Monday, March 31, 2025

Clothes Lines (with Sheets & Clothes) from MBA

    Three sets of clothes lines from Miniature Building Authority - more decoration for my trailer park!
One of my friends, Jason from South Carolina, suggested that I add clothes lines to my slowly growing 28mm trailer park. That reminded me that a couple years back, I had purchased metal clothes lines strung with laundry and shirts and pants from Miniature Building Authority. I dug through my unpainted terrain and scatter and found that I actually had more than I thought. I had one pack of just a pair of clothes lines, but two packs of their "Clothes Line Set," that included poles, a wash basin, and other things in plastic.

    The 'shirts & pants' side of the pair of lines, along with the wash basin and bucket
I pulled out all of them and sorted through them on my painting desk. I decided to make three sets of clothes lines with poles based on MDF. The Clothes Lines Sets included a plastic base for the poles, but it was horribly warped, and didn't actually look long enough. So, after cutting my MDF bases, I drilled holes to plant the two sets of poles into the base itself. I made a third set of poles with dowel and bass wood, spacing them apart so that the metal clothes lines would rest on the horizontal beam across the pole. I used epoxy to affix the lines to the beams. The metal clothes lines themselves required minimal cleanup of flash. Once everything was upright and secure, I primed them with white Gesso.

    The 'sheets' side of the clothes line
I worked on these a bit at a time while painting up other batches of things on my desk these past two weeks. I did the sheets hanging from the clothes lines first. I chose light, pale "bedsheet" colors -- pink, blue, tan, etc. Then I began working on the shirts and pants hanging from the lines, doing various colors for them, and mixing those colors up amongst the three sets of clothes lines. I did a dry brush on everything after its base coat was painted -- white for the sheets and lighter versions of the base coat colors for the shirts and pants. The clothes lines themselves were painted in a yellowish-white bone color. I wanted them to be different than the white of the sheets, slightly darker. 

    You can buy these either in a set with poles and basins and such, or just a pair of lines with laundry
Once the clothes, sheets, and lines were done, it was time to paint the poles holding up the lines. I did some Google Image searches for inspiration, but couldn't find anything that jumped out at me. So, I decided to fall back on a metal aluminum-looking pole. I did a base coat in Iron Wind Metals Steel color, then Pewter, and finally Silver highlights. It still ended up darker than I wanted, but oh well. These are meant to be for scatter terrain for my modern games -- not for a diorama! I also painted up the wide, wooden wash basins and the smaller buckets to put on the bases, too.

    I painted the sheets in various pale colors like you might find on people's beds
Finally, I flocked all three bases and they are ready for the tabletop. Chances are their first game will come in May at Buckeye Game Fest, when I am running a couple games of Zombie RV. Until then, here are some photos I took of them.

    Pants & Shirts were painted in a variety of colors & highlighted
What else is on my painting desk? I also finished four stands of mushrooms made from charms I picked up at the local craft store. They'll be in a post here soon. I have another batch of Splintered Light Miniatures -- five anthropomorphic wildcats dressed in Roman legionary apparel. I am also adding painted details to one of the larger pieces of Sci-Fi scatter that I bought from A Critical Hit. After that, I will begin painting a huge MDF Sci-Fi building that John at Dad's Armies assembled for me at Cincycon 2025. Stay tuned for those, and a battle report on last night's Galactic Heroes game set in the Star Wars universe!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Miniatures acquired in 2025: 100
  • Miniatures painted in 2025: 49 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

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

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  • Scatter painted in 2025: 33

Sunday, March 30, 2025

Another Swarm of Rats to Plague My Heroes

    10 Splintered Light Miniatures rats, billed as '28mm' on their site, but about 14mm to the eyes
Encouraged by how quickly the batch of rat slingers went, I started right away on this next batch. These 10 Splintered Light Miniatures were armed with melee weapons, mostly swords and spears. Some were armored, some not. They also included some cool "character" looking ones, like a rat assassin, rat shaman, and a couple of rat heroes. I have more rats left in my bag of unpainted SLM figures, but 10 was about as big of a batch as I wanted to attempt after being trampled by those Dark Ages cavalry awhile back!

