The Ungrateful Dead

An unsuspecting group of urban explorers are stalked by the Ungrateful Dead...

I'm a terrible one for buying stuff off of eBay or a magazine for the sake of a sprue that's stuck to the front cover, all because I think that the bits "might come in useful" one day. And having been doing this for around thirty years now, my collection is getting to be quite large and diverse, as you can well imagine.

Needless to say, when the Age of Sigmar: Mortal Realms piecework appeared on the shelves of newsagents everywhere, I was more than eager to get my hands on a copy. The 40K one had been an insane steal for the price of the first issue, with miniatures, paints and a brush for a fraction of the cost of the same stuff from a GW store.

Trash Terrain: Giftbox Sci-Fi Dwelling

It's hip to be square...

This is my first blog entry in literally months, mainly because my day-job as a full professional writer has also been full-on over the past couple of months. So this is a short and sweet little entry to let anyone that cares know I'm still alive and trying to find the odd hour here and there to paint and model.

Trash Terrain: Modular Compound Walls

A local grandee, flanked by hired bodyguards, watches from the gateway of his private compound as a PDF patrol sweeps the streets in a show of force after continued rioting and civil unrest in Far Corfe.

One thing that I've been meaning to do for some time now is work on fences, barricade and walls to use with the rest of my home-made terrain, but it's just never been as exciting as the prospect of chucking everything else aside and starting up a new build inspired by the random acquisition of an interesting piece of junk.

But I saw recently that someone in the myriad and various Facebook groups that I follow had been making walls out of polystyrene foam, and his work inspired me to finally get down to it and make something in the same spirit for myself.

Trash Terrain: 1 Crater Cottages

1 Crater Cottages: Des Res in the Rad Wastes

I can never seem to pin down exactly where inspiration comes from and when it'll strike, but the closest I've ever come is realising that when I see a piece of packaging with an interesting shape or that would produce an equally unique shape when pressed into service as a mould, the wheels of the imagination start turning.

Trash Terrain: Papier Mache Bunkers & Buildings

Ever diligent, the doorstaff at The Bunker nightclub frisk the clientele to ensure that they're carrying enough weapons and ammo before granting them entry...

In my never-ending quest to make terrain for next to nothing, I stumbled across a post from back in 2015 on the rather nice blog of a chap called Roebeast that was a step-by-step guide to using plastic packaging of various kinds as moulds for papier mache buildings.

The look of the thing felt right for Far Corfe and the process didn't seem too daunting, so I decided that I'd have a go and try to make a bunker using the same method. I ordered myself some Art Mache, which is basically powdered paper with glue already added, and set to following Roebeast's instructions.

Trash Terrain: Tin Foil Craters

An Archeotech Prospecting Expedition sponsored by the local Tech Guild inadvertently strays into the territory of Boss Sass and the Saggy Bottom Boys and conflict ensues.

For a while now I've been experimenting with basing different things on old CDs and using the foil casings for things like buns, tarts and pies to make craters of varying sizes, and as I think it's been fairly successful in making small pieces of terrain, I thought I'd share a short tutorial for anyone that's interesting in having a go for themselves.

Far Corfe: Spellcrow Privvy

Lenny the Looter legs it with the last toilet roll, moments before the gangers charging for the use of the convenience realise the enormity of his crime...

Spellcrow are one of those pretty new companies that have sprung up on the continent recently and are already producing a range of minis with a character all of their own, both in terms of sci-fi and fantasy, well worth a look.

Recently they ran a Facebook competition to win one of a limited number of resin privys, asking those entering to post something amusing in relation to outhouses in order to win, and as always, I rose to the occasion, calling on a lifetime's experience of toilet humor.

Trash Terrain: Egg-Box Shipping Containers

Gangers ambush a Dalek patrol deep in the Underhive, obviously not knowing what the hell they're getting into...

As I may have mentioned before, I have literally zero money available to spend of terrain for gaming, and so my first recourse is always to dig around in the recycling bin for ideas, and recently I noticed that the large plastic boxes that hold around sixteen eggs or so are rather nicely futuristic in appearance.

Experimentally I stuck one together, primed it and then used some very basic techniques to paint up a sort of prototype, thinking of a sci-fi themed shipping container, and I was so pleased with the results that I pimped it around some FB groups, asking if people would be interested in a tutorial.

They were and so here it is.