Propapalooza, week 13 (2024 week 43)

I swear we aren't finishing the year with props and now we're getting into the weird sci-fi props.

First up we have two legally distinct Pal Boxes (TM) and three...er...transporter pads? I have no idea what these are supposed to be. Maybe circular hatch covers? With no handles? These are pretty clearly boring metallics with a wash slapped on them but since I don't know that I'll ever use them (doubly bad for the Pal Boxes TM since they're not even magnetized) I didn't spend a lot of time on them. Clearly.

These are a pair of scale-model red rockets and what I can assume are less scale-model and more full-of-fissile-material atomic bomb looking devices. The red wash on the rockets doesn't really show and the dark wash on the bombs really just served to grunge them up inappropriately. Not sure if/when any of them will ever see screen time but they're the best color: painted.

 

Last up we have...things. The robot arm is sensical enough. The turret with bizarre legs? No clue. The turret-y thing with legs also no clue. They feel a little abstract IMO so I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about how to use them and also didn't spend a lot of time painting them.

2024 finished mini counter: 304/208

Propapalooza week 12 (2024 week 42)

 More props this week and probably for several weeks to come. 

These are barrels, the kind you'd see in your favorite vintage first person shooter. In my games they're either filled with gooey food-like goodness and/or they explode when shot. I could have spent more time weathering the dented barrels but clearly didn't. And, no, the two DnL Cola bottles weren't molded there--I glued them in for funsies. 

 

The two on the right are safes and the two on the left are satellites or comms relays or something. The guy in the middle is a...chest? Trunk? I dunno. I'm not sold on all the metallics to be honest but it did make them easier to paint so I got that goin' for me. The safes and trunk (or whatever) will probably get some screen time. PCs love to break into/carry off/blow up safes. The other bits...not so sure.

These last two are a mess. They're pipe segments but unless I really want to glue them down somewhere, there's no way they're ever standing up straight on a table. I suppose I could have used them as greebly bits on a diorama or something but I don't have one of those handy.


2024 finished mini counter: 292/208

Propapalooza week 11 (2024 week 41)

This week we have dungeon tiles, still from Dungeons and Lasers, but like last year's dungeons tiles, don't count toward a fig count. I don't know why I decided that but I'm not getting points for not being consistent. No points for being consistent, either, so I got that goin' for me.

First up we  have a small number of these concrete-y tiles and I super wish I had more of these. I spent more time than normal on these to sell the texture and I think they came out well. The shot has a bunch of tiles behind there but in actuality I've only got a few of them. The ones behind them? Other tiles that didn't get pictures and I'm far too lazy to go back and take pictures of them. They're cool but not as cool as these concrete ones.

Next up we have these weird Geiger-esque guys that I also only have a few of. I base coated them in Golden High Flow black, mine of which is very glossy and otherwise doesn't get a lot of use. I did a light grey drybrush over them which sells better in person than it does in this super low angle shot. No clue if/when I might use them but they're painted now which vastly improves their chances of screen time.

The vast majority of this batch are these deck plate-y kinds of tiles. I certainly could have picked out more of the details but a) they're terrain, and b) doing so would be a very large investment given how many of them there are. The shot doesn't show it, but they're already a multi-step paint job starting with a dark Vallejo Metal Color basecoat followed by a wash, a drybrush, another wash and another couple drybrush layers. I keep an ancient pot of otherwise lousy Reaper Master Paint metallic for exactly this purpose. It smells funny and might be molding.

Propapalooza week 10 (2024 week 40)

More props this week and probably for a while yet. 

First up we have a coupla bear traps. That's it, just bear traps. I could have grunged them up with rust and dirt and whatnot given a) where they live, and b) what they do, but clearly I didn't. I suspect these will get quite a lot of game time.

Next up we have a couple of bone-y thrones. These had some godawful mold lines as one might expect and were in several different parts. I pseudo-handled them and spent more than the normal amount of time staining the bone parts but I forgot to vary the horns in black or whatever. I'm not sure if the flame bas-relief was intended to be painted but I chose not to and not just because I'm lazy.

Last up we have a chest and a skull candle because what arcane table doesn't have one? The chest is a dupe of one I painted way back in Week 49 of 2022 which feels like a lifetime ago. This one came out significantly better but mostly because I used a better metallic. The skull got the same treatment as the bones on the thrones since they were painted at the same time.

2024 finished mini counter: 279/208