The Weaponized Cars of the Post Apocalypse

I put together a backdrop for photographing minis. I played around a bit and put my cars on it. Looks great don't you think?

Rat Ogre...the Rat Rod Monster Truck of the Wasteland.

Is there anybody out there? Hope so. I'm back to show off some works in progress shots of my recent Wasteland Car. I'm out of a certain paint I need for a commission, so until I get a refill I started work on this car.

The idea is a replica of the "Bigfoot" car from Mad Max Fury Road. The monster truck that Rictus rides into battle, until it meets an untimely end running over Splendid and wrecking itself on a rocky outcrop.

To make it unique, I'm going with the Rat-Rod look of a rusty car body. My Rictus Erectus is very different from the movie version as well, but really fits the part nonetheless.

Before you can see the first part of the commission I am working on. Lots of Tau to do! But I need to go our and get a new pot of paint. It's the color for the sand on the base, kind of important to make them all uniform there!

Salt Chipping some Wasteland Cars...

The horde goes...

This week I was supposed to get in some wasteland weapons shipped to me. Instead the package got shipped to my neighbor. My neighbor accepted the package, put it on his counter, then went on a week long vacation. Because of this, I was not able to do more assembly of my Half-life Warboys. 

I could have started work on more cars. I have about 5-6 more cars to do, before I start on my Gigahorse and War Rig. But then my real car's AC konked out and I had to get it fixed. While I was at my local boot-leg auto-body shop. I saw these cars...

After seeing these wrecks, I really wanted to try out my painting again. I looked online for how to do rust effects. I found a great youtube video on salt chipping and I decided to give it a try. I went to the store and bought some coarse salt. I mixed it with some regular tablesalt and went to work. 

But I am getting ahead of myself. First you have to paint the under body of the car. I used a bunch of different oranges and browns to get a real rusty car body. I used some foam dabbing techniques, Ryza Rust from GW and even some airbrushing at this stage. 

Once that is done, you wet your miniature and sprinkle salt on it. 

Then you start airbrushing your main colors. 

For these cars, I am going with a white, black and orange-rust color scheme. This will all be contrasted by pale-blue skinned Warboyz. Once all that had dried, I washed off the salt to reveal a beautifully chipped paint job. 

I went back with some highlight colors to outline the chips, just to add some depth. 

They aren't done by any means and I have a lot more cars to do, but here you can see where this army is headed. With any luck, you can come by and see me at the NOVA Open. My warparty will be on display somewhere at the event. Not sure where yet. 

Every Armada Needs a Freaky Dancing Shaman

I really wanted to use the Skaven herding prod from the Warhammer Fantasy starter box. I felt it was appropriately post-apoc and seemed to be a useful weapon for striking enemies from the back of a speeding vehicle. 

I decided to cut the skaven feet and tail off, and I dug through my bits box for human legs. I found some bare foot Victoria Miniature penal legion legs. They were difficult to place right and when I was done. I looked at them and realized the guy looks like he is dancing. 

To reinforce this theme, I gave him a creepy head, a headdress and tilted it to the side. Now when I look at him, I can only see him dancing. 

Fukashima Kamakrazy WARBOYS!

If you're going to do a 40k army right, you simply cannot ONLY have vehicles. But if you're doing a custom army, you can't convert every single one. Thats where resin casting and duplicating comes in handy. Below you can see the warboys that will join the ranks of my Citadel Armada...a tribute to George Miller's masterpiece, Mad Max Fury Road. 

I can't wait to get my hands on these casts so that I can build my horde of crazy-ass warboys.

Victory or Valhalla!

I wanted to show off my current Mad Max car build. This is my version of "Bigfoot", Rictus Erectus' chariot on the Wasteland. I can't wait to get paint on these models but I want to get more of the army assembled before I start painting. I want all the paint to occur at once from August 1st to the NOVA Open.

Fury Road Army Sneak Peak...the Post Apocalypse Monster Truck

Here is a little shot of my current car. I decided it was time to make something big to center my collection in the table top. This model started life as two toy car kits - one monster truck and one 55 chevy wrecker. I took them apart, stripped any paint off of metal parts and started getting them together.

The figures are AoS Bloodreaver conversions and will represent some kind of elite unit in the army. If I am using the Dark Eldar Codex I think they might end up as Hekatrix bloodbrides, not sure. The truck itself will likely end up as a Raider stand-in.

But ultimately I would like to create my own stats for these models.

I've registered for the NOVA OPEN!

I am thinking of joining the Narrative track, probably as a night fighter, but I could go through the warlord track. Its a matter of time commitments though, as I have two kids and I'm local. I will be expected to be a parent for much of the weekend.

Those going to NOVA, what do you guys think? Narrative?

Also, anyone local up for some GorkaMorka?

Pursuit Vehicle...Needs a Name

In a world where there is only one of everything, each pursuit vehicle has its personality. 

Each vehicle is worshipped as a god. 

