Workbench

Workbench is where the Editor does his best to assemble, paint, and prepare some of the products sent to us here at The Miniatures Page.

He may be more of a perfectionist than you are - or he may be less of one! He's not trying to prescribe the One Right Way. He's just trying to describe how one guy happens to do it.

If you would like to write a Workbench article, or if you are a manufacturer and would like your products featured in Workbench, please view the FAQ.

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Basing 1:700 Black Seas Brigs

A simple, low-effort technique for naval bases. [17 Oct 2024]

OTHER ARTICLES
Title	Description
Storing Projects	Containers for when you need to sideline that project you've been working on, or maybe just not lose the bits you're not ready for yet. [2 Aug 2024]
Round Bases, Round Labels	Using self-adhesive labels to identify your minis. [15 Jun 2024]
Deep Dream: Women Warriors	What happens when AI generates Women Warriors? [22 Apr 2023]
Deep Dream: Can It Map?	Can artificial intelligence create useful maps for wargamers? [19 Apr 2023]
Deep Dream: Getting Personal	Generating portraits using Deep Dream Generator. [28 Mar 2023]
Deep Dream: Paint My Mini?	Could artificial intelligence take a photo of an unpainted figure and produce a 'painted' result? [10 Feb 2023]
Deep Dream: Editor Gwen Goes Air Force	Not just improving a photo, but transforming it using artificial intelligence. [9 Feb 2023]
Using LITKO's BaseMaker	Need custom bases? [30 Aug 2021]
Trying Out the LED Headband Magnifier	Editor in Chief Bill experiments at 11x. [19 Aug 2021]
Basing With Stucco Crack Repair	Editor in Chief Bill tries a stucco repair product to contour his bases. [29 Jul 2020]
Painting 1:700 Black Seas French Brigs	Editor in Chief Bill paints his first three ships from the starter set. [27 May 2020]
Straightening StuGs	Editor in Chief Bill discovers that painters aren't mind-readers. [18 Dec 2019]
From Fish Tank to Tabletop	Editor in Chief Bill receives a gift from his wife… [19 Sep 2019]
Correcting Panzer IIC Models in 15mm	Editor in Chief Bill makes corrections when some models don't turn out the way he expected! [9 Aug 2019]
Deconstructing a Toy Car	Sometimes, you have to take it apart, so you can put it back together again. [6 Jun 2019]
Painting the Thistle & Rose Legnica Specialty Vignette	Dervel tackles a Thistle and Rose vignette. [22 Sep 2016]
Puppetswar: Barmaley Fountain in 28mm	Painting Puppetswar's Stalingrad fountain. [9 Aug 2016]
3Dprinted Jersey Barriers in 28mm	Useful 3D models for concrete barriers. [27 Jul 2016]
Simple Magnetic Flight Stands	Editor in Chief Bill takes another stab at building a more perfect flight stand. [13 Jun 2016]
Drilling Holes in Minis - Part III: Going Larger	Editor in Chief Bill weighs the pros and cons of using a power drill on the minis workbench. [24 Jan 2016]
Thunderbolt Mountain Highlander	dampfpanzerwagon paints a Napoleonic caricature. [25 Jun 2015]
Urban Construct 28mm Sandbag Emplacement/Machine Gun Nest	Patrice Vittesse paints a machinegun emplacement, and realizes he needs more... [1 Jun 2015]
Back to the Sands of North Africa	Warcolours Painting Studio of Warcolours returns to North Africa to paint a British Motor Company. [25 May 2015]
How to Dip Wargames Factory Plastics & Old Glory Figures	Laconia Hobbies shows us how it is done. [1 Oct 2014]
Homemade Palm Trees	Dervel returns from Mexico with a new vision for making palm trees from scratch. [26 Jun 2012]
15mm Brits for Market Garden	Warcolours Painting Studio of Warcolours shows he can do more than just Brits in the desert... [31 May 2012]
