Saucer-shaped MDF Sci-Fi Building (Dads Armies)

    Massive MDF Sci-Fi building from Dad's Armies that I recently painted up

Awhile back, I decided to assemble some of my MDF purchases from Dad's Armies that I picked up at Advance the Colors 2024. I chose the easiest one, little Sci-Fi aircraft called "Jumpers." I struggled to figure them out and ended up putting them back into the bag after gluing just a few pieces together. Then I looked at the other ones, a huge saucer-shaped Sci-Fi building and an "Arctech" spaceship. The number of pieces just baffled me. I don't do jigsaw puzzles and simply could not see myself successfully assembling them. I took them to Cincycon 2025 where Dad's Armies would be. I fully intended to give them back to him -- not ask for a refund, just say, "Here -- they'll just sit on my shelf. You may as well sell them to someone who will put them together." 

    Thankfully, John from Dad's Armies offered to put this monstrosity together for me...!

John Elbro, owner of Dad's Armies, offered to put them together for me...for free! I said sure, and told him it was no problem if they take awhile. He could bring them to ATC 2025 in the October. That would be fine. However, the next day, he said he would have the saucer-shaped building done. He had been working on it at his booth. Lo and behold, there it was! Fully assembled in its massive (and heavy) glory! I decided to slip it into the painting queue. I spray painted in Krylon Fusion matte black acrylic, and did my usual follow up with a 50/50 mix of black paint and water. Then I pondered for awhile. What colors would I paint it? I did a Google Image search of various "Science-Fiction buildings," and scanned through the pictures. Light blue and metallic colors seemed to show up fairly often. 

    A view from above shows what I call the 'tiled sections,' painted a craft Sea Foam color

So, I decided to paint the tiled sections a "Sea Foam" craft paint color. I dry brushed that white, which I think really helped make it look blue and less green. I'd left the gaps between the tiles black, but even though I chose a flat-tipped, square brush, the lines between each section seemed too irregular and shaky. On a whim, I took a sharpie marker and went over the lines. I loved how crisp and clear the divisions were after doing that. It really seemed to make it pop. 

    The oblong pill-shaped recessions I decided were windows, so I painted them a glowing green

There are little oblong windows -- or what I assumed were windows -- spaced throughout the model. I decided to do an almost chartreuse green for those. I chose a craft paint color called "Parsley" and painted in the shape, then did a watered down very light green in the middle. I was hoping it would give the effect of a glowing window. Once I was done with the model, I would go back and paint on clear gloss to hopefully enhance that glow. I'm so-so on how the windows turned out, honestly. 

    This view from underneath shows off the Turbo Dork 'Curacao' metallic color I used

Next, I wanted to do the rest of the model a metallic color, but didn't really like any of the ones I had. While visiting the Guardtower East, a local game store, I saw their rack of Turbo Dork paints. They had a really cool light blue metallic color called Curacao. On a whim, I picked it up. I researched how to use Turbo Dork's paints, as they also do color shift paints. For those, they suggest a black primer. For the metallics, they suggested a non-metallic primer that comes relatively close to matching the metallic color that will go over it. I found a nice Caribbean blue craft paint, and did a single coat of that over the black primer I had done on the entire model. I considered a second coat, but decided I could do an extra coat of the metallic paint if I needed.

    I went over the dividing lines between the tile sections with Sharpie, and that worked really well

I really enjoyed using the Turbo Dork paint. It did require second coat, but I liked it much better than my "Turquoise" and "Dark Blue" metallic craft paints I had used previously on other things. I may consider picking up more Turbo Dork metallics in the future. It was time consuming, but I did two coats on the other surfaces, then sat back and looked at the model. The very matte looking Sea Foam sections looked too flat. I decided to paint on a bottle of Liquitex Professional Gloss Varnish I had picked up. Big mistake, Indy! It gave it too glossy of a look -- almost like a clear candy coating. I sighed, waited for it to dry, and then sprayed it with a more satin finish clear coat that I have. MUCH better. There is a slight sheen to the sea foam colored sections, and the satin did not take the shine off of the metallic blue.

    A close up of what I call the 'landing pad' portion of the building

Finally, I added some alien looking writing. I put it near the control tower extension which rises above the saucer. I also added some near the base of the extension, too. I think it gives a nice little extra dimension. Now that I think about it, I forgot to talk about two other places on the building that were painted differently. The girder structure that supports the long narrow extension rising over the saucer was painted a gray metallic with pewter highlights. The "landing pad" looking back of the extension got a dry brush of white metallic. It looks a silvery gray, but that is doubtless because of the black undercoat. 

