More Gaslands vehicles

A car and pickup for Gaslands or Axles and Alloys, made from dollar store die-cast vehicles and some spare bits from other toys or minis.

I drilled out the rivets holding these vehicles together, stripped the paint, added some spare parts, and then sprayed them a nice blue color and washed them with a black ink/paint/water mix.

The car, Jake, comes equipped with a machine-gun turret, a manipulator arm, and a spotlight. I sprayed the inside of the windows black before I glued everything together.

The truck, Elwood, has some sort of big, sci-fi gun in a turret over the cab, and a spotlight on the hood.

It's windows were already tinted, so I just detailed the big gun on top. I also glued the wheels so they don't turn--that way I don't have to worry about my gaming minis rolling across the table if it gets bumped.

These vehicles were a lot easier to finish than my first two Gaslands trucks, which each had miniature figures posed on them.

I realize that these are not your typical wasteland warrior vehicles, but I figure there are still pockets of civilization out there, making and maintaining new (or newish-looking) cars and trucks.

The completion of this second pair means I have enough vehicles for some team battles or scenarios from the Gaslands rulebook. Maybe the next bunch will look more post-apocalyptic.

My first finished Gaslands rigs

My first completed miniatures of 2019 are a couple of vehicles for use with Gaslands (and other post-apocalyptic road combat games, like Axles & Alloys). This front loader and dump truck came from the same dollar store blister pack. Can you figure out the theme here?

I took them apart and sprayed the plastic components with a darker shade of orange. Since I didn't have any old Warhammer 40K bits to convert to weapons like other gamers tend to use, I decided to accessorize the vehicles with 1/72 figures from hobby stores or flea markets, painted like construction workers.

Inspired by the great Kaptain Kobold, I have decided to name all my post-apoc rigs after song titles. Thus, I present to you: Who Can It Be Now? This vehicle has a driver from a halftrack model and the shooter from a box of WWII Germans.

The dump truck shall henceforth be known as Overkill. The figures in the back are all German soldiers from the same sprue as the guy on the front loader.

Confession time: I wanted to get into Gaslands because I thought that painting die-cast cars would be a lot simpler than painting figures of people or creatures. So what do I do? Decide that the first vehicles I paint all need crew miniatures!

It took me all afternoon to get these figs painted to the level I'm comfortable with--that is, a tabletop standard. The photographs bring out all their flaws, but I think they look fine at arm's length on the gaming mat.

In addition to the soldiers, I placed some containers from Reaper's Bones to give the guys cover and something to stand on.

OK, that's two down, and another couple dozen to go. Who knows? Maybe I will get enough of these done to run a game of Gaslands before 2020 gets here.

Axles & Alloys after-action report

A couple of weeks ago, we got together for food and gaming to celebrate Joe's birthday. In order to accomodate more than a half-dozen players, we ended up playing Axles & Alloys, a vehicle combat game based on Full Thrust.

Vehicles were equipped with weapons like machine guns, oil sprayers and even spike- or napalm-droppers. We lined up with the idea of seeing who could make two laps around the track, but over the course of the game, no one got further than a quarter-lap. Everybody was too busy shooting at everyone else.

Blake modified a bunch of die-cast vehicles straight out of the box, and there were a few more works-in-progress.

I took the cop car, naming it the Black & White & Red All Ova, and calling my driver Inspecta Specta (I was going for a Wu Tang Clan vibe).

Straight out of the gate, the mayhem ensues. Eventually, after shooting I get a chance to ram some vehicles that got in my way. The collision takes out one car and kills the driver. I then reverse to hit another car and take out its operator too. The resulting fireball kills my driver as well, before the first turn.

It's a fun game, and after seeing Mad Max: Fury Road, I have the urge to buy a bunch of Hot Wheels and convert them to post-apocalyptic battle wagons. What a lovely day!

Axles & Alloys at GuadaComaCon

That's me on the right, playing Hot Wheels with all the other "grownups."

One of the games at GuadaComaCon was Axles & Alloys, a game of automotive combat based on the Full Thrust rules.  As you can see, there was a pretty good turnout.  Chip ran an arena combat scenario, with each player taking one vehicle.

I took the blue armored vehicle with the big gun on top.  I like the fact that the rules encourage you to name your car and your driver, so I christened the vehicle as the Over Bearing.  Another player took the Scooby Doo van.  I'm told that for some reason, that vehicle is always the first one that the other players shoot at in these games, no matter who plays it.

I didn't do so well this game.  I tried to ram a vehicle, and took enough damage that I had to roll for each component to see if it was destroyed.  Of course, I made all my rolls except for one--the driver.  That ended the game for (and the life of) driver Thrash Nordstrom, but it was a fun time.

My day at GuadaComaCon

As I mentioned over the weekend, turnout for the convention was better than ever.  I got to play in a couple of games and ran a session of the game I co-wrote, 5150: Star Navy.  And there was plenty going on all day.  I hope to come back with some more detailed posts regarding the games I participated in or ran, but for now here's my overview of GuadaComaCon:

The morning started out with a couple of roleplaying games.  Game designer Dennis Sustare ran a game of Swords & Wizardry, a retroclone of the original D&D rules.

Meanwhile, author/illustrator Jeff Dee refereed Béthorm: The Plane of Tékumel, an RPG based on the setting from the famous Empire of the Petal Throne.

At the same time, Chip was conducting a game of Axles & Alloys, a vehicle combat game using mechanics from Full Thrust.  I played in the first round, getting my driver killed at the end of the game.

In addition, Kerstan and Tom, a couple of New Braunfels locals, put on a 2000-point game of Warhammer 40,0000--Tyranids versus Space Marines.  Several other NB gamers stopped by to watch and chat.

For the afternoon session, my game of 5150: Star Navy drew a half-dozen players.  I think one person had played it before; but the rest of the group easily picked up the rules.

Blake had brought enough armies (repurposed Warhammer figures) and terrain to host an entire Hordes of the Things tournament for 12 players, but unfortunately he ended up just having three or four gamers actually play some HotT.

In addition that afternoon, Joe put on a Flames of War scenario.  The battle was Germans against Soviets in Budapest, 1945.

Also during this time slot Jeff's wife, Talzhemir, ran Cavemaster, the role-playing game that cavemen played.

After that, only one evening game took place: the Battle of Hoth using FUBAR rules.  Coach K and his son drove an hour-and-a-half, bringing their large, illuminated setup that drew onlookers from a charity event in the convention center's ballroom.  I'm glad I got to play this scenario, as they're retiring it in favor of Helm's Deep for the next convention.

I was a little disappointed that we didn't have more evening games; I guess everyone was tired after two sessions of rolling dice and moving miniatures.  Still, my thanks to everyone who ran a game, as well as those who came out to play.  See you next August!