My Post-Apoc Figures and Terrain (Planet of the Apes added 3/27/24)

[mikedemana]

One of my major projects in 2022 was to paint up forces for a series of Post-Apocalyptic games at our Sunday evening gaming sessions. When I recently finished the latest gang, I was quite surprised to find out that I had not already started a thread here on LAF to showcase my figures for this project. So, let's redress that wrong right away!

Most of my miniatures are from Sgt. Major Miniatures, which unfortunately folded. Thankfully, though, many of the lines were purchased and are carried by Battle Valor Games. The remainder of the forces, I believe, are from Foundry. Most of my Foundry figs were purchased secondhand by a local guy who bought out several stores' inventory and brings them to area conventions. There may be other figures here in there in my collection, but most are from these two sources.

So, here are the forces, roughly from oldest painted to newest.


The Blood Brotherhood, the first of my gangs before I even knew I was painting up figures for this project!

The Blood Brotherhood

These were purchased years ago from the Sgt. Major Miniatures booth at a convention. These are called "Wasteland Cultists" in the current Battle Valor Games catalog. With their hoods and all, I wanted to be careful how I painted them. I certainly didn't want a reference to a certain White Supremacist group with the initials "K" in their name! So, I settled on the deep red color. I painted them a base Red Brown with Red highlights.


Closeup of three of the Blood Brotherhood

I liked their weaponry, with some of them being armed with a very blunderbuss (or shotgun) looking weapon. The others are armed with sub-machine guns. These figures would definitely fit in a Pulp campaign, and to be honest, I am sure that is what I was planning when I first painted these guys up.


Although all the figures share a certain look, they definitely have variety in their clothes

You'll note a variety in headgear. The tall conical hoods have a badge of some sort above the forehead, which I painted in a deep red color, of course. Others have a hood and face mask or even gas mask. I thought the gas mask especially added to the post-apocalyptic feel of the miniatures.


The Blood Brotherhood are a secretive group who seek to further their mysterious aims in the blasted post-apocalyptic world



Another force originally purchased from Sgt. Major Miniatures - F Troop!

F Troop

These are another very Pulpy post-apocalyptic gang. Something about having guys in gas masks fits for the period. They are called "Chem Soldiers" in the Battle Valor Games catalog. I thought they had a very World War I vibe to them. My rationale for this group was they were a National Guard unit mobilized to fight in the "last war." After the apocalypse, the survivors of the unit decided to fight their way home and rescue their families.


In the post-apocalyptic world, F Troop's uniforms have lost their standardization and display the soldiers' bitter humor

Once back home, the unit has stayed together for protection. Their "F Troop" name comes from their unit designation. I had fun personalizing their equipment. I figured as discipline breaks down, the soldiers would add graffiti or bitter humor to their helmets and long jackets. I was inspired, of course, by what U.S. soldiers sometimes did in Vietnam. Thus, "Peace" helmets, and slogans like, "Death is a Sweet Relief."



Part of the reason for this modification of the uniforms was to make it each figure a little more distinct on the tabletop, too. Thus, it achieves two aims - giving them more character and at the same time helping their controller in the game to be able to figure out who is who! Otherwise, I kept with an olive drab color scheme, augmented by blue jeans or other bits of apparel as the uniform items wore out. Or at least that's the thought!



F Troop was a lot of fun to paint up, but are another group that was done quite some time ago. My photos of them have a 2018 date on them, so as you can see this project has been in incubation for a long time! Both F Troop and the Blood Brotherhood were as far as the project went for four years or so, and languished, seldom-used in my figure boxes until this past year when I decided to augment my forces and get the project onto the tabletop.



My third post-apoc gang -- the Followers of the Dark Prophet

The Followers of the Dark Prophet

Fast forward to late 2021 when I decided that I was going to actually get around to painting up and playing post-apoc games. This batch of figures comes from the old Sgt. Major line, too, but was purchased in a big order from Battle Valor Games. In their catalog, they are labeled as Space Terrorists. Obviously, these guys could be used in Sci-Fi games, but I thought they had a more post-apoc feel to them than standard Sci-Fi.


Although this gang wears uniform headgear, their face coverings are all individualized

I dubbed this force the Followers of the Dark Prophet to keep with the somewhat Muslim or Middle Eastern look to their clothing. I had painted their shirts and headdresses black, so it all seemed to fit. Black is always a tricky base color, but I was pretty happy with how the understated gray highlights I used turned out. I gave them a dark red belt or sash as an accent, but used a variety of colors for their pants, pouches, bags, and such. I like how this gives them a common theme, but irregular appearance. For a splash of color and individuality, each got their own unique face wrap. My favorites turned out to be the red and white and black and white checkered wraps.


