A Car for Dark Future/Gaslands

I've been painting and converting some toy cars, as used in the old GW game Dark Future and the recent Osprey game Gaslands. I used to play Dark Future - many years ago, given that it came out in 1989.

Dark Future is, to modern eyes, quite an odd game for GW to make. For one thing, it wasn't set in either the Warhammer or Warhammer 40,000 settings (or whatever Blood Bowl is set in). For another, while you could buy a small range of models from GW, you were encouraged to convert Matchbox or Hot Wheels cars to make your own vehicles. As you can imagine, this didn't bring in a huge amount of money for GW, and it disappeared.

(Mainly, anyhow. A load of new Dark Future novels were published by Boxtree in 2005 or so, and the timeline and alternative history of the setting were revised and greatly extended. I started reading one of them, thought it was terrible, and gave up on that.)

Dark Future is rather more grown-up and down-to-earth than the big GW games. It's set in a near-future America, in a land racked by global warming, crippled by corporate greed and threatened by insane cultists. On the other hand, the US hasn't elected a dictator, so perhaps a modernised version would be called Somewhat Optimistic Future. On the highways, Sanctioned Operatives (the law) fight huge gangs (not the law) in armed and armoured cars, like a more gun-heavy version of Mad Max. It's got a fairly real-world look, with the Mafia, biker gangs, Bloods and redneck paramilitary types all being represented. 

Gaslands is one of those games from Osprey that fits into a gap that GW failed to fill. While Frostgrave is Substitute Mordheim, and Stargrave is to some extent a replacement Necromunda, Gaslands fills the "Mad Max with Matchbox cars" niche. 

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I was in Tesco recently with a friend, who suggested that I should buy some cheap toy cars and do them up. I thought I'd give it a go, so I purchased a pack of really naff, cheap toy cars. Each car seems to be based on a real-world vehicle, but they're not classy enough to actually say what they are.

One of them was a Chevolet-type truck that looked like this:

I split into its three main bits: the upper chassis, the silver plastic part that contained the interior detailing, and the metal base plate.

I put the upper chassis onto a base made of a bit of carboard, slightly roughed up to represent a crude road surface. I painted it all to look like a ruined, burned-out shell, somewhat overgrown.

That left the silver bit and the metal baseplate. While I couldn't think of anything to do with the baseplate (yet!) the silver bit looked like a crude, stripped-down buggy. 

I ordered the plastic "implements of carnage" sprue from North Star games, which comes with lots of bits of guns, armour and the like to Mad Max-ise your toy cars. I stuck exhausts, a ram and two guns that look like they came off a Flying Fortress onto the silvery shell. I added a driver from the sprue, which took quite a bit of cutting.

Then I painted it.

Oddly, these cheap plastic cars sometimes have some strangely detailed bits, often hidden away. This car had a bottle of extra fuel or nitrous oxide bolted behind the driver's seat, together with a tube that leads into... his bottom? Anyhow, it looked cool.

Well, I certainly got my money's worth out of this thing! It was fun to make and I'm pleased with the results. The other cars will be simpler conversions. 

Three More Yokels

 A quick post as - very gradually - I chip into the mountain of unpainted stuff (probably just prior to buying some more). Here are a few more citizens of Blognia.

The man on the left is an old man with a dog. He's from Black Scorpion's Wild West line, although I think he could be a farmer from pretty much any time at all. I really like the model, especially the dog (even if it does look a bit worried). He was very difficult to photograph, and looks much better in the flesh.

The lady in the middle is a hedge wizard, wearing traditional Blognian dress. Actually, she's an apprentice from Frostgrave. She is reading out a spell from her book - I managed to paint a small star in the book, but it's probably impossible to see.

The taller woman on the right is... well, she's a pirate, from Black Scorpion. I think she's meant not to be wearing any trousers, but that looked utterly ridiculous, so now she's got some britches. While I really like the sculpting of Black Scorpion models, they often seem to have a very slightly rough texture, that might be to do with the way that they're cast (this is pure speculation). 

That's it for this week. I'm very slowly chipping away at some cars for Dark Future/Gaslands, but more of that later. I'll save those up for one big post.

A Bunch of Chaos Weirdos

 Here are some chaos guys that I've been working on. Although they're ancient and short, I still really like the old chaos marine miniatures (well, most of them).

