On the Crafty Table – September

What’s happening aboard my crafting table this week ?

On the Crafty Table is my new thread, or blog section, where I get to talk about and take pictures of the things that i’m working on using our folding table in the kitchen : as of this morning I note that ‘Bagsy’ has had a fresh coat of paint, one of the model buildings has had some roofing glued on while the other one is just about ready for a coat of primer so…..in a bit more detail here’s the kitchen table version of works in progress.

Bagsy : my take on the Bagpipes from Hell (Hieronymus Bosch).

First up is the clay model that I built several weeks ago, primed, painted and even had a go at doing something posh or technical with the final painting : that last bit didn’t work as I tried to copy the shading of the original painting and that of course is a two dimensional painting of something that doesn’t even exist. This morning’s ten minute job on that was to make up some more pink and slap a coat on to cover my pathetic and messy attempt to achieve a Zenithal highlight.

The work that Bagsy really needs is for me to make, from scratch, the little figure that Bosch painted as playing the bagpipes – Bagsy also needs the addition of a couple of pieces : a ‘drone’ pipe and mouthpiece pipe.

Second – building some highly quirky model buildings.

I have a long term ambition to build an eyeline model railway running around the inside of the workshop ; the main problem being that it still needs a concrete floor pouring, a new roof put on and it’s water ingress sorting out. Right now i’m patiently waiting on the builder to come and do the floor and the roof : this week I plan to start work on my side of correcting the water ingress but i’m at least a winter project away from fitting doors, wall studs, wall panels, lighting and new benches. My best hope is to be in a good position to fit the eye level baseboards maybe the winter after next…. In the meantime i’m exercising my model making muscles by scratch building quirky buildings in different scales and sizes to help me work out what gauge and scale to work to : that varies nearly every day between 7mm scale except as ON30 in gauge and 1.22 or close and G (45mm) gauge for my intended loco’s and rolling stock.

As you can see, the construction is a combination of scrap plywood, some bought in styrofoam and a combination of the wooden mixing sticks from my epoxy crate and coffee stirrer stick as acquired whenever we go out for coffee. The smaller model is based (loosely) on a 7mm scale figure which to my maths works out as around a 40mm figure while the larger one is based around a 75mm figure – both of which seem to be commercially available.

My reference and starting point is a whole series of files that iv’e ‘borrowed’downloaded from Pinterest and which I trawl through once in a while to find similar ideas : right now I have an entire file of files which i’m studying to help me decide what to start on next.

I don’t like to post in the style of talking about things that i’d like to do and basically the end product of my imagination jumping ship and going off for a wander. Much better, in my mind is be able to show some progress with whatever project i’m working on : this week for example the first of my larger projects is done (for now) although that one has left me with the desire to build a better one (a tool chest) right from scratch.

I have a slightly more organized daily and weekly pattern of work now, I write for as much of the day as I can – even if that’s only half an hour a push and then take a quick break to do something more useful, practical or physical : today’s version of that was taking out another 180 liter bin load of green waste and next week I hope it’ll be several trailer loads of rubble and granite rocks. I set two days a week to do ‘other’ stuff, be that writing, finishing or editing the next week’s blog post and then I settle down to whatever my various modelling projects need. During this week, as I write, I need to order more materials : a spray can of Princess Pink to give Bagsy a highlight blush and some larger sheets of styrofoam to allow me to start on my next intended building model : I have it in my mind already as ‘Teapot Towers’ – might just work in 7mm scale but there’s no way I could do that in 1.22

In the next post from the crafting table I hope to be showing you some progress with the actual figurines that go with the various buildings to turn them from static models to story-telling vignettes.

For those of you that like to see where my inspiration comes from ( it’s mostly not from my own imagination) here’s a video from Martin Kovaks (Night shift)

Until next time : Wa-oh