Bad day at the workbench

Barnacle Joe

My life as a modeller and painter might look like a perpetual triumph, but that's not always true and today is a case in point...

About a week ago I spray undercoated my 15mm Colonial Portuguese and Hollanders for Irregular Wars using some old tins of GW Skull White that have been sitting in the garden shed for, literally, years. They seemed fine at the time, but when today I came to give the figures a dark brown wash I realised that about half the figures - the ones I'd sprayed with the oldest paint - had a very pronounced roughness.

You should be able to see it in the picture. If not, just think of sandpaper.

The day I sprayed them was warm and dry and I held the cans at a reasonable distance, so I don't think there were any atmospheric problems. It appears, however, that the paint had 'gone off' and that I am not the first person to suffer this. The fact that half the figures, sprayed with newer old paint, are OK rather proves the point.

I don't feel like stripping them down, even if it were possible, and it's true that from about 6" or more away this strange surface texture can't really be seen, so I suppose I will just have to live with it. I'm not sure how it will affect the painting process.

A chip off the old block

Whilst brooding on this setback I decided to prep some 10mm ACW buildings I'd bought at Salute 2014. I'd already stuck them together. However, I realised that with one of them the separate parts must have slipped out of place while the glue was drying, so I decided to prize the model apart. It's at that point I discovered the glue was stronger than the casting.

I wish I could say I was good at handling this sort of frustration but I'm not. I will now need at least a couple of pints of Kentish Ale to put things into proper perspective.