Postapocalyptic Guard

figure build with some small modifications 

figure build with some small modifications 

figure build with some small modifications 

primed in black 

sprayed white from the top. 

started painting 

started painting 

started painting 

started painting 

started painting 

This is how far the work progressed when I decided to create a seperate projekt for her. 

Today i mostly improved the clothes. 

Today i mostly improved the clothes. 

And started with the base. I used a small picture frame and glued a fitting peace of wood in it. Than i applied a thin layer of wood filler. 

I tried something new today. To depict the remains of a road that hasn’t been maintained for several hundred years, I mixed some plaster and poured it onto a glass plate. After it dried, I wanted to lift the plaster slab, break it into pieces, and press them into the top layer of the terrain-building compound to represent the road’s remnants. In real life, grass would quickly grow in the cracks, decompose into soil, and thus cover most of the asphalt. Unfortunately, the attempt to peel it off didn’t work, and the plaster crumbled completely. 

I started building the palisade fence. For this, I used tongue depressors from the pharmacy. I first roughened them up with a wire brush, then split them lengthwise with a scalpel and snapped them to size so the material wouldn’t look like it had been professionally cut. I glued diagonal boards to the inside of the palisade. 

At the joints of the boards, I drilled 0.3 mm holes and glued 0.2 mm pieces of wire into them. Where appropriate, these should protrude on the outside, making it more difficult to climb over the palisade. Unfortunately, it's a surprisingly tedious task. 

The frame for a door was constructed in a similar manner. 

Since the door needs to be fairly light so that it can be raised by hand using just a few pulleys (drop gate), it consists mainly of three layers of reinforcing bars that I cut to size from fly screen mesh and spray-painted irregularly with two shades of brown and one shade of orange. 

To make it clear that these are the remains of a road, a small section of guardrail from Meng is also installed. This was treated in exactly the same way as the reinforcement. 

I also continued working on the figure. This includes the lacing on the pant legs, the top, the headgear, the belt and leg straps, the boots, and further work on the face. I also noticed that the straps on the left thigh had a gap. I attached a small pocket there. 

A quick test setup. Anything that might tip over is held in place with clamps. However, because of the size of these clamps, the figure is standing a bit too high. A guard post above the gate and a small defensive walkway are planned for the coming days. 

I’ve treated the palisade boards with a wash in dark brown, medium brown, or reddish brown to add some variety. Right now, the contrast is way too strong, but hopefully that will even out as the weathering process continues. 

There was glue on the wood in a few spots, and it wouldn't take the wash. I set those spots on fire with a lighter to simulate burn marks from flaming arrows or Molotov cocktails. 

The gate has been fitted with small metal strips for the gate rails (not yet painted), and the first layer of reinforcing bars has been glued in place. A proper fastening is still needed here. 

Work has begun on the guard posts along the palisade. 

During the test fitting, it became clear that the post still protrudes too far beyond the edge of the diorama (see arrow). At the moment, everything is still a bit loose; the floor of the diorama will be raised by about 3–4 mm, and the palisade can then be pressed into the wet filler as a single unit. This makes leveling the height quite easy, and the components are also secured directly. 

Since the figure is still attached to the support, it’s still too high. Other than that, you can definitely see some progress. 

The remaining two layers of rebar and their brackets have been installed—though the brackets still need to be painted. 

The pulleys for the rope were also made at the gate. Each pulley consists of three discs glued onto a shaft, and they actually work. 

The two pulleys on the palisade were also made this way. The first gate rail has also been glued in place. 

After all that fiddly work, it was time for something a bit more rugged. The guardrail was given a coat of chipping fluid, a layer of light gray, and a treatment with a stiff brush. 

After all that fiddly work, it was time for something a bit more rugged. The guardrail was given a coat of chipping fluid, a layer of light gray, and a treatment with a stiff brush. 

The figure is slowly starting to look almost human. I spent a few more hours on the painting and decided to make the crossbow’s string look more realistic. 

The figure is slowly starting to look almost human. I spent a few more hours on the painting and decided to make the crossbow’s string look more realistic. 

The palisade has also been further refined and has been given several coats of oil wash to simulate dirt and rust around the steel parts.
The gate is also almost finished and just needs a few final touches and the rope for lifting it. 

The palisade has also been further refined and has been given several coats of oil wash to simulate dirt and rust around the steel parts.
The gate is also almost finished and just needs a few final touches and the rope for lifting it.
The bullet holes are barely visible on the outside, but on the inside, the wood has splintered nicely. 

I’ve also started building the first small items: a plastic barrel to serve as a makeshift table, two crates for bottles, a few Molotov cocktails, and two quivers. These will be loaded with homemade crossbow bolts, but making them is taking forever. 

Today I made great progress. The palisade fence (and the section of guardrail) have been mounted on the base plate and secured with colour-tinted acrylic texture paste. Unfortunately, the colour faded significantly as it dried; I had actually mixed a darker earth/mud tone.
The incorporated pieces of cardboard are being used to represent the remains of an old road. 

Unfortunately, the crossbow bolts are very time-consuming to make; they consist of 4 parts. I have 6 clamps to hold the shafts in place; it takes me about 20 minutes to glue a spring onto each shaft before the bolts need to sit for a while until the glue has fully cured. So that’s about 10 minutes of work per bolt, plus drying time. I only managed to finish 10 bolts today.
 

The Molotov cocktails are finished. 

After applying earth-colored washes to the ground yesterday—rust-colored around the gate and guardrail, and gray washes on the asphalt sections—to darken them and harmonize the colors, I got started today with the first plants. 

I used grass in various shades and lengths (3–8 mm) and applied small tufts with tweezers and diluted white glue. I’m starting to add the first climbing plants to the fence using Eduard’s grapevines. 

On the inside, where little light reaches and many people walk by, only sparse patches of grass grows, looking somewhat sickly. 

Of course, work on various small parts is still ongoing. 

This week I workt mostly on smal details, e.g the bolts & nuts on the gate, the vegetation... 

... or various small stuff like fixing a box with molotovs and preparing manny other smal things. 

The warning sign was completed today and has been installed. 

I'm still working on a lot of small details. Little by little, the first ones are making their way onto the base plate. Among other things, you can see the mounting bracket for the rope and an oil can here. 

To liven things up a bit, I’ve also started preparing a few animals. I worked with a Black base. 

Than the base colers were applied by airbrush & datails by brush. 

A bit more vegetation & a few more details. 

A bit more vegetation & a few more details. 

Some more details on the inside too. 

E.g. som Place to mix the molotoves... 

or a little animal. 

A few loose bolts, & a lighter on the balcony. 

loose foliage added to palisade and other places where it would get blown by the Wind. 

An unmaned station where the Molotoves are filled. The funnel is eaven working when filled with thinner. 

The rope ladder was difficult to build. There is a rope with a hook to pull up things like the Molotov crates too. 

First version of the stand - not stiff enogh 

stand improved with additional material, works now 

The Background will be installed like that. 

Printed a test vesionon paper, but I have some trouble installing it without wrinkles on the sheet. Here is a company that can print on acrylic glas, I wrote to them if thay also can print on polystyrol or similar.