The Mad Max Two

I'm not a massive fan of the Mad Max franchise. It's not that I don't like it, far from it, it's more that in the realms of cult TV and films that I could be putting time and energy into recreating in miniature, Mad Max isn't at the front of the queue.

In fact, despite attending a few 7TV Apocalypse events, and even getting my ass handed to me by Lord Humongous at one of them, this is only my second post dealing with models painted specifically related to the road warrior and his 'chums'.

The only other thing I've painted has been Max's V8 Interceptor, which was the add on I selected as part of the 7TV Apocalypse Kickstarter. The reason I picked the modular car kit was because the campaign went so well that I also gained some stretch goal models somewhat similar to the Max himself, as seen in the original movie poster (although it's questionable as to whether it's actually Max)  and the Gyro Captain in Mad Max 2.

There was also a kid who appeared in Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome (which I've never actually seen), but I have plans to use him in a different setting.

As stated earlier, the Road Warrior miniature is clearly based on the art of the original movie poster, which I've always assumed to be a representation of Max. However looking more closely at images from the film identifies the character on the poster as being much more similar to Goose, not least because he's wearing a motorcycle helmet.

In terms of painting, he was relatively straightforward, being mainly dressed in black and done with Black Templar contrast paint, then with details picked out in other colours. I've avoided doing the helmet silver, instead I've gone for Apothecary White contrast over Grey Seer with a Blue Horror visor. I've stayed totally clear of the crosshairs that appear on the helmet in the poster, using the excuse that Goose's helmet doesn't have one in the film.

The other character is clearly based on the Gyro Captain, played by Bruce Spence in Mad Max 2. Rather confusingly, Spence also plays Jebediah, who is also a pilot, in Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome. Apparently, they are meant to be different characters despite both having a similar skill set and being played by the same person in the same franchise.

He was mainly painted in Wyldwood contrast paint, again with details being picked out in other colours as appropriate. As ever with Crooked Dice miniatures, painting these two was a pleasure as Crooked Dice avoid extraneous and unnecessary detail and so there are never any tedious fiddly bits.

The road sign, that features in the original film, is a 3d print which was a participation prize given to all attendees at the Dales Wargames 7TV Apocalypse event in 2021. I've also got a couple of 3d prints of Max from Mad Max: Fury Road, but there's only so many guys dressed entirely in black that I can motivate myself to paint at one time.

I've tried to emulate the sign in in the film, but I couldn't get the yellow of the '9' on the top line to stand out as much as I'd like as the recess is too deep. Also, I've not bothered crossing out the 'O' in 'force' and putting a graffiti 'A' above it to make it say 'MAIN POLICE FARCE'. Sue me.

Finally, I've painted up some rough terrain or debris for use in post-apocalyse or sci-fi games. These are simply resin scenic pieces stuck to some MDF 'ponds' from Warbases, painted an liberally sprinkled with scrubland terrain base ready from Geek Gaming Scenics.

Technically, I think these bits of terrain are meant to be representing something from Fallout and I bought them with some more obviously Fallout related terrain which I've yet to get round to. However, they'll work for all sorts settings: Mad Max, Terminator, Fallout, 40k, etc.

So there we are. The maths on my different tallies is beginning to get a bit convoluted. I've obviously painted five more individual models, but I'd listed the terrain in my lead mountain total as seven separate items. On top of this, I've sold three Lord of the Rings miniatures I wasn't going to use and bought another four Carnevale miniatures.

So I think I'm up to date when I say the following:

Acquired: -4

Painted: 27

Lead Mountain: 541