'Silent Slumbers' Motel - Resin Building from Miniature Building Authority

    The Santanas take over my Two Story Shanty Hotel from Miniature Building Authority

This is one of the heftiest buildings I have ever built and painted up. From Miniature Building Authority's amazing line of resin buildings, the Two Story Shanty Hotel comes with upper and lower levels, roof, stone staircase, and balcony railings. It's a fairly heavy hunk of resin, but incredibly detailed down to cans and other trash in the hallways outside the motel room doors. I took my time on it and worked on it here and there over a few months until finally finishing it today.

    This hotel is a hefty hunk of resin, but very solidly built and has LOTS of details

I bought it last year at Advance the Colors (2022) and was honestly hoping to have it done before this ATC. Alas, it was not to be. That incredibly busy period from late Spring through October was consumed with getting things ready for that convention. I wanted to paint the hotel up as generically as possible so that it could be used for different periods. The air conditioning units affixed to the back of each room definitely dates it to the 20th century forwards. However, the weathered and aged stone construction means it could be used in a number of settings. Heck, with Star Wars liking for desert planets, this wouldn't really be out of place in a Sci-Fi game, either!

    Once you glue the balcony railings on, it is a three piece building - upper & lower story and roof

The first step in getting this ready for the tabletop was to glue the two balcony railing pieces to the upper and lower levels. I also glued the stone staircase to the side of the lower level, placing it so it would help hold the upper level in place. To help with that, I cut a piece of curved wooden molding and epoxied it to the front of the building. I attached it to the lower level, but half of its height extends to the upper level so that it will also help keep the upper level stable and in place. I considered magnets, too, but felt that the weight of the piece, along with the staircase and sign holding it in place on two of its sides made this unnecessary. 

    The stone staircase glues to the side of the lower level and its top step helps hold the upper in place

Once all the epoxying was done, I spray painted the three levels (lower, upper, roof) with Krylon Matte black, and followed that up with a 50/50 mixture of black acrylic paint and water. This helps the paint sink into all grooves and crevices, as well as giving a thick surface for the paint to adhere to and prevent the wear and tear of scratches or gouges. I decided to begin the painting with the interiors of the motel rooms themselves and work my way outwards. I chose four somewhat pastel colors to wetbrush the four rooms on each level in. I then painted the tiled floors in a contrasting color. Next, I picked out the interior door and window trim in a darker version of the pastel color. So, each room had its own color scheme.

    I began painting the interior rooms first and then worked my way outside

Next up were the blinds and doors, which I did with a base coat and dry brush. Finally, when all was dry, I moved on to the exterior surface of the building. I did its base coat in Howard Hues Camo Brown. This was applied in a thick wet brush, covering most of the surface, with only an occasional crack left in black. This was also applied to the tops of the walls separating each interior room. Once dry, I dry brushed the exterior in Howard Hues Colonial Khaki. I really like the way it came out, giving a warm, earthy feel.

    The front of the motel - this is a quality model and can likely be used in many periods & settings

It was on to the numerous details next, which included the air conditioning units on the back wall of every room, power wires running to each unit, the exterior window trim and doors, metal door handles, metallic plates anchoring the power wires, and even the trash in the hallways. The floor of the hallway was done in to look like concrete with a dark gray base coat and light gray dry brush. Once all the very significant details were completed, I applied a brown wash using watered down Vallejo vehicle wash. I am always happier with how anything dry brushed look when I finish off the exterior with a darker wash. I feel it "softens" the edges of the brush strokes and makes it look smoother overall.

