Far Corfe: Battle Bus

"Bring out your Remoaners!" - the call went out to the wasteland settlements, with no one knowung what it meant, save for it being related to Boareez the Dishevelled, a chieftan of the ancient, pre-apocalyptic Britons...

A little while back, a friend of mine showed me pictures of a model someone had made for Gaslands of the now infamous "Brexit Battle Bus". You know the one - it had a certain statement written on the side of it and sort of divided opinion right down the middle?

Well, he was adamant that I should make one in 28mm scale, and I agreed on the proviso that I could find a coach that would work in 1:43 scale, which I find works best with most companies miniatures and table-top terrain.

The problem is that coaches in that scale are both scarce and expensive if you're buying them in pristine condition. So I had to wait until one popped up on eBay that was cheap on account of being screwed up, but yet not too ruined for my purposes.

Scraped and cleaned

The basic coach turned up missing a door and other small bits, none of which were a concern to me. And so it got a wash, the decals removed with lighter fluid and then a second more intense wash before it was time for turning the thing into something worthy of the wasteland highways.

All white now...

I went into the build with only the vaguest idea of what I wanted the thing to look like, being more inspired by the parts that I was able to find in the bits box and where they seemed to fit. Once I was happy with the look, I gave it a cheap rattle-can prime with black and then a heavy zenithal white.

Red and blotchy, like a politician's complexion...

All it took was a couple of coats of red acrylic craft paint to get the basic colour down, and then a tour around the bus with other colours to define the details a little better. Being rough at this stage helped to add to the ruined feel of the bus, and I knew that there was some heavy weathering and washing to come in the next stages.

Politics, Cthulu Mythos style

I needed something to write on the side of the bus, but recreating the original slogan seemed to be pretty unimaginative and likely to fly up the arses of people that were on both sides of the Brexit debate, and so I settled on something more in keeping with the post-apocalyptic style of the thing:

"We sacrifice 350 million souls to Cthulu every day. Why not Ai! Shub Niggurath instead?"

For the record, this is supposed to be a bit of fun - not a political statement!

I finished the bus off by weathering it with a dark brown and then a metallic, followed by washing with diluted brown and black acrylic paints and a final dry-brushing with an ivory to bring out the finer details and give the impression of dust.

Let me know what you think, either here or on social media.

Trash Terrain: GENCORP Tower

Legitimate businessman, pillar of the community and all-round swell guy Bugsy Capone indulges the local media while his small and discreet cadre of bodyguards stand watch...

Everything and everyone seems to be about Cyberpunk at the moment, and I'm no exception, loving the combination of neon glare, shiny chrome cybernetics and grimy cityscapes for it all to play out against. There's also some amazing MDF terrain out there that adds a wonderful Brutalist aspect to the whole scene too and the mere sight of it makes my palms go sweaty.

Trash Terrain: Spaceport Landing Pad

Agents of a Rogue Trader rendevous with a pilot returning from an advance scouting mission atop a remote landing pad...

 A couple of months ago, my neighbour (who keeps on seeing my various projects being put out to dry in our shared back yard) asked me if I could use a circular metal tray that had been inside of his cooker and was now destined for the bin. I immediately thought of the landing pads that I had seen on sale from various companies and for various different prices, and wondered if it could be the basis of something similar.

Trash Terrain: Cyberpunk Nightclub - "The Chibified Assassin"

Andre & Engels were known to moonlight as bouncers in the downtown sprawl when tag matches were scarce...

A little while back I dropped a quite popular blog post about some Hostile Environment Hab Pods that proved quite popular (and which you can read here) and so, as I'd always intended to do more builds in a similar vein, I kept my eyes open for something similar the next time I was in the shop where I found the original materials.

Trash Terrain: Garage/Lockup/Hideout...

 

Cops mount a night raid on the Punks at what they thought was a secure location...

