The Road

The concept for a terrain project began to congeal in my mind last week and I started gathering up the necessary elements. I thought the easiest ask would be a 3' straight length of contemporary asphalt road in 28mm. Any number of companies must offer such a product, right?

Well, maybe half right. There are some options out there but none that I found, er, harmonize quality and price. Nor did any of them match the image in my mind. So why not just make some road? After leaving the office last night, I stopped by HobbyLobby ...

a simple plan

I had particularly good luck finding materials already cut to workable dimensions: a 12"x 24" roll of cork and three 12" x 6" x 1/8" sheets of plywood. This meant I could immediately get down to business.

There isn't much to this project - I glued cork roll to the plywood and then trimmed the cork on the long edges to give the road a bit of gradient and character. I learned pretty quickly not to be precious with this process, having decided to go back with some Vallejo basing paste to provide texture wherever I had bare plywood:

mind the pothole

And then on to priming, basing, drybrushing, washing, inscribing the traffic lines, and finally sealing the whole thing with clear matte lacquer.

oh man look at those survivors go

This turned out to be a very satisfying project. It's hard to believe it only took a few hours after work for everything from shopping for the most significant materials to finishing it up. I wish every project went so smoothly!

honk honk

Keep an eye out for this road in upcoming post-apoc AARs!

The Fuel Depot, Part 1

Picked up the Chemical Plant from Pegasus Hobbies some time ago. It's a weird kit, when you think about it: chock full of pipes and tanks and valves obviously designed to be connected but which simultaneously do not necessarily combine into anything coherent. Is it some kind of experimental psychology? My assembly process was akin to automatic drawing and I guess I ended up with components for a sort of fuel depot. Maybe?

To denizens of the "Far" Post-Apoc, the ruins of the Long Ago are like rapidly evaporating memories of a dream. The shapes are oddly familiar, like a string of words spelled at random. Who knows what the Ancients intended these strange monuments to accomplish?

Survivors of the "Near" Post-Apoc are confronted with a world built of crumbling assumptions. They thought they understood how things worked until it all fell apart. The infrastructure of their fallen society now stands aloof and suddenly mysterious.

what do you suppose it does, Vern?

That industrial doohickey was actually the last thing I built but was a nice size to test out colors. I sprayed a few Badger Ghost Tints, starting with Plasma Blue, to get a burnt/greasy complexion. Not sure yet how to handle the dry-brushing. Those two (unfinished) hombres are Bootleggers from Great Escape's line of gangs meant for use with The Chicago Way.

Arc de Lapidated

I call this one the Sisyphus Device because - as near as I can tell - it accomplishes nothing qua machinery. It's hard to tell in this picture but I dirtied up the pieces with Vallejo European Dust. I wonder if the big tank should be in a different color? I'm thinking of going over it with a streaky white coat before any further weathering.

modern art is really the worst

The main piece (or, more precisely, collection of pieces) has yet to be primed. The plan right now is construction tractor yellow and maybe the big tank will be green. Looking at it now, it seems like the fossilized skeleton of some bizarre six-legged beast reconstructed - perhaps incorrectly - for display to the public.

All three contraptions will be based to match my trailer park. Whatever they are, they have drawn the people to them. For some, they represent a link to the Long Ago. Others have come to puzzle out their original use. Still others will come - to claim them as spoils!

Post Apoc Trailer Park, Part 1

How many post-apocalyptic tabletop landscapes are defined by the ubiquitous Plasticville O scale trailer set? At least one more ...

Mine are based on shaped insulation foam glued to 1/8-inch hardboard. I started with 1/2-inch foam because it was the thinnest I could find and still spent considerable time trimming it down. I didn't want the trailers sitting up on hills so much as hoping the final product might stand out more with a little extra elevation.

a cultist from North Star takes aim from the safety of a cluttered workbench

The Plasticville trailers come with embarrassingly chintzy wheels and a retractable step under the door. I wanted a more settled-in look and so trimmed off the undercarriage bits along with the tongue jack and discarded the wheels and step. My trailers are supported by 1/2-inch foam and skirted with strips of corrugated Plastruct sheets. The trailer kit itself goes together in no time and mounting it up like this adds very little complication while providing a realistic effect.

don't want any mutant raccoons getting under there

One of the most fun - and also most expensive - aspects of this project is hunting down all the gubbins to junk up the scenery. I found mine from a variety of sources: from the usual suspects like Armorcast and TTCombat to model railroad vendors like Rusty Rail and Rusty Stump. I wanted these pieces to pull double duty and work for both "near" as well as "far" post-apoc gaming, everything from Project Z to Terminator to This Is Not A Test and Wreck-Age.

I scratch built the porches because I couldn't find any premade examples that appeared to be constructed by some daffy redneck. Fortunately, I had exactly the right skills to make them myself (i.e., none whatsoever).

I love it when a plan comes together

For the eagle-eyed readers: that sniper rifle next to the roof-surfing mattress comes from the Bolt Action US Infantry weapons sprue, which I reckon makes it a .30-06 ... BOOM HEADSHOT! I like terrain that inspires scenario rules ...

One of my favorite stages of a terrain project is priming. This is when all the disparate elements either pull together ... or don't. How do you think it turned out this time?

it's always tempting to leave 'em like that for some reason

And then on to the real work: my miniatures want to suffer and scrounge through the post apocalypse in Living Color™! The Plasticville trailers aren't exactly covered in detail so weathering really helps them pop. Someone once said, making terrain for miniatures war gaming is mostly a process of hiding your mistakes. Fortunately, you don't even have to worry about that when it comes to this genre.

what ails ye, wastelander?

Our first trailer is the (No Such Thing As) Free Clinic. The trailer is conveniently labeled for the ease of unlettered drifters and raiders. Seems like the Doc produces extensive amounts of byproduct - including a surfeit of off cuts, one would guess, given the orange biohazard bags piling up on top of the operatory. To be honest, I'm considering repainting those bags. I'd love to hear some feedback on them especially.

that teddy bear has seen some things, man

Doc's pride and joy is that gleaming white fridge out back. Organ and blood donations always welcome! All his medical files are carefully stored nearby. I don't know if that's a HIPAA-compliant solution but no one has complained yet. Well except the one ingrate who scrawled "BUTCHER!" on the side of the Clinic. Like they say, you can't please all of the patients all of the time. Caveat leper.

Stay tuned for more!