The Future Belongs to the Mad

Hi folks, yes, the Fury Road reference in the title means that it is our fourth and final vehicle in the Post Apocalyptic car commission.

This one, with it's girt hench engine, I decided was the personal transport of some important gang member and thus has nicer paint and less damage than the others. It can outrun anything else on the road so sees less combat... or something.

I'll be honest, I think this one is the weakest construction of the four. I was trying to get a Zinge engine designed to replace ork trucks (approximate scale 1/35) into a 1/43 scale vehicle. It was just farcically vast and simply would not fit in any satisfying way. Eventually I broke out my post apocalyptic scrap mechanic head and figured a cut-and-shut job on the front would "work". I added an extra set of wheels mainly to hide gaps and did some welded on plates to stabilise the build. Unfortunately I just don't have the scratch building chops to do what I could see in my head so this had to do. Some Russian submachine guns in the headlamps and a random bit of stowage helped the overall effect.

The only classic car colour I hadn't really used is that lovely red that you see on Morse's car. Finding that shade can be tricky but thankfully there is a paint that fits the bill and is good for this one job. Vallejo Model Colour "Red". Just "Red". Nothing else. It's a horrible paint that dries very different to the colour in the bottle and is very, very shiny. I've found no other use for it (it came in a multipack)... but for this, it was perfect. So as usual I rusted the hell out of the car, put the red on and was feeling good.

I decided that the business end needed some fancification, plus, the steel plates down the side needed to be linked to the rest of the build. Black flames that lap over the plates seemed to fit the bill. The tarpaulin on the top gave me some pause. Initially, I thought to have one of those cheap blue jobs, but the blue would have looked horrible against the rest of the scheme. So a camo tarp like you see on survivalist webpages worked better.

And here they all are. I've enjoyed this project, been a lot of fun to flex my converting muscles and with Fury Road being one of my favourite films of the last ten years it's inspired me a bit. I'll almost certainly return to a post apocalyptic setting at some point. I think I want a gang of road warriors of my very own some day. But for now, that's that. Final few Shadows of Brimstone models up soon. Until then

TTFN.

Die Historic on the Fury Road!

It's that time again! Spray yourself chrome and jam the pedal to the metal. It's more Mad Max-esque stuff:

This time we're going for something a little bit more ponderous in appearance. The "breacher", as I've been calling it, is built for all terrain grunt rather than top speed. I like the idea of it being a blocking vehicle or slamming through an enemy's fortifications while the turret gunner keeps them pinned down.

As with all the rest, this starts with an elderly 1:43 kit, a Peugeot this time I think, and some Zinge tracks. I made a frame of thick plasticard rods to replace the axles and attach the tracks to. I had to cut away some of the lower parts of the bodywork to allow the tracks to fit in, likewise, the bonnet needed a hole in it to make the engine fit. I chopped out the boot space and replaced it with a big ol' oil drum in order to make it seem like a fuel-hungry engine was involved in hauling the tracks along. A sort of turret-ey thing with a soviet machine gun and a bit of bent armour plating for an improvised dozer blade finished it off.

The Mad Max series of models has all started the same way, solid layer of rust to begin with, then layer on other colour where it needs it. Here, I decided that a bottle green would go well with the overall tone of the vehicle. I threw a few splashes of colour with the red of the fuel drum and the yellow dozer blade but for the most part? Rust. The interiors are all decked out in various shades of interior trim that seem to fit the era of vehicle.

Speaking of the dozer blade, I figured some sort of road sign-age would help the post-apoc looking cause. I believe these are going to be doing multi-duty across a range of culty type options, including in 40k. So I couldn't do - for example - a big ol' motorway signs for Leigh Delamere services or anything. A "Diversion" sign in a fairly straightforward yellow and black felt pretty universal. I scratched the hell out of it with sponge chipping and then drabbed it further with the dust and dirt so the yellow could be strong without dominating. Worked ok I think.

As usual, the weathering for these was layers and layers of Kursk Earth enamel weathering paint stippled and feathered out to make it seem realistically grimy. Of course, the camera lights eat most of the lovely subtle effect (these all look bang tidy in the flesh) but there's enough left to see how filthy the whole thing is.