    A three quarters view of the hotel back and good look at all the detail molded into this model

The last thing I did was the roof. It had been done in black base coat like the other sections. I did a red brown wet brush next, followed by a dry brush of the more orange tone Howard Hues Middle Eastern flesh. Once dry, I applied a dark brown wash over this, as well. The motel was almost open for business! I designed a sign on my computer to go over the long piece of molding I had glued to the bottom level. I went back and forth on naming the hotel. I was tempted to name it "Suite Dreams" -- liking the irony if it was used as a hotel of ill repute in a bad section of town. However, I know how wargamers are and someone would invariably point out the rooms are far too small to be suites! Wanting to forestall that banter, I decided instead to go with "Silent Slumbers Motel." This also has a slightly ominous tone for a location in the bad section of town!

    The detail goes all the way down to the trash strewn in the corridors

Miniature Building Authority terrain is always high quality and looks amazing on the tabletop. I encourage folks to shop with Kirk -- he's a great supporter of our hobby and a nice guy all around! Look for a few more of my MBA purchases to follow the motel onto this blog. I have more cool buildings I purchased from MBA, and hope to begin working on them soon!

    "Get a room!" the rest of the Santanas may have shouted to Margarita and Julio...

More Post-Apocalyptic (Wrecked Cars & Dead Trees)

    Mantic Games resin wrecked vehicles painted up rusted and dilapidated for post-apoc games

With Advance the Colors 2023 behind me, I now seem to have more time for finishing up things I'd begun (or wanted to start on) earlier. First and foremost were four wrecked vehicles that I want to use for scatter scenery in my post-apocalyptic games. I picked them up at the Guardtower East during one of our monthly Saga game days. 

 Biggest complaint was that the window for the back up the pickup had to be glued in and didn't fit

These were made of a gray resin or plastic and came with two pickup trucks and two cars. Each type was identical, and the pickup required one piece of assembly. The back window of the pickup needed glued into place with the truck's bed. Only it wasn't that simple. Try as I might, I simply couldn't get it to fit smoothly. There had obviously been some warping or distortion that went on in the casting process. I ended up having to epoxy the windows into place as close I could. I then filled the gaps with green stuff. I was fairly happy with how I did with the green stuff. It is definitely something I am still a learner on.

    The models come dented to simulate a wreck, but all the rust and wear and tear was painted on

I spray painted each vehicle with Krylon matte black, following it up with my usual 50/50 acrylic black paint and water. I then epoxied it to a styrene plastic base, though I was tempted to leave it un-based and free standing. It might even look better on the tabletop that way, but I detest holding onto things while painting something, with the chance of rubbing off paint. Or paint the bottom and then painting the top. Basing something up and holding onto that base is always preferable.

    The windows are solid, so I used my brushwork to make them look broken and busted, too

Next, I did the base color for all four vehicles, leaving black gaps in the seams of the body panels, doors, etc. I'm not sure why I went with brighter colors for the vehicles over the trucks, but I did. I followed this with a dry brush of white or lighter color of the base. Next, I did a three part rust effect, beginning with a dark brown, adding in patches of a rusty, leathery brown, and then finishing it off with an orange clay color. Since the windows were solid, I had to paint cracks to make them look busted up, too. I painted the chrome areas a steel color, then pewter and silver highlights. Of course, each vehicle got a dark black wash to look appropriately abandoned and dirty.

    3-D printed trees from Rusty Parker of Jarls Workshop. I decided to make them "dead" for post-apoc

The next thing I finished off were two 3-d printed trees that I'd picked up as prizes from the Hold the Line Saga tournament in Port Clinton, OH. Rusty Parker of Jarl's Workshop printed them off and had numerous ones he'd painted up for terrain for the tournament. He had flocked them to look like trees in bloom, but I thought their bare branches would make them excellent dead trees to add to the smaller ones I'd painted up earlier. In a post-apocalyptic landscape, the dead trees at a nice desolate vibe.

