Yo Joe!

 Casting about my workbench for figures to work on after finishing the Off-Track Betting parlor, I pulled out a mix of converted metal and 3D printed figures for my ongoing GI Joe project which I'd primed some months back. In a Modern gaming state of mind, I was happy to get working on them. 

First up, a pair of named characters for the villainous Cobra forces: Croc-Master (in the crocodile-skin vest and boots and gimp mask) and the diabolical Dr. Mindbender (in the purple pants). These are definitely sillier characters that were introduced later in the series' run back in the 1980s; Dr. Mindbender was an orthodontist who accidentally turned himself evil and became a master of robotics and genetics (as one does) while eschewing shirts in the laboratory (but not elaborate metal codpieces held up by suspenders). Croc-Master trains reptiles for aggression on Cobra's behalf, and initially joined the terrorist organization after failing to sell "Trained Security Crocodiles" as an anti-burglary system to Cobra Commander. 

I'm making none of this up. And these aren't the silliest characters on Cobra's payroll. These are resin 3D prints of STLs designed by Random Miniatures on Patreon, which my buddy Dave printed out for me a while back. They're a little oversized, but it's less noticeable with these two. 

Next up, continuing with Cobra, we have a machine gun team that I converted from a Crooked Dice "Army Heavy Machine Gun" set, using a set of "ASP Trooper" heads also from Crooked Dice. 

No ineffectual, children's-television-approved, blue lasers here! Once we get a little sanity in this country and the de minimis exemption on tariffs gets restored, I'm hoping to order and convert a few more of these, because I think it worked out very well.

Finally, two additions to the heroic GI Joe team, though probably not characters whose action figures childen were clamoring for in the 1980s. In green, we have "Tripwire," the Joes' explosives disposal specialist, and next to him "Cutter," who was the Joes' token representative from the US Coast Guard. Tripwire is another Random Miniatures 3D print, while Cutter is again a Crooked Dice figure (one of their "X-Commandos") with a head swap to a mustached head wearing a ball cap. I suspect that the number one factor driving sales of Cutter's action figure in the 1980s was that he was packaged with the "WHALE" Hovercraft, which was one of the more impressive vehicles in the GI Joe motorpool. 

You can really see the size difference with the 3D prints here; I'm less worried about it since I don't anticipate Tripwire showing up in a lot of games, but with future prints I'll ask Dave to scale them down slightly. 

So what's next? I don't anticipate doing a lot of hobbying this weekend as Monday morning we're getting a new water meter installed as part of a city-wide initiative - and our water meter is right next to my workbench, which means cleaning up and clearing space to ensure the worker(s) from the city can access everything they need to as easily as possible. After that though, I've got eight Crooked Dice "ASP Troopers" to paint up for my GI Joe project; instead of the usual Cobra blues, they'll be wearing the green, gray and yellow of the "Python Patrol" sub-team, just to mix things up a bit and to justify them having a slightly different style of uniform from the rest of my Cobra troopers. I also want to get started on my next terrain build, an "Urgent Care" building my wife got me for my birthday. It has interior rooms, so it'll be a more complex project than some of my other buildings. 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 127

Figures Painted in 2025: 133

Plague Toad or Poisoned Lasher?

 I received this 3D-printed resin "Plague Toad" a week or so ago as a freebie from an Etsy seller; it's clearly intended to be something affiliated with Nurgle, the Chaos god of disease in Games Workshop's various Warhammer properties, but I decided to do something different with it, using the variety of textures on the figure to have some fun with washes and glazes in colors I don't use all that often. I wanted something unearthly and alien-looking, suitable for a future game of Majestic 13. 

Monster profiles in Majestic 13 are intentionally left vague to allow you to fill them with whatever fantasy or science fiction figures you might have handy; I try to use things with wings or other means of achieving flight for profiles that have flying listed as a mode of locomotion, but beyond that I'm happy to be extremely loose with it. 

That being said, I'm thinking I'll treat this as a "Poisoned Lasher" in game - a monster with extended reach due to tentacles, a poison attack, and the ability to grab player characters and drag them around the map inflicting additional damage. I think he's a perfect fit for that description! 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 127

Figures Painted in 2025: 125

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

Devilry Afoot: Witches and Hills

 A few more figures finished for Devilry Afoot, and starting on some terrain pieces. I should be able to get my first game in this weekend to get a feel for it!

