Various Ruined Buildings & Such Ready for the Flea Market

    Modern 'Stalingrad' ruins from 4 Ground -- first times I have built any of their MDF kits!

In keeping with my plan of steadily "thinning the herd," I've started painting things up specifically to sell in flea markets. Looking over my list of all my terrain and scatter, I realized that even if I did paint it all, I likely wouldn't have room for it! So, I've been going through the list and deciding what I can live without. The goal is to get it ready for the tabletop -- just someone else's table! Here is the first batch of various ruins -- buildings, walls, statues, etc.

    I thought these stairs would be a pain to put together, but the both kits went together easily

I bought two 4 Ground Stalingrad MDF ruined buildings from my friend Jeff Gatlin at the first Hold the Line convention. However, looking at all the modern ruins I have already painted and based up in game room closet, they are kind of superfluous. So, I put them together -- the first 4 Ground buildings I had assembled. They go together very nicely and are right up there with Sarissa Precision. Maybe even better with the extra little bits they give, like a strand of material to cut and use as exposed iron rebar. The thin cardboard building accents for the outer walls are nice, too.

    Base coating black and then doing two layers of gray dry brushing made these paint up quickly

I thought assembling the three stories of staircases would be a pain in the butt. It was not, though. The 4 Ground method made a lot of sense and was very easy to do. I used tacky glue to assemble all the pieces and was honestly shocked how little time they took me. One of the buildings comes in two pieces, and I used epoxy instead to join the halves together once each part was built. Once they were done, I spray painted them with Krylon Acrylic Fusion matte black. Once dry, I went over all the surfaces with a 50/50 mix of black paint and water to ensure everything seeped into all the blind spots and crevices. 

    I added a lot of rubble along the walls and in the corners of both buildings

Painting them was an easy dark gray dry brush, followed by a lighter gray highlight. For the wood, I painted them in dark brown, and followed up with a medium Camo Brown dry brush and a khaki highlight. I used a pale blue for the floors, hitting them with a white dry brush highlight. For the trim pieces, I used either pale blue or green for the trim pieces. For the rebar pieces, I used epoxy to stick them into their holes atop the ruins. I painted them Iron Wind Steel, then for the first time, tried a Rust effect solution from "Dirty Down" on them. I'm very happy with how it came out. I bought it from Discover Games at Buckeye Game Fest on a whim, and am glad I did. I can see myself using this in the future.

    I like the accents 4 Ground includes -- like the cardboard rectangles and pieces of 'rebar'

Both buildings are much cooler than their little black and white picture on the package showed. I admit, I am half tempted to keep them rather than sell them in the Historicon flea market. They are different enough from the ones I already have to provide variety, but still have the same ruined city or town look to them. Likely, I'll still sell them, though. I really did enjoy doing up my first 4 Ground buildings!

    These chimney ruins are 3-D printed and bought from Jarls Workshop a couple years ago

These three "chimney ruins" are 3-D printed from my friend Rusty at Jarls Workshop. I picked them up from him a couple years ago at Advance the Colors. I've painted 2-3 of them up already and figured that I really didn't need three more in my collection. So, they were on obvious trio to be culled from the herd. I prepared them the same way as the 4 Ground buildings. I painted the brick areas Iron Wind Red Brown first, then dry brushed them with Howard Hues Middle Eastern Flesh. 

    I put a lot of flocking and loose bricks to dress up the area inside the building foundations

All that is left of these ruins are the foundations and chimney, with the interior area meant to be overgrown vegetation. However, I decided to add some tumbled bricks to this area, though. I am running low on my little plaster bricks I bought at Dragons Guildhall so long ago. I need to find some more at Historicon or somewhere. And no, I won't count each brick as a piece of scatter on my Acquired vs. Painted totals. They're supplies, like paint...ha, ha! Once the glue was dry on the bricks, I painted the turf areas with my 50/50 mix of white glue and brown paint. I then sprinkled on fine brown ballast from Woodland Scenics, followed by Blended Earth flocking. 

