Mushroom Scatter Pieces Because...Well, why not??

    Pre-painted mushroom charms from a craft store that I based up and got ready for the tabletop!

I was in Hobby Lobby a couple weeks ago looking at their beads and charms to see if there was anything I could use for gaming pieces. I saw these plastic mushrooms in two different sizes. Then I saw the 50% off sign. They were already painted. All I had to do was pull off the metal bits and base them up, right? I couldn't resist, so picked them up.

I found some round bases that they would arrange nicely on, two big ones and three smaller ones. That separated neatly into four bases worth. So, it actually wasn't as easy as epoxying them onto the base, of course. The metal bits came out easily with a pair of pliers, especially when I learned the top piece unscrews (leaving a tiny hole, but I could live with that). The mushroom bottoms on the smaller ones were flat, but the bigger ones were rounded. I took a pair of wire cutters and snapped off the bottoms of those. Once they were all ready, I epoxied them to the bases in a nice, natural arrangement, I felt.

    In case you're curious, the tree stump with face behind the mushrooms is from Bad Squiddo Games

The mushrooms were painted, but the colors were awfully bright and garish. So, I did a brown wash followed by a black wash to tone them down a bit. It also made the stems look more natural, as well, with a darker tint and not blinding white. Once I was happy enough with how they looked, I flocked the bases with my normal method. I sprayed them with a matte clear and they were done! Quick and simple, and who knows? Maybe they will look good or be useful for some of my fantasy games. Or perhaps I could use them as objectives markers in a post-apocalyptic or other game?

Either way, they're done and ready for the tabletop! What's next? I will post my report from our Star Wars spaceport game at Keith's on Sunday next. Otherwise, I have another batch of Splintered Light Miniatures on my painting desk, along with a couple pieces of larger Sci-Fi scatter from A Critical Hit. Those will probably be next, after the AAR. Stay tuned -- updates will be coming fast and furious!

    Here's what the charms looked like straight off the shelf at Hobby Lobby

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: 37

Chaos at the Spaceport - Captured Smugglers & Rebel Assault

    Atop a building in Keith's spaceport, a Greedo of uncertain motives threatens a civilian worker

A few months ago, my friend Keith told me he was itching for a project. He wanted to build something. As I was finishing up my figures for Star Wars skirmishes, I told him, "Build a spaceport." Fast forward to last week. Keith announced he was finished with the spaceport and had a scenario ready to break it in. We would be doing his own Star Wars skirmish using Galactic Heroes rules.

    Rebel leader Joel turns in a card & prepares to move one of his rebels in his attack on the spaceport

The scenario was that a smuggling operation at an imperial spaceport had been uncovered. The smugglers themselves were being held in detention by the Empire. This prompted a number of different factions to spring into action. The local rebel alliance sent two teams to break into the perimeter and search for the smugglers, some of whom were rebels. My own faction was personnel from the fleet naval arm stationed at the port. Apparently, we were the ones profiteering from the smuggling, selling arms and other supplies to the rebels and lining our pockets. Now that the smugglers had been caught by the Empire, our smuggling ring would doubtless be exposed. We needed to spring into action and see if we could secure (or neutralize?) the smugglers ourselves.

    The alien "Greedos" arrive, having sneaked onto the base, but what is their mission here...??

There were six players and those are the only three factions that I am actually sure about. My friend Tom had a group who was trying to rescue the Princess, who had also been captured. Doubtless, she was a rebel smuggler, but who was Tom? I assumed rebel sympathizers. Mike S had a mercenary faction. He was trying to find the pilot of a certain spacecraft for some reason or another. He made it clear he was anti-imperial by firing on the stormtroopers immediately, but I never learned what his ultimate mission was. The most mysterious of all was Mike W's "Greedo" force. These four, green-skinned aliens seemed to have no coherent mission that I could deduce, but seemed fixated on accosting civilians at the spaceport and stealing another ship. He was obviously anti-Imperial, though, as he shot and knocked one of my four men out of action.

    Rebel Leader Allen's people mover began the attack by breaking through the perimeter

My officer and three troopers began in the "control room" (which Keith did not tell me was the control room), but were not permitted to act until turn two. Once the rebels broke through the perimeter, setting off alarms, we could do what we wanted. That made sense that we would try to take advantage of the rebel attack to execute our desperate plan to save us from our treason. The only thing I was told was that the smugglers were being held in a small, block building in the spaceport. As it turned out, there were three separate groups of prisoners held in captivity. I didn't know that, thinking instead that there was only one group of prisoners. I also think this was what all six factions were led to believe.

    'That's what you get for sneaking up on a Fleet Trooper!' My trooper returns fire & downs a rebel

When we were allowed to move, two of my troopers headed in the direction of where Tom had quickly liberated a group of prisoners. Ah-ha, I thought, "that's where the smugglers are!" Along the way, one of Joel's rebels sneaked up and shot one of my guys in the back, causing only a shock, though. My guy returned fire, hit, and knocked the rebel out of action. Two other of Joel's rebels entered the control center, which was now occupied only by my officer. The other had climbed the ladder to the roof and was checking out another "small block building." The officer fired twice, knocking another of Joel's rebels out of action and causing a shock on the other. In Galactic Heroes, "shock" is not a wound and represents the fear, distraction, stress, etc., of combat. 

