Gaslands

After receiving the Gaslands rule book for Christmas, I thought I would take a quick break from my terrain board project and customise a few cars.

For those who are unaware, Gaslands is a ruleset by Osprey Pushlishing which depicts vehicular combat. There are no line of models with this game, so players generally convert hotwheels/matchbox size cars into death-bringing machines.

I have not played the game yet, but it looks fun! Also the cost, ease and fun of marking the cars is a huge draw.

I was toying with the idea of only putting up certain pictures on this blog...then I thought its a learning blog and wanted to be as transparent as possible.

I have never painted or converted any vehicles before (I am quite a n00b at painting miniatures as well).

The first car I attempted....failed on many fronts (see below)

So firstly I will say that other than the car I bought some wire and some plasticard from my local hobby store. I also used model paint.

Lets start off with the above car, its bad, not what I wanted at all. For those of you who live in Australia, or have similar products where you are, get 'Gorilla Super Glue' from the hardware store, something about plastic, plasticard and these cars that just doesn't stick. With Gorilla glue (used on subsequent cars, everything stuck (because the details are so small, your fingers will as well). You may notice a circle on the side of the car which is not painted, this is where a gun wouldn't stick, no matter which hobby glue/cement I used.

Next off the painting, there is something odd about it, its too thick! I paintd the car green in the hopes of highlighting it up but just didnt work. There is also enough detail (i.e. things on it) and too pristine. There is also something off with the scale as well.

I tried to chuck a wash over it to bring out some details but it ended up looking blotchy, I guess because of all the smooth surfaces.

After a mini-meltdown I tried again!

So the second go - A lot better right off the bat. I took the windows out and scratched up the car prior to sticking stuff on and painting.

During painting I unlocked the key to painting these vehicles, its not to paint them. With this car it was undercoated black and then a series of drybrushes up to the colour you see here. I wanted to see if I could get a fully-painted look through drybrushing only and I did, so proof of concept complete.

The more ramshackle nature of the details are also better and some new 'rusty' paint also helped complete the look. I also took a leaf out of painting tanks with the 'black paint on sponge' method to give dirt splatters. Finally I did a pin-wash in some deep recesses and picked out a few details.

This to me was a huge step up and a bit more time spend really made the difference. I think I rushed the first one a bit.

This gave me the confidence to try a third car...

I really like this one and think I am onto something. Once again taking out the windows helped as well as the more elaborate detailing work. 

The car naturally had flaired wheel guards and a roll cage which made the car easier. I also bought some custom wheels which helped 'beef up the look'.

This time with the painting I wanted to go for the more Mad Max style car and I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

I do want to make a few more cars and some scatter terrain for Gaslands in the future but I think that is someway 'down the road'. My initial ideas for terrain would be winter apocalypse.