    I think these chimney ruins turned out great for as little time they took to get ready for the tabletop

Similar to how I usually do my figure basing, I painted on white glue in irregular splotches and sprinkled it with Blended Grass from Woodland Scenics. Next, I added clump foliage and occasional tufts or flowers to make it look more interesting. I think they came out nicely. Not on the scale of the 4 Ground buildings, but still nice little pieces for someone's tabletop...I hope!

    I LOVE my Acheson terrain, but felt I could be parted with this cat statue on its ruined pediment

As much as I love my Acheson Creations terrain, I have to admit I am not sure why I bought this statue of a cat that looks like it is part of a ruined temple. My friends all know of my cat allergy (and avoidance of them). So, there would doubtless be some serious ribbing if I put a statue of a cat on my tabletop. Sorry, Fluffy, you're going to be culled, too! Like all Acheson terrain, this was incredibly easy to get ready for the tabletop. Preparation followed the same method as the other pieces. I used the same stone ruins recipe I use for my other stuff -- black base coat, dark gray dry brush followed by a lighter highlight. Like with the chimney ruins, I added a bunch of clump foliage to show it being overgrown. It turned out nicely, I think...for a cat! Ha, ha!!

    I think I did a nice job 'dressing up' this overgrown and ruined wall piece

The final piece is a section of ruined stone wall. It is from the Plastic Guys, a group of regional gamers from the Toledo area who used plastic and styrofoam to create simple terrain. I trimmed off the excess plastic and based it onto a piece of bass wood. I used a couple tiny model railroad trees to dress it up a bit, and added pieces of tumbled stone along both sides. I flocked it as I did with the chimney ruins, and added in lots of clump foliage to show it being overgrown, as well. For a piece of plastic terrain, it came out fairly well. Hopefully, someone at the flea market feels the same way and is willing to buy it!

So, there you have it -- my first batch of terrain built and painted with the express purpose of selling off. I typically double the price I paid for the item for my asking price, usually rounding it to a multiple of $5. My thoughts -- and feel free to tell me if you think they are too high or too low -- are $40 each for the 4 Ground buildings, $15 each for the Chimney Ruins, $10 each for the cat and the ruined wall. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on those prices!

What else is on my painting desk? I am in the flocking stage of the next batch of 5 Viet Cong. I'll do photos of those five and the previous ones together as one post. I will also continue to work in some more terrain or scatter to sell, as well. I have two more to do of the Sci-Fi scatter that were in the pictures with the Alien Grays. I bought six of them and want to wait till I have all six to do a post about them. Stay tuned...more to come, as always! And I appreciate the comments, guys -- it makes my day to read them and know people are enjoying my ramblings!!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 145
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 107 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 21
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 39

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 93
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 72

More 28mm Viet Cong & Some Jungle Scatter Terrain

    Five more of my 28mm Viet Cong figures begin to take fire near some tumbled ancient ruins

My morning painting sessions are becoming a bit like a juggler with three balls in the air. I tend to have one batch nearing completion, another midway through the painting process, and a third I've just begun. So, how to ramp up the challenge level? Add a fourth ball, of course! That fourth thing turned out to be 1.5" round wooden pieces with jungle vegetation on them. I have some of this already completed, but will likely need more for my battles for this project. 

    One of the poses armed with a sub-machine gun...see! I recognize types, but not which make/model

First, though, here's the latest batch of 28mm Black Sun miniatures from Crucible Crush. These are from Vietcong #3 pack, and feature the insurgents dressed in their trademark black pajamas while carrying a variety of small arms. I painted these identically to the first batch of VC, and they also were finished very quickly. Perhaps a bit too quickly? After resizing the photos in my Affinity Photo software, I noticed a mistake. I had missed that the bareheaded figure was actually wearing some kind of headband. The joy of extreme closeup photos -- they point out your mistakes! I did go back and paint the headband, but I did not set up my photo light box again and retake its photo. See if you can notice my error, as well...!

