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.

The Battle of Helm's Deep

In a blatant attempt to get my post count to an average of three per month for 2018, here some photos of the Helm's Deep setup from this year's MillenniumCon.

My buddy Coach and his son ran the game, using an old set of rules called Warlord. They got the castle from a game store, and added a few modifications to it.

Yes, this scenery was huge! They transported it in pieces and assembled it inside the convention. Those are all 28 mm figures.

Happy New Year!

More Gaslands vehicles

As I plan on playing the Gaslands post-apoc vehicle combat game one of these days, I've been acquiring die-cast toy vehicles on the cheap.

My rule of thumb is that vehicles (excluding tractor-trailer rigs) must cost less than a buck. My first purchases included some dollar-store packages of two or three vehicles for $1. Recently, my neighborhood grocery store had a two-for-the-price-of-one coupon for Hot Wheels, so I picked up a half-dozen for 47 cents each:

And just yesterday, the supermarket had a post-Christmas sale. I snagged a big rig (normally around $7) for just $1.98. And there was a Justice League Batmobile with a gun turret for $0.94 (those franchise vehicles normally going for 4 or 5 bucks):

I need to get to work on these so I can finally play this game. If anyone has played it, please let me know what you think of Gaslands.

Under my tree

Although this arrived on Boxing Day, it technically isn't a Christmas gift to me. Instead, it is the result of my pledge in last spring's Kickstarter for Escape The Dark Castle expansions. I was hoping to get it prior to the holiday, but due to tardy shipping it did not show up on my doorstep until today.

Getting my order today made me feel like a kid again, as I opened up a new game and reading the instructions. I'm looking forward to sorting everything into the big collectors box--and, of course, playing some games with the new characters, items, events, and components! I guess I will consider this my Christmas present after all.

Season's greetings!

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and Happy Holidays to all. Travel and social commitments have kept me from gaming lately, but I will be rolling dice and moving miniatures again soon. Has anyone else been able to game this holiday?

Seven Years War game

One of the good things about game conventions is that you have a chance to try rules or genres you don't ordinarily play. It's nice to get out of my sci-fi comfort zone every once in awhile.

For me, that means trying out at least one historical game at MillenniumCon. This year I played in a refight of the Battle of Emsdorf using Fire & Fury rules.

It was a Friday morning game, in the first time slot of the con. The figures and table looked great, and it was a good way to start off a weekend of gaming.

I took some French regiments, and as the game was ending sent my infantry charging into the English guns.

The move somehow ended up succeeding, so even though we ran out of time, I feel like I accomplished something. But even if it hadn't, I tried something new.