Wanna Gamble on the Ponies?

 Last weekend, my wife and I were out socializing on both Saturday and Sunday - and given that we're both introverted potato-people, it meant going into the work week feeling absolutely drained. We agreed that this weekend we'd "stay home and enjoy what our mortgage pays for," and I spent most of the day in the basement at my workbench, putting the finishing touches on "Mean Streets Storefront #5" from Atomic Laser Cut Designs. And by finishing touches, I just mean the MDF kit itself; I'm waiting on some 3D-printed furnishings to fill it with. 

I decided I wanted an off-track betting parlor, to go with the sort of run-down, Rust Belt feel my terrain collection has been built around. For the building itself, that just meant a pair of OTB signs - identical to plenty I've seen over by my local airport and even on the main shopping strip near me. I put a sign on either side of the building near the front, since the awning over the door and front window prevented me from putting one over the front, unless I put it up on the roof. 

The walls got some graffiti decals, as I mentioned previously, and to that I added some printed paper posters and signs - "no entry," "emergency exit," and posters for concerts from Blue Oyster Cult and Black Sabbath - the latter in celebration of the late, great Ozzy Osbourne. 

I also cut some acetate plastic to fit the front window and the door. I find this step really adds a lot to the model when viewed from outside; unlike my previous two kits, I didn't have any signs to glue to the window this time around. Happily, I did manage to get the doors aligned right when putting them in so that they open and close freely. 

So that's it for this building until I've got the furniture ready to paint; I pulled out the Urgent Care Gina got me from Atomic Laser Cut Designs and began test-fitting, but I think that's going to be a much more involved build since it has multiple interior rooms. In the meantime, I think I'll work on some more figures. 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 127

Figures Painted in 2025: 127

More Terrain Building

 I'm not sure what it is, but there's something just very peaceful and relaxing about making terrain, even if it's just building and customizing a kit. Gina got me a pair of modern MDF buildings from Atomic Laser Cut Designs for my birthday a few months ago, and I decided to pull one out and get it built up and customized. This particular kit is "Store Front 5" from their "Mean Streets" line of brownstone buildings, a single-story shop with a removable roof and opening doors. Despite the pulpy 1930s aesthetic of the Mean Streets line, there's plenty of buildings that look exactly like this within easy travel of my house (fun fact: because Buffalo, NY has so many old buildings still standing, films set in the first half of the 20th century are often shot here), so it's more than appropriate for the Rust Belt aesthetics of my modern games.

The pieces have been spray-painted, and I've applied graffiti decals to the exterior walls and given them a tan drybrush to weather the brickwork. The decals are a mix of Green Stuff World and Dave's Decals - the GSW decals go on more smoothly, but honestly half the decals on the sheets are misprinted and cut off, limiting their usability. I'll probably be putting another order in with Dave's Decals in the near future - I want to add some two-story buildings to my table, and "Ghost Signs" on the sides of the second story would be very fitting. Dave offers a variety of them. 

The fit on Atomic Laser Cut Design's buildings are very tight, necessitating some sanding on the pegs before painting - a lesson I learned the hard way! These were well-sanded before I got out the spray paint, but it's always worth it to continue to check fit as I go:

I'll be printing out a paper floor and some miscellaneous signage to glue in - a "no entry" sign on the back door, things like that, maybe some "lost dog" posters to stick to the sides near the front. I might talk to my 3D printing guy about printing up a rooftop air conditioning unit to add up top as well. I will be needing him to take care of printing some wall-mounted TVs and a bar for the interior. 

Speaking of the interior, I sprayed it a fairly obnoxious orange, with the intent being for it to look like the interior decorating hasn't been updated since the 1970s. 

I think it works.

To offer another update, I've finished pouring the resin for my gator-infested swimming pool. I haven't had a chance to get to the game store to pick up a bottle of "Dirty Down" moss effect, but I'm debating whether I even want to bother with it; this looks fairly decent as is.

The most I'd be doing with the moss effect would be some dirtying up of the rim. Not sure if that's worth spending $20. 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 127

Figures Painted in 2025: 124

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today's my birthday, and while I took the day off work, I never made it down to my hobby bench - too busy running errands and getting the house ready to have guests tomorrow. I did receive some lovely gifts from my wife however!

