Sarissa MDF Trailer...Modified (& Some Scatter)Zombie RV: Unemployed? In Greenville..??

    MDF Trailer from Sarissa Precision modified with corrugated siding and large 3-D printed deck

It has been about 2 1/2 years since I finished a heavily-modified Sarissa Precision MDF trailer. Finally, the second one I had purchased at the same time is completed! I modified this one a bit, too -- but not nearly as much as the first -- which you can see here in this post. The first one was meant to represent a survivalist's repaired and reinforced trailer. Individual panels of metal had been "bolted" on, as well as metal bars over the windows. Instead, this new trailer was meant to look like one surfaced with corrugated siding material -- just aged and abandoned. 

    I prefer the plastic patterned material I used over the model's original scored or incised detail

The corrugated material I used for both models is textured plastic. This time, I ended up having to buy it online because the local craft store had stopped carrying it. I prefer corrugated plastic over the incised MDF it comes with because it looks more three dimensional. This time, I also took a big shortcut. Instead of cutting and gluing on individual pieces of the corrugated material, I did each of the four sides as one sheet. Before I constructed the trailer, I took the MDF sides of it and placed them over the plastic material,  tracing its outline, windows and all. I cut it out with a hobby knife and checked to make sure it was as exact a fit as possible. This would end up working out VERY well, and I finished this trailer in less than half the time it took to do the survivalist's one back in 2022. 

    Close up of the L-shaped plastic material I used to "cap" the four corners of the building

Once the corrugated sides were cut and ready, I glued all the MDF pieces of the trailer's model together with Aleene's Tacky Glue. The model goes together very easily, as do most Sarissa Precision kits. I then let it dry overnight. The next day, I epoxied the corrugated plastic onto the four outer sides. It looks better, but you could still see a noticeable gap where each face of the trailer ends and its neighbor on the next side begins. I wanted to cover this up. So, I cut small pieces of "L-shaped" styrene that you can buy from a model train shop to "cap" those seams. This gives it a much smoother appearance. It was tricky for the curved section, requiring about four pieces per edge, instead of one cap for the square ended half of the trailer.

    A look at the MDF roof which I left "as is," except for adding small MDF pieces to cover open slots

At this point, most of the construction was done. I let it dry overnight again. The next morning, I primed the whole structure. Knowing that I was going to paint the exterior siding a dun yellow color, I used a "Camo Sand" spray acrylic paint primer that I had purchased at Menards. Being a lighter color, it would required fewer coats to paint over than if I had primed it black like I usually do for terrain.

    A look at the light green interior & wooden floors - I chose to paint rather than paper both this time

I started the painting by "wet brushing" (think dry brush where you don't wipe off as much paint) my dun yellow color  over the ridged corrugated plastic material. Next, I did a straw yellow colored highlight as a dry brush. I painted the window trim and doors a medium green. It ended up needing two coats to really cover the doors, but not so much with the windows. Finally, I dirtied it up the exterior here and there with splotches and streaks of an Autumn Brown color. At this point, the exterior was done except for the black wash, which would come once the interior was also ready.

    Close up of the interior showing my "hillbilly decor" - posters made from Google Images

The interior I did in a very light green. It also took two coats to smoothly and evenly cover the walls. I did mess up here and there and I had to repaint sections of the medium green in a few places. By using a flat square brush, though, I was able to do a better and more controlled job than I would have with a round one. I need to remember to use the square brush more when I want a large area to be covered smoothly. The floor was next. I decided I would actually use the scored surface incised on the model and not cover it with scrap booking paper like I have for most other trailers. I painted on a dark brown base coat. This was followed by a Camo Brown wet brush. Finally, I did a light highlight of khaki. 

    The clear plastic skylights included in the kit are a nice touch, which I showed off with scatter leaves

With all the coloring done, by and large, it was time for the black wash. Here is where I screwed up the most, I feel. Rather than using a wide, flat, square brush, I used a round one, again. This gives the black wash a very irregular streaky appearance. You would think I would learn after having just noticed how much easier the interior was doing it with a square-tip brush! I ended up having to go back over it and re-apply a light green dry brush to tone down the streaks and darkness of the wash. It was simply too dirty looking!

On the outside, I remember to use a flat wide brush and it ended up looking MUCH better. I was amazed at how much quicker this trailer had gone than the first one. I still had the roof to do, though. I wet brushed the dun yellow that I had used on the trailer, and then used a khaki highlight because it seemed much darker.  Looking at it, I decided I didn't like the unused slots in the roof. There are six open narrow rectangular slots that MDF tabs from the trailer are supposed to fit into. However, the way I put together the trailer (did I make a mistake?), only two of them had corresponding tabs. So, I covered up the other four with spare MDF pieces that I had from other kits to look like hatches or mechanical stuff.

