Creating a War Rig, aka The Green Dragon

Started by Terry37, 08 December 2017, 09:18:06 PM

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Terry37

Now that the voting is closed I thought I would share the story behind the creation of my War Rig – The Green Dragon.

With the 2017 Pendraken painting competition I decided I would bump up making the Stronghold for my Post Apocalyptic Road Warrior army. For those who are not familiar with the HOTT (Hordes of the Things) rules, a Stronghold is like a camp for your army, and only the defender fields one. If it is taken, then the game is over and the defender automatically loses - but I will say in all the years I've played HOTT I have only taken one Stronghold!

My plan was to create a War Rig a la Mad Max Fury Road and the Guzzoline truck in Mad Max 2/The Road warrior. So, I started looking at all of the possibilities from the various Pendraken ranges because I really like working with those models, the service cannot be beat. They also fit nicely on the allotted size bases, and fit fine with my 15 MM figures. After careful consideration of the look I was seeking I finally decided on the Spanish Civil War armored truck, model SCV1 as the starting point.


Here is a preliminary view of some of the basic components and where I had planned to create various pieces from.


The Truck has been modified to remove unwanted hatches and mold lines, while the trailer has been cut from the armored car body and the 6 MM car body has been modified to remove the front end and the wheels. The car body used in making the model is a 6 MM Irregular car that seemed to fit just right in the final look I had for the model. You can see the truck body still looks 1920-ish and needs to be modified to resemble a more modern truck. Also, in removing the front end from the car body to go on top, I wanted to be sure and leave enough to create the firewall.


Here you can see the beginning steps of modernizing the truck by filling in the old style open side leaving a space for the windows. Also you can see the wheel guards made from the WW2 hedgerow cutters with the space between the spikes filed down and curved to fit over the fender. The engine blower assembly is cut and sized for fit, and a scoop roughly cut to go on top. The car body has had the firewall filed into shape, and the rear hatch removed, including the bumper.


New hatches are added to the sides and top of the rear portion of the truck body, and the ram has been  cut and glued on. The air cleaner can has been added to the right rear of the engine, but still needs the scoop added. The rear wheel guards have been cut and glued on and the front window guard has been glued in place. The cab of the truck has been reshaped to give a more modern look, and the side steps have been added to each side.


Here you can see the exhaust pipes added, but intentionally left long so I can size them later in the process. The exhaust guards have also been added to the rear of the cab to allow the exhaust pipes to project upwards through them. The front wheel guards have been permeantly attached and you can see the hole that's been drilled for the air cleaner scoop.


The exhaust pipes have been cut down and shaped with a rearward rake, and the air cleaner scoop has been added. The small shield in front of the top hatch has been added and shaped. Lastly, the side window guards have been added, and the blower assembly scoop has been shaped. The truck is nearly finished and ready for painting, but a spare wheel was cut from the left over armored car body and glued to the driver side off the front of the cargo area.


Next, to the trailer. The trailer was shaped from the rear portion cut from the armored car, a fuel port made in the top, and the wheel guards added, made the same as the front wheel guards on the truck. The fighting position on the rear of the trailer was made from one of the turret portions of the armored car, being carefully cut out and shaped, then hollowed out. A new floor was added and both were glued to the rear of the trailer. Lastly, a towing bar was made and attached to the front of the trailer. You can see the spare wheel on the truck in this view.


Here's a view of the completed trailer.

That finishes the creation of the truck and trailer from a modeling stand point, but since the base size for a Stronghold allows for me to use a 60 x 80 MM base, I decided I wanted to create a look of post apocalyptic desolation and abandonment around the truck. So, instead of just doing a rough ground and set the truck out I decide to do a section of highway, with potholes and grass growing up in places. That also allowed for me to include a wrecked, abandoned car.


I thought the Humber Staff Car model, BRV93, would allow for a pretty simple conversion to a more modern looking SUV, so that was the starting point. Of course it would need some modification to the front end, and I also wanted to have the hood raised slightly and the driver's door ajar, so that was going to require some creative conversion work.


To create the door and hood I was going to need some additional flat metal to work with, which I cold forge by hammering left over odds and ends from figures to the thickness I need. This picture shows some I had made with a 10 MM figure to give a perspective on size. Some of the parts for the truck model were made the same way and then shaped and formed.