    A final look at the saucer-shaped, Sci-F MDF building...all in all, I think it turned out okay

Do I like it? It is a very interesting looking building. Some kind of control tower, maybe? It is massive -- LOTS of MDF pieces glued together. It weighs at least a few pounds, I think. It his large in dimension, too. The diameter of the round base is more than 8". Total length at its longest is about 11". As big as it is, I'm not sure if it is big enough for my 28mm games. I think it would work better for 15mm Science-Fiction games, and perhaps even Battletech ones. With that in mind, I will likely sell it to someone who's interested in it. So, if you would like to pick up a fully-painted, nice-looking piece of eye candy for your Sci-Fi games, please reach out to me. If I don't hear from anyone, I will probably bring it to flea markets and try there.

What's next on my painting desk? Speaking of MDF, I am painting up my last Sarissa Precision trailer, now. I've also got the base coat done on the Colonial Marines from the "Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps" board game. Those each have probably a couple more day's worth of work on them, but they are in the pipeline!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 104
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 54 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 39

A Couple more Sci-Fi Scatter Pieces from A Critical Hit

 

    Two more of the 3-D printed Sci-Scatter pieces I bought at Cincycon from A Critical Hit

Here are a couple of the larger 3-D printed Sci-Fi scatter pieces from A Critical Hit that I bought at Cincycon 2025, readied for the table. When I brought them home, I intentionally left them on my painting desk rather than packing them away in the closet with the rest of my unpainted terrain and scatter. I was hoping that some morning, while I was painting away, I would hit a stopping point on the batch I was working on and still have time left over. The thinking being I would reach over and start painting those!

    Rotate the pieces and new colors appear -- the globule is green now and the 'rockets' red!

And guess what? That's exactly what happened with these two pieces! The first one, which looks like several booster rockets on their side (perhaps?), was the one I stared on first. I painted the rectangular panels black, and then the "rocket fins" parts a metallic craft paint called Battleship Gray. Essentially, everything that wouldn't be the outer skin of the rockets would be painted. I really liked the color-shifting material these were printed with, so I wanted the bulk of the piece to remain as printed and not painted.

    Rocket-like ends & fins were painted metallic gray, while the 'panels' black with glowing buttons

Once the black areas were dry, I put in tiny dots of bright colors to simulate lighted buttons on a control panel. I usually go with a mix of yellow, green, blue, and white for my lighted buttons. I've done them on other pieces and think they add a nice extra touch to the model.

    Or you can stand the piece upright and it no longer looks like rockets

The large globular piece was next, and reminded me quite a bit of one of the A Critical Hit pieces I bought last year, in 2024. It looks like a piece of technology or a Sci-Fi structure that has been overgrown by some alien vegetation. I decided to do it similarly, but not identically. The vegetation tendrils were once again painted in a dark green. However, instead of flocking them with Woodland Scenics blended grass like I did the other, I dry brushed it in a lighter green. Evaluating last year's piece, the flocking looked too monotone to me. So, I thought this would give highlights and shadows by using paint instead.

    I like the clusters of railroad scenic 'oranges' making it look like an alien plant infestation

Next, I put tiny dots of white glue spaced out here and there on the model. I then sprinkled railroad scenery "oranges" over it, with the tiny orange balls sticking in the glue spots. Once it had dried overnight, I took a thick paint brush and blobbed on a 50/50 mixture of white glue and water over the clusters of tiny orange balls. I really like the alien effect both the color shift material and the clusters of orange growths give. I did not use any clear coat on these pieces (or any of the others printed in color shifting material) for fear of reducing the effect.

    Instead of flocking the green painted parts this time, I dry brushed it to give it highlights

What's next? All I have left to do is the flocking on another batch of Splintered Light Animals. You should see a post on those certainly by Monday, I imagine. I am also slowly working on the huge saucer-shaped, MDF Sci-Fi building from Dad's Armies. This is definitely one of those pieces I work on a little at a time rather than focus solely on it. After that, it's up in the air. I am considering painting up my Colonial Marine figures from the board game "Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps." I have my 3-D printed aliens from JS Wargamer Printing and think it will look odd to have the bad guys painted and the good guys not. That's the way I am leaning, at least -- but, we'll see!