First up are a trio of Witches - these are Cultist miniatures, sculpted by Kev Adams for a company called Dark Fable, which is sadly no longer around, its founder Mike Burns having passed away a few years ago. They are now available through Dragon Bait Miniatures in the US, along with Dark Fable's incredible line of Egyptian miniatures. I went with a simple scheme of grimy slightly-grayish brown robes and black hoods. 

Next, an incredibly sinister goat from Pulp Figures; part of an occult accessory pack I got a while back as part of Bob's "Arcane Academics" Kickstarter. This was a very simple paint job, spray black, drybrush dark gray, pick out horns and eyes. It will serve as a Pact Devil in game. 

Next up is going to be terrain. I've got STLs for a few Tudor-style cottages as well as a blacksmith's and watermill that I need to take to my friend Dave for printing. My wife got me a few pieces of scatter terrain - a pumpkin patch, pigsty and village well - as an early anniversary present that need assembly and painting, and I bought a "Battlefield in a Box" hill a few weeks ago after watching Big Lee's video on the subject, which needs flocking.

My wife is astonishingly good to me.

I've gotten the pumpkin patch and the pieces of the well primed (though the well does seem a bit overly large), and I want to get a piece of MDF to glue the pigsty to to keep it secure and in one piece once assembled. I've even got pigs for it! 

Tonight, however, I stopped procrastinating and started flocking the hill. 

 The hill arrives as just a brown-painted resin lump with some dirt texture that's been drybrushed, with the idea being that you flock it to match your home table. This is a mix of two different shades and coarsenesses of railroad flock from Woodland Scenics - $15 a bottle, which will last me years and years at the rate I go through it. This is the same mix I use on all my miniatures' bases these days, applied in patches over a "dirt" layer of flock. 

I have placed a couple orders to round out my bestiary for Devilry Afoot - zombies, bogeymen, a barghest and some redcaps, as well as a collection of innocents for them to threaten. So between that and the figures finished, it's time to update the tracker again. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 113

Figures Painted in 2025: 116

More Buildings Finished (Plus New Acquisitions)

 I've finished the last two buildings that my friend Dave printed for me - "PayMore Shoes" and "TeeVee Shak," being nods to the brands "Payless Shoes" and "Radio Shack," respectively. These are pretty simple paint jobs done almost entirely with spray paint and cheap craft store acrylics, and I'm not going to do detailed interiors for them at all. They're good table fillers though! 

Secondly, I got some goodies in the mail today from Badger Games - I'd ordered some more of The Assault Group's Modern Africa figures to round out my collection with another character and some militia with heavy weapons. I also got a pack of "Diplomats/Politicians" to use as objectives in games, and a pair of Crocodiles from Wargames Foundry - one of which will go in the swimming pool Gina got me, and the other will be based up and included in my Cobra forces to go with the character "Croc Master."

Which means it's time to update the tracker:

Figures Purchased in 2025: 77

Figures Painted in 2025: 85

Box Office Video

 Very pleased to report that another one of my modern buildings is finished, and it's one I've wanted for my table for ages. This is the Box Office Video from Corvus Games Terrain, again printed for me by my friend Dave. 

I don't watch anywhere near as much as I used to, but I love trashy horror and action movies. For years I actually did a review blog filled with 1980s direct to video weirdness. So the video store feels extremely right for my table.

The color scheme is, unsurprisingly, based on good ol' Blockbuster Video - God knows I raided their discount bins often as they went out of business. 

This building did come with a floor and isn't just a shell, and I do plan to eventually detail the interior - just not right now because I have too much else to tackle before June 7th. Crooked Dice offers STLs of a video store counter and shelves of VHS tapes that I'll ask Dave to print for me, and I'll resize some movie posters and print out at the copy shop to stick on the interior walls - probably THE TOXIC AVENGER, C.H.U.D., a few others. Things that would have been in heavy rotation among people like me in video stores in the 1980s. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 66

Figures Painted in 2025: 85

Instant Motor Pool for GI Joe

 So as longtime readers will know, one of my on-going projects over the past few years has been 1980s GI Joe in 28mm scale. A few months ago, my buddy Dave (who also printed my current crop of modern terrain) printed out a variety of GI Joe and Cobra vehicles for his own use for the GI Joe RPG, painted them up, magnetized turrets and even put decals on them all. 

Last night, he handed me a tote bin full of vehicles and generic modern military buildings (Quonset huts, hangars, etc), and said, "Here, Bill, you'll get more use out of these than I will."

four VAMP jeeps, 2 Sky Hawk VTOLs, 2 MOBAT tanks and a softskin troop carrier

Four Cobra H.I.S.S. tanks in front of a larger H.I.S.S. Command tank

I'm absolutely blown away by his generosity... and now I need to plan another GI Joe game! 