    Closeup of the one of the dead trees with my 28mm Planet of the Apes gorillas patrolling nearby

These were very easy to get ready for the tabletop! I simply spray painted them black, did my usual 50/50 acrylic follow up, and then dry brushed them. I applied the first dry brush thickly -- more of a "wet brush." I used the Camo Brown from Howard Hues. Next, I did a dry brush of Howard Hues Khaki. A black wash finished them out, and they were ready for flocking. There is an area between the branches that looks like vegetation, so I flocked that with Woodland Scenics "Burnt Grass" flocking. Otherwise, I did a fine brown ballast around the roots and applied a Turf Earth over top of that. A couple more patches of burnt grass and some tufts, and they were done. Of course, they are taller than the box which I stored my smaller dead trees would hold! I will sit them on their sides until I think of a better idea.

    The smaller dead trees in back are from Mantic Games' Terrain Crate line, 'Gothic Grounds'

These two mini-projects took less time each than a normal batch of Saga miniatures, so it was nice to feel they were painted up quickly! Hopefully, the speedy progress will continue!

Some Miniature Building Authority (MBA) Middle Eastern buildings

    Two resin buildings from Miniature Building Authority - including a shawarma shop!

I have been so busy that I have had little chance to update this blog, lately. There are a number of things that I have finished off in my "crunch time" before Advance the Colros 2023. One of those has been a pair of Middle Eastern buildings from the quality resin terrain line Miniature Building Authority. I chose two small buildings in a vain, last-ditch attempt to get all of what I bought from MBA at last ATC completed before this one rolled around!

 

    The shawarma shop on the left is named after my friend Andy, of course!

One of the buildings is their "Ice Cream Shop." Of course, being me, I decided to change things up. I made it a Shawarma stand. I like to name my buildings after my gaming friends, so my buddy Andy got the honors on this one! In hindsight, I wish I had colored the background of the signs. As I mentioned, I have been pressed for time of late so ended up cutting a corner here. Still, I like the way the building came out. MBA makes high quality buildings and their line of Middle Eastern buildings are top notch.

Metal bits were done in a steel color with pewter highlights, but otherwise, these were quick to paint!

These were very easy to paint. I spray painted them black first. Then I dry brushed them with a medium brown color from Howard Hues called "Camo Brown.? I added in successive highlight colors of Khaki and white. I finally picked out wood and metal highlights. But honestly, these buildings paint up so quickly that you'll get them ready for your tabletop in no time at all!

    I highly recommend buildings from Miniature Building Authority!

The other building is called "Small Middle Eastern Building II" on the MBA website. It is a good example of their two-part ruined buildings. The top 2/3's of the building lifts off, leaving a ruined foundation and stubble of walls on all four sides. When you place the top back on, the crack delineating the join between the two pieces looks very natural. It's a great way to get two buildings, essentially, for the price of one. It was painted exactly as the other building and should look good for my modern games. What's more, I think it will look fine for even Sci-Fi games. So many of the Star Wars movies feature that desert look, and I think these will go perfect for that period, as well...

Prison Cell Block & Research Facility

    My Woodford - Prison Cell Block MDF building from Warcradle Studios that I constructed

A few years ago on a trip to St. Louis, I picked up an MDF building on a visit to a local gaming store. It was from Warcraddle Studios "Red Beam Designs" line, and titled Woodford - Prison Cell Block. It looked like the perfect thing for a Pulp or Modern game, kind of a combined research facility and row of prison cells, to my mind. What dastardly experiments were carried out there on the unfortunate detainees? Of course, I had to buy it and find out...ha, ha!

    Research facility section -- note the safety and research science posters I glued on the painted walls

Well, I finally got around to constructing it because I felt it would be the perfect building for the next chapter of my post-Apocalyptic campaign. Not to divulge too much, but such a combined research and detainment facility is the planned the centerpiece of that scenario. This was the first building I would be constructing from this company, so I was curious to see how it stacked up against Sarissa Precision (where most of my buildings are from) and TTCombat (which I had built one or two from).

