Stargate Project: The Stargate

 You can't have a Stargate game without a Stargate.  I have seen many versions over the years, including one where you can insert a cellphone to get the gate effect.  I ran across this one on eBay while buying a 3d-printed paint holder. The center is removable, but fits so tightly that I try to move it as little as possible to avoid scratching the paint.  I painted the event horizon with successively lighter shades of blue in smaller areas with some silver mixed in the center.

It didn't come with a DHD, the device used to activate the gate.  I bought this 3D-printed one on Etsy from Majestic Miniatures.  They also make some gate versions.  I think it would be fun to run a scenario with 2 boards and a stargate on each one so I may buy one from them in the future.

I have 2 versions of the MALP, the robotic vehicles used to perform recon and carry equipment.  The one on the left is a scratchbuilt version that I bought secondhand, repainted, and added a missile.  The tracks are metal and the rest is made of card.  The missile came with the right-hand version from Ainsty Castings which is made of resin.

Last are two firepits from Bad Goblin Games who have a variety of cool terrain accessories.  I am going to use them as temple fires in the Great Temple from my previous post.  They come with a small light and battery, though the lights are not on in these photos.  I gave the flames a red wash to tone down the orange.

A photo to show the scale.  Off to explore the universe!

 

Stargate Project: The Great Temple

With all the other terrain items painted, my attention turned to a large building that I bought at Siege of Augusta 2025 from Garrison 3D.  It has a diameter of 12 inches/30.5 cm and is 9 inches/22.9 cm tall.  When I first saw it I was instantly reminded of a classical temple or building such as the Pantheon in Rome.  It is a 3D print and consisted of the base and a separate dome.  Each of the sections was made from four pieces that had been glued together.

It is intended to be a scifi building as there are two small accessories on the exterior that appear to be electronic systems.  I painted them the same as the surrounding area to make them less noticeable.  They fit the theme given Stargate's use of advanced technology added to historical architecture.

The method I used was first to spray prime several coats of Krylon gray primer.  Next I decided that I wanted to fill the seams between the four sections.  They were partly filled by the original assembly and the primer but I wanted to get rid of the remaining gaps.  An application of superglue gel smoothed by a toothpick did the trick.

I added two coats of brushed on off-white craft paint with a very large brush.  Then I applied a thin wash of gray craft paint to darken the white. I had used red on some of the previous buildings and columns, so used Army Painter Dragon Red on different areas until it looked right to me.  After looking at it for a day I thought it needed another color, so painted some more areas gold.  I think there is enough color to break up the white.

I thought the white was still too bright.  So I applied watered-down Apothecary White GW contrast paint.  That darkened it enough that I was satisfied.  Finally, I sprayed it with two coats of Krylon Matte Varnish.  I am pleased with how it turned out.  It will serve as a good central piece on the table and I have several items that I plan on using in the interior during games.

From the front - a Roman senator speaks to the crowd (28mm Footsore miniature).

An overhead shot with the dome removed.  Plenty of space for skirmish action.

From the rear

Overhead with the dome on.

One last look inside

Stargate Project: Goa'uld

 An essential part of any Stargate project are the villains of the show, the Goa'uld.  A race of evil parasites, they take control of their human hosts and pose as gods, ruling the human population on various worlds as slaves.  The original movie and the early seasons of the show feature Goa'uld named after Ancient Egyptian dieties.  Later seasons expand to using gods from other cultures.  I suspect they were running out of Egyptian ones.

I wanted to use Egyptian-themed miniatures.  I had seen another gamer use the Wargods of Aegyptus range from Crocodile Games.  I searched through their catalog and picked out several possibilities.  The offical retail prices are high, but I eventually found 3 on sale at Noble Knight and bought them.  And then they sat in my closet for several years.

When I started on this project in late 2024, I got them out and started painting.  The Crocodile figures are on the fantasy Egyptian end of the spectrum, but given that Stargate mixes ancient motifs and scifi, that didn't bother me.  I think the faces on these are very expressive, they express the proper contempt for their slaves and enemies that was displayed on the show.