Modeling 1:1200 Scale Napoleonic Sailing Ships	Volunteer shares his techniques for painting, rigging and basing Age of Sail warships. [11 May 2012]
Napoleonic Dragoons from Perry Miniatures	Warcolours Painting Studio paints "the best plastic sculpts I have seen so far..." [13 Feb 2012]
Guilford Courthouse	The modeler himself shows how he paints Guilford Courthouse in 40mm scale. [1 Dec 2010]
A Good-Looking Army in a Reasonable Amount of Time	Painting a wargaming army is a completely different beast from painting a single miniature for display. [2 Nov 2010]
Cheetahs	Wyatt the Odd paints some fast cats. [15 Oct 2010]
C-in-C's 1:285 T-72s & BTR-70s	Beowulf has been itching for a small Soviet project! [16 Sep 2010]
The Editor Can't Paint Green Vehicles	Does anyone else have trouble with the color green on microscale vehicles? [13 Sep 2010]
Da Pinkos from HLBS	When evolved Newts happen upon a WWII comic... [17 May 2010]
Painting a 15mm Tibetan DBA Army: The Cavalry	Don't let the horses daunt you! [12 May 2010]
Bronze Age's Odin	dampfpanzerwagon finishes his 40mm Norse Gods project. [11 Mar 2010]
1:600 Scale Masts from Bay Area Yards	Hate having to scratchbuild your own masts? Not any more... [28 Oct 2009]
Bronze Age's Thor	dampfpanzerwagon makes an addition to his Flash Gordon collection. [15 Oct 2009]
Building the Thoroughbred USS Monitor	The G Dog couldn't say 'no' to this opportunity! [30 Jul 2009]
Halflings of the Honourable East Valonian Company	Our first Flintloque article. [22 Jul 2009]
Suzi & Zombie Suzi as Painted by Pigmented Miniatures	Here's Suzi - before and after... [17 Jul 2009]
Painting the Japanese Patrol Aeronef Moni	The painting of the Aeronef Moni. [9 Jul 2009]
Warmodelling 20mm WWII Finnish Basing Walkthrough	Now that the 20mm Finns are painted, how to base them? [23 Jun 2009]
Painting the Biker from Hell	Sam shows how to paint a vehicle, starting with silver and gold. [15 Jun 2009]
Constructing the Japanese Patrol Aeronef Moni	dampfpanzerwagon scratchbuilds another Victorian flying machine. [2 Jun 2009]
Warmodelling 20mm WWII Finnish Painting Walkthrough	Artmaster Studio shows how to paint Finnish soldiers in 20mm. [27 May 2009]
The British Get Stuck	Experimenting with an idea for storing 15mm figures and vehicles... [17 Apr 2009]
Painting a 15mm Tibetan DBA Army: The Infantry	wodger begins his series on how to paint a 15mm DBA army well, in a reasonable time frame. [30 Mar 2009]
Painting Flames of War Crusader Tanks	Minidragon been building and painting his own army for Flames of War for a while now. [16 Mar 2009]
Pete Paints Fantassin's 1/72nd Finnish Support Weapons	When Patrice Vittesse first saw these figures, he was dreading painting them... [12 Mar 2009]
1/48 Scale Flammpanzer II 'Flamingo'	miscmini assembles and paints Gaso.line's 1/48 scale Mk.II Flammpanzer. [9 Mar 2009]
Hasslefree's Morgan & Tony	With clean lines and not a lot of clutter, Minidragon says these figures are a painter's dream! [5 Mar 2009]
Combatpainter's Ultimate DAK Uniform Painting Tutorial	The campaign in North Africa is one of combatpainter 's favorite historical WWII theaters to game and model. [2 Mar 2009]
Painting 6mm Baccus Napoleonic French Infantry	Monkey Hanger takes the plunge. [23 Feb 2009]
Adam Paints the Brigadier	Adam8472 takes inspiration from Doctor Who. [19 Feb 2009]
The 95th Rifles from Alban Miniatures	Warcolours Painting Studio does his research, selects his colors, and goes forth! [16 Feb 2009]
Scotia B-24 & Scale Specialties Decals	Wyatt the Odd makes a unique gift. [12 Feb 2009]