    Another close up of the 'rockets' on their side, glowing with a reddish metallic gleam

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 104
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 49 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 16

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 39

    The infested technology caught in transitioning between green and blue

    Very little painting was required on these, they are almost 'as is' -- right off the vendor's stand

 

More RRB Minis Domed Habitats

    Two of my recent Rebels figures guard their small out post of RRB Minis & More Pod Habitats

I am on a bit of a tear right now painting up Sci-Fi terrain. Two more items were finished today that I picked up this past October at Advance the Colors 2024 from my friend Rich Brown at RRB Minis & More. While shopping at his booth, I added two more "3D Printed Pod Habitats" to my collection. If you remember, RRB was also where I got the tracks for some of my modified droids. Rich prints the Pod Habitats in three sizes, and I think the two I purchased (in the foreground above) are the "Large" variant.

    You can see the three sizes of habitats here, with the 2 in front being my most recent purchases

I had three of his habitats painted up already, two small ones and one "Very Large." They paint up very quickly, I've found. I do a black prime on them, followed up by painting them one of my favorite craft metallic paints, Chocolate Brown. I did the structural support pieces in Gunmetal Gray. At that point, I pulled out my old ones to make sure I was doing them the same. Oops. I wasn't! So, I went back and redid the trim on the two small ones I'd previous painted to match the "new" scheme which I'd used on the Very Large one. Now, all five have the same look. Whew -- these things are important! Ha, ha!!

    The habitat on the left has my replacement MDF door, but I think it fits the look rather well

In addition, I used a Turquoise metallic for what I am interpreting as the windows or skylights. The door control panels I paint black and then gave glowing red,  yellow, and green buttons. Speaking of doors, I somehow lost the door on one of the habitats in between the time I bought them and went to prime them. I looked all around, but couldn't find it. I'm sure Rich had included it in the bag. It probably fell out either when I took pictures of my ATC 2024 purchases, when I stored them away, or maybe when I pulled them back out. No biggie! I was able to find a couple MDF pieces that looked good and glued them on to cover the missing door.

I really like these 3-D printed models, and will be picking up more of them next time I see Rich at a convention. I think I'll buy the "Very Large" size from now on. It is in the middle in the above pictures, and was big enough for me to add some miscellaneous Sci-Fi machinery (which I also bought from RRB!) to the the top of the door's roof. If you like them, I encourage you to pick some up from him. He's got quite the selection of retro Sci-Fi looking terrain and models like these.

Get ready for more updates coming soon. I finished four more survivors for Zombie RV just this evening. Well, I still have to put their names on their bases, as soon as I think of good names. What should I call them...? Schmoe? Trunk Monkey...? Ha, ha - nope!!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 227
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 235

Tatooine Sci-Fi Buildings from Diabolical Terrain

    3-D printed Sci-Fi buildings in the vein of Star Wars Tatooine from Diabolical Miniatures

One of the bigger purchases I made at Advance the Colors 2024, at least size-wise, are these three Sci-Fi buildings from my friend Ron at Diabolical Terrain. Fans of Star Wars will recognize them right away as being a great stand-in for the desert planet, Tatooine. On his web page, you can find them under "Science Fiction: Tatooie Desert Buildings." Note that prices on his website defaults to 15mm size, so make sure to hit the drop-down menu to get the right size. Mine were printed at 32mm, or so his website informs me! Anyway, these are great 3-D prints and are incredibly quick and easy to paint up.

    These are printed to '32mm scale' according to Ron on the Diabolical Terrain website

 Unlike most 3-D terrain, I spray painted these buildings a "Sand" color purchased from the local Menards store. I made sure I covered them thoroughly because I was going to skip my usual 50/50 water and paint step. I simply dry brushed them white next. With that, most of the surface area on these three buildings was done! Next, I used both Iron Wind Metals Steel and Folk Art craft metallic Gunmetal Gray to pick out the pipes, doors, window grilles, and various other details. There doesn't appear to be anything made of wood depicted. It's all metal and the adobe/mud brick inspired by the Tunisian desert town of Tataouine. In case you didn't know, that's where George Lucas got the inspiration for the setting of the first Star Wars epic.

    These buildings were SO easy to paint up and look great on the tabletop - highly recommended!

