My Post-Apoc Figures and Terrain (Zombies & Urban Scatter added 5/11/24)

[Pattus Magnus]

Thanks for the insights, that advice makes sense. My pal printed 10 or 12 buildings in 10mm scale for me, so I may do a little experimentation - paint 1 or 2, tweak the approach on the next couple, then use whichever works best for the rest. I’m hoping they will come out as well as yours do!

[mikedemana]

Here's another ruin that I just finished up. This is once again purchased from my good friend Rusty Parker at Jarl's Workshop. When I bought it, I had no idea that the partial second and third story floors were what was taped to the side of the print. I was actually more happy with it after I'd put it all together. Good stuff -- easy to assemble, easy to paint up, and a nice three story vertical look for the tabletop.



Like a few of the other 3-D printed buildings I purchased from him, it has a ring of foundations enclosing a relatively overgrown area within the walls. I kicked myself after finishing it for not throwing in some rubble or ruins inside the rectangle of the stone walls. I feel it would have looked much better. Still, I think the vertical element of this piece, rising to three stories tall, will do good in breaking up the silhouette of the tabletop.



I used my usual recipe of spraying priming with Krylon matte black, sealing it with a 50/50 acrylic black paint and water mix to seep into the crevices, and then wet brushing and dry brushing. It took a couple coats of the yellow/tan plaster color to cover sufficiently. That said, I probably should have "dirtied up" the walls more. I used Woodland Scenics flocking and clump foliage to represent the overgrown, sediment filled area within the foundations.

All in all, another reasonably decent looking building to create me ruined cityscape for my post-apocalyptic games. Hope you like it! And I appreciate everyone's kind comments on this thread. I am really looking forward to my next post-apoc scenario and what my full board of ruins will look like...

Mike Demana

[CapnJim]

That looks good too, Mike1

[Constable Bertrand]

The bricks on the edges look good Mike, I'd want to add some ladders for sniper positions up there, and maybe a mattress/bottles on the top "crowsnest"

[mikedemana]

The bricks on the edges look good Mike, I'd want to add some ladders for sniper positions up there, and maybe a mattress/bottles on the top "crowsnest"

Good idea, or maybe some barrels or a dresser or cabinet stacked to climb up? I even have some bottles as plastic scatter terrain. Next ruin... 

Mike Demana

[Sgt_T]

I kicked myself after finishing it for not throwing in some rubble or ruins inside the rectangle of the stone walls. I feel it would have looked much better.

Perhaps you can make separate small piles on thin plastic card that you can put inside the ruins. I've done this myself for easier storage (separate base, separate ruined corners and separate rubble piles).

T.

[mikedemana]

Perhaps you can make separate small piles on thin plastic card that you can put inside the ruins.

Good suggestion, Sarge! The flocked area was designed to be irregular and bumpy. So, that will complicate matters, but not make it impossible. I have LOTS of scatter. I need to move some of it into the queue...

Mike Demana

[mikedemana]

Just finished up a troop of mounted gorillas. Three of the five figs are from Battle Valor Games and their former Sgt. Major Miniatures lines. The other two are 3-D printed miniatures from JS Wargamer Printing.


Battle Valor Games 28mm metal miniatures

When I was taking photos of the mounted troopers, I decided to get the whole Planet of the Apes force out. Pictures are below.


3-D printed from JS Wargamer Printing

A couple pics of the whole force assembled...





Here were the very first Planet of the Apes figs I painted -- Eureka Miniatures chimpanzees.



The next up are gorilla infantry originally from Sgt. Major Miniatures, with reinforcements from Battle Valor Games.


The mounted General Urco - does anyone know where he is from? He was given to me by a friend

Some character-type figures. The seated figure is from Brigade Games "Atomic Cafe" line. The officer smoking the cigar is from Eureka. Dr. Zaius is from Battle Valor, I believe, as is Maurice the hulking orangutan.



And finally, the recently-painted Gibbon monkeys...



That is probably it for awhile. I have more than enough to create a force for my Xenos Rampant Sci-Fi games, and more than plenty for my post-apocalyptic skirmish with Wiley Games rules. Unless a new project rears its shiny head, I don't think I will needing to paint up anymore. But then again, there IS that new movie coming out...! 

Hope you enjoy my monkey business...! (And yes, I know apes are monkeys  )

Mike Demana

[CapnJim]

Okay then.  Looks like you're all in on that.  And they all look great!

[mikedemana]

Thanks, Jim! See you at Drums (or DayCon if you end up going...)!

Mike Demana

[Mr. White]

The ape models are amazing.

I'm a big fan of the original Planet of the Apes flicks, but haven't watched the new ones. Are they worth it? I need something to check out this summer anyway.

And is this project really done? Is any project really ever done? You'll be back to add another model or two... and I'll be lurking LAF to check em out.

Great work, Mike!

[mikedemana]

Thanks for the kind comments! Oh, I imagine there is an ape or two left to be painted. My apes have already seen action in two campaigns over the years, and are about to engage in a third one. The first one, way, way back when was Mutants and Death Ray Guns. That's why one chimpanzee is armed only with a pole. We were limited on weapons in the campaign, so I had to convert one of the Eureka Chimps to some sort of melee weapon.