I took photos of these earlier in 2025, but recently got a new iPhone so reshot them with the better camera.

This is my favorite of the Wargods miniatures witth a great pose and arrogant expression. I can definitely see him saying a phrase used on the show "Bow down to your god."  I am leaning towards naming him Amun or Thoth.

I think this one resembles Aphophis from the show, the main villain for the first few seasons.

I've named this one after the goddess Bastet because she has a catlike face.    

A small falcon and sarcophagus statue came in two of the packs, so I painted them up as objective markers.

I wanted more than 3 Goa'uld for the scenarios I had in mind.  I monitored ebay and other websites for a while but couldn't find any more of the Wargods range at a price I was willing to pay.  I searched the Lead Adventure Forum for Egyptian topics and found a reference to Dragon Bait Miniatures  I had never heard of this company located in Massachusetts, USA.  They carry several small lines from different sculptors: historical, fantasy, pulp, and scifi, including an Egyptian range.  They looked good in the photos so I ordered several packs and they arrived 3 days later.

They are great miniatures.  There was little-to-no flash and the detail is excellent.  I enjoy painting but these were fun to paint, which doesn't happen often for me.  I encourage you to check Dragon Bait out and see if they have anything that catches your eye.

This Pharoah is perfect for my games.  He looks like a temple painting come to life. I think I will use him as Horus.                           

Queen Cleopatra VII, based on the Elizabeth Taylor version according to the Dragon Bait website; I can see the resemblance.  The headdress is fantastic.  She will be Sekhmet.                                         

This miniature and the next one came in a set with the pharaoah.  They could be used either as minor Goa'uld who serve the greater ones or human servants. A nobleman according to the website, I will use him as a minor goa'uld named after the god Ptah.                   

 Described as a priest on the website, perhaps one of the jaffa priests?

I think they mix well.  This project is almost complete, I am finishing a few more things now, with a month to go until Historicon.

Stargate Project: Columns, Obelisks, & Statues

This is the second post covering terrain pieces for my Stargate project. It includes the smaller items. You can see the larger ones here. A nice benefit is that all of these pieces can be used in historical games as well.

I painted these with the same method as the buildings.  I started by spray priming them with two coats of Army Painter Skeleton Bone. Next was an application of Skeleton Bone with a large brush, to cover any areas the spray didn't fully cover and to give a nice even base. Some of the pieces had details that I painted individually.  Then I gave them a wash with watered down Army Painter Soft Tone. This shaded in the hieroglyphs and other details. The final step was two coats of Krylon Matte Varnish.

I bought these four 3D printed columns from Miniature Building Authority as a set. The detail is excellent and each side has different designs. I have them arranged so that you can see each of the sides. The miniature is a 28mm Roman from Footsore's Gangs of Rome range.

A large obelisk from Armorcast with a 28mm Macedonian from Aventine for scale. All the Armorcast pieces have a large variety of hieroglyphs on each side and are nicely done. I have been tempted to go back and paint the larger hieroglyphs similar to how I did some of the buildings in my last post, but have not had the time.  It may be a future improvement.

Two more pieces from Armorcast, (l) a ruined obelisk and (r) a ruined column.  I used the ruined column as a test piece when initially working out the paint scheme.  

Two statues devoted to the Egyptian god Set. The statue on the left is from Dragon Bait Miniatures, whose products will figure prominently in a future post on this project. I have dubbed the jewel on top 'The Eye of Set'. The statue on the right is from Miniature Building Authority and is a 3D print.

Stargate Project: Terrain

An important part of my Stargate project is the terrain. The original movie featured Egyptian buildings in a desert setting, while the tv show retained the buildings but took place on a variety of worlds.  Most of those worlds bear a suspicious resemblance to the Pacific Northwest, since it was filmed in British Columbia.  While the show broadened out its settings to other historical eras from classical to medieval, I wanted my project to focus on the original Egyptian style.  So a set of Ancient Egyptian terrain pieces was required.  A bonus is that all of these pieces can be used in historical games as well.

