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.

Stargate Project: SG-1

For years I have wanted to do a project based on the Stargate movie/tv shows, specifically Stargate SG-1 which aired from 1997-2007.  It is available to stream free on demand at PlutoTV.  Over the years I've collected miniatures for this project.  When I was considering what game to run at Historicon 2025, I decided that I was finally ready to take the plunge.  I will be using the 7TV rules, one of my favorite rulesets which is perfect for this type of large skirmish game.

I decided the first task was to paint the forces of Stargate Command, based under Cheyenne Moutain, Colorado.  I painted them during the winter of 2024-25.  I used green uniforms with black equipment as that is the most common uniform worn in the show, though they occasionally wear khaki or black.  Part of my research is rewatching the entire series.

SG1 (l-r): Teal'c, Daniel Jackson, Colonel Jack O'Neill, General Hammond, and Major Samantha Carter.  You can't do a stargate game without the stars of the show.  Hasslefree makes these and as usual with their miniatures, they did a good job depicting the actors.  I did have to paint the Apophis symbol on Teal'c's forehead freehand and I wish he was carrying his staff weapon.  All of these were one piece except for Daniel's pistol arm.

                                                    A close-up of O'Neill & Carter

Teal'c & Daniel Jackson

General Hammond in his most frequent pose, exasperated that SG-1 isn't following orders.

I wanted more teams of 4-5 miniatures each so started looking at modern 28mm manufacturers.  Then I remembered that I had 2 sprues of Warlord/Wargames Factory Modern Military.  I bought them years ago during a $1 sprue sale along with some zombies and had nearly forgotten I had them.  Warlord marketed them as part of their Project Z range which has disappeared from their website.  Each sprue has 4 miniatures so that would give me 2 more teams.  They are not the most detailed miniatures, but I already had them and there are a lot of weapon and head options on thesprue.  I painted one team with black helmets and one team with green helmets to make them visually distinct.  With the limited color palette, these painted up quickly.  I painted the badge with their team number on the upper right arm but it hard to see in the photos.  There are several websites that list the various SG teams along with known members as they appeared on the show.

SG-3, a Marine team led by Major Castleman.

SG- 6, an Air Force team led by Lt. Colonel Barnes.

I used some Crooked Dice X-Commando miniatures for a 4th team.  I have more of these that I painted in black uniforms back in 2017.  I got them out and touched them up so that I could use them as well depending on the size of the scenario: Old X-Commandos.  I haven't given them a team number, perhaps the second iteration of SG-10, whose original members were lost in a black hole.

The full SGC force.

What will be next in this project?  The villainous Goa'uld.

28mm Moderns

Today's post features some miniatures that I started painting at the end of July 2024 and finished in fall 2024.  I recently got them out for photos on a sunny winter day.  I will use them primarily for my 7TV games.

Three American Agents from Brigade Games Cold War era Spies and Patriots range.  These will be part of my Miami VIce collection, hence the bright colors.  I didn't have any female undercover detectives, so these are a nice addition.  I think the one on the right is a good match for Gina Calabrese, one of the original cast.  I am still on the lookout for a miniature to use as Trudy.

Three Female Armed Civilians from Brigade's WW2 range.  These are useful miniatures that can serve in plenty of modern to post-apocalyptic scenarios.

 Two miniatures from Crooked Dice.  On the left is a police officer or well-dressed criminal, on the right is a post-apocalypse raider.

 A giant post-apocalypse mutant also from Crooked Dice.  It is hard to find size XXXXXXL shirts in the apocalypse.  He will smash you with his mighty fists!

The entire group.  You can see how large the mutant is compared to the others.

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.

Zombie Reinforcements

 I started painting 28mm zombies back in summer 2020 with a group of 14.  I have added more over the years in small groups and my shambling horde numbered 42 as of 2024.  

My friend Mike started playing zombie games in 2024 using the rules set Zombie RV (available on Wargames Vault).  He added some mechanics for a larger game that I was interesting in trying.  But I needed more zombies.  Additional motivation was provided by Mike's collection of 75 zombies.  I was in between painting projects so decided that I would seize the opportunity to regain zombie supremacy.

I started with a batch of 14 Studio Miniatures plastic zombies.  I got a bunch of them as free rewards to a long-ago kickstarter and had painted a few in the past, also converting one of the bodies into a living biker for my motorcycle gang.  They come on sprues with 4 different bodies, 8 heads and various arms.  I had some left-over heads and arms from the Warlord/Wargames Factory male zombies, so used those to add more variety.

I have grouped each of the body types together.  I experimented with some different methods of doing skintones to add more variety.  The first picture has, left to right, rotting flesh, light gray, and blue, all lightly washed with purple.  The blue-ish ones didn't turn out like I had hoped at first so I added a light drybrush of light gray.

I wanted to do some different miniatures next, so I checked ebay and found a set of the Warlord/Wargames Factory female zombies along with 6 of the original Wargames Factory zombies for a good price.  The original zombies were made before the box sets that Warlord re-released.  They are definitely cruder sculpts than the later versions and have 6 on a sprue.  Unlike the later ones they have separate torsos and legs.

I already had a set of the female zombies in my collection, but thought I could make these different with a combination of different heads/arms/painting.

I was still 2 short of my goal.  Then I remembered that I had 2 metal zombies from Studio (also free from their kickstarter) that are larger and more disgusting than your average zombie.  I dug them out of storage and voila!  

With the 34 new zombies, I now have a total of 76, 1 more than Mike.  I retain an undisclosed number of the plastic Studio zombie sprues in case of emergency.