    Two of my faves from this batch - a rat shaman or wizard and a cloaked and hooded 'assassin'
I put these rats on bases back when I started on the slingers. So, the first step was to prime them with white Gesso, and then paint a base coat in the fur color that I chose for each. The colors I picked were black, gray, brown, tan, and yellowish-white ("Maple Sugar" craft paint). Once dry, I did a drybrush highlight in an appropriate lighter shade of the base color. Both of these went very fast because I didn't need to worry about "splash over" on the other parts. Most miniatures painters work "inside out," so to speak. They begin with the bottom level (flesh on humans, fur on rats), and work their way outwards. Occasionally, I will change that around. An example would be a human in full chainmail and helm. Depending on the figure, I may actually do the chainmail before the flesh. Not always -- the whole goal is to make your work easier.

    Two rat heroes with fancy helmets and nice cloaks -- but not too nice! They're rats, remember...
From this point, I picked out the biggest surface area remaining on the figure. Typically, this was the chainmail on the armored rats or the tunic/jacket on the unarmored ones. I decided I had liked the dull or pale color scheme I had begun with the slingers, and continued it here. I like to leave base coats to dry overnight, so the acrylic paint has a chance to "shrink wrap" onto the miniature. The detail is more raised at that point and easier to dry brush. Once highlighting of the armor and tunics was done, I did a base coat on the next biggest surface area. Honestly, there was so much variety amongst these 10 figs, I was kind of winging it from step to step on what constituted the next part to paint. Things that all 10 miniatures had in common I typically did together, such as the salmon base coat for the noses, inside ears, and tails. The next morning, I would do the tiny pink highlight on the salmon. And so on, until these guys were done!

    My thinking is the armored rats will be the big & nasty ones (read: 'Orcs'), the unarmored 'goblins'
Honestly, these were a lot of fun to paint up. I may continue to work my way through my unpainted SLM figs -- we'll see. They paint up quicker than an equivalent batch of 28mm foot figures, for sure! There are less extraneous details. Fewer pouches hanging off belts, secondary weapons -- you name it. Even the shield patterns are simpler and typically one step, as opposed to the way I do 28mm ones. I used my micron pens for the patterns, except for the black shield (where the dark pen colors wouldn't show up). I was very tempted to do hem patterns for the more characterful figures, but had to keep reminding myself that these were rats. They don't make nice things for themselves. Rats don't put fancy embroidery on their clothes. In fact, their instinct is to steal things they need from others, at least in my world of anthropomorphic animals living in the "Great Forest."

    You have to love a rat standard bearer with a tabby cat's head on it...!
Probably my favorite figure of the batch is the rat shaman. I love the way his robe drapes about him, and I think the dull purple color works well for it. The metal-banded staff with the skull atop is perfect, as well. I wasn't sure about the short sword at his belt, but why not? My other one I really like is the "rat assassin" in the gray-green tunic. I seriously thought about doing his tunic in black to blend into the shadows, so to speak. However, I rationalized the gray-green would work better blending into a forest setting, where he would typically be operating. Plus, it is a lighter color and will show off the excellent sculpting better!

    I'm having a good time painting these Splintered Light figs again - such clean & detailed castings!
Since I plan on using rats as essentially my orcs and goblins in my Sellswords & Spellslingers solo campaign, I was hoping some of the rats would be bigger and beefier than others. They could be the "orcs" while the smaller ones could be the "goblins." Instead, I may have to use the armored ones as the bigger and meaner ones, and the unarmored as the weaker, goblin types. Hopefully, it will be obvious enough on the table when I am playing.

    Another look at the batch in front of my Bad Squiddo 'Enchanted Tree Stumps' atop Acheson stumps
So, what else is on my painting desk? Actually, these figs have been done for about three days. I just hadn't gotten around to taking photos of them. In the meantime, I kind of went crazy and have way too much on my desk now. First to be finished will be the three stands of clothes lines. They're in the flocking stage as of today. I also picked up some tiny mushroom charms at the craft store a week or so ago because they were priced half off. They were already painted and just needed darkened up and based and flocked. I also have a massive MDF Sci-Fi building from Dad's Armies that is primed and ready to go. I have another batch of Splinteredd Light Miniatures figs, too. And if that isn't enough, I have one of the larger pieces of scatter I bought at Cincycon from A Critical Hit underway. See what I mean? Too much at once!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Miniatures acquired in 2025: 100
  • Miniatures painted in 2025: 49 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

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

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  • Scatter painted in 2025: 30

Monday, March 24, 2025

Klingons & Federation Duel Over Planet in FASA Star Trek Game

    Allen & my Klingon ships ("Steel Squadron") approach the planetoid invaded by Federation troops
Our regular Sunday evening host is a big fan of the FASA Star Trek Starship Tactical Simulator rules. Though their name is a mouthful, they are a much simpler and pared down version compared to the more well known Star Fleet Battles rules. Mike W introduced the group to them in a game this past December. However, he and Keith had played them many times in their younger days, and have binders full of starship tactical displays. The components definitely have a certain retro look to them, with their black and white, text-heavy approach, and very tiny type font that is less than friendly to older eyes.

