Crashed Spacecraft Sections & Alien Tech Gems

    My crashed spacecraft sections made from various random things I had & a cheap plastic toy

This post probably exemplifies the cart-before-the-horse idea. For this past Sunday's game, I needed to build individual sections of an alien spacecraft that had come apart on crash-landing on a planet. My intention was to scatter the components in the center of the game and having my players searching among them for objectives, aka Alien Tech. Well, I have already posted about the game and you've already seen pictures of the items I'm describing in the post. So, cart in front of horse...!

    This section probably had the most random pieces glued onto it, including scatter from A Critical Hit

I had an idea for those and they were the easiest part. Long ago, a friend handed me a quart ziplock back of 3-D printed tires of various sizes and shapes. While going through all of my bins looking for parts that might look like bits and bobs for an alien spacecraft, I came upon the bag. I pulled it out, sorted through them, and found that some were the exact size to fit a craft store "gem" onto. So, first, I pulled out the various colors of gems I would be using, deciding in a completely random way to make eight of them. I found eight of the tires that the gems would rest upon with part of the tire showing as a rim around the colorful, glowing alien power node (or whatever it was that I was creating!).

    Created my 'Alien Tech' objectives with cheap craft store gems glued to 3-D printed tires & a washer 

I based the tires on appropriate sized metal washers, first. Then I epoxied the gems onto the 3-D printed tires. Next, I did a base coat of Iron Wind Steel -- a very dark metallic -- on the tire, making sure I also covered up the little wave-shaped edges of the gems, as well. Next, I chose one of my dozen-plus metallic paint colors that somewhat matched the gem color. I painted the outer edge of the tire that color. Finally, I chose a different metallic to paint the washer base and voila! These glowing Alien Tech objectives pieces were finished! 

    Many of the bits I glued onto the pieces of the plastic toy were to break up the outline & complicate it

Now, it was time to tackle the spaceship sections! My thought was to find a cheap plastic spaceship at the discount store or failing that a piece of construction equipment. I found an earth excavator for a couple bucks, and took a pair of wire cutters to it. Well, after buying -- just to be clear! I disassembled it into various mechanical component looking pieces. I based those on pieces of styrene plastic, epoxying them into place with space around for various pieces that had fallen off. Even the four tires were set on their side and became a piece of the spaceship. Now, it was time to junk them up! I had a pile of various pieces from a number of sources. I simply began epoxying them onto the plastic excavator sections making it look more mechanical and interesting. Some sections got more junk added to them, some less. Once I was satisfied they looked like a complicated mechanical and futuristic spaceship section, I pronounced myself done.

    It's probably easy to see the cab for the excavator here, but I tried my best to 'tech it up'!

Then, I flocked the base so that it looked like it had sunken a bit into the ground from the impact. I waited for a reasonably warm winter day and spray painted each base and components on there black. The next step was to go over everything in a craft Gunmetal Gray metallic paint. I didn't want to use up my precious Iron Wind Steel -- I'm down to my last bottle! Hopefully, I can pick up a re-stock at Cincycon at the end of February. Once it had dried, I looked at my various metallics and decided that the dark red would look the best for the accent color on the spacecraft sections.

    After my lovely accent painting, you could NEVER tell this was one of the excavator's tires, right?

This step was the most time-consuming of the process. I did each piece, one by one, deciding what part of the piece was accent color and what would remain the dark metallic. Some sections got more accent color than others. It took about four days or so to go through all of the pieces. I decided that I wasn't going to spray coat these pieces because they honestly won't get a lot of use (my guess). Plus, I was worried about a matte coat dulling the gleam of the dark red metallic down too much. The gems were then added to the top of the four wheels, hopefully forever disguising them from looking like giant truck wheels...haha!

    I even tossed random bits of scatter or pieces inside this open area on this piece of the excavator

The last step was to add fine black ballast (meant to be coal for railroad hobbyists) to the base. I went back and forth whether to go with sand to match my Tatooine or black. I finally decided that the black looks like the ground was burnt from the spacecraft's thrusters desperately trying slow the impact. Honestly, no matter what color I chose for flocking the crashed sections, it was going to look out of place on some gaming surface. Perhaps I was choosing black as the simplest and most expedient method of flocking these. I would need them on a Sunday and I finished the flocking only the day before!

    Note how I matched the objective tokens' metallic bands with their gem colors -- or tried to!

