Hopefully, These are the Droids I'm Looking For...

    A dozen droids from various manufacturers, including a few scratch-built from scatter terrain

As I gear up for running Star Wars themed skirmish games, there was one thing I was certainly lacking: droids. Not war bots and military stuff like that -- I had painted up a good number of those already. I'm talking about the civilian type ones like C3PO or R2D2. They didn't have to be copies of those two. Any unarmed, robot or droid-like figures would work. Remember the scene inside the Jawas vehicle when those two were captured during the first Star Wars movie? There were LOTS of different sizes and shapes, so I felt I had a relatively free hand.

    Remember the 'Walking Trash Can' droid from Star Wars? Here's my version of 'Gonk'

One source was the Retro Raygun line from Hydra Miniatures. On our trip up to the Michigan Toy Soldier & Figure Company, I snatched up three types there. I also picked up some from RRB. Minis & More from the venerable Reviresco 28mm line. And finally, while painting up some of my 3-D printed scatter from Diabolical Terrain, I noticed some of the cylindrical pieces looked very droid-like. They would needed treads or something to give them mobility to be attached underneath, though. Rich Brown of RRB came to my rescue and pointed out stuff in his catalog that would work. 

So, once assembled, I had a very large batch of miniatures to paint at once. I prefer to work on about a half dozen or so at a time, but this was twice that size -- 12 figures. I started out with putting them together. My friend Jason had told me a trick to use with superglue -- have a light dusting of baking soda on one of the halves to be joined together. According to him, it would cause the glue to cure superfast. Since I am so untalented with superglue, I figured superfast superglue might be easier to use. I tried it out when assembling the various arms, heads, etc., together. I did seem to work much faster and hold strong. Thanks for another modeling or painting tip, Jason!

    I took pieces of scatter terrain that looked vaguely like R2D2 and gave them treads

I began with the Diabolical Terrain scatter pieces. I chose the smallest size of three different types of cylinders I'd purchased back at DayCon 2024 in April. I used my hobby saw to separate the bottom quarter or so from the rest of the piece. Only one cut went awry or uneven, but I hoped I could hide it with the RRB treads I would be gluing to the bottom of them. I cleaned up the treads and they were perfect size. They came from three of their Sci-Fi vehicles -- two tank-like ones and one "Jungle Bot." The hardest part was setting them upright for the cylinder to rest upon. Afterwards, I thought "Duh!" I should have glued the treads to the base first! I didn't use superglue for this, I used modeling cement that I have been using for assembling multipart plastic figures. They came out pretty good -- one or two has a gap if you look closely, but all in all, I was happy with how they came together. 

    Good view of the treads which I scavenged from Reviresco bots I bought from RBB Minis & More

I primed them with white artist's Gesso (another Jason tip), because I wanted the main color for most of the droids to be white. It seemed to be a predominant color in the Jawas collection in the movie, at least. Once drying overnight, I gave it a coat of white. I chose to do one accent color on each droid, doing red, blue, and green ones. I also painted the little rectangular panels black and gave them glowing buttons like I did my scatter pieces. I went back and forth whether to give these a wash to dull them up (they were really bright white), and finally decided to go with a dusty brown. After they dried, I gave them a spray clear coat. Upon examining them, I felt they were too dirty, and did a very light white dry brush over the darker parts to brighten them up, again. I know the droids were probably sitting there thinking, "Make up your mind...!"

    Two 'Simon 6' robots from Hydra Miniatures' 'Retro Raygun' line that I liked

Next up were the Retro Raygun robots, Blocko the Squarebot and Simon 6. While assembling these miniatures, I had noticed that the torso and legs of Block looked quite a bit like Gonk, aka the "Walking Trash Can" droid from Star Wars. So, I decided to not glue on the arms or head and have him be my take on Gonk. The others were put together correctly and primed with gesson and given a white base coat. I did the two Simons first, giving one of the red trim on a white body. The next, I left the trim white and repainted the body blue. This reversing of colors has a nice effect, I thought. I gave them a glowing green power indicator in their chest and red eyes. Otherwise, they're painted to be similar in theme to the scatter droids I did first.

