Category Archives: Hobby Project

Hobby Project, Miscellaneous

Custom Hobby Desk Project Part III

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After testing this desk design on the short side, I was ready to tackle the long side. The process went the same: Mount wall strip, mount flanges and support legs onto frame, attach the leveling blocks to frame, mount desk to wall. The two desk halves were connected via steel deck brackets.

 

Next came the trim. I used some ¼” oak trim to add a little beauty to the table. Trim was cut at 45° and affixed to the frame via ‘C’ clamps & nail gun. And with that it was done!

 

I forgot to mention. I designed this table to allow for the easy replacement of the MDF work surface. The trim is mounted to the frame not them MDF. When it gets completely banged up, and it will, I can opt to flip it over to use the undamaged side and when that gets ruined I can just get buy another 8’x4’ MDF board from Home Depot for $22 and cut two tops from that.

 

Kind of proud of myself for this project. Looking forward to other custom furniture projects in the future.

 Takeaways:

  • As stated before, this project would have been easier using Kee Klamps. Screwing it in and hoping they lined up is (was) just asking for trouble.
  •  I have some concerns on the deck brackets I used to mount this onto the wall. I think they are the weakest point of this layout so I’m going to need to make improvements before I put any real weight on it. I think I’m going to get another oak plank and mount that to the drywall. I’ll then mount the brackets to the oak board.
  • I need to use longer pieces of trim. Home depot didn’t, as far as I saw, have any pieces of trim aver 4 feet. Longer trim would have made the process easier and seamless.

 Well that’s it! Desk done! I have my new airbrush hood being delivered on Sunday and a new infinity table en route from LosBlock that I’m really stoked for. More to come.

 Shawn G. (SoI)

 

Hobby Project, Miscellaneous

Custom Hobby Desk Project Part II

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Well I decided to skip the trim for the second phase and move onto building the table itself. I’ve opted to go with a wall mounted design using steel pipe.

 

This project will come across a little dis-jointed. I had to completely build ½ of the desk to make sure my design was functional. The short side was built first and then replicated on the long side. Bear with me.

 

I wanted the desk to have some semi-aesthetic elements that would help it to blend into our basements redesign. The oak strips and trim have been finished in Dutch Oil to bring out the grain. The wood would also look smexy as hell with the black steel pipe.

 

The first thing I did was mount the oak strip to the wall. I used a wall stud to prop the board off the ground. The 3.5” height of the wall stud is perfect as it will allow me to install the baseboard trim later. After some wall stud hunting & pilot hole drilling, I mounted the oak board onto the wall.

Mounting Short Side Mounting Short Side Mounting Short Side
Mounting Short Side

 

The next part was a real pain. I used threaded steel pipe and fixtures to build the support elements. The design uses a 45° support leg made from ½” pipe cut to 30” with a flange/nipple/elbow combo on both ends. One flange will be mounted onto the wall via the oak strip, and the other drilled into the table frame. The table will have three support legs on the long side and two on the short. The pain comes from trying to get all the legs level. As these must be screwed onto each other it’s a total crap-shoot trying to screw each part together the exact same way. I had to eyeball it and I hate doing that…

 

This is a rather imperfect method as it’s nearly impossible to get all the support pipes to be perfectly in line with each other. In retrospect, I should have used Kee Klamps and straight pipe for this purpose. It would have been really precise and easier to be sure. But what ya gonna do?

 

After affixing the support legs to the frame, I checked it against the wall. Problem. The combination of the oak board and the mounting flange combo made the top unlevel. To get it level I had to mount some 1.5” square boards to the back of my frames. This worked in my favor as not only did this make the desk level, it also gave me space for power cords. These new additions to my frame design also provided a perfect area to mount the frame to the wall.

Short side down Short side down

 

After checking for level again, I drilled my pilot holes into the oak strip for the base mounting and into the drywall and stud for the wall mounting. The frame mounted to the wall nice and level. I then dropped the pre-cut MDF top to see how it would look pre-trim. Pretty damn nice. And it’s really sturdy.

