Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Future Wars => Topic started by: Warren Abox on January 27, 2012, 12:34:52 AM
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(My apologies if Car Wars stuff goes in the Post-Apocalypse board.) This past weekend I scored a few 12" square 5-mm thick pressed particle tiles, one side of which was glossy smooth, for just fifty cents a piece. I figured eight feet of highway should be enough for a running car wars battle (in 3x scale as I use 5th edition).
The first step was paiting the roads with gray primer and sprinkling on fine sand. Then I painted the off-road areas and covered them with a fine and coarse sand mix. Here's a shot at this point in construction:
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s8U4uJssh5Q/TxyV-8B57HI/AAAAAAAAALY/_u5dZexpZQ0/s400/GEDC1215.JPG)
This set up gives me a total of 4-feet of perfectly straight road. The two intersection tiles double as straightaways with little doglegs in them and shallow corners. That gives me six feet of straight road; you can pick up the last tile and drop it in front to make the highway as long as you want. Anyone four or five feet back from the leader is effectively out of the fight anyway. The last two tiles are really sharp corners for extra fun.
After a second coat of primer and dull brown paint to seal up the sand texture, it was time for the lane markings. I went with 1” wide lanes, probably too narrow for the 1” bases that mount my cars on, but since there won’t be a lot of head-on traffic, and most cars won’t be lined up right next to each other anyway… it’ll look fine.
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GYmBZ37kV8U/Tx-tVddX_sI/AAAAAAAAAMg/ezkIdvAj2WU/s320/GEDC1223.JPG)
The reddish paint is intentional - these are meant to be local (Hawaiian) highways, and the volcanic rock is iron rich lending most places a red dirt look. I've got to paint in the sandy shoulders of the pavement, stain and seal (the Dip) the boards, and add in the grass and whatnot, but it's coming along quite nice. I also hope to make some off-road terrain for visual appeal; palm trees, rocks, pineapple fields, shave ice stand, billboards, etc, should keep it from looking like the same six feet of highway. Here's an in-progress shot of my first two billboards:
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-i7KpI9Vy5yw/Tx0a1_FqATI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/Nr-KXJ_9a68/s320/Billboard.jpg)
Gotta sand and paint up the bases yet. Those are 20mm figs for scale.
Thanks for looking, I'll update this thread with future progress. If anyone wants to see more detail or bigger shots, ojust check my blog.
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I love the first billboard. I had a friend in school whose "Eddie would..." t-shirt was the mystification of the rest of our class! :D
I haven't played Car Wars in about 20 years... What's the most recent edition like?
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Looking good
Last time I saw Car Wars was CryoGenCOn in Camber, run by Guild of Melee and Magic!
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I love the first billboard. I had a friend in school whose "Eddie would..." t-shirt was the mystification of the rest of our class! :D
Eddie Aikau was a big wave surfer who died trying to save the lives of some people. He had set out on a trans-Pacific journey on a traditional Hawaiian catamaran, and the ship got into trouble with high surf 12 miles from shore. With no radio and no way to contact anyone they were all gonna die, so he set out for a 12 mile journey on a surfboard and disappeared at sea. They named the annual big wave surf contest after him, and now everybody has "Eddie Would Go" stickers that they use as a sign that they aren't afraid of a little bit of high surf.
I haven't played Car Wars in about 20 years... What's the most recent edition like?
Fast. It's a three phase turn order, and its designed for use at the Hot Wheels scale. But it doesn't have official vehicle design rules, and the ram plate rules are a little unbalanced. The ram plates mean you do huge amounts of damage, and the scale and three phsae turn make it easier to ram. It's great for quick and dirt piickup games, though. There isn't a lot being done with it locall,, but if I can get a game together, i know a few people that will throw down;.