    'Blocko the Squarebot' as envisioned by Retro Raygun and then re-imagined as a Star Wars 'Gonk'

Blocko I wasn't sure how to paint. I decided to go with a dull yellow as his basecoat. I painted the arms and legs a pale blue. I guess I decided to depart from the white and trim color theme here because I wanted it to look different than the two Simon robots. I gave him some dark blue metallic trim that I think sets him off a bit. He got the usual lighted yellow, green, blue, red, and white lighted buttons and dials, too. As I was painting him, I felt he looked so retro as to be almost cartoonish. However, once he was done, I was more pleased. After all, C3PO has theose shocked eyes and mouth, too.

    One of the easiest droids to paint up, two of Retro Raygun's 'Hoverbots'

Finally, it was on to the little ones. From Retro Raygun, I picked up a pack of five Hoverbots. Since this batch was so big already, I decided to paint just two of the five. To pick up trash on the ground, I bought a pack of three Reviresco Monowheel Scavengers from RRB Minis. These are pretty cool looking figures, being built around a single wheel, with metallic cover and body. Attached are two robot arms. What really sets them off is their wide open jaw with metal teeth at the front of the robot. I figured these guys buzz around the streets picking up trash and depositing in their mechanical mouths.

    3 'Monowheels' from Reviresco -- I imagine them as rolling garbage collectors scooping up trash

I wasn't sure how to paint them, so did a little bit each time. I began with a gesso and then white base coast. Next, I did the wheel a dark gray rubber. I made the metallic cover for the wheel Iron Wind Steel. I finally decided to use a color for the various trim pieces like I did with Simon 6. I decided the trim would be in normal flat acrylics, but the wheel color would be in a matching metallic color. From being unenthused about them initially, I'm pretty happy with how they came out. Strangely, though, I managed to have one of the blue one's arms come off and have yet to find it! So, I painted over the socket and I have one Mark I version and two Mark II's...ha, ha!

All of the droids and robots got my new Sci-Fi flocking. Rather than putting on Blended Gray fine ballast and then giving it a dark wash, I decided recently to buy a fine black ballast from the local model train supply store. I then dry brush this gray, cutting out a couple steps and using less of my black wash. Add in some brownish tufts and an occasional large patch of stones, and they're done. 

    Another looks at the back of 'Blocko the Squarebot' and my modification of it for 'Gonk'

This batch of 12 took a long time to paint up. I did it in stages, as I mentioned. I'm happy with how they look, though. Will a dozen civilian droids be enough for my games? Wellll, I do have two more Reviresco models I bought, and there are three more Hoverbots. Oh, and I have three more of those Diabolical scatter pieces I turned into droids. We'll see. I'm hoping, as the title of this entry suggests, that these are the droids I've been looking for, though!

What's up next? I am finished with two batches of Acheson scatter pieces. They are barricades made of stacks of tires and oil drums and also tall concrete barricades. As soon as I finish the flocking and take pictures of them, I will put them up here. As far as miniatures go, I'm thinking that the next minis I paint may well be the 'Criminal' faction for my Star Wars skirmishes. Stay tuned to find out!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 208

Giving Alpha Strike 'Stompy Robots' a Try

    My smaller Mech unsuccessfully plays 'Hide and Seek' with Jenny's bigger one in Alpha Strike

I've been remiss in documenting our gaming sessions, lately. It seems all of my blog posts are about painting miniatures or creating terrain. However, we do game weekly on Sunday evenings. I'd estimate one out of every four sessions is miniatures, though lately we've been doing minis more often. Our host is ambivalent about miniatures and prefers board games, but humors us. Here are some pictures from last Sunday's learning game of "Alpha Strike" -- the latest iteration of BattleTech, I believe.

    Not sure if the game is designed for 8 players, but Andy and Mike S gave it their best shot

Andy S and Mike S both wanted to play it. Keith also had a handful of mechs, which he has run the Wiley Games version (Alpha Suit). However, we used all of Andy's stuff this time. He tried to explain the whole "lore background" or history of the BattleTech universe, but we probably weren't as interested in that. We were more focused on learning the rules. Andy set up a city center amidst a wooded and hilly area, and then proceeded to put all his mechs out on the table for us to choose from.

    My force of 3 Mechs moves towards the cover of the center of town that Andy had set up

We were instructed to take 100 points worth, but not mix "Clan" and "non-Clan." He had a term for the non-Clan mechs, but I can't remember it at this point. I chose three -- a Guillotine, Wolverine, and Commando. The rules were pretty easy to pick up, though Andy had some modifications. He and Mike S went back and forth on deciding how to do the sequence of play. Alpha Strike appears to be a two-player (or at least two-sided) game, and our group doing an 8-player free-for-all probably was going to call for some changes. As usually seems to happen lately, the Wiley Games card activation system was inserted. Since all mechs move before any firing, it was actually an advantage to draw lower value cards and go last (which explains my Ace-King-Queen draw on Turn 1 or 2...ha, ha!

