Meep meep

After Code White, I bought a Hot Wheels with the intention of mucking it up for Dark Future use - a '71 Plymouth Road Runner. But it was just so nice.

And I wasn't sure I could ruin that. But, ultimately I took some sandpaper to it, and tacked on a few pieces.

I didn't really like all of that, though.

It turned out I didn't much like that either.

Now I'm not sure what to do with it. But I think I'm going to leave it stock, and just do some paintwork to it.

Project Speeder Finished

Finally some finished pics of it! These took so long to get because I don't actually have the car anymore - I gave it to my dad for Father's Day last year.

Painted it Pink

Did this one up a while ago for a friend. Started life as a Mustang and after some sanding, we were ready to go.

Since it already had stuff sticking up out of the hood, I wanted to take that further, and make it look like it had ridiculous engine mods. I also added the standard armour; the back has the same Tau-grenade-turned-oil-slick/smoke-launcher as Code White, and the bit on top (which I believe might have been from a pen) either is a shotgun or laser. The armour on the windscreen is some thin plastic scored to look like mesh. The yellow bits are all from an old car model.

Pink was requested, and pink was had. (Though I would wind up wishing I had made it a lot brighter.)

Then came the usual drybrushing, washes, and weathering. I was particularly pleased with the exhaust staining, but again, I wish the base pink had been brighter initially.

Don't have a name for this one, but that's okay. All in all, I was quite happy with it, and so was my friend.

Code White

In Ontario hospitals (and probably others, too), Code White is code for a violent person or situation.

Since the 240z is going to stay white, I'm going to call it Code White. Not sure on who the driver will be, yet.

(Once again, progress pics appear to be lost.)

Here she is, with gear primed and blacked. Actually, just two coats of black. Couldn't find any primer, and the black I used first dried shiny. That's a no-no. Fortunately, my good old Citadel Chaos Black was salvageable with just a couple drops of water. I have no idea how old that paint is, but it must be nearing ten years.

Drybrushed. This is the first time I've ever drybrushed properly, I found out, and I have to say, it's a great technique. The colour used was gunmetal, made from Mithril Silver and Chaos Black. Man, these paints are long-lived.

And now we skip some embarrassing steps where I screwed up the washes to see the finished product.

I asked for advice in a DF group, and got the suggestion of doing a black wash and wiping it off (actually ALL the painting choices came from suggestions. I was at a loss on my own.) Well, I made a wash out of that standby Chaos Black I keep mentioning, and let it sit much too long. Code White became Code Grey.

I plowed on, taking the next suggested step of a brown wash. Well, all I had, aside from some cheap shiny acrylics, was Dark Flesh. Turns out, Dark Flesh is a lot more red than you'd think.

So I'm faced with two layers of washes I did poorly and feel have ruined the look of my car. I tried wiping them off, but they were dry. I turned once again to sandpaper. Some careful scraping here and there removed most of the damage, and actually turned it into some almost-decent weathering.

Relieved, I touched up were some of the gear that had got sanded, and started picking things out with another round of drybrushing. I mixed up some rusty colour (Dark Flesh and Chaos Black, naturally) and filled in the wheels with that, as well as rubbing it here and there on the gear and the car itself. I did some straight black around the guns and oil/smoke dispenser, to make them look used and dirty, and gave the windshield a little love with whatever brown was left on my brush.

I think it could still use a proper brown wash/drybrushing, and frankly maybe even a white/bone one. Lotta salt on Canadian roads, after all.

Now then.


The Bad:

My washes were bad, the paint's too thick on the spoiler and the spoiler should probably have a more bare metal look, there's some bare plastic visible in the window grilles, the front around the guns is a mess, and there's a few nooks and crannies that still look almost untouched, and it still needs a matte spray/varnish/protection.

The Good:

I like it.

It's not going to win any awards, it's far from the best-looking DF car I've ever seen; but I like it.