    I like the camouflage foliage affixed to this guy's helmet/hat -- nice variety in the five poses

Once again, I relied heavily on the photos that are on the Crucible Crush website for how to paint up these miniatures. I especially can use their help on the weapons. I am not the gun enthusiast that can tell differences between various forms of assault rifles, sub-machine guns, and so on. I recognize them by category or type, of course. Well, except for the M-16, -- which I was trained on while I was in the Army. I know that I mentioned in my last post on the VC that I would start to add in some irregularity to their clothing, but I will actually begin that with the third batch of VC. I'd kind of forgotten, and while juggling my three batches painted their pants and shirts all black. Once I remembered, I decided not to go back and paint over them. I still have half the VC packs to paint up, so plenty of time to mix in different clothing colors.

    I like this guy's hat -- very Chinese communist looking!

I do believe, though, that with this batch I am halfway through the figures I bought for this project. Of course, there's always a possibility that I will buy more after these are done and as I begin play testing my rules. Still, I reached the halfway point much sooner than I might have guessed. I am hoping to have all the packs finished by the time I am at Historicon this July 17-20, in Lancaster, PA. I'll have my greatest chance of finding manufacturer's stocking the Black Sun line there, or at least other 28mm Vietnam figures. I know that I would like to have some civilians painted up eventually, too. I'm sure some vendor there will have some figures that will work for that.

    This is a great pose, too, with the Non La - the traditional straw hat - on his back while marching

It was in response to the fact that this project is going quickly that I added my fourth juggler's ball in the air. I picked up a bag of 1.5" diameter round wooden discs from the local craft store. I have done similar terrain scatter like this and find the best method is to flock the base first before adding vegetation). I do this by gluing the wooden discs to nails with white glue. I have a piece of blue foam insulation I created long ago with 12 nails and slots for them to rest upright in. I affix each nail upside down in the center of the disc. Once dry, I paint the base completely with a 50/50 mix of brown paint and white glue. While still wet, I pressed it down into a tub of Woodland Scenics Fine Brown Ballast. I spin it in my finger to remove loose flocking and then place the nail into its slot to dry.

    This Vietnamese soldier's pith helmet I painted khaki, but some will done in OD green, as well

The next day -- after working on my Vietnam figures -- I painted the flocked base with a 50/50 mix of white glue and water. I then tamp the disc down into a tub of Woodland Scenics Blended Earth Turf. I spin the nail with my fingers again to get off excess flocking, then I let it dry overnight, again.

    A look at just the 12 scatter pieces (& the Aquarium decoration Khmer ruin) without the soldiers

The third day, I used full strength white glue and painted on three irregular shapes covering about 2/3's of each disc. I sprinkle on Woodland Scenics Blended Grass over the white glue and tamp off the excess. I let that dry, too. While the dozen discs were drying, I took some time and went through my selection of plastic plants leftover from the last time I had done something like this. I felt that I needed some more, so I made a trip to the craft store and picked out 4-5 other likely pieces that were fortunately on sale 40% off. I sat at the dining room table and pulled the plant pieces off of the brown plastic "stems," separating them by type. I then sat down and trimmed off various pieces from the collection that would be later be planted upright into the disc. My thoughts were to use about three pieces on each disc. One would go in the center and the other two spaced around it. Later on, I would add fallen leaves and such on top of the flocking.

    Looking at the pieces from above -- I used a variety of different types of plastic plants for the effect

The next day, I used a pin vice to drill a hole in the center of each of the 12 pieces. I then mixed up some two-part epoxy, dabbed a blob of it on the hole, pushing some down inside with the end of a paperclip. I then pushed the trimmed greenery's stem through the hole in the disc. I balanced the disc on something so the stem would not touch my cutting mat that I work on. Once dried, I drilled a second hole and placed a different type of trimmed greenery, and then a third. I let each new piece dry overnight so that it wouldn't tip or lean at some weird angle. The pin vice hole seemed about perfect for the width of the stems I was inserting in the discs. That stage took three days. Once all dry, I trimmed off the plant stems protruding through the bottom with a box cutter knife.

