Mars is a Lie!

So,

I have been bitten by the Gaslands bug and started modifying Hot wheel cars for this Post Apocalyptic car game by Osprey! 

Bonehead, the first of many!

Gaslands by Osprey Publishing is a post apocalyptic setting where earth is now a desolate waste land after a war with mars. The folks left on earth get to participate in the Gaslands TV show for the entertainment of their martian overlords. The winners get to leave earth and live on mars, in theory anyway. 

The nice thing is that the rules were written to use Hot Wheels or Match box cars, which are 1/64th scale. I had picked up the rules when they came out and put them on the shelf until recently when I talked to my buddy Mike G about the rules, as he had purchased them as well.

Well with my rekindled interest in the rules I went out to good old Wallmart to pick up a few cars. I spent a whole $10.00 on ten cars to use for the game. Now the good thing is that you can either use the cars right out of the packaging or you can modify them, this system dosn't use the WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get), its just really whats on the dashboard card that matters. But being a gamer of many moons, I could not resist the urge to modify and repaint my cars!

Stock Bone Crusher

 Now, I have been watching a few Youtube videos of folks modifying their cars and most people disassemble the cars by drilling out the rivets on the cars. So I figured why not try it, after all if I messed up I could always go and get another car for .94 cents! So I grabbed my drill and the correct size bit and started drilling, taking it very slowly as I was only holding the car in my hand and not using a vice to hold it. It only took about a minute to drill out the rivet on each end of the car and once that was done the car came apart without any issues.

Car disassembled, not much too it!

 Next up I wanted to scratch up the factory paint, I had watched a video that used a file to put marks and scratches on the car. this set took only a few minutes and I could have probably done this with the car fully assembled, but with just the body it went pretty quickly.

Distressing the paint and body.

 I then dug out my Flames of War bitz box and started looking for interesting parts to add to the car. I added two Russian MG's from my box as all I wanted this car to have is two MGs as it had only two slots for weapons per the rules. I also added a few gas cans and boxes to the bed of the vehicle and added mesh screen to the main windshield. I then found two pieces to add to the side windows to make it look more armored up. The hardest part was trying to decide what to put on and how much to add to the car, in the end I went pretty simple with just a few additions.

I then glued the car back together and shot the whole thing in a red primer color I had in the garage. Once that dried, I then painted on Reaper black in thin coats so that some of the primer red showed through. The engine, header pipes and rims got P3 Pig Iron on them. I then did a dry brush of Reaper Grey Stone to highlight all the edges of the model. I also painted the skull on the front with Reaper Skeletal Bone as well. I then used Army Painter Strong Tone on the model to darken it up and let it dry thoroughly. 

 Once the wash was dry, I went back and added Vallejo Environmental  Rust Texture in places and also used Pig Iron again on scratches and wear areas. I then dry brushed Americana Desert Sand on the lower areas as well as the tires to finish off the model.

New vs Old!

 Total time from start to finish was maybe two hours of work and paint, so pretty quick really. Total cost on this car was only .94 cents, that is an awesome price for a game piece. I have about 9 more cars that I need to start working on, I just bought some plastic tubing to add header pipes and other misc stuff to the cars.

Bone Head ready to race!

So welcome to Gaslands race fans, lets see what other cars my mind can create!

TK