Propapalooza week 16 (2024 week 47)

If you were expecting props, well, I've got good news! Looking back on it, I kind of regret pushing to get all of these done this year. On the other hand, they'll all be painted which is nice.

First up we have all of these weird robot cult idol statues. I interpreted them as being made of metal and did very minimal detail work on them. They were basecoated and metallic-ly zenithaled with the airbrush which sped everything up quite a lot. The heavy Badger Ghost Tint Oil Discharge wash ended the process. I've been thinning it down with airbrush flow improver which makes it a lot less gloopy.

Next up we have these two...er...legally distinct Daleks. I wasn't entirely sure which side the eyes were on so I painted them on opposite sides for the two of them. I put some effort in to the details on them but let's be honest: they're real messy. I've been trying to use my misbehaving Vallejo Metal Color Copper more but it's really gloopy and hard to apply. I've been thinning it also with airbrush flow improver which helps in its application but not in its opacity. Dunno if I got a bad bottle or what but it's been a fairly low point in the line which I otherwise really like. 

I'm not entirely sure what these guys are. Are they supposed to be legally distinct star gates or something? Decontamination portals that are tall enough to trip you? Some other kind of stationary scanning device? They are nicely stable and are kind of impressive looking but I haven't a clue what I might us them for. Also, they don't fit nicely on my prop trays so I have no idea how often I'll remember I have them.

 

These yellow guys are also a mystery to me. Yellow felt right but wasn't based on any inherent logic. Because I didn't really know what they were, I didn't pick out super many details in different colors. Are they pumps? I legitimately don't know what they're supposed to be and I'm too lazy to go look it up. A lot of the props in this collection are like these: interesting but very confusing.

2024 finished mini counter: 351/208

Propapalooza week 15 (2024 week 46)

Back to props this week and the end is in sight. Well, it is for me since I've basically finished painting all of them but they'll be pushed out here in increasing velocity as we close out the year. Also! perusing the photos below, you might note a change. I've swapped the old charcoal grey low-contrast background for a brand new kind of shiny white one and I've started really learning how to use my camera after, I dunno, more than a decade of not doing that. I'm already a lot happier with the photos that are coming out of it and hope that I'll be able to dial it in more in the coming years.

First up we have two large map display things. I imagine this as a situation room kind of deal, like where the villain mastermind is giving his soliloquy over a map of the world. I wanted the desks to be kind of dingy because I imagined these as old tech and painted some texture on the displays with, er, paint. They look better in person, IMO, but I don't know when they'll ever be used. Also, they're woefully unbalanced and don't like to stand up.

Next up we have a couple pairs of additional computer terminals. I had delusions of grandeur where I was going to paint in a bunch of details on the screens but ended up not doing any of that (obviously). I also grunged these down like the map display things. Also, I added the two DnL cola bottles and then didn't really paint them. A lot of these guys were really hard to magnetize so many of them aren't. I'm going to not be happy with so I expect to be rage-gluing magnets to the bottom of these at some point.

I interpret the two guys on the left as old-school terminal-y guys and painted them thusly. Like a lot of these guys, they were badly base-coated  with the airbrush, grunged down, and then badly detailed with brushes. The guys on the right are clearly globe displays and I figured they wanted to be holographic. The heavy-duty hydraulic tables they're on? I wasn't so sure on why they're necessary. I glued the globe-y guys to bases to make them more easily magnetized but I really don't know what the intent was. I probably could have done something with the seam in the terminal-y guys but clearly didn't.

These would be a pair of (seemingly) atomic-age TVs with weird wheeled feet. I'm immediately reminded of 70s era TVs and TV trays though I've never seen one with the atomic whirl on the top but I'm not well versed in these things. I did the same scan line thing on the screens that I did with the large map display things but ultimately I don't think they look particularly good. Then again, I have no idea if/when I'd ever use them so there's that.

 

Last up we have a pair of vending machines. Here too I had delusions of grandeur of painting the product behind the glass and/or some kind of corporate logo but clearly I didn't do so. I do like these and we do occasionally have Fizzy-Cheese or Space Coffee (TM) in play so out of the group of these, they're the most likely to get screen time but then again, we're good for maybe a couple sessions of Sci-Fi in a year.

2024 finished mini counter: 339/208

A thing a week 2024, week 45

And now for something completely different.

This is a medieval tower-themed dice roller. It's built out of my typical XPS foam bricks and built around a chipboard/cardboard/old pringles can core. It's not particularly fancy but you can tell that the brick work was pretty shoddy, kind of on purpose, but it kind of got out of hand. I spent extra time weathering it and going up and down the color scale and even spent time putting joint compound between the brick cracks in the hopes that it would look more authentic with light mortar than the usually darker "hit the thing with a wash" look which completely got painted over. Overall it sells OK on the tabletop and is a functional dice roller but if I had it to do again, I'd do a few things differently. It took something like ten hours all told and it will count as my one structure for the year. Next week we return to Propapalooza and maybe just maybe some better photographs.

Propapalooza, week 14 (2024 week 44)

Surprise! More props this week. I guess that's not a surprise. Anyway.

First up we have some perfectly normal hatches, grates, and ammo bins. These have a tiny bit more detail than a lot of the items in the last few weeks and thus they probably look a little more striking. I did slightly more with the grates than I might have because I thought they'd look better weathered a bit, hence the rust. The ammo bins have a green wash over the top that I don't think sells super well. Overall, they all still read reasonably and I'm not unhappy with them.

 

Next up we have a pair of emplaced guns. These make a lot more sense than some of the other turret-y looking bits (lookin' at you, weird walking turret guys from last week). I chose a military green-ish tone that ended up skewing a little too cool mostly because I had a too-thin mix in the airbrush when I basecoated them. I also took extra time putting some heat bloom on the barrel which sells better in person than in my lousy shots here (some day). Also of note, Vince always says you should drill barrels and I'm starting to get that. These look wrong without it but I am far too lazy to go back and drill them now.

Next up we have to very large props which are (hopefully) clearly bridges. There's a whole set of fantasy bridges to come but these are all sci-fi-ified. I didn't look closely enough at the details to see which ones might have been better picked out but I wanted them for a near-term session and rushed the last few steps. These are somewhat zenithaled in their metallics from the airbrush as part of a large batch and they look pretty striking on the table. And if you're wondering, they did get screen time.

Last up we have a...well...I have no idea what this is. It's clearly pretty Geiger-esque but I can only guess as to what it is. It's got a pretty obvious booby-looking structure at the bottom but it's mirrored on the other side which is clearly not boob-like. So, I have no idea what to do with it or if it'll ever get screen time. What I can say is that it's painted and it'll count toward the total.

2024 finished mini counter: 325/208