O'Brian's Pot O' Gold Motel - 28mm MDF Building

The Eastmoor Kings check out the action at O'Brian's Pot O' Gold Motel, my newest 28mm MDF building

Schoolwork has definitely been keeping me busy during our "stay-at-home" time. Another thing keeping me from getting a lot of hobby stuff accomplished is my back injury has flared up, again. Years ago, I herniated a disk while working for the airline. I've kept it under control for the most part in the decade since then, but it has really been bothering me for the last two weeks. I know it is my fault. I spent WAY too much time on the computer -- most of it in a semi-slouched posture in my recliner in the living room. When you add the hours on schoolwork to working on painting miniatures -- or in this case -- painting the MDF building, I aggravated my back. The problem was, it seemed even when I was taking a break from schoolwork I was working on the computer -- laying out Mean Streets, for example.

Full view of the motel, with lift off second floor and roof (with scratch-built sign)

All of this has combined to limit my hobby time in a big way. I will work on school stuff for maybe 40 minutes, then I have to go lay down and stretch out my back. I bought a heating pad to help, but it eats up a lot of my "free time," laying down recovering from the soreness that accumulates when I am doing schoolwork. So, enough excuse making -- it is time to present my latest (and finally completed) 28mm MDF building for my urban terrain. O'Brian's Pot O' Gold Motel is a 28mm Sarissa Prescision MDF building. It is meant to simulate those small, kitschy motels of the late 20th century that have mostly been gobbled up by big chains, nowadays. In keeping with my latest trend, I am naming it after one of our Sunday evening gaming group -- Brian.

Part of my modification - the pillars are meant to be one long piece, but I cut them so one half was attached to each floor

The building was easy to assemble, as per usual with Sarissa Precision. I made a major modification right away, though. The arched supporting pillars at the front of the building are supposed to be all one piece. However, I am so glad I measured them ahead of time, quickly realizing they would make the building too big to fit inside my terrain boxes that I use. So, I sawed them in half and modified how they attached to the building. I also modified the roof, which was simply a flat piece of MDF. I added the trim all around it with square bass wood dowels. I created a sign to sit atop the roof using balsa wood, bass wood trim, paper clips, and felt. All in all, I like the modifications I made to the motel.

The motel with the roof off, showing the second floor guest rooms

The motel would be a small one in the real world, with only four guest rooms. However, it is one of my larger buildings in area, and will need to be split over two of my 13"x13" terrain boxes. The rooms also have a subdivided bathroom, but other than that, it is a fairly simple layout and build. When gluing it together wit Tacky glue, I made use of large rubber bands to hold everything tight in place while the glue dried. The surfaces were prepped in my usual way -- Krylon black acrylic spray paint, followed by a 50/50 mix of black paint and water.

I thought the Kelly green and light gray-green gives it that 1970s kitschy vibe

I decided I wanted a colorful & kitschy scheme for the exterior. If you Google "vintage motels" you see all kinds of turquoise, bright Caribbean colors - you name it. They always seemed to have such distinct names, too. Not the "Days Inn" or "Quality Inn" of today. So, in going with the O'Brian's Irish theme, I decided to do a bright Kelly green for trim, and a light, green-gray for the main exterior. On the inside, I wanted to four different colors for the rooms. I ended up going with a Sky Blue, Golden Yellow, Medium Green, and Burnt Orange. For the bathroom areas, I chose a slightly lighter tone of the wall color of the rooms. One side effect of my black priming method of the MDF surfaces, in essence, is it usually takes more than one coat to give a solid cover of the walls. Three coats, in the case of the yellow.

The stairs are attached to the first floor and are a neat feature of the motel

Next up was the floors. I really like using color-printed patterns for the floors. I toyed briefly with the idea of finding a fabric that would mimic shag carpet, but since the craft stores are closed with Coronavirus, I used patterns I'd printed off with a laser printer at the local office supply store (which is open). For the bathrooms, I chose a black and white checkered pattern and used the same for all four. The other four got either a wooden (or faux wooden) flooring, a patterned linoleum that matched the wall colors. For the heck of it, I decided to put a painting on each wall. I Googled "American landscape" and chose four I liked, gave them a thick, brown border for the wooden frame, and added them to what I needed to print off.

