Tutorial: Junk piles

For a good post apocalyptic wasteland you'll need some piles of junk. I wanted some big chunks to fill out the board, provide line of sight blocking and add height to the terrain. I've made six huge blocks of junk.

Check out my other post apocalypse terrain on this hub.

For years I've been putting aside junk, broken toys and bits for when I would get around to this project here.

I've put some step-by-step words at the end of the blog. But first some photos of the finished scrap piles.

Finished junk

This pile of junk has wheels from a broken tractor toy, a big chunk of miscast resin from Ramshackle Games, 'feet' from store shelving, sprue and jewelry chain.

Here's another piece of ramshackle resin, toy car wheels, corrugated cardboard (made with toothpaste squeezer), broken model ship parts.

Gears from an old clock, sprue, insulation foam, store shelving 'feet'.

A lid from a yogurt, toy car wheels, insulation foam, sprue, plastic pieces, super glue lids.

A crane from a broken tractor toy, yogurt lid, insulation foam, wheels.

A fertilizer tank from a tractor toy, chain from broken jewelry, corrugated cardboard, insulation foam.

Step-by-step
Cut some large bases for the project. I've used strawberry boxes scavenged at a stores dumpster. Easy to cut mdf bases.

Cut out some block of polystyrene or other foam. These are to fill out the junk piles and save on the junk.

Using wood glue, glue all those polystyrene block to the bases. Try to make some good flat surfaces with room for models to stand on. Also glued those resin miscast pieces in place.

Using a hot glue gun and wood glue, add a lot of junk to the bases. I've been using broken toys, glue lids, yogurt lids, cut up jewelry from flea markets, lots of sprue. It'll all work.

I've also used some insulation foam for floor boards. It's really cheap, won't melt from spray paint and have a corrugated look. Also made some corrugated plates with a 'toothpaste squeezer'. Super cheap tool from ebay.

Sand up the bases. Using wood glue, add sand to the bases, some part of the piles etc. Just go all in with the glue, it'll strengthen everything nicely. And the sand adds some texture and hides some of the polystyrene filler we haven't covered.

Painting
Using different nuances of cheap brown and grey spray. Cover this terrain up. Then with a dry brush you can quickly pick out some details. A box, lid, wheel, plate here and there. Then a all over dry brush layer of metal color. It's supposed to be quick, no need to waste time on a junk pile.

Cover the entire thing in a thick layer of army painter quick shade. Soak it. It'll look like nice pools of grime in some places.

Take a handfull of garden debris, whateever dry stuff. Leaves, seeds and twigs. Crunch it up and drop it in the still wet varnish. It'll soak into the varnish and stay in place for good.

When dry after a day of two, hit it with a cheap matt varnish spray.

Last Days: Attacked Church Refuge

As our Last Days campaign progresses the hostility between the two groups gets bitter - by pure miracle nobody has lost their life yet. Taking a step up the confrontation ladder, Bai Wu's gang directly attacked the refuge of Wade's survivors.

We set up a city center with a church in the middle. We added a lot of vehicles and other stuff to hide behind, because it would be deadly to attack.

My warband wouldn't be able to get any supplies in this scenario, it was all about defence. But I would be able to get easy XP instead. It's the attackers with everything to lose.

The setup for the game om a 3'x'3 homemade mat. This is the first time the church is seeing action in a game, so nice to finally use it. As the church only had one entry, we decided to use the same rules for windows and 'breaking down a door', so the zombies could swarm in.

I've got blog posts and tutorials for most of the stuff on the modern terrain hub.

We tried to set up a lot of cover around the church, to better give the attackers a chance to get near the refuge.

A quickly weathered toy car next to a Walking Dead truck from Mantic.

A crashed helicopter from FEMA and a wasted pilot next to it. Still need to paint a few zombies in the uniform colors as well.

Inside my groups refuge. I've upgraded my church with the armory perk, so we added an armory in the setup.

The shelves are from the 4Ground and I've added some Warlord weapons to give it the right look. 

After a bit of apocalyptic time, the alter becomes nothing but a table for supplies. 

Firefighter Sam is standing guard by the windows. I have a lot of shotguns on my team, deadly at close range and perfect for 'Lock 'n Load' guarding the refuge.

My SWAT member John has a good firearms characteristic, a good rifle and the double tab skill. He was in a great position in the church tower.

"In the name of the Father, the Son and the holy canned goods!"