A while back I posted about a garage that I made from a Star Wars Micro Machines Action Fleet pod-racer playset, which seemed to be quite well received. Even at the time I was on the lookout for more stuff from the same range in order to make similar terrain pieces. I landed a couple, but for some reason they sat on the to do pile for a couple of months before I found the time and motivation to finish one of them off.

Trash Terrain: Nerf Cooling Tower

Urban Explorers encounter Rad-Zombies within the Exclusion Zone

Nerf guns were never something that I personally owned, probably because I became old and fossilised by the time they were doing the rounds. Sure, I picked a couple up in charity shops at times and had a go at painting them up to look like something that you might find on the set of a Sci-Fi TV show. But I never actually set out to buy one, let alone amass an armoury of the things either.

Trash Terrain: Hostile Environment Hab-Pods

A tense mercenary band scopes out an abandoned scientific outpost...

I'm always seeing really nice stuff that other people are building on their blogs and social media posts, often out of the most unlikely and ingenious things that they find lying around the place. And to be honest, it makes me jealous and gives me the kind of itchy palms that can only be relived by doing the same thing myself.

Trash Terrain: Sci-Fi Garage/Pit Stop

Panzer Frau: "Don't worry about me needing to stop for repairs during the race - my co-pilot's already the pits!"
Awooga: "Huh...wha...wait!"

I openly admit to stealing ideas that appeal to me when I see them online or plastered all over social media, and when I saw what one of my favourite bloggers had done with a playset from the Micro Machines Action Fleet range from Star Wars Episode I, I was intrigued.

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: Sanitation Truck

An armed sanitation patrol meets with stiff resistance from local residents not keen on the idea of being forcibly cleansed.

One of my favourite elements of this hobby is the chance to root around in charity shops and other second-hand sources for something that could be converted into a vehicle or piece of terrain for the gaming table. Recently I came across a rather chunky fire truck in just such a place and snapped it up for around a quid (and stumbled across a sealed box of Dark Eldar Wyches for the same price, which was a nice bonus).

Far Corfe: Battle Report - Clash of the Younglings

Chaos ensues as the Cherry Gang decide that, if they can't have the rocket, no one can!

My kids seem to have developed a fascination for watching me work on the various hobby projects that I have on my desk at any one time, wanting to help out when they can and just see what I'm up to when they can't.

I think it's tapped into my daughter Martha's naturally creative streak, and my son Sam is fascinated by the possibilities of freakish characters rendered in miniature, the weird vehicles that go with them and the possibilities of combining the two with various plastic dinosaurs that lurk around the house.

Trash Terrain: The Block House

The Block House: Grim, weathered and off-white.

I've been following for a while and would heartily recommend Iain Wilson's excellent tutorials over at Maelstrom's Edge where he often makes use of gift boxes as the starting point for many of his buildings when making terrain.

It was from these articles that I got the inspiration to have a go at this terrain build, and I also happened to have a few pieces left over from a Maelstrom's Edge Terrain Sprue as well, which ended up making its way into the build.

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.

Far Corfe: "Who rules Bunkertown?!?" - 2018 Year End Round Up

Far Corfe - a rad-scorched wasteland, populated mainly by wastemen...

I haven't really got enough decent pictures to make a proper post for December and the end of 2018, so instead, to capture the true spirit of Far Corfe and its inhabitants, I'm throwing together a collection of odds and ends, featuring stuff that's done and hasn't been photographed very well yet and stuff that's not really finished but still manages to look interesting anyway, all in the hope of getting some attention and convincing people that there might be something worth coming back for in the New Year as well.

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.

Trash Terrain: The Mining Contraption

Flanked by his hastily hired bodyguards, Merrick Mass-Driver negotiates the sale of the mining contraption to a less than convinced local Forgemaster.

I kept on seeing one post after another online where someone had chanced upon something in a charity shop or pound store, then retreated with said discovery to their hobby lair and proceeded to transform it into something that was frankly amazing; and so I decided to keep my eyes open for a chance to do the same.

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.