As usual, all signs and graffiti for the building are created in Photoshop or found online and printed off

I also printed off the signs for the building. I learned a few buildings back that my hand is not steady enough to paint the signs. I like the way it looks when I create a sign, or find one online and resize it in Photoshop, then print and glue it to the walls. I also glued graffiti to the side and back outside walls. One touch that I just began doing on my buildings is using Fine Blended Gray Ballast from Woodland Scenics as the concrete areas. The three dimensional aspect of the ballast makes the building "pop" more, in my opinion, and makes it more than simply a printed building made of MDF instead of cardstock.

One of the Eastmoor Kings checks out my scratch-built sign (note the paperclip on the sign's edge)

I knew I wanted to scratch-build a motel sign for the rooftop, but I pondered over how to make it stand up. I just couldn't come up with something for a tripod-like design I could easily do myself. I knew I would use a rectangular slab of bass or balsa wood for the sign, but how to create a stand? I then hit upon the idea of using paperclips, I bent two to be identical, having one arm of the paperclip driven through the top of each side of the balsa wood sign, and another army alongside the edge. Then, the rest of the paperclip was bent to the proper angle and voila! A simple sign. I covered the top of the paperclip with cardstock and the bottom with felt (to make it stick in place on the rooftop ballast). Although it is definitely no frills, I'm very happy with my little sign.

The most unflattering view - the almost prison-like look to the rear of the motel

The final step was to wash the exterior to give it more of a weathered look. I don't always do this, but I am glad I did on this one. I use a bottle I premix of the Vallejo Matte Clear paint with drops of black in it, so I don't have to experiment with the darkness every time. It is fairly expensive, as washes go, so I normally use it only for miniatures. However, I had bought a couple bottles right before the Coronavirus lockdown, so I knew I could mix more up if I ran out.

Close up of the interior of the first floor - note the wall paintings and floor patterns printed off

All in all, I really like the look of this building. I especially like the way the balcony and second story look. I can definitely see scenarios in my gang warfare games where somebody has a rendezvous in Room 4 of O'Brian's Pot O' Gold Motel! Whether to pick up a shipment of something, or take out a rival gang member -- a motel definitely gives me more ideas for missions for the players in my games. What's next on my painting table? Well, I was hoping that my 24 unarmored Viking bondi would have arrived from Footsore Miniatures North America, by now. However, they seem to be backed up and having trouble getting orders shipped, unfortunately. So, I have two new 28mm street gangs primed up and ready to go. So, look for those in the next week or so!

28mm Policeman & Other Things I've Been Doing

Police officers investigate a disturbance in an alley way littered with garbage bags from Miniature Building Authority

I imagine this has been a somewhat productive week for miniatures bloggers. In the spirit of Monty Python's "The Life of Brian," I'm trying to look on the bright side of life (feel free to whistle along...) while the Coronavirus shadow looms over Ohio. Classes at my school district are cancelled in an attempt to limit the spread. This means I am working from home -- creating online assignments, answering questions, communicating with parents, grading, and more. It also means I am at home pretty much all day. That, on the bright side, translates to more hours to spend on miniatures projects.

These plaster barrels sitting outside Wallace's Pub needed only the metal bands painted and basing to be complete

Before we'd closed down, I had pulled out some various modern scatter for my 28mm urban city -- another dumpster, trash bags of different sizes and shapes, and a huge resin heap of rubbish. In addition, I added the four 28mm police officers I'd purchased at Cincycon from Iron Wind Metals to the other four I had never painted, and set them out to clean up and prime. During one of my games at the convention, one of the player's gang got knocked out pretty early. As I was sitting there feeling bad that the game was over for him, I got an interesting idea. Why not, at conventions, have players in a similar situation come back as a police car with a couple officers inside? Have them come in on a random board edge, and get them back in the game.

Ral Partha (Iron Wind Metals) policemen check out a Miniature Building Authority dumpster

Well, to do that, I'd need police! I am also in the process of looking for a suitably sized die cast police car. I know they're out there because I've seen them in other gamers' photos. So, if anybody sees one here in Central Ohio, give me a shout! The police officers themselves were painted dark blue, then highlighted with a brighter blue. There wasn't a whole lot of detail that wasn't uniform bits, so they went really quickly -- black belt, hat brim, and shoes, along with silver for the badges and steel or brown for their revolver or billy club. Pretty soon, I had a force of 8 police officers to clean up the mess my gangs would make of the city!

