Unexpected Painting

The weather here was fine today, although I could tell from my allergies that we're well into spring.  I had been planning to go for a walk at lunch today, but the excessive pollen count convinced me that I would be better off spending my time doing something else.  Since I wasn't expecting to paint, I had not brought any of the Schoeffen-Buschhagen troops with me, and was limited to what I had in my travel paint kit.

I ended up finishing up another of Beowulf's retinue, from the Eureka set I've been idly working on for some time:

This brings me up to five of the fifteen figures completed.  I might note that my improvised studio backdrop is a notebook, and that the picture was taken with my phone, using a pocket magnifying glass as a supplementary close-up lens.  It occurred to me that I have mentioned my travel painting kit several times, and have been intending to say something about it.

It's packed into a tough plastic toolbox, shown here with a ruler for scale, so about 16" by 9" by 9".

The top opens onto a set of compartments I usually use for tools.  I've got some 1" washers for basing, some 40mm French and Indian War bits for a future project, a knife, and spare blades.  There should be a tube of Walthers Goo, a popular hobbyist contact cement, and some superglue; I think both of those items have made their way onto my painting table and need to be recovered.

Inside the main compartment is a removable tray, where I keep brushes and a small assortment of miniatures I could work on.  Today that included some Beowulf figures, some Prince August 25mm fantasy, a handful of Pulp Miniatures, and some 6mm cataphracts.  My ultra-close vision glasses should be here too, but have gotten separated.

The remainder of the main compartment is taken up by about 30 bottles of craft acrylics, plus a few old bottles of Ral Partha paints (steel and two caucasian flesh tones today) and a bottle of white glue.  I usually unfold a newspaper or something similar to protect my desk.

The tool kit is supplemented by a few things that just stay at the office; some yogurt containers for wash water, plastic coffee can lids for palettes, and a large bottle of Liquitex gloss varnish.  (Once the figures are based I spray them with a Krylon matte varnish; I don't really care for the look of gloss painted figures on 'realistic' bases.)  I can have it laid out in just a few minutes, and with five minutes allowed to clean up at the end, I can squeeze 45 minutes of painting into a one hour lunch.  That's about half a 28mm individual, or more if I can work in groups, averaged over several sessions.  It can add up, if done consistently.