Wednesday 2 February 2022

Vendors and Their Wares

If you've read this blog for a while, you're probably aware that I like a nice sci-fi civilian model. It's been a little while since I last painted any, but over the last couple of weeks I've been working on a project to paint up some nice new bits of scenery and set dressing. The first part of this project is a trio of vendors and their goods. I settled on a carpet seller, a tech merchant and a general food seller based on the models I had to hand.


L-R: Astropolis, Crooked Dice (Colony 87), Crooked Dice (Colony 87)

I painted the trio in some nice colours that loosely tie them together as a set. I can't work out which I like best - the beautifully clean sculpting on the tech merchant (centre), or the characterful swagger of the Astropolis figure (left).


To give these merchants something to sell, I set about creating some little pieces of scatter terrain.

I made a selection of rugs and carpets for the carpet seller, aiming to try a couple of techniques. The rolled carpets were made from embroidery fabric that I soaked in watered down PVA glue before rolling. The flat carpets were carved from plastic sheet, and the hanging carpet was made from a thin piece of greenstuff.


Overall, I think the greenstuff carpet was the least successful, but they're all pretty acceptable!


The tech merchant got a stall laden down with tech bits, all from my bits box. There are random parts from long lost minis as well as metal, resin and plastic accessories. The stall itself was made from some scraps of plastic sheet and some square plastic tubing.


Everything got painted up as a little bit battered and rusty. Clearly his prized piece of stock is the carefully displayed control panel and screen!


Finally I needed something for the food vendor to sell. He got a pair of Crooked Dice resin shelving units crammed with jars, bottles and packages. I did hack at the shelving with a knife to make it as beaten up as the rest of my terrain though!


Some dirty packages and a little bit of variety in the colours on the shelves makes it look like a great place to stock up on supplies!


The second part of the project will follow later this week!

24 comments:

  1. Superb selection of characterful miniatures ! I really enjoy those little stalls you craft for them, and the painting is top notch :D

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    1. Thanks Merlin! It was fun to make all their accessories.

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  2. Oh my! If the merchants weren't enough by themselves, which they are, the stalls are the icing of the cake. I love every bit here!

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    1. Thanks Suber! I love doing stuff like this - just makes the world look really lived in!

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  3. Great painting and excellent scratch-building. I particularly like the wires and gubbins hanging out of the tech merchant's stall!

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    1. Thanks Toby! It was a case of ramming on as much tech stuff as I could find!

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  4. Fantastic. Love the character and attention to detail on the stalls. I like the food vendor best, just looks shady as heck - kind of gives me a vibe of the radioactive water seller at the beginning of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. :)

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    1. I hope you're not suggesting he sells doctored products and food past its sell by date?! He's an honest food vendor with only the highest quality stock!

      Cheers 🙂

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  5. Lovely stuff! I've been meaning to do some proper stalls forever. It makes me especially happy to see that I'm not the only one who interpreted the food in the tray as assorted sushi. (It took me forever to figure it out, but as I was shading it in I finally recognized the squid/octopus tentacle. At least, I decided it was an octopus tentacle.) Fabulous stuff indeed! I need to kick my game up a notch.

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    1. Thanks! I think projects like this are a lot of fun to do, but they don't often float to the top of the priority pile. Good to hear we're aligned on the sushi!

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  6. One simply cannot habe enough NPC's like these, they set a story and tell a part of it in the blink of an eye. The immersion factor is extremely high and over time, it is great to feel familiar with that bit of imaginary world you're creating

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    1. I am always thinking I should have more NPCs, which is strange when I must have at least 20 non-combatant figures. I really like the vibe they give, and the depth to the setting that means it's not just a war-tirn wasteland.

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  7. Great work on the minis, and giving them something to sell is just the icing on the cake!

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    1. Thanks Hobbs! They look a little lonely without their stands, right?!

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  8. The figures are nice, the stalls are fantastic!

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  9. The tech merchant's stall as well as the shelves of goodies look fantastic, and give the minis a great setting to be in.

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  10. Fantastic and inspirational. Your blog is a (free) market place of great ideas, axiom. Just filling my basketand heafing for the door but I'll be back soon :oD

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    1. Thanks Jim Bob! Feel free to gather up as much as you can carry - you're very welcome to them 😉

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