Wasteland Wondering 31-08-14

Welcome to another issue of Wasteland Wondering. I fear that I have been neglecting this blog for the last couple of weeks. So this is going to be a catch up and rather than posting loads of posts I am going to do it in one big hit! 

One thing I picked up was this rather good book....

I have Dampf's first book and I loved it. It is filled with great tutorials on building terrain and lots of ideas, tips and more. The second book is more of the same. There is lots of pictures and step by step guides. I of course am a huge Post Apoc and SF fan. There isn't much in these books for this type of terrain. However there is plenty to spark the imagination in this book. I am thinking of trying some of the builds but replacing the "traditional" materials with the types of materials folks might scavenge after the end of the world. 

Dampf's books are worth buying for anyone who builds terrain or just likes to look at eyecandy. The good news is that they are still available here.

I have been thinking about some bugs for my PA settings. You cant beat a swarm of giant rad roaches. So I invested in some of these critters...

"Bob! Look at these critters!!"

I found them on Amazon £1 for 10. So I got 30 for the suckers. 

"Arrghhh! Loads of them!.....Bob....are you wearing Doc Cosmic's pheromone spray again??"

"Bob!! RUN!!"

Here is a piece I made a few weeks back for my 15mm SF stuff.  It sat to one side and I forgot to record it for my blog. Doh! 

This started life a plastic seed pot. Anncoetti's resin doors, grills, windows and fans. Bits of card add details. Half an kinder egg pod makes up the dome. 

The comms dish is a plastic screw cover on a bit of plastic sprue. 

My After the End project has rumbled on. The mini collection has been raided and new gangs made up. Not to mention the joys of rebasing some figures. Expect a introduction to the gangs in the near future. 

I have got one figure painted...introducing Doc Cosmic.

Doc Cosmic is the Trader of Boxfort in the North Liverpool ruins... 

I got some new barricades made up.  

This model is made from old foam blocks. 

This one is scraps of polystyrene packaging made to look like the locals have piled up rubble form the ruins to make defenses. 

The wood pile

You need to keep warm on those cold wasteland nights. It will also make good cover around the settlement. This is made from scraps of balsa wood. 

Another Wreck:

Made from a old diecast toy I have hanging about for years. 

That's all for now for now...thanks for looking. 

The Wanderer and a wreck - goodies from Project Zeke Miniatures

Project Zeke Miniatures makes a limited range of miniatures and terrain suitable for Post Apocalyptic Wargaming which I hope they will add to in the future. There is also a small selection of back packs available to customise your figures.

For now my first Post Apoc Character in a while....

The Wanderer.

Wanderer wanders the wastelands and ruins of Post Apocalyptic Britain. He exchanges news and stories for a place to stay in various settlements.

The Wanderer is a figure from Project Zeke. I love the kitchen knife tied to the rifle as a makeshift bayonet.

As you can see from the pictures I also got a car wreck from Project Zeke.

15mm Freetrader Crew (GZG)

Every sci fi game needs a not Firefly Freetrader crew for shenanigans and getting into to trouble with the law. I have the very nice Heresy Miniatures figures for 28mm. Naturally I wanted a Free Trader Crew for my 15mm stuff. Ground Zero Games makes a nice Not Firefly Crew & passengers in 15mm. I added a robot from 15mm.co.uk as I feel that every ship needs a robot even if its just to kick or for target practice. 

The Crew: 

L-R: A pilot, 2IC, robot, Engineer (Back), Captain, Dogsbody and Mercenary Muscle. 

The Passengers:

 L-R: Cooky Girl who helps on missions (possible PSIer), The Doctor (Cooky Girl's Brother), A Hostess and a Preacher man. 

This is two sets and there is two of the Captain, 2IC and Muscle figures in various poses. I have added the guys to my 24th Browncoats Mercenaries. 

15mm Mercenary Herman Heavy Tank.

I have been working on a Mercenary Heavy Grav Tank for my 15mm stuff. The Herman Heavy Grav Tank an older (outdated) tank which houses a early plasma cannon. Older kit such as this often find itself in service in the outer rim colonies. 

A good old fashioned machine gun is fitted to the turret and another in the front hull for anti personnel use. 

This tank started life as a 1/72 Sherman Firelfy Tank kit sent to me by my mate Jay over on Twitter (@souljacker1974). As soon as I seen it I knew what I wanted to do, build a 15mm grav tank from it. 

The tracks and wheels where dumped and a new bottom was made from plastic card. The grav units are made from old disposable razor handles. The extra armor plates are plastic rhinestones. The plasma cannon is made from beads which I glued onto the trimmed gun from the kit. The bits box yielded a old rocket launcher from a ancient GW Dark Future Car. I still have my Dark Future set. One day I will give that game a spin again. 

The razor handles are hollow and they needed something to tidy them up. Larger Rhinestones did the job nicely. I have just spotted some filling that needs tiding. Grrrrr

I used a couple of clear bases under the grav units to give the tank a bit of a lift. 

In all this was a fun build and I learnt a lot. I will be making more in the future. 

Wasteland Wondering - 3 Aug 14

Pic from Across the Dead Earth game.

Welcome to once again to another Wasteland Wondering. There has been only a little hobby stuff happening here. Its been a busy week at home. A couple of family birthdays and a  family loss. I have only managed to part finish a 15mm building. Hopefully there will be some pictures here next week. I want to get some 15mm figures painted and then I will give it a break for a while. My paint brushes are dying to get some 28mm post apoc action. I have done a little more on my new post apoc setting.

Alice my 17 year old cat has had deteriorating health for some time. We had to make the difficult choice and have her put to sleep. She was a little deva and we have many happy memories of our life with her. Its strange to only have three cats now.

On to the post apoc thoughts. There seems to be a category  of faction missing from a lot of rule sets - The Wanderer. It seems that lots of post apoc movies and novels have wanderers. Mad Max, Steel Dawn, Deathlands but to name a few. They are a good way for the writers to explore the post apoc world. I am thinking of making some wanderers of my own. It would be a great campaign with them getting into all manner of trouble. 

Project Zeke Miniatures has joined the Post Apoc Wargames forum. Project Zeke has some nice figures and terrain. They are limited at the moment but I hope to see their ranges grow with time (and if you are reading this please make some survivors with SA80 assault rifles). 

I have been working on my new setting. So far I have two enclaves in Liverpool. One located around park lands. The other operating from a cargo ship washed inland by the Tsunami.

My old Babylon's Burning setting had the two sports stadium's in the city survive. A stadium is a great start up point for a faction. A big field to grow crops (not to mention the stand roofs), places to run operations and stands for pitching camps. I randomly generated a couple of factions. In the Reds stadium there was a Kop Shop Enclave based on the police force with a play on words for the Kop end of the stadium. In the Blues stadium was the Children Of Goodness Cult with ideas based on the Everton club. They fought over the park land that lies between. 

They have survived again. This time I am thinking about running gangs out of each of the stadiums. Each will be based on the teams mythos & colors. 

I think that Sports clubs  is a great resource to exploit to make gangs. They are often colorful, have their own colors, badges and legends. Rugby league clubs have good names too. 

For the other parts of the Post Apoc UK  I hope to bring the Skrap Knights out of retirement. Some of the more Sci Fi figures may have to be dropped. They will hold a few places in what was Cornwall acting like Dark Age Knights. New Albion has issues with the Skrap Knights.

Thats all for now folks...Thank you for reading.