Ruined Wall Sections for Post-Apocalyptic Games

    'F Troop' patrols the ruined wall sections that I created using the Ruined Hamlet box

I have lots of MDF buildings for my modern games, but wanted some bombed-out looking or ruined sections for post-Apocalyptic games. When I was at the Dragons Guildhall for our Saga game day last month, I found this Ruined Hamlet set from Warlord Games. It consists of a number of sprues with various wall long and short sections that you can mix and match. It also comes with stone angle caps meant to cover the seam when you attach two perpendicular pieces. These L-shaped caps come in a short and long length, but are easy to trim to match other sizes.

    The 'Blood Brotherhood' scavenges among the mix of ruined sections I created with the box's sprues

There are no instructions on how to put the hamlet together, being more of a kit to create what you want. I did a mix of ruins, some with three walls, some two, and some just corners still standing. They also include angled piles of rubble that you can glue into where your perpendicular sections connect. This strengthens the bond giving more places of attachment. The L-shaped caps and the angled rubble piles are very helpful, and I had some of each left over to save for future constructions.

    Scout and Sentry bots hunt through a ruined town looking for humans to exterminate

Once I had my ruined wall sections assembled, I spray painted them black. I covered that with a 50/50 mix of water and acrylic black paint. This ensures that all the numerous crevices and cracks between the stones are solid black. I then did a simply, two-step gray drybrush. I did a medium gray first, following that with a lighter gray. There are places where it looks like the wall plaster or stucco is still in place. I went back and forth on what color to do these in as I didn't want to be locked into a set construction when I placed them on the table. In the end, I decided to do those plaster patches a gray-blue, hopefully blending in with the black and gray look. I probably should have done something that stood out better, in hindsight. If I were to do it again, I would likely go with a green-gray or even light orange color. The blue kind of got lost, I think.

   Everything I created with the Ruined Hamlet box placed on the desert side of my new game mat

Finally, I did a black wash over the entire surface of every piece. I think washes do a nice job of "softening" the lines of dry brushing. In this case, the wash may have softened it too much and made the look more monotone. Oh well. If I buy another of these boxes, I will know what to do next time. I set them up with some of my post-Apocalyptic forces deployed in the ruins and took some photos. The backdrop is a tie-dyed orange shirt to give the sky an apocalyptic look.

The surface the wall sections are standing on is a two-sided rubber mat that I bought from Game Table Adventures at the last Saga tournament. The 4'x3' mat is green vegetation on one side, and desert tan on the other. I really like the mat, and plan on buying another one in 6'x4' size. I tossed clump foliage from Woodland Scenics around the miniatures and buildings to give it an overgrown, deserted look. It was a bit of a challenge gathering the clump foliage back up, as the mat retains a static electrical charge and the tiniest clumps were jumping all over the place!