Each gets a name.

As creator...I cannot find a name for this one. 

Help.

What would you call it?

Vrooom! Vrooom!

When I started out making post apocalyptic cars, I was buying up die cast cars and working on them. But they weren't great. They were hard to cut up, impossible to drill holes into, and were just too heavy. I found some plastic cars in the right scale on ebay and I cannot believe how wonderful they are. They allow my to be so much more creative with plastic rods and piping. Not only that, but you can leave the car body off the chassis until after painting. Very cool. So here is fire car #1. Been a joy to work on it.

Nux Car Sneak Peak 2

Closing in on a completed model. Slow and ponderous is the best pace for things like this. There's no instructions, so you need time to think. The icon above the captive's head was lots of fun to do. I was trying to see how I could make a skull face by using found parts in my bits box, without using any actual skulls. That's different from Nux's icon, which sport a human skull. I guess in some ways I am making my own version of Nux's V8 hot rod.

Fury Road Nux Car for 40k

If I'm going to hobby, I want to hobby historic on the fury road. 

This model is not an exact replica of the Nux Car in the film, but I think it captures the same spirit. The car needs thundersticks and a blood bag, and those are soon to come. 

I'll be running this in an army of Wasteland warboyz. most likely in the Nova Open Narrative, if there is one this year. I haven't heard much about Nova Open 2016 so far and I feel like by this time last year we had. What I learned about the event from cruising through the vendor hall was that its not something I want to miss anymore, and will be dedicating my weekend to it in 2016. 

Mad Max Fury Road Inspired: Rat Boy Work In Progress

I'm really entering new territory in trying to get the rat-look to this car. The rust is ok right now, but it needs to have a matt finish. Its too glossy right now. Another thing I notice when I look at these pictures is how boring the car body is. The central point of the model is the roof of the car and there is nothing there to look at. To solve this, I plan on adding a rider to the roof, who will be magnetized in so he can be removed during game play. 

Other stuff on my workbench includes some sort of Nux car and a gun-gasser. 

Nux Car WIP Number 2

Well, here she is. The Nux Car. A work in progress. You'll notice I haven't hit the hard parts yet - exhausts and engine. I'm waiting on a home depot trip to get some electrical tubing and a brass rod for the front axil. I ran out of brass rod on the back axil here.

Who's going to ride this thing? Well, a converted "Nux" is going to drive it...but I am thinking that Esh from Dark Age Games is going to man the charioteer position. More to come...

Pursuit Car: She-Wolf

She Wolf is inspired by Razor Cola and one of the claw trucks from Fury Road. She's not large enough to have a harpoon gun, so instead she's got a large crossbow for spearing crew members, drivers and popping wheels. 

The lancer on top is magnetized for game play. In that way he's a removable turret. I kinda like her better without him. 

I worked hard to give this model a detailed interior with a driver, additional weapons, cargo and other details. In the end, the driver was kinda weak, but at least he's there. 

If you can dream it...

You can build it.

She-Wolf gets some paint

It's so much fun doing these cars. It's expensive sourcing all the bits, but getting them together, painting them and looking at them is just pure joy.

For some reason I really don't mind doing tabletop quality painting on these. I'm definitely moving fast on them as I paint, I think in part because I am just too excited to get them done and on the board.

I've settled on this color pallet for now. Moving forward, I'm going to limit myself and that will make things a lot easier and faster. And it'll keep this motley crew of cars looking like a unified force.

All that is missing on She-Wolf is her rooftop lancer and he's already on his way. Below you can see how I do the thundersticks. Plastic rod and and plastic tube on the top. Space Marine purity seals and then thread, glued in place and then spun around the sticks. 

An Off-Road Monster

Ratboy

Here's just a quick WIP of my next conversion. This one's called Ratboy. He's an off-road death machine. Sort of. No mounted weapons to speak of, so needs a lancer to do any damage. Soon getting an assortment of thundersticks...

Immortan Joe's Muster

So its no secret that I am building a 40k army based off of the Citadel's forces in Mad max: Fury Road. I'm sure I'm not the only one. My army is slowly becoming more a replica army than I originally wanted. Replicas are fun but even the slightest flaw is crushingly noticeable, especially for a movie as popular as Fury Road. 

So far I have a list that I am working toward, but I am open to other ideas. Here's the thing, I am not much of a gamer or list builder. This means I am pretty bad at coming up with my own lists. I don't frown on net-listing either. Basically I want an army that works, but I can't be bothered to make a list of my own. Instead, I'd rather focus on the modeling and painting, then throw some dice on the battlefield. 

If you'd like to help me, I'd love to hear how you would write an army list for Immortan Joe's Armada. 

Post your Fury Roadarmy list  in the comments and it may just end up being the list I use.

To get your juices flowing, here some pics of the work I've done so far. 

Scrappy, the super-charged off-road tractor from hell. 

Wargirl.

At dawn, we ride!