Phil Does the Dip!	Phil Hendry sets the record straight. [29 Jan 2009]
Army Group North's 1/56th KV-1 and KV-2	miscmini likes the look of the Soviet KV-1 tank, and plunges into a project to paint three of them - plus a spare KV-2 turret! [8 Jan 2009]
15mm WWII Royal Horse Artillery Battery	Warcolours Painting Studio takes on quite a substantial project. [1 Jan 2009]
Cleopatra & L'Ocean	Monkey Hanger 's motivation to paint Napoleonic ships returns! [28 Dec 2008]
Vampire Wars Villagers	Warcolours Painting Studio paints "four characterful figures that seem to come directly from a vintage vampire movie..." [23 Oct 2008]
Building & Painting Scotia's 1/300 Stuka	With the release of the Check Your 6! rules, Monkey Hanger finds his interest in WWII air-combat gaming has rekindled. [13 Oct 2008]
Painting Copplestone's News Crew	Dentatus thinks Mark's work is among the best available for all-around gaming and painting. [9 Oct 2008]
Painting 6mm Baccus Napoleonic British Infantry	After many years of resisting the urge to start a Napoleonic collection, Monkey Hanger takes the plunge! [6 Oct 2008]
Pete Paints Battle Honors' 25mm Italian Command	Patrice Vittesse is excited to paint something new. [2 Oct 2008]
VSF Vessels from the London War Room	Mardaddy has an adventure with two Victorian science-fiction vessels. [24 Sep 2008]
Magnets & AK47	How to use my 15mm figures for one ruleset without gluing them down to a set base size? [19 Sep 2008]
Hurricanes & Magnets	Cold Steel gives us advice, and we test it. [10 Sep 2008]
Dewoitine D.500: Panel Lines & Painted Details	miscmini builds, paints, and decals Reviresco's 1/144 scale Dewoitine D.510. [3 Sep 2008]
Building Two 1/1200 Scale Vessels	Virtualscratchbuilder builds a cutter and a corsair, both in 1/1200 scale. [1 Sep 2008]
Acrylic Flight Stands from Litko	What flight stand for our Hurricanes? [27 Aug 2008]
Decaling GFI's N-Scale Hurricanes	miscmini completes his work by applying decals, doing a bit of weathering, and coating the minis with a matte-finish. [26 Aug 2008]
Painting the Castle Kits Egyptian Temple Entrance	Minidragon finishes his Temple project by painting the kit he previously assembled. [14 Aug 2008]
Steel Bases for AK47 Vehicles	If you want to magnetically store your 15mm vehicles, then you'd better add some steel! [12 Aug 2008]
Simple Basing Technique for Modern Pulp	One way to base Modern Pulp figures for a wide variety of environments. [11 Aug 2008]
Tony Builds and Paints a Khang Robot	Tony shows how he puts together and paints a Flash Gordon-inspired sci-fi pulp robot. [7 Aug 2008]
Building the Castle Kits Egyptian Temple Entrance	Mini-Dragon tackles hundreds of pre-cast pieces to build the Temple Entrance. [31 Jul 2008]
Assembling & Painting GFI's N-Scale Hurricanes	miscmini assembles and paints two varieties of Hurricanes from Game Figures, Inc.. [23 Jul 2008]
Beowolf Paints 8th Army Shermans	Beowulf shows an easy and quick technique for British tanks in North Africa. [17 Jul 2008]
Painting More of the Corporate Babes	Warcolours Painting Studio says he's pretty happy with these babes... [11 Jul 2008]
Back to Paper Modeling - with the Hoverfly	The Editor returns to paper modeling after a long absence. [2 Jul 2008]
Adam Paints Gangstas	Adam practices his white techniques on some Thugs. [11 Jun 2008]
GASO.LINE's 1/48th Scale T34/76 with Russian Tank Riders	Master Fighter combines a diecast T34/76 with pre-painted tank riders and accessories. [14 Mar 2008]
Painting Hasslefree's Not Hot Fuzz Nick & Sam	Dentatus tackles two subjects from his favorite sculptor. [13 Mar 2008]
