While roaming around Adepticon, I happened to see After the Apocalypse at Michigan Toy Soldier’s both and decided to take a peek. Seeing as how I paint post-apocalypse miniatures and terrain for Fallout Wasteland Warfare, the subject was immediately of interest. A quick flip-through showed me that it had some pretty cool dioramas in it and that it could be worth a purchase. Once I decided I wanted to start consuming more of the hobby content out there, I noticed that After the Apocalypse is fairly hard to find in the US. I only found two sources and one of those was quite a bit cheaper than the other so I went ahead and grabbed it.
Contents – I spent $32 to buy this magazine from Fantasy Figures International which is a British publication. It contains 81 pages and a couple pages of ads. As far as I can tell, every miniature in this magazine is 1/35 scale. There is a bit of a mix between zombie post-apocalypse and what they call “Stalker” subjects. I wouldn’t have guessed that that old PC game would be so influential and I would call them Chernobyl-inspired scenes but that’s just me.
Here is a look at the various articles with some concise thoughts on them.
Introduction – This set a nice tone for After the Apocalypse. The author gives some thoughtful reasons for why this magazine is timely (including COVID, which was still prevalent at the time of writing) which was impressive and made me want to read more. Very few introductions in books have that effect on me so this is praiseworthy.
Search and Destroy – Two zombie focused dioramas with some text that describes the various products used to make them. An example of this is pictured above. As you can see, this is not a step-by-step tutorial and mostly has info on what products were used to make the diorama. Though there is some info on the paints used for particular parts of the dio.
The Future no Longer Belongs to us – A diorama that features a scratch built vehicle which features on the cover. There is a lot of impressive scratch building in this article and it is certainly a creative diorama too.
The New Tokyo Harbour – A smaller diorama that incorporates inspiration from Blade Runner and Asian locales as well. Like the previous articles, there is some info on paints used and how things were created for the dio.
The Bunker – This one threads the needle between a diorama and vignette in my opinion. This article and diorama was very inspiring for me and serves as an effective ad for Alternity Miniatures whose products are featured regularly throughout.
The Factory – An incredibly large and ambitious diorama that many hobbyists can only dream of. The modelmaker used a lot of real-life items that ground this diorama in reality. This project demonstrates how you can creatively use diorama parts from historical miniatures and repurpose them for the post-apocalypse.
Gallery – This section highlights a number of post-apocalyptic vignettes. The quality of many of these is very high and so it is inspiring to thumb through. This section is more about the pictures than text as each one only gets a paragraph.
Tank Boy – An article that describes how Alternity Miniatures creates their miniatures from the initial concept to sculpting to box art.
An Unexpected Treasure – This diorama has some Sci-Fi influences and maybe even a bit of anime too. Featuring multiple subjects and vehicles, it is another one that is impressively ambitious.
Production quality – The pictures are excellent quality and show off the modelmakers’ work very well. The text has been carefully edited and while I believe many of the authors speak English as a second language, you’d never know from reading this. I appreciate the attention to detail because other hobby publications are not translated as effectively. I’ll talk more about this in later reviews but if you’ve read some of the other hobby books or magazines out there, you’ll likely already know what I’m talking about.
Value to hobbyists? – There are two components to ponder when it comes to value. The first is the actual cost. Is $32 a fair price for a magazine, albeit one with high production values? I would tend to say no and I knew when I bought this, that there was a decent chance that I would feel the cost does not justify the contents. I want to preface this by saying, After the Apocalypse might be cheaper in European markets so if you reside there and you can get this for say $20, I think it is a better value.
As a result of the high price, I had a little bit of a rollercoaster of emotions as I read After the Apocalypse. When I received it and flipped through it, I felt like this was indeed a bad purchase and wasn’t as inspired as when I saw it at Adepticon. However, when I read it and looked over the pictures, my feelings changed. The real value and reason to buy this magazine is hobby inspiration. The dioramas might spark an idea for you and they definitely give you ideas for who sells accessories that you might want to use in your own work. You won’t find detailed tutorials or painting advice in After the Apocalypse which some people might find disappointing. For example, this magazine won’t help you learn how to handle chipping even though many of the dioramas have it.
Ultimately, how you evaluate the dioramas is completely subjective so its hard to say how much you will get from this magazine. In my opinion, many of the hobbyists featured here are really good at painting vehicles and maybe less experienced with painting figures. Though having said that, so many of the miniatures are in heavy coats and gas masks that it isn’t easy to do something too creative or impressive with that sort of miniature. For me, I preferred the vignettes in the Gallery and The Bunker project because they were scaled down and something I could reasonably complete in a month or two. While I’ve made a diorama or two, I did so at a smaller scale so I’m not overly familiar with 1/35 scale and would find taking on a large diorama at that size a bit daunting. Other hobbyists may find the larger and more ambitious dioramas to be their speed and really enjoy those parts of the magazine.