In October 2024 while visiting my friend Mike in Ohio, he gave me a large box of Ancient Egyptian pieces that he had acquired over a decade ago from another gamer and didn't have any plans for.  It was all from the Armorcast line.  In early 2025 I started painting them.  My goal was the sandstone look of Ancient Egyptian monuments we are all familiar with.  I normally paint buildings one at a time, but since I was going to paint them all in the same style, I did two large batches.  

I started by spray priming them with two coats of Army Painter Skeleton Bone.  Next was an application of Skeleton Bone with a large brush, to cover any areas the spray didn't fully cover and to give a nice even base.  Some of the pieces had details that I painted individually.  Then I gave them a wash with watered down Army Painter Soft Tone.  This shaded in the reliefs and other details.  The final step was two coats of Krylon Matte Varnish.

This post has all the larger pieces, there will be a second post with the smaller items.  

First up are my favorites and the most detailed; two identical small buildings with reliefs on each side and a large scarab beetle on top  The reliefs were large enough for the detail to be easily visible when painted in the style that Egyptian temples were decorated.  For the scarabs I wanted to do something different.  My friend Mike has experimented with color-shifting paints and after a discussion with him, I bought a bottle of Folk Art Purple Flash.  You have to paint it over a black base.  I tried using a blue metallic base on one but it did't turn out well so I started over with black.  The color-shift paint goes on as a transparent purple and dries as a purple-blue that does appear different as you look from different angles.  I like the way they turned out.

Each side is different: the one on the left shows the rear and the one on the right shows the front.

Right and left sides

The top with a 28mm Macedonian from Aventine for scale.

One more look at the front.

Two small pyramids.  What treasures are beyond those doors? The miniature is a 28mm Egyptian from Footsore's Gangs of Rome range.  

Two statues of Anubis.  I used ancient representations of Anubis as a guide, so began with the same Skeleton Bone base, then applied two coats of GW Black Templar contrast paint, and added the gold details last.

The last of the Armorcast pieces.  It came in two sections, the base and the vertical obelisk.  The base section is very busy, with an eagle (or falcon?) at each corner.  The wash didn't turn out as well on it but I'm sure it will look fine on the table.

I acquired 7 identical large Egyptian statues at the 2025 Siege of Augusta convention from Garrison 3D out of Florida.  I recall that they were left over from a special project so not part of their normal product line.  They are 6.25 inches/5.9 cm tall and will certainly add to the atmosphere.  I am not sure what material they are made of, they aren't the usual 3d prints.  The surface is very rough and a bit pockmarked and they soaked up a lot of paint.  I skipped the soft tone wash on these after I tested a small area on one and couldn't tell much difference.  You can see that they tower over the 28mm miniature.

28mm Crossbowmen

 At the end of summer 2024, I was burned out on painting classical & dark age historical miniatures.  I had painted 7 armies for Saga over the previous 11 months and needed a change of pace.  I slowly worked on other periods throughout the fall.  In early January, I was looking for a small batch of miniatures to paint and looked through my list of unpainted miniatures.  I settled on this batch of 8 Norman crossbowmen by Crusader.  It was small enough that I could complete it quickly.  

I no longer have a Norman army, so they were not part of a larger project, just a one-off.  Will there be another Norman army in my future?   Perhaps, I do have a pack of 12 Victrix Norman heavy cavalry that I bought secondhand at a good price.  Not enough for an army, but who knows what I will find at a future convention flea matket?  And they did help me get interested in painting medievals, I have completed an English Hundred Years War army since January.

I am a fan of Crusader, their miniatures are comsistently well-sculpted and mix with most other manufacturers.  The pack of 8 followed the usual Crusader mix of 4 poses, 2 of each.  They were all in mail, and I didn't use any particular colors for their clothing, so it was a simple paint job.  

First group of four crossbowmen.

Second group of four crossbowmen.