Kitbash Experiment: A Gaslands Car

 

OK, a bit of context. Gaslands is a game system that's been on my radar for a while, and still haven't played. The basic idea is post-apocalyptic vehicular homicide. Your Mad Max's, say. Or your Deathrace 2000's or Carmageddon's, and so on. It's notable for being a miniatures game with no actual miniatures. Rather, you are intended to raid the toybox for some matchbox cars, ready your bitz box and go to town. There are some official models, "friends of Gasland" releases, 3d prints, and etsy, but these came later, and weren't mandatory. Suffice to say, the concept had some appeal.

Rather than jump straight in and overcommit, I am prone to hyper-fixations, I decided to start with a single prototype. Hot Wheels are of a different scale to what I'm used to, so some restraint was needed. I did some research too, the Bill Making Stuff channel is a good resource here. I then hit the local pound shop and got myself a little car. A two seater one with an exposed engine which was pretty much on brand. I then proceeded to dress it in cable ties, rivets and offcuts, the sort of thing that gets leftover from other projects. I made the gun from a bit of old cotton bud, a bead, and the end of a cable tie. Meanwhile, the windows were covered with a wire mesh from Halfords. I suppose that’s only appropriate.

 

The main issue I had with this build was adhesives, followed by detail being lost during painting. I'd tried to hot glue the wheels in place, which was a silly idea in hindsight as the hubcaps weren’t solid, and glued myself to the car approximately 50 bazzilion times. Really, Richard, how many decades have you been doing this sort of thing? You can probably still see evidence of that in the pictures. I'll do better next time. Painting was a matter of drybrushing and stippling, with me mixing a metallic grey and a red from craft paints, while details like mesh were picked out in silver. This gave a good overall effect, but the side exhausts didn't come out super well. People seem to have really liked it though, and this was quite a nice way to pass an evening.

 

So yeah. Probably gonna make a bunch of these now.