Wasteland Wondering -

Hello and Welcome back  to the chatty part of my blog. Firstly let me wish you a happy Easter, what is left of it. 

In this Wasteland Wondering I will be showing some 20mm car WIPs, chatting about stuff in general and some future project ideas. 

It has been a rough few weeks here. My Lady and I have been poorly with the lurgy that is rampaging around this part of the world. Irritatingly it has stopped me getting my motorbike ready for the riding season. It is mainly servicing work but it needs doing. We even missed the Wirral Egg run a couple of weeks back. 

Of course the time off has allowed me to do a little hobby stuff. Here is a couple of cars I am currently working on. 

This police cruiser is getting reworked to become the ride for the Sherriff of Wellsprings. It is very much a WIP. The ram plow is from Ramshackle games. 

There is also this Trans-Am. I have stripped the paint. It took ages and I don't think I will bother again with stripping the paint off cars in future. 

I was thinking about making this car into a salute to the Bandit from the Smokey and the Bandit movies. 

But this car may also make a good gang pursuit car. 

The tombstone rear plate is a resin part from Ramshackle games. 

My hobby plans is to one day go to smaller scales for everything. 15mm for SF and 20mm for Post Apoc. My main reason is storage. My 28mm figure collection must number into over a thousand with over a hundred vehicles. If anyone has seen my game reports then they will know that I am a terrainaholic. I love my tables to be crammed with terrain. My small box room where it is all stored is choc a bloc with stuff and down scaling would help solve those problems. 

The other issue is setting up games. Smaller tables makes life easier. I bring the stuff down stairs to game. A 3 x 4 foot table will take about seven trips up and down the stairs to set up a game. 15mm takes 4 trips with the same sized table. A 6 x 4 table in 28mm can take over 10 trips. After the game I have to then re-transport them back up the stairs. 

Then there is the time savings of painting the smaller scales. 15mm also allows more junk building than 28mm. 

As a result I will be starting to sell off parts of  my collection soon in the hope to make space. I will start with the stuff I don't need. Then the Sci-Fi. The 28mm post apoc will be kept for now. There is a few figures and terrain I wont be able to part with. My Heresy Not Firefly Crew, Rogue Trader era Orks and some of the odd ball figures in my collection. But then if I can shrink them down into a couple of boxes I can live with that. 

Terrain will be checked to see if it can be converted to 15 or 20mm easily. Some bits will be kept and others sold on.

Now lets look at Utopia city. I had an idea to use my SF troops in the city as house troops. Stealing an idea from Necromudia I thought about introducing Nobel Houses into each city sector. This will allow me to use other figures in the setting. Then I realised that I plan on selling my 28mm SF off. 

As I am going to go to 15mm for SF my warped mind thought it could do this in 15mm in the Wild Galaxy setting. A friend (thanks Dicehead) has donated the 15mm not Judges by 15mm.co.uk to my lead pile. 

Instead of a mega city how about a metropolis world with the Mega City one sprawl covering at least two continents. One continent could be a space port which the world relies upon for vital food supplies. The other continents could be wastelands that have been over worked for vital supplies. 

Like MC1 and Utopia it would be split into sectors and sub divided into blocks. Not all blocks would have massive buildings on them. Some would have three or four stories buildings on them. There would slums and some industrial sectors too. This city could also have a undercity/hive bottom/sump like Mega city 1, Utopia, Necromunda or Futurama.  Each sector would have a noble house who could make trouble for the gangs and Magistrates/Enforcers. The Space port would make a place for gang/house raids or visits to the world by adventurers or smugglers. I have a not Firefly crew in 15mm that would be good for these offworlder visits. 

That is what I am  thinking about at present. I hope this Wasteland Wondering has been of some interest. 

Thanks for reading and Happy Easter. 

Blood & Fire - The Scorchers Gang

Welcome back to my humble blog. Yet another Blood & Fire post.

Introducing The Scorchers gang.....

