposing my horse artillery to infantry fire (after a unit masking it was eliminated) and lost the battery but was able to destroy the French Foot artillery in turn.

When we called the game it was a close run thing with the Prussians have more intact Infantry units but the French still have a fresh cavalry unit.

I made a major mistake in not sending my horse artillery with the cavalry and using it to knock down the strength of infantry units so I could charge them safely which would have probably won me the game.

Shutters...

I haven't been playing many games or finishing anything on the workbench for the last few weeks.

I have some French 25mm Minifigs Marlburians about 70% done, the French WW2 townhouses I 3d printed about 80% done and I've started on a couple of Marvel Crisis Protocol figures to see what might work for painting them.  But nothing is finished - I am managing a colour a day on something so they'll get there eventually...

 I've also been distracted this week by 2 minor ops in 4 days - nothing serious but they take time to get over. 

 I spent some time today designing and cutting some shutters for the Dendermonde houses.

Also cut a small add-on to raise the front wall design of the test house to match the others so the roofline is no longer visible.

Thinking I might paint the card before cutting the shutters so I don't have to paint them on the models.

Next up is cutting some tile strips  that I can roof with, overlapping the tiles - also cut from card and a surround for the doors.

I will also make some window surrounds without shutters for some of the houses for some variety.

More Seven Years War Prussians

 I have am still working my way through the painting pile in between doing a lot of reading for a writing conference I am going to for the whole of next week. In the mean time I have fitted in some other bits and pieces.

More rebasing of 25mm SYW Prussians - adding another 4 infantry units to that army.

These were a bargain purchase from ebay - 60 foot figures and a heavy gun and crew for £40.  I have added 4 minifigs to make up the units to 16 figures each.

I am not sure exactly what the figures are - they are more slender than current minifigs, but it has been suggested they could be S range but I am not sure they are quite the right style.  Still, lovely figures anyway.

More Painting...

 

Been away for a few days but have had time to finish off most of the WW2 troops

2x 25pdrs, 4 Vickers and 4 Boyes Rifle teams.   I still have 2 x quads to finish off.

Also managed to paint a Battlemasters tower for a friend.

After the 2 quads I am probably onto some 25mm Minifigs French Marlburians next.

Putting away unfinished things...

 

I decided this weekend that  I needed to be more disciplined in my approach to painting, so I have spent some time tidying out the Bureau I use for painting and painting projects.

I have filed away anything I won't get to this year or that has stalled and cleared the bureau surface off all paints and detritus.

The painting area will now only have one unit on it and the paints required to paint that unit.  I hope that helps me focus on finishing things a bit more...  I have tended to jump from one project to the next without always finishing stuff off or seeing things through to completion.

I have finished 12 x 25mm Minifigs Colonials today that I am painting for a friend - so it might be working.

Next up on the painting table is 20mm Early War British Boyes ATs, HMGs and 2 x 25pdr guns...