Painting Copplestone Castings' Corporate Babes	I supplied Stronty Girl with some 'babes', and she did the rest... [12 Mar 2008]
A Sumerian Four-Ass Chariot	Chocolate finds his bluff is called! [5 Mar 2008]
Jasta Braune - SMS Hamburg-Class Gunships	dampfpanzerwagon makes models of models of models... [14 Feb 2008]
WWII North Africa Painting Guide - The Basics	Monkeylover covers the basics for this WWII theater of war. [5 Feb 2008]
Building Little Round Top	The goal is to build a series of gameboards covering Longstreet's Assault on the 2nd day of Gettysburg. [28 Jan 2008]
Blind Old Hag's Do-It-Yourself Flight Stands	How Blind Old Hag makes flight stands for 1/300 scale aircraft. [17 Jan 2008]
Jay Wirth Paints 15mm Crusaders for DBA	Jay Wirth shows how using inks makes it easier to paint a 15mm scale army. [16 Jan 2008]
Building the Peter Pig Mortar Schooner	The G Dog replicates a mortar schooner at Fort Jackson during the New Orleans campaign. [21 Dec 2007]
Beowulf Paints 15mm Peter Pig Soviet MG Teams	Beowulf proves that you don't need to be a master painter or invest hundreds of hours working to get good results. [13 Dec 2007]
ZorzSERBIA Paints Hasslefree's Ken & Kendra	Two of Hasslefree's Adventurers venture to Serbia... [12 Dec 2007]
Adam Paints Three More Pirates	It's back to pirates for Adam8472 ! [28 Nov 2007]
Cavemen & Giant Armadillos!	DJD Miniatures runs amok with a diorama of cavemen and the giant prehistoric armadillo! [27 Nov 2007]
Dreamblade Repainted	Hundvig is not a real big fan of pre-painted minis, and he positively despises randomly-packed "collectable" ones - so why is he writing this article? [7 Nov 2007]
Black Cat Bases' Vampire Queen	alizardincrimson2 sails to the Skeleton Seas, and finds inspiration as she goes. [31 Oct 2007]
A Couple That is Possessed Together, Stays Together	DemosLaserCutDesigns says these Possessed Zombies would lend themselves well to a zombie game based on the world of the Evil Dead movies. [30 Oct 2007]
Painting the Fiat Torpedo 508 CM	Warcolours Miniature Painting Studio paints the Fiat Torpedoe Militaire, an Italian utility vehicle during WWII. [24 Sep 2007]
Painting Peter Pig's T26	Can the techniques used for painting giant sci-fi robots be applied to 15mm scale Russian tanks? [28 Aug 2007]
The Army for Bill: The Ancient Britons	The Army for Bill was a collective project in which TMP'ers came together to jointly paint an Ancients army for yours truly. [24 Aug 2007]
Marines to the Ukraine!	When you have several hundred Marines that need painting, who do you call? [22 Aug 2007]
Painting Battle Honour's NKVD Command	We may be sending these WWII Russian figures off to Vancouver for painting, but they'll eventually reach Thailand - because that's where DJD Miniatures conducts operations... [21 Aug 2007]
Building the Langton Anglo-Dutch British 1st Rate	Virtualscratchbuilder is a big fan of the Age of Sail, and these ships really speak to him - he loves transitional eras, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars was one of those. [20 Aug 2007]
15mm Base Contouring Round-Up: Four Materials	Can any of these products cure the dreaded "wedding cake" effect? [16 Aug 2007]
Painting 1/2400 ACW Ironclads from Tumbling Dice	McKinstry is a naval wargamer who likes the smaller scales, so who better to show us how to paint small-scale ironclads? [13 Aug 2007]
Building the Langton Miniatures Capitana	Virtualscratchbuilder proves himself a fan of splintered oars, crashing beakheads, and drummers yelling "come'mon, you scurves! The Captain wants to go water skiing, so pull harder!" [6 Aug 2007]