After picking out the metal pieces, I highlighted them with craft paint "Pewter." Next, I painted some of the doors Chocolate Brown, one of my favorite craft paint metallics. I did a dark vehicle black wash over the metal pieces once they were dry. The final step was to use my brown vehicle wash over the mud brick surface of the buildings. These were thirsty buildings, though, and it took up quite a bit of wash. I doubled up in cracks and crevices to give it a more dirty look. 

    The 'back sides' of the 3 buildings -- I will definitely be picking up more of these

And then I was done! Seriously -- these went about as fast as any building I have painted in a long time. I will likely pick up more of them the next time I see Diabolical Terrain at a convention. His website shows six different styles and I bought only three of them this time. I highly recommend these! They make great Star Wars terrain (despite the tongue-in-cheek disclaimer on his site). No Jawas were harmed in the making of these buildings...

    The largest of the 3 buildings that I painted up - can't wait to use them in some Star Wars skirmishes

What else have I been working on? Speaking of Star Wars skirmishes, I have been thinking that I need a new mat for my games. I anticipate that I will have six players regularly. Since it is technically every faction for itself, though some may have common goals, I wanted to make sure deployment is fair. What better way than to have a hexagon shaped playing area? Not being a math whiz, I found the dimensions and angles for a hexagon which is four feet across from one flat side to the other. 

    My 4' hexagon shaped battle mat (flat sides are 4' from each other) made from felt and flocking

I picked up a likely color of felt from the local JoAnne's Fabric store. I got out my yardsticks and a Sharpie, and measured out the dimensions. Jenny helped me out, especially with her angle finder to make the required 60 degree lines. We used her uber-sharp rolling wheel cutter, too, ensuring the sides were straight and smooth. I flipped it over so that the Sharpie lines were on the bottom, and put a plastic sheet underneath it.

Next, I filled a screened sifter with Woodland Scenics Blended Turf. I dug out my spray bottle filled with a 50/50 mixture of water and Liquitex Acrylic Matte Medium. I sprayed the surface down relatively thoroughly -- my squirt bottle unfortunately doesn't do a fine mist and instead is only slightly more diffused than a squirt gun. Once it was wet with the sticky liquid, I heavily sifted the turf onto it. I refilled the squirt bottle -- I really can't believe it hadn't dried up in the years since I used it! Then I squirted the area down again. I made quite a mess on the plastic sheet, but I avoided getting any matte medium on the floor or chairs surrounding my 8'x5' table.

   Close up look at the mat with the Woodland Scenics flocking affixed with Liquitex matte medium

I waited for it to dry overnight, then sprayed it with some acrylic clear coat. I just used the same thing I use on my miniatures. Voila! In just one day of work, I had a 4' across hexagon battle mat that looks really nice. I will also likely use this same mat in my playtest of my Viking raid using Sellswords & Spellslingers rules. In fact, that will probably happen before my first Star Wars skirmish (which will likely be in January). I need to decide on rules and scenario and everything for the games I will run at Origins Game Fair by the first of the year.

Anyway, lots of production in the past few days. I'm very pleased with both how the mat came out and these "not-Tatooine" buildings came out! Stay tuned for more...!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 235  

Star Wars Skirmish: 'Rebel Scum!' (and more barricades)

    Rebel scum! Six figs from the Stargrave 'Crew' & 'Crew II' boxes that I will use as Star Wars rebels

I'm back from my 10-day vacation in Morocco. It was an amazing time. To read about it, and see lots of photos, check out my Worldwidemike Travellerspoint blog. Which means those of you who were thinking, "Ahh-HA! He finally burnt out a little and slowed down a little..." were wrong...ha, ha! In fact, I had this batch almost done when I left and it only needed a session or two to complete.

I've talked about my upcoming Star Wars themed skirmish games, and this is the final faction to be painted up: the Rebels. Since I didn't really have figures that I felt would work for generic resistance to the Empire forces, at Advance the Colors 2024 I bought two of the Stargrave plastic box sets from Shieldwall Gaming Club. I'd looked through what Jeff Gatlin had available and felt the "Crew" and "Crew II" sets seemed to fit best. In general, I try to "buy local" when I can, and Jeff has been an amazing, loyal vendor at our HMGS Great Lakes and area conventions.

