VEHICLES and MECHA
Inspired by conversions of Hot Wheels cars for my Road Wolf game, I made dozens of Mad Max inspired toy car conversions like this one.
This Limo is the chariot of the Iron King, leader of the Hellriders,
who have the lion's share of operating vehicles in the Apocalypse.
This monstrosity is made from die-cast toy cars, wheels from Monster Truck toys, and bits from all manner of models.
Hellriders have bikes too, of course! The riders are horse
riders from various miniatures lines, sat atop Hot Wheels choppers
customized with unique paint jobs and all manner of scary bits.
This converted police Chevy shows how just a couple mods go a long
way. Raised back end, offroad tires, added pipes and a blower
combine with a grungy weathering job.
This metallic beast is one of my favorite conversions.
Adding tanks, blades, blowers, and other details, everything was
painted metallic and weathered with streaks of dirt for a fast look.
After jacking up all the cars, I needed a unique look for this truck, so it got dropped instead, and covered with armor plates.
Not wanting to do yet another all metal car, this one got black accents, and a crazy fanged monster head on the hood.
The hubcaps are actually shields from chaos marauder miniatures. The bumper bars are made from wood and sheet lead.
The massive spoiler on the back is actually a tank plow blade from a 40K vehicle.
This Red Death car is probably my favorite of the bunch. It
uses all manner of model parts, including a menacing window shield made
from thin styrene card.
Generally I prefer the gritty close range combat of hand guns
fired out the window, but a roof mounted flamethrower seemed right for
this car.
Numerous parts are from Games Workshop models, particularly some of the new Ork vehicles and the older Chaos spiky accessories.
The skull decals on the doors are also from Games Workshop chaos
decal sheets. The red is the original car color, with LOTS of
weathering and mud splatter added.
For our next campaign I wanted to make a
dedicated car for the PCs. Something less menacing, but still rugged
and fun. I found a shortened, “chibi” version of a Thunderbird, a
really nice diecast car with opening doors and everything…
and combined it with the wheels and chassis of a Hot Wheels monster
truck toy. It was all the right kinds of ridiculous.
I used a Dremel moto-tool to cut out the roof,
making it much easier to place models inside. I added plastic mesh to
the back and the floor for maximum standing room. The exhausts come out
the front fenders, and are made from model bits
and copper tubing bent to shape. Other added details include
junk-built blower, dash mounted radio, door mounted tire, bedrolls,
backpacks, gas can, and even a cooking pot dangling from the back.
To beef up the suspension, I added perf metal
struts to the chassis, and scratch built some massive shocks by wrapping
wire around plastic sprue and gluing them in back. I painted the body
in a custom teal blue, the accessories in complimentary
earth tones, and gave everything a rust stipple, dark brown wash, and
silver sharpie paint chip pass.
It’s fun to imagine this little monster blasting across the wasteland, mutants piled in back and cheering her on!
Not every toy is glamorous enough to become a Road Warrior- but they can still serve as a wreck!
For the chipped paint look, I base coated the toy with a rust paintjob,
then caked on some wet salt and spraypainted yellow over that- then
rubbed and rinsed the salt off to reveal the rust beneath.
For our third campaign, a new threat is coming: Cybernetic Beasts
capable of converting Biomass into fuel. Yes, that means they can
eat you.
Here's a whole menagerie of Cyberbeasts. These are all converted and repainted Zoids Wild toys, which look amazing when done up right.
A converted Gilraptor Zoid, with some weathering and technical details added.
This Gabrigator got a major repaint and decal pass.
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