Gaslands: Deathskull “Burny Wagon”

Yes, yes, I know. I know. There was a time when this blog did something other than Gaslands. It's just that they are so fun and quick to make. I do have some more involved projects on the back burner, but as those are fairly time-consuming, I had to revert back to the Battletech style "one model a week" format. Expect more varied content once the buffer is built back up.

 

OK, we cool? Right. I don't think it's especially unreasonable to suggest that Fire Engines, or Fire Trucks, are an inherently awesome thing. Big things with flashing lights that stop your house from burning down? Or possibly it's what comes to cut you out of your car? Or, stereotypically, rescue a cat from a tree? It's the embodiment of domestic heroism. And one small pleasure of my childhood was the fact my dad was a Fire Fighter, and thus I got to ride on several. While I wasn't searching for one, a chanced on a damaged toy example, and a thought presented itself. Let's make it a literal fire engine. And then go that one step further by painting it blue.

Now, this Carousel/Tesco toy isn't super big, scale goes a bit funny with such things, and you'll often see trucks shrunk down to fit the standardised packet. Nor is it a good visual  match for british fire engines. But it's close enough. The cabin also put me in mind of the Ork Battlewagon, and as I had a few of those Ramshackle Games bits left, I went to town. Specifically, I used an orky ram I'd been saving for another project, and built-up what remained of the ladder into a flamer turret. This was a very free-form project, and I didn't have a plan beyond "weaponised fire engine with two heavy machine guns up front". In terms of game mechanics, it's probably not too good, but it has dakka, rammy, and burny in bulk. It's there to crash into people before gate 1, and then punish anyone ahead of it thereafter. Once the gubbins were layered on, I painted it in my usual manner. In that process, I then dropped it, and was reminded why it's bad to do that with resin bits. It survived, thankfully.

 

This probably came out too rusty, but damn if if this wasn’t fun.

 

 

Gaslands: Deathskull "Dakka Car"

When I was researching Team Sponsors in Gaslands, I of course found the design blog. I settled on Rutherford for my preferred Deathskull clan, but I resisted the temptation just to copy the article. I don’t game much these days, but I have certain baked-in creative habits, and very definite preconceptions of what an Ork vehicle is. Basically, rather than make something that is necessarily optimal for a Rutherford team, I’d have a vehicle that carried twice its weight in bullets. Hence, the “Dakka Car”.

This is gonna be a bit of a shorter article than most, as it features a single car, and I’ve used mostly the same techniques as my previous works. I’d got the hang of paint crew, painting blue, and painting rust. The main thing I did different was dump the entire toy in dettol to remove the paint, due to its riveted construction preventing a more through breakdown. Its actually a Hot Wheels Bone Shaker, a vehicle incredibly close to both the Mad Max and Ork aesthetics in the first place, and it survived the paint stripping process without issue. In fact, it worked so well that I tried the same with a pair of charity shops for another project, which didn’t nearly do as well. Assuming that the Bone Shaker is representative of other Hot Wheels toys, its valid technique assuming you the dry it out properly. For cheaper cars however, it seems the plastic parts they have are weakened and marked in same manner miniature bases can be. Just something to be aware of.

 

As noted, I didn’t do anything hugely new with this. I modded the skull to look more orky, cut off one set of exhausts to mount another gun, and added a bunch of Ramshackle Games bits. The crew ended up sitting a bit high, but it works.

 

I think that all I need to say, I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Gaslands: Orks! Evil Suns Ones! In Tiny Cars!

And now presenting another instalment of my Gaslands hyper-fixation. And yes, its more Orks. Today's theme is however Evil Sunz rather than Deathskulls, which I suppose was another inevitability given the Red Team of a few months ago. Mechanically, these are an Idris sponsored team, which like the Evil Sunz is known for its cult/kult of speed. I opted for two Performance Cars, rather than Buggies, as I’m trying to find a good way of making the latter. I also opted for machine guns and dropper weapons, as I felt it fitted the theme. Both cars were Teamsterz, using the Ramshackle Games Orc kit and while the techniques used were basically the same as the Deathskulls, weapons and construction presented their own challenges.