I had a load of damaged bits, and some legs made from a ruined old plastic Khorne berserker (no idea where this part came from!). I added loads of extra parts to make a full model, including a resin Necromunda arm, a fantasy helmet and the face of a Sigmarine. I'm not sure where the bag and chain parts came from, but they look suitably chaotic.

Here he is with some paint. Next to him is a marine from a boxed set featuring the chaos warlord Fabius Bile. Bile is a mad scientist type who can "enhance" his minions. This being the wonderful world of Warhammer, this turns them into hideous maniacs.

This particular hideous maniac is not a great model (none of this set are). His head is very big, and the sculpting is a bit crude. Well, I did my best, and tried to make him look suitable mad. He has a lot of wires and pipes, which I imagine pump some unwholesome solution into his body.

The next two were repaints of models I did a while ago. The chap on the left is one of my favourite conversions, which I did when I was about 18. I replaced most of his head with the mouth of a plastic space ork, which I believe is upside down. The other guy is the spotter for a heavy weapon squad. It seemed appropriate to give him a hazard-stripe shoulder pad.

Next up is a trio of disgusting monsters. I made these from all sorts of tyranid and chaos oddments. The big worm was made from a tyranid ravener's lower body and a part from some sort of ugly Khorne monster, probably called a blood-something. I really like them. They remind me of a Francis Bacon painting. Yuck.

All glory to Chaos!

Making Space Adventurers From Historical Models

Personally, I think Conan the Barbarian got it wrong. Crushing your enemies and all that is pretty good, but making little space people out of increasingly unlikely old miniatures is way better. I've been back at the Stargrave people, enjoying sticking new heads and arms onto historical miniatures.

Here are a couple of space adventurers. The woman on the left has a Bolt Action Russian body, with Stargrave head and arms. I reckon she's some kind of well-off rebel. The lady on the right is a standard Stargrave plastic model. She's a dodgy corporate bureaucrat, together with jolly company hat.

And now for something weirder.

The rest of these guys were made from old plastic English Civil War infantry. I think they might be Perry models; they're pretty ancient and weren't doing anything useful in my cupboard. So... they became space people. I removed the heads, and left off the arms. 

Here they are painted.

The man on the left is based on a musketeer. I gave him a Stargrave head and arms from a Wargames Atlantic Grognard space soldier. They both looked quite old-fashioned and military, which suits the marching pose of the body. I painted him to look neat. I think he's either the crew of a spaceship or perhaps the leader of a militia.

The chap on the right was based on a pikeman. He's got a Wargames Atlantic face and helmet, and Stargrave arms. He looks as if he's stopping a citizen. "Please stand still while I scan you for witchcraft".

And here are the other two.

These guys were also based on pikemen. I noticed that all the base models were facing the same way (which makes sense in a pike regiment), so I gave this chap a left-handed gun to "turn" the model to the left. I also cut his lower left leg and turned it slightly, for a more forward-facing pose. Lots of bits were added to his waist to break up his Civil War shape. His head has goggles and bandages, rather like the invisible man. He was painted to look like a grotty bandit, with a fairly drab colour scheme that reminds me slightly of the Afrika Korps. To make him more sci-fi and visually interesting, I painted his lenses red.

The final weirdo has a head and arms from the Stargrave female crew sprue. When I sprayed the model black, the outline and pose reminded me of a ninja. So, she got a black paint job. The eye-slit in her helmet stresses this. I really like her shape: she's got an aggressive feel, as if about to kick down a door.

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Everything I've Learned About Converting Historical Models Into Space People

By and large, I reckon that most historical miniatures could be converted into space people. For one thing, science fiction covers a lot of bases, from the near-future of cyberpunk to the wild designs of Moebius, and artists like John Blanche often riff off real historical costumes anyhow. You might have difficulty where a model is wearing a very recognisable garment, or where the body isn't properly covered. It's going to be difficult to explain why someone is running around in space dressed in flip flops and a kimono. Perhaps they're some kind of deadly monk who swears off other kit. Or a psychic who can conjure their own protection. Or just a non-combatant. You just need to make them look like that. 

Heads

First up, I'd suggest keeping some female heads. For one thing, you might decide that someone in armour is a woman, so you need a head for that. Also, a lot of historical/real world models are slighter and a bit smaller than SFF models, so it would make sense to use female heads for them. I've found that female heads work really well with Bolt Action bodies. When covered in armour and gear, it's likely that a fair number of women would look a lot like slightly smaller men.

