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| Ferisia Ironhorn Fortress from RRB Minis & More - my first painted project of the new year! |
Welcome to my first Lead Legionaries post of 2026! Why not start things off BIG -- as in two very big buildings? I picked up these two 3-D printed, medieval buildings back in September at
Battles at the Brewery in Chillicothe, OH. My friend Rich Brown of
RRB Minis and More had shown up to sell his products at this game day run by the
Chillicothe Area Wargaming Group. I went there expecting to pick up the
Duncan House building, but the four story stone
Watchtower was an impulse purchase. The price ($29) was simply too good to pass up, so I brought both of them home. They are nice print jobs that fit together easily with notches at the top of each piece that align nicely into a cavity in the level that fits atop it. Each has a door that swings open and closed -- another nice touch. If you like them, Rich does have some in stock, he told me recently. However, supplies are running low, so contact him quickly! He
will ramping up production in the new year, though, he promises.
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| The 3-D printed Duncan House, also from the Ferisia City line by Dadi Dungeon & Dintorni |
The Duncan House looks like a town building from either the late medieval or early Renaissance era. Rich bought the STL from
Dadi Dungeon & Dintorni. Check out the link! Both buildings are from their
Ferisia City line. The company (an Italian one from Torni, Italy, perhaps??) has an amazing line of incredibly cool buildings. More on that below. The Duncan House has a variety of surfaces textured onto the exterior and interior -- stone, wood, plaster, and a tile roof. On the other hand, the stone tower -- known as the
Ferisia Ironhorn Fortress on the site -- looks more like a watchtower in a mountain pass or guarding a frontier, and is perched atop its own small rocky outcrop. Its interior and exterior surfaces are mostly stone, with a pyramidal tile roof. The windows in the Duncan House have diamond shaped panes, while the much narrower windows in the tower are merely gaps in the stone. I was tempted to cut some clear plastic and glue it up against the panes of the interior of the Duncan House. It might look nice on the exterior (especially if colored with transparent markers), but I felt it would look silly on the inside with the panes behind a solid sheet of plastic. So, I left them black.
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| Rear of 3-D printed watchtower - my 'impulse purchase' from RRB Minis & More at the game day |
I prepared both buildings by spray painting them black with Krylon Fusion acrylic. Next, I went over the paint with a 50/50 mix of acrylic black paint and water, doing the insides first, then the exteriors after the insides had dried. This is by far the messiest part of getting them ready for the tabletop, with drips on your working surface being an unavoidable annoyance. Once completely dry, I did the stone surfaces of the two buildings first. I did them in a dark gray followed by light gray dry brush. The doors, wooden floors and ladders on the interior of each level were done in a dark brown, with Camo Brown then Khaki dry brushing. The interior plaster walls were done in a tan with lighter tan dry brush. The exterior ones were done in a light orange color called Terra Cotta, followed up by a tan dry brush. Some of the exterior wooden surfaces of the Duncan House are molded in what looks like wide wooden panels. I did these in a lighter base coat (Autumn Brown) with tan dry brush. So, there is a bit of a two-tone look to the wood on some sections.
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| Rear of the Duncan House - I like how the wooden portion overhands the ground level |
The metal fittings on the doors and trap doors were done in Iron Wind Steel with bronze accents atop it on the flat parts. The raised bolts were left Steel (or touched up where my brush went astray). The window panes on the Duncan House were done in Moroccan Red with a Salmon dry brush to show some sun bleaching. The tile roofs were done in a red brown base coat with Howard Hues Middle Easter Flesh dry brush. I really like the way all of the colors went together on the Duncan House. I also like how both buildings are not straight up square columns. They bow out in some places and have stone arches supporting the wider levels above.
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| Close up of the stairs, entrance & rocky crag with a 'Dirty Down' moss effect on the boulders |
I'm actually kind of strangely sad that I went to the Dadi Dungeon website and looked at the buildings on there. I am now
very tempted to pick up more of them for some medieval town skirmishes. They have several different lines. The buildings of the
Ferisia line have a very solid, stone look about them. Some are classified as "Dwarven" buildings, which makes sense with the look and name.
Silverlake City has a very Lord of the Rings "Lake Town" vibe. Some of the buildings look very hodgepodge and like they've been added to higgledy piggledy to over the years. Many have balconies or rest upon wooden or stone pilings. You will definitely be reminded of the look of Lake Town in the Peter Jackson Hobbit trilogy.
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| Entrance to the Duncan House with lion crest above the door and the stone & plaster surface |
Salmystia is VERY much modeled upon Renaissance Venice. In fact, some of the bundles are even labeled "Venezia." To me, Venice is the most architecturally beautiful city in the world I have visited (currently at 104 countries). I would love to have a tabletop Venice to do skirmish games upon. As much as I would like to do it, I am definitely daunted by having enough room to STORE it all...ha, ha! Crazy to even consider, eh? There is also a fourth line called the "Damned City," which looks like a classic medieval ruined city. Peruse the pictures on the website at your peril...!
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| Interior floors of the watchtower with their plain stone interior, wood floors, ladder & trap doors |
Once the five levels (counting the roof) of the tower and the four levels of the Duncan House were completely done, I stacked them back together and let them sit for a day. It wasn't just to admire them. I was contemplating whether I would do a brown or black wash over the interior or exterior surfaces. I ended up washing the wood sections with my black vehicle wash. The plaster sections were done with the dark brown vehicle wash. Also, for the tower, I used my Dirty Down Moss effect stain for the first time ever on some of the rocky outcrop's surfaces (deciding which side was "north" and doing only those very roughly facing that direction. Once the moss effect was dry, I flocked the lower portions of the rocky outcrop with grass. I wanted it to be mostly stone, but I also felt it would be a more striking look if grass had grown over some portions and moss was on other parts. I added tiny bits of clump foliage, too, to give the crags a more 3-D look.
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| Interior floors & tile roofs of the Duncan House - which I actually won as a prize from RRB! |
All in all, I am very happy with how these two very tall medieval buildings turned out. What's more, they are the very first things I have completed in 2026. I am honestly not sure when I will get them on the tabletop, yet. I would love to do some medieval town skirmishes use Sellswords & Spellslingers. Hmm...maybe I should use my Christmas money and purchase a cloth or neoprene cobblestone mat? Speaking of purchases, I have (so far) held off on the temptation to buy any more of these medieval buildings from Rich. I do have two more medieval town buildings that I bought from Sword & Scabbard Games at Advance the Colors last year. I should probably paint those up first, right?
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| Zooming in on the 3-d printed stone work which I did in black, dark gray, and light gray dry brush |
So, what else is on my tabletop, to start off the new year? I have a batch of nine Gripping Beast armored orcs that are underway. They had arrived already based up and primed black, and some having various stages of armor or other colors on them. I am essentially repainting them so that they match my current orc and goblin horde using the Ragnorak figures. In addition, I have six Reaper wolves of various sizes (Warg, Dire Wolf, Wolf Pack blister packs) that are primed and awaiting their first base coat. I will also begin working on some elephant grass for my Vietnam games soon. I bought the material last week for them and will likely do my first test batch in the next few days.
I hope everyone had a good set of holidays! Happy New Year!!
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| Zooming in on the side of Duncan House building - I will definitely be buying more from this line |
MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026- Miniatures acquired in 2025: 6
- Miniatures painted in 2025: 0
TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026
- Terrain acquired in 2025: 0
- Terrain painted in 2025: 2
SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026
- Scatter acquired in 2025: 0
- Scatter painted in 2025: 0
