Viking Longship in 25mm Resin

    This 25mm resin Viking longship has languished unpainted in my closet for more than a decade!

Many, many moons ago, I went to Pittsburgh for a DBA Ancients tournament held at a game store. I placed well enough to win a store gift certificate, but ignored the packets of 15mm Ancients lined up for us to choose from. My eye had been caught by a 25mm scale Viking longship on the shelves. I chose that, and it has languished in a series of closets over the years until recently. I pulled it out to paint up as eye candy for my Viking Town Raid game (which I seem to mention on here in every other post...ha, ha!). 

    Closeup of the dragon figurehead, which was actually a metal piece which needed to be glued on

It comes with rowers and such, but honestly I want it just as a piece of stationary, atmospheric terrain. So, I stuck the rowers in the unpainted lead drawer to continue languishing (poor guys!). The longship comes in two resin pieces -- the hull of the ship and the deck with its benches and such. The dragon figurehead and curly tail spiraling off the stern came as lead castings. It also included one single wooden dowel for the mast. I glued the deck to the ship and the figureheads to their bow and stern posts. The dowel I set aside to agonize about later. The constructed ship itself got a black spray paint coat, followed up by my usual brush-on 50/50 mix of water and black acrylic paint.

    A close up of the benches and fur bundles that the rowers would sit on while at sea

Painting the ship actually went very quickly, much to my surprise. I did a wet brush of Howard Hues Camo Brown, followed by a dry brush of Khaki as a highlight. Then, came the more time consuming part of picking out the details on the deck -- the wooden seat benches, the piles of furs or skins for rowers to sit on, and the various bronze fittings. I went with paler colors, figuring the sun and salt spray would have bleached them over the weeks and months at sea. Once done with all of these, I did a black vehicle wash over the entire thing. I was very happy with how it had come out so far, but there was the small detail of that dowel for a mast!

    Panic along the coastline as the dragon figurehead is sighted - Viking raiders on the way!

Obviously, a single upright dowel was NOT going to do! Not sweet enough for eye candy, in my opinion. I would have to at least do a cross-spar, and hopefully with a furled sail gathered around it. The model will be sitting at anchor or dock 90% of the time I use it, I imagine, so a furled sail looks better than one with a bellyful of wind. I did research on what a Viking longship with a furled sail would look like. I asked the incredibly creative folks on the Lead Adventure Forum for suggestions. Thus, the two weeks or so of "agonizing" while the rest of the longship sat finished on my desk.

    The curled stern is another metal piece and turned out very nicely when dry brushed

Before I could even begin on the sail, I would have to first affix the horizontal spar to the dowel rod. I decided to go with a narrower width dowel for the spar, and I would pin the two together with a piece of brass rod. I also shaved out a bit of a flat on the spar so the two would join closer together. From there, it was a simple matter of drilling a hole in each and then adding the pin. Once it was in place and the glue had dried on the mast, I slid the spar onto the projecting length of the pin. Once again, simple to do, with white glue adding its grip to the two pieces of wood. Once dry, I trimmed off the excess pin and recommenced my agonizing about the furled sail!

    The cause for days and days of agonizing: How to do a furled sail on the longship?

There were several good suggestions for how to do the furled sail on the forum, but I ended up going with my first thought. I purchased a piece of red and white striped scrapbooking paper from the local craft store. For some reason, Viking longships are always illustrated with a red and white vertically striped sails. The pre-printed paper would keep me from having to paint the sail. I measured and trimmed off a rectangle. I then folded it in half, painted the underside with white glue, and set it under a weight so it dried flat. While it was drying, I borrowed a spool of brown thread from Jenny, and wrapped and cross-wrapped the spar and mast together so it would look like rope lashings.

    A welcome sight to many villagers -- a Viking longship sailing away!

I was still figuring things out on the fly, and putting further work off each day. One night, while trying to get to sleep, I had the idea of pre-curling the top part of the sail around the spar and epoxying it in place as a separate first step. So, I took the sail (which was only about half the length it would be if it would be down and "full bellied"), and trimmed out a divot in the exact center where the top end would split to go around the mast. I epoxied it into place. This worked really well. So far, so good. I took a deep breath. I was ready to put my ideas to the test and furl the sail to the spar. I found a piece of insulation foam and poked the bottom of the dowel into it, firmly fixing it upright. Next, I grabbed my bottle of 50/50 white glue and water and poured its contents into a plastic cup. I set the foam on the edge of the sink and weighed it down so it wouldn't tip over and fall in.