Most of the garbage scatter were things I picked up last Cincycon from Miniature Building Authority. They're a fantastic store, and make some truly amazing buildings and other miscellaneous things for the wargamer. I had brought a little wad of birthday cash and was planning on spending it with them, but alas, they did not come this year. Some of that went to Iron Wind, instead, of course! For the garbage, I spray primed it all black, then went over it with my usual 50/50 mix of black acrylic paint and water. Next, I dry brushed the dumpster and trash bags Iron Wind Dark Green, followed with Kelly Green highlights. I picked out some other odd bits in different colors, and they were quickly finished.

This garbage heap from Miniature Building Authority was the most overwhelming to focus on details to paint

The trash heap, well, that was another story. It was mind-boggling to look at. There were so many bits of this and that it was hard to focus on anything to decide what color to paint. So, I got out a post-it note, and wrote down a half-dozen things to paint on the first pass -- a sheet of corrugated metal, various tarps, a window frame or lattice, pipes, etc. After that was done, I did it again, picking out some more things. Eventually, everything was painted, and I added in my earth brown for the main part of the heap. I based the heap and the garbage bags on styrene plastic, and then added medium blended gray ballast (I should have used my Fine, though). As a final way to darken up the heap and blend the colors together, I gave it a dark black wash. Finally, I was happy with how my pile of rubbish looked!

There is more on my painting desk that I am working on, but I'll save that for another update. Expect to get at least one Lead Legionaries update a week as long as my school remains closed. Unfortunately, it will be mostly about painting and building and not gaming, as the convention scene is closed for the next couple months at the minimum, I'd say. Even our Sunday night gamers are leaning towards taking a hiatus, though Brian is pushing us towards online board game play. It is Sunday as I post this, so we'll see what happens!

'Mean Streets' a Success at Cincycon 2020

My newest-painted gang, the Franklinton Flippos in their creepy clown masks, saunter past the Shell Station

 As I prepared my gang warfare rules, Mean Streets: War in the Gang-infested Cities for publication, I was hoping that Cincycon 2020 would prove to be the final playtest. The core engine of the rules set had been proven in games I ran for the public at the Ohio History Center (as a simplified American Frontier rules set). The adaption for urban skirmish had worked in the playtests I held with my Sunday night gaming group. Now, I wanted it to meet the convention-going crowd. We all know gamers can do things we'd never expect when planning out our scenarios and writing our rules. Would Mean Streets, my newest rules for First Command Wargames, survive the tables of a wargaming convention?

The Eastmoor Kings investigate the back entrance of Wallace's Brewpub in one of my Mean Streets events at Cincycon

The answer was a resounding success. All of my players seemed to enjoy the game and had a blast rumbling with other gangs on the tabletop. The game seemed fun both on Friday and Saturday night, and in both runnings my players commented on how they liked the simple approach used by the rules. I noticed on Friday night that my players were running their own combats with next to no help from me from turn one. I stepped in a bit more on Saturday, as my players were quite as veteran I had on Friday night. Still, they knew what to do and only needed to ask my ruling when unusual situations came up.

The Bexley Blockwatch keeps an eye on the gang activity in the streets, ready to wield their walking sticks as clubs

I wrote down a few things to adjust in the way the rules are worded (gamers are wonderful at trying to push the envelope in rules, making you rule out the letter of the rules rather than just trying to get by with the spirit). I also learned a couple things on one or two of my missions. One proved too difficult and needs to be tweaked. Another was a bit too easy, I felt (mainly because where I had the gang deploy -- too close to their objective). When I plan on the primary and secondary missions I give gangs in my multiplayer games, I try to make everyone's projected path cross. I purposely adjust their victory conditions so that they have to encounter other gangs. I leave warnings in my mission explanations to look out for a gang looking to intrude on their turf or possibly interfere with them in other ways.

The Hilltop Highlanders cruise past the basketball court on their way towards their objective

In addition, I add in a bit of gang rivalry in the victory points. Players get VPs for knocking out opposing gang members, but certain gangs are worth double points because of a "bad history" with them. This ensures that punches are thrown and the players have a good time mixing it up. Although running around on the table completing missions without a combat may appeal to some players, most want to fight others and get into the spirit of inflicting a beat-down on rival gangs.