Also, head swaps can really improve a mediocre model. I don't think that the Bolt Action Soviets are particularly great miniatures, but the Stargrave heads are newer and better-detailed. The head is often the first place you look when looking at a miniature, so it helps a not-brilliant body greatly if the head is good.

Shapes and Silhouettes

Converting a model isn't a matter of where the model/piece came from, but what it looks like. A gun barrel could become an exhaust pipe, a club or even a walking stick. It's a matter of turning the piece around and thinking "What can I use this for?".

When using bodies from other ranges, it helps to look at the overall silhouette of the model and play to it or disguise it as necessary. The main things about the English Civil War infantry are: (i) the long jackets, with visible collars; (ii) the trousers, which are very baggy up to just below the knee, where they meet the big socks (I'm pretty sure these are not the technical terms); and (iii) the belts and bags slung across the body.

With these models, I wanted to hide some of the stuff slung across their chests, especially the "apostles", the little wooden cartridges that musketeers use. (They look a bit like small bottles, and perhaps you could paint them as such). The easy way to do this is to cover them up with arms that hold rifles or shotguns and, if needed, with backpacks. You could cut them off, but then you'd still need to put something over the top. 

You can also break up the silhouette by adding new elements, particularly shoulder pads and stuff on their belts. I don't think any real army has ever had big shoulder pads without corresponding armour, but it's a classic science-fiction look. Likewise, adding a load of extra bits and bobs (particularly grenades!) to a model's waist firstly shows that they've got modern tech and breaks up the shape of the original historical model.

Painting the Conversions

Painting these guys is pretty simple: just don't paint them the colours that they would be in real life. For these models, I deliberately avoided red and orange clothes, which were big in the English Civil War (so was blue, but less famously).

When painting, you can use colours to draw the eye to the bits you want to stand out. I didn't want people to look at the lower legs and feet of these models, so I've left them very dark and only vaguely highlighted. You can also disguise the origin of the model by painting historical bits in non-historical colours (so, a metal breastplate might be bright red). 

A good trick is to link parts of the model by painting them the same bright colour. On the blue soldier, I've painted both his sash (historical) and his shoulders and cuffs (sci-fi) the same light grey. This helps give the impression that they ought to be together. Likewise the sci-fi helmet and Civil War body armour on the shiny soldier.

And that's pretty much all I know. Thanks for reading this far. Here's the company lady and her android bodyguards. I'm not sure what I'll paint next. We shall see...

Another Hive Tyrant and a Load More Tyranids

 I found an old tyranid hive tyrant in a cardboard box, which I probably bought about 25 years ago. I stripped it down and rebuilt it.

This is the second incarnation of the hive tyrant, and appeared in the second tyranid codex. Rumour has it that Games Workshop got into trouble with the owners of the Alien (20th Century Fox, I assume) because it looked too much like the queen from Aliens. I'm not sure if this is true, but I do recall an article on GW's website saying that it looked a bit too much like a certain film franchise. The third version of this miniature largely ditched the second's style, and has remained so ever since. And if you think that's confusing, just wait.

Anyhow, it was a right pig to assemble. I ended up pinning pretty much every limb. I gave it two deathspitters and a barbed strangler: I doubt that this shooty loadout would be much good in battle, but it does look cool. The original model came on a tiny base, the sort that is now used for Space Marine terminators. I gave it a much larger base, to suit the model and hopefully provide some small amount of stability.

It got the usual Hive Fleet Behemoth colour scheme - lots of oldhammer red. It was quite tricky to paint, with a lot of hidden parts that were hard to access. Here it is.

Hideous, really. I particularly like the ammo-scrotum for the barbed stranger. Lovely.

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Here are some other tyranid models that I've been working on. These are von Ryan's leapers, a sort of smaller version of the tyranid lictor. Their job is to creep up and attack enemies in close combat. 

They're recent plastic models. To be honest, they are both good sculpts and massively overcomplicated. I didn't especially enjoy painting them. I used a base coat of while, with dark blue contrast paint over it - looking back, I don't think this did anything that a simple wash wouldn't have done. They'll do.

And here are some more new miniatures. These are "neurogaunts", a new form of tyranid. I've no idea what these things do, but I felt that they'd make quite good hormagaunts. Okay, let me explain this.