They looked okay on the tabletop. I had considered blackening sections of the spacecraft to represent scorched surfaces. In the end, I decided not to do that. The idea for the scenario was that the ship's emergency thrusters slowed the decent enough that it did not explode and burn up on impact, but instead merely broke apart. Plus, if they're not burnt, they can be random, generic, Sci-Fi bits of mechanical terrain for other games. Jenny and I are talking about re-starting our Space Station Zero adventures on weekend evenings when we want to stay in and play a game. So, they can join the tons of other Sci-Fi scatter I have on hand for that.

    This was one of my favorite pieces for looking like random machinery

I realize that, by no means, are these the greatest scratch-built pieces of terrain ever! I hope they're passable, though. And they cost next to nothing to make! The only thing I went out and bought for all of the things pictured on this post is the plastic toy excavator. As I mentioned in the previous post, the spacecraft sections I'm counting as "Terrain" and the objectives are "Scatter."

    I'd been wanting to pick up this solo/coop alien hunting rules set and finally did, recently

So, what else is on my painting desk, at the moment? I have six 28mm orc casualties that I will be using for my "Battered" markers for Dragon Rampant games. They're about halfway done, I think. I also have begun working on five modern figures that I bought as part of my 28mm Vietnam figures from Crucible Crush's Black Sun range. They're from the Children of Hastur line, supposedly whacked out cultists. Instead, I'm going to use them as my "team" for games of Majestic 13, which I bought recently. More on that potential solo gaming project when I finish them, though!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 6
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 24

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 24 

Elephant Grass, Take 2 (Three??)

 

    One of my 28mm Vietnam figures trying to find his way through my 3rd version of elephant grass

My readers here on my blog gave me a thumbs up on my first attempt at elephant grass for my 28mm Vietnam. Over on the Lead Adventure Forum, though, some commenters echoed some concerns that I had about how my first few bases came out. The blades were too wide. It was way out of scale. The stalks of the "grass" didn't mimic what pictures of elephant grass from Vietnam depicted. So, I decided to do a "Take 2."

    Snipping off the cat tail itself, I thought these O Scale JTT scenery products might work

 

The more I looked at the JTT Cat Tails scenics handing from their hooks at Hobby Lobby, the more I thought they might do a better job of looking like grass instead of some random jungle plant. Yes, I would have to cut off the one brown cat tail amongst the green stems shooting up, but that would be easy. I figured that four of them would look right on one of the 1.5"wooden discs. So, I flocked up one of the discs first, then drilled holes with a pin vice where the stems of the plant would go. 

    

    I trimmed off part of the bottom stem & put 5 plants per base, filling the gaps with JTT bushes

After putting four of them a disc, I decided the ground area looked pretty blank and I would need more vegetation on the disk. I added some of the green bushes I used in the first attempt at elephant grass, placed in between each stalk and also in the center of the disk. Next, I added green flocking tufts in the gaps between the bushes. I showed it to Jenny, and she echoed my concern that it looked a little bare. Plus, she said the fact that the cat tail piece went straight up then suddenly flared out halfway up looked odd. It didn't look like long stems of grass. 

    This view from above shows how there are 3 levels - grass tufts, JTT bushes, & the trimmed cat tails

So, on version 2.1 I cut the cat tails down and also added in a fifth piece in the center instead of a bush. I still put the buses in between each cat tail piece and the tufts between them. I liked it a lot better. I dry brushed the tips of the stems the same Maple Sugar that I had done the plastic plants in my first attempt. I showed it to Jenny and she agreed -- definitely better. Neither her nor I were happy about the very "stepped" appearance. You have the flocking tufts that go up a certain height. Next you have the bushes that go up higher. Finally, you have the cat tail pieces which go up more than twice as high as the bushes. if all those stalks were intermixed amongst each other, that might look okay. However, I still wasn't 100% sure this was my elephant grass solution.

 

    I had never heard of 22mm tall grass tufts! I like how lush & dense they are (& easy to make!)

Enter Version 3 -- or at least 3.0, haha! I visited Michigan Toy Soldier with my friend Mike a day or so later. Mike had to go up to Michigan to pick up some painted figures from the amazing Ted Bender. I pitched a visit another hour and a half north to the store as part of the trip, and I'd go along and buy him lunch. He agree. Well, at the store, which has an amazing selection of modeling materials and paints, I found 22mm high tufts from Green Stuff World. Think about that. The minis I'm using for Vietnam are 28mm. These tufts are almost as tall (and would be based on a wooden disk). I took one look at them and grabbed all three blister packs of them they had hanging from the pegs.