A shot of the 5'x4' board I used at Cincycon 2020, with three city blocks separated by two streets and numerous alleys

This game used a 5'x4' board with six players. I started four in the corners of the board, and the other two at the midpoint of the 5' edge. This spaced them out enough that they weren't jumped by other gangs on turn one, but kept them in close enough proximity to each other that fights were sure to develop. I used what are (in my opinion) my six coolest gangs: the Hilltop Highlanders, Sons of Thor (German Village chapter), Bexley Blockwatch, Franklinton Flippos, Eastmoor Kings, and Linden Daos. The Flippos were finished the week of Cincycon, with the final Dullocoate being sprayed on them Wednesday night -- two days before they threw their first punch in a game.

Arthur of the Bexley Blockwatch prepares to enter Wallace's Brewpub, while the civilians get edgy and nervous

I used most of my 28mm buildings that I have been working on for the last couple years in this game. I depicted three city blocks, separated by about 8" of street. The blocks themselves were divided between each building by 3" alleys. I had learned from previous playtests to ensure there was a 3" alley between each building and the board edge so that no one was bottled up too easily. The center block consisted of my buildings with the greatest depth -- Jack & Benny's Old Time Diner, the Shell Station, Sams Quick Mart, and a playground surrounded by a chest-high stone wall. One board edge was the apartment row, with four Sarissa Precision City Block buildings, with my scratch-built basketball court sandwich between. The other long board edge consisted of my two factories, the Street Market, St. Jennifers Church, and the corner of a city park. In retrospect, I think maybe the 8" streets were wider than I needed. I may try to add more depth to one of the blocks and narrow the two large streets. We'll see!

A rumble breaks out in the street between the Hilltop Highlanders and the Sons of Thor

What's more, I decided to upgrade my "chrome" for the convention. I created character cards for each of the six gang members players would have for the game. These were done over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday evening, with the printing and cutting out and putting in sleeves done the night before the convention on Thursday! Each card showed a front and back view of the miniature, along with their stats and special abilities, of course. Players said they were helpful, and I saw them leafing through their cards when they got into a fight to double-check if their figure had any advantages they wanted to make sure they used.

The Linden Daos tag a playground and Sams Quick Mart - notice my newly-made, circular tag markers with gang logos

Finally, I created 3-D "tag" markers. Gangs receive VPs for "tagging" buildings and other structures over the course of the game. They are penalized if a rival gang tags their home turf. I'd created circular logo-style tags earlier in the week for each gang I've painted up. I just wasn't sure what I wanted to attach them to, yet. I stopped in Hobby Lobby after school Thursday, and found a package of 60 circular, foam emoji faces in various colors. The best part was they were adhesive backed, which meant no gluing would be needed. I could peel off the backing and slap the printed out logo on it! I was really happy with how these looked. They look nice on the tabletop, and were a bright, visual reminder of what they'd done so far and where other gangs had tagged buildings. A number of times, they drew rival gangs to the spot to "tag over" their marker and spray-paint their own.

Friday night's five players were a good-natured bunch, except for the punishment they inflicted on rival gangs!

The games themselves went great, I felt. I had five players on Friday night, instead of the six slots I had available. I thought about jumping in myself as the 6th player, but I wanted to see if that unbalanced any of the missions. It didn't. The game went great, and saw lots of laughing and joking as gang members were knocked out, one by one. It also went a lot faster without the sixth player. We were done within 2 hours, including time for explanation of the rules. Saturday's game was full and ran a bit longer. It was still under 3 hours when my players decided to call it when the big, climactic rumble at the end became obvious which way it would go.

The Franklinton Flippos show their gang colors, moving stealthily past the Shell Station towards the main street

I think that big rumble was the most cinematic event of the weekend. The Franklinton Flippos (in their creepy clown masks), had the mission of "Show the Colors." Their job was to saunter down the street in front of the apartments and dare all others to bring it on. They intimidated the Bexley Blockwatch, who scattered into buildings and alley ways to let them pass. As the gang neared their goal of the far edge of the board, they spotted a lone Linden Dao dragging a reluctant basketball player from the court across the street. The Daos' mission was to "Protect a Brother" and go rescue the younger brother of the Gang Boss, who was playing basketball at the courts (and rumor said a hit was planned on). Since the Daos were being run by the brother of the Flippos' player, the temptation was too much to resist. They beat down the long gang member and were then promptly jumped by another three Daos.