I hate painting. This is the first mini I've painted in over ten years. But I enjoyed myself. There were a lot of reasons I left Warhammer, but painting was a big one. Converting and building minis - I could do that all day. Painting? It's stressful and annoying and makes me anxious. I'm too sure I'll mess up and ruin the model. So sure that I'd rather just not make the attempt. With this car, though, I actually enjoyed it.

If you're not having fun in your hobbies anymore, you need to stop. These games are supposed to be FUN, and that's something the community, thanks to its representation by forums, forgets.

"No, don't make a Chapter based off the missing legions like GW intended, that's lame and you're a stupid Mary Sue."

"No, don't call your Tau this just because it sounds cool, use this official glossary we've compiled, even though it barely has a handful of words."

"No, don't question the company, of course they know what they're doing, despite ten years of proving exactly the opposite."

No, look. I'm here to have fun, that's all. I don't give a crap about how YOU think the setting should work, the game should be played, the models coloured, or anything. I want to enjoy myself, maybe tell some stories, and make some cool, bizarre, ridiculous miniatures and terrain, preferably with friends.

So yes. Code White fails spectacularly at even beginning to approach "well-painted." But I had fun making and painting it, and that is the only reason to do this hobby.

Fun.

240z Ready for paint

Tom Bork's 1969 Datsun 240z was the eighth ever produced, and went on to become a racing legend.

And I had two of them when I came across Dark Future, so it was a spare, and thus the first car I worked on.

I wasn't really sure what to do with it, so after sanding the decals off, it kind of just sat in the bitz bin while I worked on other cars.

After the disappointment of Project Spwhat, I was looking to get my hand back in, and decided, rather than start a whole new car, I'd finish up this one.

This is the first car I've done to actually have weapons. Mostly I don't like the look of them, they ruin the lines. But then I have been working on roadsters and drag cars. The Datsun has a beefier "proper car" look, and handles them much better.

The end of a Tau burst cannon made for grille-guns with some trimming, and a Kroot rifle serves as the hood-mounted gun. Don't know if it's a slug-thrower or a laser, but it could count as both.

Armour plating on the windshield, roof, and rear side windows comes from a grille from a model car, a . . . Ferrari, I think. The side windows have heavy armour screens from a chopped up plastic piece taken from another Hot Wheels, a military vehicle of some kind.

The rear piece on the back window is going to serve as luggage or a fuel cell a la the V8 Interceptor. It came from that Ferrari model kit, but I don't know what it was. The window will be painted over to look like just a metal sheet. I only thought to add armour plating after putting that piece on there, but it was too late to get the CA off.

The spoiler came from a ERTL label tag off an Impala model set, sanded to shape and blended in with some glue and careful sanding.

The little nubbin at the back will be a smoke/oil dispenser, and is a Tau grenade. At least I've always thought those were grenades. They could be power cells, or something.

Now it's on to paint, which poses a problem. Sprayed-black is of course the default, but I'm not sure I want to do that, with this car. I really like the beat-up white, but I'm not sure I'm a good enough painter to pick out the armour and weapons without ruining the white. If I just spray EVERYTHING, then it doesn't matter so much, and will be easier to correct mistakes.

But on the other hand, spraying and I are not exactly on speaking terms right now. So I'm going to let it sit for a few days. I'm busy this weekend anyway, and likely won't have a chance to spray for a while. (It's supposed to snow on Thursday!)

Regardless of how long it takes to get around to whatever I do for paint, I'm quite pleased with this one, and glad to have it done.

Project Spwhat?

(Note: This was originally several separate entries.)

Had some time to work on a car today, and I put it to use on what might be the most important car I've done so far.

About a year ago, I saw a picture of a black car with a skull painted on it and the front fender missing. I thought it was a customised model kit, and it looked amazing. It got me into this game, ultimately.

I would later find out, however, that it was a Hot Wheels car!

Project Speeder (I thought it was Speedster for the longest time.) This thing's a pretty cool car on its own, and a really neat idea for a Hot Wheels, but, more importantly, it looks like it was custom-made for Dark Future. And, considering that seeing one done up for the game what started me on my path to 1995, I had to pick one up for myself.