    I envision the gray-haired guy as the leader, but didn't go with a specific color scheme for this cell

I picked out three female and three male figures, matching up the heads and arm/weapon combinations that I liked best. I screwed up on aligning only one of them, though, so I am getting better at putting these plastic figures together! Try as I might, I couldn't get the left arm of one of the men to line up and support the weapon he was holding in the right. I gave up and set it down at his side so that he is firing one-handed, "Rambo-style." It is actually getting to the point that I feel comfortable enough putting these together that I was looking at what else Jeff had on sale when he announced his clearance sale (for restructuring -- thankfully, he doesn't appear to be closing down shop altogether!). My trip ended up coming up too quickly before I made a decision, so I missed out on picking up some more stuff at his reduced prices.

    I like how the lady in the burnt orange jumpsuit came out -- especially the ballcap & sunglasses

I decided not to go with a uniform color scheme for the figures. I mean, by definition, the rebels have to stay hidden from the imperial forces trying to hunt them down, right? Uniforms would make the Empire's job too easy! Of course, the fact the torsos in these two Stargrave sets have similar clothing styles made me go for more variety in my color choices. Otherwise, they would all end up looking too similar. I did try to go with a palette of lighter or paler colors, for the most part.

    The final two figures - I made the Rebels relatively heavily armed with only the leader having a pistol

I think the head choices have a lot of character in these two sets. My favorite is the ball cap wearing woman in sunglasses. One advantage of choosing the heads with sunglasses or helmets -- no eyes to paint, ha, ha! Actually, I was really pleased with the three pairs of eyes I did paint on this batch. Sometimes they come out good, I find, sometimes not nearly as well. Of course, some miniatures make it easier to paint the eyes when there is nothing obstructing your brushtip getting at them. These were all in the "Easy" category, for sure. I like how the Rebels came out. They're not as wild and characterful as the Criminal Syndicate figures that I painted in my previous batch. They're just solid and relatively generic figures that will blend in as they seek to overthrow the Evil Empire.

    The Rebels await the onslaught of Stormtroopers, sheltering behind Star Wars Legion barricades

As you may have noticed, in the background and foreground of some of the pictures are more of the Star Wars Legion barricades. I painted up my second (and final) set of them at the same time. I tried to do them identically to the first batch, so feel free to click on the link if you want to know how I did them.

So, what's next, now that I am back from vacation? I decided to get a little more organized and am now keeping a list on my desk of what I want to get done sooner rather than later for both terrain and miniatures. The other night when the Rebels were finished, I admit I was kind of at a loss what to paint. So, what I pulled out to paint is going to seem kind of random! In addition, yesterday I finally came up with an idea how to construct some scratch-build droids that the craft store parts have been sitting on my desk for weeks and weeks. Now that I have a recipe in mind, they're coming together quickly and may be finished before the minis I was referring to...! True to my commitment, there is also a piece of terrain being worked on simultaneously. Remember the giant, 3-D printed water tower I bought at Historicon 2024 from Bad Goblin Games? It is assembled and primed and looming over everything else on my desk right now. So, stay tuned to see which gets done first...!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 220 

Stormtroopers, Walkers & an Acheson Building

    A platoon of 3-D printed imperial stormtroopers, supported by some Wiley Games walkers

As part of getting ready for some Star Wars themed Sci-Fi skirmishes, I would have to paint up some stormtroopers sooner or later. A couple CincyCons back, I had bought some 3-D printed ones from JS Wargamer Printing's "Galaxy Far, Far Away" line. I decided to give them some heavy support and painted up three walkers alongside them. These were actually a figure from Wiley Games' resin line of minis called BLST3R. Painted up almost simultaneously was a large Sci-Fi building from Acheson Creations that I had purchased at Drums at the Rapids this past May.

    Painting the black accents on the white stormtrooper armor was a royal pain, I discovered!

We'll start with the stormtroopers. There were 10 figures in the pack with only a few duplicate poses, so that was nice. They came printed with a "slotta" style base, which I despise. I had recently bought a pair of sprue cutters at a hobby store and this assisted in my snipping them free from their bar of shame. I did lose part of the foot of one of the figures while doing so, but was able to recover the figure (unlike with the Mon Calamari). I glued them to plastic round bases with modeling cement and then sat back and pondered how to paint them. 

    I actually had to do a light wash on these figures to be able to SEE the detail to paint them!