    I used brown splotches and a black wash to "dirty up" the trailer and make it look weathered

I painted both the spare pieces and the area around the two skylights Iron Wind Metals Steel. I highlighted them Pewter, to give it a more 3-D look as the detail was incised onto the MDF, not raised. The kit includes two clear acrylic pieces that I would epoxy onto the underside of the roof for the glass (or plexiglass) skylights. However, I would not affix those until after I had done any clear coating -- I didn't want them to "fog." At this point, I was mostly done with the trailer. 

Now it was time to add the other obvious modification I made to the Sarissa kit. I added a big, 3-D printed, wooden deck I bought from Bad Goblin Games to the long side of the trailer with the door. I wanted to wait until the entire exterior was finished before I glued the deck down, though. Otherwise, painting the exterior portions under the deck would have been a pain! Luckily, the Bad Gobin deck was just about the correct height for the Sarissa trailer. It probably should have been a tad shorter, but I wasn't going to try to saw off exactly the same amount from the eight posts holding up the deck. I primed the deck black, did a Camo Brown wet brush, and Khaki highlight. I also gave it a black wash. 

    Less than a week after being finished, the trailer was used in one of my games of Zombie RV

Now it was time for the posters! When I save an image online for a poster or sign, and then go to print it out for a model, I usually make it in three sizes -- the one I think is right, as well as one slightly bigger and another smaller. I also save my unused posters and signs. So, I dug this folder out and looked through it. I was able to find enough "hillbilly decorations" to put onto the open wall spaces of the interior. I also glued on a No Trespassing sign of sorts on the back of the trailer, too. I thought about putting gluing down some scatter on deck -- chairs, etc. However, I decided to leave them unattached and just sit them on the deck. I picked out four chairs from the one of the Mantic Games scatter boxes (Abandoned Office?) and painted them up. Those are the ones you see in the pictures, above.

    5 pieces of 3-D printed scatter from A Critical Hit and one MDF Outhouse I finished recently

All that was left was the flocking, which I did with my usual method. I painted the base (underneath the deck was the hardest) with a mix of brown paint and white glue. Then I poured in Woodland Scenics Fine Brown Ballast. Once it had dried, I added Blended Turf. Next I added irregularly splotches of Blended Green. For this building, I also added more tufts than I usually do to make it look weedy and overgrown. Finally, I used my tiny bag of leaves that I had bought at ATC 2025 and placed some on the clear plexiglass skylights and in the corners of the deck with white glue. It was done, once again, in about half the time the other Sarissa trailer had taken me. 

    More easy to get onto the tabletop scatter from A Critical Hit -- two 3-D printed picnic tables

I made my deadline, too, as I wanted to use this trailer in Sunday's game of Zombie RV: Unemployed? In Greenville..??. I now have an acceptable looking trailer park with six trailers and at least another half dozen buildings that don't look out of place alongside them. As I finished up the trailer, I was also hurrying up to finish some more modern scatter that have sat in my closet for a year or longer. 

    I bought these from A Critical Hit in 2024 and they've sat in my closet for a year...oops!

The two picnic tables and crates of tomatoes and salt were purchased at Cincycon 2024 from A Critical Hit. It is crazy that 3-D printed pieces that took so little time to get ready for the tabletop just languished in there for a year. For the picnic tables, I simply did a Camo Brown wet brush and Khaki dry brush. That was followed up with a black wash and they were ready (other than a clear matte spray). The crates took a couple more steps. I did the same thing to the wooden slats, but them painted the metal bands Iron Wind Steel. I picked out the bolts with Bronze and then did a black wash over the crate part, but not the produce. I left the salt alone. After clear coating it, I brushed on a clear gloss over the tomatoes.
 

    I *believe* this MDF outhouse is from Sarissa, but am unsure - it has sat unpainted for even longer!

So, if I'm embarrassed that the A Critical Hit pieces sat for so long, I should be mortified by this outhouse. It came with one of my kits -- I believe from Sarissa Precission. Not sure, though, as it has been so long. I assembled it long ago (before I even moved into my new house), and even primed it black. And there it sat, forgotten, but clearly visible on the shelf of my closet containing my unpainted or unassembled terrain and scatter. Literally, all I had to do was a Camo Brown wet brush, Khaki dry brush, and black wash, and it was finally for the tabletop!

    Look! Proof the Outhouse finally made it into a game, as 2 zombies feel an urgent need to "go..."!

What's next? Yesterday, I finished my Colonial Marines from Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps. I photographed them tonight, and you will likely see a post on them tomorrow. I've begun working on the 3-D printed ruins and turn marker that I bought at DayCon 2025 from Sword & Scabbard Games. What about miniatures, you may ask? Well, I think the time has arrived. After finishing this blog post, I plan on sorting through my 28m Vietnam and getting started on my first squad of U.S. Army troopers! The Vietnam project is finally underway!!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 119
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 54 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 19

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 50

Unemployed..? In Greenville?? Zombie Road Trip Part 2

    Earle and Jimmy pause for a moment as zombies seem to be everywhere in the trailer park!

 

 Unemployed...? In Greenville? - Zombie Road Trip: Part 2

The convoy of survivors had nearly made it to the Indiana state line when they decided they would be better off stopping somewhere to scavenge for more supplies. Near Greenville, they spotted a quiet looking trailer park. No signs of zombies were anywhere, and no people could be seen moving about. This seemed to be their best chance to find some food, gas, medicine, or even weapons. The convoy sent eight ahead in two RVs to investigate and explore, while the rest remained with the other vehicles. The recon group split up, with four approaching from each of the long sides of the trailer park. Things were still quiet, so they exited their vehicles and began to sneak forward.

    A look at my 4'x3' trailer park board complete with half a dozen trailers and a water tower

For this game, I had four players, each controlling two survivors. I was using a 4'x3' board with a dozen buildings in two rows, separated by a dirt road going down the center of the trailer park. A water tower loomed over the center of the board on one edge. Instead of fixed spawning points, as is typical in a game of Zombie RV, I had 12 potential places (each building) for new creatures to spawn each turn. Dividing the trailer park into two halves roughly on line with the water tower, the players would roll a d6 for the which building would be the spawn point on each half of the board. Then they would roll for how many. That way, threats would be coming from both sides of the board, and the players could not "know" where new ones would appear. If a building had already been searched when rolled, the zombies would instead come from the treeline nearest the building. And yes, the zombies could spawn in a building a survivor was currently inside and searching (but not yet found anything). That never happened, though, but fairly quickly, the zombies seemed to be everywhere on the board!

    Players could place their vehicle starting point along any board edge, including along the tree lines

All 12 buildings could potentially have supplies, but the player's mission was to get eight supplies and then get back to their vehicles and escape. I also gave them a chance for each cache of supplies to also include a weapon or extra ammo, if they rolled that. Joel's characters (Earle and Jimmy) teamed up with Mike W's (Reef and C.J.). They began in the center of the side of the board opposite the water tower. Keith's characters (Junior and Roman), with their companions Mike S's Coop and Daisy, began in the shadow of the water tower. Each group of four split into teams of two and sought out a building to investigate.

    C.J. gets ready to check the door of a trailer as Reef covers him, looking out for zombies

Mike W's C.J. ran forward and onto the deck of the trailer with the metal bars over the windows. Just as C.J. reached for the door, he heard a familiar moaning sound from behind him. Three zombies had just spawned from the building behind him and began shuffling towards him. His companion, Reef -- a new guy the convoy had just picked up -- fired at the zombies, killing two. C.J. disappeared inside the trailer and ducked inside one of the rooms, closing the door behind him. He heard Reef continuing to fire, and then begin to curse loudly. "I'm jammed, C.J.! I'm out of here -- heading back to the RV!" Quietly, C.J. cursed the faithlessness of his new companion and peeked out the corner of one of the windows to keep an eye on the zombies. They seemed to be following Reef. That was good news, at least. They seemed to have forgotten he was there.

    Zombies shamble across the dirt road towards Junior on the porch and Coop, in the distance

Not far away, Jimmy and Earle were creeping quietly between a rusted home made from a shipping container and a trailer painted bright pink. They heard the gunfire and flattened themselves against the shipping container building. Slow shuffling footsteps sounded like they were just on the other side of the building, so they crouched in place, hoping not to be noticed. On the opposite side of the board Junior and Roman dashed up onto the wide deck of a large trailer that seemed to be in pretty good shape, other than dirt, trash, and leaves piled up around. Across the little lawn between it and the neighboring, heavily damaged trailer, Coop and Daisy were moving forward to investigate, too. "Check inside," Junior whispered to Roman, "I will cover you from out there." Roman pulled his hoodie up and pushed open the door of the trailer.

    Hearing Reef's gun shots and slow, dragging footsteps, Earle and Jimmy take a moment to hide

Much to my surprise, the player controlling Reef was serious -- his rifle-armed character who'd rolled a "1" (out of ammo) did flee back to the trailer and jump inside, gunning the engine. I let him move the trailer back and forth along the edge of the table, which was really all he did for the rest of the game. He did try to run one zombie down, but only knocked it off its feet. Poor C.J. cowered inside as the zombies circled the trailer where he was hiding. They were drawn by the gunfire of Earle, who would shoot at the group of zombies, then dash off out of their movement range. The tactics of Earle "the Rabbit" would be put to the test as zombies spawned from all around him in this game. As the zombies were distracted, Jimmy ducked inside the container building and began searching.

    Drawn by the sounds of shooting, zombies begin to shuffle towards the survivors

Meanwhile, zombies began to notice Junior standing on the corner of the deck keeping watch, and shuffled towards him. A Fast Zombie led the charge. Once a large group was within range, Junior let off two blasts of his shotgun, killing several and physically hurling others back. More zombies began to converge on Junior, and he continued blasting away until he ran out of ammo. One zombie clambered up onto the deck and clawed at him, but Junior smashed its head with the butt of his shotgun. Hearing his cursing, Roman dashed out onto the deck. "Found some supplies," he said, shoving things into his backpack, and you might want these!" He tossed a belt of shotgun shells to his friend, who snatched it and quickly began to reload as more zombies shuffled into view.

    Coop and Daisy pause after searching a trailer, only to be surprised by zombies arriving nearby

Seeing his distress, Coop began firing at the growing horde of zombies, killing two. Daisy dashed out of the fire-damaged trailer slinging her pack onto her back, "I'm good!" she called, "Let's move!" The two moved towards the water tower just as a trio of zombies emerged from the trees behind them. The trailer Daisy had just searched came up as the spawn point, which meant they arrived in the trees behind it, instead. As the two dashed off, pursued by zombies from both sides of the street, Earle sprinted across the dirt road. He had rolled an extra action, so he stopped at the corner of the building and blasted away with his rifle twice. The zombies redirected and began to converge on Earle. 

    Junior takes a position on the deck of a trailer and blasts away with his shotgun at groups of zombies

Meanwhile, Roman had darted back inside the trailer, planning on ducking out the back door to search Swingle's Schwarma Shack across the street, when the coast was clear. Junior quietly snuck off the porch and crossed the lawn, hoping not to be noticed. Earle's friend Jimmy also ran across the road, firing his pistol. He followed Junior behind the damaged trailer. Zombies followed them both, streaming around both sides of the building. "Damn!" both cursed simultaneously. With nowhere to run, each turned to face the oncoming zombies. Junior's shotgun barked twice, while not far away, Earle's rifle fire cracked out. Zombies fell, but soon Junior and Earle were in hand-to-hand combat with zombies hungering for their flesh. They heard the sound of Coop's rifle and Daisy's pistol, though, as the two fired on the zombie horde. Junior hoped that the gambit would draw the zombies off.

    Coop & Daisy continue their methodical search, cleverly always just out of reach of the zombies

The zombie attacking Junior swung wildly with its claws, but missed. The burly survivor then bashed in the creatures forehead with the butt of its shotgun. As he saw more closing in, he cursed again, and ran for the RV parked nearby. Jimmy quickly followed him into the vehicle, shutting the door behind him. This left Earle alone and in a bit of a lurch. A stream of zombies closed in on him, led by a Fast Zombie clothed in nothing but bright red underwear. Her claws tore through Earle's leather jacket, but the survivor shrugged off the pain. Another zombie closed with him. Earle heard the door of the RV opening and closing, and began edging backwards that way. He battled fiercely, and shoved himself free for a moment of the zombies' flailing arms. When he did, he heard shots ring out and the snap of bullets whistling past his ears on either side. Both zombies dropped as his friends covered him from the windows of the RV. Seeing an opening, Earle dashed for the vehicle himself, ducking inside and shouting, "Go, go, go...!"

        Things are getting dangerous -- Junior attacked by a zombie while Earle faces down another

Meanwhile, with all the commotion, Roman had been able to sneak across the street, using the burnt out hulk of a vehicle as cover. After what seemed like forever waiting for the zombies to shamble a safe distance away, he sprinted for Swingle's and dove across the counter top into the small, stone building. While waiting, Roman had been shaking his head, watching as Reef drove the other RV up and down the lane on the other side of the trees, alternately revving the engine then skidding to a stop. "What the freak is that guy doing...?" he mumbled. When the new guy returned to the corner intersection and slid to a stop, Ramon waved at him frantically at him. Once he caught his eye, he mouthed the words, "WAIT...FOR...ME!" He got a thumbs up and a grin. Ramon shook his head, again. "Crazy mutha..."

    Things are looking bleak for Earle -- in contact with 2 zombies and nearly surrounded

Coop and Daisy were on the run, again. They had eased the pressure off their friends, but were attracting the attention of a lot of zombies. Daisy would quickly enter a trailer to search it, while Coop tried to hold off the zombies with his rifle. Once Daisy had found something worth scavenging, she would exit the trailer, and add her pistol to the firing to slow down the zombies. Once they stemmed the surge a little, they would dash for the next building in the trailer park. As they were outside the last one, they heard honking as their RV sped around the corner. Earle and Junior's heads were hanging out the windows shouting at them to get in. Needing no further encouragement, the two survivors darted for the van and jumped inside. On the other side of the trailer park, C.J. was doing the same. Roman held the door open for him as he sprinted inside. C.J. shouted, "I'm in, now let's get out of here! Reef, you are a crazy sonofabitch...!"

    Zombies shuffle back and forth underneath the legs of the water tower drawn by gun shots

There were some close escapes, but all eight survivors exited the board inside one of the survivors' RVs. They scavenged nine caches of supplies and rolled well enough to find a couple more weapons or extra ammo. This would keep the convoy moving well into Indiana, and keep their bellies full. Earle certainly had the closest calls. He was hit by zombies twice, once rolling the necessary "6" to pass his Grit Check. The other time, the zombie rolled only a "Flesh Wound." Junior also had very good fortune, too, never seeming to miss when a zombie closed the distance and was within striking range. Mike S's Coop and Daisy were seriously good "team players." Whenever one of their group was about to be overwhelmed, they fired like crazy to draw off the zombie hordes. 

    Coop and Daisy on the run from zombies, again -- they played cat and mouse with them all game

Reef's "peace out" as soon as he ran out of an ammo was a disappointment. The player contended that he couldn't do anything since he was out of ammo. I told him that there are survivors in every game of Zombie RV that we play who are armed with only a melee weapon. He could run. He could search. There was plenty he could do besides leave his companions to do all the scavenging for supplies. Driving up and down the lane beyond the line of trees in the RV wasn't going to accomplish much. In the end, he did provide pickup service Roman and C.J., who had been cut off from the rest of the group. So, the "new guy" wasn't completely useless.

    Earle will relive this moment in nightmares as more and more zombies close in on him...!

I was happy with how the trailer park looked. The water tower is a great, iconic rural America terrain piece, too. The system of moving spawn points worked really well, I thought. I like it better than the one I've been using. It raises the danger level and limits the somewhat cheesy "rabbit" tactic of having a fast player continuously run back and forth to distract the zombies. Instead, the players stepped up for each other, firing to support group members who were in trouble. Except in scenarios where a single spawn point makes sense, I may keep this mechanic of moving spawn points for most of my scenarios. Its hard to use the word "realistic" in a zombie apocalypse game, but it certainly makes more sense.

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 119
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 54 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 39

Vikings Raid Angland Again at DayCon 2025

    Here I am at DayCon 2025, running my 'Viking Raid on Anglo-Saxon Town' game for a full table

I feel very lucky that the games that I run at our local conventions always seem to fill up. As a GM, I've been in that awful position of preparing for a game, packing everything up, hauling it to the convention, setting it up again there, and then sitting around and having no players. That's a frustrating feeling, but I feel so fortunate I haven't had to deal with that in awhile. Whether through word of mouth, or my cool-looking terrain and figs, or just luck of the draw, my games tend to fill up. And so it was at DayCon 2025 with my running of my Viking Raid on Anglo-Saxon Town. 

    My scratch-built Saxon church is the ultimate goal of the Viking players -- where most treasure is

My friends Terry H and John L both signed up, along with four other players I had not met (or don't remember meeting) previously. The rules I am using, Ganesha Games' Sellswords & Spellslingers, are quick to teach before the game and easy for players to learn. I like the idea of a cooperative game at a convention, too, but I also enjoy tossing in a little competitive rivalry, too. The player whose Vikings earned the most loot would be the winner. In this case, Bjorn Ironside just edged out John L's Ulf for most silver pieces looted. I believe the score was 33-31, though I did not write it down. The players all said they had fun and thanked me for running the game. 

    Ragnar Lothbrok is surrounded by a horde of Saxon fyrd and a mounted hearthguard

Unlike the last time I ran this at Cincycon, none of the Vikings made it to the church. They all got sidetracked early on by Saxon reinforcements popping up near them. It takes a concerted push by players to make it to the church courtyard, batter down the shieldwall of Saxon hearthguard, and get into the church. Of course, looting the bodies of the Saxon defenders is a valid strategy itself. Every game, it seems there is one of the six Viking raider leaders whose band never ventures far from its deployment area. A combination of random arrivals tends to hem them in early. John L's Ulf the Wise was one of those player in this game. He had mounted Saxon hearthguard gallop down upon his raiders (on the "Wandering Monster" card) more than once. John's three characters stayed close together, though, and helped each other. They also did the 1-2 punch of "You kill him, I will loot his body" that allowed him to grab silver pieces steadily all game long.

    Saxon bowmen engage in a long-range archery duel with Terry's unfortunate Viking archer

Terry and Shauna's Floki and Lagertha, respectively, seemed to have the worst luck. Shauna's rolls were so bad she handed my dice back to me and pulled out her own. Those proceeded to roll even worse! In fact, I would say in the half dozen times I've run this scenario, I think she's had the most misfortune I've witnessed! Like John, her trio of raiders did not make it far off their baseline. A steady progression of Saxons arrived from the trees to the left, often in the form of hordes (2-6 foes that activate and fight the raiders together). Her leader, Floki, was involved in a duel with a mounted Saxon hearthguard for half the battle, it seemed. Shauna would do everything she could to give Floki the best odds to wound or slay the rider, and she would flub the die roll!

    Well-disciplined Saxon hearthguard kept in their shieldwall in front of the church by their captain

Terry's Lagertha was the only group to lose a raider, his bad-luck archer. Lagertha and his swordsman Fafnir advanced quickly through a gap between houses, leaving their archer companion to shoot at some distant foes. What should arrive eventually, but a horde of Saxon archers to oppose him? The Viking lasted for a few turns, dodging arrows and picking off Saxon bowmen. However, eventually, with no shield and no armor, he suffered one arrow would too many. Like Boromir in the Lord of the Rings, he fell, riddled with arrows. 

    The players laughed and celebrated their rivals' successes, and commiserated on their bad dice rolls

At Cincycon, I accidentally left all of my Saxon archers behind. So, in the first game, I used substitute figures for the six who begin the game on the board. After that, I made all of the arriving defenders be hand-to-hand fighters. In the second Cincycon game, I even left out the archers entirely. I definitely think the Saxon defenders are more potent when they have archers -- especially if they show up via an Event Card as a horde. That's what happened in this game, and it is more of a challenge for the players. They have to spend actions on movement to close with and kill the archers. Otherwise, if they ignore them, they will get sniped and begin to lose wounds steadily. Still, at DayCon, only one Viking died. In one of the games at Cincycon, I think the Vikings lost 2-3 raiders. So, this outing wasn't the most deadly.

    Rollo (Ragnar's brother) bursts into a Saxon home and confronts an elderly Saxon couple

Sellswords is an excellent rules set for a cooperative game. I really like how the player's activation failures lead to Event Cards being drawn, which enables the foes to attack (or new ones appear on table). In fact, this usually leads to a flow, or the feeling that there is a storyline directing the defender's actions. There will be times when the players succeed on their activation rolls, and the defenders seem to be back on their heels, reeling under the Viking's blows. Then, someone will roll three failures, and they seem to be rejuvenated, and reinforcements arrive and press home the counter-attack. For people interested in a cooperative or solo game, I would encourage them to take a look at these rules. They're available both on Ganesha's website and on Wargame Vault.

    Lagertha and her swords Fafnir fight off the attack of a defending Saxon archer

The Viking Raid will appear several more times in the coming months. Jenny will run it at Buckeye Game Fest (Thursday evening and Friday morning). I will run it at Drums at the Rapids on the Friday evening and Saturday morning sessions. And finally, it will be at Origins nearly all convention long, Thursday through Saturday. So, if you've wanted to try it out, make plans to show up to one of these excellent conventions and try your luck at raiding an Anglo-Saxon town!

    The deadliest defenders on the board are the mounted Saxon hearthguard who charge into contact

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 119
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 54 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 39

DayCon 2025 Purchases

DayCon is a smaller, regional convention that I've been attending regularly since Randy and Angel Miller began running it. A few years ago, it expanded from a Saturday game day to a Friday and Saturday weekend convention. Like last year, I decided to drive over for just Saturday, though. I would be running my Viking Town Raid game in the afternoon slot. I also was bringing a large amount of Saga terrain to sell to Fireland Games. When I stepped back from running tournaments, they asked if I would be willing to part with some of the terrain that I had made for the tourneys, and we agreed upon a price.

With a nice wad of cash in my wallet, you knew that I would not be able to resist picking up some things from the vendors. One vendor in attendance was Sword & Scabbard Games with a lot of their 3-D printed terrain. I picked up the above wooden ruin because it was different. I have lots of stone ruins, but no wooden ones. Plus, I knew I would be able to paint it up quickly. Primer, base coat, wet brush, and dry brush and it will be done. I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks all painted up -- it looked great on their vendor table! It reminds me a lot of an Acheson terrain piece in style and heft.

I also picked up this piece of terrain from Sword & Scabbard. It is a nice flat ruins piece representing the floor of a temple or other columned building. I keep telling myself that I need to scratch build some flat ruins pieces to fill in the spaces between my ruined buildings. I saw this and felt it would work even for modern or post-apocalyptic games. Many government buildings in Europe and America have Greek style columns. So, this should be fairly versatile, too. Plus, like the wooden ruin, it should paint up real quickly. Although, as Scott Gray and I sat there talking, he suggested that you could even do a mosaic like pattern with the tiles. That may add an extra step or two if I try it.

My friend Abel had picked up one of these earlier in the day and showed it to me. It is a 3-D printed turn marker, intended for Saga, but could be used for any game where you need to keep track of turns. I always try to support the vendors at our regional conventions, so added it to my purchase from Sword & Scabbard. I think I will paint the seated king as a stone statue to make it go quicker. I like the way it looks and will be fun little turn marker to have on the board.

I have always had a soft spot for gnolls since way back from the D&D days. When I dropped off the Saga terrain with James of Fireland Games, I saw this box sitting on the dealer table. One of the things James and Rusty from Fireland do is sell individual sprues. They will open a box and sell you just one sprue if you want. Since gnolls are basically hyena men, I thought they'd fit in with my Sellswords & Spellslingers solo games. Rather than just pick up one, which would have been enough for that, I decided to pick up three -- thinking ahead to one day playing Dragon Rampant (2nd Edition coming soon, by the way!) and having enough for a 12-figure unit.

I still prefer metal miniatures over plastic. However, I have found that the Frostgrave/Stargrave figures go together well enough that even a super-glue incompetent like me assemble. Have the legs and torso come together makes it doable. I just have glue on the arms (the harder part) and the head (usually the easy part), and then glue it to its base. In fact, these will probably be easier than the Stargrave figures I have glued together because you don't have to somehow match the shooting right arm exactly up with the supporting left hand. All of the weapons the gnoll arms are holding appear to be one handed.

Of course, my purchases mean I keep throwing off my Painted vs. Acquired ratios...ha, ha! I'm actually ahead on Terrain painted, though, and within sight of catching up on Scatter. However, I'm in the red significantly on Miniatures, though -- especially with my huge 28mm Vietnam purchase. I've picked up some other figures here and there, too (like these gnolls). On the bright side, though, it is only April. I have till December to catch up! Plus, spring is always a busy convention season around here, so that means more opportunities to support the dealers!  

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 119
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 54 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 39

Saucer-shaped MDF Sci-Fi Building (Dads Armies)

    Massive MDF Sci-Fi building from Dad's Armies that I recently painted up

Awhile back, I decided to assemble some of my MDF purchases from Dad's Armies that I picked up at Advance the Colors 2024. I chose the easiest one, little Sci-Fi aircraft called "Jumpers." I struggled to figure them out and ended up putting them back into the bag after gluing just a few pieces together. Then I looked at the other ones, a huge saucer-shaped Sci-Fi building and an "Arctech" spaceship. The number of pieces just baffled me. I don't do jigsaw puzzles and simply could not see myself successfully assembling them. I took them to Cincycon 2025 where Dad's Armies would be. I fully intended to give them back to him -- not ask for a refund, just say, "Here -- they'll just sit on my shelf. You may as well sell them to someone who will put them together." 

    Thankfully, John from Dad's Armies offered to put this monstrosity together for me...!