    GM & host Mike W walks around, making sure no players have questions on how to fill out orders
There were some banter about scenario balance last time, primarily from the Klingon players. Or course, that happens in many battles all over the wargaming world, and is why good GMs play test scenarios before running them at a convention. Mike reached out to Keith to sound him out on the this game's scenario and special rules. He made a few tweaks based on fellow FASA grognard Keith's recommendations. There would be two Klingon squadrons arrayed against one Federation one. Fortunately, we Klingons had learned from our last game, though, and fully cooperated with each other unlike last time!

    "Beam me up!" Both squadrons had the objective to transport up Federation marines to their ships
The objective for both fleets was a planetoid in the center of the table. It was a Klingon-claimed one under attack by Federation ground forces. The attack apparently having been successful, the Federation ships were on their way to beam up the victorious, assaulting forces. The Klingons were intending to disrupt this. We wanted to kidnap some of those forces and beam them up to our ships. Apparently, there was some new technology and weapons used by the assault forces that we wanted to analyze.

    Seeing the Klingon approach, the Federation "Baker Class" destroyers hurry towards the planetoid
We had seven players -- four Klingons (Tom, Joel, Allen, and myself) and three Federation (Keith, Mike S, and Mike W's son, Phil). The Klingons approached from adjacent corners of the short table edge, each force composed of two different types of Klingon ships. Mine (and Joel's) were apparently a D7M class, while Allen and Tom controlled a larger Klingon ship that could take more damage but wasn't as efficient with its engines and shields. The three Federation players all controlled "Baker Class" ships, which I had never heard of before. Apparently, it is considered a Destroyer class. Afterwards, I asked how my D7M should stack up against the Federation Destroyer in a one-on-one duel. Keith and Mike W said my ship was superior, which surprised me. It seems every iteration of Star Trek universe that I play has the Federation ships always being superior. Would the game work out that way? Let's see...!

    Four Klingon ships close in to dispute control of the planetoid with the Federation destroyers
Both sides -- or all three, since we Klingons were technically independent squadrons -- moved quickly towards our target planetoid. After turn 2, I began slacking off on the power for movement to put reinforcement towards my shields. We looked out of range, but I always suspect Federation super weapons in these games! In the beginning, Keith's destroyer was separated from the other two, but all three were closing rapidly. Phil, in the center, veered right to aid Keith in approaching orbit around the planetoid. Meanwhile, Mike S veered left towards me. I was wary, but confident, as it would be my vessel and Allen's against Mike's...wait a minute! Where was Allen going? Allen veered his ship away from mine to use the planetoid as "cover." Essentially, he took himself out of the fight, as you shall see.

    One of the destroyers (Mike S's) veers off to attempt to chase me away from the objective
I continued closing with Mike S's Baker Class ship, still thinking it would be superior to mine, one-on-one. I began to maneuver to take advantage of the firing arcs of my weapons, showing the enemy our Forward-Port side, firing, then turning to show our Forward-Starboard side. In addition to letting each of the two beam weapons on each side bear (firing two, then firing the other side's two), it also meant I would take any damage on different shield facings. Mike hit me three times over the course of the ship-to-ship duel, but each time I was able to absorb it with a fresh, fully charged shield. Mike's approach, though, meant I battered down his front shield with my first shot and then damaged him with the follow up fire. I also shot my forward-facing "missile weapon" (not sure what they are supposed to represent in Star Trek lore) as a fifth weapon in my salvo.

    Meanwhile, the other two ships have arrived within transporter range & begin beaming up troops
I have to admit, my dice were very good! Mike's were not so good. When rolling my two attacks each turn, I tended to hit at least once when my chance to hit was 30% to 40%. When it went up to 70%, I hit with both. Mike's hits were much fewer and far between. The end result was a new one for me: I blew up an enemy vessel! What's more, over the course of our duel, I switched targets for one turn to attack Phil's ship when he lowered his shields to transport up marines. I nailed his "sensors," when rolling for damage location, which meant I knocked out his transporters. With Mike's ship blown up, Phil's transporters down, Keith was the only Federation hope to bring up marines from the surface. He had been taking hits steadily from Tom and Joel's ships while bringing up marines. Eventually, he too, blew up. At that point, Mike W called the game.

