I'm sure not that even Bob Villa could help these two, Ruined Barns from Dungeon Artifacts

 

 

the last of the commissioned work from Dungeon Artifacts is this pair of ruined barns

two otherwise sturdy stone structures that have fallen on seriously hard times

 

they must have stood untended for many years to be in such a sorry state of affairs 

I primed these black and dry-brushed up from that darker tone

 to give these buildings a bedraggled look

 

 

just as easily they could be painted in shades of gray over the black primer to give the look of buildings that had been ravaged by war and left partially burnt

If Zillow did 28mm houses this one would be sold already, Dungeon Artifacts strikes again

 

 

this one I got over the counter at Michigan Toy Soldier so I'm not sure what they refer to it as on the Dungeon Artifacts website, I chose to paint it as an Italian style villa in warm colors and a red tile roof

Old Woman, What knight lives in that castle over there?

 

 

28mm Wargames Atlantic Foot Sergeant defends the stairway 

       Another commissioned project for Dungeon Artifacts is this Norman Tower. It is printed in PLA in a dark gray color and is very nicely detailed (with opening doors which simply delights my inner nine-year-old). As you can see it has an impressive bulk, this is mostly due to its height as it requires only a reasonable footprint on the table. I was quite impressed with the quality of the print, no misshapen parts, chipped corners or broken fragile pieces which one often encounters with plaster or resin models. The model assembles in a layer-cake fashion to allow access to the interior spaces, which are as detailed as the exterior, another advantage of 3D printing!

If good fences make good neighbors, then stone walls must make for an excellent relationship; stone walls from Dungeon Artifacts

        I implore my good readers to forgive me for the paucity of posts over the last couple of weeks, family obligations and a painting commission have absorbed most of my free time. The one upside of the painting commission is that I have some pretty pictures of freshly printed and painted terrain to display for you. These models come to me from Dungeon Artifacts who have an overwhelming collection of 3D printed models that on offer for sale. They are nicely printed with minimal cleanup. The PLA filament results in a model that is almost as tough as a hockey puck but they use very fine hotends so there is little evidence of the printed layers. 

        Frankly, once I had taken a look at the models "in the plastic" I was excited to get to work.

 

as usual I hit them with a rattle-can of automotive primer, in this instance flat black

the printed plastic is nearly impervious to common solvents

 

then I opened with a wet-brush of Americana Milk Chocolate followed by a heavy dry-brushing with Honey Brown, then I went in and picked out various stones with a few additional colors for variety

 

once that had been sorted I hit the whole thing with a thin wash of Soft Black, 

after that had dried I dry-brushed a light coat of Boulder to pick out highlights and make the edges pop

       These are excellent models and very reasonably priced. They are tough, light and easy to paint. If you would like to see a small portion of the their catalog in person drop by Michigan Toy Soldier as they have a good selection of items on hand for retail sale.

       Very Highly Recommended!

A Massive Thank-You to all our Vets

 

        As the son and grandson of veterans I would like to take the opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to all who have served to defend my nation and freedoms. Your sacrifices are honored and appreciated by all decent Americans. Service at home or abroad, in times of peace or war, was a gift to the nation that cannot be matched in any way. I can only say "Thank You" with all my heart.

Happy Birthday USMC

 

 

        Happy Birthday to the most senior of our glorious armed forces!  Everyone raise a beer (or, more properly, two as only the first Marine got one) and a cheer to the remarkable history of heroism and sacrifice of the unparalleled heroes that have proudly gone by the moniker "Leatherneck"

Heroes of Bronze "Approaching Storm" Concept Teaser

 

This looks promising, support it if you can!

Maybe we can get a REAL historical movie about the period instead of crap like "300"

Midgard at Michigan Toy Soldier, November 1st

 

       November 1st at 1pm I will be running a Midgard demo game at Michigan Toy Soldier. This will give me a chance to field some of the Medieval minis I spent the summer painting and will offer the opportunity for new players to give Midgard a try before taking the plunge.

Protected Cruiser Atlanta, Part 8, Completed and commissioned

        Just some formal shots before handing over to my buddy Steve. The model looks so much better without the workbench clutter. Therer were compromises (of course) in reducing this to a manageable size; a pair of six-inch guns went missing as well as about one-third of each of the foredeck, midships and stern. I tried to maintain the overall look of the vessel.

Protected Cruiser Atlanta, Part 7, details, details, details, and some paint

        As a project gets close to completion I like to go over the model and make sure that the little details are all squared away and any painting issues are touched up. I check the sub-assemblies and small details before permanently installing them. It is far easier to correct problems beforehand that to try to guide a paint-laden brush past a load of details to fix a paint flaw.

 

starting the painting, Steve opted for the scheme with the least amount of yellow 

Protected Cruiser Atlanta; Part 6 Railings, Rivets and Gun Shields

        Now that all of the bulky item have been sorted out I move on to the fiddly stuff.  These will get progressively tedious as I move forward but they are the thing that make the model "pop" so they cannot be overlooked. Rivets (of course) are everywhere, railings were nearly as ubiquitous but the guns shields were present for only part of the ship's life so they have to be removable (I think the ship looks better without them but YMMV). 

 

I forgot to prime the pins that I used for railing stanchions

 so now I'm going to have to resort to a rattle-can and some masking tape

Protected Cruiser Atlanta, Part 5, The last gun position and scratchbuilding a Gatling gun

        It didn't take long for applying a zillion rivets to turn into a trudge so I decided to turn my had to fabricating the last two gun positions. These mounted 47mm "anti-torpedoe-boat quick firing guns" and were mounted amidships with a protruding casement to allow for a wide field of fire. These guns had more range and hitting power than the Gatling guns albeit at a slower rate of fire. The task was simple enough as the casements were simple half-cylinders. NOt finding enough difficulty in those I decided to have a go at scratchbuilding the gatling guns. This was a much more engaging task.

 

a simple cylinder of card stock rolled to double thickness with a flat cap glued to one end