Finishing up old projects: Harry Potter

As the year winds its way to an end, I'm working on clearing off some old projects. A few weeks ago, I finished some Harry Potter figures and decided to give them an outdoorsy base. 

I was happy enough with the results that I decided to go back and give the rest of the figures a similar treatment.

The integral bases on these are large and oval. They were too difficult to remove so I originally just painted then grey, which sucked.

The grass and sand is better, even if it doesn't really make a lot to sense given how much of the action was indoors or for the Winter Ball figures.

Oh well!

Up next: Absolutely no idea.

The man in the red shirt

No, not that guy. Just regular old red shirts. I picked up twenty-odd Heritage 25mm Star Trek figures from the 1970s on fleabay. They came on nasty 1970s wooden bases and were a bit worse for wear.

A soaking, some lotta bases, a bit of a paint touch-up, and some texturing and they fit in with the rest of my ST:TOS crew.

Tucked in the box were some figures I didn't recognize. These five turned out to be unlicensed Scruby figures from the mid-1970s. There were 12 figures (6 federation and 6 alien). I seem to be missing the Kirk figure. Plus the phaser rifleman on the left has had his arm repositioned away from his body (a big improvement).

The Scruby's (wings below) fit in well enough with the Heritage figures (centre below). They are just a bit thinner, taller, and more static (they have a 1/72 vibe). The bases are also smaller. In a group you can't really tell them apart and I'm always happy for some different weaponry.

Up next: Hard to say. Maybe some British flank companies for the Crimea

Last of the Harry Potter

I finally finished the last of the Harry Potter figures I bought years ago from Metal Magic. These guys have been staring up from the edge of my painting desk for ages.

Even after stripping off the factory painting, the figures were pretty so-so. But the only other range I have seen is from Spain in resin and cost the moon. These are about 40mm tall.

They have an odd, oval-shaped integral base that proved too bothersome to remove. I have been painting it a simple grey and it looks yucky so I decided to just texture these. I was happy enough with the outcome that I'me going to go back and redo the bases of the other figures.

Up next: Some very old Trek figures, including a couple of 1970s Scruby figures!

Last of the Russian foot!

These are the last of the Russian foot from Foundry. Holy cow was this a boring batch to grind through! 

I finished one 15-man unit and another 9-man unit with a small command group.

Looking forward to something more colourful next, but I'm not sure what!

Megablox Carrier

Back at the beginning go the pandemic, I picked up an old Megablox aircraft carrier set (the USS Kitty Hawk). It had some 1700 pieces and I finally got around to building it this weekend. The final model is about three-feet long and is maybe 1/450 scale?

This was a bear of a model to put together and Megablox are almost, but not quite, as good as Lego.

There were several places where the instructions included this icon (below). Which appears to be Brick for "this next step looks slick on the CAD rendering, but sucks shit in real life, sorry bro".

I had to call in reinforcements at one point because I was just out of gas and my hands were sore.

The decals on the model had been applied but then pulled loose (instead of being cut cleanly) when the model was disassembled. Some decals were okay (around the edges of the elevators) but the flight deck decals were a mess. I eventually stripped them, masked, and painted replacements.

This kit really took me back to high school gaming with old Tente sets. We'd play 7th fleet confrontations. My teacher had two carriers (which were out of my price range!) so I played the Soviet side. And we lost and lost and lost. The US would always find us first and then pummel us with their air strikes until we'd finally spot them and send a ragged volley of missiles from what was left.

Until I noticed the US plan was always the same and used it to predict their search path and their location. We managed to get off two volleys before they found us. We brought glory to the Soviet empire that day, sinking one carrier while a second and an aegis cruiser had to be towed to port. Hope the flyboys enjoyed ditching their tomcats and hornets! That was also the last time we played, I think.

Anyhow, a fun throw back. Not sure what I'm going to so with this now though.

Up next: More Russians for the Crimea.