    Undeterred, my Klingon D7M and Mike S's destroyer close with each other, firing away
Overwhelming Klingon victory, right? Well, apparently, we were supposed to kidnap marines and get them off table. I contended that after blowing up their three ships, we could beam up their marines and depart at our leisure. Apparently, Keith had transported all but one of the marine stands up to his ship before it went ka-boom. Well, I said, we transport up that last one to our ships, leave, and get a total victory, right? He relented, and changed our status from "Partial Failure" to "Partial Success." Considering that we had taken almost no damage, had destroyed two of the three enemy ships (and would surely blow up the outnumbered one, 4-to-1, last), and would get one of their marines with their juicy new weapons back to the Empire, I'm not sure where the "partial" comes in...ha, ha!

    BOOM! The Federation destroyer succumbs to the superior Klingon firepower (and tactics, I'd add!)
I'm also unsure if another debate over scenario balance will ensue after this game. I asked my question about who's ship should win a one-on-one duel to assess how much effect my superior die rolling (and tactics!) had on the outcome. Mike W seemed to think it was significant. If my one ship was better than one of theirs, and we had four vs. their three, did we have more points worth of ships? Perhaps Allen and Tom's Klingon ships were less effective and fewer points? I probably should have asked that, too. I also feel it was a big disadvantage to the Federation that they had to lower their shields to transport up the marines. Of course, we did, too. However, I think Tom was on board with my philosophy of shoot first, transport later, though. Either way, it was a fun and quick way to have a Star Trek style squadron battle in only two hours. The game does play really quickly. So, I'm sure we'll see more FASA games in the future!

    Close up of Mike's 3-D printed models of Klingon "Steel Squadron" -- Allen's ship my D7M
What's on my painting desk, now? I am making good progress on the next batch of 10 Splintered Light Miniatures rats. I am also fairly far along on the Miniature Building Authority clothes lines. Hopefully, by midweek you should see some results!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Miniatures acquired in 2025: 100
  • Miniatures painted in 2025: 39 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

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

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  • Scatter painted in 2025: 30

Saturday, March 22, 2025

Shipping Container Homes for My Trailer Park

    Inspired by an MBA shipping container office, I created two more 'homes' for my trailer park!
Last month, when I painted up Miniature Building Authority's shipping container office from their Shanty Town range, it gave me an idea. Since the core of MBA's building was a Reaper Miniature's plastic shipping container, I thought, "Hey, I have one of those! I can make my own." And when I saw another Reaper shipping container at Dragon's Lair, a local hobby shop in the Columbus area, I picked up a second. I would make up a pair of new homes with them simultaneously, and add them to my growing trailer park.

    Insulation foam base, surrounded by 'brick' styrene,  forms a platform for a the shipping containers
Mobile homes tend to sit upon a base, raising them off the ground. I would do the same for my shipping containers. I also wanted to use two of the 3-D printed sets of stairs to lead up to their doorways that I had left over from my Bad Goblin Games trailers (they give you a choice of two). So, I measured their height and cut strips of textured styrene to match it. I'd purchased the textured styrene long ago when a local craft store carried them. One had a brick texture and the other more of a stone pattern. They would be the platform that the shipping containers would sit upon. To give it a more solid base, though, I cut two rectangles of insulation foam to match that height also and epoxied them onto the MDF bases that I was going to use for my shipping container homes. The foam was a bit short, so I put a piece of bass wood atop it to give extra height.

Next, I glued those strips of textured styrene along each edge of the insulation foam base, using masking tape hold the corners flush with each other as the epoxy cured. Once dry, I trimmed a little slot in the rectangle I'd created to fit the corners of the shipping containers. I made sure the container's bottom fit snugly. Then, I put epoxy along the shipping container's bottom edge and on the piece of bass wood. I pressed the container down into its slot, so to speak, and used a rubber band to hold them together tightly while the epoxy cured.  The building would rest on the foam, and the styrene would grip the bottom of the container on all four sides. 

