15mm Terminator: Junkyard Dogs

 

I’ve started work on sourcing and painting up some scenic elements and terrain for the 15mm Terminator project, and am kicking things off with some wrecked cars and a suitably scrappy junkyard.

I’ve found that 15mm vehicles in a pristine state can be fairly expensive to buy, given that in the Post-Apocalyptic wilderness they will be just heaps of rust - so have resorted to utilising some HO/OO scale railway pieces as stand-ins; I think they measure up pretty well alongside 15mm minis as depicted here.

That said, some Railway Model scenics can be pretty pricey too, so I was happy to be able to get hold of these simple plastic HO chassis types, made by Jouef in France, via an EBay joblot. No bells or whistles here,  just the shape of the car and some plain generic wheels:

There are no interiors or windscreens, but as I was about to commit grievous bodily harm on them anyway, there were no worries about prior disassembly, masking or other details, just needed to give them a suitably grizzled rusty blitz over the original colour:

 

These should look good populating the ravaged streets of an urban area after The Fall, and being basic plastic, might also lend themselves to being cut-up or ‘crushed’ by chopping down the roof supports etc, so could become part of larger scenic elements for the Terminators to hunt in….talking of scenics, lets move onto the aforementioned junkyard:

This is a large all-in-one resin piece for Railway Modelling that again, I was lucky enough to dig out from EBay, and had been provided with a basic paint-job by the previous owner:

I don’t know if it is a commercial piece or something that someone cast up by themselves, but there is a lot of nice detail with realistic looking wrecks and junk - a nicely scaled actual piece of chain had been added in the past - all I needed to do was to make the thing really, really grimy, so out came the rust related paints and washes once more:

Not to get too precious or artsy-fartsy about paint Triads, but I found the following from Vallejo’s Game Effects ranges to be definitely up to the job:

Throwing in the HO scale car wrecks, and some water puddles splashed on by the simple expedient of squirting the last drops out of an old bottle of plastic cement, got me to here:

Just a few self-adhesive grass tufts and the job is done:

Pulling out a couple of 15mm adversaries, some views of how the yard might accommodate them in play:

Not looking too shabby, or rather, should I say, as intended, definitely looking shabby ! 

I think the junkyard will benefit from having some perimeter walling or gates added, so I will likely base it on some plasticard or similar to give it some edges to work from, and then let it sit neatly into a wider urban setting.

I’ve just realised that the one mini I didn’t put out for the photo session was the actual ‘Junkyard’ dog that I painted last time - but I’m sure he’ll get the opportunity to try it out eventually….

I feel that beyond Terminator, the piece could be used for other settings too - it occurs to me that there is something green and nasty leaking out of those military-grade barrels in the lower left corner…. Looks like a zombie spawning ground if I ever saw one……

Anyway, wonderful British Summer Weather permitting, I’m planning an outdoor session of spraying lots and lots of MDF with acrylic sealant, prior to painting, so stay tuned for some Post-Apocalyptic town planning soon !

15mm Dungeon: Treasures and Traps

 

Working on more Dungeon scenics at the moment, namely treasure piles, trade goods and some traps for the unwary. These are a combination of scratch-built and store-bought items, often including various accessory pieces as described in previous posts.

We’ll have a look at what’s on offer, and then send our reporter on the scene, Harry, to check them out….

First up, a combination of some translucent resin ‘crystals’ as gem piles, and coin/precious stone hoards, all based on the single squares that came as part of the original TT Combat tiles set:

I’d sourced the dome-shaped bead pearls via EBay with a view to use them as sci-if scenery, but thought they could at a stretch stand in here as variously sized precious stones; they sit atop some scrunched up aluminium foil ‘mounds’ with a bit of gritty flocking gel added, then painted up as coins - well, they had some bronze and gold paint slathered on in haphazard fashion…..

The coloured beads come in huge packs of all sizes, down to tiny dots in all colours, so are worth looking out for in the crafting section of retailers - they also hold paint well if you want to change them into something more utilitarian.

