Gaslands- CARnage in a dystopian Future

Thanks to my new pals at my local gaming club I have recently discovered the joy of the tabletop racing and destruction-derby style Gaslands. You can read all about it at the Gaslands website.

I was drawn to the game because it has such a potential low cost and after playing a test game and reading the fairly straightforward rulebook realised how much fun it was.

The designers of the game do not manufacture loads of parts you have to buy so you are free to use their recommended suppliers, make your own or use whatever you choose. The playing pieces are matchbox style cars (of which I already had a somewhat beaten-up collection from when I was young) and scenery and obstacles can be as simple as a few books and on your table or as involved as a full gaming setup.

Despite the gameplay being inclusive, funny and nuts at times, what I have really enjoyed is the free reign to use your imagination in choosing and modelling the vehicles. Having only played in the larger 28mm 'heroic' scale previously, it was also a nice change to paint something different. For some reason it has helped me feel more confident to try a range of painting techniques and I have included my first effort below.

My approach has been to create something I thought looked cool, and then pay the points cost accordingly WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) style. This has resulted in some less than tactically ideal vehicles but they have been great fun to play.

The Neck Stretch

Construction: My first attempt started as a Mercedes Limousine made by Majorette in 1:58 scale. I wanted to start with something a bit theatrical so I added some Warhammer Fantasy Dragon horns and skull. The bumper and wheel protectors are from an Italeri barricades set. The sod-off railgun on the top is 40K Tau.   
  
Black spray undercoat, dark green basecoated with a light green drybrush. This was then followed by a light-yellow dry brushing. I then did a green wash over the whole vehicle to bring down the yellow highlights and blend the layers together.

The bone was basecoated dark brown and then layered bleached bone 95% coverage and then then the tips were given a skull white layer. The whole lot was then washed in gryphonne sepia.    

The Railgun was basecoated in Mephiston red and progresses in thirds from red to yellow and finally white to give it the impression that the muzzle is glowing hot.  The metal elements were boltgun metal with (seriously old-school) black ink. Inks are tricky to use but are a more extreme wash. They deepen shadow and are really effective in dulling the metallic paints which works really well on high detail surfaces like chainmail. I've found you can get a similar effect by drybrushing the metallic directly onto the black undercoat but its a shinier finish.  

Decided to keep the blacked out windows as this was fitting for a limo. 

 

Gameplay: Ok, so when I've played this vehicle I've played it as a truck as it makes sense that being a stretch it should have lower handling capabilities. I gave it additional armour plating. The most fitting weapon was a 125mm cannon which whilst lethal has the unfortunate effect of instantly applying three hazards to the vehicle. In combination with it's already poor handling and physical length, its a bugger to steer but it is hilarious fun! Don't make this vehicle the only one you take in the race.