I found a green one, seen here with some other new metal and my first DF car in the back.

It's been a while since then, and I worked on Detachment 41 instead of these muscle cars. But I had free time today, and have been itching to work on more cars. So rather than going out and wasting money on new chassis to ignore, I looked at my backlog, and dragged the Speeder up for some work.

First, as usual, came sanding to get it down to (mostly) bare metal. Lot of nooks and crannies on this car. If I did another one, I'd definitely strip it instead of sanding. However, I'm not too worried about there being some paint left in the gaps on this one. I also took some care to not mess up the windows too bad, and they wound up in good enough shape that they'll stay clear once all is said and done.

(I'm missing most of the progress pics, unfortunately.)

Then the fun work began!

I set out wanting to give it a ridiculous wing and a front bumper. I'm still going to work on the wing, or maybe just make a smaller spoiler, but the bumper came together nicely, in a way I didn't expect.

It turned out to be more of a cage than a fender or bumper, but I like the look. There was a natural curve in the hunk of sprue I used for it, so I might try and tack on some kind of hood ornament there. A skull, perhaps?

Next up was some armour. I don't want the entire thing covered in big plates, but thin ones, with sharp edges, mostly maintain the lines of the vehicle. I probably should have trimmed the window piece down a bit more.

Driver's side is a bit more heavily protected. I want to find some good mesh to use to cover the window.

I still want to add some bits and pieces to it. Possibly more armour, wire screen on the driver's side window, maybe something over the windshield. And if I can find or make something appropriate, then a wing or spoiler. I think some kind of gun is going to get mounted on the passenger door, and I have a few things I test-fitted on the roof and trunk lid. Something that looks like it could work as a radio, another that looks like a big honking battery or fuel cell; there's a number of things I might yet add.

Once assembly is done, I just need a nice day where I can give the whole a spray. I'll tape the windows off, and maybe the wheels. I at least want the wheels to still be spinning, and while they shouldn't be so shiny, I can deal with that with a brush. I might try and cover up the engine, too, or if I don't then I may go back and paint it something else/silver again.

The car's going to be black, because I'm not sure what else to paint it. I don't know what gang this car will belong to, or if it even will be part of a gang. It might wind up a star sanc-op or other independent. I had originally purchased the Project Speeder with the Alberta Rangers in mind, but now I'm not so sure it's right for them. I figure having it black will help me decided on further paint scheme/faction.

Made a small gun out of toothpicks and epoxy putty. I'm not much of a sculptor, but I just made a little box and stuck sticks in it. How hard can that be?





 
It doesn't look amazing, but it more or less looks like some kind of tacked-on fantasy gun, I guess. I'm not a huge fan of guns on cars, but this kind of fits with the lines, and at SOME point I need an armed car. I played around with adding more armour today, but couldn't find anything I liked. I still want to add some window screen or something on the driver's window, but that can be tacked on later.

You'll also notice a generous amount of blu-tac. I don't want to paint the windows, and I don't want spray getting inside - because yes, definitely spraying this. I hate painting and I'm terrible at it, so spray will always look better, if I'm the painter in question. Anyway, tape wasn't gonna cut it. Well, I could literally have cut it, I suppose. But there's a big package of blu-tac sitting right there, so why not squish it into the needed spaces? The driver's window is also filled in with it, to prevent the inside from getting blasted. Now all I need is a good day outside to introduce Mr Car and Mr Spraycan.

There's a parachute under the back that I hated the look of and always planned to cover up. I had intended to just slap some flat plastic on and call it... I dunno. Something. But then I found a piece of sprue with two little nubs that fit perfectly.

The top bar has two small pieces that connect it to the underside of the car, giving the illusion of the giant ram-bar being attached to the frame. The one on the bottom is just stuck there, but whatever. It covers up the parachute and adds some much-needed protection to the back.