The Scorchers gang got their name from their preferred vehicular weapons - the flame thrower. The gang maraud in the wastelands around the borders of Civilization and have been known to range as far as the territories held by the Warlord Blackskull. 

These cars came as a HW pack of themed cars, in this case Scorchers. Both cars had been converted years ago and received a recent update. Both cars got flamethowers made from bead tubes and the small thrusters off a 1/72 space station kit. The Rod has a putty made enclosure for the flame thrower. The other car got a bumper off a scrapped car and window armour made from putty. 

The Rod's tank is made from a fuse and the fuel pipes wires. The eagle eyed amoungst you will notice that the car has a flamer nozzle on the sides. It wont do to get too close unless to fancy burning in your car. 

The other car's flame thrower assembly is an 28mm GW Space Marine shoulder pad. The car got crash bars around the wheels and reinforcing straps on the body. 

All the metal straps on these cars are made from putty. The luggage is from 1/35 WW2 figure webbing/belt pouches. 

The Scorchers are at a starting point and will need more vehicles added. I have no idea what 20mm figures to use for a gang of auto pyromanics. I am open to suggestions. 

The next gang I am re-working is Autoskum. Keep watching. 

Thanks for looking and see you on the roads! 

Blood & Fire - Daisy Nuke

Hi and Welcome back. 

Introducing Daisy Nuke.....

Out in the Wastelands of my Blood & Fire setting lies the fortified township of Wellsprings. Wellsprings relies on locals and hired guns/drivers to defend it from the marauding wasteland gangs. Daisy Nuke is one of these hired Road Mercs. 

Daisy drifted in one day to earn parts, food or water at the Wellsprings races. After some success she was hired by the Mayor to help defend the township. Since then Daisy has become a bit of a celebrity at Wellsprings. 

Daisy likes to ram target vehicles. Whilst the cars are locked with the spikes she likes to hit the target with the flame thrower.

The Daisy Nuke car is a old Hotwheels Gremlin racer. It was built during my last Axles and Alloys binge a few years back. The car had a machine gun removed, the paint touched up and some extra dirt. 

Daisy Nuke has a heavy rear bumper (I hope she doesn't mind me saying this) which helps protect the car during rear rams or in her other trade mark moves of the reverse ram/slam on ram.

The Gremlin car is a great car to use for Post Apoc as it large bumpers and looks like something from Fury Road or Road Warrior in its stock form. I got this car second hand in a job lot of HW cars. The aerofoil was bent and adds to that Post Apoc look I think. 

All I need to find now is a suitable figure for Daisy Nuke in 20mm scale. 

Thanks for looking. 

Proff X's Ambulance update.

Welcome back. 

Regular readers will remember that I built a research ambulance for Civilization's Professor X. The flame thrower nozzle on the turret kept snapping off. In a attempt to repair it I tried drilling the plastic bead resulting in the bead snapping. DOH! 

I had just received some  conversion bits from Ramshackle games so it seemed a good idea to fit a new flame thrower turret to the Ambulance. 

The conversions sets do have a lot of handy bits for your post apoc rides. I think Dr X is happy with his new flamer. 

Thanks for looking. 

Road Warrior Car - Finished

Hello and welcome back. There will be a bit of post bombardment as I catch up with the odds and ends I have been doing in the last week or two.

As you may recall from previous posts, over on the Post Apoc Wargames forum the Warlord's 2016 challenge is to build a post apoc vehicle. Take a look and join in! Look here.

For the Challenge I have been working on making a Road Warrior Car for my Blood and Fire setting. To be exact a rebuilt Fury Road variant of the Interceptor. In the fill in the gaps graphic novel Max rebuilds a Interceptor from bits he scavenges or wins in contests.
Since the last report work has been slowly moving forward in the painting. I am glad to say that the car is finished.  

The not Max figure is The Stranger from the Warlands range by Aberrant Games . 

