Vehicles pt1 – Delivery Boat MTV Type D 

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.

Interior shot from the rear door.