Taking a wide flat brush, I soaked the sail thoroughly with white glue and water. I waited till its ends began to curl, which hopefully meant the layer of white glue joining the two folded sides together was once again wet and pliable. I cut a length of brown thread, made a loop, and pulled it tight, pulling the sail up like a curtain. I wrapped the thread round and round the dripping paper. I did the same thing in three more spots -- two "tie ups" on either side of the mast. It was a little crumpled in places, but by and large, looked vaguely like I wanted it. I set it to dry over the sink.

   A view from above of the longship, which actually painted up very quickly to my surprise!

That evening, once the glue had dried, I trimmed off various wild pieces of string, and painted over the loops with full strength white glue. The next morning, I used a thin brush to paint a light leather color over the looped string. Was it perfect? No. I am sure others could do a much nicer job. However, I pronounced myself satisfied and all that was left to do was to clearcoat the ship and mast. Done! After languishing in my closet for more than a decade, I finally had a 25mm Viking longship! I have updated my tallies below, but felt a little like Legolas and Gimli when adding only a "1" to the "Terrain Painted" total. Despite weeks sitting on the painting desk (and days of agonizing), "That still counts as only one!"

    Last look at the dragon figurehead -- which historically was removed when sailing to trade peacefully

What's next on my paint desk? Well, the occupants of the ship! I purchased a set of five 28mm Viking miniatures from Brigade Games that are sculpted to resemble Ragnar Lothbrok and his friends and family. They are close to being done, and will likely be my first post when I return from vacation. So stay tuned!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 7
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 10 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 7

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 5

Two Miniature Building Authority 'Shanty Town' Buildings

    Two Miniature Building Authority structures I bought at Siege of Augusta painted up & ready!

Two of my purchases from Siege of Augusta a couple weeks ago are ready for the tabletop! I decided to jump the two Miniature Building Authority structures I picked up from their "Shanty Town" range to the front of the line. They both looked like they'd paint up easily, as well as be usable for a number of differnt periods, including modern, post-apocalyptic and even Sci-Fi. The larger building is the "Souq," a mud brick building with three small rectangular store fronts beneath a corrugated steel awning. The other is a building made out of a shipping container.

    I like how MBA's 'Souq Minimall' painted up -- the garage doors here pop in or out as you wish

The Souq M.E. Minimall is a hefty, resin piece. I decided to mount it on MDF board rather than the usual styrene plastic. I recently got a long sheet of MDF that came as packing from a purchase. I saved it, knowing it would be useful as basing material (and it was free!). I spray painted the building black and then brushed on a 50/50 coating of water and acrylic black paint to make sure paint got into all the nooks and crannies. As a first coat, I slathered on a wet brush of dark leather color. Next, I dry brushed a Khaki highlight. Finally, I did a very light tan on just the sections that looked like they were stucco. The exposed mud brick I left alone. 

    Back of the MBA Souq guarded by some of my 28mm Foundry figs from their 'Street Violence' line

Once that was done, I turned my attention to the corrugated steel awning. I decided to do a patchwork of colors to represent the material for the awning was scavenged from various sources. It is a "Shanty Town," building, after all...! I used pale greens, blues, yellows, pinks, and mixed in light gray, too. All the colors got the same white dry brush highlight. I mirrored the colors on the underside of the awning, though I doubt anyone will ever see it. Finally, I added rust effects to the corrugated steel. I painted streaks of Autumn Brown first, then added splotches of fluorescent orange to the center of the streaks. I was happy with how the rust turned out, which is not always the case!

    The roof is simply a piece of MDF that I textured with sand - here it is removed

The detail on the back side of this MBA building is really nice, too. I picked out the wires in a dark gray with light gray highlight. The electrical boxes were Steel and Pewter. The doors were either wood or painted steel (dirty pink and light blue). The trash heap was kind of a pain to paint. I did a dark gray across the entire heap, then went back and picked out various tin cans, bottles, and scraps of cloth. Finally, a light gray dry brush over the areas that remained gray completed the trash heap. The included roof is simply a rectangular piece of MDF. I painted it to match the wet brush leather color. Once dry, I painted the top surface with white glue and pour sand over it. This gave it a nice texture, which was made even better by the application of the black wash, below.

