Friday, August 29, 2014

Dollar Tree "Tombstone Corner" Gargoyles Painted

   I had time this week to paint the Gargoyles I recently purchased from the Dollar Tree's new line of Halloween scenery. See my post here for more details.   I bought two sets, one to use for 28mm gaming, and one to use with my 10mm armies.
For the 28mm ones, I mounted them individually on washers, and painted them in a stone-like paint scheme.
They are shown below with a Reaper Paladin for a sense of scale.
The ones for 10mm, I painted as demons in a red color scheme.
Below they are shown with some 10mm skeletons for a sense of scale.
  Overalll, they are not too bad.  The sculpting is a little rough, but hey, they were only a $1 so I can't complain.  The other problem is that their facial expressions tend towards the "cute", which I found hard to disguise with paint.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Dollar Tree Bubble-Wand Microphone 6mm/10mm/15mm Sci-Fi Building

While on my trip to get the new Dollar Tree "Tombstone Corner" Halloween Scenery (See my previous post), I also noticed these microphone shaped bubble-wands in the toy aisle.  I thought the tops had good possibility to be converted into some sort of sci-fi building for my upcoming 10mm sci-fi project.  Perhaps storage tanks, or a communications center of some kind
Shown with a U.S. Quarter for scale.
The tops unscrew easily, and the attached wand was easily pulled from its mounting inside the cap. I then gave the tops a scrub with soapy water (using the bubble fluid inside the handles! :)  )  I started to try to remove the sticker label on the tops; but as is so often the case with these labels, it tore apart into little bits rather than come off easily.  So, I decided that the labels were centered enough on the side panels to probably not be too noticeable after painting.  I cleaned up the one panel where I had tried to remove the label, and left the rest in place.
I then cleaned up the molding seams as best I could and glued the microphone tops to cut-down old hotel key-cards.  I then cut out some simple doors from thin cardboard and glued those on.   Finally I added  little plastic toy bit to each piece for visual interest.  After the glue dried, I painted the buildings with flat black spray paint.
 When the spray paint was dry, I painted the buildings with a simple tan color scheme, then gave them a brown ink wash, and finished with a light drybrushing to bring out the surface texture on the "domes".  Next, I glued sand to the bases and painted it with a series of drybrushings.
I'm really pleased with how these turned out.  They are shown in the photo above with some 10mm Mechwarrior figures for scale.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Halloween Scenery at The Dollar Tree Stores

Going by a tip I read on The Minaitures Page, I headed over to my local Dollar Tree store to see their new Tombstone Corner line of scenic decorations.  This line is very similar to their Christmas village line of buildings, figures, and scenic accessories.
   I was pleasantly surprised to find some useful stuff.  The buildings are great, and nicely don't have any of the snow glopped all over them like these decorative plaster buildings so often do.  I didn't buy any, as their size is perfect for 15mm figures which I don't game with.   You can see a picture of them at the link above.
I did however find a nice set of gargoyles,  bare trees, a spooky gate, a mausoleum, and a bone gazebo; all of which I think will go super with 28mm.  In the photo below these items are shown with a 28mm Reaper Bones Wizard.
  There were some other scenic items in the store, but I felt they were scaled to big for use with 25/28mm figures.