I kept a basic style for the uniform, but used a variety of colors for face wraps and equipment

Their boots were done in a range of browns and grays, all heavily dry brushed to give them a well-worn appearance. I used khakis and olive drabs for most of their ammo pouches, haversacks, and other equipment, though I did throw in a few other colors here and there to keep with the slightly irregular look. The weapons were done with a steel color, highlighted with a brighter pewter. With a black wash to tone them down a bit, I think they weapons turned out nicely, too.



My post-apocalyptic setting is inspired by the Terminator movies. I posit that the various programs meant to run each nation's Artificial Intelligence, drones, and machines morphed into a central intelligence that became aware. I know, obvious rip-off of Skynet from the movies. However, the machines began their war on humanity and nuclear weapons (and their ElectroMagneticPulse) were found to be the most effective way of defeating machines. This has, of course, devastated the planet. In my games, humanity is disunited and has broken into warring gangs squabbling over local control of resources. Food, fuel, weapons are their goals, as well as promoting their bizarre ideas of how humanity should begin anew, in the case of the Blood Brotherhood.



The Bass Reeves are the first of my forces to come from the Foundry Street Violence range

The Bass Reeves

These are figures from Foundry's Street Violence range. Most of them wear long "duster" style jackets, which remind me of what you see gunslingers wearing in stylized Hollywood Westerns. A couple of them had dreadlocks, which led me to paint them as a black force. That also inspired the force's name -- the Bass Reeves. Reeves was a famous African-American cowboy and was the first black U.S. Marshal in the West. I seem to have settled on painting seven figures up per group, which I hope will be enough to provide some variety of figure choices for players controlling the force. I am using Fistful of Lead Core Rules (along with some elements of Wiley Games' Wasteland Warriors supplement).


The boss, Bass Reeves, in the sailor cap to the right, was my favorite figure from this batch

The first batch of two figures pictured above feature my favorite miniature in this group. I really like how the captain's hat and striped shirt lends him character. Stripes are never my strong point, but I couldn't imagine any color for a shirt other than the classic, stereotypical red and white striped sailor shirt. I decided to give all the poses jeans for pants in this gang. I postulate jeans would be standard apparel after the apocalypse for their rugged nature and common availability from looted stores or warehouses. For the duster jackets, I decided to use Howard Hues "Bay" horse paints color. It has a nice leather look to it, but was light enough to look like faded material. I dry brushed them khaki and washed them brown to give the jackets depth of color.


My second-favorite mini in this batch is the one wearing the Jamaican-style hair bag

My second favorite miniature in this batch is the Rastafarian-looking guy who carries a boom box over his shoulder. Doubtless, it is playing Bob Marley or Peter Tosh for as long as the batteries hold out! I actually Googled "dreadlocks hair bag" for inspiration on what color to paint it. Lo and behold, a Jamaica-looking one popped up in my search and I had to adapt it for this figure. It meant more stripes, though! The miniature is a great casting and has a lot going on. He wears headphones, has rolled up sleeves, a vest, and of course, the boombox. Normally, I might look askance at such whimsy in my figures, but this guy was too good to pass up. Like the captain, he also has a great face.

I debated whether I was going with too garish and bright of a color for the other dreadlocks-wearing figure to the left. I always picture Rastas in bright, garish colors, though, so I went with this bright green. I think it adds a nice splash of color to an otherwise dull-colored group. I honestly don't know what the piece of equipment is slung over his shoulder, though. I painted it in a brushed steel color, so it can be another boom box or whatever the controlling player decides! The third figure in the group has a gray suit jacket or vest on underneath his duster. He carries a high power sniper weapons of some sort. I like the variety of firearms these figures have. Not everyone carries an assault rifle or shotgun -- there is definitely an irregular aspect to their weaponry. This fits for a post-Apocalyptic force, of course.


Painting the goggles on these two figures was a bit of challenge...not sure I pulled it off!