    A look inside each of the mud brick souq's 3 store fonts with the printed paper 'tile' floors

The next to last step was to apply my black vehicle wash to the entire structure, roof included. It ended up making it much darker than I anticipated. I should probably have watered the black wash down further (I am pretty sure it is already half strength inside my pre-mixed bottle). Oh well. It just looks dirtier, right, and shantier? I am not unhappy with how dark it is. It just doesn't match the other two MBA mud brick buildings that I have painted up previously.

    This MBA resin building can be used for modern, post-apocalyptic and honestly even Sci-Fi games

Finally, I went online and looked up "Middle Eastern floor tile" results on a Google Image search. Scrolling through pages of results, I finally found one with a brown tone that I liked and thought would match the overall color of the Souq. I used the Screenshot feature and my Affinity Photo program on my laptop to make a full floor pattern of it. I resized it into three different sizes, then printed it out at the local office supply store on their color laser printer. I picked the smallest tile size of the three and trimmed it to fit the shop floors. Voila -- floor tiles!

    Great idea for a shanty town -- a building made out of a converted shipping container!

I was in for quite the surprise when I opened up the Container House: Contractor Office. The shipping container was plastic and looked familiar. Hey! It was a Reaper shipping container -- the same as the one I have sitting unpainted in my closet...ha, ha! It also included two pieces of resin. The first is the resin front of the office, including a corrugated steel door and awning. It also has the outlines of a window molded into it. The second piece mystified me. It looked like a wooden door, but had no door handle. Later, looking at the photo on the box which I'd saved (duh!), I realized it was meant to be a wooden porch. I had already based it up, though, and didn't have room for it anymore. No biggie -- I decided to save it to use as a door for another project, someday. The building would work fine without a porch. 

    I am really happy with both the rust effects and the 'No Trespassing' signs on this building

I glued the office front piece in the center of the shipping container's long sides, then the building and the roof received the same preparation as the Souq: spray paint and 50/50 black mix. Shipping containers come in so many different colors, so I went back and forth on how to paint it. I decided a pale green, so gave it a medium green base coat and light, green-gray dry brush. I painted the iron latches steel and then went to work on the front of the office. I painted the corrugated steel office front pale blue, the door a dark red, and the window black with steel and pewter bars.

    The kit comes with 2 resin parts -- the 1-piece office front here and a porch that I didn't use

I liked how the rust effect had turned out on the Souq, so I duplicated it here on this building, as well. Once I had sufficiently rusted up the steel, I turned my attention towards the interior. Rather than paint it by hand, I decided to glue in patterned scrapbooking paper for the walls and floor. I measured the sizes, checked and trimmed each piece, and then covered the area it would be attached with a thin coating of white glue. This does a good job keeping it secure in place, as I have used this technique for multiple buildings. I decided to decorate up the interior like I did with my Bad Goblin Games trailers, too. I went with the same "hillbilly patriot" types of images to decorate the walls. I also built a little door frame out of cardboard, craft wood sticks, and corrugated styrene. I placed it inside lined up as best I could with where it was on the outside of the structure. To recreate the window, I used plastic grid netting ("granny grate," it is sometimes called) and trimmed away portions of it so that it looked vaguely like the window on the office front.

    The shipping container itself is plastic with separate roof and is from Reaper Miniatures

The contractor office came out well, and would not look out of place in my trailer park. In fact, I plan to convert my two unpainted Reaper shipping containers into another similar house. With the two new trailers I bought at Bad Goblin Games, I am getting close to being able to have a tabletop that is one big trailer park! That should be fun!! I'm happy with how both of these turned out and am glad I picked them up at the convention. Kirk at MBA is a great guy, and I always try to support him when I see his booth at shows.

    I used scrapbooking paper for the walls and floor and scratch-built a door and window to glue inside

What's up next? I am assuming I will eventually get around to doing the furled sail of the Viking longship one of these days before I leave of on vacation! The ship itself was actually finished before these two buildings. I've just been delaying doing the mast because I am afraid I will make a mess of the furled sail...ha, ha! I need to take the plunge and do it. I've said "I'll do it tomorrow" the last three days! Hopefully, that means I'll do it tomorrow...

    Of course, I decorated up the interior with what I thought were suitable 'Hillbilly Patriot' pictures

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 7
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 10 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 6

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 5

"Fire, Fire! Heh-Heh!" Fire Markers from Bad Goblin Games

    At only $6 for a pack of 2, these flickering LED Fire Markers from Bad Goblin Games are a deal!