    Bunching the pieces together with a low angle shot gives the impression of dense foliage

For the next step, I cut off individual leaves from various pieces of greenery. I made a lot of them, knowing I wanted two to three pieces of fallen vegetation on each. I decided to not use epoxy for this, but instead Tacky Glue. It is a bit cheaper and I had a lot of gluing to do! Once I had the fallen vegetation affixed to the flocked ground of each piece, I let them sit overnight so that I could evaluate them with a fresh eye in the morning. Upon looking at my handiwork the next morning, I decided that the plastic plants were a bit too shiny. There was too much of a sheen on there for my liking. I sprayed them with acrylic clear matte next. That helped some, but it was still a bit bright. I decided to use my brown vehicle wash and quickly splashed it over the leaves of the standing pieces of vegetation as well as the fallen ones. For one final time, I let my jungle scatter pieces dry overnight, again.

    A close up of the fallen leaves and other vegetation on the flocked ground of each scatter piece

"Much better!", I said to myself in the morning. The final step was to add a couple pieces of the leaf flocking that I am putting on the bases of my soldiers. Once that was done, and the glue was dry, I did a final acrylic matte spray coat. I liked how they turned out, and since I had just finished this batch of Viet Cong, I decided to pose them with the jungle scatter pieces for my photos. For the next batch, though, I think I will try larger wooden disc. I plan to glue a palm tree to the center of each with the plastic greenery spaced around it. I think that a mix of sizes of jungle scatter will add to their look of the table and make a more attractive tabletop.

I won't be starting on those right away, though. I want to get some of these things I am painting up to sell at the flea market at Historicon completed. I am even thinking of putting some things in the Origins Game Fair consignment sale, too. So, expect more variety than just 28mm Vietnamese soon...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 145
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 90 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 21
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 32

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 93
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 72

Mesas or Rocky Outcrops from Diabolical Terrain

    A collection of 3-D printed rocky outcrops or mesas that I purchased from Diabolical Terrain

Last year, knowing that Star Wars skirmishes I am running using Space Weirdos rules were in the future for our gaming, I picked up a set of mesas or rocky outcrops from Diabolical Terrain. These are 3-D printed and in a nice variety of sizes from their Desert Rock Formations collection. In fact, I would say that these would work easily for just about any scale. I have them posed with my 28mm 3-D printed Stormtroopers from JS Wargamer Printing, but I could easily see these prints being equally perfect for 15mm. It just depends on how big you want your rocky outcrops or mesa terrain to be!

    28mm Star Wars Stormtroopers search through the canyonland of Tatooine for 'rebel scum'

The first step to preparing these for the tabletop was to spray paint them with a can of khaki "camouflage"  paint that I picked up at Menards. It's the same base coat I used for my Diabolical Terrain Tatooine houses that I painted up back in December. Like with those buildings, I will likely pick up more of these mesas when I see Ron Weaver at his booth at Historicon. I purchased these rocky outcrops from him at last Historicon. They seemed like plenty of pieces for a nice desert tabletop. However, once I got them finished and set out on my desert terrain neoprene mat, they didn't cover up as much of it as I thought they would! 

    'Any signs of the rebels, Echo Six?' 'No, sir.' 'Keep looking -- Lord Vader says they're here...' 

Once the spray painting was done, I was able to skip my usual next step of applying watered down acrylic paint to make sure it gets in all the cracks and crevices. This spray did a thorough job of it, and after inspecting the pieces closely, I decided to go straight to dry brushing. I applied a dry brush of a craft paint called "Wild Rice" -- a very light colored tan that I typically use for highlighting khaki. This brought out the carved rock faces well.

    The 3-D printed pieces were easy to paint up and prepare for the tabletop in four steps

As much as I liked it, I feel a wash always does a great job "softening" and blending in the brush strokes of the highlighting step. There was a lot of surface area, though. Did I want to use my standard brown vehicle wash, which is fairly dark, as well? Hmmm. Then I remembered what project I bought the spray paint I'd used on them for -- my giant, 3-D printed bridge. I had mixed up a special batch of wash just for that bridge, knowing it would take a lot of liquid to cover its surface. I still had what was left over sitting, pre-mixed, on my tabletop. I would look at it from time to time, and shake it to ensure it hadn't dried up. Would it be enough, though? I figured that I would try it first on one of the smaller pieces.

