Parker... anywhere you like really



When I found FAB 1 (Matchbox, 1992 approx.1:64) at the bottom of my toy car bag I couldn't resist. Apart from being iconic and already harbouring hidden machine guns in it's original guise in Thunderbirds, the theatrical look along with the executive appeal of the car fit too well with my Limo not to make this my next project.

The club were talking about a monster truck race so I couldn't resist trying to do a monster truck conversion.

Construction and Painting:  So this one was a bit more involved. I drilled out the rivet under the chassis to access the upper part of the body. I disposed of the rest. I bought a Hot wheels monster jams pickup truck for 50p at a carboot sale to bastardise the chassis. I drilled the rivets out and switched the chassis and glued. The quality of the car is pretty decent, especially the solid rubber wheels.

The heavy machine gun is 40K TAU, the ammo 'picnic basket' on the back is Imperial guard. The external V8 was bought for the occasion from Dice mechanic games' Autokill The look is incredible, I had some difficulty removing the parts from the sprues without damaging them as the plastic/ resin in tough.

 Chaos Black Undercoat, Warlock purple basecoat followed by a lighter 50:50 mix of a purple and lighter pink. I then overbrushed the edges of the vehicle to highlight. I know some people like a smoother look but I quite like the cartoony style of 'lining in' the edges and having contracting dark shades and much brighter highlights. The wheels and lower parts of the chassis were lightly drybrushed with about 4 colours of progressively lighter browns. The depth of the tread on the tyres really made this simple technique really effective.

I went for a similar thing with the roof canopy, cantor blue base then a lighter blue layer, finishing off with a white drybrush.

I used mostly boltgun metal for all the metallic areas including engine but played with some tin bitz areas to make the chassis look rusted but not heavily corroded. This was then black ink washed. I used a lighter metallic runefang steel on the most raised areas to strengthen the effect.

 Gameplay: This is actually a pretty standard vehicle in terms of gameplay and quite cheap to field. The machine gun is forward facing so the tactics I use are not subtle. Drive right at things and shoot if they get in range of you. Especially handy for zombie squashing too. This vehicle is an undefeated champion but you cannot take it if your crew is Miyazaki sponsored.

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.