Refugee Car & 4 New Survivors

    Four more survivors protecting their belongings piled upon a MBA 'Refugee Car'

Happy New Year! I hope you had a good set of holidays. Mine were fairly relaxing, which is nice, and also helped with my productivity! I'd begun both of these projects well before the New Year, but they were slow going -- especially the refugee car. The resin car is from Miniature Building Authority and is an awesome piece of eye candy for the tabletop. I picked it up at Historicon 2024 this past July, among other things I purchased from Kirk. Three different manufacturers are responsible for these four survivors: Foundry's Street Violence range (Crisanto), Copplestone Castings' Future Wars (Martina & Reef), and  Battle Valor Games. Thanks to my friend Jason for correcting me on Martina and Reef's manufacturer!

    This resin car from Miniature Building Authority has a LOT of detail that took serious time to paint!

Starting with the refugee car, as you can tell by looking at it, there was a LOT of detail. Now, I could have taken a short cut and made all the bags tan, etc. However, I didn't think it would look as nice. So, I was determined to look at each item affixed to the car and decide what color to paint it. I was hoping the riot of different colors would really make the model stand out. I tried to go with a more dull slate of colors, except for maybe the bright blue couch! I figured the less bright colors, the dry brushing, and the overall black wash, would unify the look enough once I was done.

    You gotta love the couch heaped up on the car - I mean, wherever we're going, we need comfort!

It took more than a week, picking out maybe a half dozen items to paint each session, then dry brushing them the next day. I would then pick out a new group of things to paint, dry brushing them the next day. I actually started with the body of the car and tires first. After priming everything black, I painted the body a Pewter metallic color. Why that color? Mainly because there are a lot of silver sedans driving through our neighborhood with what appears to be a recent arrival to the U.S. being taught how to drive! So, the color choice was an inside joke for myself -- plus, when rusted and dirtied up, I thought silver would look good.

    I was pretty happy with the rust effects that I added -- it looks like a beat up car barely on the road

Speaking of the rust, I used Autumn Brown first for the areas of rust, then filled it in with fluorescent orange. Once the entire thing was done, I gave it a black vehicle wash. The windows, which had previously been painted solid flat black, were painted a bluish glaze at the top to give the effect of reflected sky. I have done this on other cars, and it tends to look good and work about half the time. You be the judge whether it worked this time...! All in all, I'm very happy with the car, and it will likely appear on the tabletop in my next post-apocalyptic or zombie game. Pick one up from Kirk next time you see Miniature Building Authority at a show!

    My favorite of this batch of survivors, a tough-looking ex-marine with braided hair - Martina

The four survivors are the heavier armed ones from the batch of eight I'd picked out from my unpainted lead a few weeks ago. Three are armed with assault rifles and one with a shotgun. I really like how all of them look except maybe the cop in riot gear. I think I simply made his color scheme too black and gray and he looks like a dark blob unless you pick up the miniature and examine it closely. My favorite of the four is Martina. She is from Copplestone Castings' Citizen Militia pack. I love the long, braided hair going down her back. I decided to give her woodland camouflage pants and a tan colored shirt. I gave her a darker skin tone, too, using a leather color with a lighter tan dry brush. I also gave her some tattoos because she looked like a tough lady. I'm not sure if you can read the "USMC" on her right forearm. I was tempted to call her Vasquez from Aliens ("Hey Vasquez! Have you ever been mistaken for a guy?" "No...have you?"). However, I figured that one day I make actually pick up the Vasquez figure from the Another Glorious Day in the Corps board game, and that would make things awkward between the two...ha, ha!

    Surfer dude Reef is an interesting figure with sweat pants and 'slides', or sandals in old people speak

My next favorite is Reef, who I thought looked like a surfer dude armed with an AK-47. He appeared to have sweat pants and "slides" (we call them sandals, but kids today call them slides). So, I gave him blond hair, purple sweat pants, and a bright green shirt. His slides are white with purple trim, and in true surfer fashion, his mirrored sunglasses having matching purple lenses. The green of his shirt was considerably darkened down by the black wash that I did, so it looks less like beach wear than I was hoping. I also gave him some tattoos. I was tempted to give the shirt a Ron Jon surf wear logo, but once I pulled up an image of the company's symbol, I didn't think I could execute it with my micron pens! He is also from the same pack as Martina.

    I like how Crisanto's urban-style camo pants turned out - he is a 28mm Foundry 'Street Violence' fig

Next in line of my favorites of this group is Crisanto. He is from the "SWAT team Alpha" pack in the Street Violence range. I used my Asian flesh that I'd mixed up to paint my Saga Mongol army. Once I painted his black hair and mustache, I thought he looked more Filipino than anything. He wears body armor and elbow and knee pads, which was going to be a challenge to make gray yet still give some color to the figure. So, I decided to give him urban camouflage patterned pants and a dark bluish-green shirt. That proved to be enough lighter colors to avoid the "dark blob" look that his buddy Hondo suffered! I lined the dark gray pads with a lighter gray rather than dry brushing them. I wanted to make sure they stood out more distinctly, so chose that method. The only part I don't like about the miniature is the assault rifle slung over his shoulder. The strap was messing with my mind, trying to figure out where it started, ended, and connected to the gun. Otherwise, I really like how he turned out.

    Did I do a good enough job making the detail visible? Or is Hondo a 'dark blob'?

The final figure, Hondo, is a Battle Valor Games policeman in riot gear. Like with Crisanto above, I tried to make color choices that would keep it from looking like a dark blob, but I honestly think I failed here. I should have rethought how I painted his riot gear rather than going with standard black or dark gray. I have more than one of these left from my pack of police in riot gear, so if I paint more, I will get more creative. Perhaps doing Google Image searches will reveal somewhere in the world that has more brightly colored riot police. Anyway, four more survivors are done, which is just in time. I will likely be running a game of Zombie RV for my Sunday night gaming group soon.

What's next? Terrain-wise, I will be painting up three Acheson Creations Dark Ages thatch roof huts. They are spray primed and have also had their 50/50 mix of black paint and water brushed on. As for miniatures, I debating between a couple choices. Stay tuned to see which ones I decide upon!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 4 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 0

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 1