    I really like how the different shades of brown I used on the various steps amplify the shadows

I really liked the effect it gave. Sometimes, if the wash is too dark, it almost erases the previous highlighting. This was a nice in between. You could see the lighter highlights, but it did a nice job of blending the brush strokes and giving a nice, brown color. I went ahead and finished the rest of the pieces and still have some more left over. So, it had definitely been plenty! Once dry, I inspected the pieces. I liked them, but felt that the recesses and cracks were still too light. Hmmm.

I decided to do one final step on the pieces. I took my dark brown vehicle wash and applied it with a small brush only to the cracks and crevices. Although in a few places you can see where this stops and starts too clearly, in my opinion, I was overall happy with how it turned out. I think on my next batch, though, I will swap the last two steps. I will do the brown vehicle wash in the crevices and recesses and then do the overall wash on it. I think it will blend the whole rocky surface together well. A final clear matte spray coat finished off the pieces.

    You can see how the size of these pieces would work for either 15mm or 28mm scale

You can see the 3-D print lines in some of the close up photos. However, since it is a sandstone like surface, this actually doesn't look bad. It gives the impression of even smaller details on the rock surfaces itself. I like how these turned out, and I said before, will likely be buying more of them from Diabolical Terrain. They will be used on the tabletop for sure in my next planned scenario in our Star Wars campaign using Space Weirdos rules.

    One final look at the rocky pieces from above to show you their variety in size and shape

So, what else is coming up or in progress? Lots! Too much!! Seriously, I will post tomorrow my next batch of 28mm Viet Cong. Posing with them will be my first dozen jungle scatter terrain pieces that I scratch built using plastic plants from the local craft store. I actually took the photos of those at the same time as these. I had finished the rocky outcrops first, though, so they get to be featured on the blog first! Fair is fair...ha, ha! Of course, there are more U.S. and Viet Cong figs in process. In addition, there are a LOT of terrain pieces that I am preparing for the sole purpose of selling at my flea market table at Historicon this July 17-20 in Lancaster, PA. Stay tuned for updates on those and other miscellaneous terrain or figures I am squeezing into my painting schedule.

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 145
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 85 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 21
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 32

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 93
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 60

More U.S. Soldier in Vietnam & Some Misc. Scatter

    A fire team of soldiers of 'The Big Red One' take a breather next to an abandoned Buddhist stupa

With this batch completed, I'm up to 20 U.S. soldiers finished. I'm having fun painting these guys. Each figure in each pack of five is different. Plus, there are enough packs in the Black Sun range that I have minimal duplication. These five soldiers are the same as one of the previous batches, so I decided to mix up their skin colors a bit. The soldiers I painted as white are now black or Hispanic, and vice versa. The Crucible Crush sculpts are detailed enough you can see that some poses are meant to be a particular ethnicity. However, I figure that on the tabletop, players will see the pose first, then skin color. So, I doubt someone will be picking up a miniature in my games and saying, "Heyyy...!"

    This is my 4th batch of U.S. infantry from the "Black Sun" range - I love the poses & details!

Anyway, no point in going over how I painted these guys. I've done that in the first post and previous one sharing my U.S. soldiers.  Once again, these are painted for the First Infantry Division, aka "The Big Red One." I'm reading a publication by The Nafziger Collection right now to give me ideas for scenarios for my games. I plan to base as many of them as possible off of actual engagements by this unit's soldiers. There will be some others, of course, that I took inspiration from the actions of other units, but if possible, I'd love to reproduce the unit's tour through Vietnam in my games. I think that would be neat.