Speaking of...

Wargames Among the Warplanes puts on two shows per year - June and September. I'm locked in for June to run a modern "gangs fighting in the streets" game with the figures and terrain I've been showcasing for the past few weeks. But for September...I think that's going to call for a game of Fistful of Lead using my GI Joes. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 66

Figures Painted in 2025: 85

Pizza Man Open For Business

 Another building finished for my game at Wargames Among the Warplanes in...slightly under three weeks! This is a tiny pizza parlor from Corvus Games Terrain, printed for my by my friend Dave. I bought the STL because it reminded me of a tiny pizzeria that used to be right around the corner from my house - it went through a couple of name changes over the years and realistically was probably a money laundering front. But the pizza was decent enough that it was the main place my family got pizza from until I was in my late teens, maybe even early 20s. I still vividly remember walking in to pick up our order one day and the owner is there in salmon-colored shorts, an undershirt and white canvas slip on shoes, a pistol with mother of pearl inlays on the grip hanging out of his pocket. 

There's no interior detailing or floor to the building - I just don't have time at the moment to mess around with all that right now. 

This leaves me just three more buildings to finish, two trucks, a couple of smoke grenade templates...taking photos of all the figures for the gang rosters...printing everything out...and making sure I have a tote that will fit all my terrain. Easy-peasy...right?

Figures Purchased in 2025: 66

Figures Painted in 2025: 85

The Big Terrain Push Begins!

 The weather has finally settled into decent temperatures and some dry days so I've begun the big push to start painting the terrain I still need to finish for my game at Wargames Among the Warplanes next month - less than a month away! 

First up, I've sprayed the "Pizza Man" pizza parlor with Montana Gold "Terra" spray paint, which is a lot more orange and a lot less terracotta than I was anticipating, but nothing I can't work with. Once I'd gotten an even all-over coat and let it dry, I began blocking in the cement trim around the building and over the front facade. I'll probably give that one more coat for full coverage.

Next steps then are going to be picking out individual bricks in a variety of browns, rusts and tans, washing everything with a brown wash, drybrushing the cement with a lighter warm gray and then drybrushing everything with a light tan to tie everything together. Then of course windows, sign, detailing, etc. 

The Video Store has been given a spray coat of bright blue, a little lighter than Blockbuster Video would have been in real life but I'll give it a darker blue wash and see how things look. The "TeeVee Shak" and "PayMore Shoes" are going in the spray box tomorrow - they're both going to be a cement gray color for their brickwork. 

In the meantime, I've also been experimenting with a smaller, 3x3 layout for my game at Wargames Among the Warplanes; I don't have enough buildings to fill a 4x4 table the way I'd want to, and not enough time to print and paint enough to get it filled either. A 3x3 layout also puts the different gangs into direct conflict faster, speeding up play and meaning I can maybe get two playthroughs in at WATW. Or, I can wrap up faster, pack it in, and play other people's games. 

Here's what the layout is looking like; I might tweak a few things but I think this is pretty close to final.

The Jamaicans will begin play in the Bingo Hall, the cops at either end of that street, and the three mafia gangs spread evenly across the opposite table edge. There's enough street scatter that they won't all immediately have line of fire to each other. Secondary missions assigned randomly will necessitate figures moving across the board - "collect the laundered money from the pawn shop and return it to your starting board edge" "make a call from the pay phone in front of the ramen restaurant" things like that. So hopefully we won't get too bogged down with figures just sniping each other from cover all game, there will be movement and interaction. 

So that's it for now, I'll check in in a few days with some progress. 

MORE Terrain!

 A buddy of mine who enjoys 3D printing offered to print off any buildings or other terrain I might need for my game at Wargames Among the Warplanes in June, and last night I received the fruits of his printer:

The wheels for all of these are in a baggie.

I'm about halfway done with the last ten figures I need to paint for the June game, so I'm anticipating spending a big chunk of May on these beauties. Hopefully this will give me a nice, full-looking urban table. 

I should probably lay out the neoprene mat, the road pieces and the buildings to double check that, to be honest. 

Majestic 13: Operation Trailer Trash

 I've been feeling a lot of stress lately with the upcoming move and all, and my wife encouraged me to get the table cleared of and set up for a game. Given that I'd just finished two monsters for Majestic 13, I decided to get set up for the next game in my ongoing campaign. It's time for another installment of Keel's Killers versus alien monsters.

