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Two Miniature Building Authority structures I bought at Siege of Augusta painted up & ready!
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Two of my
purchases from Siege of Augusta a couple weeks ago are ready for the tabletop! I decided to jump the two
Miniature Building Authority structures I picked up from their "
Shanty Town" range to the front of the line. They both looked like they'd paint up easily, as well as be usable for a number of differnt periods, including modern, post-apocalyptic and even Sci-Fi. The larger building is the "Souq," a mud brick building with three small rectangular store fronts beneath a corrugated steel awning. The other is a building made out of a shipping container.
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I like how MBA's 'Souq Minimall' painted up -- the garage doors here pop in or out as you wish
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The
Souq M.E. Minimall is a hefty, resin piece. I decided to mount it on MDF board rather than the usual styrene plastic. I recently got a long sheet of MDF that came as packing from a purchase. I saved it, knowing it would be useful as basing material (and it was free!). I spray painted the building black and then brushed on a 50/50 coating of water and acrylic black paint to make sure paint got into all the nooks and crannies. As a first coat, I slathered on a wet brush of dark leather color. Next, I dry brushed a Khaki highlight. Finally, I did a very light tan on just the sections that looked like they were stucco. The exposed mud brick I left alone.
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Back of the MBA Souq guarded by some of my 28mm Foundry figs from their 'Street Violence' line
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Once that was done, I turned my attention to the corrugated steel awning. I decided to do a patchwork of colors to represent the material for the awning was scavenged from various sources. It
is a "Shanty Town," building, after all...! I used pale greens, blues, yellows, pinks, and mixed in light gray, too. All the colors got the same white dry brush highlight. I mirrored the colors on the underside of the awning, though I doubt anyone will ever see it. Finally, I added rust effects to the corrugated steel. I painted streaks of Autumn Brown first, then added splotches of fluorescent orange to the center of the streaks. I was happy with how the rust turned out, which is not always the case!
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The roof is simply a piece of MDF that I textured with sand - here it is removed
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The detail on the back side of this MBA building is really nice, too. I picked out the wires in a dark gray with light gray highlight. The electrical boxes were Steel and Pewter. The doors were either wood or painted steel (dirty pink and light blue). The trash heap was kind of a pain to paint. I did a dark gray across the entire heap, then went back and picked out various tin cans, bottles, and scraps of cloth. Finally, a light gray dry brush over the areas that remained gray completed the trash heap. The included roof is simply a rectangular piece of MDF. I painted it to match the wet brush leather color. Once dry, I painted the top surface with white glue and pour sand over it. This gave it a nice texture, which was made even better by the application of the black wash, below.
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A look inside each of the mud brick souq's 3 store fonts with the printed paper 'tile' floors
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The next to last step was to apply my black vehicle wash to the entire structure, roof included. It ended up making it much darker than I anticipated. I should probably have watered the black wash down further (I am pretty sure it is already half strength inside my pre-mixed bottle). Oh well. It just looks dirtier, right, and
shantier? I am not unhappy with how dark it is. It just doesn't match the other two MBA mud brick buildings that I have painted up previously.
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This MBA resin building can be used for modern, post-apocalyptic and honestly even Sci-Fi games
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Finally, I went online and looked up "Middle Eastern floor tile" results on a Google Image search. Scrolling through pages of results, I finally found one with a brown tone that I liked and thought would match the overall color of the Souq. I used the Screenshot feature and my Affinity Photo program on my laptop to make a full floor pattern of it. I resized it into three different sizes, then printed it out at the local office supply store on their color laser printer. I picked the smallest tile size of the three and trimmed it to fit the shop floors. Voila -- floor tiles!
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Great idea for a shanty town -- a building made out of a converted shipping container!
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I was in for quite the surprise when I opened up the
Container House: Contractor Office. The shipping container was plastic and looked familiar. Hey! It was a Reaper shipping container -- the same as the one I have sitting unpainted in my closet...ha, ha! It also included two pieces of resin. The first is the resin front of the office, including a corrugated steel door and awning. It also has the outlines of a window molded into it. The second piece mystified me. It looked like a wooden door, but had no door handle. Later, looking at the photo on the box which I'd saved (duh!), I realized it was meant to be a wooden porch. I had already based it up, though, and didn't have room for it anymore. No biggie -- I decided to save it to use as a door for another project, someday. The building would work fine without a porch.
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I am really happy with both the rust effects and the 'No Trespassing' signs on this building
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I glued the office front piece in the center of the shipping container's long sides, then the building and the roof received the same preparation as the Souq: spray paint and 50/50 black mix. Shipping containers come in so many different colors, so I went back and forth on how to paint it. I decided a pale green, so gave it a medium green base coat and light, green-gray dry brush. I painted the iron latches steel and then went to work on the front of the office. I painted the corrugated steel office front pale blue, the door a dark red, and the window black with steel and pewter bars.
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The kit comes with 2 resin parts -- the 1-piece office front here and a porch that I didn't use
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I liked how the rust effect had turned out on the Souq, so I duplicated it here on this building, as well. Once I had sufficiently rusted up the steel, I turned my attention towards the interior. Rather than paint it by hand, I decided to glue in patterned scrapbooking paper for the walls and floor. I measured the sizes, checked and trimmed each piece, and then covered the area it would be attached with a thin coating of white glue. This does a good job keeping it secure in place, as I have used this technique for multiple buildings. I decided to decorate up the interior like I did with my Bad Goblin Games trailers, too. I went with the same "hillbilly patriot" types of images to decorate the walls. I also built a little door frame out of cardboard, craft wood sticks, and corrugated styrene. I placed it inside lined up as best I could with where it was on the outside of the structure. To recreate the window, I used plastic grid netting ("granny grate," it is sometimes called) and trimmed away portions of it so that it looked vaguely like the window on the office front.
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The shipping container itself is plastic with separate roof and is from Reaper Miniatures
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The contractor office came out well, and would not look out of place in my trailer park. In fact, I plan to convert my two unpainted
Reaper shipping containers into another similar house. With the two new trailers I bought at
Bad Goblin Games, I am getting close to being able to have a tabletop that is one big trailer park! That should be fun!! I'm happy with how both of these turned out and am glad I picked them up at the convention. Kirk at MBA is a great guy, and I always try to support him when I see his booth at shows.
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I used scrapbooking paper for the walls and floor and scratch-built a door and window to glue inside
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What's up next? I am assuming I will eventually get around to doing the furled sail of the Viking longship one of these days before I leave of on vacation! The ship itself was actually finished before these two buildings. I've just been delaying doing the mast because I am afraid I will make a mess of the furled sail...ha, ha! I need to take the plunge and do it. I've said "I'll do it tomorrow" the last three days! Hopefully, that means I'll do it tomorrow...
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Of course, I decorated up the interior with what I thought were suitable 'Hillbilly Patriot' pictures
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MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025- Miniatures acquired in 2025: 7
- Miniatures painted in 2025: 10
TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025
- Terrain acquired in 2025: 5
- Terrain painted in 2025: 6
SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025
- Scatter acquired in 2025: 9
- Scatter painted in 2025: 5