    Details like the pack of cigarettes in the helmet band & my added tattoos help bring them to life

I'm also reading Mark Bowden's Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam. Bowden is an amazing storyteller and puts you right in the head of the people who lived through History.  Perhaps you've read his Black Hawk Down novel that the Hollywood movie was made from? Anyway, it is a thrilling account of the intense urban warfare that took place in Vietnam's second largest city during the Tet Offensive. I'm about halfway through it and have a hard time putting it down when it is time to go to bed at night!

   Hispanic (or my attempt at that skintone) trooper stalks through the jungle keeping an eye out for VC

I have also been working more on the rules that I will use for my games. I will definitely be making modifications to the core Sellswords & Spellslingers system. For example, I am thinking each figure will be permitted to roll for two actions per turn instead of three. I will also have a separate system for the player's movements before contact, too. I don't want to worry about soldiers in line having to leapfrog a buddy ahead of him because that one failed its actions. Once the shooting begins, though, it will be more chaotic and some players may freeze while others do their duty more efficiently.

    From the streets to the jungle of Vietnam -- an African-American trooper sweats it out in the bush

You may have noticed that I am showing each trooper individually in my photos with this post, instead of in pairs. I really liked the single photo from the Viet Cong batch, so decided to keep that up. With only five figures per group, it is not like it makes the posts that much longer, right? Plus, I like seeing both the front and back of the miniatures. There are all kinds of subtle details on these excellently-cast miniatures, and this format does a better way of showing that off.

    With 25 Vietnam figures done, I estimate that I am just under halfway through the project

Also included in this post are some scatter pieces that I finished up more than a week ago. I kept waiting to get a few more things done so that I could do a more substantial post. However, once I began working on pieces of jungle scatter for Vietnam, it meant the other scatter was sidelined for the moment. Two of the pieces are 3-D ones from A Critical Hit that I actually purchased last year, at Cincycon 2024. It is pretty crazy to have something that takes only a handful of minutes to spruce up for the tabletop to sit unused in your closet for more than a year. Both of these fit into that category. The other is a toy semi-tractor trailer I picked up from Menards.

    This towering scaffolding metal construct is actually 2 pieces 3-D printed from A Critical Hit

This giant, Sci-Fi scaffolding thingie is actually two pieces that I bought from A Critical Hit. The more I looked at them, the more they looked like they should be stacked on top of each other. They even had little pegs on top (?), although there was no corresponding hole on the bottoms. That was solved easily with a pin vice and some superglue to attach the two structures together. Once I looked at the piece even more closely, I noticed all the bolt and hexagonal nut heads along the structure. I decided to paint those Iron Wind Metals Steel. I also did two black vehicle washes on it to give it more definition in the recessed areas and a dirtier look than the bright bronze color it was printed in. I like the way it looks, though I'm still really not sure what it is supposed to be...!

    This 3-D printed iron brazier with flame needed just a black wash and the flames painted to be done

Another Critical Hit piece that had sat in my unpainted terrain/scatter closet for a year was this iron brazier with flames. Like most critical hit pieces, it was printed in a silver for the brazier and a deep red for the flames. I decided to do a black vehicle wash on the brazier to give it more definition and darken it a bit more. While I was at it, I pulled out the flame piece and painted it, as well. Even though my red, orange, and yellow may not be expertly done, I think it will stick out more on the tabletop than the deep red. You can still see that red in the open flame shaped spaces near the bottom of the brazier. Of course, this little thing may not see the tabletop that often because I have all my Bad Goblin Games LED flame scatter! As nice as this looks, they look better...

Menards toy semi-tractor trailer made of plastic and 'dirtied up' with rust coloring and black washes

I have been looking for a semi-tractor trailer in die cast for awhile, now, but had been unsuccessful. However, one day while in Menards, I found a bunch of toy trucks for only $4.99. One of them was a tractor-trailer, so I snapped it up. It is plastic rather than die cast, and a step down in quality from most die cast vehicles you see in various stores. However, beggars can't be choosers, so I bought it and also a dump truck.

    Did I put too much black wash on the tractor trailer? Perhaps - it certainly looks dirty & abandoned!

