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!"??

Sci-Fi Terrain - Scatter and a Building

    Captain Alistair Valentine & Zorina Valthea investigate some newly-painted Sci-Fi terrain

Since Advance the Colors 2024 is coming up, and I will likely be tempted to buy yet more terrain. To keep my conscience clear, I felt I should hurry up and get some that I previously bought painted up! So, expect to see more added in over the next couple weeks until ATC weekend, Oct. 11-12. Plus, I want to have some variety to use in my Sci-Fi scenarios, whether Five Parsecs from Home or games I plan to run on Sunday nights. Three of the pieces are from Diabolical Terrain, who will be at ATC 2024, if you're looking to pick up some really cool 3-D printed terrain. The last is from a vendor at Cincycon 2024 called, A Critical Hit. I learned something new about it when I sat down to paint it, as you'll see below.

    A look at the detail on the tops of three pieces from Diabolical Terrain

All three of the above pieces are from Diabolical Terrain. I believe I purchased them at DayCon 2024. I did my usual method of prepping them -- spray painting them black with Krylon Fusion acrylic black primer. I follow that up, as readers of mine are quite aware by now, with a brush-on 50/50 mix of acrylic black paint and water (premixed in its own battle). For the large domed structure (which I will likely buy at least one more of if Ron has any in stock at ATC), I painted it a craft metallic paint called Chocolate Brown. I really love its subdued bronze look and use it on a lot of my miniatures. The door and overhead vent fan were painted in a craft metallic called Battleship Gray, with Pewter highlights and bronze accents. The door itself is painted a metallic green ("Christmas Tree" green, I believe). After it was completed, I did a black wash on it to give it a realistic, dusty look.

The piece on the left was by far the most time consuming in this batch of four pieces of terrain. I used a dark metallic red as a base color. I find that the darker shades of metallics tend to look better on the tabletop, for some reason. Brighter colors look almost too cartoony or childish. For the various accent pipes and fittings I used a variety of my metallic colors. For control panels, I painted the surface black, then added in bright yellow, red, and light green buttons. The small video screen is a bright light green. I really like the color combinations for this piece and how they turned out.

    The Alien Nodule and its infestation actually changes colors as you look at it from different angles

The small, cylindrical piece in the center has a duplicate which I just finished painting up, but not in time for the photos. It looks like a control terminal or something similar. Diabolical produces three different sizes of these. This is the largest. I also bought two each of the middle and smallest. I think I am going to turn those into droids. This has a very Star Wars droid look to it, I feel. I love the way the dark blue metallic and battleship gray look together. Very sleek. The bronze accents and the control panels with bright buttons all around it really set it off, too.

Watch this video which demonstrates the color shift effect as I clumsily spin the piece

And now for what I am calling the "Alien Nodule." This looks like a piece of machinery that's been overgrown by some form of infestation. The really cool thing about this piece is that apparently a color shift material was used in the filament. I am providing photos showing three colors and a video showing me spinning it around to give the color shifting effect. I honestly don't remember realizing that when I bought it from A Critical Hit at Cincycon 2024. Had I known that, I would have bought more than one!

    The material takes looks purple at a certain angle -- I have no idea how the physics of it work!

Molded onto the outside of the cylinder are what looks like tendrils of alien vegetation growing up from its base. I painted that dark green and later dry brushed it light green. This was just in case any flocking came off, though. I followed that up with painting white glue directly onto the green areas. I poured Woodland Scenics Blended Grass over it and tapped off the excess. Next, I painted little blobs of white glue on the dried flocking. I pour over it tiny orange spheres that are from a railroad hobby store and meant to represent oranges, I believe. I tapped off some excess then let it dry. Finally, I painted over the flocking and the blobs (some grotesque alien plant life...??) with a 50/50 mix of white glue and water. I'm hoping that I don't get too many of them shedding off while using this piece, and that the glue keeps them in place. Quick update, I know. Look for a longer one on my fourth mission for Five Parsecs from Home soon!

    Now the Alien Nodule takes on a green hue - is it mimicking the clothes of my crewmen?

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: 170
  

Blast Markers...Finally!

So, I've been wanting to do these for a LONG time. I've used flickering tea candles before to make a log cabin on fire, cannibal cook pot, and such. Most recently, I used one at the core of my downed helicopter piece of terrain. However, I'd been wanting explosion markers that I can use on the tabletop to either mark burning areas in a scenarios or whatever. What finally got me going in creating these was the idea of using them as Suppression markers in Xenos Rampant Sci-Fi miniatures rules. A suppression marker denotes a unit that failed a Courage test on the previous turn and must attempt to Rally. How to make sure you don't forget to do that? Tiny cardboard counter saying, "Suppressed"...? Heck no! 

