Tap, Tap, this thing is on....

Excuses, excuses that is all I got, My mom came back from Japan with Cancer, my very old Dog Died, Etc. etc...

Anyways I'm Back! Today I got a package from Ground Zero Games, always a good thing. I got one of his new Civilian Utility Skimmers (V15-147). My it is quite the model. Here are the pieces as received.

As you can see this is gonna be a fun model to assemble thankful Jon has provided a bunch of pictures on the ordering page to see where the bits go.

Also included a 4 sets of the "D" style running gear for the new Aircars. Though Jon hasn't gotten them up in the store as my posting this.

How big is that Starship on the worktable...

A cargo lighter in the middle of a very long process... It has been sitting a a half finished Idea for years, and I have questions.... Asked on the TMP .

Boats in the Yard

First off, the Genetics Experiment graduated from High School a year early last week, my house has been occupied with relatives who we don't see too often. Mostly due to Large oceans separating us (which is in general a GOOD thing). In the pile of received boxes I received the following additions for the boat yard here in the Walled Garden. 

Thanks Dan. 

So it looks to be a Nautical Summer. Dan, if you where here instead of Hell... I mean... Texas, I would force you to play with me in the shop finishing these out....

Looking over these sparks my mind the terrain needed to support, thinking floating docks, residential barges, a floating market, etc. etc... Which suits a segment of the game world in my head which I like to call the Delta, which is a Post Apocalyptic pastiche of of large river deltas, mangrove swamps, levee protected lowlands world wide. 

Also on the table is more Mega-hexes for more of that deep down in the rubble and sewers, dungeon crawling goodness. This time with vehicles. The modeling limitations is a maximum vehicle size of three meters long by two and half meters wide and tall think the size of GZG's Mule  

If y'all remember I converted some of these a while back into Mini-APCs, this time I will be building from the ground up mostly (this really depends how long it takes to find stuff that got moved in my last spate of house-guests, Mom is getting old and she puts stuff away reflexively, even if it is in my office). But the good news is all the kipple that was occupying my Paint table has been put up in new or traditional homes, so the traditional drag of clean, work or build that normally gets in the way of painting isn't there.

RV's of the OutWorlds....

Here we have a Caravan with all the gross detailing done, ready for all the finishing bits. Things to be added; the back porch, steps for all the doors, door handles, a front grill, maybe some more bumper on the front and of course lights. I am considering a Solar panel for the roof of the living section as well as a HVAC unit on the cab roof.

The overall project I am working on is a Wastelands Truck Caravan, another couple of of RV's, I have a couple of tank trucks, one a Gekko Pickup the other a Provider (both from Old Crow), planned but not decided on actual form are at least two cargo trucks in the rolling peddlers shop motif. Add to these a number of outriders driving bikes, cars, etc... etc...

Game terms for this vehicle are still being figured out, but it is a relatively slow vehicle think 50 to 60 mph full out geared for torque (figure granny gear) with a Off-road suspension and tires. Range over speed is the emphasis. Both the cab and the "house" are armored, at least in terms of a normal RV's skin which really is no better that cardboard against firearms. All three doors have "doorgunner" rigs for Machine guns and the side windows on the House act as firing ports.

Back-story is that this is built up from a wrecked exploratory truck by the current driver/owners grandfather and he took took up working the road with several like minded Owner/Operators.

Shades of Traveller Batman!

Was playing around with making tread units and well one thing lead to another. this is pretty much a Classic Traveller Tracked ATV built to at 2/3rds scale. And it was completely unconscious build I was to the detailing stage before I noticed. 

New Cars on the Walled Garden Lot.

Here are a couple of new vehicles for the Walled Garden's parking lot. 

1st up is a armored convoy point car. Armed with fixed forward Heavy Minigun with a large ammo drum and Ram-plate. The driver is surrounded by a full roll-cage and 5-point crash restraint seat, directly behind the driver is a small cargo area which is accessed by a armored hatchback.

A light road truck built-up from a Johann Wildebeest 6x6 light utility, it retains the Wildebeest's brand signature cab mounted air intake. As always a Wildebeest isn't fast, but it will keep on going long after others fail.

Modeling notes, these all styrene construction using both Evergreen card and tubes, with Kotobukiya M.S.G bits. The wheels are Evergreens telescoping tubing, in this case three layers of tube glued together then cut to proper width for the tires, and a number of appropriate sized disks punched out with my new punch from MicroMark, I bought it because it has sized dies ranging from 3/32nds to 9/32nds which are mostly larger than the dies available on your average rotary leather punch.

Game Notes; Johann Wildebeest was a major range/agricultural equipement Manufacturer in the American OutWorld colonies.