    The above picture illustrates the "slot" I created for the corners of the shipping containers to fit into

Although the two shipping containers were both from Reaper, they were slightly different. The roofs came off of both, of course. However, one you had to glue the doors onto while the other was molded with the doors sealed shut. It didn't look like the doors would stay in place, though, and be able to swing open and closed. So, I epoxied them into a half open position. For the other one, I would need to create my own door and glue it over the top of the surface, representing an opening that the occupant had been sliced into the shipping container. 

    Windows were made out of cardboard and bass wood strips and glued into place along the outside
In addition, I decided to give each building two windows -- one one each long side. I tried to use an X-acto knife to cut a rectangle out of the container's plastic material, but it was too strong. If I had been smart, I might have cut tried to cut the window openings out BEFORE gluing it into place atop its platform to give me more leverage. So, I gave up. The solution wasn't perfect, but in the end I scratch-built my own windows out of a rectangle of cardboard with bass wood strips along the edge to represent the window frame. The cardboard would be smooth and be painted black to represent the glass of the windows. Towards the end of the process, I even painted in tiny broken glass lines on the black of the windows.

    This aerial view shows the ventilator and stovepipe I created for the roof of each home
The shipping container home would need some sort of heating or ventilation, I figured. So I searched through a bag of miscellaneous MDF pieces I'd picked up at a flea market a couple years ago. I found a pair that looked like vaguely like ventilation grills, so used them. Each had an off-center hole which would perfect for a pipe to emerge from it. Luckily, I had some styrene tube that fit the hole perfectly, so cut two lengths to be the stove pipe vents. These were epoxied onto each shipping container's lid, or "roof."

    The front of one of the shipping container homes & the bass wood door I cut & assembled for it
At this stage, all of the construction part was done. I glued the cinder block stairway into place for one of them, holding off for the moment on the other. I spray painted both homes black with Krylon Fusion Matte Acrylic, and went over it with a 50/50 mix of glue and black paint to ensure it got into all the grooves and crevices. First, I painted the platforms the shipping containers sat upon. I used a medium gray base coat with light gray dry brush for the stone pattern. For the brick one, I used a base coat of red-brown and then painted in a highlight of Howard Hues Middle Eastern Flesh to pick out a highlight for each brick individually. It actually went faster than I thought it would (and probably sounds!). Once a black wash was put on at the end, I thought the platforms looked really nice.

    Long side of the blue trailer -- I chose lighter colors so they would show rust and weathering better
With the platforms for both done, I glued the 3-D printed wooden stairs I had left over from one of my Bad Goblin Games fortified trailers into place on the remaining trailer. Now, I had to decide upon what color I would paint the outside of the shipping containers. I looked at images of them online and decided I would stay with lighter colors so that it would show the rust and weathering effects better. I chose to do one in a sea-foam bluish-green and the other in a very pale yellow color. It took two coats of craft acrylic paint to fully cover the black priming, though. Next, I dry brushed each in white to represent the sun bleaching their colors.

    The brick patterned platform came out nicely, too -- I didn't try to do a mortar between the bricks!

Next, it was time to pick out the windows and doors. I chose a medium blue for the bluish trailer and a dull orange for the yellow one. I dry brushed the trim in lighter colors to show a bit of bleaching and weathering, as well. I painted the the ventilators atop the roof and the original iron rods securing the shipping container doors Iron Wind Metals Steel first, and then added Pewter highlights. The 3-D printed cinder block staircase from Bad Goblin Games was painted medium gray with a very light gray highlight. The wooden staircase was done in Dark Brown, and progressively highlighted in Howard Hues Camo Brown and khaki.

    Here you can see the iron rods that originally secured the shipping container's doors painted Steel

Now, it was time to make my "nice" new homes weathered and rusty! I used a craft paint called Autumn Brown as the base coat for the rust. I looked at images of rusty shipping containers online to mimic this, especially in places I felt mostly like to rust. These were the corners, the place where the container was sliced open for windows, and in wide open patches where moisture might collect. Inside the Autumn Brown, I added dots or splotches of fluorescent orange. I did this for the roofs, as well. I did not glue them down, because I wanted access to the interiors for play.
    The side of the pale yellow shipping container home, along with the misspelled warning to 'looters'
While laboriously doing the rust weathering, I was struck by a bit of whimsical inspiration. I rationalize that my fictional, post-apocalyptic occupants of my trailer park are "good old boys" who were never very good in school and have exaggerated, patriotic, conservative beliefs. Okay, you can call them "rednecks"...ha, ha! Well, circulating on the internet is a meme of a warning spray painted that "Lotters will be shot!" This is paired with a French-looking otter in a beret taunting, "L'otters are not afraid!" It is one of my friend Keith's favorites and he frequently posts it on Facebook. So, I just had to hand paint a similar warning on one of the trailer's sides. I did my best to give it tiny drips to represent spray paint running at the bottom of the letters. Hopefully, Keith will be pleased as the meme is commemorated in 3-D!
    Heavy black wash on the sides of the shipping container homes makes them look unkempt & dingy

