What begun as a simple paint job got more and more detailed as time went by. I really love how these tech gothic ruins from Sablebadger turned out. Again printed at 60% scale, in black PLA. Spray primed dark grey and airbrushed zenithal and various grey ones. Washed with a brown black wash mix, drybrushed tan. I went above and beyong and did some window glass panels using PVA glue undiluted into the window panels. Followed with some spot washes for grime and sealed with a matt spray sealer, which gave a foggy effect to the windows. I am thrilled with how they turned out. I have enough to fill out a 2×2 table in 15mm.
Yes, you just need thick enough PVA so that it stays in place and doesn’t flow down. The size of the small panes matters as it can’t grab a really big gap.
Grid city sci-fi ruins I had gotten as sampler from Saucermen studios. Printed in black PLA, and painted in grey tones with metallic details and added rust effects.
I mixed and matched to create different builds but I failed to also Mirror the clones, and break the uniformity even more.
Something else that I needed for my games, and especially bug hunt is linear terrain in order to create funnels of routes, so in addition to the prior geonosis terrain, I went with the sandbag and modular trench barricades from Sablebadger. Also printed the trench barricade tower, so that I can make an outpost quickly a la starship troopers style. The sandbags were printed in beige PLA and painted in a similar way to the geonosis terrain. The trench barricades were printed in black PLA and painted in gray tones, but because they ended up too monochrome I added rust effects, which ended up contrasting a lot with the monochrome look.
I needed some rocky terrain, and especially for sci-fi look (can also work for desert fantasy) I found the Geonosis style terrain from Sablebadger. I got them from his patreon at the 2nd level which includes access to his back catalogue. Printed at 60% scale, in Beige PLA. Washed in a red-brown wash (Burnt Umber + Yellow Ochre + PVA + Floor Polish) and drybrushed Tan. The idea is if they get knocked around too much and chip, the lighter beige color will show throw and it will be like a highlight. Though with the softness of PLA, floor polish seal, and lack of knocking around (I am a solo player after all) I doubt this extra precaution is necessary.
I have not taken single pictures of every single item, rather, filled a table with them and took pictures. When combined with different terrain I think they will look even better, but there’s enough of them to fill a 2×2 in 60% scale, or 3×3 in full scale.
There are tons of sci-fi stl buildings in the internet, so many that I got overwhelmed. I finally settled on some samplers from Corvus Game Terrain (Tycho Starport, Magna Fortuna, Compound) and a retro Bunker from Doctor Spork. I can’t recall where I got the alien monolith from. Again, spray primer, airbrush zenithal, airbrush basecoat, washes and drybrushing. I decided to give different colours to the Corvus Game Terrain buildings from Magna Fortuna series, but perhaps I overdid it, and I don’t think they look good if all of them are placed together on the table. On the other hand 1-2 of them are good to break the monotony of the uniform color I painted the Tycho starport line.
With Orktober underway, I could not leave my space Orks unpainted. These are all 3d sculpts from thatwhatgrows patreon back catalogue. Bear in mind that their patreon is no longer active, but they also have some support-less sculpts in their itch.io store, from which I got the space goblins but haven’t gotten around to printing and painting them yet. Also while support-less they’re more oriented to resin printing, as I noticed some overhangs while printing in FDM. Could also have to do with the fact that I scaled them down 60% for 15mm scale.
Anyway enough talk, here are gathered: 1 armored ork boss, 2 ork bosses, an ork shaman, an orc with sword and pistol, and 6 orks with rifles.
Printed in Elegoo PLA Pro, at 0.06mm layer height on a Bambu Labs A1 mini with a 0.2mm nozzle. Painted with layering techniques (which I admit was hard to do on the FDM print) and I also used oil washes. Perhaps the contrast is too stark, and I could have gotten a similar result with less effort, but I like evolving my skills as a miniature painter.
I also changed my desk lamp with one with a led light and magnifying lens to assist with painting, but this had an impact to the photography, and for the particular figures I had to switch to a black background, and try to find the optimal exposure settings.
