Newly Painted Terrain

 You can see it in my most recent after-action report, but I spent all of last week working on another 3D printed building from Corvus Games Terrain, printed for me by my friend Dave. As the sign (oddly over the back door instead of the main entrance) says, it's a bank, which I got as part of a bundle of STLs from Corvus.

 It's printed in five parts - a ground floor, a second story, the roof and two drop-in floors to make the interiors playable. I primed the walls and roof black and then oversprayed them with Montana Gold "Sand" spray paint. Once I was happy with that I picked out some individual bricks at random in three different shades of brown and tan and one of gray, and did the cement ornamentation on the front with gray craft paint. 

Then, I washed the whole exterior with a homemade wash - made from black and raw sienna liquitex inks, some water, matte medium and a little bit of Dawn dish soap to break cohesion. The first batch was a little pigment-light, but I added some extra ink and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. 

By volume, the equivalent of 16 bottles of GW Agrax Earthshade

 Once the wash had dried, I went over the cement with a lighter gray and drybrushed the entire exterior lightly with a dusty tan craft paint. Finally I blacked in the windows with black craft paints and did all the window and door frames with a gold paint pen, which worked a treat and FAST! Better coverage than I would have gotten with a brush, less touch-ups on the black and I think I finished them all in about 10 minutes. 

Then it was on to the interiors. I gave all of the internal walls a few coats of off-white craft paint, while the floors I was initially doing in blue and white but ended up not liking; I reprimed them gray and drybrushed the tiles; the drybrushing doesn't show up that well. Alas. The interior windows were gone over with black, though I left the frames unpainted. Too much of a pain trying to get in there with the paint pen. 

Then, on to furniture! I pulled some desks, a vending machine and an ATM from Oshiro Models out of my stash, primed them, painted them in mostly-neutral office colors, and started gluing them into place - the desks and vending machine on the second floor, the ATM next to the front door. Hard to tell from these photos but I added a "glass" front to the vending machine with some UV resin. 

 I'm not done with the interiors, however; I've got a 3D printed photocopier that might go up on the second floor, and I want to do a teller's counter on the ground floor. I haven't found a premade option for that anywhere; the places I've seen selling "bank furnishings" in 28mm are all big circular vault doors and piles of gold bullion instead of more useful things like a teller's counter. So I'll probably try making one out of balsa wood, card and coffee stirrers and see what I can come up with. 

 

Miniatures Acquired: 246

Miniatures Painted: 252

Terrain Acquired: 9

Terrain Painted: 11

Scatter Acquired: 21

Scatter Painted: 24

 

Oh! Too Many Ninjas!

 So I'd initially planned on waiting to post about this until all of the figures came in, but a significant chunk seem to be sitting with Royal Mail awaiting shipment out of the UK and have been for a week, which is frustrating to say the least.

Anyways, onwards and upwards.

My beloved local game convention, Running GAGG, which I've been attending for 20 years now, has announced a theme of "Pirates Vs. Ninjas" for the upcoming 2027 show. I don't have any pirates but I've got some ninjas, and I decided that I'd put on a ninja-themed game. I workshopped some ideas - a samurai-vs-ninjas game using Osprey's Ronin, for example - but ultimately decided to cram as many modern pop culture ninjas as I can into Osprey's "A Fistful of Kung Fu" for a martial arts free for all, and my wife encouraged me to splash out a bit to make it happen.

 So here's what's come in first - some "Corporate Ninjas" with silenced pistols from Pontoonier Miniatures, a Lab Mutant from Reaper (to be converted into Blanka from the Street Fighter franchise), some soldiers in berets from The Assault Group and some Copplestone "Girls With Guns." I'd hoped to find a figure I could convert into the character Cammy White as she appeared in the 1994 Street Fighter movie (which I unironically love), since I've got a Street Fighter Van Damme already. However, I'm no sculptor and my Green Stuff was well past the point where it should have been thrown out so I made an absolute hash of that conversion. At least I managed to get some hair on to Blanka. 

I've already started work on a lot of these, with everything at least based and primed. 

Also, last night I picked up the last piece of terrain I needed for my current When Nightmares Come campaign - a 3D printed bank building from Corvus Games terrain printed for me by my buddy Dave. This is going to make an appearance in Game 5, assuming I get enough clear days to prime and base coat it between now and then! 

 The interior is playable but I don't expect to have it furnished any time soon - I haven't found any "bank" scatter terrain I've liked. Everyone who offers any just offers a vault door, some gold bars, maybe some security cameras. Where's the tellers' counter? 

Anyway, that's what I'm up to currently. I should have some stuff coming off the painting desk in the next few days to keep me in the green on my tracker.

 

Miniatures Acquired: 230

Miniatures Painted: 238

Terrain Acquired: 8

Terrain Painted: 10

Scatter Acquired: 15

Scatter Painted: 24

 

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

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.