Introduction: Upscaling Maximum Apocalypse With Custom Tokens

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I love board games, and find that they are a great way of bringing people together. However some games has elements that annoys me so much that I just can't leave it.

The latest one was the Kickstarter game Maximum Apocalypse, which is a wonderful game that I enjoy immensely. However I find the ammo and gas can tokens absolutely horrible which results in me ranting about them every time I play the game.

Therefor I wanted to make some new custom tokens to replace them.
I had the following requirements for the tokens:

  • They had to be relatively cheap
  • Be easy to make, as I needed to make a bunch
  • Functional, they have to be playable without breaking

I had initially planed on just find some cheap models of ammunition and gas cans on Aliexpress and then just paint and finish them. While I did find a suitable gas can model, I was unfortunately unable to find any ammunition models that I liked or was cheap enough for this project. Therefor after getting an SLA 3D printer as an anniversary present I decided to just design and print my own.

In this Instructable I will show the two approaches I took for creating my custom Maximum Apocalypse game tokens.

Supplies

Tools

  • Paint tools, brushes etc.
  • Fine sanding paper or file
  • Exacto or snippers
  • Access to an SLA printer (Optional)

Supplies

  • Model paints (Red, Brass, Copper, Black, Silver)
  • A clear mat finish
  • Model putty e.g. green stuff
  • Model tokens (ammo & gas can)

Step 1: Preparing the Token Models

Gas cans

The gas can models I decided to use I found on Aliexpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32735538396.html and came in sets of 6 which was perfect as I needed 12 to replace all the original tokens.

They were relatively cheap and they looked great on the sellers page.

However, once I received the models I was surprised to see that there were a lot of imperfections as well as being just a bit smaller then I would have liked. Because of the game having a post apocalyptic setting, I was able to make some of the imperfections look like wear and tear, but I had to fill some holes and imperfections with a model putty and smooth it out using some fine sandpaper

I am very sorry, but I forgot to take pictures of this part of the process.
I also wanted to note, that if you have access to an SLA printer, then I would recommend just printing some gas cans instead of buying the models e.g.: Jerry Can 20L.

Ammo clips

I wanted to design the ammo tokens to look like a stripper clip for an old Lee Enfield rifle, but found that single line of bullets was to fragile, so I had to add an additional row to make it sturdy enough for playing.

I sliced the model using PrusaSlicer. Nothing fancy was done to print the models, just added them at a slight angle and made sure that the supports only attached to the bottom of the model, this made it fast and easy to snip them off and sanding them clean.

I then used my Prusa SL1 to print two batches of 20 pieces

In hindsight I should have printed three batches as with the expansion the number of ammo tokens reaches 50

I have released the model which can be found here Ammo tokens for Maximum Apocalypse

Step 2: Giving the Tokens Character

The paint job on the tokens was pretty basic and straight forward as I didn't want to use a lot of time making the tokens.

I had originally planed to use an airbrush so I could paint all the base colors of the tokens at once, but unfortunately I couldn't get my airbrush to work, so I had to use a regular brush and paint them individually by hand

The gas can token I painted in a Dragon red, using a Shining silver to dry brush some of the edges and for making some dents and scratches.

For the ammo token I used a Brass for the bullet casing, True copper for the bullet and the Shining silver for the clip.

Just for kicks, I added a little red 'incendiary' tip to some of the ammo tokens.

After painting all the tokens, I gave them a coat of clear mate finish to protect the paint job while weathering.

Step 3: Weathering and Finishing

Again to save time I decided to just do a simple black wash, specifically a ready to use Dark tone wash.

You could just take some black paint and thin it, that would work just as well.

I gave all the tokens a quick and dirty wash just to take a bit of the shine of and making the edges a bit softer, finalising the post apocalyptic look.

Finally I gave all the tokens 3 heavy coats of clear mate finish to make sure that the paint wouldn't rub off while playing with the tokens.

I have added a couple of before and after shots of the tokens, with the originals on the left and the new custom tokens on the right.