Next was to work on the car body itself, which meant to file out the area where the door was going to be ajar and the area where the hood would be open. And, yes you can see that I filed away parts of the vehicle I still needed, so they had to be added back using some off the cold forged metal. I also wanted one of the wheels to be taken off and lying on the ground next to the vehicle so I removed the driver's side rear wheel. Then after removing the rear wheel I carved out an area for the  wheel well and then created an axle and hub using again left over scrap metal  shaped to the part (I keep a box of left over metal and remains of cut up figures as you never know when you might need it). Lastly, to have the wheel laying on the ground, I carefully removed the spare wheel from the back of the model.


I took this photo to show you how I repair or create new shapes on a model. There is no way I could cut and file a piece to fit, so what I do is cut a piece oversized but to basically fit the need. Once the glue has dried than I then cut and file it to the shape I want. You can see the top above the open door, i.e. the body portion, and the same below. 


Here you can see the area above and below the door have been cut and filed to shape. The new door made with the window cut into it, and the piece of metal to fix the fenders on the front and make the hood. The spare tire has ben cleaned up. Then the fenders needed to be made more modern looking, new bumpers added and the center bar of the windshield/windscreen removed. Then after all that work I had to go and bang it up and flatten the tires.  So, I gouged out places in the fenders, added some scraps and dings about the body and pulled the new bumpers away on two of the corners.  Then it was time for the really scary part – flatten the tires. I know with plastic modeling you can heat a screwdriver and hold it against the wheel and it will flatten as long as the screwdriver isn't too hot. So, I tried that first, but found I wasn't able to heat the screwdriver enough to do anything, and I decided to try a soldering iron. Oh yeah, plenty scary!!! I carefully touched the bottom of the wheels just very quickly and it melted some of the bottom of the tire but did not give a flat tire look, so I then added some green stuff to the bottom and built up the bottom of the tire to look flat. Of  course the right front tire would not be sitting on the ground so although I flattened it a slight bit it is nothing like the other two tries. Whew, is all I can say as that was a very nervous bit to do!


Here you can see the finished modeling of the wrecked SUV, the flat tires and the axle where the rear wheel is missing. All primed and ready for painting. Broken window glass will be added to the open door window after it is all painted.


Here's the truck primed and ready to paint. This can be a satisfying time or a frustrating one, as it will tell you if you been successful in filling in gaps and such.

This brings me to the painting stage and I will post that shortly as I am still writing it and also the development of the base. So, more to follow.

Terry
"My heart has joined the thousand for a friend stopped running today." Mr. Richard Adams

ErHo

Thats looking pretty cool!

You going to put a guy with a flame thrower guitar chained to the front?

"Call it extreme if you like, but I propose we hit it hard and hit it fast with a major - and I mean major - leaflet campaign."

- Rimmer

d_Guy

Quote from: ErHo on 08 December 2017, 09:39:14 PM
You going to put a guy with a flame thrower guitar chained to the front?

:-bd :-bd one of the many highlight of the movie.

Really excellent to see the step-by-step mods and ALL metal parts! No green stuff or card stock fabrications. Are your fingers still intact?  :P
Sleep with clean hands ...

Terry37

08 December 2017, 10:51:44 PM #3 Last Edit: 08 December 2017, 10:53:30 PM by Terry37
Here's Part 2

I decided I wanted to make the War Rig a dark color, but also wanted to avoid a black or gray color to keep it distinct from the Law vehicles. So, I decided on a dark military green as the base color.


Here's the finished war rig, but it looks pretty plain actually, in spite of all the chrome I left on it. It would have been more appropriate I am sure to have it roughed up and looking war weary, but I figured as in Mad Max Fury Road, it was the pride and joy of the war lord's fleet, so kept it pretty clean looking. Not real apparent in the photo is the fact that the car body on top is a different looking shade of green. Actually, what it is to resemble is a car body that was once red and then quickly overpainted with the same dark green as the rest of the war rig. To achieve this, I painted the car body red first, and then when well dry I hit with a couple of really thin watered-down washes of the dark green, but not trying to completely hide the red. This made it look as part of the war rig, while still allowing some of the red to show through. It did end up as a more brown-ish green color, but still looks right with the overall look of the war rig.


I thought about painting the ram on the front to look like this one from one of the zombie movies (Day of the Dead I think it was), and can always go back and do that, but for now it is just painted to look like hardened steel.


Now it was on to the wrecked SUV, which was going to be a bit more involved when it came to painting – to make it look wrecked and abandoned. I wanted it to be a color that insured it was not mistaken for a law vehicle, so I chose a dark red. But after painting in all of the rust it just didn't look right as it was too hard to tell the rust from the red paint.


