More Street Furniture (2)

A handful of street furniture models and a couple of cash bags useful as objective markers.

(Left/centre) - trash cans, mail box, concrete bench; all Megaminis
(Left) - cash bags; bonus bits courtesy Pulp Monsters (not in current production)
(Middle) - blue newspaper vending machines; RAFM USX Moderns range
(Centre/Right) - mail boxes, fire hydrants; Black Cat

Of the Megaminis, RAFM and Black Cat stuff, the Megaminis is easily best for quality of sculpt and casting, and does well for value also, so I highly recommend them. RAFM suffered for mould slippage and lack of surface detailing, while the Black Cat stuff was all badly cast (the mail boxes are resin, the fire hydrants are metal).

See the small image (left) for scaling of the Megaminis stuff alongside a couple of Pulp City minis.

More Street Furniture/Scenery

Here are a few painted up example of stuff I use in games which can be picked up and thrown as well as being used as cover. There are also links to sellers.


This dumpster is from Old Crow Models as part of the Ainsty range that Old Crow acquired. It isn't currently listed in the catalogue, but you can always contact Old Crow by email and Jez should reply within a couple of working days. For those who may be curious, the dimensions are (h) 36mm (w) 40mm (d) 28mm.


These vending machines are also Old Crow/Ainsty, under the Vacant Lot section (codes 5922 and 5923). I didn't trust myself to do freehand logos so they are a little blank for the time being.


It may not be apparent immediately, but the green fronted machine is bow-fronted (2 in a pack, code 5923); (h) 32mm (w) 19mm (d) 13mm. The other two - red and blue - are flat-fronted (2 in a pack, code 5922); (h) 33mm (w) 19mm (d) 15mm. The Old Crow stuff is generally well cast with often little cleaning of mould lines etc, so I am always happy to buy from them.


These crates are just simple resin pieces (with separate lids for the larger ones) from Atenociti's Workshop, an online retailer focused on offering all sorts of scenery bits. The crates may look old fashioned for an 80's set game, but they offer something quick and easy to both place on the table for a modicum of cover as well as improvised missiles for Supremes able to throw stuff around. The small crates are (h) 14mm (w) 14mm (d) 14mm, the large are (h) 19mm (w) 20mm (d) 20mm. There is no detailing on one facing (the 'bottom').

Paper Terrain (papercraft scenery)

While building up both my minis as well as the stuff I need to populate my tabletop, I have happened on some examples of papercraft terrain that is available. Some of this stuff is free and so may be useful to gamers needing to fill out a modern 'urban' battlefield.

Here are some of the main suppliers of useful modern-urban downloadable models that I have found so far, and a couple do some freebies.

Basic Urban Terrain

Fat Dragon Games - under the 'Free Stuff' tab are a few download links. Of particular note amongst these is the January 2008: Gridless streets and rooftops for E-Z Heroes, which includes a straight, t-junction and crossroads with road markings. Fat Dragon also do a pack called E-Z Heroes for $9.99; the description reads:

EZ-HEROES lets you convert any box into a 3D map for your click base hero miniature game. You get full color 300dpi pages of various brick and wall styles, numerous windows and doors, automobiles, business signs, roof access structures, fire barriers, smoke barriers and plenty of 1.5" gridded ground textures like concrete and streets to make your city. Set includes over twenty five pages of models and a full color instruction manual.

Microtactix - offer 3 free sample buildings, which can be found by looking through their products on offer via the catalogue links (the buildings are a deli, pizza shop and TV and Radio store); one of these (TV shop) can easily be modified from two-storeys to become 3 or more storeys. In addition, the deli features a small roof access and air conditioning unit which can possibly be used to modify the other two buildings. Thus, with the three free buildings a few small footprint buildings can be created with some variation of height. The catalogue is less clear than Fat Dragon's offer, but there are currently 3 packs of buildings for Twilight Street. Fans of more abstracted building may prefer the Dirt Cheep Cityscape that is available. This is the blurb for one of the Twilight Street sets:

Twilight Street Heroic Scale has seven big and beautiful new building kits (eight, counting the free preview set) plus billboards, awnings, water tower, street lights, and three full pages of custom signs! Also included is a complete set of customizable street tiles with the standard 1 1/2 inch square grid used in most click-base games! Now your superheroes can work the dark, grim side of the city with Twilight Street Heroic Scale!

The good news is that with just the free stuff available, a printer and enough materials (paper, and optionally card and/or foam card), it is relatively easy to assemble a small cityscape. If buying a pack, many more options are opned up, and in this the Fat Dragon offer seems better organised and probably better value than Microtactix.

World Works Games - Modern ranges; a selection of sub ranges. There looks to be some very cleverly designed products offering more than just simple boxes. There are also 'kitbashes' devised by product users.