    My flickering tea candles with the bases spray painted black (after masking the plastic "flame")

Those who know me have realized by now that any markers I create for a game must ADD to the look of the game -- not detract from it. For example, for Wiley Games you need a number of marker types. You need something to show that figure has acted already this turn (well, at least you should in case your friends might conveniently "forget"!). I use a flocked and textured round base from a pack I bought from Michigan Toy Soldier Company. It looks good on the tabletop and is unobtrusive. You will also might need "Shock" markers. I have tiny brown smoke markers (bullets kicking up dust around the figure?). For a figure that is stealthy, we use a tiny flocked piece of vegetation. Long ago, they earned the nickname "hunker bushes" to mark figures that had "hunkered down" to gain better defense.

    The "batting" material used to stuff pillows or teddy bears before spraying black

So, it should be no surprise that, once I'd decided to create these, I bought a pack of small, flickering tea lights from Hobby Lobby. I immediately went out and watched a bunch of YouTube videos on how to create explosion markers from them. In the end, this is what I decided to do, step by step.

1. Put masking tape or painters tape around the plastic "flame" part of the candle. Then spray paint them with matte black paint or primer.
2. Use wire cutters to cut off the flame at about the halfway point. You need a wide enough area to insert three fiber optic cables.
3. Cut three different lengths of 2mm fiber optic material. I had to buy it off Amazon because I couldn't find any store locally that sold it. Insert those into the open area of the plastic flame and press them down against the tiny little LED light at the bottom. Add Tacky Glue where the fiber optic material touches the edge of the plastic flame you cut off to affix it in place.
4. Once dry, take pliers to flatten out and deform the ends of the fiber optic material so it looks like slag or molten fragments being flung into the air.
   
5. Cut a section of "batting material" -- the stuffing you put in pillows or teddy bears. Cut it so it falls just short of the height of your shortest of the three pieces of fiber optic. Make it long enough to wrap around the base of the tea candle.
6. Place the batting material on a box or something and spray paint the material black, darker at the bottom (to cover up the tea candle once you affix it), but more irregularly nearer the top. There should be a mix of white, gray, and black in your plume of material.
7. Coat the outer cylinder of the tea candle with Tacky Glue, then wrap the batting around it. Don't press it in too hard or the glue will bleed through and make shiny clear spots. The material just needs to NOT unwind.
8. Ka-BOOM -- you're done! 

The tea candle with three lengths of 2mm fiber optic cable inserted into the plastic "flame"

My explosion markers are shorter in height than some you may see on some YouTube videos. That's because I want them to be markers to remember which units are suppressed and have to check morale. And with one of these things flickering in front of the unit, there's no way you'll forget!

    Outer edge of the tea candle painted with Tacky Glue and the batting material that will go around it

Here's a link to the "One Man and his Brushes" blog entry that inspired me, just to let you know that I didn't think of all this myself! What's next on my painting table. More zombies! These the the infected style zombies from the show, "The Last of Us." I currently have the flesh and base coat on the clothes competed. So, expect these early next week!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 64
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 80

 

Drums 2024 Purchases

    'One of these days...' I will get around to doing Mesoamerica gaming, so I bought some more terrain

In reading Convention Director Doug Johnson's posts about last weekend's Drums at the Rapids 2024, I saw something about Armory Hobbies going out of business and liquidating their stock at the convention as a vendor. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn't place what they carried. Turns out it was convention regular Dan Straub and he was getting rid of as much as people would buy - 50% off. One of the things he carried regularly was terrain by my favorite, Acheson Creations. I knew that I would be picking some stuff up, as I love me some Acheson!

    A nice-sized Sci-Fi building, and at 50% off, was definitely worth picking up for current projects

He brought quite a few things I had not seen anyone stock for awhile, including the pier/bridge set, the American Frontier blockhouse, Native American palisades, and more. However, I had enough of those, so concentrated on things for current or potential future projects. An example of a "one of these days" projects is my growing collection of Mesoamerican terrain and figures. I currently don't game Maya, Aztec, or Incan periods, but plan on doing it one day. When my friend Bryan Borgman was getting rid of his Acheson stuff, I picked up some of the Acheson line he had in stock. So, I snagged all three of Armory's Olmec heads, his only reclining Chac Mool god, and a more generic tumbled ruin.

    A Marx footbridge (or gallows?) that will also work great in 28mm scale for a number of things

In the category of good for current projects, there was a nice, big Sci-Fi building that I picked up, as well. I have a number of smaller Acheson Sci-Fi scatter buildings that I'd painted up, but this was a bigger one, and I could use a few more bigger ones. It will paint up quickly, I'm sure. Once I get my first game of Xenos Rampant under my belt, I am sure I will snag this one off the shelf and get it ready for the tabletop soon. There was also a pair of non-Acheson pieces that caught my eye. They look like a small wooden plank footbridge, but it could be used for multiple things -- even a gallows! It is probably meant for Marx's 54mm scale stuff, but hey! A bridge is a bridge and it will work fine for 28mm, too.