The Flippos use their superior numbers to inflict a beat-down on the martial artists of the Linden Daos

At full strength still, the Flippos began to wear the black martial arts gang down. However, that's when the Flippos' West side rivals, the Hilltop Highlanders showed up. Fresh from the beat-down on the Sons of Thor, the Highlanders formed a line and began to slowly close in on the rumble. They soon charged in, and it was obvious they thirsted for clown blood, as they ignored the Daos and began to beat up the Flippos. At the other end of the streets, the Blockwatch appeared. Like with the Highlanders, they formed a line and began to slowly close in on the three-gang rumble. It was certainly a made-for-TV moment! The only thing missing was the clanking of pop bottles and the taunting cry from a hearse, asking the rival gang to come out and play!

The Hilltop Highlanders arrive on the scene, facing off against their hated West side rivals - the Franklinton Flippos

So, I think my players "digged" the rules, and it is my goal to get them layed out and printed by Daycon 2020 next month. A lot of times running games at conventions leaves me stressed out and tired, but this game almost seemed to run itself. That's a good sign, and I find myself re-energized to write the final passages of the rules covering different settings (like The Warriors, or Gangs of New York 19th century, or Peaky Blinders 1920's Engalnd). This is my event I will be running this convention season, so I hope you get a chance to catch it showing at a convention near you this year. The tour includes Cincycon this past weekend, DayCon in Dayton April 17-18, Drums at the Rapids May 15-16, Origins Game Fair June 17-21, Historicon July 8-12, and Advance the Colors Oct. 9-11. I might also run it at a few game shops in between -- we shall see!

Steve Cole, controlling the Flippos, watches his brother Mike move his Sons of Thor in the Saturday game

Master Okambo, Gang Boss of the Linden Daos, talks his younger brother into abandoning his basketball game

'Give me the keys to the red sports car!' demands Delroy, Gang Boss of the Eastmoor Kings, in the Shell service bay

One of my favorite moments of the weekend - Saturday's Big Rumble with three gangs and a fourth closing in

Finished the week of the convention, the Flippos were a hit at Cincycon - if not with their rivals!

Another look at the Flippos, as Marvin, Bud, and Canuck strut down the main street, showing their gang colors

Inside the Brewpub, Arthur - warchief of the Blockwatch - "convinces" the manager to pay protection money to his gang

Mean Streets Mission Testing

Sons of Thor in a photo NOT from the game - actually one Jenny staged for the rulebook when it is published

Lately, we have had the good fortune of having 7-8 players showing up for Sunday night gaming. I decided to take advantage of the numbers and try out an idea that I have for running my gang warfare game, Mean Streets, at conventions. Rather than have one board for six players, I thought about splitting the board into two roughly 3'x3' sections, divided by a bridge over a river, freeway, or something similar. I put out the call and lo and behold had 8 players -- not counting me!

We filled up an 8'x4' table with a giant playtest of my "Mean Streets" gang warfare rules on Sunday night

It took me all day Sunday to set up the scenario, assigning gangs and their respective missions to each of the boards. Each gang would have one Primary Mission and two Secondary Missions to amass victory points. I set up the missions so that the gangs end up bumping into each other to guarantee some fighting. Although I learned long ago that gamers have minds of their own and will do everything possible to ignore the way you're herding them. That proved to be the case on one of the two boards, but certainly not on the other, which was a dustup from start to finish.

The Bexley Blockwatch on patrol - one member taking the opportunity to "tag" a vehicle in the parking lot

With eight players gathered around the table, and getting questions from the players, I didn't get much chance to take pictures. I did get a chance to playtest out some of the newer missions that I'd written. Only one of them will require some tweaking, I think. The others worked out fairly good, although more than one player had his mission abruptly eclipsed when their members were jumped by another gang. In particular, the Grandview Gurkhas (Brian) had the mission to "Show the Colors." This meant sauntering down the main street slowly looking for a fight and showing off their "badassness," as Brian put it. However, they were cornered by the Hilltop Highlanders (Mike W) and engaged in a brutal knockdown, drag-them-out fight that lasted the whole game.

