Two Medieval Buildings - One to Go, One to Stay

    Stretching 4 stories tall, the Blue Crab Tavern is a 3-D printed building that I painted for RRB Minis

When I stopped by the Hubbard Ohio Gaming Guild last month, Rich Brown of RRB Minis & More had an offer for me. He knew that I wanted two of his 4'x4' cloth mats (he had been out of stock at the last show). He said he would give me two free if I would paint one of his 3-D printed buildings for him. It was a large, 4-story one, but I agreed. Since I would be painting that one up for him, I decided to work on a 2-story one I bought from him awhile back at the same time.

View of the front of the Bakery, which I was painting up simultaneously with the Blue Crab Tavern

The thought was that doing buildings is kind of an assembly line process. Base coat the walls, dry brush the walls, base coat the trim, highlight the trim, etc. Perhaps it would go faster if I did both at once? That meant six levels of building with two roofs, though. Now, I'm not 100% sure it was a good idea to do them side by side. Not only did they take up a LOT of area on my occasionally crowded painting desk, they also shoved aside other projects I was working on for a couple weeks. I think it would be a good idea to do two buildings simultaneously, but only if they smaller buildings. This was quite the undertaking!

    Although it is a very cool building, I agreed to paint it for Rich because the exterior was fairly simple

Rich's 4-story "commission," of sorts, is the Blue Crab Tavern from the Ferisia line of 3-D printed buildings which I have done so many of in the last couple years. They are quality prints, go together well (especially since Rich adds in pyramid shaped notches for the underside of one layer to slot into the one below).  Rich said he didn't have any big preferences for colors, but I still verified with him what my plan would be. I decided on a tan or off-white stucco for the interior walls and a faded, light blue for the outer walls. The stone trim, corners, balcony, and such would be shades of gray. The roof would be a typical red-brown/orange Terra Cotta. In fact, Rich's building was relatively simple, with fewer decorative flourishes. It was much easier to paint than the one I had chosen to do alongside it, the Ferisia Bakery. 

    Rear of the Bakery - the exterior was considerably more involved with wood trim & lattice work

Rich knew I like to start with a black prime, so had already completed that stage for me. I decided to do the stucco interiors first, with tan walls and a white highlight. I used a dark charcoal gray for the stone trim, dry brushing it with a medium gray then a lighter one. The floors were depicted as wood with nice, deep grooves in the grain. I did a dark brown wet brush, followed by Camo Brown then Khaki highlights. The roof portions were wet brushed red brown with a Middle East Flesh highlight. The wood trim around the roofs were also done in the wood recipe above.

    I was pretty happy with the sign and thought my little crab and lettering came out fairly well

There is a tavern sign attached to the side of the second level. I like how it is nice and sturdy and should not come off unless it is dropped from height. I went back and forth over what to do for the sign after I had done my usual wood recipe on it. I ended up texting Rich to see if he had any ideas. He said that the name of the Ferisia tavern was the "Blue Crab," so maybe I could paint one of those? I did a Google Image search with "Crab" and "Clipart." I've found if you put the word clipart in your image searches, the results tend to be more simple. I practiced drawing the crab with my Sharpie on cardstock before undertaking it on the sign itself with my Micron pens. I even practiced spacing the letters out before adding them to the sign. I used my smallest diameter black micron pen (.005) to draw outline of the crab, then painted it in with a fine brush. I'm very happy with how it came out, and so were Rich and Gwen (his wife).

    Interior floors to the Blue Crab Tavern - also a bit simpler in decorations than the Bakery

My own building was the Ferisia Bakery. I liked its "corner of two streets" layout and picked it up from Rich sometime in the last year. The building got its usual black base with spraying and brushing. I looked at my other buildings in my growing medieval town to see what pastel color I hadn't used yet. I had light blue, light green, pale yellow, and light orange varieties already. I did not have a pale lavender one yet, so decided to go with that. The interior would be a light orange. There was a LOT of wood trim on the Bakery! Several wall faces that had a diagonal lattice design on both the inside and outside. That would be fun...ha, ha! What was I thinking when I picked this building out? 

    Interior floors of the Bakery - the built in shelf was easier to paint than I thought it would be

Once again, I started on the inside. Rich had also printed up and included a lot of bakery scatter pieces, which I set aside to do later. Still, the Bakery's interior was also fancy, including a shelf with various containers on it, stone half wall dividers on one level, and plenty of windows. I did my best to parallel work on it with Rich's building, doing the Terra Cotta wall color first, then dry brushing it khaki, etc. I went with the wood trim next, doing my usual recipe. However, there were extensive stone elements inside as well. So, that was the next step, as well. Same three-color recipe as above. I tackled the shelving unit and the doors last. 

    Look at the Terra Cotta roofs of the Blue Crab Tavern & the cool 4th floor balcony

I also worked in each building's roof while I was doing the interiors. Rich's one was Terra Cotta, as I mentioned, but the Bakery had wood shingle. I did it in a lighter wood, starting with a medium to light wood color, dry brushing it khaki, and then doing a very light lavender highlight. The idea is that the shingles for the bakery's roof were once solid purple, but faded from sun bleaching over the years. I hope the effect came out subtle. This roof also had extensive wood trim receiving the usual treatment, color-wise.

    Bakery's wood tile roofs - I wanted the lavender paint to look like it had faded and mostly chipped off

The exterior was essentially a repeat of the interior, except less cramped for my brush and quicker to do. Here is where the Bakery really began to lag behind the Tavern. I had a deadline looming, and needed to deliver Rich's building to him by Advance the Colors, Oct. 9-10. So, I intentionally set is aside on some mornings, knowing if my own building didn't get done by the con then no biggie! All in all, I am happy with the Bakery, too. I like that it doesn't have to be a bakery and can be any two story medieval building I desire. I think sometime in late October I want to pull out all of my Medieval buildings and set up photo shoot for them. Look forward to that soon!

    2nd Story balcony of the Blue Crab Tavern - for rent to private parties, perhaps?

What else is on my painting table? Once all the ATC projects were cleared off, I had zero miniatures primed and ready to go. The Knights and Priests had been "old" miniatures, so it was time for something new. I glanced through my list on my iPhone and chose the two sprues of 8 Werewolves I'd purchased from Firelands Games at Daycon earlier this year. They are from Wargames Atlantic, I believe. I also have primed up and ready to paint the five spider hole Viet Cong I got from Discount Hobbies 3-D printing. Bringing up the rear are five Robot Legion figures from Hydra Miniatures. I have already trimmed them off their metal bases and glued them to cardboard for painting. Terrain-wise, I have started on the 3-D printed mangrove trees that my Sunday Night Gaming friend Mike W created for me. Lots to keep me busy over the next couple weeks!

    I liked the odd 'corner of the block' shape of the Ferisia Bakery, and apparently so do these citizens!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 234
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 211

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 22
• Terrain painted in 2026: 39

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 50
• Scatter painted in 2026: 75

 

    Final look at the entrance to the Blue Crab Tavern, with its bronze door and horse hitching rings