Welcome to EZ Pawn

 I took yesterday, March 31st, as a day off work, and used some of that free time to finish* off the EZ Pawn Shop I've been working on. I got the front doors and the surrounding frame glued on, the sign on the roof assembled and weathered, some signage in the windows, and a few pieces of art on the walls. 

So why the asterisk? 

Because there's still a few things I want to add. 

I've got an air conditioner from Oshiro Model Terrain that I'm getting into the priming box today so that I can paint it up and glue it in next to the back door. 

There's some furniture to paint up and add in - I've got a cashiers' counter and a couple shelving units to paint up, and there's a safe and a gun locker that's on its way from Miniature Building Authority. There will probably be various other odds and ends added going forward. 

But!

It's finished enough to where I'd be fine with having it on the table during a game and not feel like it's unfinished. 

Pawn Shop Progress, Continued

 I've gotten a good amount of work done on the MDF pawn shop I posted about last time since Friday, and have probably one or two more sessions to go to finish the building proper; resin and MDF furniture will be another session or two on top of that, in all likelihood. 

The original red spray paint I bought to do the doors, window frames and signage in ended up being a weird neon red-orange that wasn't what I was looking for, so I painted over all that with ordinary red craft paint. Everything was given a light drybrush of a pale tan to weather and dull down the brightness of the red. I've glued in the back door, it's frame, and the window frames, plus used pieces of acetate sheet to make window panes; I've glued them in because I want to varnish over them, which will make them frost and look dingy and unwashed. The front door frame is test-fit and sanded, but not yet glued into place. The furniture inside has been assembled, but is not glued down because I'm going to hit it all with a can of black spray paint and then just give it a little drybrush to help the edges pop. There's a few resin bits and bobs I'm waiting to come in the mail as well. 

Around the side of the building, I've applied a graffiti decal - I bought a couple sheets of these off a seller on ebay; they're designed for model railroaders to add realistic graffiti to train cars, but O-Scale is close enough to 28mm for my purposes. This one worked really well; I was nervous about it tearing during application but it went on like a breeze. I've got a dozen more designs, and I'm anticipating using maybe one per building at most as I grow my modern terrain collection. 

The colors are really crisp and bright; I'll probably apply a very light drybrush of the tan over it to weather it and tie it into the wall behind it a little more. 

In addition to this, I started doing a little bit of work on my next building. One thing I regret not doing more of with the pawn shop is sanding down the lugs on the pieces; the fit on everything is exceptionally tight and once you add a skin of paint over it, almost impossible to get the lugs into their slots. So for the next building - a blank storefront that I'm building as the "Fat Dragon Self-Service Ramen Eatery" - I'm starting off by sanding all the lugs down! 

The furnishings are from OSHIRO Model Terrain - there are two noodle vending machines, a drinks vending machine, recycling bin and (not super visible by the front door) an ATM. I'm waiting on a set of booth seats from Miniature Building Authority to finish off the furniture collection for this one. The exterior is going to be the same color as the pawn shop, but I'm thinking a light blue for the interior walls. Flooring is going to be the same wooden plank pattern I used for the pawn shop. 

I'm debating if I want to do some flower pots on the sidewalk under the window and next to the front door. 

I'm hoping, given the lessons learned on the pawn shop, that the ramen eatery goes even faster!

Terrain in Progress

 With the weather finally warming up, I've been able to start on a project I've been champing at the bit for since Christmas. One of my Christmas gifts from my wife Gina was an MDF kit from Atomic Lasercut Designs, a small US-based designer of MDF scenery kits, representing a pawn shop.

I've made some good progress on it, painting most pieces separately before assembly - the exterior was sprayed with "Sahara Beige" artist's spray paint from Montana Gold, while the interior was primed white and painted a cream color using craft paint. The base plate got a coat of gray primer, followed by successive drybrushes of lighter shades of gray for the concrete sidewalk. I printed a wooden floorboard pattern from Sarissa Precision off at my local Staples with their fancy laserjet printer, and carefully cut that to size and glued it into the building's footprint. The walls have been slotted into place and glued to the base and each other, and the corner cladding, covering the joins, glued into place. 

The doors, door frames and windows, as well as the sign that goes over the store, I want to do in red. Unfortunately, the "Fire Red" spray paint I got ended up more of a bright pinkish-red, almost neon, so I'm going to repaint those by hand to get more of a fire engine red. 

I'm hoping to have this building mostly done by early next week; there's a few interior pieces I won't be able to prime until middle of next week due to weather, but the building itself should be done. And that's doubly good, because another kit from Atomic Lasercut Designs arrived yesterday!

This one is a blank storefront, designed to be customized, and has a smaller footprint than the pawn shop does. I've got some resin interior furnishings from Oshiro Model Terrain and Miniature Building Authority that I'm going to use to turn this blank storefront into a Automat-style ramen restaurant; seating for customers and vending machines that cook your selected noodles right in front of you. What can I say, I got inspired when I saw "Noodle Vending Machines" on Oshiro's website. This one will have an identical wooden floor to the pawn shop and probably be in largely similar colors overall. Maybe a different color interior? 

