Twinhammer Part 2: Exterior Paint Part 1: Base Layers

The Twinhammer, last seen in July 2023, has finally gotten a start on its exterior paint. I had a few evenings this week without the kids around, and I used it to work on the messy, space-consuming process of priming and sponging this two-foot-long ship.

The paintjob isn't finished by any means, but she looks a lot better than the unassembled, unpainted white/grey/black PLA that's been sitting in pieces on my shelf. Here are the colors that I used:

• Primer: Liquitex Basics Acrylic Fluid "Mars Black"
• Base layer: Craftsmart "Dark Grey"
• Layer: Craftsmart "Grey"
• Dark layer: Craftsmart "Deep Grey" 
• Accent: DecoArt Americana "Deep Burgundy" (DA128)

The Liquitex primer isn't something I use on miniature figures, but it's great for terrain and ships like this. It's opaque, matte, strong, and dries quickly. Also, the coverage is fantastic, so it usually only needs one pass.

While this ship will hopefully get more love before 2027, it's currently in a place where I can display it on my shelf without feeling bad about its state of disrepair.

Tanker: Impa TAV Tankette, KGJ-7 Tankette, and Tank Crew Ⓣ

Here are two more tankettes that I've designed for Tanker, representing common designs from two more of the fictional nations of the game world.

On the left is the Impa TAV (tracked assault vehicle). Hailing from a heavily-industrialized nation, it is well-armored, can be heavily armed, and has some bells and whistles that other basic tankettes may not. However, unlike the Steed and KGJ, it lacks a turret. Well-engineered and beloved by its crews, this lack of a turret means that getting fully-tracked or otherwise immobilized renders the Impa TAV nearly defenseless. This tankette can equip a machine gun, a heavy rifle, a light cannon, or even a medium cannon (the only tankette to be able to do so).

On the right is the KGJ-7. In many ways, it sits at the opposite end of the spectrum from the Impa TAV. Cheap and mass-produced, it does not have any bells or whistles, simply meant to do its job reasonably efficiently. However, unlike most tankettes that can only fit two crewmembers, the large KGJ-7 has three; it's still cramped, but if a crewmember becomes a casualty, the other crewmembers are cross-trained to take their place. The KGJ-7 is also remarkably tough; their simple, rugged design and redundant systems can sometimes survive damage that would cripple other tankettes. This tankette's turret can equip a machine gun, a heavy rifle, or a light cannon, or it can go weaponless with a recon hatch.

In addition to the tankettes, which I designed, I also kitbashed two tank crewmembers (Ⓣ) from plastic kits. The main bodies are Wargames Atlantic French Resistance, the heads are WA Cannon Fodder, and the arms and revolvers are either WA French Resistance, WA Napoleonic British Rifleman, or Warlord Games WWII SAS. The colors are primarily Ceramcoat Burnt Umber (02025), lightened with FolkArt Coffee Bean (881), and Vallejo Heavy Blue (72.143), along with a Nuln Oil wash.

With several tankettes to choose from and a pair of crewmen, I finally have an actual, finished unit for Tanker. I should probably work on getting some infantry squads put together.

Tanker: Steed Mk 1 Tankette

The Steed Mk 1 Tankette with a vaguely era-appropriate figure for scale.

I've been slowly designing a tabletop RPG, working title Tanker, where each player controls part of a small militarized group in a fictional post-World War One-esque setting. Your class can be "Tank," for example, and you control the tank and its crew members. I've gotten to the point with Blender where I can make decent vehicles for 3D printing, so I designed and printed this: the Steed Mk 1 tankette.

A tankette is like a little tank, only large enough to hold two cramped crew members, and it has only a small gun for infantry support. My design is just based on what I thought looked good when I was building it, based on elements from real-world designs such as the French Renault FT and the Japanese Type 94 tankette. Would my tank really run? Not well, if at all. Does it look good enough? Yes.

I've used 5x2mm magnets on these designs for turrets (which can be fully rotated and swapped) and the tow hitch (which can accept any of the tow-able trailers I've made). You can see more variants below (with the contrast cranked up due to the white filament on white background). The turrets are:

Turret w/HR, turret w/LC, calliope turret w/MG, recon hatch.


• Regular turret: This turret can fully rotate and contains one gun. It also has a small access hatch to allow the crew to enter and exit the vehicle.
• Machine gun (MG): An automatic, anti-personnel gun
• Heavy rifle (HR): A semi-automatic gun that can engage both infantry and light armored vehicles
  
• Light cannon (LC): The smallest actual tank cannon, similar to a Puteaux SA 18, for anti-armor use
  
• Recon hatch: An unarmed version of the tank, this configuration removes the turret and the accompanying rotation mechanisms, freeing up significant space for a more powerful engine.
• Calliope turret: This turret, which can be built onto either a machine gun or heavy rifle turret, includes a scaffold with an eight-shot rocket launcher. While there are numerous downsides, it does allow for rocket bombardment to complement the main weapon.

Top to bottom: Towed rocket cart, small tow-cart, large tow-cart

In addition, the tank can tow several types of detachable trailers. The trailers are:

• Small tow-cart: This cart can carry one unit of cargo in the RPG.
• Large tow-cart: This cart can carry two units of cargo in the RPG.
• Towed rocket cart: When detached, a unit of infantry can crew this weapon to shoot up to 16 rockets at enemy positions. This model is not particularly accurate, but it can heavily saturate an area.

So, that's the Steed Mk 1. Only one of the models I've printed has been painted up. The rest remain bare white filament. I've also designed a truck, similar to a Liberty Truck, so I'll post about that once I have one of them painted up.

 

BurnA.R.D.