    Two more of Joel's troopers burst into our control room - one is gunned down by the Fleet Officer

Much to my surprise, my trooper who entered the small, block building found the Princess! He radioed that to the others on our comms. The two troopers outside the control center heard that and split up. One continued the dangerous mission of crossing most of the spaceport to make sure the prisoners were either freed by the rebels or dispatched. The other ducked back inside to help my officer. Once again, my dice proved deadly, and the other rebel was knocked out of action. Yeesh! After my excellent dice rolling last week in the FASA starship game, I thought for sure my comeuppance would be this Sunday evening. Not to be, apparently! Of course, not everything went the Fleet's way. My guy on the dangerous, cross-spaceport mission was shot and knocked out by a Greedo on the roof. A gung ho nurse entered the control room and began reviving the two rebels we had shot down. I ordered her to desist at gunpoint and Keith decided she was a fanatic and proceeded to ignore my orders even when she took a blast meant for the revived rebel. 

'Shoot him!' the Fleet Officer commands, bewildering the 'Princess' prisoner (& the trooper!)`    

Rolling his eyes ans motioning the trooper to join him, the officer climbed onto the roof and into the small detention cell in the nearby building (not that we knew it was a detention cell -- we had amazingly sparse information about a place we were stationed at for so long and were supposedly in control of...!). Once we were all in the cell -- the Fleet Officer, Princess, my two troopers, and the stormtrooper guarding her, I ordered my men to kill the stormtrooper. I planned on killing the princess, too, if I had to (thinking she was one of the smugglers). Was she actually a smuggler? Who knows? I found out at the end of the game there was an undiscovered prisoner whose card said "Smuggler." Wouldn't I have known who the smugglers were if I have been selling them arms for so long?

    Stormtroopers arrive and immediately attack Mike S's mercenaries

I think Keith's goal was for a wild and crazy game with each of the players acting on only partial information. Well, he succeeded! I was watching the action on the rest of the table as the rebels and rebel sympathizers (or whatever) were quickly rescuing all of the prisoners. If they escaped with them, they would basically be doing my job for me. As mentioned, I was unaware there was yet another cell block only a short distance away where the prisoner we wanted was being held. Keith was controlling the actions of the civilians and stormtroopers. In true ineffective stormtrooper fashion, he classified them as "Grunts," who use a d8 instead of the d10's the player characters rolled for shooting or melee. The other guys were doing a pretty good job mowing down the stormtroopers, though a surprising amount were taken out in melee. I decided to sit back and monitor the situation.

    Shooting breaks out all over Keith's recently 'fully armed and operational' spaceport

Things escalated when Keith allowed Mike S's mercenaries to take control of one of the spaceships and begin blasting away at buildings. This activated the perimeter defenses, which began to fire on the ship. That was somehow what Mike wanted, so he joined the exodus of rebels at this point, fleeing off-board with the prisoners. My own guys were going to discreetly exit the spaceport, too, with Princess in tow.  When Keith called the game, I was chagrined to find out about the "Smuggler", which meant instead of being wildly successful and neutralizing or seeing all prisoners freed, I failed miserably. The one prisoner who I needed to neutralize or set free was the only one who still ended the game in under control of the Empire!

    Classic Star Wars scene - rebels and stormtroopers shoot it out (but occasionally hitting each other!)

Well, if Keith wanted chaos...he got it! I enjoyed the scenario but obviously think my faction, as the only resident imperial one, should have had a LOT more information. Feel free to make our objective far from my starting location, and make me run the gauntlet of attacking rebels. I also think it should have been a bit more obvious which buildings housed prisoners and which were basic administrative or supply storage facilities. Mike W's Greedos were obviously looking for something, but all they ended up doing was interrogating a bunch of random civilians and searching wrong locations. Oh, and shooting one of my guys! The civilian medical personnel running around trying to revive anyone wounded or knocked out of action in the middle of a gunfight were simply annoying. How the Evil Empire got such fiercely loyal platoon combat medics willing to risk their lives didn't make a lot of sense. But then again, the "bad guys" in Star Wars movies often do things that don't make sense. So, perhaps it fit the canon after all.

    Mike S's mercs were obviously up to no good when they asked the rescued pilot to arm a ship's guns

Keith's spaceport looked nice. I don't think I have ever seen so much pre-printed cardboard or paper terrain assembled onto one tabletop before. There were a LOT of buildings, walkways, spaceships, scatter -- you name it! Interestingly, though, very little of the terrain provided any kind of cover. Lots of staircases or buildings, but not a lot to hide behind and squeeze out the odd -1 or -2 to the enemy shot. The Wiley Games rules provided their usual enjoyment, with wild swings in combat but also the ability to formulate a plan and try to adapt it to the order of movement cards you were dealt. This mechanic adds an extra level of a tactical challenge -- which figure gets which card, and what order to move your guys in?

    In the end, the Greedos stole a spaceship! Was it their mission? Who knows...

I also liked how Keith's game introduced the players to the idea of a spectrum of factions in the Star Wars world. That is precisely what my own Star Wars games will do. I plan to have the players represent everything from the Rebel Alliance to the Empire, with mercenaries, criminal syndicates, corporate security, and local rebels thrown into the mix. So, it was a good introduction for my own series of games I hope to run using the Space Weirdos rules. Why not Galactic Heroes? Well, I'm not a huge fan of short weapon ranges for a futuristic game, for one. Plus, I want to give these a try. A friend recommended them, I downloaded them from Wargame Vault, and they look interesting. When will my games kick off? Hopefully in May, though we will see what others want to run before that.

    One of Joel's rebels stealthily hides underneath a walkway in which 2 ship crew are walking along

 

In the meantime, look for more updates soon on the stuff that I've been painting up!

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

    I really liked Keith's Star Wars people movers (or whatever they're called)...very nice models!

    The Gung Ho nurse ignores Allen's rebel and would continue to annoy every character she ran into

 

    A confused melee breaks out between stormtroopers and Tom's rebels & the prisoners he rescued

    Allen's troops deploy early in the game and launch the rebel raid on the Spaceport

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

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

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

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