"Directive: Reach For The Sky!"

 Nothing too exciting to post about today, but I did finish a few more figures.

This set of Robot Lawmen/Bounty Hunters from Diehard Miniatures has been sitting primed and unpainted for *cough*a couple years*cough* and I decided I had a use for them with my next Fistful of Lead demo at Harlequin Hobbies.

The yellow casings on these figures were inspired by my days working in a factory, back around 2009-2012. The dents and scratches sculpted on to the figures reminded me of the battered old machines I used to work on, so I copied their industrial paint jobs. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 40

Figures Painted in 2025: 52

Demo Day AAR

 So yesterday, March 8th, the game store I've begun visiting locally - Harlequin Hobby in Cheektowaga NY - held a big day-long event (literally, noon to midnight) for people to demonstrate games they love and stir up interest. I signed on to run quick demos of Wiley Games' Fistful of Lead - the only truly indie game there, everyone else was running games with global distribution networks and marketing budgets that the store already stocked. 

Since I didn't need as much space as something like Warhammer 40K, I got put in the upstairs gaming hall - something I didn't even know the store had until yesterday! I got set up alongside a guy running Marvel Dice Throne and another running Marvel Crisis Protocol. My demo scenario was pretty simple - small gangs of orcs squabbling over division of treasure after a battle. Scaled it down to a 2' x 2' board and created warbands of just 3 figures apiece using my Oldhammer Orcs. 

The first hour and a half were pretty quiet, but a couple people walked by and asked about my set-up and I gave my sales pitch of what the game is and why they should play it. A lot of people were wowed by my painted metal figures as well. 

From 1:30 to 4, I ran four 20-30 minute demo games in pretty quick succession, and gave my sales pitch to probably 10 additional people, including a couple of store employees who couldn't sit down and play for 30 minutes. I only remembered to take photos of the last demo game, unfortunately.

Everyone who sat down at my table had fun, and left with a smile on their face, which is more than I could say for some of the other games I witnessed. I didn't get a chance to wander the demo games downstairs in the main play space, but a bunch of Warhammer 40K players showed up and decided to take over some table space across from me for a pick-up game, to practice for an event next weekend. Those guys just looked miserable the entire time they were playing, and an argument over rules broke out between a pair of identical twins - imagine the Marx Brothers mirror gag with Harpo and Groucho pointing furiously at PDF files on an ipad and you've got an idea. 

At 4 o'clock, after my last game wrapped up (and I was only scheduled for noon to 4) and I was putting my things back in my bag, a guy who'd drifted by and glanced at my table a few times came up and asked if I was still running games because he wanted to play. I apologized, let him know I'd only been booked for noon to 4, but informed him I'd be back to run more in the coming weeks because it's a game I love and there's definite interest at the store for more. 

Magnetize, Magnetize!

 Not much exciting going on at the moment on my paint desk, but I am working my way through magnetizing all of my orcs and goblins' bases and their movement trays. That's where the bulk of my hobby time has gone for the past week.

The movement trays are 3D printed, with spacers to convert to Warhammer The Old World unit footprints (which is a lot more appealing than rebasing 200-ish figures). Each slot in the base has a depression for a little magnet, so I'm gluing magnets into the trays and gluing squares of sheet steel to the underside of each base. Once the weather improves I'll hit the movement trays with a coat of green spray paint and flock the tops so the bases blend in. 

As you can see, there's a couple units here left to paint and even more in boxes behind them. The biggest limiting factor is going to be that the green I use for their skin is no longer being made, so once my stockpile runs dry I may have to stop. 

Finished Goblin Regiment

 I'm trying to work down my leadpile, and this regiment of goblins has been staring at me waiting to be finished since October. I painted the first dozen back in 2021 as part of the Old World Army Challenge, then came back to them last year to try and round them out to a regiment of useful size for Warhammer: The Old World. I got bogged down last year with seven figures left to go to reach my target of 40 figures. 

Tonight, I finished those last seven figures, giving me a unit of 39 goblins with a full command, accompanied by a shaman. There's still a few shields to paint and affix but overall I'm happy calling them done. The figures are a mix from Knightmare Miniatures, Harlequin/Black Tree Design, and Midlam Miniatures, all sculpted by Goblinmaster Kevin Adams.

My favorite figure in the unit is a bit of an easter egg in the back row - a goblin eating a meat pie (with a rat tail hanging out of it) and apparently burning his tongue on it. 

I've also knocked out a trio of treasure markers - I'm going to be running some demo games of Fistful of Lead on March 8th at my local game store, and I've put together a simple scenario with groups of orcs squabbling over the division of loot following a battle. I'm hoping I can lure a couple people in. I forget where the treasure pile with the shield and chest came from, but the other two are from Reaper Miniatures - and all three have been in my bits box for the better part of a decade. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 40

Figures Painted in 2025: 47