Top view of the L-shaped building with the research facility on the left and prison cell blocks on right

It seemed to go together as easily as most of the Sarissa Precision buildings. I used tacky glue to affix the floors, walls, door frames, etc., together and they seemed to bond the MDF well. The thickness of the pieces seemed about the same, too. One interesting aspect was the building came in two parts, creating an "L-shape." The longer section of the "L" contains what I termed the research facility part. The shorter part contains three cells and a hallway outside of them. I was possible to glue the two halves together, but the length and width of the building would be huge! It simply would not fit in any of my 13" square carrying boxes. So, I decided to leave them as two separate pieces, and simply slide them up against each other on the tabletop.

28mm police officer patrols the corridor outside the 3 prison cells - what is inside, hidden by the walls??

That was when I discovered the most surprising thing about the Woodford - Prison Cell Block. There was no roof! The building came with no MDF piece for the roof, which is the first time that has ever happened to me. All of my Sarissa Precision buildings come with a roof, as did my TTCombat ones. Very strange! Upon looking at the image on front of the package, I admit that it shows the building roofless. I had assumed that was so you could see how it was divided into hallways and rooms, though. So, a warning out there to anyone seeking to buy a Warcraddle Studios building: Make sure you know if it is has a roof or not!

Patterned paper I cut into shape and glue into place as floors for my MDF buildings

I used my standard method for painting up and tricking out my MDF buildings. After constructing it, I spray painted it with Krylon Matte black, and followed that up with a 50/50 mix of acrylic black paint and water. I painted the interior walls of both building sections first. I then did a dry brush of a lighter color, followed by a black wash to dirty it up. Next, I cut out pieces of patterned paper for the floors. I purchase these at Hobby Lobby where there is a huge variety of textures, colors, and styles. I used a gray concrete looking sheet for the cell floors and two different patterns that looked like linoleum flooring for the hallways and research facility rooms. 

    Painting the windows is the most "fiddly" part of this building - here a guard hears a strange noise...

I also created images of steel doors in Photoshop and printed them out on my home printer. I used images I found with a Google search and then modified them a bit. Once all the doors, walls, windows, and floors were done, it was time to move on to the outside. I decided to go with a couple different texture looks for the exterior walls. There was a small lower row of rectangular stones that I painted gray and used as a stone base. Next, I did a tan-colored stone effect for the main surface of the walls. This facade has fallen away in some places, exposing a stucco like surface, which I painted in a different color.

    Sandbags atop the cork roof give the building a militarized and forbidding look

As if all that wasn't enough, I glued on a decorative wooden beam separating the top from the bottom sections on the exterior. I painted that green to match the two latticed windows. I used that same medium green for the trim around the doorways. Each of the doorway areas came with an upside down "U" frame which I think was a really nice touch in the design. Otherwise, doors in MDF buildings can look somewhat 2-dimensional. I know that on other buildings I have even added in a frame to give it a more 3-D look. 

    Exterior close up, with the tan stone, exposed stucco where the facade has fallen away, & green trim

Once the exterior was painted, I washed it more darkly with the same black wash. I then took an X-acto knife and scraped off a line of the paint to attach the green wood trim sections. I wanted to expose the raw wood so that the surface had something to adhere to on the model. I hoped this trim would make it "pop" a little, adding in another 3-D element. I was really happy with how the exterior looked. My dry brushing of the interior section of each incised square in a lighter, highlight color came out relatively well, I think. 

Since this building houses detainees, whether experimented upon or not, I figured the doors had to be fairly heavy duty. I painted the outside doors a base steel color and highlighted them with streaks of pewter color. I also did the handles and bottom of the window grills in pewter, as well. Above the individual prison cell doors I added in a sign, "Cell Block A," etc. Some of the interior doors I decided to use a printed doors, such as those for the prison cells below.