Sorry -- couldn't resist the Beavis & Butthead reference when introducing these fire markers! I picked up two packs of them from Bad Goblin Games at Siege of Augusta the other weekend. They are probably the most all-around useful of the various flickering LED markers 3-printed by Bad Goblin, as you can place them on or around anything, as well as on the table by themselves. Coming two to a pack, these come with their own tiny LED and battery that fits snugly in a cavity underneath the flames.

I decided that I wanted to give more depth to the colors of the flames this time, so added a wash of deep red to the brightly-colored orange plastic. I know that technically the darker colors would be further away from a flame's center (not nearer it), but I simply wanted was some veins of darker red-orange in the flicker. I'm not sure I made the wash dark enough, though. It does look a bit different, so I guess it was a success! One unexpected bonus was the wash -- I used a Vallejo acrylic red-orange -- got rid of the very plastic sheen that the flames have straight out of the pack. Hopefully, this gives more of a deeper glow when lit from inside.

    I added a dark red-orange wash to the orange plastic flames which I feel gives them a deeper glow

For only $6 for a pack of two, you really can't beat the price. In the past, I tried to cutting away parts to modify an ordinary flickering LED candle from the craft store, in an effort to make them smaller. However, that was only partially successful. I don't know where Bad Goblin Games gets their tiny LEDs, but these are much smaller than what you'd get taking apart one you bought at Michaels or Hobby Lobby. So, I highly recommend miniature gamers picking some of these up. You can find a multitude of uses for them in your games, I am sure!

What else is on my painting desk at the moment? Well, five Viking characters from Brigade Games have been started. They will represent Ragnar Lothbrok and his family and friends in my Viking Town Raid game at Cincycon 2025. Their resin longship, purchased more than a decade ago, is nearing completion. I'm also working on a couple of the buildings I purchased from Miniature Building Authority at Siege of Augusta. So, stay tuned...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 7
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 10 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 4

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 5

Tofu Bar from Miniature Building Authority

    One of Miniature Building Authority's unique terrain pieces -- a 28mm tofu bar!

I admit that a 28mm Tofu Bar is probably one of my stranger purchases for my modern (or post-apocalyptic) games. I picked it up a year or two ago at Advance the Colors when Miniature Building Authority was there as a vendor. I always like to buy terrain off Kirk -- his products are superb and look great on the tabletop. But a Tofu Bar...?

    A look from behind the counter of the MBA tofu bar

Maybe it will seem less strange if you think of it as a street vendor or market stall. I already have a half dozen market stalls that I regularly put on my tabletops. This simply gives it more variety. I'm sure it will look good mixed in with the vendors selling fish, fruit, meat, and vegetables. Personally, I don't eat tofu...ha, ha! However, it is certainly a unique item. I bought it think it could be a little street bar, but the chopsticks and plates of tofu and rise are cast onto the counter, so tofu bar it is!

    My original thought was to make it a generic street side bar, but you can see chopsticks & rice bowls

If I were to go back and redo this piece, I would NOT black prime it. I would have primed it in white so that I wouldn't have to put in two or more layers to fully cover the counter tops, plates, etc. I decided to go with a pale blue and very light gray booth and countertop. Behind the counter, I made the preparation counter an yellowish ivory. The bowls, plates, condiments, and such I painted in brighter colors. Make no mistake about it -- even though this is a small piece of terrain, it took a LOT of time to complete. With the base that I cut and glued the bar and four stools onto it is about 3" square, to give you an idea of its size.

    View from above shows the scrap booking paper I put behind the counter and my paving stone base

There were some small amounts of flash to trim off with an X-acto knife here and there on the piece. The legs of the stools come solid, so I had to paint the "empty space" black and the legs themselves Pewter metallic. I don't think it is too distracting, so am okay with it. For the floor behind the counter, I added a piece of color printed scrap booking paper. I think it really adds a lot to the overall look. For the base itself, I decided to go with a stone or tile pattern. I painted the base light gray and then added a diamond and square paving stone pattern with a micron pen. I know it is kind of shaky in parts. Once again, if I had to redo it, I might put the paving stone pattern on BEFORE I glued down the bar, or at least the stools. Oh well -- live and learn!

    A good look from behind shows all the details this model includes -- even cabinets and cutlery!