The last two figures above have very dramatic poses, I think. They have a lot of character in their hair and faces, made even more interesting by the goggles either perched on their heads or around their neck. I wasn't 100% sure how to paint the googles, but decided on a light gray with sky blue lenses. I'm not fully sold on how they look. If I were to go back and redo them, I would have done a black line around the sky blue lens, at least. Otherwise, these two have very interesting shirts. The one on the left is loaded up with ammo pouches so much his shirt is invisible. The one on the right has a very unusual texture to it. So, I painted it a light, gray green and did a medium green wash over it to bring out the texture in the folds. I like the patch on the shoulder of his duster, so did that in bright reds and blues, wanting it to stand out. The skin for all seven figures was done with a dark brown base coat and dry brush of Howard Hues Camo Brown. The hair was painted back with medium brown hightlights. However, the final black wash I did over the figures seems to have hidden the brown highlights, unfortunately.

This post covers the first four forces I painted for my project. In the next post, I'll add in the remaining three. Next, I will give you a peak at the Bots -- the machines -- and explain the mechanism I am using to keep the danger of the machines' continuing war on humanity present in my games!

[Bullshott]

Nice looking project (and good choice of rules).

I like the look you're goin go for with F Troop. It we ould be nice to see a pic of the whole unit.

[mikedemana]

I might as well keep this thread updated. I finished these just in time for our last game. I ended up playing them as my post-apoc gang, so they got to see combat almost immediately.


The Green Dragons - an Asian post-apoc gang using Battle Valor Miniatures in chem suits


At first I thought the figs were sculpted with hoodies, but the outfits appeared to be chemical suits upon closer examination


I like the shade of green I was able to get with these - something that looks like a chemical suit, but wasn't too bright


I used a micron pen to do the word "Dragons" in Chinese characters

Was this the final team or gang for my post-apoc collection? Maybe, but everytime I have said that, I have added another one!    I will continue to add the creatures, bots, and other things my players will encounter to this thread, though...

If you want the full story of how I painted these guys, feel free to check out my Lead Legionaries blog:
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2023/02/green-dragons-new-post-apoc-force.html

Thanks for looking!

Mike Demana

[Dan55]

They look very good.  I'm sure they will give you some great games.

[Redmao]

Great cast of characters!

[Stryder]

Nice work on the gangs. Looks to be an exciting game full of action!

[mikedemana]

Oops! Skipped over one of my post-apoc gangs. Allow me to present the standard bad guys of any Mad Max or post-apoc movie. I call them the Barbarozas. The figures are from the "Space Cannibals" packs being produced by Battle Valor Games (and former Sgt. Major Miniatures figures). My friend Andy is playing them in our games, I guess attracted to the "Bad A$$" aspect of them!


The entire gang ready to kick some butt and do all the standard "bad guy" things form the movies...


They definitely have the biker gang vibe to them. I gave them all rock n' roll star style names, too...ha, ha!


I like the little bits of armor they have strapped on to their bodies. These bad boys also carry more hand-to-hand weapons than most of my gangs.


I think the metal band hair styles are what encouraged me to give them names inspired by band members of rock groups!

This post might be a good segue to move on to the creatures and various antagonists that the players will face (well, besides each other!). So, look for Bots, giant rats, and other terrors wandering the wastes of my world...

Mike Demana

[Orctrader]

Nice work.   

[mikedemana]

Thanks! Praise from you is high praise indeed, Orctrader!

So, I was scrolling through my thread and feeling I had not only left out the Barbarozas, but also left out others. Here's actually one of my favorites. Most of these are (I believe) from the Foundry Street Violence range. One or two may be one that I picked up at a flea market or something. Since my post-apoc campaign is set here in my home state of Ohio, behold the Bucknuts!



This group is meant to represent an ordinary group of armed citizens in the aftermath - not a religious order, military unit, or whatever

I decided to go with an irregular look, but still wanted a unifying theme to them. So, I chose two themes! The first was that all of them are wearing camouflage pants or shirts of some sort. I painted the gamut from urban gray camo to woodland green to modern desert sand. I also threw in some olive drab, too, to give them a look like they ransacked an Army surplus store.


The figure on the left is my favorite from the group -- "Coop," the group's leader

The other theme, as the name of this gang suggests, was an Ohio State University "Buckeyes" one. I gave a few of the miniatures OSU Buckeye caps -- including the black "Woody Hayes" one. A couple also have the bright scarlet shirts on, which of course does wonders to supplement their camouflage! Their tendency to dress in OSU garb has led to their name of the "Bucknuts." I mean, you would have to be nuts to be sporting bright red apparel when staying hidden is a good key to survival in the post-Apocalyptic world!


