The last few weeks, I have been out of town constantly, either due to a family vacation or work trips. While it's nice to travel, I'm not getting any painting or gaming done (and getting blog content up while you're in a town without modern amenities for three days is pretty impossible as well). I'm considering taking paints and models down next week when I travel down, to get some things done. I'm so close to finishing my Khador that I can taste it, but those last few models are going very, very slowly.
Have any of you ever done something like this? How'd it go, and do you have any advice?
When I travel back to my hometown, I bring a small painting kit and a few models. I also bring my painting to work a few days a week. I bought a small tool kit box, and put my paitns and brushes in it. It worked really well
ReplyDeleteMitch
http://ottawagamer.blogspot.com/
I'm on the road for work right now myself. Last week's project was some raptors, this week's a ven. dread, and some prep work (cleaning mold lines) for some honour guard.
ReplyDeleteEssentially, I just re-purpose one of my army transports. Put the paints in the same slots the rhinos normally go, the cleaning jar and various other stuff in a land raider slot, and the brushes go in the pockets. Whatever my project of the moment is, goes in an appropriately sized slot.
The hotel generally has a newspaper at my door in the morning, or wherever they serve breakfast. That makes for a good cover for the desk in the room. The paper napkins from wherever I get food that night makes for a decent substitute for the paper towels I normally use to dry and clean brushes on.
When I'm done for the evening, I leave whatever it is out on the desk to dry overnight, and before I go to work in the morning, it all gets packed up again and left in the closet of the room, or in the backseat of the car while I'm working.
If I need to varnish or prime, I take it outside. A magazine or something similarly disposable and firm enough to work as a surface for that purpose goes with, and onto the newspaper covered desk back in the room to dry overnight.
Essentially, I've had to find some way to get some painting done on the road, or I'd never get anything finished. If you devote a little forethought to the obstacles you'll face, you can find some workarounds for them.
Another possibility is painting at wherever the local game store is, wherever it is you're traveling to.
Some caveats; Most of my travel is in my car these days. I work for an automotive manufacturer, and my travel is confined to the rustbelt right now. If I have to travel by air, that's a different set of logistics, and I generally confine myself to prep / modeling work, things that I can put inside some checked luggage without worrying about.
Sundry items, glue, as an example, can be found wherever I spend the week, and honestly, I don't worry much about tossing it in the trash before I hit the airport again. Five dollars to fuel my hobby while I'm living on the company dime, doesn't concern me overly.
Hope this helps.
I did this last year in order to get some Ogres done for a tournament. It was sort of productive ...
ReplyDeleteI have been doing this lately trying to finish my Malifaux crew for GenCon. We had two weddings and a family beach weekend and without doing it there's no way I would have finished on time.
ReplyDeleteI find the key is to know what you are working on, exactly what paints you need. This helps limit the load you have to take. Lately I've been spoiling myself and taking my light too.
Same philosophy that applies at home applies on the road: Every minute with a brush in hand contributes toward it being done sooner. The hard part is pulling out the paints after drinking beer on the beach all day.