I like how the tofu bar looks, but like I mentioned earlier, it took quite a few painting sessions to complete. Counting it all up, there are more than two dozen individual details, from plates to cups to cabinets behind the bar. For each of those, I did a base color and dry brush or highlight. I think all of the colors and highlighting makes the tofu bar look more realistic, though. In the end, it was certainly worth the effort. Look for it to appear in another one of my post-apocalyptic or modern games soon!

What's up next? I have begun working on a 28mm resin Viking longship that has sat in my closet for literally decades. I won it at a DBA Tournament years ago in Pittsburgh -- so that may give some of my friends an idea how long ago I acquired it. I will use it as eye candy on the tabletop for my Viking Raid game I am running at Cincycon, DayCon, Drums at the Rapids, and Origins 2025. Otherwise, I have six 28mm Dark Age warriors nearing completion on my painting desk, as well. So, stay tuned for more updates! Plus, this weekend I am heading south to visit my friend Jason in South Carolina and attend Siege of Augusta wargaming convention with him. I'm sure I will have updates from there, too...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 4 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terain acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 4

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 1

Ah, the Good Old Days -- 3 Acheson Creations Medieval Buildings

    3 Acheson Creations Medieval/Dark Age huts picked up on sale at Drums at the Rapids 2024

When I first began to make the switch from 15mm to 28mm wargaming, Acheson Creations were the first buildings I bought. I picked up quite a few for both the Medieval and American Frontier periods. They were a great introduction to buying and painting 28mm terrain, mostly buildings. They were easy to prepare, paint, and flock. Their deep grooved detail made it easy to simply base coat, wet brush, then dry brush -- and voila! Your terrain piece was ready for the tabletop. I was very disappointed when they scaled back production as Craig Acheson went into semi-retirement.

    The two bigger huts -- SO easy to prepare and paint up-- and one of my 28mm Dark Ages villagers

At Drums at the Rapids 2024, a regional distributor of their products was also stepping back from attending gaming shows and selling his stock at 50% off. In addition to a number of other items, I picked up three of the thatch-roofed Medieval buildings produced by Acheson Creations. I had all but forgotten about them in the intervening months since last May. Luckily, last year I created a note on my iPhone that documents all terrain and scatter I have that is unpainted or unassembled. I saw these three buildings and immediately added them to my Short List which sits on my desktop to help me remember what I planned to do next.

    The smaller of the three medieval huts -- I like the stonework lining the bottom of the walls

One drawback to Acheson products if you are unaware, though, is that the mold release agent is very powerful and lingering. Long ago, my friend Jason -- He of the Great Suggestions -- told me about his trick of running them through the dishwasher machine. Next, I spray them with Krylon Fusion Acrylic Matte Black paint. This is followed up, as usual, by brushing on a 50/50 mix of black acrylic craft paint and water (which I keep remixed in a plastic bottle on my painting desk) to get into all the recesses. Once dry, the item is ready to be painted.

    Acheson buildings often don't have a way to keep roofs on - my solution is pieces of black foamboard

The buildings come in two pieces, roof and the main body. Another drawback to some Acheson products is there are no "tabs" or ways to keep the roof from sliding off. I have tried various things over the years, such as magnets. However, I find the best method is to take some stiff black foam board and glue to the underside of the roof with epoxy. This keeps the roof from sliding and is hidden from the eye when the roof is placed on top of the building proper. For one of these three, I tried a new experiment, gluing bamboo skewers into the inside corners of the bottom half of the building. I gouged out some material from the underside of the roof where the skewers would line up. In the end, I probably should have done the foam board on all three. Historically, I prefer this method and think it is the least fiddly -- no worries about lining up the skewers and holes.

    Although intended as Medieval/Dark Ages huts, they can be used for a variety of periods

All three buildings were painted identically, and are intended to add to my Anglo-Saxon village for my Viking Raid scenario I will be running this year at conventions. The bottom half received a base coat of "Maple Sugar" craft paint, a first dry brush of tan, and a second highlighting of white. The wooden corners, as well as the window and door wooden pieces were done in dark brown with a Howard Hues Camo Brown wet brush and finally a tan drybrush. I went back and read some early entries to my blog to remember how I did thatch for my Acheson buildings. After the black prime, I did a wet brush of Camo Brown, dry brush of Iron Wind Metals Dun, and very highlight of light gray. Both the bottom half and roof half each also received black vehicle wash.

