The Helljumpers Have Landed!

I successfully negotiated a Greyhound bus and the NYC transit system to get my giant pile of miniatures home. What was amusing about the trip were the children on the subway, who could see what it was I had in my shopping bag (there were a lot of boxes). I don't believe they knew what they were, instead simply associating them with toys. There were craning necks, hushed questions to parents, and one bewildered stare. Kids are funny (maybe I should do a piece on them on my other blog).

With the boxes home, it was time to dig out all my old hobby tools. It's been awhile since I tried my hand at mini painting (some four years, I believe), so I had to root around the old closet looking for boxes. I found my Games Workshop painting station; it's a little tray with handles and spaces for brushes, paints, and tools. I find it invaluable for keeping everyting organized. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I indeed had a set of modeling files, a pin vise, and mitre box. I was thinking of buying those at Zombie Planet (http://www.zombie-planet.com/), but dimly remembered already owning them.

I tend to do a lot of conversion work on my minis. I happily saw off heads and arms, and reposition them on other figures. I can do some pretty sophisticated stuff. Sadly, I lost my small bench vise a long time ago (it was put out by Restoration Hardware, and was an actual bench vise suitable for hobbiests); I could plop a mini in it and do some extensive conversions. *Sigh*. I wasn't planning on doing any conversion work on this army, mostly in order to get the army fielded quickly, partly because this isn't as necessary with plastic kits. But now I'm thinking about arm swaps on the scouts, and that's going to involve some cutting.

I also found my paints. This was bittersweet, as they'd been lying in a box for the better part of four years. They were clearly dried out. A cursory examination -- involving me sticking my finger in the pot -- showed that it was still tacky. I should be able to recover them with patience and a little water. I have almost my entire palette, too. All I'll need to buy is the primer and fill a few holes in my color selection.

So my painting area is set up. I even gave it a go this morning by beginning to cut the pieces for the scouts off their sprues. It looks like this'll work.