The final step for the trailer's exteriors was the heavy black wash. I use a black vehicle wash from Vallejo that is watered down by 50%. I really like how the wash makes the homes look like they are dirty and poorly kept up. The wash was also applied to the stairs and platform bases, of course. I feel that a nice wash at the end of something (figure or terrain) always does a good job of muting brushstrokes and blending the overall look. In this case, it made the orange rust more subdued and gave both trailers a unifying the look -- not just a collection of differently painted parts. If that makes sense!

    The interior of the blue trailer, with its printed out windows, door, and posters
With the exteriors done, it was time to go to work on the interiors. I decided to do a shortcut for the windows and door, though. Instead of making another 3-D one with cardboard, craft sticks, or bass wood, I decided that I would print them out. Make the interior more two dimensional, since it doesn't get seen as much and that's what I've done with past buildings. So, I created images of the doors and windows on my laptop and then printed them out on a color printer. For the wallpaper and floor, I used scrap booking paper that I'd picked up at the local craft stores. I measured as closely as I could and cut them out and "dry fitted" them first. Then, I painted the interior of the wall or floor with a light coating of white glue. I pressed the paper down, and it usually does a good job of sticking. However, the container with the doors that needed glued on did not have flush walls. There was a curb at the bottom and top jutting out (probably to help glue the four sides, top, and bottom together). However, the paper is somewhat bowed. 

    Interior of the pale yellow trailer - note the blue door handles (I forgot this was the yellow trailer!)
After those were done, I added in the posters. I did my usual Google searches of what I felt were appropriate images for someone who chose to live in a shipping container...ha, ha! Same process -- print them out, paint a light coat of white glue, and press into place. After all the images were dry, I used a black dry brush to dirty up the interior some more. I added black smudges in the corners, around the door, by the windows, and so on. I couldn't go all out like I did with the smoke damage on the last batch of fortified trailers from Bad Goblin Games. These shipping container homes still have supposed structural integrity. Their cleanliness and upkeep just isn't up to Martha Steward standards...! 

The last thing I did was the flocking and adding various scatter around the container homes. The grill and folding chair are part of the Crystal Peaks camp set of plastic scatter terrain from Mantic Games. The two padded chairs either side of the other's staircase are actually 3-D prints from Sea Dog Game Studios that I bought a long time ago and finally found a use for! The cinder block are from Bad Goblin Games, and the bricks were bought at a gaming store, but I don't remember who makes them. I really like the way these turned out, although I admit there were a lot more steps and work to get them the way I wanted than I first thought! Still, the trailer park continues to grow -- which is good, because I will be running a Zombie RV game in May set inside a trailer park. 

What else is on my painting desk? I have a batch of 10 Splintered Light Miniatures rats that are partway completed. Also, I have finally started painting the three sets of clothes lines from Miniature Building Authority. Hopefully, these two things go WAY faster than these shipping container homes and the Dark Age cavalry! They certainly held up my progress for awhile...

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Miniatures acquired in 2025: 100
  • Miniatures painted in 2025: 39 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

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

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  • Scatter painted in 2025: 30

Friday, March 21, 2025

Rats! And I said I was done Painting 15mm (ish) Figures...

    8 Splintered Light Miniatures rat slingers that I need for my solo Sellswords & Spellslingers games
The other day I sorted through my Splintered Light Miniatures anthropomorphic animals (that's a mouthful...), both painted and unpainted. I discovered that I don't have quite as many rats painted up as I thought I did. They're going to be the "Orcs & Goblins" of my solo Sellswords & Spellslingers campaign. I must have sold some to my friend Rich Brown of RRB Minis & More this past Advance the Colors. I talked him into buying my multi-based armies (5 infantry or 4 missile troops per large hexagon base). He would be using them for Grey Matter Games' Mice at Arms rules. I had painted and based these for my own big battle fantasy miniatures rules set that never got written. So, I figured, why not make some money off of them? I remember also taking along my individually based ones, so I'm pretty sure he picked up some of my mice and rats.