One thing I am still not confident or sure how to do is weather and "dirty up" the many die cast vehicles I have bought over the years. I have about a dozen sitting in my terrain/scatter closet waiting for me to figure out a way to do it. When I purchased the Menards trucks, I wanted to get it ready for the tabletop as soon as possible. I think that -- if nothing else -- it would look good sitting in a trailer part or post-apocalyptic cityscape. My first idea is to simply do a black wash on their exterior. However, the truck would likely need more than that. The chrome is simply to bright and toy-like. So, I painted the chrome pieces with Iron Wind Metals Steel. Some parts even required a second coat. 

    One of my post-apocalyptic survivors checks out the area before investigating the tractor trailer

I did have to put glue underneath onto to the wheels rods to keep them from moving. I should probably have done a gray dry brush on the rubber wheels. And maybe some more dark wash into the wheel wells and hubs. Honestly, this was my first real weathering attempt and I wasn't sure what was "too much" and what was just right. I still have the dump truck to do, so maybe I'll do better on it! So, what else is on my painting desk? Two batches of Viet Cong and one of U.S. infantry, of course. And for scatter, I have 12 circular wooden disks that I flocked and am putting various plastic plants on for jungle scatter. The plants are glued down, but I probably want to dull them up a bit to take off that plastic sheen. Of course, forecast says rain here for the next three days in the monsoon season of Columbus, Ohio! We'll see when I get chance to spray them with a matte clear coat...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 143
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 85 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 19
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 23

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 54
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 60

MBA 'Customs House' with Scratch-Built Roof is Done!

    Miniature Building Authority's "Customs House" completed with my own scratch-built roof

I have this little thing that I like to do with items I've purchased from a vendor at a convention: finish them! What's more, my goal is to try to finish painting up what I bought from that dealer before I see them again at the next convention. Well, Kirk from Miniature Building Authority will be in Columbus, OH, this weekend as a vendor at Buckeye Game Fest. When I saw him back at Siege of Augusta in January, I bought MBA's "Customs House" -- a large, two-story resin building. It has been sitting on my painting desk since then, patiently waiting while getting "ditched" by trailers, Viking longships, and dozens of scatter pieces.

    Some of my 28mm Pulp figures investigate the MBA Customs House - a grand old resin structure!

The wait was over, though! If I was going to finish it before Buckeye Game Fest, it had to get done this week! Step one was to create a roof. Kirk sold it to me at Siege of Augusta for $40, less than half of what it normally sells for, because this one did not have a roof. While the Customs House had been sitting on my desk for months, I had been thinking of how I would prepare it for the tabletop. I decided to use two slabs of bass wood for the roof, taped together on the underneath. 

    I used some dollhouse scenery shingles to make my roof - slightly out of scale, but looks nice

Now, what to do for the roof's surface? It was too large for either of the two plastic pattern sheets that I had (they would have worked perfect). The craft store I bought them from and all the train stores no longer carried them. I could order them online, but they wouldn't arrive in time. While walking around Hobby Lobby, I found doll house roof shingles in strips. They were out of scale, yes, but with the black roof tile texture they were perfect. They even had adhesive backing. Score! I started with the bottom of the roof and laid each strip down, with the next one above it overlapping it. Wouldn't you know it, though? The length of the strips was about an inch short of the roof width, so I had to cut and add an extra half shingle in each row. It worked perfect, otherwise. Once I reached the peak of the roof, I cut a long strip of cardboard, folded it in half to match the roof angle, and epoxied it down. I painted it black and flocked it to match the shingle pattern.

    Close up of the front entrance and the lovely blue shade of wash I colored the exterior with

I traced the "pediment" -- the triangle-shaped part of the roof rests upon -- onto a piece of cardboard. This was used as a guide to cut out two triangular pieces of foam core which were glued to the underside of the roof, fixing the two bass wood slabs at the correct angle to fit snugly onto the building. I used black Sharpie marker on the edges of the roof piece, and brown paint on the part of the underside that would show. Other than a clear coat, the roof was done and looked great, I felt.