I rolled up a Poisoned Lasher as the enemy du jour; a clever hunter with long tentacles and poisoned attacks, with a special move that allowed it to drag Agents across the board and inflict all sorts of harm. Unfortunately, I rolled a FUBAR event on the first turn, and a second monster showed up. This second monster was a Jel Brute - a hulking, heavily-armored creature that can punch through steel plate and generate shockwaves by punching the ground. 

Activating first, the Lasher charged Agent Klass, hitting him with a flurry of tentacle strikes that left him Poisoned and Restrained. Meanwhile, Arnold and Barker II moved to engage the Jel Brute, firing ineffectively into the creature's armored carapace. 

Klass was unable to break the creature's grip, and the Lasher dragged him to the roof of the Atomic Gas Station; a journey that Klass did not survive.

The Jel Brute stunned Barker II, and then charged him, crushing him to a pulp beneath its powerful fists. Moseley sniped at the Brute with minimal effectiveness.

The Lasher and the Brute then convened on Agent Arnold; the Lasher struck the killing blows on her.

The Brute then turned its attention to Agent Keel, while the Lasher lunged for Moseley. Keel tried to Call for Aid without success, and before the end of Turn 3, the entire team was wiped out.

Ouch! I'd done fairly well through the last few games of Majestic 13, so I guess I was due for a game where nothing went right. As soon as the FUBAR result came up "second monster" I knew this wasn't going to be a game where Keel's Killers did well. I don't think I was prepared for just how fast the team would be put out of action. 

Rolling into the post-game phase, Keel, Klass and Moseley recovered just fine; Barker II has permanent brain damage (-2 to his Acuity stat) and Arnold is going to miss next game due to some persistent, questionable wounds. I tried requisitioning a Targeting HUD for Moseley and a VTOL with landing pad for the base, but both requests were lost in the labyrinthine bureaucracy of Majestic 13. 

I've got some more 3D printed monsters on the way for Majestic 13, and I've ordered a few more teams of operatives; a buddy of mine just bought a house and we were in his new basement man cave/gaming room yesterday. While showing off the new D&D table he'd built from scratch, he proposed getting some skirmish gaming in on it, and I feel like some co-op games of Majestic 13 would be a good fit.

Two More Aliens for Majestic 13

 I've gotten as far as I can with my cave people and cave bear right now; we've got some late season snow all of the sudden after a very mild winter so no taking them outside to prime. 

In the meantime, I've finished up two 3D-printed monsters for my games of Snarling Badger's "Majestic 13." These were purchased from "TranscendentalPrints" on Etsy, after Mr. Martin gave them a shout-out on his blog. These were really high quality prints, arrived super clean, well packed and quickly. I'm sure I'll be ordering from them again soon (much to my wife's chagrin, I think) and highly recommend them. 

These are both monsters from the Cthulhu Mythos which, if you've been around here for a while, you'll know is dead center in my wheelhouse; I've been lucky enough that I've been able to publish RPG scenarios for both the venerable Call of Cthulhu RPG, as well as more recently for Cthulhu Eternal, an open-source alternative ruleset. 

First up is a Flying Polyp - these creatures first appeared in Lovecraft's story "The Shadow Out of Time," in which they were mortal enemies of the scholarly mollusks known as the Great Race of Yith. Only partially existing in the physical world and capable of generating and controlling winds, the Polyps are a nasty threat to deal with in any game system. I got mine printed at 75mm tall, which ended up being big enough that it needed a 3" base to stand on.

The sculpt here seems like it was influenced by Loic Muzy's illustration for the 7th edition Call of Cthulhu rulebook, with its swirling, spiraling body and fang-lined circular mouth:

Over a black basecoat, I gave it a heavy drybrush of Reaper's "Deep Ocean," followed by progressively lighter drybrushes of "Marine Teal" and finally "Surf Aqua." I wanted the eyes to be kind of flat and deadened, so I gave them a simple coat of Vallejo "Gory Red" with no pupils or highlights; the tongue and the inside of the mouths were Reaper "Light Violet Red" washed with GW "Druchii Violet" then re-highlighted with Light Violet Red. Finally, I picked out the teeth in Reaper "Stained Ivory," washed with GW "Seraphim Sepia" and highlighted with "Creamy Ivory." 

I'll tell you right now, my wife is not a fan of this figure and has called it "Satan's sea cucumber" and told me I owed her ice cream for showing it to her. 

