Tuesday, January 1, 2019

3-D Printed Market Stalls

3-D printed market stalls from Analog Arcade Accessories and some 28mm customers at this impromptu farmers market
The next step in bringing my 28mm city to life is to paint up those miscellaneous things besides buildings that occupy a downtown area. First up here, are three 3-D printed market stalls. These will go along with some previously painted market stalls from Miniature Building Authority to make a farmer's market area. I picked up the stalls at Cincycon 2017 from a new vendor, Analog Arcade Accessories. They carry lots of things for the miniature gamer, including buildings, vehicles, crates/boxes, and of course, market stalls.
This is my favorite of the stalls -- I decided that it was lettuce and baskets of beans that were for sale
The market stalls come with the awning separate, ostensibly to make it easier to paint the contents of the stall before gluing on the roof. I made the questionable decision to epoxy them into place first and trust that I could get in there adequately with my brush. The stalls were fairly cleanly printed with little flash or "strings" to remove. I primed them black with Krylon Fusion matte black spray primer. I then brushed over them with a 50/50 mix of black paint and water to make sure all the crevices were covered.
I chose bright colors for this fruit vendor, so went with red, yellow and green
I decided to do the contents first, which also meant guessing what food items were in the various baskets or boxes. I went onto Analog Arcade Accessories Facebook page and scrolled through their photos to see if I could get some clues. I had correctly guessed that one of the stalls had fish. The others I had to do my best guess as I could not find labels for them. First, though, I painted the wood boxes or boards that the produce was sitting on. I gave it a light wood color and washed it with a black wash. Then I painted each food product in a darker and lighter highlight color to give them some depth.
A fish vendor completes this trio of market stalls
I really like how the stall with the lettuce and baskets of various beans came out. I think it is my favorite. I even used two colors inside the baskets themselves -- so the coffee beans were painted a darker brown with dots of lighter brown to give it some depth. The lettuce (or some kind of leafy green veggie) looks good, too, kind of spread out. However, I wasn't as crazy with how the fruits turned out. If you look closely, you can see the strings connecting the individual globes that are the fruits. I briefly thought about painting a green stem at the top of each -- it looks like this was modeled -- but decided I wanted the more mass effect of a crate full of fruit. Still, I think both look good. The fish vendor's products were the easiest to paint, with a medium gray base coat and a light gray dry brush. For effect, I put in a light silver wash over each fish, but it doesn't really show up in the photo.
A busy morning at the Farmer's Market in my 28mm city center
The wood of the stalls consisted of two layers of dry brushing: Howard Hues Camo brown first, followed by Colonial Khaki (my normal way of painting wood). The crates and barrels were trimmed with Iron Wind Metals Steel for their metal bindings. The awnings were done in three faded colors -- a faded tan, light blue, and light green. These were dry brushed white, then washed in brown or black. I was tempted to do stripes on a few of the awnings, but decided against it.

Unfortunately, I don't remember how much the market stalls cost, as it has been almost two years since I purchased them. Check them out on Facebook and pick up some of their products, if you're interested!



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