The second campaign was much more recent - my post-apocalyptic campaign I've been running with Wiley Games rules. They were the "bad guys" in the campaign's only cooperative game, so far. All other games were competitive with rival survivor gangs at least potentially hostile. See my "Where the Dark Things Gather" for that battle report.
https://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-truce-was-struck-between-rival-gangs.html

The third game they will be used in will be Xenos Rampant. They are one of my "Detachments," so should see action in a 6-player game coming up soon. So, stay tuned to see the apes in action!

As for the movies, I DO like them. They are hit or miss at times. The reboot first one was a little plodding and pompous at times, I felt. I have liked them after that, and am looking forward to the release of "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes" next month.

Thanks again for the kind words!

Mike Demana

[mikedemana]

Since painting the first batch of 3-D printed zombies recently, I thought I may as well do a second batch while how I did them was fresh in my memory. They are the same 10 poses as before, but I tried my best to change the colors so that they weren't identical. Also featured in this entry are a handful of urban scatter that I picked up at a flea market a year and a half ago. They are from the Mantic Games Terrain Crate line. I had been wanting to get them ready for the tabletop for months, and finally got around to prepping them a few weeks ago.



All the pieces are from the Campbell Heights mega box that I bought from my friend Bryan's flea market table. The huge box contains the Crystal Peaks Camp, Abandoned Office, Two Trees Mall, and Survivor's Stronghold boxes. After picking it up and looking through it, I remarked that I should be set for quite awhile on scatter! If you're looking for similar things, Terrain Crate items are available in just about every hobby store, nowadays. They're made of hard plastic and I feel they paint up nicely. With this batch, I wanted pieces that I could use as location markers where players might find salvage in either my post-apocalyptic campaign that I've been running or upcoming County Road Z games.



With both the scatter and the 3-D zombies, I spray painted them black first with Krylon Fusion matte primer. I followed that up with a 50/50 mix of acrylic black paint and water. Especially on lighter shades, the black shows through a bit, and has the overall effect of "toning down" the colors. I like how this gives it a bit of a dirty, abandoned look. All of the pieces received a dark black (or for a couple, brown) wash to dirty them up even more. I'd picked out the pieces from the mega box that I thought worked well for piles of potential salvage, or pieces that will look good in a variety of modern-esque games.



I'd already picked through the set last August for the really small pieces of scatter, such as backpacks, med kits, briefcases, and small boxes of canned goods, etc. I don't think I ever did a post including them, so I found the pictures I took and am including one of them here. I wanted them for my post-apocalyptic campaign, pieces that I could set up next to the figure who had grabbed them. I particularly like the backpacks and the briefcases/medkits.



When figuring out how to paint some of the various items, I reverted to what I currently own or have owned. The large cooler was painted blue and white (just like the one in my basement, now). The tackle box atop the styrofoam cooler was green and tan like one I have somewhere around here. Of course, the gasoline can was red.



All of the pieces of scatter were glued down on various round or rectangular bases I had laying around. Some were plastic, some MDF, and others birch wood discs I pick up at craft stores. I flocked them like I have been doing the zombies, though without the added details. I chose bases so each piece of scatter barely fit on it -- mostly to give me something to hold onto while painting. I think the mixed gray ballast with a black wash over it looks fine, and blends into the tabletop.



Probably the easiest to paint up were the cardboard boxes. I used a darker tan with a dry brush and wash. I painted the paper labels affixed to the boxes a bone color and used a black Micron pen to add scribbles to simulate writing. I was tempted to add Amazon swooshes but figured Billionaire Bezos didn't need any more advertising from me...ha, ha! Plus, that would "date" the boxes and I wanted this modern scatter to be as generic as possible. The wooden crates were easy, as well, and I followed my usual wood recipe for base coat, dry brush, and highlight (followed by a black wash).



I found that the more colors involved in painting up the scatter, naturally the more time they took. The tumbled small cooler probably took the most time of any of the pieces. I wanted to paint all the different packages a jumble of colors so that it actually looked like things from a grocery store shelf. The wicker box with the preset picnic is fairly unrealistic, of course. All the food would have long since rotted away in most of the game settings. It looked fun, though. So, I painted it up as if just set up and the picnickers had stepped away for a moment.



The ultimate goal of painting up this scatter was to use as objective markers in my post-apocalyptic or County Road Z games. To that end, I really liked the pile of duffel bags and cooler, above. It was the last piece in this batch and unfortunately I feel I was rushing it to get done. The straps could have been done a little better, I think, and given some highlighting in a lighter blue. Oh well -- considering how much attention they'll actually get on the tabletop, that's probably not something to beat myself up over!



I am going to take a break from scatter and zombies for my next batch. I'm not 100% sure what it will be. Likely choices include painting two Saga warlord stands to donate as prizes for the upcoming Origins tournament. Another possibility is begin working on the vehicles my players will be using for their County Road Z "road trip" across America. With this batch of zombies, I am now back in the "plus" side of Painted Miniatures vs. Purchased. Woo-hoo! And that's not even counting scatter terrain or similar things...!



Hope you like them -- thanks in advance for any comments.

Mike Demana

[Pattus Magnus]

Great job on the zeds and the terrain and scatter, it all looks very atmospheric! Thanks for the description of how you painted things, too. I have some similar stuff to work on when I get tired of 15mm fantasy figures, and having this thread to reference will be helpful.

[Constable Bertrand]

Good work slogging through the terrain crate scatter.
They look great painted up and will help set the tone and vibe of the environment. Looks good.