Saucer-shaped MDF Sci-Fi Building (Dads Armies)

    Massive MDF Sci-Fi building from Dad's Armies that I recently painted up

Awhile back, I decided to assemble some of my MDF purchases from Dad's Armies that I picked up at Advance the Colors 2024. I chose the easiest one, little Sci-Fi aircraft called "Jumpers." I struggled to figure them out and ended up putting them back into the bag after gluing just a few pieces together. Then I looked at the other ones, a huge saucer-shaped Sci-Fi building and an "Arctech" spaceship. The number of pieces just baffled me. I don't do jigsaw puzzles and simply could not see myself successfully assembling them. I took them to Cincycon 2025 where Dad's Armies would be. I fully intended to give them back to him -- not ask for a refund, just say, "Here -- they'll just sit on my shelf. You may as well sell them to someone who will put them together." 

    Thankfully, John from Dad's Armies offered to put this monstrosity together for me...!

John Elbro, owner of Dad's Armies, offered to put them together for me...for free! I said sure, and told him it was no problem if they take awhile. He could bring them to ATC 2025 in the October. That would be fine. However, the next day, he said he would have the saucer-shaped building done. He had been working on it at his booth. Lo and behold, there it was! Fully assembled in its massive (and heavy) glory! I decided to slip it into the painting queue. I spray painted in Krylon Fusion matte black acrylic, and did my usual follow up with a 50/50 mix of black paint and water. Then I pondered for awhile. What colors would I paint it? I did a Google Image search of various "Science-Fiction buildings," and scanned through the pictures. Light blue and metallic colors seemed to show up fairly often. 

    A view from above shows what I call the 'tiled sections,' painted a craft Sea Foam color

So, I decided to paint the tiled sections a "Sea Foam" craft paint color. I dry brushed that white, which I think really helped make it look blue and less green. I'd left the gaps between the tiles black, but even though I chose a flat-tipped, square brush, the lines between each section seemed too irregular and shaky. On a whim, I took a sharpie marker and went over the lines. I loved how crisp and clear the divisions were after doing that. It really seemed to make it pop. 

    The oblong pill-shaped recessions I decided were windows, so I painted them a glowing green

There are little oblong windows -- or what I assumed were windows -- spaced throughout the model. I decided to do an almost chartreuse green for those. I chose a craft paint color called "Parsley" and painted in the shape, then did a watered down very light green in the middle. I was hoping it would give the effect of a glowing window. Once I was done with the model, I would go back and paint on clear gloss to hopefully enhance that glow. I'm so-so on how the windows turned out, honestly. 

    This view from underneath shows off the Turbo Dork 'Curacao' metallic color I used

Next, I wanted to do the rest of the model a metallic color, but didn't really like any of the ones I had. While visiting the Guardtower East, a local game store, I saw their rack of Turbo Dork paints. They had a really cool light blue metallic color called Curacao. On a whim, I picked it up. I researched how to use Turbo Dork's paints, as they also do color shift paints. For those, they suggest a black primer. For the metallics, they suggested a non-metallic primer that comes relatively close to matching the metallic color that will go over it. I found a nice Caribbean blue craft paint, and did a single coat of that over the black primer I had done on the entire model. I considered a second coat, but decided I could do an extra coat of the metallic paint if I needed.

    I went over the dividing lines between the tile sections with Sharpie, and that worked really well

I really enjoyed using the Turbo Dork paint. It did require second coat, but I liked it much better than my "Turquoise" and "Dark Blue" metallic craft paints I had used previously on other things. I may consider picking up more Turbo Dork metallics in the future. It was time consuming, but I did two coats on the other surfaces, then sat back and looked at the model. The very matte looking Sea Foam sections looked too flat. I decided to paint on a bottle of Liquitex Professional Gloss Varnish I had picked up. Big mistake, Indy! It gave it too glossy of a look -- almost like a clear candy coating. I sighed, waited for it to dry, and then sprayed it with a more satin finish clear coat that I have. MUCH better. There is a slight sheen to the sea foam colored sections, and the satin did not take the shine off of the metallic blue.

    A close up of what I call the 'landing pad' portion of the building

Finally, I added some alien looking writing. I put it near the control tower extension which rises above the saucer. I also added some near the base of the extension, too. I think it gives a nice little extra dimension. Now that I think about it, I forgot to talk about two other places on the building that were painted differently. The girder structure that supports the long narrow extension rising over the saucer was painted a gray metallic with pewter highlights. The "landing pad" looking back of the extension got a dry brush of white metallic. It looks a silvery gray, but that is doubtless because of the black undercoat. 

    A final look at the saucer-shaped, Sci-F MDF building...all in all, I think it turned out okay

Do I like it? It is a very interesting looking building. Some kind of control tower, maybe? It is massive -- LOTS of MDF pieces glued together. It weighs at least a few pounds, I think. It his large in dimension, too. The diameter of the round base is more than 8". Total length at its longest is about 11". As big as it is, I'm not sure if it is big enough for my 28mm games. I think it would work better for 15mm Science-Fiction games, and perhaps even Battletech ones. With that in mind, I will likely sell it to someone who's interested in it. So, if you would like to pick up a fully-painted, nice-looking piece of eye candy for your Sci-Fi games, please reach out to me. If I don't hear from anyone, I will probably bring it to flea markets and try there.

What's next on my painting desk? Speaking of MDF, I am painting up my last Sarissa Precision trailer, now. I've also got the base coat done on the Colonial Marines from the "Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps" board game. Those each have probably a couple more day's worth of work on them, but they are in the pipeline!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 104
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 54 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 39