Paint Table Parking Lot

Here is a quick conversion of a Old Crow Model's 15mm Gecko Scout/Pickup. I seem to have a metric buttload of these I don't seem to remember buying that many of them. 

Anyways, I have alway thought the the Cab was a bit off, but it took me quite a number of years to get around to doing it..... So, here is my go at it. The last photo is of the base vehicle in Pickup form.

Looking at my vehicles drawer I seem to need to either sit and paint or teach the Boy how to paint vehicles, as I have quite the collection of models ready to go.

SoT APC construction final. Chika sleeps on....

So the question occurs to me as I sit down to show off the finished Sons of Thunder (SoT for Short) APCs, what naming sceme to use for characters that are basically "Space" Dwarves that live in their environment suits? Either use names randomly generated from one of the numerous online fantasy name generators or assign names like a color and a number like one might name production batches.

Well anyways here are two small APCs for the SoT. Added from the last post are turrets from Ground Zero Games Accessories, panels and vents from Kotobukiya line of Mecha customization bits line available through HobbyLink Japan plus the usual selection of offcuts and bits and bobs from the scrap box.

The next Update will be from the paint table once everything has been primered and ready for Paint techniques, though with these I plan more normal weathering rather than the grand amounts of abuse my other Post Apocalyptic Vehicles receive.

I don't know about other peoples bits boxes, but mine is several separate boxes generally sorted by size closest to the table is the general catch-all which all the off-cuts from construction go. periodically I sort this box's contents by size, larger chunks of rod and card get cycled back to their respective boxes if they a larger than 2 inches in their gross dimensions. I have a separate box for sprued items, though I tend to prune said sprues back after they are used, with the resulting sprue lengths in to the off-cut box. The following picture is the catch-all, I use a clear plastic box so I can see what has drifted to the bottom at a glance.

The worktable catch-all bits box.

Last but not Least of my Shop equipement Chika the dog skin rug, or that is how she a appears half the time. But what should I expect from a 10+ year old Lab Mix with arthritic hips

Chika in one of her normal configurations...

Wheeled Desert Caravans and wheels...

The start of a new Model, a wheeled Desert Caravan, in both a 4 and 6 wheeled formats. The actual suspension for the wheels is yet to be decided, though I am leaning towards a regulare under the body sor of suspension for the 6-wheel and the external strut for the 4-wheel. Conceptually a combination of gypsy wagon, antique truck (cab-forward 1910-1920s) and SF off-road truck. 

First up is a picture of the cartoon of the model.

Following are pictures of the construction of the wheels. I am using a new idea for these the core is made up of 3/8ths of an inch (approx. 1 scale meter) chunks of telescoping styrene tube from Evergreen Plastics. The end cap is a bit of card glued on then trimmed to round. I used a little electric cut-off/miter saw from Harborfreight for my cuts. I nested the tubes to my desired width, and marked my depth on the outer tube and cut each chunk as a whole to minimize the number of cuts, Though a miter box and razor saw wouldn't have been much effort either.

Note on scale, I use 3/8ths of an inch as my default 1 meter in scale while it tends to give a absolute scale of 1/95.75th, once the skin is on most vehicles it rounds out to approx. 1/100th. This allows use of the prevalent measuring system of materials to speed construction. 

 

Here are some rough cut chunks bamboo stick, for use as handles durning construction. A dab of Greenstuff keeps the handle in the center of the smallist tube. I would have used styrene rod, but I want to keep the option of placing the wheel in the chuck of a rotary took for sanding and shaping, and the styrene rod won't hold up.

Pictures of the wheel hubs being put together. 

The Greenstuff tires started. The detail doesn't show up very well in this picture. 

The last part of this project is figuring out what the crew of these vehicles are going to look like. This year I am trying to have a crew picked out and finished alongside the vehicles I make. Kinda a Pimp my Ride and Crew Pledge. This pledge may extend to buildings as well, depending if I get Wastelands Village Buildings idea up and running. It basically is a generic idea of building the survival basics as terrain, so House, Water Source, small plot/Greenhouse farm, assorted workshop/business and Defensive buildings plan. All are to be build on standard bases, I am using Flames-of-War large bases as they are relatively cheep and a good size.

Bob and Ralph Inspecting the Midget APC

All the basic skin is on the midget APCs. Next bit is the top Hatches and other related details that haven't been decided on yet, most likely a vent or two and some stowage. The last shot is both APCs and the MAWP. 

The thing I ponder right now as I look at these shots is the need for a contrasting stage for pictures, all of the white and off white tends to wash out the models which tend to be all in white card.

More Midget APC Work

Following the post on the guts of these models, here I give you the first work on the skin. The Cab with the  windscreen are done in the gross details. 

I have been pondering Names for these, Clown Car keeps coming to mind.