Los Vochos

I had so much fun putting together my last car for Gaslands: Refuelled that I snagged a couple more Hot Wheels and set to building a couple more. Both cars are VW Beetles - one a '49 Beetle pick-up, the other simply labelled as "Custom VW Beetle" and so fit together really nicely... so nicely, in fact, that, rather than fill out the team I'd started previously, I immediately thought of them as a new team.

With some education from a friend about the Beetle's Mexican connection, it didn't take long before I started thinking of them as part of Team Caudillo, a Puebla-based subsidiary of Rutherford. For all intents and purposes, though, they're a Rutherford team. Unlike previously, I planned out the full crew before starting on the vehicles.

El Técnico

El Técnico		Sponsor	Rutherford
Vehicle Type	Special Rules	Cost	Build Slots
Car	-	12	2
Weapons		Cost	Build Slots
Handguns		-	-
Mortar (forward-facing)		4	1
Mine Dropper (rear-facing)		1	1
Upgrades		Cost	Build Slots
-		-	-
Perks	Badass & Military	Cost	Total Cost
Well Stocked		-	19
Televised Carnage		-
Fully Loaded		2

El Rudo

El Rudo		Sponsor	Rutherford
Vehicle Type	Special Rules	Cost	Build Slots
Truck	-	15	3
Weapons		Cost	Build Slots
Handguns		-	-
Heavy Machine Gun (front-facing)		3	1
Heavy Machine Gun (front-facing)		3	1
Upgrades		Cost	Build Slots
Armour Plating		4	1
Perks	Badass & Military	Cost	Total Cost
Well Stocked		-	31
Televised Carnage		-
Rapid Fire		2
Loader		2
Dead-Eye		2

Following on from Dusty Roads, I maintained the wrestling theme - lucha libre in this case - with these vehicles. "El Técnico" is the lucha equivalent of 'Face' or 'Good Guy', while "El Rudo" is 'Heel' or 'Bad Guy'. El Técnico is a basic car armed with a mortar and a mine dropper. I also gave it the Fully Loaded perk to make full use of the boost to both weapons' ammo rating. El Rudo is more of a blunt instrument, designed to hurl out vast quantities of bullets from its two heavy machine guns. This is achieved by piling on the Rapid Fire, Loader, and Dead-Eye perks, while armour plating helps to keep it in the game for longer - it's a proper gun truck. Combined, the pair add up to a full crew's worth of 50 points.

The build was really swift and simple. El Técnico's roof rack is already on the model, so it was a simple case of gluing a mortar to it. Similarly, El Rudo got two machine guns on its roof. Both weapons are resin test casts from North Star's upcoming Implements of Carnage sprue for Gaslands. Very nice pieces, and all I really did was clip down the gun barrels so that they overhung the cab less.

Painting-wise, my original plan was to continue the lucha libre theme, using a lucha mask stamp as a team logo. A test-run, however, revealed that it proved just a little too large for the doors, and an awkward fit on the ridged bonnets. Plan B, then was to just keep it simple, with a blue-and-metal palette reminiscent of the mask of Blue Demon. Drybrush pretty much everything with khaki and metal for weathering, then coat it all with a brown wash, before picking out the tyres, windscreens, and weaponry with a dark wash. Varnish and add a bit of static grass - job's a good'un.

I don't know if they're going to win any races, but I'd hope that they'll be able to blow up some other vehicles.

Until next time...

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

From The Vault: Wuxia

I've previously posted about my love of Song of Blades and Heroes, so I won't go into that again. This, however, is my second warband for that game – a monastic order based on wuxia and old kung fu movies.

This is a really eclectic mix of figures, featuring miniatures from five different manufacturers. There's a lot of variation in the sculpting (both scale and quality) but, with a relatively unifying paint-job, they all fit together.

The gang does include more options than the average game of SoB&H would normally allow, so I threw in a few spear-armed peasants to help round out the force if there was a point of two going spare. These Redshirts are Foundry Chinese pirates, converted to hold wire spears.

The core of the gang are its fighting monks, and these three all come from Reaper.

Every warband needs some heroes, though, and its first was this monk, again from Reaper. It's officially a half-orc, but I ran it as a demon seeking redemption through meditative contemplation... and kung fu.