   The two larger buildings without their roofs - I really like the muddy look my color combination gave

I really like how the walls look -- very muddy -- what you'd expect from a Dark Ages Anglo-Saxon village. Or, at least what I would expect...ha, ha! The thatch looks nice, too, I feel -- not too bright and not too gray. I realize my thatch is likely very new looking compared to what it looks like after its aged a few years. However, I feel it looks more like what we expect thatch to look like. Just like how we make wood more brown on the wargames table than the very grayish color old wood looks. It conforms to our expectations and having more color says, "wood" to us -- or in this case, "thatch."

    A look from above at the thatching -- Acheson buildings have great, deeply grooved detail

I flock the bases in my usual way, as well, and was done with these three pieces much more quickly than the one very small building that you will hopefully see in the next post. Then again, that has always been something I love about buildings from Acheson Creations. They are soooo darned easy to get ready for the tabletop! So, what's next? That mystery small building (or is more like a market stand?) that I alluded to is almost finished, as well. At the same time, I am working on a half dozen Dark Ages warriors to be available for players to choose for their characters in my upcoming semi-historical take on Sellswords & Spellslingers. More on those soon...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 4 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 3

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 1

Refugee Car & 4 New Survivors

    Four more survivors protecting their belongings piled upon a MBA 'Refugee Car'

Happy New Year! I hope you had a good set of holidays. Mine were fairly relaxing, which is nice, and also helped with my productivity! I'd begun both of these projects well before the New Year, but they were slow going -- especially the refugee car. The resin car is from Miniature Building Authority and is an awesome piece of eye candy for the tabletop. I picked it up at Historicon 2024 this past July, among other things I purchased from Kirk. Three different manufacturers are responsible for these four survivors: Foundry's Street Violence range (Crisanto), Copplestone Castings' Future Wars (Martina & Reef), and  Battle Valor Games. Thanks to my friend Jason for correcting me on Martina and Reef's manufacturer!

    This resin car from Miniature Building Authority has a LOT of detail that took serious time to paint!

Starting with the refugee car, as you can tell by looking at it, there was a LOT of detail. Now, I could have taken a short cut and made all the bags tan, etc. However, I didn't think it would look as nice. So, I was determined to look at each item affixed to the car and decide what color to paint it. I was hoping the riot of different colors would really make the model stand out. I tried to go with a more dull slate of colors, except for maybe the bright blue couch! I figured the less bright colors, the dry brushing, and the overall black wash, would unify the look enough once I was done.

    You gotta love the couch heaped up on the car - I mean, wherever we're going, we need comfort!

It took more than a week, picking out maybe a half dozen items to paint each session, then dry brushing them the next day. I would then pick out a new group of things to paint, dry brushing them the next day. I actually started with the body of the car and tires first. After priming everything black, I painted the body a Pewter metallic color. Why that color? Mainly because there are a lot of silver sedans driving through our neighborhood with what appears to be a recent arrival to the U.S. being taught how to drive! So, the color choice was an inside joke for myself -- plus, when rusted and dirtied up, I thought silver would look good.

    I was pretty happy with the rust effects that I added -- it looks like a beat up car barely on the road

Speaking of the rust, I used Autumn Brown first for the areas of rust, then filled it in with fluorescent orange. Once the entire thing was done, I gave it a black vehicle wash. The windows, which had previously been painted solid flat black, were painted a bluish glaze at the top to give the effect of reflected sky. I have done this on other cars, and it tends to look good and work about half the time. You be the judge whether it worked this time...! All in all, I'm very happy with the car, and it will likely appear on the tabletop in my next post-apocalyptic or zombie game. Pick one up from Kirk next time you see Miniature Building Authority at a show!

    My favorite of this batch of survivors, a tough-looking ex-marine with braided hair - Martina

The four survivors are the heavier armed ones from the batch of eight I'd picked out from my unpainted lead a few weeks ago. Three are armed with assault rifles and one with a shotgun. I really like how all of them look except maybe the cop in riot gear. I think I simply made his color scheme too black and gray and he looks like a dark blob unless you pick up the miniature and examine it closely. My favorite of the four is Martina. She is from Copplestone Castings' Citizen Militia pack. I love the long, braided hair going down her back. I decided to give her woodland camouflage pants and a tan colored shirt. I gave her a darker skin tone, too, using a leather color with a lighter tan dry brush. I also gave her some tattoos because she looked like a tough lady. I'm not sure if you can read the "USMC" on her right forearm. I was tempted to call her Vasquez from Aliens ("Hey Vasquez! Have you ever been mistaken for a guy?" "No...have you?"). However, I figured that one day I make actually pick up the Vasquez figure from the Another Glorious Day in the Corps board game, and that would make things awkward between the two...ha, ha!