Here is another one of my FDM-printed miniatures (or mostly 3D printed, at any rate). I've previously posted some of these guys here and here. Again, this was a free STL file on Thingiverse called "The Fridge" by Skellify. It's amazing. Of course, this one has a slightly different left arm, what with a giant flamethrower cribbed from an unused part of the "IMEF Bulldog I" from Reaper Miniatures that I built here.

I think I'm going to call this model of robot the A.R.D., or "Automatic Roughneck Drone." Is this just so I can call this specific figure BurnARD? Yes. Yes, it is. But I think the name is pretty nice.

Have you seen this mech before? You might not have recognized him because of the red arm.

Urban Terrain: Bank

Here's a bank that I designed in Blender and 3D printed. It was a huge project; it took a while in the design phase, the printing phase, and the painting phase. With a base that fills 14 inches by 8 inches, the bank makes quite an impression on the tabletop. For superhero RPGs, heist games, or just general modern-era skirmish games, this bank has a lot of possible uses.

The front and side walls were printed in Creality Matte White, then spray primed on the outside with Army Painter "Skeleton Bone." I then sponged/stippled on Apple Barrel "Haystack," which I have discovered that they no longer produce. Then, I sponged/stippled on a mix of Haystack and Craftsmart "Vanilla." The end result was somewhere around good enough. The interior walls are Ceramcoat "Medium Foliage Green." The rear walls are just sheets of black-core foam board, cut to the right size and painted with the same colors.

The roof is magnetized to attach onto the lower part. It doesn't quite sit flush, due to my misjudgement of printing tolerances, but it holds on snugly. For texture on the roof, I used Woodland Scenics "Medium Ballast Gray Blend" (81394) to mimic roof ballast.

The bank could use some additional decoration (and furniture), but I'm going to let it sit for now. This project has taken more than long enough. It especially needs some color to pop on the exterior, like signs and banners. While the bland beige is very emblematic of the banking industry, it doesn't look as interesting as it could on the tabletop.

While these shots don't show it, there is a vault inside, situated under the removable upper balcony area. It has a working vault door (magnets!) and some non-working safety deposit boxes inside, ready for a heist.

This hulking structure more than doubles the footprint of buildings I've finished for my urban terrain board. Since I divide my urban board into 8x4" lots, this one fills up 3.5 lots. My total produced is now 6.5 lots:

• Biggut's Fish (Fast food restaurant): 1 lot
• Urban Residence: 1 lot
• Urban Shop: 1 lot
• Bank: 3.5 lots

I'd like to have 14 lots completed for this project, so I'm almost halfway there. Next up, I plan to finish a bus stop and subway station that were the first things that I originally designed for this project.

Urban Terrain: Residence and Shop

In this picture, we see Scrapper facing off against Caldwell and his henchmen on a city rooftop. The Mechanic has wandered in at ground level for additional scale reference.

I designed two more urban buildings in Blender, and I 3D printed them on our Creality K1 with Creality Matte Black filament. The one on the left is a shop, with the door at ground level. The one on the right is a residence of some kind.

Both buildings are built on 4x8" bases, in keeping with my modular urban board project. While I didn't do anything with the interiors, they are fully playable; each floor (and each roof) is fully magnetized so they hold together well but can be pulled apart easily. Interestingly, all of the floors are magnetized the same way, so they could be put together to make a 4.5-story building (and a 1 story building) instead of the 3-story and 2.5-story buildings shown here.

The paint job isn't amazing, but it gets the job done. The brick is a combination of various reds and a bit of brown. The trim is FolkArt Matte Coffee Latte with some splotches of FolkArt Camel (maybe?). The front of the residence is Ugly, but it's Heavy Warmgrey with a brown wash.

There are some additional details (like rooftop HVAC and accessories) that I haven't painted up yet, but it's just nice to see this part of the project finished.

Yellow Cargo Bots

These two filthy, filthy cargobots have seen prolonged use at an industrial outpost. They're more 3D printed versions of "The Fridge" by Skellify on Thingiverse. I've already printed (unassembled) pieces for two more, but I haven't built them yet.

These two bots are painted yellow, or at least they were when they were factory fresh. Lots and lots of grime has muted the colors significantly, but a new coat of paint isn't exactly a priority in the bowels of a far-flung mining colony.

I really like these big bots, and the price point is great. The STL file was free, and the total filament per bot comes to maybe 33 cents? There are extensive weapon options included with the files, so you could literally build an army of these bots for ten bucks.

3D Printed Cargobot

Here's something new and interesting: A 28mm scale miniature printed on my FDM 3D printer. This is a cargobot. I found the STL file on Thingiverse; it's called "The Fridge" by Skellify. Nifty!

As you can see, the cargobot is a chunky bot. It's mounted on a 50mm base and stands about 50mm tall. The painting was black undercoat, then Americana Zinc (DA304), then some Vallejo Blue (70.925) on some of the central bits. Then I drybrushed everything with Vallejo Gunmetal (72.054). After that, I dirtied it up with some washes and some browns to give it a well-worn industrial look.

I can see the Cargobot (and its upcoming kin) being used as a sort of automated forklift, useful for picking things up and putting things down. This one may find itself a permanent fixture aboard the Twinhammer spaceship, if I ever finish the thing.

Additional note! My wife received a photography light box for Christmas, and I've been messing around with it. It may take a little bit, but once I dial things in, hopefully my photos will look better than ever.

Twinhammer Part 1: Exterior Shell

So, now that I have a 3D printer, I've been 3D printing! The exterior of this spaceship has taken about two months to print. It's primarily two Hammerhead modules from 2nd Dynasty which have been extensively customized.

I only have the exterior finished so far, but I'll get to printing the interior soon. Hopefully by the end of the year it will all be printed... and then I have to figure out how to paint this 24" monstrosity!