The first one “Fast Enuff” is actually my first convertible, something I’d just not done before, mainly due to a lack of suitable crew models. Well, I have those now, so I spent an embarrassing about of time forcing one in. I found one I liked and cut away at the interior to make it fit, eventually cutting away the slot for the windscreen. The sensible thing to do would have been to merely use a smaller one instead, but I was committed to using that one. Eventually it fit. And I’m glad I made the effort, because it looks like he’s living his best life. The choice of the base car also proved serendipitous as once I’ve put a few teeth on it it looked quite fearsome. I’ve heard/read before that car frontends are designed to resemble faces on some level, to appear aggressive as a marketing thing for example, and that came through here. Meanwhile I used resin pieces wrapped in wire for the dropper and nitro canister, with the heavy machine gun being another resin bit plus water pistol innards. I’m very happy with this one, it turned out great.

 

 

The second ”Fasta-den U” was actually the first car I selected for this whole orky Gaslands bit, a similar vehicle being found on the same page as the Idris rules. This one however put up a fight. I bent the roof up so the driver was more easily seen and sought to paint before re-assembly. This prompted a number of difficulties, like plastic bits breaking, the things not fitting properly and of course gluing myself to it like a muppet. It worked out OK in the end, but it looked iffy for a while there. Weapons were a touch simpler as a result, the dropper being the same as above, no reinventing the wheel, and I made a light machine gun from an Ork Slugga. Mechanically, I view this one as carrying more nitro, and thus the driver isn’t as fussed about the gun. Painting was in the same manner as above, and arguably looks even dirtier.

 

 

I think I’m getting kinda good at this…

 

 

Transformers: Legacy Evolution Needlenose is Something That Exists

So, here's the thing, I recently got myself this toy as a treat. Also because I thought it would be good blog fodder. So I drafted a review as I was working through some issues, and came to the conclusion that my usual style wasn't cutting it. It wasn't a bad draft, but I didn't feel I was adding much to the conversation. I don’t actually need to review everything I get, after all, but Needlenose held my attention. So, rather than do my usual deep dive into obscura and mode-by-mode commentary, I'm just gonna talk about why Needlenose is how he is.

 

The 1988 Needlenose toy

So, let me preface the discussion by saying Needlenose is OK. Needlenose is a fairly complete release that ticks the boxes he should. He's got two modes, he's got two dudes that turn into guns, some little bits he didn't need, and generally feels like they tried to update the 1988 toy with modern production values. As a jetformer with two guns, there is a certain appeal to him, and Legacy era toys usually don't skimp on either articulation or paint... so it's not that he's lacking much. I have much time for gun-fu poses and whooshing plane noises. The problems however start with the targetmasters Sunbeam and Zigzag, whom are functionally identical to the G1 toys. They weren't modernised as such, which is a problem as the whole little-dude-becomes-a-weapon play pattern gets done every few years, each time better than this. A case could even be made that these are worse than the originals too, which used pinned components, and had no tolerance issues that I’m aware of. Zigzag has so much black paint on him its a stress mark concern. Moving onto Needlenose himself, there's another issue, this time with parts integration. Needlenose carries his entire altmode on his back, the robot bits compressing into a box on the underneath of his jet form. It would probably be a trivial matter to separate the almode from the robot, and unlike most shellformers that do that, there is barely any jet to form a shell around or otherwise detract from the robot. They did however attempt to add a bit of value, as Sunbeam and Zigzag can, via an easily missed tab, form an external booster for the jet mode. The fact that its two dudes in odd clothes planking together doesn’t exactly help the look of the thing, but an attempt was made. Again, none of this is without an appeal, but this is succeeding in spite of its design choices, not because if them. So, why has this happened? Why do we have a Transformer that so clearly struggles with its two main features? 

