Painted Shapeways Miniatures

I had ordered a bunch of stuff from Shapeways. So far, I had only painted a semi-truck. So, I got busy. Sadly, I picked a hot and humid day to prime the figures: BIG MISTAKE! To my defense, I've primed minis on hot, humid days in the past and managed to dodge the bullet. Not this time. Some of the Shapeways minis are fuzzy to begin with, but the primer make them fuzzier. I ended up using my fingernail to rub off a lot of the primer once it dried.

A-37 Dragonfly

A-37 Dragonfly

Prairie Hawk Gamers produces these. Previously, the only company that made these was Skyraider Miniatures which is no longer in existence. I think I have two by them, but I never got around to paint them. Prairie Hawk makes two versions; one with payload, one without. I bought both. Shown is that one without, but I added some bombs. A-37s were part of the emergency supply of weapons that the USA sent to Southern Chalupastan during the 1st Chalupastan War.  They consisted of hardware left over from the Vietnam War. They are still in service, though will be replaced by the Textron AirLand Scorpion light jet (see below). Its painted in the standard Southern Chalupastan camo, except I used GHQ's olive green rather than Vallejo's, because it been awhile and I forgot which I used for the lighter green.

Killdozer (or Dirt-truck as my 2-year old calls them)

I can't remember who made this bulldozer. It might have been the same as the semi that I had in a previous post. It, along with several others is made out of a rubbery vinyl material. This guy came with two brothers.  Now, I don't know if it was the humidity, or the primer itself, but when I sprayed them, they got sort of gooey! They never really dried. I went ahead and painted one of them. I tried to dirty it up as much as possible. After painting it a CAT yellow with dark grey treads, I mixed burnt sienna with Future Floor Wax and gave it a healthy wash.  I then dabbed some steel and silver paint along some of the edges along with its scoop. Last, I mixed some pale brown with some baking soda and a little Elmer's glue to make some globs of dirt that I place on the scoop and on the treads. Its a nice model, except I don't care for the front of the cab. It doesn't have an obvious window, so I painted a black square where I thought it ought to be.

O-1 Bird Dog

This is not from Shapeways, but from GHQ. I only sprayed one and it, too, suffered from the humidity. I wanted some civilian planes for the the airport/airfield I plan to make in the future, but no one makes them in microscale. I bought the Bird Dogs awhile ago for WWII gaming. I figure they look enough like a small civilian plane. It a very nice model, but they come without the struts that help hold the wing to the fuselage. I glued two styrene strips as shown on the left one. The one on the left is not quite finished. I need to paint the cockpit glass and maybe add a blue stripe to the tail. I do not plan to glue a magnet to the bottom of it an will just sit on the ground. The other will get a magnet, but I have not decided if it will be "civilianized" or not.

Works in Progress

L to R: Fiat G91, Trabant Kuebel, AirLand Scorpion, M-346 Master

These are ones that I primed and have yet to prime. The little car also suffered from the gooeys. They come with a top on and off. They are pretty tiny, but I figured that they would make for a good civilian vehicle. The Fiat G91 and the M-346 will probably join the Federal Republic of Gambusia Defense Force. The Scorpion will be part of the South's arsenal. Now that war has broken out between Northern and Southern Chalupastan, the A-37s will stay on.

Origami Armies

I saw this at Sam's Club but didn't buy it. It cost $12. Maybe I should have bought it.

With the prices of minis being what they are, it might be worth it.