    Once in town, my Mechs go in all around defense try not to expose their vulnerable rear (???)

Andy and Mike made some changes on the fly, including scrapping a weird provision which allows the last moving mech to fire first and then returning to movement order. They said it doesn't matter since all firing is simultaneous, which made me wonder why we bothered to even use the cards to determine order of shooting. It got really weird when one mech wanted to charge another one and enter hand-to-hand combat. Apparently, big stompy robots (or "pilots" in mech suits) still do that far in the future. They ruled that if you charged an enemy mech who hadn't moved it could simply move away and avoid melee on its turn. Hunh?? They searched the rulebook and couldn't find a solution to this conundrum, so that was the way we played it.

    Two of my mechs fire at Jenny's force advancing - our 'cover' proved essentially worthless

All in all, the rules worked. Beginning with your skill value, adding cover and range modifiers, and the enemy's target modifier produced the score you needed on 2d6 to exceed for a hit. Once you hit, Andy's other change was that you roll 1d6 for each damage you would normally score on the enemy. If you rolled a 1-2, it was a miss. Guess what I rolled a lot of that evening? My dice rolling is usually pretty streaky, and tonight it was definitely on a bad streak. By the end of the game, I think I had scored only five total damage points on Jenny or Allen's mechs. Some mechs were doing more than that on just one hit!

I've never really been a fan of big stompy robots, aka Mech games. I will play the game again if they run it, of course. However, it didn't inspire me to go out and purchase the rules or begin buying and painting mechs. Instead of Mechs, it was more "Meh"....ha, ha!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 200 (see next update)

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 

Purchases from Advance the Colors 2024

    My acquisitions from ATC 2024 all laid out on my purchased "Frostgrave" snow neoprene mat

Advance the Colors is my local HMGS chapter's flagship convention. As such, it is the "biggie" for me as far as time and effort I put into helping organize and run it. This year, I was the vendor coordinator, flea market coordinator, and all-around assistant for Convention Director Randy Miller. At any convention I attend, I like to support the vendors and make (probably) more purchases than I truly need. However, without dealers at a convention, something is missing, I feel. You need gamers, GMs, and vendors -- the three legs of the stool -- for a truly fulfilling, good con. My opinion, of course!

So, it is no surprise that I spent a lot of money at ATC this year (um...again). I thought I'd do a blog post running down what I acquired at the show. I say acquired rather than purchased because I actually won a couple things in the raffle - woo-hoo! I can pretty much guarantee this will be the last major purchase(s) of the year for me. In fact, it may be my last convention of the year. There's an outside chance I will go up to Fort Meigs in Perrysburg, OH, for World at War, Nov. 1-2. Considering I leave for Morocco less than weeks later, there is a possibility it won't happen, though. We shall see.

    I picked up both of these boxes -- not for Stargrave -- but for my Sci-Fi skirmishes from Shieldwall

Let's talk about the simplest purchase, first. I need some Star Wars style "rebels" for my Sci-Fi skirmishes. I have painted up quite a few things I can use for mercenaries, corporate security, imperial stormtroopers (see next post), criminal syndicates, and even some Mon Calamari ("It's a trap!"). However, I really don't have anything that screams rebellion type figures if I am doing a skirmish in the Star Wars universe (which I want to do). I knew my friend Jeff Gatlin of Shieldwall Gaming carries the Stargrave plastic kits, so I searched online through the various sets on his website. Sure enough, one of the "Crew" sets seemed to fit the bill. Since he's such a great guy, and I wouldn't be purchasing any Saga stuff from him this show, I bought both the "Crew" and "Crew II" boxes. And yes, for some reason, I can actually handle assembling these plastic figures. Normally, I hate putting together multipart figures and avoid them like the plague. However, since I already have successfully done so with the Troopers and one of the Mercenaries boxes I bought from him, I figured (ha, ha) I could handle these.