You can also see a little patch behind the gascap where I had added more armour, but it was just a little piece and looked out of place, so I sanded it away. It looks pretty smooth, but I imagine the paint will pick it up. That should still work, though, as it will look like some body work or repairs.

I hope to get the painting done this weekend. Well, the spraying, anyway. I'm going to try some weathering effects, too, but it's the black spray I really want done.

So the big project is sidelined in the paintshop while the spray-slaves try and figure out where they went wrong.

Here's a hint: I didn't read labels.

Confidently strutting outside, spraycan rattling in one hand, car in the other, I took advantage of a gorgeous day and started painting the car.

And immediately realised something was wrong. The paint, which I have always used when spray painting something, was not coming out right, or going on right. It was shiny, and runny, and it smelled much stronger than I remembered.

Turns out, I had grabbed the wrong can. It wasn't black spray paint, it was black Tremclad rust paint. The spray can I THOUGHT I had grabbed turned out not to have even been unpacked yet, and was still sitting comfortably in a box.

The car isn't ruined, but it was a waste of time and paint, and I lost interest in fixing it.

Also.

Also.

Do not use blu-tac to mask; not if there's crevices. THAT might actually be bad enough to consider the car ruined.

No pics of this failure. Will post when it's fixed up, if I fix it up.

In the meantime!

It's been wet out and I haven't had had the interest in working on Dark Future since the spwhat-up, so not much news to report. 40k's been drawing me back in slowly, with audio dramas, and mostly, because Chapter Master was released. Oh, my god. Chapter Master. You done good, /tg/. You done real good.

Anyway, yesterday I dug out the very first car I ever worked on for DF, a 240z, and gave it another look. I never did anything to it other than sanding down the tampos, I didn't even take much paint off. Yesterday I slapped some armour on it, and started adding other bits. It's actually got guns - my first DF car to sport them. I added a spoiler and a random piece to the back that can serve as luggage or a fuel cell, and some other odds and ends here and there. Tau grenades for oil slick/smoke dispenser. The spoiler needs a bit of sanding, to "blend" it in, and I'm considering adding a few more pieces, if I can find small detail things. Pics tomorrow, of that project.

Ultimately, I did get Project Speeder finished, in black and rust, and gave it to my father on Father's Day. I'll add a pic later.

Detachment 41, 10-8

Detachment 41 of the Ontario Peace Patrol is ready for duty.

Consisting of only five drivers and a handful of support personnel, Detachment 41 is a small and undesirable posting for officers of the Ontario Peace Patrol. Commanded by Sgt. Major Sawyer, Detachment 41 patrols a backwoods section of the 401 corridor of no real significance.

Sgt. Major Sawyer, 40; a veteran of the Detroit-Windsor War, is believed to have once enjoyed a much more prestigious position within the OPP. What transpired to see him shuffled off to the boonies, his men don't know, but they respect him nonetheless, if for no other reason than he's their top pursuit man.

Sergeant Spirit, 38; Sawyer's second in command, is a tough and loyal officer, and is closest to Sawyer of all of them, in age, skill, and attitude. Because of this, she sometimes serves as a bridge between Detachment 41 and their commander, being perhaps a bit more understanding than Sawyer at times is.

Constable Jacob, 26; he fills the role of unit sharpshooter, having a record number of ranged kills. His kills are high enough, in fact, that he has been offered transfers to other, better units. Thus far he has chosen to remain with 41, although how long the young sniper will stay is a question that weighs heavily on Sawyer.

Constable Red, 30; Detachment 41's resident daredevil. A skilled driver, he could likely take his commander's place as top pursuit man, if only he took fewer unnecessary risks. Red has caused nearly as much damage to his own vehicle as those of the renegades he runs down.

Constable Echo, 18; still called 'Cadet' by the rest of her unit, is fresh out of the Ontario Peace Academy. A native of the GTA, Echo is no stranger to violence, but is still adjusting to life outside the city.

Detachment 41 is poorly funded and rarely receives support. The veterans of the unit, Sawyer and Spirit, barely bother maintaining the appearance of their vehicles anymore, only repainting the trademark gold stripe of office a couple times a year. Their Junos are older machines, equipped with turbochargers, while the rest of the unit runs plain V6s.

