It was Wellington Man who mentioned on his blog that he was set up for painting in his lounge where he felt comfortable. I'm just the same as you can see from the image below, corner of a warm lounge, the faithful old miniature desk that has travelled from Kent to Spain and back again and at which I must have painted thousands of soldiers over the years. I inherited it from my late Mother in Law, it's not full size as you can see so I have never been able to sit directly at it, I can only fit one leg beneath it so tend to sit slightly side on, looking toward the right where the TV and sound bar/bass speaker are set up. I have adapted to this position over the years and it's extremely comfortable for me. I'm very tidy and orderly, not obsessively so, but I can't paint any other way. I keep all printed references in the top left drawer for easy access, tools etc in the top right and around 100 pots of spare Vallejo paints in the second right drawer. The rest stores figures awaiting a paint job. I use the simple wet palette, changing the greaseproof paper daily. The collection of wine caps have been built up over the years as I find them perfect for size and grip when painting. I normally blue tac figures for painting, two per cap for 15mm a single figure for 20mm. The two lamps were bought from Amazon and are perfect painting lamps when used side by side, there are five LCD settings from a warm yellow through to a daylight blue and I use both lamps on the third setting which is somewhere in between. With Winter approaching I can't think of a more comfortable space to work in.
With these two Peter Pig ECW units (below) ready to pack for returning to Graham I'm about to start on some lovely 20mm castings for Tony, they are Les Higgins and PMD. I remarked to Tony how crisp and clean these old castings are and he said that the key is to get hold of the early ones. I had seen the PMD stamp on many of Johns figures but was never really clear on why they looked so much like the Higgins figures, the reason being that they in fact the same range with a change of ownership! I do like the way the bases are inscribed with such clarity something I don't see on modern ranges so much.
Ooh nice light set up! Mines not as good as that but it does have a ruddy great magnifying glass in it. I cant see bugger all these days unless I’m using it. Lol.
ReplyDeleteI can barely see a bus coming without my glasses, but still have excellent vision without them for painting tiny soldiers, long may it last. Those little lamps are £25 each from Amazon and two side by side does the job nicely, a single one not quite so, and of course they are in keeping with my overall downscaled painting set up!
DeleteThat is very tidy, 'Lee, as are your Peter Pig Pike and Shot!
ReplyDeleteI share your sentiments about the Higgins/PMDs. They're gorgeous castings.
Thank you Matt. When I see the painting area of others with pots of paint all over the place and mess everywhere it makes me shudder :)
DeleteWhat's comfy is comfy!
ReplyDeleteYes indeed Ross. Reminds me of the old Monty Python Spanish Inquisition sketch "Oh no, not the comfy chair"
DeleteThese Les Higgins figures really have stood the test of time - I had a random few as a teenager circa 1975 - I always thought they were great figures and they still look pretty nice to me
ReplyDeleteThey are lovely sculpts and castings. Refreshingly different to the chunky style so popular today. John Cunningham for whom I paint owns the Les Higgins moulds now and saved the range from extinction. These ones for Tony are original vintage castings and I also remember the Ad's from the mid Seventies!
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