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| My medieval/fantasy town just got a new building -- a minaret...or observatory?? |
At Historicon, I picked up this 3-D printed Arab Mosque Minaret from my friend Ron at Diabolical Terrain. I thought it would look great in my medieval city -- maybe as an observatory instead of a minaret? It would definitely be a change of pace in styles of buildings, but it's stone texture would make it fit in, as well. I also picked up this Street Bucher Shop from the Shantytown line that my buddy Kirk at Miniature Building Authority makes. Although it is a fraction of the size of the minaret, it has so many details that it would end up taking twice as long to paint up!
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| This mosque minaret from Diabolical Terrain is TALL -- 15.5" from bottom to crescent! |
Let's start with the minaret, though. It comes in several pieces -- a hexagonal base section, a round upper section, and the rooftop. Although I glued the roof to the upper section, I decided not to permanently attach the two tower sections together. It is really tall (15.5"), and I felt it would be both difficult to store and to transport that way. So, I drilled two holes in the bottom of the door pillars of the upper section and inserted thicker brass wire (cutoffs from my spears). I super glued those into the holes I'd drilled, then marked where those wires would touch when I set it on the platform atop the base section. I drilled matching holes in the platform so that the wire would fit into the top of the hexagonal base section and keep it stable while sitting on the tabletop. I didn't want some to bump it and the whole tower crash down on miniatures or other scenery!
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| Birds-eye view looking down from the top of the tower to the streets far below |
Once this was done, I primed the entire structure with Krylon Fusion Matte Black, and followed that up with my usual 50/50 mix of acrylic black paint and water. I had decided to go with a gray stone look so that it would match the rest of my growing medieval town. I did a dark gray wetbrush over the black, and then followed that up with a medium gray dry brush on the stones. I did a final highlighting with a very light gray in a few spots where the sun might strike the structure most noticeably.
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| My medieval/fantasy town just got a new building -- a minaret...or perhaps an observatory? |
Now it was time to decorate it! Mosques and minarets in Islamic architecture are usually always fancy. Blue seems to be an almost required color, so I went with bright coral blue and very light green. I did these in an alternating pattern on the stone archways all around the building, so the pillars of stone went blue-green-blue, etc. This was definitely the most time consuming part of this model. It was worth the effort, though. As I finished more and more of the archways, I began to be happier and happier with how it was turning out. Once all the blue and green decoration was complete and dry, I did a very light gray dry brushing of those colors to make it look a little weathered. I didn't want it to look chipped and falling apart or abandoned -- just a little more sun-bleached.
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| I took advantage of some 'blurry detail' on the sides to cover it with moss growing up the tower |
I'd noticed while dry brushing that the detail on two faces of the lower hexagon was more blurred. Almost like it was hot and had melted. However, my friend Mike S pointed out that perhaps the lower, hexagonal section of the model was originally intended to be a corner tower. And the smoother sides were where they joined the walls? Perhaps -- I had not considered that! I'll ask Ron when I see him in October (he will be coming, as usual, to
Advance the Colors 2026 in Springfield, OH. Anyway, I decided to disguise this intentional or unintentional blurring by going over this area with Dirty Down Moss Effect. Once dry, I painted white glue onto about half of the mossy area and added in Woodland Scenics Blended Grass. So, the "blurred areas" would actually be where vegetation was growing up the tower sides. I felt that was a good solution.
The last part of the structure to paint was the globe and crescent atop the minaret. When I bought it from Ron, I was thinking of sawing that off and putting something more generic atop the roof so it could be something besides a minaret. However, a crescent works very well for an observatory, too, doesn't it? I painted both Iron Wind Metals Ancient Bronze first. I gave them a gold highlight, and then added an even brighter metallic yellow light shining metal effect on the uppermost parts. Once dry, I gave them a black vehicle wash to "blend" the highlighting together and give it a less pristine look. All in all, the minaret ended up taking very little time to paint, as it turned out. So, my medieval/fantasy town continues to grow with the addition of a "observatory" (or minaret).
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| This Miniature Building Authority Street Butcher Shop packs in lots of detail & features |
The MBA Butcher's stall came in four pieces -- the three walled, open air structure of the stall, roof, metal wire with hunks of meat hanging from it, and a stump with meat and a cleaver atop it. I decided to be clever and paint the stall first, before hanging the wire, putting on the roof, or gluing down the stump. That way, my brush wouldn't have to get around or under things blocking my brush's access to the areas behind. The walls and roof of the stall appear to be corrugated metal applied in various patches. I like the effect of different colors of metal sheets on a run-down structure, so painted each separately, let them dry, and dry brushed them. Once the interior and exterior metal walls were done, I did the table, boxes, meat hanging from the walls, etc. I used Iron Wind Blood Red for the meat, and added in highlights of brighter red, too. The table, boxes, and such were painted brown as wood, with a few other colors here and there.
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| Perfect opportunity to break out my butcher figure to photograph alongside this cool piece of terrain! |
Once the stall itself was completed, which took more than a week doing bits here and there, I attached the wire with its hunks of hanging meat. It set nicely on rests for it on either side wall. I painted it and then glued down the stump (which I had worked on while doing the stall). Finally, I did the bottom of the roof and glued it into place. The roof's top was also cast to look like it had several pieces of corrugated metal, so I had to do those individually and dry brush them, as well. There was one final step, though. I used my Dirty Down rust effect liberally over the interior and exterior walls on the corrugated metal. I've found if you brush some of the liquid solution on thinner and other areas dab it more thickly, it gives a nice variety of rust colors. Now, finally, the roof could be glued down (and rusted), as well.
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| I think the 'Rust Effect' from Dirty Down does great weathering & making things look run down |
The entire piece got a black vehicle wash to give it more of a grimy, "street butcher" appearance, too. I used my Blended Gray Ballast for a gravel effect on the base, giving it a black wash also to darken it. That is the basing effect I go with more often in modern street terrain and scatter. DONE...finally! As I said, it was definitely a labor intensive piece of scatter terrain. Unfortunately, the corrugated metal means it can't really be used for my medieval town, but it will work just fine with any of the modern or even post-apocalyptic terrain that I have. It is definitely a nice looking piece -- and not expensive, either!
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| This plastic toy well ended up painting okay - not as nice as items from MBA, of course! |
The last scatter item on this post is a very, very old plastic toy well that has been sitting in one of my boxes for decades. When I was getting the
Diabolical Terrain Town Well painted up, I was reminded of it. I decided to get it out, mount it on a round MDF base, and prepare it alongside the others. It was painted with a mix of my base coat and dry brush method for gray stone and brown wood. I gave it some Steel for the metal mechanical parts and some flocking and leaf scatter on its base. Not the prettiest and most detailed piece of scatter, but it will be yet another water well for my growing medieval town.
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| Even though you can see the flaws close up, this well will look fine on a crowded medieval tabletop |
This update finishes off the massive batch of scatter and terrain that has been crowding my desk over the last several weeks. Currently, there is no terrain or scatter waiting to be painted. So, I will have to remedy that situation first thing, tomorrow morning! Stay tuned for another update on the miniature painting kerfuffle (as my friend Allen likes to say) that I had this week. No painting disasters, but a moment of panic did ensue!
MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026
- Miniatures acquired in 2026: 210
- Miniatures painted in 2026: 179
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
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