28mm Policeman & Other Things I've Been Doing

Police officers investigate a disturbance in an alley way littered with garbage bags from Miniature Building Authority

I imagine this has been a somewhat productive week for miniatures bloggers. In the spirit of Monty Python's "The Life of Brian," I'm trying to look on the bright side of life (feel free to whistle along...) while the Coronavirus shadow looms over Ohio. Classes at my school district are cancelled in an attempt to limit the spread. This means I am working from home -- creating online assignments, answering questions, communicating with parents, grading, and more. It also means I am at home pretty much all day. That, on the bright side, translates to more hours to spend on miniatures projects.

These plaster barrels sitting outside Wallace's Pub needed only the metal bands painted and basing to be complete

Before we'd closed down, I had pulled out some various modern scatter for my 28mm urban city -- another dumpster, trash bags of different sizes and shapes, and a huge resin heap of rubbish. In addition, I added the four 28mm police officers I'd purchased at Cincycon from Iron Wind Metals to the other four I had never painted, and set them out to clean up and prime. During one of my games at the convention, one of the player's gang got knocked out pretty early. As I was sitting there feeling bad that the game was over for him, I got an interesting idea. Why not, at conventions, have players in a similar situation come back as a police car with a couple officers inside? Have them come in on a random board edge, and get them back in the game.

Ral Partha (Iron Wind Metals) policemen check out a Miniature Building Authority dumpster

Well, to do that, I'd need police! I am also in the process of looking for a suitably sized die cast police car. I know they're out there because I've seen them in other gamers' photos. So, if anybody sees one here in Central Ohio, give me a shout! The police officers themselves were painted dark blue, then highlighted with a brighter blue. There wasn't a whole lot of detail that wasn't uniform bits, so they went really quickly -- black belt, hat brim, and shoes, along with silver for the badges and steel or brown for their revolver or billy club. Pretty soon, I had a force of 8 police officers to clean up the mess my gangs would make of the city!

Most of the garbage scatter were things I picked up last Cincycon from Miniature Building Authority. They're a fantastic store, and make some truly amazing buildings and other miscellaneous things for the wargamer. I had brought a little wad of birthday cash and was planning on spending it with them, but alas, they did not come this year. Some of that went to Iron Wind, instead, of course! For the garbage, I spray primed it all black, then went over it with my usual 50/50 mix of black acrylic paint and water. Next, I dry brushed the dumpster and trash bags Iron Wind Dark Green, followed with Kelly Green highlights. I picked out some other odd bits in different colors, and they were quickly finished.

This garbage heap from Miniature Building Authority was the most overwhelming to focus on details to paint

The trash heap, well, that was another story. It was mind-boggling to look at. There were so many bits of this and that it was hard to focus on anything to decide what color to paint. So, I got out a post-it note, and wrote down a half-dozen things to paint on the first pass -- a sheet of corrugated metal, various tarps, a window frame or lattice, pipes, etc. After that was done, I did it again, picking out some more things. Eventually, everything was painted, and I added in my earth brown for the main part of the heap. I based the heap and the garbage bags on styrene plastic, and then added medium blended gray ballast (I should have used my Fine, though). As a final way to darken up the heap and blend the colors together, I gave it a dark black wash. Finally, I was happy with how my pile of rubbish looked!

There is more on my painting desk that I am working on, but I'll save that for another update. Expect to get at least one Lead Legionaries update a week as long as my school remains closed. Unfortunately, it will be mostly about painting and building and not gaming, as the convention scene is closed for the next couple months at the minimum, I'd say. Even our Sunday night gamers are leaning towards taking a hiatus, though Brian is pushing us towards online board game play. It is Sunday as I post this, so we'll see what happens!