The Hilltop Highlanders emerge from an alley onto the main street - players place their dice indicating actions they rolled next to the figure

This actually meant that the Highlanders, who were supposed to protect Wallace's Brewpub, ended up being too busy fighting to prevent either the Berwick Wangs (Bruce) or the Sons of Thor (Joel) from fulfilling their secondary mission of "Beer Run!" In fact, the Wangs had the mission of essentially getting off the board on the opposite corner from where they entered in, "We Gotta Get Outta Here!" Meanwhile, they were supposed to tag everything in sight with their gang logo and look to leave a few bruises on rival gangs. Bruce ignored the last part of the mission, and his gang members never threw a punch (though they probably ran out of spray paint with as much tagging as they did!). The Sons of Thor were the mystery to me, as they were essentially supposed to roam the table looking for a fight -- they would receive double points for knocking out rival gang members. Joel loves to be contrary (like many a gamer!) and threw all of one punch all night long!

The Linden Daos cruise through the street market, looking for a fight

On the other half of the table, Mike S and his "O-Ren-Ishi School for Girls" jumped Tom's Eastmoor Kings from behind, knocking out their leader in a savage flurry of blades and blows. Tom's boys bolted for the other side of the board and were able to put some distance between themselves and the vicious Japanese schoolgirls! Keith's Linden Daos renewed their bad blood with Allen's Bexley Blockwatch, ignoring their primary mission to knock out all but the Blockwatch's Leader over the course of the game. Keith's leader broke new records for the number of wound markers on him, racking up nine or so, at one point. He was eventually knocked out when the Kings decided to wade into the fray, as well.

Another staged photo Jenny took for the rulebook: The Linden Daos - martial artists that pack a heavy punch!

All in all, it was a good playtest of my newest missions I'd written for the rules. It also allowed me to hone the point costs of various skills that gang members can purchase. I went with smaller forces, too, to test what is a minimum point size for a gang. The rules played fast, as I hoped, with the one game being over within 2 hours, the other following within another half hour. I am thinking that my two games at Cincycon will be the final walk-through of the rules, and that I will begin laying them out for publishing after that weekend.  Stay tuned for more gang warfare on Columbus "Mean Streets!"

Sidewalks for my 28mm Cityscape

The Shell station and a factory atop their newly-created concrete sidewalk slabs - I was very happy with the look!

I've been really busy the last couple weeks creating sidewalks for my 28mm urban terrain. Although I like the look of the black wool felt I am using as asphalt for the streets, I was unhappy with how the equivalent gray felt looked as sidewalks. It was too flat and two-dimensional looking. I went through a few ideas in my head before I settled on creating them out of MDF board flocked with gray ballast.

Another view of my sidewalks using Fine Blended Gray Ballast from Woodland Scenics

I had a lot of assistance from Jenny on this project. Not only did she cut my MDF board with her power tools, she also helped me put felt on the bottom of all my buildings and the sidewalk pieces. I figured this might be needed to keep the buildings from sliding on the flocked surface. The basic idea was to cut a piece of MDF for each building I've made. The dimensions would be 3" larger in both directions than the building itself, giving about 1.5" of sidewalk all the way around.

The Eastmoor Kings gather on the concrete sidewalk corner and in the black wool felt streets

I would then flock the MDF piece with Woodland Scenics Fine Blended Gray Ballast. Sidewalk concrete can be anything from gray to tan, I've found. I liked the look of the blended gray, and I especially liked how it gave it a much more three dimensional look. I began by painting white glue onto the edges of a piece, then pressing it into a 13" square, plastic container filled with the ballast. I found doing the edges first prevented a ridge from forming up on the edges. I then painted white glue on to the top surface of the MDF board. Once covered, I shook the ballast onto the piece, being sure to thoroughly cover its surface.

Their foes, the Hilltop Highlanders, gather on the sidewalk in front of the Shell station

After about a half hour, I tilted the board over the plastic container and dumped off the excess ballast. I then set it out on a flat surface to dry completely. Once dry, I sprayed it with Krylon Matte Clear to seal it in. After that, I gave it about an hour to dry, then I elevated it off of the flat surface. I squirted on a 50/50 mixture of white glue and water. Using a wide brush, I spread it out so it covered the entire surface, including the edges. I made every effort not to over-soak the MDF board, knowing that warping was bound to occur.