    A look at the rear entrance of the Customs House with its archways and my "oriental carpets"

As for the surface of the building, the resin piece came semi-painted, I would say. There was definitely gray wash done on it, as well as gray paint on the interior. By my standards, though, it looked half finished. I decided to see what just doing a colored wash on the surface would look like. I wanted to utilize the nicely molded exterior texture of the Customs House. So,  I put three drops of Vallejo blue paint into my palette of water to create a light wash and brushed it on with a wide, flat brush. I was kind of holding my breath, hoping I didn't ruin it. I really liked how it turned out, though. It preserved the pockmarked surface it is modeled with, and used its texture to my advantage. Another thing I like about the exterior is portions are modeled to look worn, with the exterior plaster having fallen away and the mud bricks (I think) exposed. I painted those in a light brown with a khaki dry brush. After examining it at this stage, I went back and forth whether to do an overall brown or black wash. I decided NOT to, afraid that it might "erase" my lovely faded blue exterior color.

    Interior of the building - note there is no 2nd floor, so I made one with MDF and bass & balsa wood

As for interior, I decided the gray it came painted with wasn't fancy enough for a Customs House or official government building. I did a wet brush of light blue over all of the interior walls. Once that dried, I did a very light black wash over it. I think this made the interior walls looked nice, too. Not as nice as the exterior, but more than just functional. The clock was ticking, though. I would see Kirk on Thursday and I really, really wanted it to be done (and a blog post about it created) before then. 

    A look at my 2nd floor (with open stairwell) which was trimmed to fit precisely on the first floor walls

The blue wash from the exterior and the black wash from the interior had run onto the model's floor and made the gray concrete floor look even less fancy than it had originally. It needed prettied up, I felt. Government officials work here every day, and they need a nice place to show off for the ordinary folk who come to their office how important they are! I decided I would paint each room's floor a different, darker color -- Midnight blue, Hunter green, Moroccan red, Terra Cotta orange, and Dun yellow. Then, I would cover up part of that floor surface with a printed out oriental rug. Now, that's fancy! I went online and found images of oriental rugs and resized them to fit (and match the color of) each room. I put them on a flash drive to be printed off the next day at the local office supply store.

    Speaking of the stairwell, here is the 1st floor portion of it with its stone staircase and bright rugs

It was Tuesday evening, at this point, though...aack! There was one more thing I wanted to modify on this model. I wanted to create a flat surface to place onto the walls of the first floor, acting as the first floor's ceiling and the second story's floor. I used some MDF material that I had, carefully measuring it and trimming it to fit. Then, at dinner, I had the bright idea to cut out the portion over the interior stairwell for gaming purposes. I did that, and proceeded to fall down a rabbit hole. Next, I decided to do walls for each of the two second story rooms and glued them to the MDF, then scrap booking paper for the floors, then a door leading to each room. Sigh. I was setting myself up for a very busy Wednesday! I should probably have left it at a simple ceiling/floor piece with some carpet-like texture on it...but nooooo! I had to get all fancy!!

    A close up of the 1st floor's oriental rugs - images downloaded and printed out on a paper

One of the last things I did Tuesday evening was epoxy the Customs House down onto its own MDF base that I'd cut. I still would have to do the flocking to blend the exterior onto the base. And clear coat it. Heaven forbid it was humid on Wednesday and I couldn't spray it...! Oh no...what? Oh, yeah. I am pre-writing my blog on that very busy Tuesday before that very busy Wednesday. I am crossing my fingers and hoping everything comes out all right. 

    Another look at the exterior - the rear of the building seems to be a hub of activity

Cut to Wednesday evening: Loving how it is turning out. The oriental rugs are a classy touch. The second floor turned out better than I feared it might. Just finishing up flocking and taking photos tonight. This was a lot to get done in a week or so, but I'm happy to say I manged it.

    The cool shaded interior of the Customs House - reserved for government officials & their clients!

 

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 119
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 60 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 13
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 22

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 55

    Another look from above of the colorfully decorated interior of the Customs House

 

    What secret deals are being made inside the shady interior of this thick European-style building?