Final Thoughts – After the Apocalypse could be a great source of inspiration for anyone interested in the post-apocalypse and dioramas. There aren’t really any competitors to this one-off magazine but I hope we’ll see more post-apocalyptic content like this in the future. I hope that reading my review gave you a good idea of what the magazine contains and that it helps you make an informed decision before you purchase it. It’s a shame that the cost is so high because I feel like at $15-20, it is a pretty good value and would be easy to recommend to anyone, including those with a casual interest in the genre. Since this is a magazine, I anticipate that it won’t be reprinted and will become hard, if not impossible to find so you may want to act quickly if this publication is of interest.
Kuribo's Painting 
The Eastern Europen Stalker aesthetic (also see Metro 2033) seems to be very influential on the Western European post-apoc community, no matter the medium….. movie, novel, larp, pc game or tabletop wargame.
I am a big fan of it. I enjoyed the Metro 2033 and Metro 2034 novels although I never played the PC games. As an American veteran it is fascinating to me to see post-apoc from a Russian perspective. It really brings into focus the universal issues facing humanity.
And the Stalker tabletop skirmish game is really quite good from what I have read and seen.
Magazines like the one you have reviewed are brilliant for inspiration for those less inclined to find inspiration online. Especially these days. In the past the “Z” on the helmet of one figure would not have bothered me but it does now given current events.
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Metro 2033 is actually the perfect example of a game that is bigger than S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was and would be a better namesake in my opinion. I’ve only played one of the Metro games and it was good. It is missing something to be a great game but the environments and the post-apocalyptic world do come to life nicely, especially how everyone lives underground in the subway stations.
Is the Stalker tabletop game, Zona Alfa? I don’t know a ton about it but I’ve heard people like it as well.
I completely agree that magazines can still be a great source of inspiration and there are more out there than you would think. As far as the Z goes, I had to look it up because I didn’t know the meaning. This diorama would have been done before the conflict in Ukraine occurred if that helps any. It is certainly fair to say that that part of the diorama hasn’t aged so well too.
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Yes, Zona Alfa… I keep thinking of it as Stalker and forget it’s actual name. I have a copy of it and hope to actually play it one day. There have been some great threads about it on the Lead Adventure Forum.
I wanted to add, thanks to Brexit getting British products is neither as easy nor inexpensive as it once was for those of us on the continent.
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I’m sure that Zona Alfa would be a rules system that would appeal to me. I could probably even use some Fallout stuff with it, if I wanted. With that said, I’d be surprised if I have the time and energy to add any new games to my collection for a while. I have too much in my backlog as it is.
I didn’t think about Brexit influencing pricing. Even Spanish made products are more expensive here in the States but Brexit could make UK stuff even higher. I can only hope that gets sorted out eventually so we can enjoy lower prices again.
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A great review Jeff, with some great looking dioramas and vignette’s, wouldn’t be a magazine that I would have looked at, as I tend to buy how to books instead to add to the skill sets I can use.
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Thanks for the kind words and for giving it a read, Dave. I honestly don’t know how easy this magazine is to find. Its definitely not easy to find in the US though I would think that is less the case in the UK and maybe even Europe as a whole. I will be looking at some other magazines down the road so hopefully those will be interesting to you too.
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Some nice stuff there, Jeff! 🙂 If you mostly pleased with it then it was worth getting!
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Its definitely inspiring to flip through so I’ll hang onto it for that reason alone. Thanks for giving this a read, John! 🙂
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Looks like a nice set of dioramas! I do find what you said about 1:35 and other historical vehicle display painters is true. They’re amazing at vehicles but relatively weak at figure painting. Which is funny because we tend to be the other way! I supposed it’s what you’re used to.
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There are definitely some nice ones and plenty of variety in the magazine as well. I think you’re right that we’re great at what we practice regularly and less so at other things. I didn’t want to sound overly critical of the hobbyists in regards to this either because I know that if I painted a vehicle, mine probably wouldn’t be as good as what they can do.
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Having dabbled in historical style vehicle modelling it’s basically an entirely different discipline. It’s pretty fun, but very few transferable skills I’d say (airbrush being the main exception, if you happen to use airbrush for figure painting)
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I can believe it. It is a side of hobby that I’m not very familiar with but I respect their skills and I’m sure they do the same with us even if we’re very different 🙂
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A very thought provoking magazine regarding dioramas, similar to what I do with model railroad magazines, or military modeling. Looking forward to where it leads you with a Fallout diorama.
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Most definitely. Inspiration can keep you fueled up in our hobby so things like this are well worth our time and money, I figure. Truthfully, I’ve been leaning more towards some kind of diorama or display piece that channels a bit of The Last of Us where things are overgrown and instead of dry and dusty like Fallout. I don’t mind the idea of a zombie one either if I find some miniatures that inspire me.
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Last of Us themed diorama? Yes please! Could use your ruined overpass piece of terrain.
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That’s a good thought! We’ll see what I can come up with in the next few months.