    Looking down, you can see how much thicker they are, plus they have a little lighter yellow color, too

I took it to the counter and explained what I was looking for to the store manager. He opened one of the blisters up and I pulled out the painted figure I'd brought along from the Crucible Crush Black Sun range. We both agreed that the flocking looked good coming up over his chest. Honestly, I had never seen a tuft 22mm tall! Actually, Green Stuff World carries four different colors of them. Thankfully, all three they had hanging on the peg were the same color! I picked those up, along with a number of other scenic items. They didn't have any of the miniatures that I was looking for, so I didn't come home with anything but flocking or scenic items.

    I bought mine at Michigan Toy Soldier, but your local shop might be able to order them

For Version 3.0, I simply did my normal flocking job on three wooden discs. Once that was done, I opened up a pack of the 22mm tufts and found that the diameter of each piece was a bit smaller than I thought. I ended up having to put four tufts on each circular 1.5" base. I did the math and the three packs I bought of these tufts would cover 16 bases (4 pieces of elephant grass terrain?). That should be enough for just about any game. I am still thinking of dry brushing the tops of these stems of grass with the same Maple Sugar color. I'm curious to hear what my readers and those on the Lead Adventure Forum think, though.

    One final look at Version 2 -- which do you like best? Version 2 or 3??

    

Which version do you like best? I really want to hear your vote! The original, very tall but broad elephant grass? The stepped Version 2 using the JTT Cat Tails? Or Version 3.0 with the 22mm tufts? Please respond in the comments if you have time -- I would certainly appreciate it!

 

    For those who don't know, here's what it is SUPPOSED to look like...

Meanwhile, what else is on my painting desk? The next batch of orcs (and armored troll) are very close to being finished. You will probably see a post on them within a day or so. I also have more terrain besides the elephant grass that I am working on. I have the crashed spaceship sections primed and ready to be painted on my desk. Once I get this batch of orcs off of the table, I will have room to work on those. So, they're next, then my penultimate group of orcs. Woo-hoo! Almost done with another painting project!!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 6
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 15

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 2

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 5 

Please Keep Off the Elephant Grass!

    Do these bases of plastic plants do the job as giving the effect of elephant grass in Vietnam? Or no?

I have been slowly working on terrain for my 28mm Vietnam games. I started with a couple different sizes of jungle scatter, added in rice paddies, and most recently worked on patches of bamboo. Only one type of iconic Vietnam natural vegetation was left -- elephant grass! This can grow in height over a man's head. I looked at how other miniature gamers had done it and also paged through a lot of Google Images. Armed with that knowledge, I headed off to Michaels craft store with my Christmas present of a $50 gift card. 

    The giant mat I found composed of individual circles with long blades of plastic 'grass' attached

Unfortunately, I didn't find anything that jumped out at me at Michaels. Boo! Next, it was off to a nearby Hobby Lobby. There I did find a very interesting square mat of plastic plants that looked like it would work. And yes, I had brought along a 28mm miniature in my pocket to hold up to the various options to see if the sizing would be right. The mat passed the test, and what's more, would supply more than enough pieces for all of the elephant grass that I'm likely to ever create. The mat consists of multiple circular pieces (with long blades of grass) attached to a square plastic mat. It looked like three of the circles would fit on 1.5 " wooden disc. However, the center of each circle of grass was completely bare. 

  'Green bushes' from JTT Scenics that I would apply in the center of each circle to hide the bare area

I would need to find something to fill that bare circle, though the blades of grass did a semi-decent job of covering it up. Still, I kept shopping and found a sheet of small green bushes from JTT Scenics that would fit inside of the plastic grass. They would end up being the more expensive part of the components, as the grass mat and 1.5" wooden circles were incredibly cheap. Now, to get it all home and see if it looked halfway decent once I put them all together!