The second is a dragon-headed Bruce Lee-style miniature from Hasslefree. This was the last figure painted before the project was pushed to one side, and so he never really got a backstory (or even a statline, if I recall correctly).

One thing that was almost always fielded was this big dire ape (a D&D pre-paint), run as a Yeren ("Chinese Wildman – a bigfoot-like creature). Although mouldlines on fur are always a pain to clean up, I do really like this model.

Leadership (and some magic) was found in the form of these two. The one on the right is another Hasslefree martial artist, fielded as the top student of the temple, while the one on the left is the abbot – it's a model from the now-vanished (I think) Chinatown game from a company called Stone Circle.

Painted around the same time as the above gang, these terracotta warriors are from Renegade. They were painted up really quickly (and shonkily, even by my standards!) for reasons that escape me now. And, no – I have no idea what that is on the chest of the one on the right...

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

From The Vault: A Little Bit of Cyberpunk

I can't remember any particular reason behind buying and painting these figures – perhaps I just fancied doing some Cyberpunk minis.

The borgs in front are from the Urban War game (a spin-off of iKore's Void setting, now carried by Scotia Grendel), the troopers at the back are from East Riding Miniatures.

I do like the borgs – they're nice sculpts, and a doddle to paint, with sharp details and clean lines. Their size is all over the place, though!

Speaking of size, these basic troopers are immense! I really like the aesthetic, with the stubby carbines and the Dredd-style helmets, but they definitely don't mix well with regular 28mm figures. Alongside the larger borgs, they're fine, but they do dwarf the one with the chain-gun arm...

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

From The Vault: VBCW

The Very British Civil War craze from a few years ago was one I really wanted to join in with. I loved the idea of the Abdication Crisis spiraling out of control and into civil war. The figures that were put out for it were incredible, and I couldn't resist buying and painting a few, even though there was absolutely zero chance of ever getting them to the table.

My first unit was repainted Black and Tans from Musketeer Miniatures (now carried by Footsore). I decided to theme the force around my old college – Lincoln – hence the dark and light blue bonnets. These guys were members of the college's UOTC formation – hence the more uniform appearance.

Of course, every college needs staff, and so these Musketeer/Footsore IRA figures were pressed into service as porters, groundskeepers, and the like. Their armbands were painted in the same two-tone blue to tie in with the uniformed chaps above.

Of course, as a college with close ties to the Church, it made sense for Lincoln to side with the Anglican League, which gave rise to this command group. A limited edition (I think – at least it used to be) Foundry figure, flanked by two from Artizan's pulp range.

Long since departed this world, there was also a Hurricane, painted in the same two-tone blue colour scheme (light undercarriage, dark on top), complete with a flight stand made from a coat-hanger. It was a mess, but I did enjoy the brief foray into Airfix kits.

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

From The Vault: Tcho-Tcho

Call of Cthulhu was the first real RPG I played, and for as long as I've been aware of Lovecraft and the Mythos, I've loved the Tcho-Tcho. I don't know why, exactly – perhaps because they are almost always creepy, with the setting's cosmic horror reflected in them in a less overt way than some of the other antagonist options. It's the same with Deep One Hybrids – they're brilliant and creepy, but full-on Deep Ones... meh.

Regardless, when these guys came out, I snapped them up!

While I have my doubts about some of the scaling on the firearms, these are incredible little models, and I wish I could remember the manufacturer.

I tried to get a sinister, unnatural complexion on these guys, using green inks on khakis and light browns. It worked better on some than on others (the chap with the kitchen knife looks like he's been to a kids' facepainting party!), but they definitely don't look entirely human.

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

Here Comes The Vroom

With the release of Gaslands: Refuelled just around the corner, the Osprey Games office is once again full of Hot Wheels cars, random components scavenged from various sources, and the smell of superglue. A challenge was leveled - build a Gaslands car from the selection that was already to hand. That was it. No rules, no prizes. It really should take more than this to spur our competitive streaks into full flight...

Well, I think my car is the first one finished, so I win on that score if no other...

The underlying vehicle is a Hot Wheels Solid Muscle, which is described by the Hot Wheels Wiki as "a futuristic flatbed truck with what appears to be two nitrous tanks in the rear. The model has an adjustable front splitter."