    There were two poses in the batch of 8 figures - here the one with a pouch for sling stones
The reason for this long-winded diatribe is one I am sure you can guess: "Rats! I needed to paint up more rats!" So, I pulled out a bag of 8 rat slingers and sorted through and picked out 10 with hand weapons that looked like good characters. I would do them in two batches -- the slingers first and hand weapons after. To be honest, I had not painted figures this small in a long time. What scale are they? Well, that's a great question! When Splintered Light first released its miniatures, they were 15mm scale. Then, they started releasing bigger and beefier figures intended more as characters than as packs for 15mm armies. Initially, they said these were 18mm/20mm. Well, I looked on their website the other day, and they're listed as 28mm. To be fair, they say quite clearly, "Please note that these stand 15mm-22mm in height and are similar in size to halflings and kobolds." Measuring one of the slingers, he stands 14mm from bottom of the feet to eyes. So, yeah. I'm painting 15mm figures...

    LONG time since I painted such small figures - these rats measured 14mm from soles to eyes
Thankfully, this blast from the past of painting 15's went well. I did not pluck my eyes out and run screaming from the room! I told myself going that I would not go as crazy as I currently do 28mm figures. Every item on the figure would not be getting a base coat and highlight. Did I hold true on that? Hmm...you be the judge. Either way, this batch of 8 rats went fairly fast. First, I cleaned them up. Splintered Light figs have very little flash and are excellent castings. I glued them down onto the Litko hexagon bases that I started using for my individual ones long ago. And...um, that was for another set of rules that never got written! Then, I primed the rats white with Gesso.

I did a Google search of various rat fur colors, and end up choosing four to five. With a big brush, I slapped on their base coat, not worrying about splashing over onto other parts of the figure. Similarly, once dry, I grabbed my flat brush and dry brushed each in the appropriate highlight color. Next, it was time to look at the figures more closely and plan things out. I decided to go with their tunics/shirts next. I used pale or dark colors for that. I also did a drybrush on each. So far, no real difference between how I was painting them and how I do 28's! Next, I did the leather belts and straps in Autumn Brown base coat and Iron Wind Metals Leather highlight. Oops, still the same recipe as my 28mm figures!

    Here is the other pose which carry shields -- they were easier to paint than I'd feared they might be!
Pouches and bags were next, with the tiniest pouch on four of the poses getting only one color. The slings were done in a base and dry brush (Maple Sugar and Wild Rice highlight). The stones visible in the sling and in the pouches were done in a medium gray, with a dot of light gray highlighting. There were basically two poses in this batch of eight. Four had shields, and I did each design differently -- once again, with a base coat and dry brush. I chose to do individual shield patterns mainly because I went back and saw I had done that on my previous rats. I tried to strike a balance between barbarian looking shield designs and simple ones 

All that was left at this point was the pink of their noses,  tail, and skin inside their ears. This was done with a Salmon base coat and a tiny highlight of Pink. I also gave them big black eyes. I was tempted to put a tiny white dot of the light reflecting, but felt that I wouldn't be able to consistently make it small enough. At this stage I was essentially done. The biggest difference between painting these and my 28mm figs, I guess, is that there simply isn't as much detail -- not so many pieces of equipment festooned all over them!

    I also put tiny leaves on the bases from a bag I'd bought -- adds a nice woodland touch, I think
I finished them out with brown and black washes, and then flocked them. I added a couple steps over my standard flocking. I put three small tan colored pebbles on each base, and then at the end, I added a few scattered leaves on each base. It seemed like an appropriate touch for woodland fantasy figures. I may yet go back and add leaves to my already-painted animals. We'll see.

So, what else is on my desk right now? I am finally just about done with my two Shipping Container buildings. They took longer than I thought they would. They are in the flocking stage now, so you will see them likely tomorrow or the day after. I have the batch of 10 rats with their fur base coated, now. I also have the clothes lines from Miniature Building Authority (still) primed and ready to go. So, as you can see, I have plenty to work on!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Miniatures acquired in 2025: 100
  • Miniatures painted in 2025: 39 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  • Terrain painted in 2025: 14

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  • Scatter painted in 2025: 30

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Vietnam Battle Using Xenos Rampant!