As most people know, stormtroopers have white armor, but a black undersuit, as well as black accents on the armor. Do I paint them black and dry brush white heavily? I didn't think that would work. I would cover up too much of the black areas, or not get it white enough, I felt. So that meant I would have to paint them white and paint the black parts by hand. I correctly surmised that it would be a royal pain -- wait, an IMPERIAL -- pain in the butt! However, since I wasn't spray painting these 3-D figures black, it gave me a chance to try out something my friend Jason M (check out his blog) recommended for priming: artist gesso. Jason warned me it seems really thick going on, but shrink wraps around the miniature, looking better in the prepainting stage than it does while applying it. What's more, the gesso surface absolutely grabs the paint and makes it every easy to cover. One coat of brushed on white was all I needed. I was impressed and will continue to use the gesso for figures I would normally prime white. Apparently, they also make a black gesso, so I may pick up a bottle of that, too. I also feel the thickness of the gesso coat may provide similar protection against the brittleness of 3-D printed figures that my normal Krylon spray paint and 50/50 acrylic and water does.

    The stormtroopers and walkers with their coat of Gesso from Liquitex -- I like using this as primer!

    The second squad of five stormtroopers: 'What's that? You two go over and investiage..."

Painting the stormtroopers reminded me a lot of when I did the Bronze Legion awhile back. It was a similar question. Paint the armor first and then do the careful detail to pick out the black joints in the armor? Or paint it black and laboriously do the bronze over it? Both ways were a pain for those figs. Similarly, doing the back was tedious on these stormtroopers. Interestingly, when I went to paint the black, I was struggling to see the detail even under my lighted magnifying glass! It was really hard to tell where to paint the black. So, I improvised and did a very light black wash over the figures first. This pooled in the recesses enough to be able to see what I needed to paint black. After the careful black step was done, I went back and added white highlights to areas where I felt there was too much black wash. Next, were the trooper's blaster rifles (Iron Metals Steel and a full strength black wash). I am happy with how they came out. I am also happy that, considering the scale of skirmishes I am doing, this should be the only batch of stormtroopers that I have to paint!

    The Wiley Games resin walkers come in two pieces, are easy to assemble, and look good, I think

The BLST3R walkers had been assembled (upper half and lower half) and based on round, wooden bases months and months ago. They also got the gesso priming. I decided I would go with white as their base color to match the stormtroopers and give them metallic colored accents. I chose three of my favorites, a deep red, dark blue, and "Christmas Tree" green. I experimented with one first, deciding which areas should remain white and which should get the metallic color. After finishing all three, I wasn't as happy as I thought I would be. I wondered if I should have gone with non-metallic colors? Oh well...too late now! I am definitely NOT going back and painting them, again. Like the stormtroopers, these figures also had a minimum of colors to paint. I picked out a couple areas on the weapon "arms" to paint black and give colored buttons or dials accents on. All in all, I'm happy with how they turned out, too. They are not Star Wars imperial walkers, true. It is a big empire, though. Who's to say the imperial forces did not have walkers similar to these BLST3R models deployed to some planet in the galaxy far, far away? I gave them a watered down black wash to pick out some of the depth and recesses on the miniature. They'll make tough enemies for the rebels on the tabletop!

    The rear of the walkers - you can see the watered down black wash I did on them, too

Once the miniatures were done, it was time to work full time on the Acheson building. I used my favorite Chocolate Brown metallic craft paint as the base color of this interestingly shaped building. I went back and forth over what color to make the "ribs." I ended up choosing the deep, burgundy red metallic because I knew those two colors went together well. The steel plates festooned over the building were painted in Battleship Gray metallic with Pewter highlights. I added bright bronze to a few other places and made the dome a pink metallic. I went with pink because it is in the same color palette as the deep red, I felt. I finished it off with my usual black wash and was very happy at this stage. 

    Large Sci-fi building from Acheson Creations -- I really like the interesting shape and very cool door

And then something unexpected happened! When I used my clear spray coat it caused a crackling effect on the top and some other sections of the building. I had never had this happen before, and am still not sure why it happened. One possibility is that I did not completely remove Acheson's very strong mold release agent sufficiently before I primed it. I normally run it through the dishwasher on a light wash. Did I forget to run this one through? Perhaps. More likely, my decision to not use soap (and the fact that it is a different dishwasher) meant the cycle may simply not have been enough. The crackling effect looks kind of cool, though. I am worried that the bubbling up is going to eventually cause the paint to chip and peel away. We'll see.

    Three quarters view of the building -- I love how the colors all worked out on this

I'm going to try to work on terrain alongside batches of miniatures going forward. Most of the figures will be Sci-Fi, for the time being. The terrain may be a mix, but with an emphasis on Sci-Fi. Right now on my painting desk is about a dozen robots or droids from various sources. These are meant to be "civilian" types -- not war bots like I've painted in the past. In essence, I want them for eye candy or objectives on the tabletop. Stay tuned, and hopefully I'll have another update soon! 