    A section of my 6'x4' snow and ice or 'Frostgrave' mat I purchased from Griffons Lair

Speaking of Stargrave, which I do not play, I did pick up a 6'x4' neoprene mat for the original game in that series, Frostgrave. I wanted it because it is one of the few types of terrain that I don't have a big mat for. I have jungle, desert, plains, rocky, etc., but no ice. It just so happened that a new vendor to ATC, Griffons Lair from Erie, PA, had a nice selection of mats. I noticed the snow and ice one right away after they finished setting up on Friday. I waited till Saturday to buy it -- probably not wise, in general -- but luckily no one else had picked it up, yet! I know that I won't use it all that often, but it was something I had been looking for to have waiting when I did need one. Remember - I always try to support the vendors at the conventions I attend! 

    My raffle win from ATC -- I know nothing of the game, but thought a couple minis looked cool

Speaking of Griffons Lair, they were the vendor who donated the raffle item that I won this weekend. They are from a game (or line of miniatures?) called ABC Warriors. The tag line on the Warlord Games website says, "Supreme military robots, created for a conflict that ended centuries ago, the ABC Warriors are built to endure warfare in all its deadly forms – atomic, bacterial and chemical.." My friend Mike S pointed them out to me as we were cruising the three tables stocked with raffle donations. I am generally not a fan of "big stompy robots", but who knows? Maybe I could find a use for one or more of these very interesting looking miniatures! Anyway, if you look at the price tags on each box in the picture above, you see how incredibly generous Griffons Lair (and all the other vendors who donated items at ATC), truly were! Thanks, Steven and James -- it was nice to have you at our convention and hope to see you back again next year!!

    More purchases for my Sci-Fi games from RRB Minis & More -- lots of robots/droids!!

Another of my "acquisitions" ended up costing me no cash, as well. I had picked out a few things from my friend Rich Brown of RRB Minis and More's website before the convention and asked him to bring them down. I have a few of his Sci-Fi scatter items painted up and part of my collection. I picked out a few more -- 3-D printed Large and Very Large Habitat pods, as well as a large Arcane Energy Collector. What I really wanted from him were some robot or droid like figures from the venerable Reviresco line of metal miniatures. Particularly, I wanted ones with tracks like the Robot Power Gun I painted up almost a year ago. I picked up a half dozen of these figures. There is a very good chance I will cannibalize one or more of them for their tracks. I plan to paint up/model a variety of droids and robots soon for my Sci-Fi skirmishes, and these are a big part of my plan. Oh, and I say "acquired" rather than purchased because I traded some painted Splintered Light Miniatures for them (see below).

    My purchases from Diabolical Terrain include three large, 3-D printed Sci-Fi buildings

Speaking of my Sci-Fi games, I have picked up quite a bit of scatter for those games from my friend Ron Weaver of Diabolical Terrain. Ron and I regularly give each other grief, but he does some of the cleanest 3-D printing around. You have to struggle and look closely to find any print lines. Normally, they disappear immediately once you prime the model. I appreciate him taking the extra time to print a high quality product. This time, though, I was picking up buildings. I got three relatively large Sci-Fi buildings that wouldn't look out of place on Tatooine for what I feel was a very good price. They will be painted up relatively soon, and will likely be ditching other buildings that were in line ahead of them! In addition, he had some cool Sci-Fi trucks that would look good at a spaceport or something, so I grabbed one of those, too. My final purchase from him was some textured round bases for Sci-Fi figs. Just in case I want to mix things up and use something besides my "asphalt" look, these will come in handy.

    Not exciting looking now (bag of MDF) but these are really cool pieces of terrain from Dad's Armies

Another vendor who made the trip to Springfield, OH, from Pennsylvania was Dad's Armies. Sorry for the lack of a link, but reach out to me in person for an email of one of the owners. I believe they are still working on getting a webstore up and running. Anyway, John and his wife Patty Elbro purchased the Impudent Mortals line back in 2021, I believe. They carry a variety of items besides that line, but I was excited to pick up some of their MDF Sci-Fi terrain. Much of it has of a gritty, industrial look -- perfect for the Star Wars universe. My friend Mike S went to town and bought quite a bit of it. I limited myself to a really cool saucer-shaped building, a Rylos Arctec TL-42 space fighter, a "hopper" flying vehicle, and a leaf punch from Green Stuff World.

    My friend Derek J kindly gave me a couple retirement gifts - modern scatter for my games

The last "acquisition" was a gift from my friend Derek J from Indiana. He and I have a running joke that he's going to steal my scatter terrain off of my tables (especially my tree stumps). In honor of my retirement, Derek (one of the nicest guys you will ever meet at a game convention) bought me a handful of various modern scatter. One box was a Scenics Accents Street Accessories in HO scale. The other looked 3-D printed and includes three soda machines, ice cream cart, dumpsters, trash cans, fire hydrants, and street lights. These are all painted or printed in color and will need only a small base and a dark wash to be ready for the tabletop. Thanks, Derek!

