Post Apocalypse Terrain WIP

Ah the wonders of Poundland! Here's some Work in Progress and Work not-yet-started shots of some terrain acquisitions for Aftermath: Post Apocalyptic Skirmishing.

 This first one here is a die-cast car that's nearly finished. The whole car was first sprayed with Matte Varnish (including the windows, to help acquire that grimy look abandoned car windows have). It was then heavily dry brushed with a dusty brown paint (Vallejo English Uniform). Scratch marks are black highlighted with chainmail. The car was then given a wash of black ink. The spray-on-varnish used earlier helped the ink adhere to the surface of the windows, darkening them further.

I then added some more scratch marks and dents (to represent more recent damage) and screwed the tip of a sharp knife into the windows to make bullet holes. If I'd wanted older bullet holes, I'd have done this before the ink wash. I'll also be adding rust later. In order to capture the feeling that this car has been abandoned for a while, I'll be creating a base for it in the form of a sand drift. The car won't be fixed in place however. I want to be able to use it for modern-period gaming as well as Post-Apocalypse.

 Next up, we have my favourite and least favourite acquisitions side by side. The bus is exactly 28mm scale. The large JCB, obviously, isn't. Both of these vehicles will need full re-paints (unlike the die-casts) after the decals are removed. Like the car above, they'll have removable bases so they can be used as both stationary terrain pieces and working vehicles.

This die-cast civilian car has had it's matte-spray but otherwise hasn't been touched. I made a stupid error on the police car in my over-eagerness: I removed the windows before spraying. Unlike the other vehicles seen here, the Police 4x4 will be an actual dedicated gaming piece rather than doing double duty as terrain. It's an ideal road-warrior car. I'm going to pintle-mount an M60 on the hood (bonnet if you're British like me) for a gunner and close up the empty window spaces with wire mesh before painting.

Lastly, two trucks. The look pretty good here side by side but when placed near the bus it becomes fairly clear that they are closer to 25mm than 28mm in scale. Still, they'll do the job well enough as scenery pieces. Unlike the other toys featured here, I doubt I'll ever be able to use these as functional vehicles because of the scale imbalance.

For more PA-ish miniatures, take a look at my Lead Legion blog. I've just put up a painted test-batch of 28mm zombies.