alizardincrimson2 Does Bronze Age's Female Gladiators	alizardincrimson2 steps into the arena with two gladiators from Bronze Age Miniatures... [1 Aug 2007]
Staples Online Printing & Web Binding	The Editor dabbles with online printing. [5 Jul 2007]
U.S.S. Amphitrite in 1/600 Scale	Virtualscratchbuilder builds Merrimack/Old Glory Shipyard's 1/600 scale USS Amphitrite. [2 Jul 2007]
Basing with DryDex Spackling	Using pink stuff for basework. [28 Jun 2007]
Miscmini Paints AIM's 15mm Polikarpov I-16	Somehow, miscmini finds himself in the Workbench with several 15mm scale Russian WWII fighters... [26 Jun 2007]
U.S.S. Marmora Tinclad	Damaged in an ocean crossing, Bay Area Yard's 1:600 scale U.S.S. Marmora finally appears in Workbench. [25 Jun 2007]
Adam Paints Hasslefree's Ray	Adam gets to paint a cool figure, and then paint his dead counterpart. [13 Jun 2007]
Eureka's Kung Fu Schoolgirls	fieldarchy paints Eureka's anime heroines. [30 May 2007]
Three Adventurers from Hasslefree	Paul Baker of Brush Strokes tackles three female adventurers from Hasslefree. [9 May 2007]
Adam Paints Some Parroom Adventurers	These models gave Adam the perfect opportunity to experiment with Citadel's new Foundation paints. [2 May 2007]
Pete Paints 15mm Early War German LMG Teams	Pete is back - this time, with early-war WWII Germans LMG teams. [1 May 2007]
CombatPainter Does FoW Bases	combatpainter explains a simple, quick, and effective way to base troops for Flames of War. [30 Apr 2007]
CombatPainter Makes a Barbed Wire Section	combatpainter has been watching some documentaries lately set in the Western Desert, and was inspired to create this... [30 Mar 2007]
Building Langton's 1/1200 Scale U.S.S. Cumberland	David Conyers of Aire Brush Painting Service tells how he builds and paints 1/1200 scale ACW ship. [5 Mar 2007]
The Tao of Painting Smaller Scales	While painting Minifigs' N-scale WWII Russians, Rodrick Campbell of Highlander Studios introduces us to his method for smaller scale figures. [1 Mar 2007]
Combatpainter Does Battlefront's 15mm Kubelwagens	When combatpainter criticized a recent Workbench entry, I challenged him to show that he could do better... [28 Feb 2007]
Obelisk's GangStars at Blue Table	Blue Table paints up three packs of Obelisk Miniatures' GangStars. [22 Feb 2007]
Painting the USS Meade	Having scratchbuilt a flying monitor, dampfpanzerwagon now paints and bases the model. [7 Feb 2007]
Scratchbuilding a VSF USS Meade	Building a flying two-turret monitor from scratch, inspired by Space: 1889. [6 Feb 2007]
Eve of Destruction	Lonewolf dcc paints another of Hasslefree's adventurers. [5 Feb 2007]
Adam Paints Some Lady Pirates	Adam loves Scorched Brown... [29 Jan 2007]
Basing Small-Scale Aircraft for Wargames	Mal Wright experiments to find a better way to mount aircraft for wargaming. [22 Jan 2007]
Maddogs and Englishmen...	Lonewolf dcc paints his favorite from Hasslefree's Zombie Hunter range. [21 Dec 2006]
Three Pirate Ladies	fieldarchy of Meg's Miniatures paints three pirates from Bronze Age Miniatures. [19 Dec 2006]
Andrew Walter's Franklin's Sea	Entry #1 in Scale Creep's Scavengers Design Contest - a complete 18th Century Fantasy game you can play on your refrigerator. [30 Nov 2006]
Battlefront's BA-6 Armored Car	Dave Bennett of Lone Star Historical Miniatures paints up some WWII Soviet armored cars for TMP - and demonstrated how to use chalk for weathering. [6 Sep 2006]
Anyone Seen My Puck?	Lonewolf dcc returns to show us how he painted Hasslefree's Jess zombie-fighter. [23 Aug 2006]
The Zombie Resistance Family Project	Meet the Zombie Resistance Family! [20 Jul 2006]