Armored Ork BossOrk ShamanOrk BossOrk BossOrk with Sword and PistolOrk with RifleOrk with RifleOrk with RifleOrk with RifleOrk with RifleOrk with RifleOrk with RifleSpace Ork Warband
A new category! after Miniatures and Terrain, I have printed, assembled and painted my first Vehicle. Since vehicles (and cavalry/flying mounts) tend to move fast, they don’t play a major role in smaller tabletop boards like mine. Vehicles can be something movable, like a tank, mech walker, to a prop/objective marker like a dropship or shuttle, up to a whole terrain board for a large starship.
I currently haven’t focused much on them, because I didn’t find many use cases, but I felt like I was always missing a space ship for my Five Parsecs from Home games. So a while ago I spent time and printed and assembled a shuttle, but it still sits in my closet in the pile of printed shame – I’m not going to share what it is until I have this painted and finished.
But lately I pledged on the MTV Kickstarter by games-art-by-Philipp on a small shuttle that would work perfect as a Five Parsecs from Home: Bug Hunt dropship. The files were delivered on Monday, and I got to printing them immediately. I realized it was smaller and more manageable than the shuttle I printed. Also I loved the assembly, as it uses Gridforge lock system which makes changing the floors very easy.
It would probably sit in my closet as well for a long time, but on my last trip to the dollar store, I found a pack of 100 acrylic paint markers for about a dozen bucks, and thought they’d be perfect for painting terrain and vehicles. So I decided to give it a shot and see if it makes my job easier or faster.
A pack of 100 acrylic paint markers from the dollar store
Printing was done in White Elegoo PLA, at 0.08mm layer height with a 0.4mm nozzle. The model was scaled down to 60% for a 15mm scale. First I assembled the ship and glued some parts that I knew that wouldn’t need removing in the future, and that wouldn’t interfere with spray priming. Also I printed the screen in transparent PLA – this is not the final screen I used.
The printed dropship with the roof and screen installed
Then I spray primed the entire thing in dark gray using the Army Painter Gamemaster Ruins&Cliffs Spray Primer. Once dry, I decided to start giving my acrylic markers a test. First I tested the coverage on a spare screen part I had spray primed, and then I tested overall painting techniques and behaviour on the under-the-gridforge floor (it’s not going to be visible when playing even when the top of the craft is open, so I could “fail” without needing to repaint.
Overall I discovered that the acrylic markers behaved well. Coverage isn’t perfect (they’re dollar store after all) but this could give some nice blending and artistic line effects. I used two different grays for the tiles and a deeper gray, closer to the primer color to repaint the grooves. What I absolutely loved was how I could stay within lines – the grip and control is much tighter than when using a brush – and how fast I could paint everything. With that done I decided to go ahead with basecoating (most of) the entire thing.
Testing the acrylic markers on the floor.
I decided to go with a Unity (from the Unified Space of Nordic Weasel Games) colour scheme, some red panels, different grays for the outside. Added some metallics with a brush, and gave some light yellows for the headlights. Despite having printed and primed several different interior choices (crates, passenger seats and console terminals) I decided to focus on the core set which only has the pilot seat and console and some different empty floor tiles. Doing the basecoating with the acrylic markers was a blast! Felt like a kid again playing with markers. Lines were tight and controlled; yes I needed to go back again and do a second and third coat, but I was building up from dark gray, and I hadn’t done a zenithal priming job. The alternatives would be to either do extensive masking and airbrushing or stipple drybrushing, or try to do everything with a brush, none of which would be easy at all. Something to note here that I first tested on the under-floor was how the marker paint job behaved with my washes, and I noticed reactivation if I applied it while the paint was touch dry – something which was not a problem with regular acrylics. This was important information for later, as I didn’t want to ruin the exterior paint job.
Basecoating complete
Once it dried well, I place back the wings, and followed up with a white drybrush all over the ship exterior to pick up the edges.
Edge highlighting with white drybrush.
I then applied my floor polish brown black wash. Also added some spot washes at the mechanical parts for oil grime and at the headlights with a soft tone. Once that dried, I followed with a final white drybrush all over the interior and exterior.