All of these purchases were actually more than paid for, though, by a couple sales of painted miniatures that I made (or delivered) at ATC. I mentioned the Splintered Light Miniatures that I traded to Rich of RRB Minis, above. In addition, a week or so before the convention, I asked him if he'd be interested in my collection of Mice, Squirrels, Raccoons, and Foxes that I had painted up long ago. They were based on large hexagons for a fantasy miniatures rules system that I never got around to writing. I knew Rich played and enjoyed Mice-at-Arms from Grey Area Games (same author as Zombie RV). I figured he might want these to use for that game. Unfortunately, those big hexagon bases of Splintered Light Miniatures have sat on my shelf, unused, for a decade or so. They have all kinds of cool custom banners and are painted to a high quality, I feel. He bought the whole set from me for a very fair price, I felt. In addition, at the show, I let him pick through my individually based Splintered Light animals, and he grabbed enough to offset the RRB purchases I was making from him. Finally, a newer Saga player borrowed my Republican Roman army to use in the Friday tournament at ATC. She had fun with them and I asked her if she wanted to make an offer for them. We agreed on a price. So, like at Historicon, all of my purchases AND my hotel and food expenses were funded by my own sales. Score one for being a (relatively) responsible retiree...ha, ha!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226 (sigh...well, I WAS in the green for awhile!)
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 183 

RV Scratch-Build for...well, Zombie RV!

    Zombies swarm survivors holding out atop their RV, scratch-built from a pizza truck die cast shell

Readers of my blog know that I've been playing Zombie RV over the last few months. Instead of an RV, I've been using my 3-D printed vans, SUVs, land cruisers, etc. But the name of the game is RV (or campervan, Airstream, mobile home -- whatever you want to call it), so I've been trying to pick up one either from die cast, 3-D print, or anything, really. After striking out finding anything I liked commercially, I finally decided to scratch-build my own. I picked up a inexpensive pizza truck die cast toy from the local grocery store and set out to convert it into a recreational vehicle for my survivors.

    The material I used to convert the pizza truck into an RV was JTT Corrugated Siding sheets

First step was to find the corrugated material I intended to plaster onto the sides. I was surprised that the local craft and model trains didn't carry it any longer. I ended up having to order it on Amazon. No biggie, but my mantra is to shop local and support the hobby and craft stores. I feel that if we all end up ordering things online rather than driving down the street to get what we need, our local stores are going to go out of business. Others may disagree, but I feel pretty strongly about it.

    1st step was to glue wooden craft sticks to the corners of the truck to create the frame & level surface

Next step was to cut to size and glue craft sticks to the corners of the flat sides so that the material would have an even and not sloped surface to adhere to. I used tacky glue to do that because the plastic material was going to completely encircle the vehicle. The chances of it being popped off were slim, I felt. The craft stick frame also gave something for the corrugated material to attach to at all corners. 

    Next step was to glue the corrugated material to the craft sticks and front of the truck

You've heard the phrase, "Measure twice, cut once?" I took that to heart and double checked my measurements when I but the corrugated material in the next step. I wanted it to be as exact as possible (especially on top, where I wanted the vent fan to project through a hole). I was pleased that the care I took paid off and I had no disasters or mistakes from bad measurements. Essentially, I was enclosing the pizza truck in a corrugated rectangular box. RVs tend to have a grooved or corrugated material, it seems, so I chose this material to make it give that effect.

    No matter how careful you are cutting, there will be gaps where they don't join perfectly

Even though I feel I did a pretty good job cutting the five sides (including the top), I knew there would be places where it didn't line up perfectly and there would be gaps. The photo above shows what it looked like after all the sheets were glued onto the truck and craft stick frame. Besides no cutouts for the wheel wells, it looks a little haphazard, doesn't it?

    These L-shaped pieces of plastic would cover up the joins between the sheets and any gaps

I had planned for that, though! The local model train store has a great selection of Evergreen plastic pieces (no corrugated material, but lots of rods, L-shapes, U-shapes, and so on). I bought two sizes to be on the safe side and went with the larger one. Weirdly, I don't have a picture of the size I ended up using -- "295" or 5/32". Anyway, I carefully measure these and glued them into place. Where one L-section joins another, you have to slice away a little rectangle of the material otherwise it will stick out. That called for even more careful measurement!