Two more modern buildings from Atomic Laser Cut Designs - an Urgent Care and a blank storefront that has a really nice brick pattern over the entire exterior walls - as well as some 3D printed scatter from Bad Goblin Games - some disheveled cinderblock walls, an above-ground swimming pool and most charmingly, an on-fire dumpster that comes with a little flickering LED light and battery, so that the flames actually light up. That is going to be an absolute must to have ready for my game in 3 weeks!

And I think I want to recreate what the Bad Goblin team did for the product image on their site, and put an alligator and some scummy "water" in that swimming pool...

I have to thank Mike over at Lead Legionaries for turning me on to Bad Goblin's goodies. He's painted a lot of their scenic pieces, including a variety of ruined and armored trailers and a stunning water tower, over recent months, and has been putting on some amazing games showcasing them. If you're not following his blog you should definitely check it out. 

Gina was also kind enough to hand me her card and tell me to use it to buy myself some miniatures. By coincidence, Lucid Eye Publications put out a call on their Facebook group for what miniatures people would like to see go on sale this week. I requested their Cro-Magnons, and they were kind enough to do it, so I bought another Tribal formation's worth of warriors, as well as another few characters. 

Since I've ordered more figures, it's time to update the tracker:

Figures Purchased in 2025: 66

Figures Painted in 2025: 85

Fat Dragon Self-Service Ramen

 Last night, after I finished posting about yesterday's game, I put the finishing touches on another building kit from Atomic Lasercut Designs. This was a blank storefront that I bought a month ago with an eye towards turning it into an automat-style self service restaurant. 

The sign out front (and interior art) is all just stuff I grabbed off Google Image Search and mocked up in MSPaint, printed out on the laser printer at my local copy shop. The graffiti decals are from an EBay seller, and the furnishings on the interior are mostly from Oshiro Models, with the booths and arcade cabinet from Miniature Building Authority. 

And here's a better look at the drinks cabinet - I used UV resin to give it a "glass" front.

What's next? Well, a buddy of mine is setting me up with some 3D printed modern buildings and street scatter, I have the three gangs of Mafiosos to paint up, and I picked up a set of Mantic street scatter at my local hobby shop yesterday:

I also found out that Harlequin is hosting their next Demo Day event on June 14th...one week after my game at Wargames Among the Warplanes! So it sounds like I should maybe not bother unpacking my car after I get back from WATW...

Figures Purchased in 2025: 58

Figures Painted in 2025: 70

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? 

Merry Christmas 2024

 Best wishes of the holiday season to everyone out there in wargaming bloggerland; may the season bring you good food, fine company and plenty of toy soldiers and reading material.

My wife Gina outdid herself this year; for the past few years I've been a big fan of the painting "Military Tactics" by Alfred Lyndon Grace, which shows two boys playing toy soldiers while their grandfather watches and offers strategic advice. It's regularly my top banner pic on Facebook and occasionally my desktop wallpaper. 

Gina went and got me a framed printed of "Military Tactics" for me to hang up on a wall somewhere here in the house; it's likely going to be the dining room, since the dining room table pulls double duty as my wargaming table. Probably going to end up being in the same spot where my dad hung his framed print of "Washington Crossing the Delaware" for many years. 

(As an aside; we spent a night at the house back in April, while my parents were on vacation, to get a sense for what the house was like at night. Gina's comment was, "there are more pictures of George Washington on the walls then there are pictures of you or your sister." Perils of being a family of historians!)

And then to top me off, she also got me an MDF building for my modern wargaming tables; a pawn shop from Atomic Laser Cut Designs. I'd first heard about ALCD from Mr. Martin at The Safe Hole, who gave them a shout-out after buying some Old West buildings from them. I'd had my eye on their "Big City Streets" line and put a couple options on my wishlist for Gina to pick from. Since a lot of my building choices are inspired by the Rust Belt surroundings I've spent my entire life in - and thus are dingy, rundown, obviously not a wealthy area - she chose the pawn shop to go along with the bingo hall and trailer park I've already got. 

Manufacturer's photo of the assembled kit

I've already got some ideas for painting and furnishing; I'm also looking at graffiti decals I can apply to the walls especially around the back of the building...