The doors, which are simply printed out on paper and glued over the outline incised on the MDF

That brings me to the posters. I like to create posters in Photoshop to decorate my MDF buildings. I think it gives them a nicer, more lived-in look -- without going through all the expense and work of painting up interior furniture for each of them. Maybe one day I will have the time to add desks, filing cabinets, etc., to this and my other MDF models. Until then, the posters will have to suffice. For these, I emphasized a lot of "Safety" posters, along with a good mix of Science-themed ones for a research facility section.  To add an ominous tone, I put in one urging visitors and workers to be prepared to "Run/Hide/Fight"! For these, I simply created the image in Photoshop and send it to my Word Processing program to arrange multiple images on so that with one page I can print multiple posters, doors, etc.

    Another look at the exterior and the scratch-build foam board covered with cork paper roof

At this stage, the building itself was done -- except for the roof. I went back and forth about what material to use for the roof. My first thought was black foamcore -- but I was worried that whatever surface I put on it would cause warping. I considered MDF and styrene plastic, too. I didn't have a large enough sheet at the time in my possession for either material. MDF and styrene would likely not warp, but would be much heavier than the foamcare (which I DID have in my possession). So, I made another trip to Hobby Lobby for inspiration. While looking at the different textures and patterns of their paper, I found one style they had that was actual thin cork with an adhesive backing. The cork surface's mottled brown look would match the exterior of the building, I thought. Plus -- attaching paper to the foam core would not cause warping. 

    This sprawling L-shaped building actually went together and painted up fairly easily

Was this the solution? The 12"x12" sheets were not large enough for the whole roof, though. I figured that if the seams looked bad, I could make a thin concrete "rib" out of bass wood and glue it atop the roof strategically to hide the seam. I also wanted to put in square strips of bass wood as lugs to hold the roof in place so it didn't slide around. That part was done easily enough and the roof fit snugly atop the MDF building. I cut the cork paper so that about a 1/4" would wrap underneath the roof, covering the "foamy" edge of the black foam core. Unfortunately, the adhesive backing wasn't strong enough to hold the paper to the foamcore for long. So, I ended up having to press them back into place and then paint with tacky glue where the cork and foam surface joined. This seemed to hold it much better.

Since it is a prison of sorts, my plan was to line the roof with sandbags. However, I didn't have enough pieces, so will be getting a friend to 3-D print me some. I will paint those up when I receive them and glue them atop the cork roof into place. So, technically, the building isn't truly complete. However, it is close enough to take pictures of and post on my blog!

Barbed Wire Compound

    Two boxes worth of Monster Fight Club's Chain Link Fences (bought locally at Guardtower East)

When I was creating my 28mm urban terrain, I scratch-built a bunch of chain link fence sections. To be honest, I was never very thrilled with them. The styrene tubes I used as the aluminum poles and the "granny grate" plastic material for the fence looked okay. They were a little over-scale, though, and their construction looked clunky. So, when I saw Monster Fight Club's scenery pack of Chain Link Fences, I snatched up two boxes of them right away. I felt these would look much more realistic, plus they'd be able to be use as a barbed wire compound.

    The box from Monster Fight Club, which contains 10 sections that each measure roughly 5" long

Since it's me, though, I couldn't resist modifying them a bit. They come with these strange, brick-like, rectangular pieces that the poles fit into to stand upright. The picture on the box also shows them being used at the top to "clip" sections together. I didn't like the way that looked nor they way it elevated the fence off the ground. Wouldn't an elevated fence allow unwanted visitors to slip underneath? So, I decided to snip off all of the bottoms of all the vertical poles. Since these are soft plastic, that was easy enough to do with wire cutters and an X-acto knife.

    One of the unpainted sections - not the poles projecting from the bottom which I trimmed away

Each section measures roughly 5" long, so I cut thin styrene bases for them that were just a tad longer. I had to figure out a way, though, to make sure I glued them perpendicular to the ground. Otherwise, my fences would be leaning this way and that. Keeping them upright was the job of the now-discarded "brick clips." And with 20 sections total, even a small bit of lean would end up looking pretty topsy-turvy the longer the fence line grew. I decided to sandwich each section firmly between two square rods of bass wood. I would shave these into a triangular shape with an X-acto knife to allow the ground to slope from the fence to the base. The sides squeezing the fence section and the side in contact with the base remained a true 90 degrees, hopefully keeping them perpendicular.