    The RV after the L-shapes are glued into place at each join and the wheel wells cut out

In the end, all these extra steps give you a much more smooth looking vehicle. L-shape pieces can also be used for MDF or hand made buildings at the corners to give it a smoother look, too. As for the wheel well, I kind of eyeballed it. I traced a likely looking arc onto a piece of cardboard. I cut it out the cardboard, and then traced its arc onto the corrugated material with a Sharpie. The corrugated material is thin enough it can be cut with a sharp pair of scissors, which I did carefully, then covering up the edge with arcs of cardboard to represent the trim. The base RV was done. Now, it was time to trick it out with windows, doors, and other accessories!

    The window frames were pieces of MDF from a bag of doors and various other Sci-Fi pieces

I dug through all my various MDF pieces and other terrain pieces looking for something I could glue onto the sides of the RV to be the window frames. Eventually, I found some "Block O" shaped pieces that I thought might work. They were a little thicker than I liked, but the shape appealed to me, so I went with them. I would put two windows on the side without the door and one on that with it. The back, besides the ladder, would have a narrow oval shaped window which I also had a piece of MDF to match.

    Before gluing the MDF window frames to the RV, they were first glued to clear plastic surface

Some of you may be thinking, "Wait -- won't the corrugated material look silly as a window?" YES! You are correct! However, I thought of that beforehand, as well. I dug through my unpainted stuff and found something in a blister pack. I cut out the thin plastic material and glued the MDF window frames to them, first. Then I used an X-acto knife to trim the edges. The blister pack plastic would sit atop the corrugated material and would paint smooth, giving a more believable window.

    The back of the RV with all of its add-ons done, including a ladder and big electrical outlet socket

I got really lucky on the ladder to attach to the RV! I had recently bought some 3-D printed trailers and a water tower from Bad Goblin Games, each of which included ladders in them. Some of the ladders were a bit long, and I could cut off just enough to make a nice ladder on the back of the RV. The circular MDF piece above is meant to simulate an electrical plug-in (in happier, pre-zombie apocalypse days...).

    The other side of the RV with the door, a Liberty Bell coin, and a tank and tube on top

For the RV's door, I just used a piece of balsa wood with a slatted look to it. I created a frame for it from craft sticks, and then almost forgot to glue on a tiny piece of dowel as the door handle (look for the finished pictures to see this late, oh crap, addition! The coin with the Liberty Bell on it has been sitting in my bits box for a couple decades, I would guess. I knew I would use it one day, and today was that day! I glued it to the side so that it would have a nice, patriotic design on the side. Atop the roof, I added a 3-D printed propane tank on its side and a piece of pipe from Miniature Building Authority. I decided not to use the tire in the end, as you will notice in the finished pictures. I figured it didn't make sense to store spare tires up there -- how would you get them up there? And would you just toss them down??

  RV painted and covered in a dirty black wash to simulate the grime accumulated since the apocalypse

I painted the corrugated material with white acrylic gesso, in hopes it would stick to the plastic surface better than just ordinary primer. The corrugated material was painted a craft paint called "Maple Sugar" and then dry brushed a very light yellow. Since nearly all RVs you see on the road are two-tone, I decided to go with a dull red since, well, the die cast truck was red! The corrugated material made making the stripes easier than it might have otherwise, just following in the grooves. I dry brushed the red trim with salmon to give it an equally worn look. The propane/water? tank atop was painted Iron Wind Metals Steel and highlighted Pewter. Same with the ventilation grill on the roof.   

    Zombies swarm the RV on all sides, looking for a way to get at the survivors atop it

I am really happy with how the RV came out. It is not perfect, of course. I need to make the sides of the RV not drag so low to the ground. Maybe there is a way to glue the wheels into place so it stands off the ground a little higher? Or, as I plan on doing another one, I could always cut the corrugated material shorter leaving a higher ground clearance. The window frames are probably too chunky, too thick. For my next one I will experiment with something smaller. I imagine I could also just use thick cardstock cut to the correct shape. I got lazy on the windows. I did them like the windshields on my 3-D printed cars, and it doesn't look as convincing here. Another idea I had was to find an image online of curtains pulled back in a window and just print it out and glue it into place. I may try that for the next one.

    Will the survivors drive off the hordes from their rolling home? Stay tuned & see in Zombie RV!

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 

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!"??