Truckzilla's Got Some Teeth

Just a quick post with some progress on Truckzilla for my Idris sponsored Gaslands team...

I've now completed the basic detailing on the flip side of this sculpt, added teeth and started construction on his tail mounted wrecking ball!

I've extended Truckzilla's the wrecking ball support arm and trimmed the tail / body back a little as the chain will run underneath as otherwise he'd be sat right on top of it!

The teeth certainly make him look a lot more threatening!  I very carefully cut the tiny teeth from a few small runs of 1mm thick white styrene (which is nice and rigid).  I intentionally made 3 rows of teeth for the upper mouth and the same for the lower jaw, meaning less bending of the brittle white styrene.

  I just need to sculpt the lips / gums around the teeth and add the gun barrel to the mouth.  I probably should have added that before gluing in the teeth, but I was too impatient!

The other side of the model proved tricky to sculpt all in one go without squashing details.  I reduced and flattened a small area of his back, his thigh and jaw before the putty cured.  I will revisit these areas in my next sculpting session where I also intend to work on his arms.

Here's the telescopic support arm I added to the pickup crane.  The wrecking ball will now have a longer chain for a better more destructive swing!

In this picture, you can see the small metal ring I have embedded into the plastic ball to act as an anchor for the chain I will attach to it.  I carved and added styrene spikes and will be sculpting around them to simulate weld lines and stop them from snapping off.

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! :)