Back in the days of the first tyranid codex, the only hormagaunts you could get were big spindly metal things that toppled over if you looked at them too hard. They didn't look much like other tyranids, especially not the little red termagants, to which they were meant to be closely related, and were much larger than genestealers, which are the tyranids' close combat experts. Now, these new neurogaunts are the same size as the little oldhammer termagants, and I think they work well as hormagaunts. And if you've read this far without getting a headache, I salute you.

Anyhow, here are some. They're really nice models, with a good range of poses. They were extremely quick to paint, since they've got no eyes and only a couple of colours.

And here is a big swarm of these guys. They don't come out well en masse, but you can see that a horde of these things does look quite impressive. A case of quantity being a quality of its own.

Anyhow, that's enough space bugs for now. Next time we'll have some more Stargrave conversions.

Some Kind Of Alien Ostrich Monster

The older I get, the less the whole "grimdark" thing appeals to me. Not for any deep reason, but just because I find it rather dull: too much sepia, mud and inexplicable piles of skulls for my tastes. Of course, people can do what they like, but I find myself increasingly increasingly drawn to make brightly-coloured models of "some kind of robot" or "a space adventurer". Also, outside Warhammer, you don't have to deal with the endless people shouting "heresy!" at each other.

Anyhow, I was in Southampton last weekend, and I visited a Forbidden Planet shop for the first time since the pandemic. If you're wondering, FP is a chain that sells comics, sci-fi and related merchandise, some bits of it classier than others. On the discount shelf, I found several big art books going for almost nothing.

I bought Battle Milk 2 and 3, which seem to consist of design work by a group of film artists, ranging from the realistic to the cartoony and kitsch, and a lavish book called Alien Race, which appears to have been the basis for a film pitch about a "horse" race on another planet and features loads of cool beasts and their weird riders. In any event, it seems that nothing came of it, since all the books were from 2010 or so. I got them for £5: they should have cost £80. 

As an author, it strikes me as slightly sad that books with so much content should be going so cheaply. Anyhow, I found Alien Race quite inspiring, and put together a weird creature of my own.

I had a pair of legs from some kind of mech toy, and a head and neck that I'd used years ago in a failed conversion of the Jabberwock from the Alice books. The neck was from a dark elf hydra, and the head came from a much-chopped squig model. I must have hacked through a lot of metal to make these.

The trouble about toys is that they're often made out of wobbly plastic that isn't very nice to work with (and have dreadful mould lines). The best way to stick this thing together was to use a lot of glue and pinning, and to attach the legs in a sort of full-on sprinting pose, which suited the rather goofy head.

I gave it a bright paint job, influenced by racing cars. I'd had the base lying around for ages - I think it's from a Warmachine model, but I'm not sure how much it's been converted by its previous owner. 

That's me done for now!

From WW2 Armour Car to Moon Buggy

 I was in the local games shop last week, trying to find something fun to paint for less than £25. This is not easy. Of course, models are more costly than they used to be: that's inevitable. But the fact that they are usually either sold as squads or expensive special characters means that it's harder to go into a shop, see something that looks cool and get it to paint.

Anyhow, I ended up buying a Bolt Action WW2 armoured car. It's a British Humber Mk II/IV, which is one of the coolest looking military vehicles ever.

However, I looked at the sprue for about ten minutes before I decided to turn it into a moon buggy. Part of the reason for this is that Bolt Action models are a small 28mm scale and are "skinny" compared to the chunky proportions of GW and North Star miniatures.

I left the turret bits off - I could use that for something else. I assembled the basic model and added details from the bits box: some fuel tanks on one side, and some steps on the other. The roof got a big hatch from a Tau tank. I added some more detailing with strips of plasticard, just to change the look a little.

The paint job was very "civilian". I went for a light grey, heavily weathered with chips and dirt. I added some unnecessary hazard stripes to suggest an industrial function, and some bits of colour to make it more interesting to look at. Bonus points for getting the "Moon Unit" reference. 

I enjoyed painting and weathering this thing. The only aspect I don't really like is the windscreen. I attempted a green glow, but I don't think it really works that well.

And here are a couple of pictures of the buggy in action. As you can see, it's pretty small. If I actually played any games, it would make a nice little bit of terrain. As it is, I just enjoyed making it. Not sure what I'll do with those turrets, though.