    One base with the first circle & bush attached and the second one epoxied & tacked into place

I decided to paint the base first with the earth brown ground color I use. I did a light coating, which soaked into the wooden surface, and hopefully would not get in the way of the plants adhering to the surface of the wood. To attach them, I decided to use 5-Minute, two-part epoxy. Knowing the grass blades stuck out pretty far in all directions and might "push" neighboring circles away, I epoxied one circle at a time, waiting for it to cure before attaching the next piece. In fact, I decided to wait about an hour or so rather than the five minutes it normally takes. Plastic can be slippery, and some of these did not sit 100% flat, meaning I could have a tricky bonding situation. My fears proved well-founded, as supposedly cured pieces of epoxy came unstuck once or twice during the process. So, I began using a thumbtack to affix it to the wooden base while the epoxy cured. In the end, all three circles of grass were attached to the bases. At that point, I put the scenic bushes inside the center of the grass circles. Once they dried, flocking was the next step. I brushed my premixed 50/50 white glue and brown paint in the gaps between the circles of grass and along the edges of the base. I sprinkled Woodland Scenics Blended Turf atop the glue-paint mix and set them aside to dry. 

    Ground level look at a squad of my 28mm American infantry advancing through the elephant grass

The next step was to trim the blades of grass. I pulled out some of my Vietnam figs and placed them between the four bases of elephant grass. I trimmed off the "wild hairs" and shortened the longest pieces down. It was an eyeballing thing, of course. Yes, I realize the individual blades of grass are still wildly out of scale for my figures. It is the effect that I am shooting for. Once I was happy with all four bases, the last step was to dry brush them. Many of the photos of elephant grass I had seen showed the stalks yellowing and turning brown. I went back and forth on which color to use, but ended up choosing a yellowish-brown craft paint called "Maple Sugar." I took my widest flat brush and dry brushed the grass here and there to give a more varied effect. I was pretty happy with how that transformed the look of the grass blades and made it look way less "plastic-y." At that point, I decided that I needed some green grass tufts to mask where each pair of circles joined. I chose the largest size and they did a nice job of making the surface of each base look more natural. The only remaining thing to do was the acrylic matte spray coat. And just like that, my first four test bases of elephant grass for Vietnam were done. 

A look from above at my first 4 test bases of elephant grass next to some 28mm miniatures

I let them sit a few days before taking photos of them with some of my 28mm Vietnam miniatures. I am very curious to hear what you think about whether they look good or not. The individual grass blades are wider than what would be 28mm scale, but do they give a good effect? Or does it look like some large jungle plant instead of elephant grass? I won't be offended if you give them a thumbs down. I just wanted to get some feedback before doing any more bases. Thanks!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 6
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 6

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 2

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 4 

Stone Tower & Duncan House Medieval Buildings Finished

    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.

    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.

    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.

    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. 

    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. 

    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...!

    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. 

    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?

    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!!

    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 2026: 6
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 0

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 2

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 0 

Rural Interlude: Asian Water Buffalo, 2-Wheel Cart & Wattle Fences

    Some 3-D printed rural scatter terrain and water buffaloes that I painted up a week or so ago

All of these items were finished more than a week ago. However, I never got a chance to do a blog post on them before leaving for vacation to Dominica last week. I pulled them out after painting up the Japanese Fishing Village scatter set from Miniature Building Authority. I remembered that I had also picked up a couple 3-D printed Asian water buffaloes from them, as well. I pulled them out, and said, "What the heck?" Let's go full-on rural and get that 3-D printed cart from A Critical Hit done, as well. And while I was at it, I pulled out the wattle fence sections I bought at Advance the Colors 2025 from Diabolical Terrain. The cart and buffaloes I simply primed with Liquitex White Gesso. The fence sections I figured it might be better to do an acrylic black spray prime with my usual Krylon Fusion. Next up, was a 50/50 mix of water and black acrylic paint. There are a lot of crevices and recessed areas in the wattle as the branches thread in and out of the posts. I didn't want any gray peaking through.

    3-D printed 28mm Wattle fences (one section with gate) from Diabolical Terrain I got at ATC 2025

For painting the wattle, I scaled my usual wood tones a bit lighter. Instead of using a dark brown base like I normally do for wood, I went with a wet brush of a medium to lighter brown called Autumn Brown. The next step was a Khaki highlight. I skipped the brown wash with the black undercoat still showing in some places. I flocked them and added a couple tufts on each side, and these were done! Quick is the theme for this update. All three items painted up extremely quickly. My biggest decision was whether to put them on a base or just flock the thin base they come printed on. Or I could also make them into an enclosed field using the gate sections...what to do? In the end, I decided to leave them "as is" and place the wattle fence directly onto the tabletop when I use them. That gives me flexibility in both length and width of the enclosed field. Of course, if I don't like using them this way, they are so inexpensive I could buy more from Ron the next time I see him. In fact, when I picked them up from him at Advance the Colors 2025, I joked, "Do you know how much time you saved me for just over a $1.50?"