    A view of my barbed wire fence sections set up as an abandoned military base for my next game

I slathered the styrene base with 5 minute, two part epoxy and then placed the fence section between the two bass wood rods and held them into place while it hardened. This did a good job of affixing them upright to their bases. It was somewhat time consuming, what with trimming the bass wood square rods, and epoxying them essentially in batches of two or three. It also provided a nicer look, I feel, with the fence actually set into the ground rather than above it. I flocked the sloped rods and bases naturally, which allow the fences and bases to "disappear" onto the tabletop.

    F Troop investigates one of the damaged sections - what could have forced open the metal fence?

I took three sections, cut them in half, and converted them into damaged sections. I also created a gate piece sitting on scratch-built rollers. Half of the damaged sections were made to look like the chain had been cut and the horizontal tubes bent inwards. The other sections I used an X-acto knife to cut one horizontal section of chain and bend it down (as if someone had cut the wire and broken into the compound). Even without the damaged sections, two boxes of the fences provided almost eight linear feet of fencing. So, I had enough for a fairly big compound!

    The rolling gate created from one half of a section, with scratch-built rubber wheels (beads)

How to paint them, though? I decided I would spray them black first with Krylon matte black. I did it at several angles to ensure I got all of it. I didn't want any gray plastic peeking through! I also didn't want to have to do any brushwork on these, figuring it would be a time-consuming mess! After they dried, I used a can of spray silver that looked fairly "aluminum" like. I tried to spray lightly from the top so that some black would show as shadow. I'm not sure there's much shadow, though, and the fences look fairly silver. To tone that down a bit, I went over the horizontal and vertical poles with a dark, black wash. This did a great job of weathering the look, and I am happy with the final color of the fencing.

    The color came out okay - black spray paint with a dull silver spray over top and black wash on poles

The vertical poles are topped by angled pieces of metal which are obviously meant to be strung with barbed wire, in real life. Monster Fight Club did not sculpt any wire, but did have three shallow indentations where the wire could be strung for enterprising modelers. I decided to be one of those, but what material to use? I ended up going with braided, silver thread. The twisted strands of the thread catch the light at different angles and make it sparkle. I thought this would give the visual effect of the tiny barbs on the wire.

    I like how the silver thread is strung somewhat loosely and irregularly (or cut in damaged parts)

Stringing the thread onto each section was probably the most fiddly part of the entire build. I decided to use a drop of superglue on each indentation to hold it. I was afraid Tacky Glue might dry white, so I went with superglue. First, I cut each strand of wire so that there would be about an inch extra left over to trim off. Then, I glued the three strands to only the left-most pole. Once it had hardened, I put the drops of superglue onto the the other three poles and stretched it across into place. I wanted to be able to pull it relatively tight, so it needed to be affixed firmly to the left-hand pole (if this description makes sense). Since the thread in wound around a spool, it would try to bend back upon itself. However, the superglue minimized this movement, and instead it made it look like irregular slack spaces in the barbed wire. I felt this actually added to the realism.

    You can see the twisted "braiding" in the silver thread that catches the light and gives it a sparkle

Although VERY fiddly, I think the simulated barbed wire really makes these "pop" on the tabletop. I would recommend anyone picking these up to also get a roll of braided silver thread (or raid your wife's sewing kit). The thread was only about $6 with an online coupon at Joanne's Fabrics, if you have to scrounge your own. One final note -- I did all of my clear coating of the fences (and flocking) BEFORE affixing the wire. I didn't want to take a chance that my Dullcoate would take away any of the thread's sparkle.

    I'm really happy with the chain link fence sections and highly recommend them!