 

Let's start with the matters of budget and parts count. Since the era of Titans Return, the concept of tiny dude becomes a gun has been largely relegated to individual low-cost releases. The solo titanmasters were a good example of this, being simple pocket money toys, although becoming a gun was only part of what they did. This price point would eventually be dropped for Kingdom, although you could make the case that the toys it featured gradually declined in complexity. The Primemasters had more raw plastic, but ultimately did less, while Siege's Battlemasters went back to basics with simple but elegant toys with those blast effects everyone loves. Then Earthrise ruined it by having the little dudes become roads, but let's not get sidetracked. The point is that Hasbro generally wasn't putting paired figures in Generations, such things turning up in RID2015 and more kid-centric lines, but even then, the gun-dude was often a separate purchase. So, is it merely that these chaps got priced out? Well, that's a definitely a factor, but I'd like to point to another phenomenon. Hasbro seems entirely willing to bring this play pattern back in force for Rise of the Beasts, but not for the Studio Series releases, instead for the more kid-based lines. The simpler, mass market toys in other words. Generations seems to be stuck in a rut where they really want to appeal to collectors and their perfectionism, but always seem to want the retail market too. So Legacy and the like tend to be very good for articulation and paint, but simpler amusements are being cut. 

 

So, with the above in mind, we have Needlenose. He exists in a serious-minded collectors line, see Blaster, one that tends towards self-defeating fidelity to its source material, see Blitzwing, or a melange of neo-G1 styling, see Bulkhead. Needlenose has however has had no cartoon appearances, and kinda infrequent comic appearances, so there's less to draw on. This means, as mentioned, the designers have gone and tried to directly update the original toy, which isn't actually a bad thing by itself. However, there we hit the problem, Needlenose & his gunbuddies were explicitly the budget offering of their year. The kid-centric, cheap, pocket money releases I mentioned above, and were actually simpler designs than the original Targetmasters. And indeed late-G1 offerings like Actionmasters and the hysterically named Breast Force. So, somebody went and tried to make a luxury version of something designed to be cheap, and they are retaining the flaws because they think that's what we all want. That's dumb. I struggle for a metaphor to stress how dumb that it is. Possibly a gourmet plate of fish & chips, served on a sheet of imitation newspaper? And costs more than three times the comparable meal from the local chippie? Its not necessarily bad, I’m not saying that. I’m saying someone missed the point, and there’s probably a better option out there.

There’s a further interpretation too, one still a bit uncertain at time of writing, and that’s retooling. Its been a central part of Hasbros business practices to aggressively reuse moulds and parts for its Generations releases, something which I’ve had a lot to say about. This is one of those things that isn’t technically bad, more a nuisance if you are completionist/perfectionist about things. Hasbro has gotten pretty good at selling the same toy five times, either through paintwork or substantial redesign, and if I’m honest its kinda fun. Some very interesting toys have come out of it, and its a common occurrence in my writings for this point to come up. Of course, a completely fair argument against it, one which Needlenose could easily be subject to, is that if you’re gonna ask for premium prices, people are gonna want a premium product. Money for old rope, and all that. Needlenose can connect to the concurrent Sky Quake toy in jet mode. This, along with circumstantial evidence like his removable tailfin, suggests that Needlenose is intended to be reused for the obscure Predators group. That would be a compelling explanation for his jet mode, because you could take all that off and replace it, no trouble This wouldn’t be the first mould to pull double-duty and be compromised as a result. But, as I said, this is still up in the air.

I mentioned better options above. What could those options be? Well, the simple solution would have been not to include the targetmasters at all, and instead do what Siege Spinister did and have two modular weapons instead. I guarantee that you'd loose no functionality, and the entire effect would be better because they wouldn't so obviously be two chaps lying down. That's a harsh judgement, I know, but a fair one. I strongly suspect a future retool will omit them completely, in favour of more jet bits. Alternatively, promote Needlenose to a voyager and spend the budget on making the gun dudes good and maybe rework the jet mode? Or, we could just have Needlenose be a head swap retool of another toy? It worked before. It also worked for Quake. 

