Robin Hood Project - More Town Market Pieces

My Nottingham town market needed more pieces.  I purchased 2 market stalls and a wagon from Miniature Building Authority at Siege of Augusta in January, and another wagon and some carts from them at Carolina Conquest, a new convention in Charlotte, in May.  It was a good first con and they will be returning in 2027.  Plan on attending if you're within driving distance!  I thought it would be enough to round out my market area.

First , frequent readers may recall that I posted a photo of this gibbet back in December 2025.  It is now new and improved!  My friend Mike mentioned that it would look good with a skeleton in the cage.  I agreed, remembering that I had a sprue of Wargames Atlantic skeletons tucked away.  They come as separate skull, torso, arms, & legs.  Since I had already glued the gibbet together, it would take some maneuvering.  I glued the skull onto the torso, and painted that and the arms & legs separately.  I was able to squeeze the skull/torso piece through the opening, then had to glue the arms and legs on with tweezers once it was inside.  I think it was worth the time, I'm very happy with the result.

A merchant stall with some trade goods from Miniature Building Authority.

A blacksmith stall. Conveniently I also have a blacksmith on the painting table.

An ox-drawn wagon. The seat was missing but it was easily replaced with a piece of scrap mdf.  I painted the oxen with the darkest brown I have, then drybrushed a not so quite dark brown over that.  I can picture this (and the other wagons) full of taxes collected from the Saxon peasantry.

Horse & wagon. I kept the horse separate for flexibility.

Two small wooden carts.

Robin Hood Project: 28mm Wolves & Bear

 Work on my Robin Hood Project continues at a good pace. Last week I painted 5 wolves and a bear. Many creatures lurk in the depths of Sherwood Forest. I purchased all of these miniatures in January 2026 at the Siege of Augusta convention. Four of the wolves are metal from Miniature Building Authority. The fifth is from the Reaper Bones line and came in a pack of animals including the bear.

When I paint animals I do two things: do a Google search for images and check my friend Mike's blog to see if he has painted that species. He does an excellent job, much better than I can manage.

Since wolves were hunted to extinction in England in the 17th century, I decided to go with gray wolves. I primed them with white gesso, then a coat of medium gray. Next came a drybrush of light gray all over, a drybrush of off-white heavier on the lower half, and a drybrush of black along the top. To finish them I painted the nose and mouth black, the teeth ivory, and the eyes a pale yellow with a dark brown pupil.

I like that all four of the MBA wolves have different poses.

This wolf is resin. It is slightly smaller than the others but mixes in well. The bear is also resin; both are from Reaper's Bones line. I primed the bear with white gesso, followed by a coat of GW Mournfang Brown, tan on the muzzle, and finished with a dark brown wash. I painted the claws and teeth ivory. The eyes are white with a dark brown pupil.

A view of the entire wolfpack.  Beware wandering alone in Sherwood Forest at night!

SIege of Augusta 2026 Report

 My gaming year always begins with the Siege of Augusta convention in Augusta, Georgia.  Held in mid-January, I was only able to attend on Saturday this year.  On the plus side, that was because all three of my kids wanted to go with me.  It was my youngest's first convention.

We arrived just after 8:00 AM, registered, and were soon playing in games.

My purchases were on the light side this year.  I had made an order with Miniature Building Authority ahead of time to pick up at the con.  These are all items for my Robin Hood project. Starting at the top left: merchant stall, blacksmith stall, pack of 4 wolves, and an ox-drawn wagon.

I also bought two packs of miniatures for Robin Hood and some paint from Time Portal Hobbies, a longtime vendor.  The minis are from Reaper's Bones line.  I am already painting the townsfolk, and the material for these is firmer than the last Bones figs I bought. The animal companions include a wolf, bear, mountain lion, wolverine, & hawk.  Also pictured are a Sherman tank given to my older son for playing in a WW2 game, and a post-apocalypse mini from Bad Goblin.  My sons both played in one of Bad Goblins's games and were each given a miniature.  They had a good time fighting each other.

After a full day of gaming we headed home Saturday night.  Games played included post-apocalypse, chariot racing, WWII, Viking Naval, & OGRE miniatures.

My next convention in 2026 will probably be Carolina CONquest, a new convention in Charlotte, NC May 8-9.

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.

Purchases at Siege of Augusta

 I started off 2025 as I usually do by attending the Siege of Augusta convention in Augusta, GA.  This year, along with my 2 high schoolers, my friends Mike and Jenny drove down from Ohio to attend.

I am planning on running a Stargate game later this year and was on the lookout for some more terrain pieces.  There was a new vendor with a variety of 3d printed items, Garrison 3D from Florida.  He had some leftover Egyptian statues he wanted to get rid of, so I picked up all 7 of them for $10.  They are 6" tall so will look suitably imposing on the table.

Garrison 3D also had a large structure, diameter 12", that reminded me of a classical temple similar to the Pantheon in Rome.  I kept eying it all weekend and eventually gave in and bought it.  I am still working out a paint scheme but it will make a good central objective.

I also wanted to find some accessories for the temple.  Miniature Building Authority had some Egyptian columns and a snake statue that fit the bill.

Bad Goblin has a line of different fire items using LEDs, and I got 2 of their fire pits for $5 each.  You can see some lit up on my friend Mike's blog Lead Legionaries.  Bad Goblin have a great line of terrain for their upcoming Trailer Park Warlords of the Apocalypse game.  They also gave my daughter one of their miniatures after she played in one of their demo games, which is currently on my painting table.

I had a find in the Saturday morning flea market with 2 boxes of Perry Hundred Years War English for $20 each.  This was great timing as my copy of the new Age of Chivalry book for Saga waiting for me whrn I got home after the convention.  I've already started painting 24 of them.

I'm not sure if I will make any other conventions before Historicon, but Siege was a good start to the year.