 

Onto the next side!

Hobby Project, Miscellaneous

Custom Hobby Desk Project

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Greetifications! Been a while since I’ve posted here (September 17). Sorry for the long delay but it has been one CRAZY year so far.

Highlights:

  • Bought a house and moved in back in December.
  • Had to breakdown my old painting setup. That desk would not have survived the trip. All my stuff is in boxes since mid-November.
  • Sump pump in new house drowns in the May monsoon in WV flooding my new sexy basement. Thank god for insurance…
  • Basement no longer sexy.

With reconstruction at about 80% done (insulation, drywall, spackle & paint down) I can now start construction of my hobby space. I tell you what, I have SEVERELY missed being able to build and paint. 11 months is WAY too long.

I’ve decided to make my first post after my hiatus to be the construction of my custom painting station. Let’s get started!

Materials
8’ Wall studs (2×4) – x4
8’ Oak board (4x.5) – x1
4’ Oak board (4x.5) – x1
4’ Oak trim (2.5x.25) – x6
MDF sheet 4’x8’ (.75” thick)
½” Pipe Flanges – x10
½” Pipe Elbow – x10
½” Pipe Nipple – x10
½” pipe cut to 40” – x5
Small “L” Deck braces – x10

Tools
Pocket Jig (Kreg)
Pocket screws
3” Wood clamp (Kreg)
Screwdriver
Miter saw
L & T squares
Pencil
Danish oil
Wood glue

Here are the pics from my build session yesterday:

Custom Workstation Frame 3

 

I had the MDF sheet cut down to 72”x24.5” & 52”x24.5” panels. These will be the work surfaces for the table. The wall studs are cut to 72” and 52” for the long sides and 17.5” for the short sides.

Assembly was pretty easy using the pocket jig. Seriously get one of these things. They make getting into wood shop projects easy and it’s lots of fun.

Frames are built! Next phase will be the trim.

 

Aleph, Hobby Project, Infinity the Game

Infinity – Vanilla Aleph

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Greetifications!

I’m currently working on a new paint project for Infinity. I have not painted anything serious since my Yu Jing mining table back at the start of the year. I’ve decided to buckle down and start another paint project and this time it’s Aleph!

Color Scheme:

  • Body – Dark grey with pale grey/white lining w/ white paneling for contrast
  • Arms – White with a grey undertone
  • Glowing Bits – Orange
  • Straps/Bags – Terracotta leather

For the bases I’m trying something new. Basing has never been one of my strong points (look at my Arkhan Tomb Kings). I’m trying a style I’ve never seen before that my friend Robert suggested. First of all all the bases will blank save for a airbrushed tone. All of my army will be broken into color types. Here are the shades I’ve chosen so far.

  • Civilian HVTs – Green
  • Line troopers (Deva) – Violet
  • Posthumans – Blue
  • Named Characters – Yellow
  • Myrmidons – Red
  • Inorganics – Orange

I have a pretty damn cool idea for a display when all this is finished but I need to get there first.

First model up is the test model Myrmidon Doctor-Officer Machaon. I like how this guy came out. The scheme gels with me and uses my favorite colors. ‘m forcing myself to get good with faces. While not perfect, I managed a semblance of 5 o’clock shadow on Machaon. Sorry for the image quality. I really need to get/build a photo light box.

Machaon Machaon

Next up is one of my line troops a Dakini Tactbot. No duster to paint on this mini so I didn’t have to paint leather. Brought the white theme from the shoulders on Machaon all the way down the arms. I think I will keep that in the scheme. Lighting came out half decent as well. Need more practice there.These models are a right pain to put together. I hope they update the kit soon. Need to be on the level of sexiness that is the Garuda.

Here are the models from the previous scheme I was attempting. I think I will keep these as experiments in color and for display purposes. I like the scheme and it’s colors. It has nice contrast, but was not fun to pain. Didn’t gel with me. These models also show off the basing design I’m trying out. I believe it will really begin to stand out when I have more then 4 finished.

That’s all I got. More to come as I progress.

Shawn G. (SoI)