 

My point? Only that Legacy Evolution Needlenose is something that exists. To give him the benefit of the doubt, he's an earnest attempt to do slightly the wrong thing. And he's probably better than Pointblank.

Gaslands: Orks! Deathskull Ones! In Tiny Cars!

 

Well, it was all building up to this, wasn't it? In spite of myself, Orks inevitably come back on the modelling rotation. To be fair, it's not really a stretch, the GW style of Orks maintains a substantial Mad Max debt, and a love of kitbashing. That's about 60% of Gaslands. And yes, these models do feature the bits I have repeatedly alluded to in previous Gaslands articles. 

 

So, what are these bits? Well they are the Orcs: Toy Car Scale set from Ramshackle Games, which you may remember from the Junkernaught project a while back. This is a selection of resin bits in little baggies that took a while to arrive. Just long enough for me to overthink and annoy myself about how I could run such things in game. While there were numerous good "counts as" candidates, Idris for example being one letter from being The Kult of Speed, I settled on Rutherford as it fit my Deathskull sensibilities, although I expect to try other clans/sponsors as I get a better grasp on the game. Now the kit has a lot of stuff in it, much I could probably do myself, but it has one thing I currently can't: crew. That's some fiddly-arse sculpting, if I ever saw it. These became the focal point if the project.

While the actual cars were painted in the same way as my Monster Trucks, the crew would see cautious applications of drybrushing and an aptly named "insane detail" brush. These were painted separately from their cars, with a brown undercoat, and different shades of metallics and blue, in much the same way as my Ork Boyz. This ended up a touch darker than I aimed for, but the contrast between the colours work, and I even managed to do the eyes for once. While they were drying, I did the major colours on the cars, eventually attaching the crew with a combination of green stuff and super glue. Of the initial pair, the "Rokkit Wagon" was the most involved. Not only did I have to assemble the car after painting, I made rockets from tubing and green stuff, something I've struggled with in the past, but worked here. The "Burny Wagon" meanwhile featured less scratchbuilding but more crew because I made it open-topped. I aimed for a side-mounted flaming exhaust like the Kustom Boosta-blasta, and I think it works. I especially love the toothy bastard on top with the big gun. The basis for both are Teamsterz toys, which are not specific cars, which probably helped with the whole effect. 

 

Now, I'd opted for the above weaponry based on my limited understanding of Rutherford teams. These guys get extra Audience Votes if you score at least 6 hits a single volley, extra ammo, as well as various Perks that enable such things. Therefore, the above vehicles feature weapons with a lot of dice, assorted grenades, while still being cars for speed. More usually however, it seems Rutherford fields trucks, which can carry more stuff, but go slower. I did consider this, and I planned to do so for a second batch. What with one thing or the other, I ended up only doing one, but within time to easily fit within this post. It was based on a charity shop find of unknown origin, one with so much plastic in its structure I could have left the die-cast bit off, and it would have been fine. I put the die-cast back on, put some mesh on, applied some panel bits, and free-styled a large gun for its flatbed.

 

Now, you could put a 105mm Tank Cannon on a truck, and that's what I had originally intended to do here. Due to how Rutherford works, and orky excess, a tank gun was entirely justified. When I had the cannon built I realised it was probably not quite right for that, but it did make sense as a BFG. Yes. A BFG. The seemingly the single most destructive weapon in the game, with but one shell, and with such recoil it puts the car into reverse when fired. And its as cheap as chips. So, I had to have it. If you were sufficiently deranged, you could put 3 trucks like that in a 50 Can team, and maybe two instances of the Crowd Pleaser Perk. Tempting…

So, this was a long time coming, and I’m glad to have this done. An almost total success.