    At $1 each, it was hard not to pick up a handful of these concrete traffic barriers

And finally, I could resist picking up some more urban scatter for barricades or walls. The tall, concrete traffic barricades can be used in anything from modern to post-apocalyptic games. I have a set of 15mm that I picked up (I believe) from Miniature Building Authority. These were painted up with appropriate African graffiti for my 20mm modern Africa games. I will likely leave these 28mm Acheson ones more generic, though I will doubtless be tempted to paint some graffiti tags on them to make them look more worn and urban. They will also paint up quickly and will supplement my existing (and growing) collection of urban scatter.

    28mm Acheson tire and oil drum barricades -- a bargain from Armory Hobbies at 50 cents each!

The last piece of urban scatter was one Acheson piece I hadn't seen, yet. It was another barricade, but build from a combination of stacked tires and oil drums. I have quite a few Acheson tire scatter, but collected into a barricade was something new. These were marked $1 each, and at half off, were only 50 cents each. I was definitely envisioning these for my post-apocalyptic games. Like all the others, they should paint up quickly, too. By this time, I have painting Acheson terrain down to a system. Its deep detail makes these pieces fairly leap onto the table with just black priming, dry brushing, and a few details. So, hopefully, with me being retired now, they will see the tabletop very soon!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 64
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 67

Purchases from DayCon 2024 (More 3-D printed Goodies!)

 

    Some 1:50 scale 3-D printed vehicles that I purchased at DayCon 2024 from Diabolical Terrain

I went to DayCon 2024 this past weekend, looking forward to Adrian John's Saga tournament. I was also looking forward to Diabolical Terrain being there, as well. Ron has been a regular vendor at DayCon and makes it to Advance the Colors in Springfield, OH, as well. I have purchased a number of his 3-D printed items and his prints are always of high quality. Lots of 3-D printed scatter or terrain has the little ridge lines, but his are almost always smooth and clean. 

One of the main things I wanted to see was his collection of 1:50 vehicles meant for modern or post-apocalyptic games. I brought along one of my 1:48 scale die cast vehicles that I'd purchased for my upcoming County Road Z games to see how they matched size-wise. They definitely looked close enough. Ron was having a buy one, get one free sale, so I picked up two land cruiser jeeps and two SUVs. My recent die cast purchases included pickup trucks and vans, mostly. So, these would round out choices for my players as their "ride" in the games I'm planning.

    Some more Sci-Fi scatter terrain that I picked up from Diabolical Terrain at the show

A couple posts ago, I had featured some of his Sci-Fi scatter terrain. I saw more pieces that I hadn't seen before, so picked up a good double handful of them, as well. I really liked the small ones that looked like...um, not sure what they were. But they looked science-fictiony! Ha, ha! These could be power stations or whatever, so they'll come in handy to make my Xenos Rampant games look better.

    Rocky formations of various sizes that caught my eye at the convention - they should paint up easily!

Finally, Diabolical Terrain's booth had a large selection of rocky outcrops of various sizes. I was drawn to the really big ones, but decided instead to purchase more of the small and medium sized ones. These will really make a tabletop look more wild and foreboding. I'm drawn between basing them on plastic styrene or just painting them up free-standing. If I don't put them on a base it will likely be harder to add various bits of vegetation around them, which I think will really make them blend in well on the battlefield.

    10-drawer organizer that I picked up from Container Store to house my scatter terrain

With retirement only about five weeks away, I wouldn't be surprised to see these get painted up sooner rather than later. Where will I store all this stuff? Well, I recently made another purchase to help out with that. I went to Container Store and found a standing cart with 10 drawers to store my scatter terrain. I put white felt on the bottom of each drawer to keep it from moving around, and didn't install the clips that prevent the drawer from coming out. That way, I can just pull out the drawer and walk it over to the tabletop to help with setting up. I liked this cart so much I am thinking of going out and buying a second one! Not sure if Jenny will like how the gaming closet is migrating outside its double doors and taking over the basement, though...ha, ha! We shall see. I put a lot of things in the cart that I might put back onto the shelves in my gaming closet. There's a lot more free space in there than before!

    

    A closeup of one of the drawers already filled up with scatter terrain

What's next on my painting desk? Two things are primed are started, currently. I picked out a bunch of miscellaneous items from the Terrain Crate uber-box I'd purchased at a flea market from my friend Bryan Borgman. I'll need these for objective tokens for County Road Z games. So, they are black primed and sitting on my desk alongside my first batch of 3-D printed zombies. I even have "flesh" painted on those, so my next update will likely include the first zombies I have ever painted up...

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 64
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 47