So, back to the drawing boards and I decided to take a lead from Mad Max and paint it like the van that was crashed into, i.e. a mid pale blue.  This looked much better and allowed the rust to better show up. I had a lot of fun painting the rust on as I'd never done that before. But before attempting it I studied I don't know how many pictures of old rusted cars and models to see the right colors and the way it would rust away. First the paint would thin down to the light gray primer and then start rusting which would turn brown over time, while new rust seemed to be more orange-ish.


Then I had to figure a way to make the windows have a broken look but with some glass still remaining. I again studied many, many pictures on line and saw what most broken windows looked like and then thought about how to achieve the look on a solid cast model.


With the war rig and the wrecked SUV done it was time to move on to the base, and a new challenge – how to create a highway! I decided on using a piece of cardboard that I thought would have the look of a highway finish when painted, so hit it with a coat or dark gray, then several thin, watered down coats of two different lighter grays. Then I made up a painting form to apply the broken center stripe and the two solid side stripes. And as funny as it sounds, although I've been driving for over 50 years now, I could not remember which color the various stripes were – so it was back to doing research. Seems that in the US the stripes changed three different time, with the white and yellow swapping places each time. Then I gouged out some pot holes and in a few places cut the cardboard to make it look as if pieces of the road was coming up.


Next step was to apply the putty compound, and create some places for some pools of water (which are going to be oily and full of yucky slime green algae) and a little scrub growing. I also made some of the scrub growing on to the highway. The old tire half sitting in the larger pool of water was made from a small wooden bead, cut and thinned to look more like a tire.


I figured if this was the wastelands then someone, maybe the people who were driving the wrecked SUV, had stopped to have a meal so beside the large water pool I wanted to add a few tin cans. To make them I took an old cast spear of the right diameter and cut them so that two of the cans would have the lids open but still attached, while the third one had the lid completely off. Then I painted them to look all rusted – yeah, I was having fun painting stuff rusty! Sorry this picture is a bit blurry, but they are very small and I just could not get close enough without a special close-up lens.


So here is the finished base. You can see the water pools are now oily and filled with algae, the tin cans have been placed near the larger pool, and you can make out some pieces of broken window glass that will be near the open door on the wrecked SUV. I also figured I needed a road sign of some kind and really wanted to do one off the large green signs with a town listed and the miles to go, but just didn't think I had room for that so settled on a highway number sign. Of course this being the post apocalypse, it's been hit at least once, and maybe even the wrecked SUV hit it and spun around to the opposite side of the highway???? And of course there are three bullet holes in the sign as well!


Now all that was left was to add the broken glass to the open door on the wreck and put the models on the base. For the broken glass I cut some small jagged pieces of the clear cover of the glue package and glued it inside the door where the window is. The broken pieces of glass on the ground is the same thing only cut smaller. The edges of the broken glass was painted white.


I wanted to add some scraps of old newspaper and other paper type trash, but my first attempt was too big, so I am still pondering how to make it smaller and still look right. Once I figure it out I can add it.









I guess that wraps it up, but I want to say this was a really fun project and I am now very anxious to start on some of the other vehicles I am planning for this Road Warrior army.

Terry


"My heart has joined the thousand for a friend stopped running today." Mr. Richard Adams

Terry37

Thanks guys, and yes more than once I filed, cut or sanded my fingers when trying to create some of the smaller parts! Not to mention the ones I had to remake when they popped out of my fingers and got lost in he carpet!

Terry
"My heart has joined the thousand for a friend stopped running today." Mr. Richard Adams

Matt J

It's a really excellent model Terry, brilliantly executed  8)
2012 Painting Competition - Winner!
2014 Painting Competition - 3 x Winner!
2014 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!
2015 Painting Competition - 2 x Winner!
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2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner

Matt J

2012 Painting Competition - Winner!
2014 Painting Competition - 3 x Winner!
2014 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!
2015 Painting Competition - 2 x Winner!
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Techno


Steve J


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Terry37

Thank you all for the kind words. It was a very fun project to do, and makes me most anxious to start working on some of the Road Warrior cars now!!!

Matt, not to worry about winning, and remember it was a painting contest, so the Green Dragon by itself was not that awe inspiring as a paint work - I mean it's just sort of GREEN! Had it been a conversion category it might have done better.  I am quite happy with the results of both the voting and the project.

Terry
"My heart has joined the thousand for a friend stopped running today." Mr. Richard Adams

d_Guy

As Terry has mentioned it, maybe we could have conversion category next year? Or - dare I say it - a "head and/or body part swapping" category!  :)  :-\
Sleep with clean hands ...

Duke Speedy of Leighton

Remind me next year?
I might have an entry too
You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner