Some Scatter Terrain & an Alien Monster

    Town scene set up with my 3 new pieces of scatter -- the shrine, town well, and campfire logs

For the last month or so, batches of scatter terrain in various stages of painting have been mixed about on my desk. As I get to a stopping point on whatever figures I am working on, I pick them up and do some more work. Maybe I'll add a base coat, dry brush - whatever. However, it feels like there is little organization, so that's why this update seems to have little rhyme or reason to it.

    'Town Water Well' from Diabolical Terrain - assembles nicely and paints up very easily

One of the scatter pieces is a Town Water Well that I picked up from Diabolical Terrain at Historicon last month. Its four pieces glued together very easily with two-part epoxy. I decided to permanently attach the wooden lid to the ring of the well, as I couldn't envision a need to have to remove it during a game. It isn't big enough to fit a figure inside, and doing it in one piece would make it go much faster. I spray painted the well with Krylon Acrylic Matte Black, following that up with my usual 50/50 mix of black paint and water. Once it was dry, I decided to start with the wooden parts using my normal wood recipe. That is a dark brown wet brush, Camo Brown dry brush, and khaki highlight. Then I did the stone base with two dry brushes of a medium and lighter gray. Finally, I did the details. I decided to paint the wooden tiles of the roof in a light blue, weathering them with an even lighter blue. I finished off the metal bits with Iron Wind Metal and Bronze. The tiny bits of rope you could see I did in a lighter brown with Dun Yellow dry brush. The town well received a black vehicle wash to complete it. I really like how it looks, and am glad I picked it up from Ron at Diabolical.

    I modified this 'misprint' from Miniature Building Authority by adding in the saint in the shrine

Next up was a 3-D printed shrine that Kirk from Miniature Building Authority had sold me at a deep discount because it was a "misprint." One small corner of the roof of the shrine had not printed well and was turned up. I added some pieces of craft sticks to that corner to make it look like it had been damaged and shoddily repaired. Once again, I started with the wooden part of this structure. I used the same recipe as above on it. The tiles on this model looked more like standard ceramic ones, so I did them in a red brown with Middle East Flesh dry brush. I picked out some metal bits on the structure in the same Iron Wind Steel and Bronze as above. I also painted the cobblestones stone surrounding the shrine as above, too. With that, the exterior of the shrine was finished.

I decided to add a miniature to the interior of the shrine. I searched my unpainted lead collection, looking for something that could perhaps pass for a saint. I wanted it to be a little roadside shrine or one in a square in a town. I finally found this miniature, which for all the world, looked like a Byzantine noble lady. I base coated her black, and then followed my normal stone recipe for her. I glued her in place, then unhappy with which of the four sides of the shrine she was facing, popped her off and reattached her inside. And yes, this statue counts as a miniature painted for the year! I really like this little MBA shrine, and plan on adding it to the tabletop with the Diabolical Well next time I set up my medieval town.

    This campfire ready to be lit came with my Bad Goblin Games campfire & bonfire purchases

This campfire in ready to be set aflame actually came with the two Bad Goblin Games scatter pieces I finished up a week or so ago. I guess it was included as the "Before" and the LED-lit campfire is the "After"? Not sure why someone would expect that to be included, but the folks at Bad Goblin are awesome. This type of extra touch fits their personality, for sure! I'm really excited that they are coming this October 9-10 to Advance the Colors 2026! Anyway, I think you can guess how I painted this pile of logs surrounded by a small ring of stones. And you also see why these all were finished around the same time, as I was doing lots of stone and wood on these pieces. I'm sure I will find a use for this campfire on the table in one of my games, someday.

    Pre-painted hot dog cart a friend gave me years ago -- I did some weathering on the tires & cart

Yes, that is a hot dog cart! My friend Derek from Indiana bought it for me as a birthday gift a couple years ago with a bunch of other cool, modern scatter terrain. It is probably a little small for 28mm scale, but hey -- it's a hot dog cart! Do YOU have one for your miniature tabletop? Boy, that sounded a bit like my friend Keith...ha, ha! Well, if you're my friend Bill who I will be visiting in update New York next month, you do have one! And it was his post on Dice, Doubloons, and Random Musings about his own hot dog cart that inspired me to get this one readied for the tabletop!" This pre-painted piece is either plastic or resin. I am not sure which. The tiny metal pole holding the umbrella up was probably the trickiest part -- gluing the pole in and then making sure it was set in place without too much lean. After it was all assembled, I thought it was a bit bright, though. So, I did some weathering on the cart with my black vehicle wash to tone its bright, plastic look. I also painted the tires dark gray and added lighter gray highlights. Otherwise, they were too Matchbox car shiny black plastic. So, I DID do brushwork on this, but the signage, little hot dogs, condiments -- all of that, came pre-painted. Still, I'm glad I finally got it ready for the table. Thanks, Derek!

    3-D printed 'Megaguirus' which will stand in as the next alien monster for 'Critter Control' to fight 

And finally, the other miniature in this batch. When I attended Cincycon 2025 earlier this year, I was searching for minis I could use for alien monsters in my solo games of Majestic 13. At the booth of my friend John from JS Wargamer Printing, I found two I could use, including this one. It was labeled Megaguirus, which is apparently a Kaiju that fought Godzilla at some point. It certainly looks like one, but next to a 28mm miniature, its size is a perfect alien monster for my Critter Control team to fight. In fact, the whole reason I pulled it out and painted it up was because I was getting ready for another game. I rolled up my opponent and this figure seemed perfect for the alien my team would fight.

    Closeup of my 'Rakire Winged Hunter' -- I used a bumble/dragonfly look to its paint scheme

Thankfully, the wings are already in place and it is a one-piece print. The only gluing needed was to attach it to an MDF base with a piece of piano wire. There was already a notch on his underside, but my piano wire was probably a bit too thin for it to fit firmly. The whole time I was painting it up, the creature wanted to rotate slowly around on its post. After attaching Megaguirus to hits base, I did my usual Krylon black spray to prime it, hoping to strengthen the fragile nature of 3-D prints a bit. I went back and forth in my head on what color scheme to use. I never did a Google search to see what Megaguirus is supposed to look like. Remember, this wasn't supposed to be a kaiju. According to Majestic 13, it is a Rakire Winged Hunter!

    Back of the model, showing the detailing I did with my micron pen on the wing fabric

I finally decided on a metallic brown and Iron Wind Steel alternating banded pattern -- kind of like a bumblebee's stripes. I painted the entire model -- except the wings -- Steel first. I added the alternating pattern of Metallic Chocolate Brown in, adding in gold highlights on the spikes, talons and such. I painted his six smaller legs Pewter, and gave them black striping, as well. I left the wings for last. I decided continue the metallic brown for the "fingers" of the wings, so to speak. The thin material in between I first painted pale yellow. I drybrushed it white and was immediately unhappy with the look. So next, I decided to give it a faint orange wash. I liked that color much better! Finally, I did an image search on dragonfly wings and found some pretty cool photos. I decided to mimic the veining or pattern on on one of the pictures with my smallest nib micron pen. I really, really like how the wings came out. This afterthought is actually my favorite part of the model -- even more than its yellow jacket looking eyes.

    Hungry yet? A look at the other side of the cart with its drink case -- nicely frosted window!

I worked on this figure during breaks between painting my Valkeeri faction and the almost completed Viet Cong women soldiers. All together, this small group was perhaps not worth their own update. However, I decided to go ahead anyway and take pictures and write them up. I'm happy with how all of the pieces of scatter and the miniatures came out. Doubtless, this post will be followed quickly by those V.C. fighters in the next day or so. Definitely soon!

    Another look at the town scene and my newly-painted scatter terrain

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 210
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 173

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 14
• Terrain painted in 2026: 36

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 34
• Scatter painted in 2026: 75