Overall I am thrilled with how it turned out. Took me about one day to finish it, but it was a joyful experience. Some pictures of the finished thing with my Five Parsecs from Home: Bug Hunt troopers.
I replaced the transparent PLA screen with a reprint using rectilinear solid infill for a grid look, but finally settled on a Hilbert curve solid infill as seen in the last interior image. I think it looks best as it gives this reinforced glass look.
Really amazing! Seems a resin print! Even the pilot seat and the controllers, so tiny and yet so detailed. The markers (simple markers not even the AP/AK ones) paint job unbelievable good, i’ll try it! One question, why did you use the gamemaster’s primer? Keep going you are truly inspirational
Thank you so much!
I got used to the army painter Gamemaster spray primers back when I bought the set, and I love how it isn’t toxic and doesn’t eat away at styrofoam.
Last year I bought a bunch of them when they had a sale (at Black Friday I think) for €5 each.
I didn’t think it would work on materials other than styro, good to know! Maybe i’ll try myself some paintjob with makers (i’ve got some from amazon in my “token period”)
Some more terrain items I have 3d printed for my sci fi battles. Mainly barrels, crates. Since I am scaling down for 15mm, single small barrels and crates are kinda pointless. They get knocked around easily, are hard to setup, and provide only minimal impact to the terrain. Therefore I chose grouped or larger containers.
Barrels and space junkCratesCratesWasteland wall ruinWasteland wall ruinSpaceship wall debrisAlien flora
Thank you!
It boils down to a few things: planning ahead, good models, and a good well calibrated printer.
The Bambu Labs A1/mini have proven to give robust quality prints. These are mostly printed with default settings. The fact that I go low in scale means I can go as high in quality as I need without spending a lot of time in printing. A 60% scale is approximately 3 times faster to print, and it offsets the increase of going down to 0.08mm layer height.
I spend a lot of time planning ahead. This includes looking at finding the right models for the job. If I can find terrain that prints well, paints nicely and works as intended, then that’s preferred. Also I plan ahead the paint job. A model might be printed and wait a long time before painting, not so much due to laziness (which is more a fact for miniatures models) but more so because I am trying to figure out the best series of steps to paint them quickly and have them look good enough.
Hope this helps!
I didn’t expect to have a second season of Five Parsecs from Home: Bug Hunt, but here we are. I have decided on what the second season will be like, but I still need to decide some things. I’ll ask questions to the Oracle:
Q: Are the Red Coyotes disbanded? A: Yes, but the Characters stick together
Alright then it seems that the Red Coyotes were a “Special Assignment” regiment, and once their task was complete, they were disbanded. The Characters though will be transferred to a new regiment together (this is the interpretation of the but result of the Oracle.)
Q: Is Lt. Thomsantch with them? A: No, but he keeps an eye on his old comrades
Rolling at the Regiment flavour table: Solar Rats
Pre-Battle Roster
Name
Reactions
Speed
Combat Skill
Toughness
Savvy
Ariana Raschke
1
6″
+0
4
+2
Kato Minoru
3
6″
+1
5
+1
Ulla Voight
1
5″
+3
3
+1
Name
Completed Missions
XP
Origin
Training
Service History
Ariana Raschke
6
0
Trade Hub
– Planetary militia – Technical Training – Leadership Training
– Anti-pirate operation – USS Astral Monarch Campaign
– Naval forces (Security) – Physical training – Marksman Training
-Anti-pirate operation – USS Astral Monarch Campaign
Name
Missions & Injuries
Status
Ariana Raschke
Kato Minoru
Service Pistol +1″ Range
Ulla Voight
The Red Coyotes were sitting in the barracks, playing cards, when their datapads started blinking and notification sounds filling the room, as the troopers paused for a moment. Ulla took a look at her datapad. “Transfer order-” she pauses as she reads further “-got PY-511 in F9 V system.” “Same here” Ariana interrupts. “I am to report to the Solar Rats regiment in Colgan’s Wreck – how about you, Kato?” she asks. “Garrison duties? Why are we being sent to some frontier outpost?” He complains, then realizing the question. “Oh, yes, at least we’re together. Solar Rats. Yay” he fakes a cheer.