After the 50/50 mixture caused some warping, this arrangement would flatten the concrete slab back down nicely

After about an hour, I took it off the elevated surface and laid it out flat on a surface, letting it dry for about four hours. Warping had occurred (as I expected). However, I took four large craft paint bottles and placed them in the center of the board, setting a heavy weight atop them. This forced the center of the board back down. I usually let this sit overnight. When I woke up in the morning, the concrete slab was flat. I sprayed it with Matte Krylon again, and then finally glued gray felt to the bottom surface of the slab so that it could stack on top of others without acting as sandpaper and rubbing it too much.

Only once did I set the plastic bottles atop the flocked MDF board too soon, leaving an impression. I fixed this by simply reflocking those impressions lightly. It covered up the round, flattened dents well. I'm really happy with how these concrete slabs worked out, and will be making more of these as I create more buildings.

St. Jennifers - a Catholic Church for my City

St. Jennifers Church, along with its garden, being staked out by the Hilltop Highlanders -- one of my 28mm gangs

Last month, I attended the Dragon Guildhall's Saga Game Day in Beavercreek, Ohio (Dayton area). The hosts (thanks, Adrian and Jim!) were very generous and gave Jenny and I each a store gift card for making the trip. I decided to buy a Pegasus Hobbies building kit (Gothic City Building Small Set 2) for a church for my 28mm city I'm building. I'm really happy with how it turned out, though I did modify it a bit from "out of the box."

The Pegasus Hobbies boxed set that I constructed St. Jennifers from

The first thing I noticed is that there were few to no instructions on how to put it together. When I opened up the box, there were a bewildering array of hard, gray plastic pieces. Just looking at did not tell me how to construct it. There was one small sheet with three diagrams for specific portions, but no general, overall directions. So, I did what every 21st century gamer does when confronted by something they don't know how to do -- I Googled it! I found a couple videos on YouTube which were useful. One thing I would not have figured out how to do without the videos was to attach the doors to the entrances. Once attached, it is VERY cool how they built it so you can swing them open and closed even after painted.

This is a TALL building, as you can see from the 28mm figures, but detaches in an upper and lower section

The video was fairly thorough, though when it said there are plenty of extra pieces it was dead wrong. You are given j-u-s-t enough pieces for all the various details, like gargoyles and such. One decision I made was to NOT use the flying buttresses. Those are simply too medieval for a 20th century building in downtown America. There are plenty of old, Gothic, neo-Gothic, Romanesque -- whatever -- church is the U.S., but I've yet to see one that has flying buttresses (a term which makes my 7th graders giggle every year when I teach them about Gothic cathedrals!).

My scratch-built roof with its lovely shade of tiles -- the Pegasus kit does NOT come with a roof

Another thing I discovered that the Pegasus set doesn't have is a roof. Really. It is open to the sky. Yes, you can configure it in different ways, so that you could argue that you'd have to include multiple roofs, but that reason falls short a bit for me. I would say that, besides no instructions, that was the biggest shortcoming of the set. Luckily, I am fairly adept at scratch-building. So, using textured styrene, bass wood, and craft sticks, I was able to make a fairly nice looking roof for St. Jennifers -- as I decided to call the church. I have been naming my city buildings lately in honor of my gaming friends, so the church was obviously named after Jenny.

I really like the color and the details on this building -- and apparently, so do the Hilltop Highlanders!

The first step was putting it all together. It snaps together fairly well, but some joins aren't as good as the others. So, I decided to epoxy all the pieces in place permanently. The video suggested disassembling it and reassembling it every time, which was clearly an indication that the video blogger has succumbed to madness. I assemble each of the two levels, and immediately noticed the top story does NOT "easily snap" onto the bottom, as claimed. So, what to do? I decided to saw off the square "tongues" of the tongue and notch construction. Instead, I would put rare earth magnets on the top of each pillar of the bottom level. Where the top level would rest on the pillars, I cut flexible steel bases I'd ordered by mistake from Litko (thinking I was ordering magnetic bottoms for my figure bases). These were glued to the bottom of the pillars on the second level and the magnet and steel join is strong enough that the top level won't slide or move if bumped, but not so strong that you have to pry them apart.