    A close up showing the crackling effect that appeared after I sprayed it will my clear coat

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 196 

More Aliens, Star Wars barricades, & Sci-Fi Container

    My staged scene to show off a dozen Aliens, 8 Star Wars barricades, and 1 Sci-Fi container

This blog post covers several painting updates, two of terrain/scatter and one of miniatures. They're all Sci-Fi, so I decided to stage a scene to hopefully show off each of the three. All of them went very quickly, I am happy to say. And I'm more than satisfied with how they all turned out.

    Closeup of three of the poses in the packs of 3-D printed aliens from JS Wargamer Printing

Let's start with the Aliens creatures. I bought two more packs of six Aliens from John at JS Wargamer Printing. I ordered them almost immediately after painting my first batch. I think I said in that blog post they were quite simply the easiest and quickest thing I'd ever painted. These went equally fast. I joked that the flocking on the base takes longer than the painting of the 3-D printed miniature. Spray black, go over it with a 50/50 mixture of acrylic black paint and water, and then dry brush it metallic battleship gray and you're done! Truly amazing how something painted up so quickly looks so effective.

    The insides of the Star Wars Legion barricades, which also painted up quickly and I think look great

The next thing I want to talk about are the Star Wars Legion barricades. I picked up a batch of these back when I was thinking I would need walls for Space Station Zero. Unfortunately, I got in only one game of that in before I moved on to another project. My friend Mike S knew I was going to paint some, so found another pack at clearance somewhere and gave them to me. I seem to be surrounded by generous friends who gift me things I can use! I went back and forth about how I wanted to paint them. I even did a Google Image search to see how others had done them.

    "Outside" of the barricades (which lean at a slight angle) - showing the gray and dull orange look

I decided to go with a dirty and worn gray look. They got the same start as the Aliens with spray and 50/50. Next, I did a medium gray dry brush over them, and a light gray after that. Next, I took a very light gray, almost white, and did a line at the top of each section of the barricade. Finally, I took a craft color called "Georgia Clay" and wet brushed it into the spaces between each section of the barricade. I finished it off by painting the keypads on the insides of the barricades black. Once dry, I added in bright color buttons and screens. I did only one pack of them this time, but will do the other pack of eight barricade sections soon. As I said, I am very happy with how they turned out!

    The 'bright side' of the Sci-Fi container from A Critical Hit - you can see at the top the shifting effect

The next thing I completed in this update was another piece of Sci-Fi scatter from A Critical Hit (that I purchased at Cincycon 2024). I called it "Sci-Fi Container," and it looks like they used a similar material to the Alien Nodule. However, rather than one that changes color to different tones, this one flashes between black and a yellowish-green. It reminds me of the color shift paint called "Black Flash" that I painted another piece of scatter with awhile back. Unlike the nodule, one side seems to stay mostly dark while the other is more bright. I have no idea what is at work here, maybe different colors were added to different parts of the print?

    The 'dark side' of the container showing the silver metallic bands and the glowing panels

Since the main part of this piece came "painted," there wasn't really much to do on this. I painted the metallic bands arcing over the container Iron Wind Metals steel, and then highlighted it Pewter. I also did the same with metallic D-shaped "tie downs" securing the container to the floor. The floor was painted last, all Steel. Before that, though, I painted the recessed panels black and then added in glowing buttons of green, red, yellow, and white. I think it is a pretty cool looking piece for as little time as it took!

    Desperate times for the Bronze Legion as they defend the barricades from alien xenomorphs!

I continue to make good progress on getting things painted up and ready for the tabletop. I am working on a vehicle for my Zombie RV games (hint as to what the vehicle is...). Otherwise, it is pretty much Sci-Fi things that I want to work on for awhile. The aliens and this terrain has actually been done for a couple days (well, except for the final spray sealant on the aliens). So, I am well into my next batch! Advance the Colors is this next weekend, though. You know what that means, right? More purchases! And just as my Painted vs. Acquired was looking good again...!!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024 (Next year, I want to tally terrain and scatter, too. If anyone has any ideas how to do that, I'd love to hear!)

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 170
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 183
  

    Aliens closing in! Is one of the Bronze Legion whining, "Game over, man!"??