First things first, the front splitter was rendered non-adjustable with the judicious application of superglue, as were the wheels. While Gaslands is really designed to be played with cars not mounted on bases, I prefer the look of based models and found some the perfect size from Renedra - just a little longer and wider than the car itself, but not so much that it interferes with measurements etc.

So, with the car in hand, I needed to figure out how to stat it up for Gaslands. It's obviously a truck of some kind, so I started with the Truck statline. This gave me a starting cost of 15 and 3 build slots to accommodate larger gear. The two tanks in the back of the truck are already intended to represent a nitrous system, but I don't really see myself (or a truck, for that matter) speeding to victory - gutting out a win by immobilizing the opposition is more my style. Flicking through the available weaponry, I lit up the Napalm Dropper... which does exactly what you'd expect. this is a pretty inexpensive, yet fun option that takes up 1 build slot. With one dropped weapon already equipped, I thought of Verney - a sponsor that specialises in dropped weapons. It's a perfect combination, and I furthered that synergy by adding a second dropped weapon - the Oil Slick Dropper (pricier than the Napalm Dropper, but 'free' in terms of build points). There are also two large exhausts on the Solid Muscle, presumably also for the nitrous system, but these take little effort to reinterpret as some form of weapon port.

At this stage, I had a decent rear-facing arsenal, and reckoned I could do with adding something to make me as dangerous to the vehicles ahead of me. Machine Guns are always a good option, so I took a couple of forward-facing ones to fill out the build point allowance. I could have spent a lot more time finessing and juggling different weapon options, but I wanted to skip to my favourite part of any project - kitbashing!

The long, flat roof of the cab looked perfect for the machine guns, so I raided my bitz box and found a couple of MG42s from Warlord Games' Bolt Action plastics. Clip off the stock, pistol grip, and that was it. I did consider mounting them on the bonnet, tucking them against the ridge, but I couldn't shake the impression that they looked to be shooting slightly downhill (the bonnet slopes very slightly) and the roof mounting offers a more interesting silhouette. I also found a random bit of plastic (maybe spare tank tracks? Ammo cases?) and glued it up against the exhausts to represent the Oil Slick Dropper.

That done, the vehicle was pretty much ready to go, but I thought it needed just a little something extra. I snaffled a load of jerry cans (another Bolt Action find), and mounted them against the rear of the cab. It makes very little sense to store petrol right next to a napalm-based weapon, but, then again, it makes very little sense to engage in high speed death races...

The painting was a doddle - grey basecoat, drybrush the edges with metal, then drybrush the lower areas with brown. Pick out the jerry cans in green, the napalm tanks in yellow (I considered the classic black-and-yellow stripes, but it was just a little more awkward than I cared for!), and a stray cable in red, then an all-over brown wash, and jobs's a good'un.

One touch I added, just to bring a splash more colour to the vehicle, was a smear of blood across the bonnet. It doesn't really fit with a game of Gaslands, but it does lift the generally dark vehicle a bit. I haven't done anything with sponsor logos or numbers or anything - it would look better with something along those lines, but I don't have any bright ideas right now. Something to return to, perhaps.

So the final vehicle looks like this:

Dusty Roads		Sponsor	Verney
Vehicle Type	Special Rules	Cost	Build Slots
Truck	-	15	3
Weapons		Cost	Build Slots
Handguns		-	-
Machine Gun (front-facing)		2	1
Machine Gun (front-facing)		2	1
Napalm Dropper (rear-facing)		1	1
Oil Slick Dropper (rear-facing)		2	-
Upgrades		Cost	Build Slots
-		-	-
Perks	Technology & Built	Cost	Total Cost
Trunk of Junk		-	22
Tombstone		-
That’s Entertainment		-

I've not spent any points on additional perks, but coming in at 22 points, it gives me a bit of leeway on that score if I want to improve this vehicle or invest in a more expensive teammate.

Coming up with a name for the vehicle was the hardest part! The theme for this team will be motoring puns based on the names of old-school professional wrestlers. This truck is named for the late Dusty Rhodes, 'The American Dream':

Hmmm... I might need to go back and add some polka-dots. Future vehicles for this team might include: The Macho Van, Harley Racer or 'Chassis' Freddie Blassie. Other suggestions welcomed (but no prizes for Diesel, Blacktop Bully, or Thurman 'Sparky' Plugg...).

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.