    Surfer dude Reef is an interesting figure with sweat pants and 'slides', or sandals in old people speak

My next favorite is Reef, who I thought looked like a surfer dude armed with an AK-47. He appeared to have sweat pants and "slides" (we call them sandals, but kids today call them slides). So, I gave him blond hair, purple sweat pants, and a bright green shirt. His slides are white with purple trim, and in true surfer fashion, his mirrored sunglasses having matching purple lenses. The green of his shirt was considerably darkened down by the black wash that I did, so it looks less like beach wear than I was hoping. I also gave him some tattoos. I was tempted to give the shirt a Ron Jon surf wear logo, but once I pulled up an image of the company's symbol, I didn't think I could execute it with my micron pens! He is also from the same pack as Martina.

    I like how Crisanto's urban-style camo pants turned out - he is a 28mm Foundry 'Street Violence' fig

Next in line of my favorites of this group is Crisanto. He is from the "SWAT team Alpha" pack in the Street Violence range. I used my Asian flesh that I'd mixed up to paint my Saga Mongol army. Once I painted his black hair and mustache, I thought he looked more Filipino than anything. He wears body armor and elbow and knee pads, which was going to be a challenge to make gray yet still give some color to the figure. So, I decided to give him urban camouflage patterned pants and a dark bluish-green shirt. That proved to be enough lighter colors to avoid the "dark blob" look that his buddy Hondo suffered! I lined the dark gray pads with a lighter gray rather than dry brushing them. I wanted to make sure they stood out more distinctly, so chose that method. The only part I don't like about the miniature is the assault rifle slung over his shoulder. The strap was messing with my mind, trying to figure out where it started, ended, and connected to the gun. Otherwise, I really like how he turned out.

    Did I do a good enough job making the detail visible? Or is Hondo a 'dark blob'?

The final figure, Hondo, is a Battle Valor Games policeman in riot gear. Like with Crisanto above, I tried to make color choices that would keep it from looking like a dark blob, but I honestly think I failed here. I should have rethought how I painted his riot gear rather than going with standard black or dark gray. I have more than one of these left from my pack of police in riot gear, so if I paint more, I will get more creative. Perhaps doing Google Image searches will reveal somewhere in the world that has more brightly colored riot police. Anyway, four more survivors are done, which is just in time. I will likely be running a game of Zombie RV for my Sunday night gaming group soon.

What's next? Terrain-wise, I will be painting up three Acheson Creations Dark Ages thatch roof huts. They are spray primed and have also had their 50/50 mix of black paint and water brushed on. As for miniatures, I debating between a couple choices. Stay tuned to see which ones I decide upon!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 4 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 0

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 1

My Hurried Week of Dark Age Town Additions

    Much to my amazement, I got all of this prepped and ready for the tabletop in one week!

Knowing that I was going to be running my playtest of my Viking Town Raid using Sellswords & Spellslingers this past Sunday, I spent the week leading up to it hurriedly getting some more stuff ready. I wasn't 100% sure I actually needed any of it, but figured it would be nice to have them. I readied two Dark Age buildings for the table, painted up nine more armed peasants, added four highland cattle, two oxen, and a burning fire pit with flickering LED light. 

    This Dark Age hut by Tim Peaslee needed only a minor fix to become part of my Anglo-Saxon town

Amazingly, I ended up getting all of it finished, which honestly surprised me. When I first set up the raid's terrain on my hexagonal gaming mat, I felt it could use a few more buildings. I glanced through my unpainted terrain list that I keep in the Notes section of my phone and saw a couple items I likely could get finished in time. One was a gift from master terrain maker and friend Tim Peaslee. A year or so ago, he had handed me a Dark Age/Medieval looking home that he'd created out of insulation foam and wood. He does the thatch, I believe, by running a wire brush through the insulation foam to give the pattern. Tim then paints the thatch and you would never know it was originally pink foam -- except the one he'd given me you could barely see glimmerings of the pink beneath the thatch color. Being anal, I wanted to get rid of that before I used the building, of course! So, I watered down Walnut brown acrylic paint by about a third and brushed it on thickly. It soaked through, covering any pink. A tan dry brush brought the thatch highlights back, and voila -- one more building was ready for the tabletop!