Next up, a straight out of the packet photo of the very useful barrels, chests, vases and vessels in the Crom’s Anvil range at CP Models:

https://cpmodels.co.uk/shop/cas1503-cargo/

Unfortunately, I don’t think the resin vessels are still for sale - as they are some lovely and varied shapes:

These paint up very nicely, and are a good scale match for large 15mm items, here again mounted on the single tile squares:

They should provide plenty for the adventure party to root through !

These are joined by a couple of the similarly scaled scatter pieces, to which I’ve added an accessory sword  and an extra vase, and a rack for bottles, made out of sprue scraps:

https://cpmodels.co.uk/shop/cas1505-scatter-scenery/

Now, you can’t have all this treasure lying about without it being defended, and in true D&D style, I’ve been playing around with scratch building some terrifying traps…..

First up, a trio of acid traps, built up onto the ‘drain’ squares tiles from the TT Combat set, with some additional skeletal remains from the old Pendragon ranges - the large yellow acid ‘bubbles’ are some of the pearl beads seen above, stuck down with flocking gel and suitably painted:

Our intrepid Cave Ape, Harry, is sent out to investigate……Hmmmm….that treasure pile looks tempting, but…..

Better move on and leave them unmolested Harry, why not head along that narrow corridor over there….. just be careful crossing those grates in the floor:

In fact, be VERY careful:

Argh ! - spike traps !

Some cocktail stick tips mounted into spare tile squares, slide up under the grates - let’s hope Harry gets the point and treads carefully (groan……):

Talking of treading carefully - next is a scratch built wobbly bridge, made from more sprue scraps from the tile set:

Mind the gap, Harry !

Phew….. made it into the next corridor…… uh, oh, what’s next:

Looks to me like another spike trap, this one designed to spring into the corridor and flush you down the hole ! …… at least Harry is too large to fit down it…… or maybe he made his Dexterity saving throw:

So, what’s next ? - I think Harry has had enough of the traps for now….. I wonder what’s through this arch?

Uh - oh, Harry….. out of the frying pan into the fire !

It’s the Lair of the Liche King !

Let’s hope Harry makes it through until the next instalment…… 

15mm Dungeon: Bring out Yer Dead !

 

No self-respecting dungeon is complete without its garrison of the undead - whether liches or zombies or skeletons……lots of skeletons…… and my small scale effort will be no exception - I’m looking to include lots of re-animated skeletal warriors, alongside, as plot points, some freshly dead, who could go either way…..

First up is the absolutely superlative resin piece DFE01 ‘Mummified Wizard on Throne’ from Alternative Armies:

https://www.alternative-armies.com/products/dfe01-mummified-wizard-on-throne

This really is the most characterful piece, and puts me in mind of one of the early sequences in Schwarzenegger’s Conan the Barbarian, when he finds the Atlantean sword in the tomb:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmnbK9VR7VM

To my eye, it’s a spot-on match, just lacking the sword ! - so, I felt I had to have a go at one, and produce a nice focal point for the dungeon….. I just wished I knew how to produce cobwebs in 15mm !

The piece is mounted into a block of blue foam, suitably weathered in the usual way, topped by a Crom’s Anvil fire bowl, with some rubble at its feet and a few of those XPS foam bricks at the border, all mounted on scrap plasticard. ….. some outlines of geometric shapes hint at long faded decoration…..

I went ahead and added a sword, provided by Donnington Minatures’ EQ52 straight sword accessory pack:

https://shop.ancient-modern.co.uk/equipment-123-c.asp 

I initially tried for the same dry-as-dust brown appearance in the Conan movie, but this proved to be very bland looking in such a small piece, so carried on and added colour to both mummy and his throne, very much in the vein of the pictures on the Alternative Armies website, which are very atmospherically done.

If there was one small criticism of the piece, it is that the mummy himself is a bit on the small side - of course, he is seated, (and decomposedly dehydrated !), but appears slight next to most 15mm standing minis - hopefully, however, the grandeur of his setting makes up for this. 