    Miniature Building Authority sells a pack of 2 3-D printed water buffaloes for my Vietnam games

The water buffaloes painted up very quickly, too. I pulled up a Google Images page on them and they look pretty dark furred, in general. So, I used a dark brown base coat. I did a medium brown (Autumn Brown from Ceramcoat) dry brush over that to bring out the highlights on the figure. Next, I did a khaki dry brush along the undersides of the buffaloes, as some of the photos showed them a lighter color underneath -- like many animals. Their wide, curving horns were dry brushed a light tan ("Wild Rice" from Ceramcoat, again). The only real details I had to do with a small brush were their black eyes and detail around their mouth. Yep, painting buffalo lips! 

    Base coat and a couple dry brushes and these big boys were done and ready for the tabletop! 

I did a brown wash on the horns, but none of the rest of the figure received a wash. Once again, I was concerned that it might cover up the medium brown and khaki dry brushing. Flocking was done in my normal method. The large round bases came with the figures, and I went ahead and used them. Of course, I forgot until AFTER the figures were done to put some magnetic material underneath. Sigh. Still, my Vietnam rural scenes just got a nice bit of eye candy, as they two took very little time to get ready.

    2-wheel carts for only $1.50 from A Critical Hit - I need to pick up more of these next time!

The two-wheel cart was even easier. It comes in four parts -- the main "basket" of the cart, the undercarriage with long handles, and the two wooden wheels. The hardest part was epoxying it all together, as I had to dig out the notch for the wheels fit into. As printed, the wholes weren''t big enough. No biggie! Just using an X-acto knife widened them enough to dry fit them into. I pulled them back out and used some gray tac to hold the cart in place and epoxied them all together. 

    Wattle fences and carts will also work for Fantasy, Medieval, and about anything up to modern age

Once that was done, it was simple. I did a dark brown base coat, Camo brown dry brush, and khaki highlight (my typical wood recipe). There were a few metal bits to paint Iron Wind Metals Steel, with a dab of Bronze for the bolts. Once dry, I did a black vehicle wash over the cart and it was ready for the clear spray coat! And actually, that's where this update ends. The wattle fence sections still need their 50/50, so I guess it wasn't a "full-on" rural post. Still, I was happy at getting the water buffaloes done and the cart. I know that when I see A Critical Hit next (Cincycon 2026?), I will definitely be buy several more of these. I think they cost like $1.50 each. How can you beat it?? They work for a huge number of periods and regions of the world. If you see them at a show anytime soon, pick some up (after I am able to get mine, of course...ha, ha!).

    I went back and forth whether to base the fences as an enclosure or keep them as separate pieces

On the painting desk at the moment is my Orc and Goblin horde commander and his bodyguard. They're mostly completed, though, I still have to do some details like their shield design and eyes, teeth, etc. This morning, I pulled out another batch and attached their weapons and shields. It will be four orcs/goblins and two more trolls. For terrain, I have a giant stone tower that I bought from RRB Minis & More spray primed. I may. not work on it much, though, until I even things up in the Acquired vs. Painted for Miniatures. I am have 27 more figures to complete to do so, and 19 days to do it! Will I make it...? Time will tell...

    Final look at the 'Rual' items I painted up, accompanied by my 28mm Empress Vietnamese civilians

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 306
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 279

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 62
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 80

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 144
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 213 

Desert Buildings - Five Done Already!

    Stormtroopers inspect one of my latest 3-D printed buildings to ensure it is up to imperial code

So, remember the great deal I got at Hold the Line on those 3-D printed buildings? Well, they turned out to be very easy to paint up for the tabletop, too! Originally, I was going to paint up the three smallest that I bought from Jeff G in time for this coming Sunday's game. After my friend Mike S handed me two more that fit the theme perfectly, I said what the heck? We'll get five of them ready. 

    'I saw the rebels go this way!' These buildings will see use as desert Tatooine buildings very soon

Fortunately, the weather in Columbus cooperated at the start of this week, being sunny and good spray priming weather. I primed all five in a Camouflage Tan acrylic spray paint that I bought at Menards. Unlike the Tatooine buildings I bought from Diabolical Terrain, these have a lot more nooks and crannies that may have been missed by the first coat. So, I decided to brush paint them a similar "Bambi Brown" craft paint. This ensured everything got a good solid base coat. 