The Virtual Armchair General - Mean Streets range; can be bought ready printed or as PDFs. Very 1920's/1930's era feel to the models. They do some sets of buildings so a good look around the site may be of help.

Canon: craftown - some potentially useful buildings and vehicles here. They may be a little too pristine and clean for some tastes, as well as being very basic, but a nice if small selection of vehicles is on offer for free.

Illinois Historic Preservation Agency: build your own Main Street - some HO scale downloads that could possibly be scaled up in printing to be of suitable scale.


Street Furniture/Small Scenic Pieces

MegaMiniatures - Megaminis offers some pretty inexpensive pdf's via the link, including 5 different vehicles kits, as well as crates, dumpsters and vending machines.

Tommygun - this link leads to Warseer, an independent Games Workshop oriented site. In amongst the various threads is one by Tommygun. This is his blurb:

The purpose of this log is to distribute free printable terrain items for use on terrain boards or on models.
Items like boxes, posters and anything you can use as props.

Have a good look through his stuff, you may be surprised at the sheer quantity of items he has created. It will mean working through a few pages of the thread, but it should be worth it for gamers looking for modern papercraft terrain.

GermsWorld - does some basic 25mm urban building PDFs in a 'shoebox' style (with lift off lids), as well as a street furniture PDF.

Jim's printable Minis - offers a variety of decorative items for interiors (everything from offie supplies to home entertainment, as well as pizza boxes etc), as well as some US road signs.

Toposolitario.com - offers some ISO-style containers (sci-fi influenced), as well as a warning signs pdf.

RavensBlight Toy Shop - a couple of spooky buildings, as well as a car PDF which should be suitable if printed at about 50% size I think.


I have not so far used papercraft terrain, but for various reasons I may soon do so, so in searching for good stuff, and in doing so trying to keep costs as low as possible, the above links are the best of what I found. If anyone has experience with any of these creations, or has links of their own, please comment offering your insights - it may help another gamer who happens by.

While I am waiting...

I am awaiting some new Pulp City minis to arrive, hopefully soon, depending on the vagaries of both the Polish and UK postal services. I have plenty I could be painting, but glancing over my right shoulder to my figure cabinet reveals a small horde of unpainted models...

Never one to actually keep on top of my miniature painting, I tend to drift from model to model somewhat, finishing models sometimes months after starting them. Other times I will try to paint something quickly just to 'get it done'. I imagine I am not the only one - or do I hope that I am not the only one? I accept more modelling discipline could be 'a good thing'.

Anyhow, a package arrived this morning from the US. Inside were some 'street furniture' type models I had ordered a few weeks ago from Megaminis in the US. For my Pulp City games I have been trying to gather more and more scenery that fits the street furniture label (fire hydrants, trash cans, lamp-posts, mail boxes, newspaper vending machines, payphones etc). To this end I have tried a few manufacturers and here are my thoughts on those I have sourced from:

Megaminis: ostensibly 25mm; nicely cast and sculpted for what they are, with just enough surface detail. I ordered lamp-posts, and a mixed pack (fire hydrants, bench, payphones, trash cans, mail box, newspaper vending machines). Almost everything scales well and looks 'right' for my needs. The biggest weakness may be the hydrants which look small, however it could be that those from other manufacturers are in fact oversized. Megaminis appears to have a pretty comprehensive range, and for those who are interested their lamp-posts measure 85-90 mm approximately (3 1/4 to 3 1/2"). Highly recommended. Their shop is on ebay, but other stockists may be able to help I think. White metal. USA.
RAFM: in their USX Modern Heroes range (under USX miniatures) there are a variety of pieces (including newspaper vending machines, US and Canadian mail boxes, kerb blocks). Not as well cast as Megaminis but nice enough to get some pieces if ordering from them anyway. White metal. Canada.
Fenris Games: a small operation producing mainly resin pieces with a growing range of items useful for modern gaming. I have bought a lot of their sceneic bases which are highly recommended, but the fire hydrants I also bought recently are slightly marred by air bubble holes and some miscasting. Nonetheless a nice company to order from in my experience. They use an ebay shop primarily to sell their products I believe. Resin (mainly). UK.
Old Crow Models: in their Ainsty (under Vacant Lot) line they have all sorts of modern themed resin pieces. Pieces that I have bought and found very useful are the drinks/candy vending machines and a roof-top water tower. I plan to buy more bits from them - and maybe even do the rooftop set-up I have thought about since first seeing their stuff. They do masses of modern orientated pieces including building fronts. Generally well cast and sculpted, and well worth a look. Recommended. Resin. UK.
Black Cat Bases: cheap and cheerful, and really friendly service. However quality of sculpting seems variable, and quality of casting is not very good I am sorry to say. That said, they are relatively inexpensive so they may be worth a look, and they do some pieces I haven't found elsewhere (telephone booths), so it may be worth examining at what they have to offer. Resin and white metal. UK