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| 3 'Pacific Huts' from Diabolical Terrain's line of WW II 3-D printed terrain that I'll use for Nam |
You know how it goes when you're running games at a convention or a game day? You think of something less than two weeks before the event that will be extra cool thing to add to the tabletop. Well, last week I thought that I should get another of the
Pacific Huts that I bought from
Diabolical Terrain done in time for Saturday's
Summercon game day in Cambridge, OH. As I breezed along on the 3-D printed hut, I thought, "Hey! Why not get the other remaining two done, as well?" Sure enough, for a project that has more figures and terrain than I need for a game, I suddenly manufactured a deadline crunch!
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| Each of the huts is subtly different, with different textures & layouts, but same basic design |
They DO paint up very quickly. The only assembly that needs to be done, as you may have seen in my post about my first Pacific Hut, is epoxying the posts the hut rests upon to its underside. You also have to glue the ladder to the log deck, and in my case, trim to size some craft sticks and epoxy them into each corner of the hut to hold the roof in place. Not sure why the model was designed without tabs or something to hold it in place, but this is very easily remedied. I also glued craft sticks to the back of the door, which for some reason, is flat with no wooden texture. I spread Tacky Glue on the back of the door, then laid enough craft sticks atop it so the texture of the door on the interior matched the exterior -- more or less. I trimmed the stick to size and then epoxied the door in place, too.
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| I like the 'woven' look of the exterior and interior walls - also a good look at my craft stick posts! |
Next, I took a gamble on a fairly hot day and primed the roofs and buildings with Krylon Fusion Matte Black. My brother, who lives in Nashville, TN, had preached that it is not humidity but the dew point that is more important. Another blog post I read online said it is the difference between the dew point and temperature that is the true worrying point for when you can spray miniatures or buildings and when you can't. The blog said that as long as there is a 10 degree difference between the dew point and the outdoor temperature, you should be okay. I wouldn't risk clear coating painted miniatures on a hot day with that formula -- I can wait. However, priming with a "rattle can" is worth doing, and so far I haven't had any problems following that formula!
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| A look at all of the 3-D printed buildings and their thatch roofs - I love how they are raised on posts |
One of the reasons these paint up so quickly is that there are only two surfaces on these buildings. Well, three, actually! The wooden posts and frame for the building are one and the woven wicker sides are the two. The third one is the thatch roof, but is done exactly like the woven mat sides with an extra step on the end. I do the wood first -- wet brush dark brown, dry brush Camo Brown, and highlight Khaki. Then I add in the wicker sides in between the wooden frame posts. This is done with a medium brown color called Autumn Brown, which I then dry brush with Iron Wind Metals Dun. For the roof, I add a final light gray highlight to give a more sun-bleached effect on the thatching.
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| Using the Diabolical Terrain huts will give my Vietnamese village a more cohesive look, I think... |
Once the painting is all done, I add a final black vehicle wash over the entire building. I like the effect this gives, make it look more dirty and lived in. For the interior floor, I cut to size a piece of scrap booking paper that I found in the local craft store. One final clear coat and the huts are done! I'll be using all four of the now completed huts I bought from Diabolical Terrain at the game day in Cambridge this Saturday. Although I like my scratch built jungle huts I made long ago for our Pulp games, they are a bit larger. These will fit better for the board size for Surviving 'Nam and I will likely use these more going forward.
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| I added in a dirty looking scrapbooking paper for the floors, but otherwise usually don't do interiors |
What else is on my painting desk? First off, the huts barely edged out the Elven Halberdiers I've been painting. Otherwise, I have another small batch of scatter terrain that is close to be done, as well. For miniatures, I have primed the first of my Pulp Retro Sci-Fi figures from Hydra Miniatures. I am doing my factions in groups of five figures, which is more than enough for a multiplayer game of Space Weirdos rules. For the first action, I will likely paint them up similar to the two earlier ones I did -- one for my Five Parsecs from Home crew and another for my Star Wars rebels. Being a metal miniature, it was not destroyed in the great asphalt catastrophe when a friend accidentally dumped my box of miniatures I was using for our Star Wars campaign on the streets one night after gaming. Anyway, stay tuned for more updates!
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| This one is almost identical to the first of the Pacific Huts that I did - very basic and open looking |
MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026- Miniatures acquired in 2026: 210
- Miniatures painted in 2026: 160
TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026
- Terrain acquired in 2026: 14
- Terrain painted in 2026: 36
SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026
- Scatter acquired in 2026: 34
- Scatter painted in 2026: 69
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| These buildings will be on the table for my games this Saturday at Cambridge 'Summercon' |
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