    All of the roofs come off, some are in 2 parts like this one, others of the ones I bought are 3 piece

Next, I dry brushed them a craft paint called "Wild Rice," which is a very light tan. I know that I did a white highlight on the Tatooine buildings, but since the Bambi brown is a little darker than the Camouflage tan spray paint, I went with a slightly darker highlight than white. I was doing all five buildings at the same time, moving from my painting desk out on the big 8'x5' gaming table. I set out a bunch of cardboard boxes and other things to set them on to dry after I painted them, too, so I needed the space.

    This 2-story building comes in 3 parts -- bottom, upper level, and roof for upper level

Now, it was time for the detail work. Frankly, there wasn't a lot of ornamentation or other things to paint up besides the walls on these desert buildings. The rooftop access doors, wooden adobe parts, and the one that had a wooden floor I base coated a medium brown called Autumn Brown. It received a khaki tan highlight. There was one building that had what looked like a tile floor in a square grid pattern. I decided to do a checkerboard of pale blue and yellow. I dry brushed those colors over the tan very lightly and not completely, leaving some tan showing. I am incredibly happy with how the tile turned out!

    Obviously, these buildings will also be usable as historical Middle Eastern ones & for the desert SW

The exposed mud brick areas I painted a lighter brown called Raw Sienna. This was probably the most time-consuming step in the entire process! There were a lot of exposed brick areas on these five models, and I kept finding new ones as I spun the building around to paint it. Or I should say, spun each level of the building around, as all of them had at least two levels and some three. All except the domed building fit together nicely on the provided tiny conical projections and holes they aligned into. It looks like the projections on the domed building (one of the ones Mike S gave me) had a bit of a printing problem and didn't fully print.

    Mon Calamari search the interior of the bottom level - note the notches at the corners so it fits tight

Speaking of which, I think you can see a quality difference in the ones I bought from Jeff G and the two I was given. The purchased ones have markedly less visible print lines and are crisp and a better overall quality. There are some issues with the printing of the smaller two buildings I was given, but nothing too drastic. They painted up nicely, and in the case of the tiled building, have a great design and layout.

    On to the upper floor -- I really like the staircases and courtyards on these buildings

The final step was to do a watered down brown vehicle wash on the surface of all of the five buildings. This was a messy step and I'm glad I seem to have gotten through it with neither any major spillage nor places where I handled wet surfaces and marred the wash. I really like the way the wash softens the dry brushing and gives a smoother tone and texture to the buildings. I think the buildings are a richer shade when seen in person than in the bright light of my photographs. 

    The Empire sent battle droids to check out another of my newest buildings - they like the view!

I will still have to clear coat these buildings, but it is rainy and humid in Columbus, now. Hopefully, I get better "spraying weather" before the weekend when the five will be part of the tabletop for my next Star Wars skirmish using Space Weirdos rules. In previous tabletop, I've been pulling out all but the kitchen sink to fill a nice cityscape. These five buildings should go a long way towards providing a more unified look to my take on Mos Eisley. So, expect to see more photos of these buildings in the background next week!

   'Cool building...' says one droid to another -- the photos make the surface look brighter than it is

So, what was on my painting desk while I was out in the other room working on these buildings? I have a group of eight 28mm armored orcs from Gripping Beast that are more than halfway done, I think. I am also working on two 3-d Printed Asian water buffalo from Miniature Building Authority. And (of course!) I have another stand of bamboo on my tabletop. Now that these five desert buildings are done, I can resume my normal pace working on the other stuff. So, stay tuned for more output soon!

    This is probably the smallest of the ones I bought from Jeff G -- but I think they all turned out great

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 306
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 269

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 62
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 72

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 144
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 212

    Look who's back! It's my group from Five Parsecs from Home admiring the lovely tile floors

    Gunny approves of the views from the rooftops, staircase and tiled 2nd story patio

    The smallest of the five, it was also probably the least well-printed with 'strings' here & there

    I think the dome on this building will help it fit in with the Tatooine vibe of mine from Diabolical

    Poor Sci-Fi Gatorfolk -- they have yet to make it into a game since I painted them...!

    No floor on the interior room -- I considered adding one of styrene plastic myself, but decided not to