Making sure to run and stay in cover, the attackers move towards the church. And after the last game a lot of Bai Wu's guys have been uparmed a lot. Dr. Hendricks now have a shotgun thrown over the shoulder.

Bai Wu and Toto the dog attacked from another side. They went for the front door, hoping the many angles of attack you allow at least one entry point. But John in the church tower quickly took out Toto, and forcing Bai Wu into cover - that military AR is great.

The game saw a lot of short range firefights. Warband members getting close to windows and blasting at each other with shotguns. Prioritizing fire sequence and getting 'locked and loaded' really meant a lot in this game.

Duncan Atkins made good use of the riot gear armor. Despite being slow, he managed to get close to the church, pick up some supplies and get out again - without getting shot to pieces.

Despite getting blasted with shotgun pellets from a close range, Duncan was able to shrug it off.

Bai Wu is forced from getting near the church, by the thread of a high ground positioned SWAT member. The zombie in the background mananged to break the window but was taken out in melee by Carla and Bobby.

It was a good game. The attackers got out with the two supplies from outside the church. All their injuries turned out to be minor, and all would be ready for battle another day.

The defenders didn't get any supplies, but did get a good amount of XP from taken attackers out of action. The only injury on this team was the leader Wade. I really wanted to hire another team member, so a bit bad he got taken out. He also rolled infected - but my last first aid supplies managed to get him extra XP instead.

Tutorial: Aquarium Plant Jungle

I've been wanting to take up Ghost Archipelago since it first came out. So many games, so little time. Back then I started collecting cheap aquarium plants from ebay, AliExpress, flea markets and the like. Collected a huge box of aquarium stuff, for that day.

Now my regular gaming partner, needed something to paint and started doing a crew for Ghost Archipelago. So that was the go for the jungle build. Next time he comes around, we'll be doing a game of Last Days and a game of Ghost Archipelago.

First some photos of the finished jungle stuff setup on a 3'x4' green felt mat. The felt mat and rivers are cheap and easy to do.

Step-by-step at the end of the article. And here's the Jungle Terrain Hub.

Finished result
Here's the stuff setup on a 3'x4' board. No objectives or anything to take up space - so the jungle does take a lot of space.

The bridges are thin pieces of mahogany, nothing done to them.

Step-by-step

The bases are cut from strawberry boxes I find in the local stores container. They have a nice free mdf bottom, perfect for terrain. I've just cut a bunch of different shapes and sizes for it.

After assembling a few, I thought it all needed more height difference. Some of the aquarium plants looked sufficiently like palms. Found some sticks in the garden and drilled a hole in the top, same size as the end of the plants.

Using a dot from the hot glue gun, insert the plants in the stick. I've also attached all the plants to the bases with hot glue.

For even more height variation on in the jungle, I've cut out some angle edged pieces of foam (the kind we hobbyists always save from electronics).

When the palms are dry and in place, add some more hot glue and make some roots. These palms are the weakest part of this project and are just asking to break off the base. This extra layer of glue should lock them down.

I've managed to find some weird looking square feet mats with plants on. These were super easy to peel off and glue to the base as shrub. Two different kinds, a grass type and a leafy type. Even has a nice round base to glue on.

For this entire jungle project, I've used half the small plants from those squares.

Sand up the bases really good. I've also added sand to the sides of the plants (they come with some weird cast stone bases to keep them down in the aquarium. Spraying from a love angle, it's possible to base coat the sand without messing up the plants.

If some of the shrub is messed up, just give it a green spray from the top.

Some of the bases will now look a bit to evenly green, not enough nuance. So some places it's good to give a plant a bit of green spray. Just use some different cheap greens. I even had some purple plants by mistake, so spray painted those as well.

Also hide the glue point between leaves and tree trunk on the palms, with a dap of green spray.

You can easily see examples of this in the photos above, with the finished result.

Get some stones and light twigs and sticks from the garden. We're adding these now, as we don't want them covered in spray pant. It'll add some nice different color and life to the bases.

Mix a box of flock for the bases. I've used different flock, static grass and garden debris. Nice dried stuff, just crushed into the mix. Also added a bit of dry dirt.

Add it to the bases. I mix cheap green acrylic with wood glue and thin it a bit with water. Throw on a lot of flock mix and let it sit there for a bit. It'll soak well with the glue and kit it all better in place. When I've used all the stuff in the box, I then pour off all the excess flock.