Small Scenics: Secret Weapon Miniatures’ Traffic Pylons #2

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Secret Weapon Miniatures' Traffic Pylons

Seventeen years ago, back in September of 2019 I painted the first batch of “Traffic Pylons” from Secret Weapon Miniatures. I picked up 50 of the things on sale at a local retailer in however many little baggies of them, and then set to painting half of them. They weren’t hard to paint, but in such numbers they’re pretty tedious and so my original plan of getting to the other half got a little sooner than now got sidetracked initially by my hiatus, and then by not really wanting to do them.

This second batch then had been sitting in a chinese food container-style disposable plastic tub since last year, and sitting on top of a pile of my modelling supplies and such I kept seeing them, so resolved to getting them onto an upcoming Tray. Since official Tray business is kinda suspended right now, I’m allowing myself to work on terrain as well as D&D board game models, because Dave Stone’s Winter of Scenery Challenge, and also because terrain can be a bit rougher and doesn’t need that fine freehand and careful highlighting and shading like regular models do, so it fits in pretty well for allowing me to keep getting stuff done right now.

Secret Weapon Miniatures' Traffic Pylons

The only difference between this batch and the first batch is I changed the “orange” to a slightly different shade, a little darker and a little more muted. I just wanted that slight variation that you tend to see between two sets of “identical” mass-produced products that have come from different batches that then often tend to have a small but uniform difference between the two.

…and now I have 50 Traffic Pylons for my modern+ games. Hopefully this coming summer I can get my urban Tablescapes painted…

Jewel of July – Extended through August. Plus a Sextet of Reiksgard Foot Knights with Greatswords

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Reiksgard Foot Knights with Greatswords

So the main point of this post is to let our little community know that the Jewel of July painting challenge has been extended through to the end of August this year. Why? Well, I’ve been pretty preoccupied with some real life business in the last almost-three weeks that have kept me from working on the more finely-detailed models in my collection (remember, there’s usually a lag – sometimes a decent sized one between when things get finished and when they get posted up.) Anyway, this has meant that my main focus has been on simpler models that don’t have the amount of fine detail or require the same amount of care – so D&D boardgame models, terrain pieces (which dovetail nicely with Dave Stone’s Winter of Scenery Challenge!) and even simple-paintjob simple models like these.

There are only three models left on “The Tray”, but two of them require fine tattoos, and one requires some cardboard cut, patterning and gluing and painting and… well, they’ll all three have to wait a litlte bit longer. I’ve also got a pair of models picked out as my “Tray Finished: Reward” models, but I haven’t been able to do much on those either. Hopefully the extension to August will let me get something more apt completed for The Jewel of July. I mean, the Assassins and several other models can count, but I’d also like to do something specifically for it as well.

Anyway, we have here six more identical Reiksgard models. I found a bunch of them, with many needing to be stripped in a baggie, and these ones were first in line. They were destined for Tray #2 regardless, so I’m good with having painted them already. They took less than 25 hours for the paint once I got going (after stripping, basing, adding sand – all of which were done awhile back in June). I do still have even more Reiksgard to paint, though at least the others are different poses…