I am really happy with how these fences turned out, and will be using them this weekend in my next Post-Apocalyptic game. Stay tuned as the survivor gangs investigate the abandoned military base and try to piece together clues on what happened to the force that had been stationed there...!

New Road Sections & More Vehicles for Post-Apoc

    Two of the four 6"x12" road sections I made from cork tiles with some wrecked & burnt vehicles

I am planning my next post-apocalyptic game to be on an urban tabletop. So, I continue to work on vehicles to put on the roads to break up the sight lines in the game. In addition, I decided to make some new asphalt road pieces. My previous ones were created with 12" square cork tiles. These would be smaller side streets, cutting each square into two 6"x12" pieces.

    Two of the road sections without cars on them - note beveled edges & center line stripe

I wanted to make sure everything went smoothly making these, so I cut up only two squares, creating a total of four pieces. These smaller width pieces will enable me to give the board more variety and change up the look of it easier. I will likely make some more 6"x12" pieces here soon. They went very quickly and were a breeze to make. Once trimmed to size, I beveled the long edges as I did with the sides of the 12" square pieces. The beveled edges are placed against my gray floor tiles which I use as the concrete sidewalks. I think this join looks better than both the road and sidewalk tiles having a squared edged.

    The Blood Brotherhood checks out another of my burnt out, die cast vehicles

Once beveled, I painted the four edges with black craft paint. It is okay if a little brown cork shows through, as there are brownish spots on many asphalt roadways. Once dry, I paint the rest of the tile black with a wide brush. I let them dry again overnight, and then I do two dry brushes. First is dark gray and the second is light gray. Finally, I add white dotted line lane painting with a square brush. When I created my first tiles awhile back, I made a cardboard template to place on the tile so that I get the lines the same length and evenly spaced. I finished the cork pieces off with matte acrylic clear spray paint and they're done!

    This plastic SUV warped in an interesting way from the heat, but I had to paint on the blackening

On the vehicle front, I added four new models. The first one was a die cast sports car. I used wire cutters and pliers to reduce it to the metal hulk, trimming or ripping away all plastic pieces. The second vehicle was a plastic SUV. There wasn't much I could do with this one other than cut away the wheels. I then burnt these as I had done the previous burnt out wrecks. I was a little less crazy with the pyro and went for a more controlled burn with fewer cotton balls. The plastic SUV bent like it had been "T-boned," but did not char very well from the burning. The sports car looked good enough from the burning that I simply glued it to its base.

   Both of these trailers came with a pickup truck for $2.99 each from Menards

The SUV required more work. I mixed up thinned down acrylic black paint and brushed it across most of the SUV. I made sure to "erase" enough black with straight water to allow some of the original color to show through. The windows there wasn't much I could do about. So, I painted them solid black and hoped they "disappeared" to the eye. All in all, the SUV looks like a passable piece of scenery, but by no means is it one of the best I created in this series of burnt out wrecks.\

    One of the Green Dragons checks out this old and dirty Campervan for anything to scavenge

    On hindsight, I should have scraped up, damaged, or put graffiti on this black trailer

Burned Out Vehicles for Post-Apocalyptic Games

  A burned out wreck that I created by torching die-cast vehicles for my post-apocalyptic games

I decided my next terrain project for my post-Apocalyptic games would be to make some burnt-out, abandoned vehicles. I decided to use some die-cast cars available in retail stores such as CVS drug stores, Menards, etc. I figured that I wasn't the only person to ever decide to do this, so I went on my favorite online miniatures source, The Lead Adventure Forum. In their Workbench area, I asked for ideas on how to modify inexpensive die-cast vehicles to look burnt out. Much to my surprise, the suggestion was to burn them!