The door opens and Lt. Thompsanch enters. Someone yells “Officer! Attention Troopers!”. They drop whatever they’re doing and stand attention. “At ease troopers.” Thompsanch begins, takes a pause and continues. “News must have already reached you. Transfer orders have already been placed to the lot of you. The USS Astral Monarch returns to her naval patrol duties. The Red Coyotes are disbanded. I don’t know where you will end up, but I pulled some strings to ensure that tight fire teams stay together. Let me say that I am proud to have been your commanding officer. You delivered this victory, and Unity stands strong because of you.” The troopers salute and cheer “hurrah”, pumping their right fists onto their chest.
PY-511 System Map
The troopers were accepted quickly into the Solar Rats. The missions under their belt meant they weren’t addressed to as rookies. But still, it was as non-exciting as possible. Until the alarm went off. Sirens blasting at full, the troopers quickly gathered at the barracks. Their Captain, Fyodor Alekhin, gave a quick briefing. “Alright you rats. If you thought this was an easy assignment, well I hate to break it to you, but you’ve got your work cut out for you. As of zero seven hundred hours today Colgan’s Wreck is no more.” he didn’t pause for the restless murmuring, but instead with a louder voice he continued. “Face Rippers. Nasty beasts, have infested PY-511. They were sighted yesterday. Colgan’s Wreck was overrun quickly. We have credible intelligence that the bugs originated from the cavern system from the badlands to the south of the colony. Civilian Evacuation was issued at 0300 through the starport. Carpet bombing was performed at 0700H today in the city to eliminate the infestation, but it was ineffective. Since 0900H, one by one, the Starport, Farms, Industiral Zone, Waste Zone were all overrun by bugs, and contact was lost to any forces there.” “OUR MISSION” he goes with a louder voice, and the troopers stop talking. “Protect the Forward Operating Base that was set up by the Tech Corps. This will be our foothold so that we can proceed to clear the rest of the sectors one by one, to eliminate the infestation. Get your gear and dropship assignments, and get going! DISMISSED”.
Sector Map
For this game I will follow the Co-op Campaigns system from the Bug Hunt Appendix, but with a single player. After fooling around with several online generators and hex tools, I couldn’t find one to my liking, so I turned to my rudimentary drawing and photoshoping skills and delivered the above result. 7 sectors in total, and I can go only from one to the adjacent ones, unless I capture the Starport. This should give at least 7 missions which might give enough attempts to get a trooper to muster out. If I don’t manage to muster out afterwards, I’ll proceed to regular 5PFH campaign without a mustered out crew member. For each of the above sectors I rolled the following priorities and randomly assigned one of each Factors.
+ 09.06.25 + + Solar Rats dispatched West from Operational Zone. Advancement. + + Dust storm obstructing targeting systems. Dropship fire ineffective. + + Squad Musculus – Sgt Kosarev, Trooper Voight, Fire Team advancing towards Objective B – Scout the FOB. + + Squad Rattus- Troopers Raschke and Minoru towards advancing Objective C – Hack sensor data for enemy entry points. + + Intel aimed for precision airstrikes after evacuation. + + Objective A – Secure the 150 approach determined as Secondary. + 09.11.45 + + Techtrooper rescued – Fighting condition determined. Squad Musculus reinforced. + 09.16.20 + + Techtrooper rescued – Fighting condition determined. Squad Rattus reinforced. + 09.20.25 + + Hostile signals detected amassing from 185. No combat as yet.
Round 2
+ 09.27.05 + + Hostile signal detected at 100 + 09.32.00 + + First combat. Squad Rattus reports 3 aliens in sights. Face Rippers. Fire at will. 2 confirmed alien kills. + + Squad Musculus – Techtrooper rescued – Fighting condition determined. Trooper located at terrace of command tower. + + Trooper reports enemy contact. 4 aliens in FOB barricades. + 09.36.15 + + Hostile signal in OZ at 185. Signals amassing from 120.