No Undead King worth his salt would be without a set of eternal guardians, so I went ahead and continued with the Skeleton Guard set, again from Alternative Armies:

https://www.alternative-armies.com/products/hot99-skeleton-eternal-guard

This a great group of Skellies in costumes of assorted historical periods, in some nice poses - I used a needle file to add some battle damage to the shields and nicks in the sword blades before painting:

I must admit, I think I went a bit overboard with a triad of paints to represent ageing and rust - it’s a difficult balance to get right on minis as small as these - so in close up, more brownish and  splodgey than I’d like, but at normal viewing distances, not too bad:

Now onto another tranche of figures, including some of the slightly less dead, to be used as plot points - will they re-animate as adversaries? - or just serve as something to plunder by our party of thieves and rogues (whilst the Lawful Good look on in disgust….) ?

A mixture of minis here - a trio of the supine skeletons from Alternative Armies ‘Dem Bones’ set, with added swords and shields from Donnington as above, as well as the various fallen warriors from their ‘Original’ range, a shield pile, and an unfortunate chap locked into a pillory:

https://shop.ancient-modern.co.uk/casualties-97-c.asp

https://shop.ancient-modern.co.uk/cb32-man-in-pillory-2607-p.asp

I roughly free-handed some designs onto the spare shields, also trying to represent some marks and cuts to their faces, as well as splurging plenty of rusting effect overall - the fallen warriors had a final dry-brush of grey to try and bring out their unhealthy state - but this has rather dulled the finish, although perhaps appropriately - they are not in the bloom of their youth anymore !

I imagine that the pillory victim might still be alive when found by an adventure party - is he an innocent victim with useful information, or will he turn out to be something more untrustworthy….. ?

Finally, and rounding off this catalogue of the departed, a view of the finessed tunnel collapse victim from an earlier post - I’ve added a few scenic tufts to the base, which I think makes it a bit more interesting, and  the all-important treasure / object of interest - a magic sword - we know it must be magic, ‘coz it hasn’t rusted !  :-)

Next post : Traps and Treasures !

15mm Dungeon: Bones and Boulders

 

Continuing on the theme of working on ‘plot points’ or encounter pieces for the dungeon crawl, I’ve been making use of the excellent ‘Dem Bones’ skeletal set from Alternative Armies in the UK:

https://www.alternative-armies.com/products/hot111-dem-bones-15mm-fantasy-scenics

Available from their extensive and varied 15mm ranges, the set contains some useful skull piles and other skeletal remains - de rigeur as decoration for any self-respecting dungeon ! - you’ll note that one of the prone skeletons (co-incidentally the largest body) has been sliced amidships - all part of  my cunning plan.

So - I started with the following sanded and crumbled blue foam offcuts:

 Only to put them all together for the following:

The skeleton has been ‘stretched’ by the aforementioned cut, enabling a more impressive squashing by the falling rocks - a natural tunnel collapse, perhaps - or maybe the hapless victim fell into a dastardly trap ?

In any event, the adventure party might have to discover something about the tragic event, loot the body of an important item, or perhaps the skeleton will revive and attack them ?

The base is some more scrap plastic card, and the collapsed earth some old flocking gel, suitably stained brown - I’ll probably want to finesse the form with a few more loose rocks, scrubby vegetation, etc, and look to add an aforementioned item of import - perhaps a magic weapon, or a piece of treasure ?

I had great fun putting this simple piece together, just with what were some left-over scraps, but topped off in style, I think, by the skeletal remains !

Next up, I have been working on an evil altar - somewhere as a focus for unpleasant goings-on, or where the party might encounter a big bad guy, up to no good:

Another scrap of foam serves as the altar top, pin inscribed with some dark symbology, and either side of the base, a gruesome pile of the skulls of the previously sacrificed…..

A skeleton from the same set fits nicely on top, if required:

I finished this off with a fire bowl from the Crom’s Anvil range at CP models, with an attempt at an unnatural green-glowing flame (Hum, maybe a bit more pistachio ice cream swirl than spooky fire…oh well…)

https://cpmodels.co.uk/shop/cas1501-fire-bowls/

The circular base has some eldritch zodiac style signs/sigils painted on, but the silvering doesn’t show up too well in the photos - or perhaps only those with a magical ability can divine them clearly and gain knowledge for the party……?

Next up, I’ll be taking the plunge with some monstrous dungeon denizens, and looking at what miniatures I plan on using to produce the various factions and adventurers - so stay tuned !