    My "Made in China" rustic stable needed only a black wash and flocking to be ready, as well

The next building is a rustic-looking stable that originally came from Michaels or similar craft store. I bought this resin piece years ago at a flea market and it still has the "Made in China" sticker on the bottom! It had been obviously mass produced in China, but needed only a little more work. I did a black vehicle wash on the wooden timbers and wattle walls. Next, I painted the green base with my usual earth brown that I use for bases. I flocked it with fine brown ballast and then Woodland Scenics Blended Earth flocking. A second building was ready for the table!

    The Reaper Bones oxen in their stable, happy to be finally painted up and part of a game!

Now, I needed more animals for the stable, right? The stable is rather large, scale-wise, and my current collection of 28mm animals would look diminutive inside of it. Luckily, already based but not painted up, were two large Reaper Bones oxen. I primed them with gesso white, even though I know you supposedly don't need to prime Reaper Bones figs. They got a quick paint job as they were the last things I was working on. I did a base coat of acrylic Bambi Brown and dry brushed them Wild Rice. Next, I painted the thatch of hair on their shoulders Autumn Brown, their horns ivory, and their eye sockets, nostrils, and mouth black. A brown vehicle wash over them and they look very passable for a quick, two-day (?) paint job!

    Four 28mm Gripping Beast (I believe) highland cattle wondering what all the noise of the raid is...

Also already epoxied onto bases were a family of four 28mm highland cattle from Gripping Beast. I had put one adult and one calf on each round base back when I was basing them up as objective markers for Saga (that never got painted). They also received a gesso primer, then a "Georgia Clay" acrylic color base coat. I did a tan dry brush, and picked out their eye sockets, and facial features in black. I did their horns ivory, as well. Once they were dry, I did a brown wash on them, as well. At first, I wasn't too happy with how they looked. Now that they are all flocked and based up, I'm much happier. More animals were in place for my Viking players to steal!

    Three of the 28mm peasants I added "just in case" cluster near the Bad Goblin Games firepit

You have also likely noticed, by this point, the flickering fire pit. This is one of the three 3-D printed LED fires that I bought at Historicon from Bad Goblin Games. This one was the most "Medieval" of the three, so I snatched it out from its brethren to add to the atmosphere of the tabletop. The piece comes with the LED light and the watch battery you slide into the slot ready-made for it. The fire pit itself comes in four pieces. There is the cylindrical, stone base, which I painted black with shades of dry-brushed grays. The orange plastic flames and wood pieces are the second piece. I painted the pieces of wood rather than leave them brown, but left the flames, "as is." I have heard some add a reddish wash over the orange flames. Maybe I will try that on the dumpster and garbage can fire from Bad Goblin Games that I still have to paint? There is also a bronze colored ring that goes atop the pit, which I just gave a clear gloss.  Finally, if you want the fire to be "out," they include a circular disc of "ashes," which I once again did in black and grays. I really like these flickering LED scatter pieces. They are incredibly affordable -- just $5 or less. Bad Goblin will be at Siege of Augusta this January, and I will be sore tempted to pick up more of their incredible terrain!!  

    Next batch of three peasants take their turn faithfully defending the oxen, who watch with interest

Last but not least, I spent most of the week working on nine more 28mm peasants I can use for Dark Age or Medieval games -- especially the raid! Some of them are Ancient Germans from Foundry, while others are Scots/Irish (or Welsh, I forget...) from Old Glory. I needed to put weapons in the hands of some of them, so used some of my spare axes or short swords from my unpainted weapons stash. Other than that, I wanted these to look as poor and simple as possible. So, no patterns or checks or stripes or anything, even though I knew it would make them look nicer. Also, I was in a hurry...ha, ha! I used earth tones -- tans, browns, grays, and some grayish greens or blues. I think they turned out pretty good for a quickie rush job. Did I end up needing them for the game to reinforce the peasants I already had? Well, not really! But hey -- I was prepared! 

    The final group of three Anglo-Saxon peasants ready to heroically chase off the Viking raiders

What's next? I have a couple Sci-Fi pieces of scatter on the paint desk right now. No miniatures, as I'm taking a breath after this hurried week of painting! After that, I am thinking of working on some of the MDF scatter that I bought from Dad's Armies at Advance the Colors...

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 227
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 254