Getting back on track with a folding hobby table

 It's past mid-September and I've yet to do any significant paint work in 2021. So far I've been entangled in an endless loop of assembly, prep, and priming work. Any painting I've done has been trifling busy work comprising color tests and simple base coats. So what went wrong? One word, three syllables ... pandemic. Apart from devastating 'normal' life as we know it and taking away what little free time I had for the hobby, it also resulted in my usual hobby table for one becoming a work-from-home table for two. Having the missus beside me during the work day is the one silver lining in this pandemic, but space for painting via hand-brush/wet palette was compromised, until now ...

All folded up, a folding table for use as a temporary hobby work area

Once opened up, the table has two-tiers: a narrow one stacked above the main area

Each tile on the floor roughly measures 1x1 feet, so the work area is less than 3x2 feet 

 As you would've gathered by now from the photos above, the solution came in the form of a fairly compact folding table. Costing slightly more than RM100 (roughly USD25), this was the cheapest option I could find online to solve my workspace problem. I got it via Shopee, a local online shopping portal. Incidentally it was the first furniture I had bought online which was non-Ikea. For the price, the compact and stable folding table is definitely value for money. But more than that, I hope it pays back above and beyond what it cost by enabling me to resume detailed paint/weathering work.

Here the folding hobby table is stacked up against my dedicated airbrushing space

 While I do retain a small dedicated workspace for airbrushing (see above) that is set apart from my normal hobby work table (now a work-from-home table) due to the issue of toxic chemicals and fumes; that very reason makes it unsuitable for prolonged periods of slow hand brush painting of miniatures. With the acquisition of this folding hobby table, I now no longer have any valid excuse to procrastinate anymore when it comes to finally painting a miniature or scale model kit.

Above is the exact dimensions provided by the online furniture supplier

 This folding hobby table is spacious enough to place the required materials e.g. wet palette, reference images, elbow room for steadying the painting hand, a work-lamp, magnifying lamp (rarely used now), brush cleaning material, water container, etc. etc. And it's also close to the same height as my current work-table which helps. Speaking of the pandemic, there is a bit of a good news for my family in that my son has finally been able to get vaccinated. Thankfully he qualified to receive the Pfizer Biontech jab. The missus and I could only get the Sinovac jabs ourselves. Regardless, please get vaccinated if you haven't done so already. Until next time, stay safe always. 

Loki Variant [WIP - Primed for Painting]

 If there is one thing this pandemic has cast over my hobby activities, it's a pall of inertia that has put me on a mind-numbingly looped path comprising just prep and priming work. This is partly due to my hobby worktable being turned into a work-from-home-table to be shared by the missus and I. That impediment should be resolved eventually with a mini folding-worktable that I plan to get online. For now though, all I can effectively do is to prep and prime to my heart's content. So dear reader, please forgive me for yet another boring primed-figurine blog post; this one for Marvel's Loki Variant.

Knight Models Marvel Universe - Loki Variant [work-in-progress: primed]

 As per the norm, a light grey primer coating was applied on the Loki Variant figurine. In most cases I've found that light grey works best for the majority of my projects. Other primer colors I occasionally use are black (for metal paint) and white (for anime figurine skin tones). Prior to the application of the primer coat, the details on the Loki Variant figurine weren't very visible due to the metal's shiny texture. However, with the primer coat on, the figurine's inherent details began to show up.  

Loki Variant (front view) after applying the light gray Tamiya Fine Surface Primer

Loki Variant (back view) after applying the light gray Tamiya Fine Surface Primer

With the application of a light gray primer coat ...

... the inherent details on the Loki Variant metal figurine ...

... becomes much more visible to the naked eye compared with ...

... when the figurine was at its plain metal (i.e. non-primed) stage

 Even from a cursory glance you can already tell that the inherent details of this Marvel Universe Loki figurine is simply excellent. While Loki's clothing texture was brilliantly done, the crowning glory for me is the figurine's facial features. While not exactly Tom Hiddleston, the facial features are very much Loki personified. It's evil, its cocky, its confident, its maniacal, in other words it's so Loki.

Loki Variant (top-down view) after the light gray Tamiya Fine Surface Primer was applied

Nice details on the fur-like clothing texture on the Loki Variant's upper back 

A length of sprue from a different kit was glued onto the throne to help stabilize the base

 Similar to a previous Knight Models figurine I had completed (i.e. Spider-Man), the back of the base had to be propped up with a piece of spare sprue from a different kit. Without this simple piece of sprue, the whole vignette (i.e. figurine plus base) would simply topple over. With it, the vignette's center of gravity stabilizes, and the figurine seated on the throne will not topple over.

As these closeup photos show, the inherent details of the Loki Variant figurine ...

... are simply excellent, everything looks good especially the facial features ...

... which should bode well for the coming painting process to follow

 So with the Loki Variant ready for paint, is my prep-prime-loop destined to be finally broken. Alas dear reader, the answer is not yet. It will take a while for my folding-worktable to arrive so there might be another one or two prep/priming posts of other projects before the painting can begin. Meanwhile on the pandemic front, the situation is as dire as it ever was. My country even ranked dead last in the Bloomberg Covid Resilience Score. Worse still, in recent weeks more covidiots are starting to surface with numerous people refusing to be vaccinated. Sigh. When will this nightmare ever end.