John Elbro, owner of Dad's Armies, offered to put them together for me...for free! I said sure, and told him it was no problem if they take awhile. He could bring them to ATC 2025 in the October. That would be fine. However, the next day, he said he would have the saucer-shaped building done. He had been working on it at his booth. Lo and behold, there it was! Fully assembled in its massive (and heavy) glory! I decided to slip it into the painting queue. I spray painted in Krylon Fusion matte black acrylic, and did my usual follow up with a 50/50 mix of black paint and water. Then I pondered for awhile. What colors would I paint it? I did a Google Image search of various "Science-Fiction buildings," and scanned through the pictures. Light blue and metallic colors seemed to show up fairly often. 

    A view from above shows what I call the 'tiled sections,' painted a craft Sea Foam color

So, I decided to paint the tiled sections a "Sea Foam" craft paint color. I dry brushed that white, which I think really helped make it look blue and less green. I'd left the gaps between the tiles black, but even though I chose a flat-tipped, square brush, the lines between each section seemed too irregular and shaky. On a whim, I took a sharpie marker and went over the lines. I loved how crisp and clear the divisions were after doing that. It really seemed to make it pop. 

    The oblong pill-shaped recessions I decided were windows, so I painted them a glowing green

There are little oblong windows -- or what I assumed were windows -- spaced throughout the model. I decided to do an almost chartreuse green for those. I chose a craft paint color called "Parsley" and painted in the shape, then did a watered down very light green in the middle. I was hoping it would give the effect of a glowing window. Once I was done with the model, I would go back and paint on clear gloss to hopefully enhance that glow. I'm so-so on how the windows turned out, honestly. 

    This view from underneath shows off the Turbo Dork 'Curacao' metallic color I used

Next, I wanted to do the rest of the model a metallic color, but didn't really like any of the ones I had. While visiting the Guardtower East, a local game store, I saw their rack of Turbo Dork paints. They had a really cool light blue metallic color called Curacao. On a whim, I picked it up. I researched how to use Turbo Dork's paints, as they also do color shift paints. For those, they suggest a black primer. For the metallics, they suggested a non-metallic primer that comes relatively close to matching the metallic color that will go over it. I found a nice Caribbean blue craft paint, and did a single coat of that over the black primer I had done on the entire model. I considered a second coat, but decided I could do an extra coat of the metallic paint if I needed.

    I went over the dividing lines between the tile sections with Sharpie, and that worked really well

I really enjoyed using the Turbo Dork paint. It did require second coat, but I liked it much better than my "Turquoise" and "Dark Blue" metallic craft paints I had used previously on other things. I may consider picking up more Turbo Dork metallics in the future. It was time consuming, but I did two coats on the other surfaces, then sat back and looked at the model. The very matte looking Sea Foam sections looked too flat. I decided to paint on a bottle of Liquitex Professional Gloss Varnish I had picked up. Big mistake, Indy! It gave it too glossy of a look -- almost like a clear candy coating. I sighed, waited for it to dry, and then sprayed it with a more satin finish clear coat that I have. MUCH better. There is a slight sheen to the sea foam colored sections, and the satin did not take the shine off of the metallic blue.

    A close up of what I call the 'landing pad' portion of the building

Finally, I added some alien looking writing. I put it near the control tower extension which rises above the saucer. I also added some near the base of the extension, too. I think it gives a nice little extra dimension. Now that I think about it, I forgot to talk about two other places on the building that were painted differently. The girder structure that supports the long narrow extension rising over the saucer was painted a gray metallic with pewter highlights. The "landing pad" looking back of the extension got a dry brush of white metallic. It looks a silvery gray, but that is doubtless because of the black undercoat. 

    A final look at the saucer-shaped, Sci-F MDF building...all in all, I think it turned out okay

Do I like it? It is a very interesting looking building. Some kind of control tower, maybe? It is massive -- LOTS of MDF pieces glued together. It weighs at least a few pounds, I think. It his large in dimension, too. The diameter of the round base is more than 8". Total length at its longest is about 11". As big as it is, I'm not sure if it is big enough for my 28mm games. I think it would work better for 15mm Science-Fiction games, and perhaps even Battletech ones. With that in mind, I will likely sell it to someone who's interested in it. So, if you would like to pick up a fully-painted, nice-looking piece of eye candy for your Sci-Fi games, please reach out to me. If I don't hear from anyone, I will probably bring it to flea markets and try there.

What's next on my painting desk? Speaking of MDF, I am painting up my last Sarissa Precision trailer, now. I've also got the base coat done on the Colonial Marines from the "Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps" board game. Those each have probably a couple more day's worth of work on them, but they are in the pipeline!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 104
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 54 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 39