Tatooine Sci-Fi Buildings from Diabolical Terrain

    3-D printed Sci-Fi buildings in the vein of Star Wars Tatooine from Diabolical Miniatures

One of the bigger purchases I made at Advance the Colors 2024, at least size-wise, are these three Sci-Fi buildings from my friend Ron at Diabolical Terrain. Fans of Star Wars will recognize them right away as being a great stand-in for the desert planet, Tatooine. On his web page, you can find them under "Science Fiction: Tatooie Desert Buildings." Note that prices on his website defaults to 15mm size, so make sure to hit the drop-down menu to get the right size. Mine were printed at 32mm, or so his website informs me! Anyway, these are great 3-D prints and are incredibly quick and easy to paint up.

    These are printed to '32mm scale' according to Ron on the Diabolical Terrain website

 Unlike most 3-D terrain, I spray painted these buildings a "Sand" color purchased from the local Menards store. I made sure I covered them thoroughly because I was going to skip my usual 50/50 water and paint step. I simply dry brushed them white next. With that, most of the surface area on these three buildings was done! Next, I used both Iron Wind Metals Steel and Folk Art craft metallic Gunmetal Gray to pick out the pipes, doors, window grilles, and various other details. There doesn't appear to be anything made of wood depicted. It's all metal and the adobe/mud brick inspired by the Tunisian desert town of Tataouine. In case you didn't know, that's where George Lucas got the inspiration for the setting of the first Star Wars epic.

    These buildings were SO easy to paint up and look great on the tabletop - highly recommended!

After picking out the metal pieces, I highlighted them with craft paint "Pewter." Next, I painted some of the doors Chocolate Brown, one of my favorite craft paint metallics. I did a dark vehicle black wash over the metal pieces once they were dry. The final step was to use my brown vehicle wash over the mud brick surface of the buildings. These were thirsty buildings, though, and it took up quite a bit of wash. I doubled up in cracks and crevices to give it a more dirty look. 

    The 'back sides' of the 3 buildings -- I will definitely be picking up more of these

And then I was done! Seriously -- these went about as fast as any building I have painted in a long time. I will likely pick up more of them the next time I see Diabolical Terrain at a convention. His website shows six different styles and I bought only three of them this time. I highly recommend these! They make great Star Wars terrain (despite the tongue-in-cheek disclaimer on his site). No Jawas were harmed in the making of these buildings...

    The largest of the 3 buildings that I painted up - can't wait to use them in some Star Wars skirmishes

What else have I been working on? Speaking of Star Wars skirmishes, I have been thinking that I need a new mat for my games. I anticipate that I will have six players regularly. Since it is technically every faction for itself, though some may have common goals, I wanted to make sure deployment is fair. What better way than to have a hexagon shaped playing area? Not being a math whiz, I found the dimensions and angles for a hexagon which is four feet across from one flat side to the other. 

    My 4' hexagon shaped battle mat (flat sides are 4' from each other) made from felt and flocking

I picked up a likely color of felt from the local JoAnne's Fabric store. I got out my yardsticks and a Sharpie, and measured out the dimensions. Jenny helped me out, especially with her angle finder to make the required 60 degree lines. We used her uber-sharp rolling wheel cutter, too, ensuring the sides were straight and smooth. I flipped it over so that the Sharpie lines were on the bottom, and put a plastic sheet underneath it.

Next, I filled a screened sifter with Woodland Scenics Blended Turf. I dug out my spray bottle filled with a 50/50 mixture of water and Liquitex Acrylic Matte Medium. I sprayed the surface down relatively thoroughly -- my squirt bottle unfortunately doesn't do a fine mist and instead is only slightly more diffused than a squirt gun. Once it was wet with the sticky liquid, I heavily sifted the turf onto it. I refilled the squirt bottle -- I really can't believe it hadn't dried up in the years since I used it! Then I squirted the area down again. I made quite a mess on the plastic sheet, but I avoided getting any matte medium on the floor or chairs surrounding my 8'x5' table.

   Close up look at the mat with the Woodland Scenics flocking affixed with Liquitex matte medium

I waited for it to dry overnight, then sprayed it with some acrylic clear coat. I just used the same thing I use on my miniatures. Voila! In just one day of work, I had a 4' across hexagon battle mat that looks really nice. I will also likely use this same mat in my playtest of my Viking raid using Sellswords & Spellslingers rules. In fact, that will probably happen before my first Star Wars skirmish (which will likely be in January). I need to decide on rules and scenario and everything for the games I will run at Origins Game Fair by the first of the year.

Anyway, lots of production in the past few days. I'm very pleased with both how the mat came out and these "not-Tatooine" buildings came out! Stay tuned for more...!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 235