Round 3
+ 09.40.05 + + Squad Musculus broken formation. Sarge Kosarev indicates Objective B achieved. + + Trooper Minoru reports unconfirmed alien kill. + 09.43.00 + + Face rippers closes in on Squad Musculus. Sergeant Kosarev is reported as first casualty. 4 alien kills reported. 3 unconfirmed. + + Squad Musculus reports 5 more aliens in sight. Position compromised. + 09.46.45 + + Trooper Voight formation broken. Dash to connect to Squad Rattus. Reports 1 confirmed alien kill. + + Squad Musculus formation restored. 5 alien kills reported, 1 confirmed. Casualty ratio good. So far 5.0 to 1.0. In Unity’s favour. + + Squad Rattus advances. + 09.50.50 + + Hostile signals amassing from 90.
Round 4
+ 09.53.20 + + Hostile signal in OZ, at 190. + 09.54.20 + + Squad Musculus suppresses aliens. Face rippers overrun the tower. Squad Musculus reports casualties. + + Squad Rattus reports hostile contact. 5 aliens in sight. + 09.56.45 + + Squad Rattus engages hostiles. 3 alien kills reported, 1 confirmed. Casualty rate down at 3.5 to 1.0.
Round 5
+ 09.59.55 + + Squad Musculus reports 3 alien kills. None confirmed. + + Squad Rattus reports 1 confirmed alien kill. + 10.03.00 + + Bugs engage Squad Rattus. 2 confirmed alien kills. The troopers overcome odds. + 10.04.10 + + Squad Musculus reports increasing pressure from hostiles. Enemy forces growing rapidly. 7 confirmed detections from 170. + 10.06.15 + + Trooper Raschke distinguishes herself. Wounded, she confirms a 4th alien kill. + + Evac flare deployed at F.O.B. Sector 5. Dropship en route. + + Squad Musculus reports 3 alien kills. None confirmed. + 10.08.05 + + Hostile signal detected approaching from 100. Enemy closing in from all sides. Casualty ratio back at 5.0 to 1.0. + + Objectives 1/3 Cleared. Victory is uncertain.
Round 6
+ 10.11.40 + + Squad Musculus is encircled. Firing at will. 2 alien kills reported. 1 confirmed. + + Squad Rattus reports 1 unconfirmed alien kill. + 10.13.00 + + Close combat engagement. Bugs overrun Squad Musculus. 3 Trooper casualties, 1 wounded. 3 reported alien kills.1 confimed. + + Squad Musculus reports contact with 3 more aliens from 180. + 10.14.00 + + Trooper Raschke engages data interface. Data transferred. Objective C completed. + + Squad Rattus reports 1 alien kill. Not confirmed. + 10.18.15 + + Dropship approach. Squad Rattus evacuation executed. + + Hostiles amassing from all sides. Expect wave attack imminently. Casualty ratio down to 3.0 to 1.0.
Round 7
+ 10.20.05 + + All contact lost with Squad Musculus. Casualty ratio established at 2.0 to 1.0. The price of Victory.
At the start of Round 7 I noticed that I needed two objective instead of just one to Clear the Sector. I went back and played it out with a *what if* they remained until they Hacked objective Nr.2 - because I would not leave without a victory at this point - and Ariana hacked it at the Quick Phase of Round 7. With no Bugs in range to attack her, and no Contact Markers nearby to affect the end result, I decided to go ahead with a Success instead of putting back the figures at approximate distances and running it all over again. The end result is the same.
Post-Battle
1. Determine Casualties and Lost Marines
None
2. Update Completed Missions
Done
3. Check for Mustering Out
No Chance
4. Determine Reputation
18 Initial -1 For Support Points +3 For Rescuing 3 Troopers +1 For 2 Objectives Completion +1 For Objectives Roll 22 Final
5. Experience and Leveling
+4 XP each, MVP: Ariana (+5 XP) Ulla will spend 8 XP for +1 Toughness
6. Roll for Operational Progress
1 Support Point Claimed: 3 Total Enemy Moves: Enemy swarms: Industrial Zone
7. Roll for Military Life
Kato: You’re detached on special duties. You cannot participate in the next mission, but you receive a bonus roll on the Special Assignments table.