I love how the beer-gutted figure came out with his black coach Woody Hayes hat!

I picked and chose from the figures I had to make sure these looked irregular -- from the black track suit one sports to the woman wearing police body armor. The ammo pouches and such were painted in a variety of suitable colors, from faded olive drab to tan to dark gray. The metal gun parts are painted with craft paints -- a Gun Metal base color and highlight of Pewter. A medium gray wood color on the gun stocks was also highlighted with a brighter color. All in all, I think this gang turned out good with its mix of military and civilian apparel.


I was happy with how the camo patterns came out

So, am I all caught up now? Ahem, no...next up will be the Night Stalkers! 

Mike Demana

[Dan55]

Well thought out groups.

[Bullshott]

Nice work on all the gangs. I'm looking forward to seeing what bots, varmints and critters you come up with

[James Mahdeep Bond V]

Checkerboarding is truly a skill.

[mikedemana]

Thanks for the nice comments, everyone! Here are the Night Stalkers.


The Night Stalkers assembled

It took me awhile to come up with a name for this gang, but I think "Night Stalkers" sounds really cool. It seems to work for these high-tech, uniformed fighters. They all wear helmets with what appear to be night vision goggles attached to them. There are small bits of armor, as well, including a suggestion of kevlar or something underneath the outer uniform. So, I picture these guys as being a fairly well-organized group. The members are probably former military or law enforcement banding together to carve out a niche of territory to protect their families and friends.


The Night Stalkers are painted in matching uniforms and equipment, so they must be fairly well supplied

The figures come from Battle Valor Games, and are part of the former Sgt. Major Miniatures line that I like so much. The poses may be slightly different, but they definitely have a uniform appearance. In a skirmish game where each figure may have different traits, this means that I'm likely going to have to write their names on the edges of their bases for players to keep them straight. I have been threatening to do that for awhile, and likely will go whole hog into it soon. I've seen other gamers' photos where they do that and I don't think it detracts from the look of the game.


It took awhile (and several layers) before I came up with a tone that I was happy with for the helmets

Their base uniform was done in craft paint "Khaki," and I maintained that brownish theme throughout with tan backpacks, dark brown gloves, and ivory packs and pouches. I struggled most with the metallic bits -- the helmet and knee pads. I purchased a "brown metallic" craft paint, but still thought it was too bright of a gold tone. I did two black washes over it before I pronounced myself happy. The end result in person looks very San Francisco 49ers dark gold, in case it is hard to tell in the photos. For the firearms, I used Iron Wind Metals Steel with highlights of silver or gun metal craft paint.


The color scheme was not intended to be a camouflage, but I like how it "blends in" on the table

Some of the accents were done in brighter colors to stand out more on the miniature. The "eyes" of the goggles were done in red with a tiny dot of pink in the middle. The main part of the goggles and attachments to the helmet were in Iron Wind Steel, again. Finally, the miniatures had patches on each shoulder. I did the right patch in orange with a white vertical stripe. The left was done as a nod to the Ukrainians fighting off the Russian invasion in the news, today. It was done in the yellow blue of their flag. I'm not saying these guys are Ukrainians in my post-Apocalyptic games, just that I was inspired by the actual defenders' bravery and wanted to commemorate it here. 

So, now that I REALLY am done with posting photos of my gangs here, next up will be the Bots, rats, and so on. I promise...! 

Mike Demana

[mikedemana]

3-D printed Bots (sourced from Thingiverse and a friend) stalking the streets for human survivors

When I decided to do post-apocalyptic gaming, I settled on a world inspired by the Terminator movies. To be honest, I wasn't 100% sure I'd persevere with the project. Nor was I positive that I or my players would actually enjoy the games. So, I defaulted to my usual mode of "Let's Source the Miniatures on the Cheap!" I'm sure most would agree there's nothing inherently wrong with being thrifty. Those who are painters first, players second, might choose to go with the cooler and more expensive miniatures. Myself, if I can get acceptable miniatures for my games on the cheap, I will!


The first level of response from the Machines -- rolling Scout Bots, lightly armed and armored

So, I began by visiting Thingiverse and seeing what they had available. I picked out some 3-D models I liked and sent the links off to my friend Joe, who has a printer. He agreed to print them up for me for at an affordable cost. Joe's printer isn't the newest, fanciest, or the highest quality. So, you get what you pay for, which in his case, is VERY affordable. He asked me for some guidelines on size and then went ahead and printed them off. Thanks, Joe!