I Once Knew a Girl Called Maria...	Lonewolf dcc explains step-by-step how he painted Hasslefree's Maria adventurer. [11 Jul 2006]
A Soviet T-28 in 28mm	Neil Burt of Troop of Shewe tackles the Soviet T-28 in 28mm scale from Force of Arms. [10 Feb 2006]
The Alpha 54mm Painting Contest	Five finalists are in the painting rounds of the Alpha 54mm Painting Contest (sponsored by Alpha Miniatures). Who will prove themselves masters of painting 54mm scale Ancients? [24 Jan 2006]
Printing Scenario Maps with Poster Software	You've got a scenario map, and you need to create some hills. Is there some way to just print out the map in very large scale, so you can trace the outline of the hills you need to build? The Editor finds out... [29 Sep 2005]
Visiting with Steve	While driving across the country, the Editor was fortunate enough to be invited in by Steve Smith - and a wargaming tour was in order! [9 Nov 2004]
Painting the Panzer IIIG for Barbarossa	Miniatures of Chesapeake volunteers to paint up a set of 15mm scale German armor (from Battlefront) for our Barbarossa campaign. [11 Jan 2004]
6mm Sumerians from Irregular	The Editor decides to explore a new army by first trying it in 6mm scale... [14 Nov 2003]
Scratchbuilding the Karlsruhe Köeln Class Light Cruiser	Thomas Reipe shows how to scratchbuild a master model, create the molds, and cast your own 1/600 scale ship. [4 Sep 2003]
Painting Battle Honours' Early-War Soviet Command	Dave Woodward of Ever Victorious Miniatures paints Battle Honours' early-war Soviet command set. [20 Aug 2003]
Building Your Own Afghan Village	What to do with time on your hands waiting for the convention to start? Alamo36t builds terrain... [11 Aug 2003]
Celts and Romans in 6mm	Robert Brown of Friar Barb Painting Service takes on two entire 6mm armies. [3 Jan 2003]
Ack, Help! - Victorian British	Reader Ken Messenger shows his Victorian British figures from his workbench, and asks for input. [3 Sep 2002]
Painting Black Tree's Soviet Character Set	Friar Barb's Painting Monastery - an historical painting service - takes on a set of WWII Russian "character" figures in 28mm scale. [6 Jul 2002]
Building Force of Arm's Early-War Soviet AT Gun	George Barnard of Warpaint assembles, paints and bases Force of Arms' 45mm Soviet anti-tank gun - the standard AT gun of Soviet forces in the first part of WWII. [6 Jul 2002]
Painting 10mm ACW Figures in 7 Steps	Reader Alamo36t tells us how to paint 10mm scale ACW figures quickly and easily. [5 Mar 2002]
Making Pig's Monitor	The Editor finally finishes that ironclad project he started back in '98... [28 Jul 2001]
A Technique for Chip-less Plastics	Reader Mike Frang shares a method for keeping the paint jobs on your soft plastic figures. [28 Jul 2001]
Making Panzerschiffe's Monitor	The Editor does his best with a 1:2400 scale resin ironclad, and even messes around with some artist gel... [27 Jul 2001]
Painting Up the Armorcast Trench System	A quick-and-easy project - painting up Armorcast's Starter Trench Set. [10 Mar 2000]
Resin Craters	Three sizes of battlefield craters from Tactical Conflict Systems [10 Mar 2000]
25mm Hut from TCS	This hut has a removeable roof! From Tactical Conflict Systems. [9 Mar 2000]
25mm Bridge from TCS	Another easy project - a bridge from Tactical Conflict Systems. [9 Mar 2000]
Brick Ruins in Resin	A set of ruined brick walls in "15-20mm" scale from Tactical Conflict Systems. [9 Mar 2000]
Scatch-Built Houses in 15mm Scale	Reader Brent R. Anderson reveals his techniques for constructing 15mm scale buildings using Sculpey. [7 Mar 2000]