Just one more of these to go and the quartet is complete. More Shadows of Brimstone next week though. Until then

TTFN

Ride Eternal, Shiny and Chrome!

Oooorrr, Rusty and Spiked as the case may be...

The minute I knew I was doing a pseudo Mad Max project (I believe these are actually becoming some sort of cultist mobile in 40k) I had to make the hedgehog. I loved that thing and knew I could make a slightly less bonkers version of it.

Starting from a - I think - Citroen of some flavour, I carved away wheel arches (and even whole sections of the front) in order to make the Zinge wheels fit. To the top I added a tank hatch as a fighting platform. Then I started gluing dozens and dozens of plasticard spikes. To make it really like the movie vehicle would have been possible but it would have taken approximately forever and would have made it very delicate as a wargaming model. This is a compromise on the vision.

As with all these vehicles, I started with a solid coat of rust. I already knew that this one would be almost totally lacking in paint so I went a bit further with the rust texturing. More colours of rust for added depth of colour. Then I moved on to the interior. I've left all the body shells unglued initially in order to make it easier to get a rudimentary interior painted. In this case a pale fabric roof and door covering and tan leather seats. I started off getting everything nice and cleanly painted, then dotted spots of darn near every weathering paint I have in order to work some filth in. Once this was done I stippled and streaked with a brush dampened with odourless turps in order to soften the effect and spread the stains in a more naturalistic way.

The hatch, I decided, was scavenged from an armoured vehicle and so added some chipped green paint to the hatch. The end result actually descends into all the rust in a very complimentary way which pleased me no end. Finally I went to town with the dust again. I went a little further than the last one as I pictured this vehicle going off road to overtake and get into position for close assault more often. In my mind's eye there's a lancer standing in that hatch urging his driver closer to a wheel so he can attack.

That's all for today. More Shadows of Brimstone next week before the last two cars get the treatment.

TTFN

Oh What a Day, What a Lovely Day!

Witness me! We're delving into the somewhat high octane world of Mad Max. If you've no idea what I'm talking about watch this, then get the film*, watch that, then come back. I don't mind. I'll wait...

My client had four venerable Hauler 1:43 car kits and wanted something a bit more grungy... To that end I did some cutting and chopping, fitted various resin wheels and engines and a few more plastic bits lying around to the four vehicles coming up:

Seen here in very much work in progress mode. Final results will vary.

This first one is, I believe, a Citroen Traction Avant of some kidney but do not quote me on that. I am bad at cars. I envisioned it as a recon vehicle of some kind, big ol' searchlight picking out intruders into territory or something. Tanks of something nitro-like plugged in to the engine to get it out of dodge fast.

Painting wise, I knew this one was going to be black. Almost all the cars of this type I've seen are black and I confess, the black plastic of the kit inspired me a bit too. First step was getting a very grey car - yes, I know, it still is grey, but that's grey with dust, not just grey... honest - by using a series of progressively lighter shades with German Grey mixed into the black. Then I used a glaze of black ink mixed with matt varnish and airbrush thinner to knock it back to black. The rest of the metalwork basically went rust coloured.

On top of the general rust and grime there was some battle damage to take care of. Bullet holes were taken care of in my usual way. The crumpled fender was achieved in a similar fashion, heat the plastic with a lighter then mangle it with needle nose pliers. Job done. These got chips, scratches and just bare metal painted on and then rust colours used to weather it down again. Finally, it was time for muck.

I used Ammo's enamel weathering paints for this, they're just the best way to get dust and grime on models. I've not found anything better for the task. It's the way you can muck around with them using odourless turps or white spirit without affecting the acrylic coat beneath. Kursk Earth got liberally splodged on and then feathered out with stipples of odourless turpentine. Jobs a good un.

That's all for today, but obviously there are three more of these Mad Max vehicles to come so watch this space.

TTFN

*Yes, I know, there are other Mad Max films. But hey, Fury Road is my favourite and doesn't give Mel Gibson more money...