The second figure I got is a "Star Vampire" - these creatures first appeared in the short story "The Shambler From The Stars" by Robert Bloch (of PSYCHO fame), in which famously one eats a thinly-disguised version of H.P. Lovecraft. I actually did write an RPG scenario around this creature some years ago, but due to copyright issues I can't publish it. This figure was printed at 50mm tall and is on a 40mm Renedra round base. 

Again, the influence of Loic Muzy's creature design is undeniable:

The challenge in painted a Star Vampire is that these creatures are normally invisible; only becoming visible while feeding, as the blood they drink is pumped through their body, giving them a reddish coloration until it's digested. So I opted to just not worry about that.

I gave the whole creature a base coat of Reaper "Worn Olive" over a black primer coat, then washed it liberally with GW "Athonian Camoshade." Once dry, I gave it an all over drybrush of Vallejo "Dead Flesh" (the same color I use for my orcs). The mouth/feeding tube I gave two coats of Reaper "Light Violet Red," then washed with "Druchii Violet" and highlighted with Light Violet Red. I then gave it a light drybrush of Reaper "Heart Throb Pink" to brighten it up some; the color choice may have been a mistake because it kind of looks like the world's angriest rectal prolapse but maybe that just adds to the horror of it all.

In a nod to the source fiction, I used GW's OOP "Bloodletter Glaze" to glaze the tentacles red, with each coat getting progressively more concentrated towards the tips. A very light drybrush of "Dead Flesh" towards the base of each tentacle smoothed the transition between green and red. Finally I picked out the teeth using the same formula I used on the Flying Polyp: Stained Ivory - Seraphim Sepia wash - Creamy Ivory highlight. 

I'll get the bases finished today or tomorrow, and then hopefully Monday the weather will be warm enough that I can take them outside and hit them with some spray varnish. 

Also, my wife says I need to paint some puppies or kittens after this.

Donut Worry

 For my birthday last month, my wonderful, lovely wife bought me a few pieces of modern terrain - a 3D-printed donut shop and a couple of MDF kits. I ordered some resin furniture from Miniature Building Authority to complement them, and started in on the donut shop, though found myself switching gears to paint orcs last month pretty vigorously. Picking up Majestic 13, and needing to be able to field urban tables, gave me the impetus to finish up the shop (and having a head cold that's left me too foggy-headed to play a game has certainly not impeded my painting either).

Two notes: One, I'm very grateful that Reaper Miniatures sends out free bottles of "Breast Cancer Awareness Pink" in every order during the month of October, because I'm pretty sure I went most of the way through one bottle painting the interior and the sign. 

Two, "Big Nick Was Here" is a bit of a personal in-joke. I didn't want to paint overly-raunchy graffiti in case I ever have occasion to set up and run a modern skirmish at a convention, and early in the Pandemic I was looking at playing Zona Alfa solo, re-localized from eastern Europe to the American Southwest (to better fit my collection of cacti and desert hills terrain). So Nicolai, the bandit leader from the first scenario in the book, became the American biker "Big Nick," with a Mark Copplestone biker figure painted as such. You can see him here. He's such a characterful figure that I'd welcome any opportunity to put him on the table. While it's hard to justify a group of player-character Hell's Angels in Majestic 13, and there's no option for civilians to be running around the table complicating fights, I'm sure Big Nick will find a way on to the table again soon - even if under a different ruleset. Either way, his mark's here. 

I'll get the building and furnishings varnished tomorrow afternoon, and then Tuesday I'll cut some clear plastic sheets to size and glue them into the windows and glue the furniture down. And then it's play time!

Industrial/Post Apocalyptic Terrain

Nothing fancy to report tonight, but I've gotten out some 3D printed scenery that my better half bought me for Christmas and made some headway on getting it painted and ready for the table.  This is four out of the five pieces comprising a set of industrial chemical tanks, painted up as rusting and full of toxic waste for post-apocalyptic games like Wiley Games' Wasteland Warriors or Osprey's recent Zona Alfa release.  I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

These were just primed black, and given a couple layers of extra heavy drybrushing with a dark gray craft paint, then drybrushed more lightly with a regular gray craft paint.  They were then given spot drybrushing/stippling of Reaper "Rust Brown" and "Highlight Orange." A very light drybrush of "Tarnished Steel" picked out the rivets and then for the "full" tank I painted the contents with Vallejo "Escorpena Green." I added some water to the Escorpena Green and applied it to the vents to create leaks, letting the fluid flow naturally from where I placed it.  I think it looks really good.