Some of you may remember my Post apocalyptic water merchants:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=14361.0Well, they're back with backup!
Here are two group shots with the old models.
I've added the following:
- a large dump truck
- a tracked flatbed Unimog
- a stripped Ford Transit
- a trail bike
- two extra warriors
Let's start with the dump truck, this treasure was a lucky find in a thrift store. I've wanted a dump truck for a while but a 1:50 model costs about 200 dollars which is a bit too expensive for a model which is hardly ever going to get used, so when I saw this model I bought it immediately (and spent the next week painting it). I didn't paint it for my water merchants specifically and the one time it saw action on the table it was the objective for a High Octane scenario. It doesn't have any other place to go so I figured I might include it in this lot.
I first weathered the model with drill and file (scratching the model with the side of a spinning drill gives nice effects) and pimped it up to fit in my setting. I removed some detail (crude fuel tanks) next to the cabin to make room for models. I detailed the platforms and windows with mesh and bits from the platform builder set. I also made the fences from bits of the platform builder set. I removed one of the ladders (on the other side of the front grill) and attached it to the inside of the trailer body. I detailed some of the crude connections with a generous squirt of Vallejo Plastic Putty and some plasticard and added two slabs of plasticard to the rear to cover up the ugly rear and screw holes. I also glued some grit inside the trailer body to break up the look and give something for passengers to stand on.
To paint the model I first took away the tires and then started with a dark brown undercoat. I planned to do a marmite weathering technique:
http://www.tabletop-terrain.com/archives/2008/02/19/852/I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS TECHNIQUE TO ANYONE (more on that later)
So anyway, after the brown spray I applied marmite (which I enjoy not as much as I thought I would) to spots where I wanted rust spots to appear later on. After doing this I sprayed the truck with several coats of yellow spray paint (I think it took 3-4 coats). The next step is to wash the model and the yellow paint would go away where the marmite was and reveal the brown rusty spots. Alas, this was not to be. I had to scrub and claw at the marmite spots to get the yellow paint to go away (maybe the later was too thick but I think something else was going on). Anyway, lots of dirty fingernails later I think maybe 30% of the marmite spots was gone, the rest of the marmite firmly stuck under the yellow paint. The model looked good though (as you can see). I painted the tires separately and painted the rest of the model with my usual rust recipe (black, blazing orange, vomit brown) and other appropriate colours. Then I dusted it with VGC Earth and sprayed it with matte varnish.
If the truck would have stayed in this stage for the rest of it's life I would have been satisfied. However, months later for some reason all the marmite bits under the yellow paint began to go soft and do what they were supposed to do in the first place. The model got pretty smelly and got sticky parts virtually everywhere. I gave it another bath (more careful this time as it was already painted) which helped a bit but occasionally marmite bits peep through the paint and leavy my fingers smelly and sticky again.
Anyway, on with the show. I wanted a biker for my High Octane water merchants if for no other reason than that the model looks cool. We allow one passenger to go on the bike and I figured I'd model that. The biker is an EM4 Trail Bike & rider. The only thing I've changed is that I cut off the gun barrel between the headlights and added two gun barrels in place of the headlights.
The passenger is a Prince August bike rider which fit right on the back with no modifications.
Next up is my Ford Transit, for High Octane we need vehicles that can transport models on foot and the easiest way to do this is to have an open topped vehicle with a big flat platform. I had this transit model lying around for a long time and simply decided to cut it in half. I weathered it and added a plasticard road sign to the front. The crew are TAG US Vietnam helocopter gunners with head swaps, the gunner got the head from the EM4 cop hero and the driver got the head from an EM4 Combat Zone ganger (from one of the metal torsos for the plastic ganger models).
The flamer is made from bits of plastic rod with guitar wire connecting it to a Fenris Games oil drum. The backpack on the chair is from a plastic Combat Zone Ganger and the drinking bottle is from the Backpack of a plastic Warzone Imperial Army Regular. The cloth roll at the back is from medical bandage (regular blood donations give me a steady supply of bandages
) and painted to look like the cloth from the side of a truck.
The spare wheel was actually a part of the transit model but it was located underneat the rear. I moved it to a steel wire holder on the side for a more dramatic effect. The bits of stowage are from left to right:
- a bag made with MagicSculp
- a bag from the plastic Warzone Imperial Army Regular
- a bedroll from the plastic Warzone Imperial Army Regular
The holster on the seat is also from the plastic Warzone Imperial Army Regular (a great source of stowage indeed). The water drums in the rear are originally from VOID (now sold by Scotia Grendel).
Raven is the only really new arrival to my water merchants, he's a basic EM4 Biker with a jacket with patches (Sadus on the left and Raven on the right).
A detail from the back of his jacket, in the Middle Sacred Steel and Destruction (the skull), on the left Twisted Sister (pink) and Omen (orange) and on the right Judas Priest (the trident) and Sodom (red). His tattoos aren't really visible in either picture.
You already saw it standing in the background and here it is, specially for rough terrain and great transport capabilities, my tracked Unimog (it is actually standing like this in the pisture, there were no extra supports):
I stripped and weathered a second hand Unimog Fire Truck, I added Games Workshop tracks and used PVC foam to act as a spacer betwee the tracks and the chassis.
On top I built a flatbed from Platform Builder parts with styrene H-girder sides and some chains and wire. The fences serve a very real function as they greatly reduce the amount time models fall from the truck.
Here's a final pose shot with Raven and Ruskin, an EM4 biker I painted years ago (but he fits in with the rest), surrounded by HazMat barrels from Fenris games (grey for radioactive, white for corrosive, black for toxic and green/red for flammable).
And here's the whole lot for gaming purposes. The barrels in the back are from Tablescape and I'm not too fond of them as their detail is not very good and the barrels were a bit on the large side (40k sized rather than the nice barrels from VOID and Fenris games).
Enjoy!
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April 27, 2024, 10:26:52 PM
January 20, 2009, 11:56:06 AM