    Joel's and my VC troops flee from superior U.S. firepower after we spring our ambush on them
Our friend Keith got the itch to try Xenos Rampant! for a Vietnam battle. I think he was inspired by two things. One, hearing that our mutual friend Jim W up in Michigan was using XR! for World War II. Another was someone on the Facebook XR! group asked for sample force lists for the Vietnam conflict. Keith created some. After going through that trouble, why of course he's going to want to play a game using them...right??

    Keith, in back holding rules, explains to the players how to do Vietnam with space rules
The scenario was during the Battle of Hue, with an American force moving along a road trying to get to Hue to help the Marines there. A North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong force was blocking their way on the road and had set up an ambush to stop them from getting there. Keith had the Americans deploy on one of the short edges of an 8'x4' table, within 6" of the road intersecting that table edge. We deployed mostly on the far side of the table, but with the ability to bring our VC in with the Xenos rule, "Special Insertion." Yes, yes, there were chuckles on Sunday night, too. And even more laughter when I failed three straight "special insertion" rolls -- needing only a 5+ on 2d6! The only limiting factor was we couldn't deploy within 6" of an enemy unit.

    Two of my NVA squads line the trees, waiting patiently - or not so patiently - for the Americans
My fellow Vietnamese officer, Joel, got the game started with a bang when he inserted in the American rear...okay, I know that doesn't sound right! However, when he used his next move to charge his brother Allen's command squad in melee. He knocked them down below half strength, but did not destroy the overall commander in chief, which would have been a heavy blow (maybe -- if I remember the rules correctly, it would merely require all the units in his force to take a Courage test). 

    One of my NVA squads (or platoons? Not sure of Keith's scale) guards the crossroads
Little did we know, the Americans had their own special insertions to do! No, not helicopters, but Special Forces led squads of tribal Montagnard fighters. Two of them showed up near our forces, and we proceeded to shoot at them, since the main U.S. forces were so far away. Our commander, Tom, who was playing his first-ever Vietnam game, had deployed in some elephant grass on a hill. He called in mortar attacks on Mike S's squads that were moving up to assault his hill. They eventually did chase him down off of the hill, which unfortunately for us, meant it took out our mortar support as Tom's survivors couldn't see any targets. 
    Tom, in an appropriately Vietnamese colored shirt keeps an eye on the three U.S. players
Once my special insertion was finally successful (Aaah...), I brought in my VC heavy weapons squad to attempt to take out Allen's mortars. Of course, once I moved into visibility of them, they blasted the snot out of my guys. That is one thing about XR! rules. Since you either Move or Shoot, you are at the mercy of the dynamic that the person who moves into range or sight surrenders first shot to the enemy. Knowing that, I think scenarios and objectives become all the more important in a rule set that uses this mechanic (and LOTS of them out there do...).

    My NVA squad lurks beyond the treeline so as not to be spotted by the Americans in the distance
My only other real success was when one of my NVA squads successfully activate to do defensive fire with their Firefight ability (yes, I know that is a counter to my above problem). I hit Mike W's U.S. squad so hard that he not only failed his Courage check, he rolled below "0" with modifiers, sending that unit routing off the table! By this time, though, all three U.S. commanders had figured out how to use their Fire Support ability and call in the heavy artillery on our units. As historically, we were getting plastered by their big guns.

    The U.S. troops, on their beer coaster "sabot bases" (Booo!) advancing up the roadway in mass
Still, we had inflicted enough casualties on them that when 9pm rolled around, the U.S. players admitted it was very unlikely they'd succeed in their objective in getting off-table on our board edge. Personally, I think the table was too big for a "march all the way across" victory condition, but hey! I will take the victory...ha, ha! My troops contributed a little to our success, taking two U.S. units down below half strength and routing another. My command was below half strength, though, and would begin receiving an addition -1 to our Courage tests from that.

    It took Mike S two squads and more than one barrage to chase Tom's NVA off the hill
All in all, we felt the rules worked fine for 20th century warfare. Our biggest issue to work out is probably more accurate lines of sight for the terrain of Vietnam. We simply used what the rules said, but I think it was too generous. Keith's Cigar Box mats looked great, and his decades-old 1/72 scale plastic figures were put to good use. We gave him a thumbs up to run Vietnam again.

    The square terrain printed on the Cigar Box mat were rice paddies in this game

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Miniatures acquired in 2025: 100
  • Miniatures painted in 2025: 31 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  • Terrain painted in 2025: 14

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

  • Scatter acquired in 2025: 51
  • Scatter painted in 2025: 26