A side view showing all the cool gargoyles and eagles that you can attach onto slots in the pillars

Next, I attached all the trim, which included gargolyes, eagles, knights, and flat blank pieces. There are numerous rectangular holes or slots on the exterior of each pillar. Since I wasn't using the flying buttresses (they also attach to the slots), it meant I actually didn't have enough trim pieces to cover all the holes. I improvised and used some tiny crosses that I'd bought at craft stores to cover the holes on the front and back. My first thought was to put the flat pieces on the bottom level and the gargoyles on the upper level. However, each level looks very much alike and I lost track of what I was doing. So, their are gargoyles and eagles on both the upper and lower levels. I really like the way Pegasus designed this aspect of the model. I just wished they'd given extras of each type, so you could go with all gargoyles, or all eagles, or all flat pieces, etc.

A gang member going in for confession? The doors are richly decorated and swing open and closed after painting

For the church's color, I decided not to go with a gray stone look like the box shows. There is an old church in downtown Columbus (Trinity Epsicopal, I believe) which is done in a beautiful tan-colored stone. I wanted that look for my church, so I knew I would have to paint the interior and walls -- I couldn't use the gray color the plastic was cast in as a base coat. I began by spray painting the interior and exterior of the walls with a medium brown acrylic spray paint I had. Once dry, I brushed on medium brown craft paint that I use for most of my bases. Next, I dry brushed it with a "Fawn" craft paint color. I am actually out of my Howard Hues Khaki that I normally use, and probably won't get a restock till next month.

The stained glass rose windows are simply Google Images printed in color at the local print shop & trimmed to size

But what to use as a wash? I think that a wash over dry brushing softens the look, and kind of "blends" it. I haven't had the best luck simply mixing paint up and watering it down. Normally, I premix Vallejo matte clear with some brown (or black) for a final wash of my figures. It would take ll of my pre-mixed bottle and more if I chose that method, though. So, I decided to purchase and try one of Vallejo's pre-mixed washes, choosing a Dark Brown one. It worked great, I thought. It softens the hard brush strokes of dry brushing, and seeps into the crevices and low spots nicely. Good find! I'm glad I decided to take the plunge and try out their premixed washes, finally!

A look at the magnets I placed on the pillars of the lower level

Next, I built the roof. For the base of the roof I cut two pieces of bass wood to be the main sloping roof sections. However, due to the way the upper level is constructed, simply running them along the triangular eaves and resting them on the stone didn't work -- the angle was slightly off. I had to cut and attach another piece of bass wood to the bottom so it reached the roof and rested on it. Kind of two-tiered roof. To make sure my triangular angle matched the model exactly I attached the two pieces together with duct tape "hinge." That way, they simply fit onto the stone slope perfectly. I set this on the roof, and then cut two pieces of textured styrene for the actual roof surface, epoxying them to the upper sections of the bass wood roof. There was about an 1/8th inch gap between the styrene and lower tier of the roof, which I filled with craft sticks or other pieces of bass wood. I capped it off, literally, with a triangular piece of styrene from the local model train shop. An unexpected bonus was it fit onto the upper story so tightly I would not even need to glue it. I pulled it off again, and spray painted the upper section black. The roof tiles were dry brushed dark red, then Howard Hues Middle East flesh. I loved the color of the roof and am very happy with not only how it looks, but I especially like how well I was able to make it fit!

A look at the interior and textured styrene floor -- note the lamp you can glue onto slots in the interior

Next, I used another piece of textured styrene I'd picked up long ago for the interior floor of the church. I spray painted it black with Krylon arcylic mate, then dry brushed it medium gray and light gray. I epoxied it to the bottom level of the church. Next, I cut a thicker styrene base for the model to sit on and epoxied it to that, too. I flocked the stryene with blended gray fine ballast to appear like concrete, and I was done! Well, of course, I did a coat or two of clear matte arcylic spray for protection, but St. Jennifers was complete. It is a very tall building, but fortunately fits in the snap-together boxes I carry my terrain around in. I'm very happy with how St. Jennifers turned out, and think it will make an excellent addition to my 28mm cityscape!

I built the little church garden using Hirst Arts plaster blocks, Halloween decorations, a spare 28mm girl figure, and plastic fencing from the local train shop