SCATTER!

What's occurrin'?

I've been immersing myself in the fascinating area of our hobby known as scatter terrain. What diversity! Loads of inspirational sites visited but as usual frugality won the day. I found some excellent tutorials on an old scenery forum called Terragenesis. I don't know if any of you are aware of it,  go check it out, a fantastic resource of D.I.Y. scenery. As well as the D.I.Y. stuff I've made another attempt at card modelling using some free to download printouts. Although printer ink is more expensive than champagne, nine times more, hardly frugal. Saying that you can still get a decent amount out of one cartridge.

Before we move on to the meat of the post, let's not forget our usual enrichment. The cultural quest continues this time with another fine example of Savage zombie's work. It's called Zombie Doodle. Wow, if only I could doodle this well! The flies are a lovely touch. Enjoy!

ZOMBIE DOODLE!

So, first of all my tiny collection of vehicles got a "crap" wash. Gives them a real world grime coat and makes them look less like toys.

PRISON SEEMS TO BE LETTING OUT EARLY?

A very important first step in this process is to give them a coat of matt varnish. I used a cheap acrylic brush on varnish from a local discount store. It stops the wash just sliding off. Don't worry about being too tidy at this first stage as any brush marks etc. just add to the effect at the next stage. I didn't even bother to mask the windows, although that might improve the look of a vehicle your band of survivors are going to use regularly.

IS THIS AN ILLEGAL CHOP SHOP?

I then mixed my "crap" wash. Taking an empty paint pot, I put in a little black paint, then added some dark brown emulsion from a tester pot. These were only small amounts of paint, a brushful of black and two of brown. The pot was then filled with water and shaken vigourously for a minute.

SPORTSCAR IN THE APOCALYPSE? REALLY?

Put plenty of newspaper down and slap the "crap" all over the vehicles. Leave to dry. Further coats can be added until you are happy with the desired effect. Although these only got one coat. Because of the matt varnish the "crap" wash covers stickers equally as well as the bodywork!

THAT'S A FUCKING BIG SUV!

Moving on from the vehicles, let's get to the scatter terrain proper. These dumpsters were free to download (of course) from the Combat Storm website. Assembled as instructions. To make them sturdy enough to contend with the rigours of gaming and storage they were stuck to "credit" card plastic bases. Which were then sanded, painted and flocked.

FEATURING COMPULSORY DUMPSTER PORN. LOW RES MIND.

Various details were added. The pallets were made from coffee stirrers and matchsticks, following an excellent tutorial article on Terragenesis (the old site) by Snitchy the Dog. I sculpted the rubbish (trash) bags from greenstuff, they look a lot better now they are painted.

A BLUE DUMPSTER.

The other bits and pieces are from the bottomless "bits" box, mostly 40K stuff. I also used some of the boxes from the stack I had previously downloaded by the amazing papercrafter Tommygun. Posters used were kindly provided by The Tollman.

A PALE DUMPSTER.

This final one was made by cutting the shapes of a dumpster from plain black card, using the downloads as a template. Apart from that, the same process was used to build it. A lot more wear and tear was painted on this one, it was really plain.

A NAUGHTY DUMPSTER.

A few side on shots of the dumpsters to better show the added details!

A ROW OF DETAILED DUMPSTERS.

It's worth mentioning the silver fuel barrel below. Made from paper and wire, again following a superb tutorial found on Terragenesis. This one is by bug_bait. I've made a bit of a production line of them now. Same with the pallets.

MORE DETAIL PORN.

A small barricade, useful for blocking alleys and such. Toy car, old Tamiya fuel drum, cut glue sticks, kitchen roll and some simulated barbed wire.

MAN THE BARRICADES!

More free to download card terrain. Vending machines from Tommygun. I think this is known as "street furniture" by the cool kids.

GRAB AN ICE COLD COKE AND SHUT THE FUCK UP!

Finally, more boxes. Boxes are a bit like zombies, you can never have too many of them. These little ones are really fiddly. A new method using old photo's has vastly improved the performance of these free to download printouts. All by Tommygun again.

BOXES, BOXES EVERYWHERE! FOUSANDS OF 'EM.

I guess that's all I got for this time dudes and dudettes. So until next time, follow in the DUDE'S wake and "take her easy".