If the Scout Bots confirm human activity, these retro-looking Sentry Bots are dispatched to the scene

My idea is that the Machines artificial intelligence has both visual and audio surveillance going on all the time. Sounds of gunfire or what looks like muzzle flashes on video will lead them to dispatch a Scout Bot. These one-wheeled automatons are lightly armored and armed. Their optics on the scene are instantaneously relayed back to the Machines AI, though, who then will usually order forward the next level of response if necessary. I painted the bodies of the Bots in metallic colors, also giving them a company logo. My rationale is the Scout Bots were designed by human companies before the machines went sentient and took over control of them. In "pre-apocalypse" times, they were meant to be deployed in dangerous sections of human cities, rolling along the asphalt roads on their solid rubber tires.


The Sentry Bots have been fitted by the Machines AI with light machine guns and prowl the cities

The next level of response sent in by the machines are the Sentry Bots. These vaguely humanoid -- and very retro looking -- mechanical sentries are better armed and armored. I saw these prints on Thingiverse and loved them! I painted them in gleaming metallics, hoping to evoke the essence of the shining, metal-skinned Terminators in the movies. Each carries a light machine gun, and I envision them as being modular sentry robots built by human companies pre-apocalypse to be equipped in various ways. The Machines AI has converted them all to the heaviest armament available on their frame. They are meant to scour the streets, or patrol the perimeters of Machine bases. Sometimes, the mere presence of these gleaming bots arriving on the scene will cause human survivors to scatter. Besides, no one wants to be around if the next level of response is triggered!


The Military Bots are next to appear on a scene, and have machine guns in each mechanical arm

That third level is the Military Bot. Vaguely "BattleTech looking," these machines are capable of wiping out multiple figures at one time with their burst fire machine guns housed inside their arms. In our first three games, they've appeared only once. Usually, the player gangs have high-tailed it off the table by that time. I envision these as being designed for the military pre-apocalypse. Little modifications were needed by the Machines, as they were already meant to be ambulatory hunter-killers to assist the firepower of conventional forces.


Woe betide the character caught still on the tabletop when a Destroyer Bot stomps onto the table!

And finally, the highest level of response is the Destroyer Bot. This is definitely in the "big stompy robot" category of weapons. For my games, these are designed to be able to target and destroy any stubborn characters who are unwilling to sensibly flee the table when the Machines bots begin arriving. So far, I have painted only one of these, as I can't envision a need for more than one in my skirmish, post-apoc games. I imagine that one day one of these will actually show up on the battlefield. However, it has yet to happen. It was probably the cleanest of the 3-D prints and I really like how it painted up. That metallic dark red is a really cool color of craft paint from Hobby Lobby. I wish I'd picked it up earlier when I first began painting up these bots!


I really like the dark metallic red and pewter/gun metal color scheme on this big stompy robot!

One thing I haven't mentioned in this post is I actually give control of each Bot that appears to a player. It is typically given to the player who has lost the most figures, so far, in the scenario. I trigger the arrival of the Bots based on the losses the players have collectively suffered, so far. At 10%, a Scout Bot appears. At 20%, a Sentry Bot. At 30%, one Military Bot shows up. If we ever get to 40% losses suffered in a game, then a Destroyer Bot will lumber onto the table. Players begin the game controlling four of their own figures from their gang. So, if there are 6 players (24 total), the first Scout Bot rolls onto the table edge at the end of the turn in which three casualties have been suffered.


I staged all of my Bots I've painted onto the urban tabletop terrain I used for our third scenario

I like giving control of the Bots to players as that gives them a chance to inflict "payback," or clip the wings of a faction that is flying high in a scenario. To encourage even more bloodthirstiness, they receive victory points for any casualties inflicted by "their" Bot! I make it clear, though, they will target the closest human figure. Of course, taking out Bots themselves are also worth victory points for players. What's more, a downed bot becomes a scavenge point where figures can pry off ammunition, weapons, or even optics. All in all, I think the Bots add a nice flavor to my post-apocalyptic games. The players have fun controlling them, and there's always laughter and good-natured ribbing when a Bot appears behind an opponent's troops, stalking them.

Hope you enjoyed the pics! Stay tuned for the ROUS's!!

Mike Demana

[CapnJim]

It all looks good, Mike.  But then, I've seen some of your stuff in person, and it looks good in the flesh (er, metal, really...) too!