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Nice write-up! I think the internet has us pretty good at this point for how-tos on specific techniques and tutorials, so the magazine having a focus on being a showcase of Stalker-ish models is perfectly fine. Think of it as a model equivalent of an art book. I used to love reading(?) through the Tamiya catal;ogues when I was young as they were always filled with exquisitely painted models and dioramas.
As far as teminology goes, the first two S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games predate the first Metro ones by one and several years, and the games are how these series came to be known and popularised in the west – much like the Witcher franchise.
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Thanks, mate and I agree that it isn’t a fault of the magazine for not having many tutorials. I mostly wanted anyone interested in this magazine to know what they are and are not getting for the price. I also agree that seeing beautiful models or dioramas is value that stands on its own.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. definitely came first but I don’t remember there being as much casual interest as there is in the Metro series though I could be wrong. It was a long time ago now when I would see S.T.A.L.K.E.R. on store shelves which makes me feel old.
Appreciate the comment and its always a pleasure to hear your thoughts!
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Absolutely valuable knoeledge for people to know in advance of buying something like this (especially for the price!)
I guess it might depend on circles – I heard a lot about Stalker in the day, and then Metro was the “it’s like Stalker” series that came later, though I’d agree that it would be more well-known these days, especially to younger audiences.
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Agreed and I think you’re right on why Metro is the bigger series. I didn’t realize Stalker came out in 2007. I thought it was a few years before that but I was mistaken! Sometimes the way we (or in this case, I) remember things isn’t exactly the way they went 🙂
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Some great craftsmanship on display in that mag for sure.
What’s the difference between a diorama and a vignette? The size?
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For sure. Scratch builders always impress me. My brain just doesn’t work that way, unfortunately.
I think size is definitely one difference. I think of vignettes as tending to have one or two subjects where dioramas can have many. Dioramas tend to be larger, have more subjects, contain more of a background or environment, and be focused on storytelling.
With that said, I’ve seen people call vignettes dioramas so I don’t think the label is overly important. Games Workshop doesn’t have a vignette category at Golden Demon for example, only a diorama one.
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Looking around online, the mag costs 20 quid in the UK. I’m assuming the high cost is down to the production values and lack of advertising. But saying that, it looks like a great source of inspiration for your post-apoc models and scenery and that factory diorama is just outstanding.
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It has 20 quid on the cover so that tracks. I bet its much easier to find in the UK too. I would guess that a small number of specialty stores in the States imported a few copies. I couldn’t agree more on the quality of the dioramas. The dios use a lot of skill that I’m deficient in, so its easy to admire them!
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Oh and when I googled “after the apocalypse magazine” this post is the top result 🙂
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Wow, that’s a nice surprise! I didn’t try especially hard to get the SEO right but hopefully if people want to know about this magazine they’ll stumble across this very article 🙂
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Definitely looks like a good one to get for inspiration in painting your Fallout game. We played a SciFi rpg years and years ago called Alternity, but I don’t think it has any relation to this miniature line. Could be wrong though!
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Oh, I also don’t think I ever played Stalker. But I’m usually pretty out of the loop with computer/video games.
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Talking about it kind of makes me want to check it out though I just watched a couple minutes of gameplay on Youtube and that changed my mind. It looks a little bland both in the environments and the enemies.
It seems like you kill a lot of regular humans which you can do in just about every FPS out there.
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Yea, I was intrigued but only if it was an rpg. When every computer game being released was another FPS, that’s when I really lost interest. Luckily gems like Civ and others have kept coming out, so there is always something to play. I have such a backlog of games on Steam, that I could be busy way into retirement! 😖
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Unfortunately, it is an RPG with some looting to it. I think Fallout is a much more inspired choice but I’m biased! I suspect that if I ever have children, then I will be in the exact situation you describe. Its a scary thought!
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Yea, kids (and my work) really eat into my free time. That’s why I like to find hobbies like boardgames, that I can share with them. I think my daughter is starting to become a bit more interested in mini painting as well.
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I can believe it and that’s great to hear. I look forward to “Lil’ Faust’s” blog starting up soon! 😉
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The dioramas are less of a dusty wasteland than Fallout but still plenty of great ideas and it is a nice reminder of how much more I have to do with Fallout terrain and bits and bobs too. I wonder if the Alternity RPG inspired the miniatures at all? Their minis aren’t very Sci-Fi but by sharing the same name, its hard to believe that its just a coincidence!
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Alternity minis are from overseas though? I just double checked the rpg and it was actually published by TSR in 1998. I thought it was a different game company (wrong!). 1998 I think was about the same year we got it and started playing it too, so that makes sense. Possible there was some inspiration, though I imagine WotC would probably fight that
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Yes, it seems like the owner of Alternity is Italian and I’m assuming that he’s based there (though that might be a dangerous assumption!). Their website and even how they take orders is definitely different. I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything like it. The RPG absolutely predates that miniatures company by a decade or two then!
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