The tank and blower are items from Warlands. The resin stowage and jerry cans are made by Fields Of Glory and are intended for 1:72 WW2 Allied vehicles. 

The exhausts are made from 1mm brass wire bent to fit. 

 I am not too happy with the scratch made front panel. However this is the rebuilt wasteland (Fury Road) version of the Interceptor so I wont lose sleep over it. 

This was a fun and interesting build for me and I have learnt a few new techniques for future post apoc car builds. 

Thanks for looking and stay safe out there. 

Wasteland Wondering

Hello and Welcome back to my blog. 

Wasteland Wondering is where I ramble on about life, ideas and inspirations. 

In this Wasteland Wondering I will be discussing a few ideas and catch up with my hobby status. 

Hobby wise I have been working on more cars for my Blood and Fire setting. The Scorchers gang is the focus at the minute. 

I am also working on 20mm Warboys converted from Italeri Frontier Indians. They hit a full stop when I realised I didn't have wire to make the boom sticks. Drilling the plastic hands proved to be difficult. My green stuff putty seems to have gone off. It will not stick to the figures when I was trying to sculpt goggles and scarves on the figures. Hopefully I will have a gang to show soon. 

For the last two decades, one of my favorite ideas for a Post Apoc town is in an Industrial site. Think about it. Many are the size of towns or cities. They lie beyond the boundaries of the destroyed towns and cities. Survivors will flee the mountains of dead and an industrial site would provide vital shelter. Industrial sites also have facilities to allow survivors to rebuild and survive. Of course it depends on the site as to the extent of the facilities.  It seems that some authors think along a similar vein with such sites becoming townships. New City in the Toxic World novels is based in a warehouse facility on docklands. 

Regular readers of Wasteland Wondering will remember me discussing a faction/township based in a Airport a few months back. Whilst waiting for various bits of tech to wake up at work I started to redefine the idea in my head. Instead of one central controlling faction the Airport could be home to several rival gangs. For them the site is the world. Beyond the Airport is a world of scavenging. Each gang would have its turf and the gangs wage war for control of the scrap piles and wrecks. There would be a neutral ground where trade can commence and news exchanged. 

During the day and my lunch time walk I dreamt up seven factions. Each gang will be equipped with mainly home made close combat weapons. There may be the odd home made crossbow, shot gun or revolver in the gangs. There will be no automatic weapons. One gang will be lucky enough to have a couple of rifles. Another gang will control the airport's fuel stores. They will be argumented by home made flame throwers and incendiary bombs. Ammo would be limited and recorded in the games. This idea would make a great wargame campaign setting with gangs trying to rule the roost. 


I was recently reading a novel called Hood (a good read by the way) which featured a Post Apoc setting in the USA. One idea in the novel is a UN aid camp trying to help the refugees. A couple of years later the force is still there doing it's job. A UN force is not an idea I have ever considered in a post apoc setting. Would they stay on mission hoping for relief? Would they try to get home, join a local warlord, set up a township or work as mercenaries? It is an interesting concept and I think those blue helmets would look  great on the wargames table. 

That is all for now. Thanks for looking and take care out there. 

Stranger and his dog.

Welcome back to my humble blog. 

Every Wasteland needs a wandering anti hero doing good possibly for his own gain. If like my Blood and Fire setting vehicular insanity is part of the fun then your Anti Hero needs to be some sort of Not Mad Max. 

In this case it is The Stranger and his dog for Warlands by Aberrant games. 

The Stranger is up for hire in a Wasteland near you....I look forward to getting him into trouble in a few games soon. 

The car is a die-cast by M2 - nice 1/64 cars that size up well with Hotwheels. M2 cars are more detailed and have rubber tyres on the wheels. This car came with several spare wheels which have gone into the spares bin. The cars can be split easily as they are held together with screws. The downside is M2 cars cost a lot more than Hotwheels or Matchbox. 

The stripped car. I look forward to getting this car converted. 

Thanks for looking. See ya on the roads!