As the Solar Rats flew back to command, they caught sight of the bombers going the other way. Ulla looked at her teammates. “For those we lost-” she spoke. “-They will be avenged.” Ariana responded. The ride back was silent. They had lost many good men and women today. An eager Captain Alekhin was waiting for them at the landing pad as they arrived. He counted heads, and instantly knew. “Well done troopers!” he yelled, to be heard over the sound of the dropship’s engines cooling down. “There will be time to mourn later. The war has just begun. Get some rest to get ready for the next mission. I expect debriefing at 1500. Early intel while you guys were pitting it against the bugs in the F.O.B. says that they swarmed the I.Z.” As the troopers disembarked, he stopped Kato, his hand, flat on his chest. “Not you, swift boy.” He looked at him. “I don’t know what strings you pulled, but you won’t be joining us for the next mission. You’re to go back to the rear for some special assignments. Brass wouldn’t tell me more.” “Yes Sir!” Kato answered, and headed for the barracks, running after his friends.
Post-Battle Roster
Name
Reactions
Speed
Combat Skill
Toughness
Savvy
Ariana Raschke
1
6″
+0
4
+2
Kato Minoru
3
6″
+1
5
+1
Ulla Voight
1
5″
+3
4
+1
Name
Completed Missions
XP
Origin
Training
Service History
Ariana Raschke
7
5
Trade Hub
– Planetary militia – Technical Training – Leadership Training
– Anti-pirate operation – USS Astral Monarch Campaign
– Naval forces (Security) – Physical training – Marksman Training
-Anti-pirate operation – USS Astral Monarch Campaign
Name
Missions & Injuries
Status
Ariana Raschke
S2E1
Kato Minoru
S2E1
Service Pistol +1″ Range
Ulla Voight
S2E1
Session Summary
This was a really fun battle despite the small roster, and I got to enjoy some new terrain I printed and painted. For the next fight I intend to attack the Star Port, as I don’t want to attack high priority sectors yet, which means I have to get some terrain ready for this as well – this might cause a slight delay for the next game session. I may have done a few mistakes during the session, but nothing of significant impact. It was fun, how the small roster was countered a bit by the three! troopers I rescued – almost an entire fire team. I think the new campaign style is really interesting, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it will play out. For the enemy, the next session will start seeing the appearance of variants – and I haven’t decided yet if it will be a different variant per sector, still randomly determined. On the journalling part, any of my usual readers will have noticed that I’m still experimenting. In addition to my awesome (sarcasm detected) drawing skills for the sector, and the cool planetary system generator by donjon.bin.sh, I have changed my photos, reporting and narrative of the battle. I decided to do away with the mechanical description of game parts of the combat. Bug hunt is really heavy on the bookkeeping side, and I’ve only managed to resolve this by introducing tons of different tokens and markers. Writing it all down for the report would defeat the purpose, and just make the game too tiring for me. I changed the in-battle narrative, inspired by the Space Hulk 1st Edition Missions book. I think it comes closer to the feel of the game, and is a refreshing change in narrative style. Last but not least, I adapted a semi-comic book photo presentation. I’ve seen it a few time by other players, and I always found it looked cool. However I could not find a suitable program to do it on my own. Any apps I found were clunky, riddled with ads, or had a paywall for premium features which should be standard. Then I discovered I could do it in Linux with Krita. There was a short learning curve, but eventually I got the hang of it. However when I was playing the game and taking the pictures I still had not found out about it, so the pictures were taken from eagle-eyes view, at the end of each round – not suitable for a comic-book style story. I intend to further experiment with this on my next game, and perhaps have something better looking.
Onibaba are discussing. 
technoalchemist are discussing. 
Solo, Pen, Paper and Dice 
Onibaba 9:21 am on October 31, 2025 Permalink |
Wait, wait, wait, explain further the PVA “glass”, just simply glue and wait to dry? Noice
As always amazing job, i’m tempted to scale down ^_^ but i must be strong
LikeLiked by 1 person
giorgis 12:27 pm on October 31, 2025 Permalink |
Thanks!
Yes, you just need thick enough PVA so that it stays in place and doesn’t flow down. The size of the small panes matters as it can’t grab a really big gap.
LikeLike