Detachment 41, Part One

My gang for Dark Future, or at least my first one, is going to be Detachment 41, a branch of the Ontario Peace Patrol sanc-op. (Well I say sanc-op, but it's basically a government organization.)

Detachment 41 is a small branch of the OPP, tasked with patrolling a long stretch of rural highways along the 401 corridor. Not a glamorous assignment. They receive little in the way of support or funding, and live in perpetual unease for the day Superintendent Lee might come for an inspection.

In my Dark Future, Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart runs Ontario (Upper Canada, to be precise). I tried to find out what his favourite car is, but he's more of a motorcycle guy. Even so, whenever a car and Neil Peart are mentioned together, it tends to be a roadster. I love roadsters too, and the colour scheme I  already had in mind - the official colours of Ontario, green and gold-  reminded me of a certain Hot Wheels car: the Rrroadster.

Last year the Rrroadster was sold in green/yellow and silver green. This year in blue and orange. I wasn't expecting to be able to find any green ones, but happily did. Here they are before work.

According to the packaging, the Rrroadster was created in 2013 in El Segundo California, and sports a 5.0L supercharged V8 spitting out 1100hp. Well. That all has to go.

The fiction wasn't all that had to go. The numbers had to go, and that left big dull scuffs, so I decided to scuff the rest of the cars up, take their shine off, kick them around a bit. The gold stripe was added with a sharpie and masking tape.

Flash picks out the bare metal. I tried to beat up each car a little differently, to give them some character. Maybe that one sideswiped someone recently, maybe the other rams people a lot, maybe the driver of the other spills a lot of gas.

I'm very pleased with the stripe, and the overall look. And the fact that I even found all three of these cars on my first day looking. I didn't get the tape down perfect in every spot, as you can see, but it came out so well that now I'm thinking about completely repainting these cars. The gold looks so good, and while I like the beat up look, the green looks kind of awful, by comparison. I also want to try and add some weathering effects. Ontario may not turn into a dusty wasteland in Dark Future, but I think some roadsalt stains would be a very Canadian touch.

Now that the paint's been changed, let's look at some replacement fiction for this car that never could have been made in Dark Future.

Most of the vehicles driven by the Ontario Peace Patrol are locally produced within the Protectorate of Upper Canada, and are based on a vehicle acquired by Lord Protector Peart's agents during the Detroit-Windsor war.

The Juno, once lovingly hand crafted by a small team of Canadian artists working for the specialty car manufacturer Beacon-Mitchell, became the basis of the OPP's highway enforcement following the war. Originally built in small numbers during Canada's economic ascendancy during the '70s, the Juno was a powerful sport roadster, more at home on the track than the road.

After things fell apart, Beacon-Mitchell stopped producing cars, dwindling to little more than a repair shop. Located in Windsor and under constant threat from the south, the small company agreed to relocate to Toronto during the Detroit-Windsor war.

With much of their specialty equipment and materials impossible to replace, Beacon-Mitchell now produces a much cheaper version of the Juno for use by Protectorate forces. Typically cheap, built light so that smaller engines can do more with the car, the Juno serves as the workhorse of the Ontario Peace Patrol. Most are fitted for pursuit duty with the VP6, a Beacon-Mitchell-made 2.4L V6 engine. A small handful have turbocharges as well, and there are even rarer Junos that have been hand-tuned by Lord Protector Peart's chief mechanic himself; a Serbian-born genius named Zivo.

Even in their original configuration, the Juno never would have been any use in Canada of old, with its long, harsh winters and icy, snow-buried highways. But as the environment as become harsher and warmer, and snow and ice scarce, the Juno has become a symbol of Lord Protector Peart's power.

The Junos of Detachment 41 are driven by Constables Jacob, the unit's sharpshooter; Red, the resident daredevil; and Echo, an OPP rookie and newest addition to the unit.