Friday, 30 November 2018

Gaslands Progress

BRRROOOOOOOOM BRROOOOM!!

Previously I spoke about how I was putting together some Gaslands teams to play the game with my son.  I've now got a fair few cars built and painted, so thought I would post an update on my progress!


Mishkin ATV: Tooth Fairy

This was the first vehicle which I built for Gaslands and I'm really pleased with the end result.  A Mishkin sponsored tracked car with a turret mounted combat laser makes it pretty good in the game as well as looking bad-ass!

It might look a bit rusty, but it also looks pretty mean!
I painted the metal spikes white to give a good contrast with the bodywork...
...and to make them look like nasty teeth!
Plenty of armour and some exhausts break up the ATV body nicely


Prison Car: Thunderbolt

I love the idea of prison cars for the Warden Cadeila sponsored teams.  Convicts bolted and welded into the cabs of cars and forced to race for their freedom!

So far, I've only finished painting one Warden vehicle, but I'm pretty happy with it!


I enlarged the engine and added an extra nitro bottle to the rear...
Reinforced windows - probably to keep the convicts from escaping rather than protecting them!
I was particularly please with the heat discoloration on the engine
The rear caltrop dropper is the only offensive weapon on this vehicle
Held together with dirt and rust!
It's a classy ride for a classy con

 

 

Idris Sponsored Team: Heralds of Flame

This is my first fully painted team and are definitely my favourite so far - mainly because they have a strong theme which should be pretty obvious!

 
Dirt Runner
Dirt Runner is the first member of the Heralds of Flame team.  He's small, fast and armed with rockets!!
I wanted this car to look like a large dune buggy with oversized tyres and raised suspension at the back
The rusty kickplate 'pyramid' spikes at the back add some real character
The flaming banner and giant exhausts make it clear that the driver only cares about speed and carnage!
The flaming skull on the bonnet adds a macabre Hell's Angels theme which is carried into the other vehicles in the team
 
Ifrit
With a skull at the front and lapping flames on the bodywork, Ifrit's name is well deserved!
Ifrit is a snub nosed dragster with a turret mounted flame thrower
I deliberately made the rear wheels on this car obscenely Huge!

I made this car look more like a brutal drag racer by adding a spiked spoiler at the back

 
The Tombstone
The Tombstone is a low riding monster truck with a bad attitude
A boxy armoured cab makes it look a lot like a Hearse
Armed with a nasty spiked ram and a side mounted minigun, The Tombstone isn't messing around
Keeping with the theme, The Tombstone is covered in spectral green flames
Chains and patchwork armour add to the coffin-esque look of the truck
Even the roof mounted spikes are covered in ethereal flames

 

 

Truckasaurus WIP

The next major supplement for Gaslands will include the Heavy Truck vehicle type and the creator of the game has asked the community to come up with the best 'Truckasaurus' vehicles that they can think of!

I've seen a few dino trucks, but wanted mine to be something a bit different - a huge effigy of fire and destruction for my Idris team to rally around...  I eventually settled on making my Truckasaurus something more recognisable with a very specific theme!


Behold... TRUCKZILLA!!

Based on a large pickup, Truckzilla will have a wrecking ball at the back in place of a tail
As well as teeth, Truckzilla will have a huge gun in his mouth to incinerate the competition and inspire the team!
He's still WIP, but Truckzilla is currently a whopping 8 inches tall!
I can't wait to get him finished; as you can probably tell, there's still a ways to go, but I'm happy with how he's coming along.  I've tried not to make the detail too sharp as it's supposed to be a giant cast iron statue rather than the real king of the monsters!

I think the spines have probably taken the longest as they're essentially just carved from sheet styrene.  I think they're worth the effort though!

Just in case anyone is wondering, I've mixed elements from the 2014 (Gareth Edwards) movie Godzilla, and the more recent Godzilla Earth incarnation of my favourite movie monster to create Truckzilla! :)

Below are some more WIP images showing the truck and the process of how I used styrene to build up the inner structure before sculpting the details.

I find it's always good to start off with a sketch...
I sketched the rough body and 'butt plate' outlines onto some thick white Styrene to make sure that I had a solid guideline for the proportions
I then added the thigh shapes and blocked up areas to simulate the shoulder width I wanted
The centre spines were added first and sandwiched between two more layers of styrene to add strength and bulk to the area
It was important to keep the statue in scale with the truck which would it would sit on!
I used black styrene to create the curved areas which the next spine rows would be glued to.  I used black because it's softer and less brittle than white styrene, making it easier to bend without shattering
The basic form - I had already cut off the head and repositioned it by this point.  I eventually reduced the size of the head by about a third as it was just way too big.  Never be afraid to make the big adjustments early on.  It's much harder to do it further down the line!  If it irks you, fix it...
Roughly sketched out spine rows on 3mm styrene.  I cut the initial shapes larger and whittled them down to give them some irregular form and texture
Spine row 2 in place.  Once spine row 3 was in, I also added occasional spines in between the main rows to break up the uniform pattern
This is actually 3 layers of cured putty.  Really the first stage you could start to see Truckzilla shining through the blobs!

I hope you've enjoyed this post - I'll be sure to show Truckzilla in all his glory when he's finally finished! :)

Wednesday, 14 November 2018

Dirty Rotten Racers

Start your engines!

Whilst looking for something new to play with my son, I just discovered a fantastic new game called Gaslands.

The premise is simple - it's basically a Deathrace!  You buy the book which contains all of the rules you need to play the game.  All of the required movement templates and tokens are also in the back of the book and can be freely photocopied.

The only other things you need are a handful of standard D6 dice and some 1:64 scale cars (Matchbox / Hotwheels etc.) to get started!  You convert them to your dystopian liking and off you go!

The entry point for this game is spectacularly low and the mechanics are really solid too.  The community and after market rules support are also amazing - I really can't recommend it highly enough!

The good, the bad and the dangerously reckless

And now on to my own fledgling vehicles!

Below are the first heavily converted vehicles that I've produced.  I'll be posting more vehicles and some painted images at a later date.

In the meantime, get out there and give Gaslands a try; crashing has never been so much fun! :)


This tracked beast was originally a hotwheels car from the F&F franchise
I think it looks really mean, like a gnarly chipped tooth


This guy really reminds me of a minesweeper
I mounted his machine guns so that they are able to broadside other racers...
Adding huge wheels and a ram to any 1:64 scale car makes it look awesome!
A monster truck with a roof mounted rocket launcher? Yes please!!
A rear facing machine gun should deter pursuers...


Little red might be small, but he should pack a punch
Tombstone armour at the front?  Check.  Side mounted machine guns?  Check...
...enormous siege bow to the roof?  Hell yeah!



The game mechanics support a growing range of upgrades including RC Bomb cars!
Dynamite-e-eeeeeeee!