    Step 1: Use wire cutters and pliers to remove most of the plastic from the die-cast vehicle

Whaaat?? Play pyro and set it afire? Other posters confirmed this suggestion, so I set about this as methodically (and carefully) as I could. First, I used wire cutters and pliers to get rid of as much of the plastic portions as I could. This includes the tires, which would be one of the things that burnt off and melted. I wanted to leave pretty much just the metallic hulk. Next, I used 91% alcohol and swabbed the car and soak cotton balls to stuff inside the vehicles. I set it on fire and was surprised by the intensity of the fire. I wanted the metal portions to look burnt and the paint to peel or bubble. I adjusted the techniques a little, using less cotton ball material and toning down the heat and size of the flames.

    Stuffed with alcohol-soaked cotton balls, the trucks go up in flames pretty quickly!

Still, I was happy with how the burning of these die-cast vehicles simulated a burned-out wreck. One of the pickup trucks even split in half, with the metal connecting pieces melting. Others had the doors burnt off and falling to the stone pavers I was using as my surface. Once the vehicle looked good, I would either blow out the fire or douse it with some water to put out the flames. You have to be careful with water, though, as it may also wash away the soot that looks so good built up on the colored surfaces of the vehicles.

    The goal of the torching of the vehicle is to get some bending and bubbling of metal, and soot stains

Next, I took the hulks and based them up on textured plastic that I wanted to use to simulate the road surface. First, though, I sprayed the plastic with black spray paint. I set the vehicles on top of the plastic and noted where the metal touched the surface. I scratched away the paint in those places, exposing the raw plastic. I used two part epoxy to attach the bottom parts of the vehicles to the plastic surface. Once secured, I added Woodland Scenics ballast to the surface on top of Tacky glue. I wanted to represent a raised or melted asphalt effect. This was painted black and then dry brushed with a dark gray. I think it turned out okay, but felt it was too boring looking.

    I added some watered down black paint to supplement the soot stains and cover up any bare metal

I then added turf, brown tufts, and more fine blended gray ballast to give the road surface some detail and an interesting look. I also added some plaster bricks and washed them and the gray ballast with a black wash to dirty them up. All in all, I was happy with the look of the road surface around the vehicles. 

    The warping and contortion of the metal gives this a look you couldn't get from just painting it

I did have to go back in and put some black wash on parts of the vehicles that didn't get much soot. I also added some watered down black paint to other parts where the soot had been scratched, or where I felt there needed to be more of a burned look to it. In the end, I am happy with this experiment. I think in the long run, the soot and melted metal are the two things that make these burnt out wrecks look convincing. Interestingly, the soot will still rub off to the touch even after two coats of matte clearcoat spray. I really don't know what else to do, except remember to touch the models by their bases and not by the cars themselves.

    A freebie large truck becomes a great terrain pieces to break up sight lines on the post-apoc streets

I also had a long plastic truck that was given to me as a freebie by Diabolical Terrain. I thought it would make a great wreck, laying on its side. I placed some masking tap on portions of the decal before spraying it with acrylic black primer. Actually, before that, I had based it up with a styrene tube propping up one side. My thought was to paint it like an aluminum pole so it looked like it has slammed into a light pole, taken it down, and was now resting on it.

    I used a combination of masking off pieces of the decal on the truck and dry brushing & washing

After the black priming, I removed the masking tape. I also touched up the metallic pieces with various shades of metallic gray, pewter, and silver. Once I was happy with it, I did a heavy black wash. By no means is this the most amazing scatter piece for a post-apocalyptic table, but I think it looks okay. It will take up a decent amount of space the tabletop. Actually, that was the whole point of the burnt out vehicles. I wanted to break up the sight lines that areas of road will create on the table. Most skirmish games require cover to give players interesting decisions to make. Where do they move to? Where do they hole up?

    The Bucknuts investigate a burned out wreck, hoping to find something to salvage

I'm happy with my burnt out wrecks, and plan to create some more. I'll keep this page updated with new ideas or refinements I make on the techniques I used. I hope you like them, and stay tuned for more!

    This VW bug could probably have used more charring on portions of the blue painted surface

    Some colors show the soot stains better, like this tan colored pickup truck