Resin: Battle Cat by Ramshackle Games

 

So, it's early October, and I'm thinking I need to ease off on the armymen for a bit. Not only did I need to start on an Orktober project, there had been a new Astra Militarum codex announcement. A vague and undetailed one, but still an announcement. Hopefully we'll know more on Tuesday. Its set for early 2025, but its never a good idea to invest heavily in a 40k army immediately before a rules refresh. Hell, given how the recent Ork codex went from hype-to-nerf-to-obscurity, you could argue against buying for the quarter thereafter. It might end up with us all playing a slightly updated Index detachment. Or we might end up with a situation where everyone needs three units of Tempestus Aquilons and three of Ratling Snipers because they are the only units that work. Who knows? That said, I also had this tank. I like tanks, most Guard players do, its hard to be one if you don't like tanks. This had been ordered from Ramshackle Games prior to the announcement, and truthfully had arrived a few weeks later than I might have liked. But with my first 1500 point battle planned, I pushed on to get it vaguely presentable.

As I've built two of these previously, I don’t have a huge amount to say here. Its a cheap resin model, requiring a non-trivial amount of prep-work, which was then painted by the spraycan method. Two new observations I’d make are that A) Ramshackle seems to have changed its resin mix, and B) pinning the lascannon on was a bit of a nuisance which required fixing twice. (And then again, after a few games.) I primed it to reveal imperfections, fixed them, sprayed it green, and then blocked out the exposed metal bits in black, a bit sloppily if I'm honest, before drybrushing. The cupola gunner was painted separately. I kinda rushed to get this (largely) done for the game, I probably should not have given some of the mistakes I made, but hopefully you can’t tell. Weathering covers many a sin. On the plus side, new model syndrome did not really occur in the game in question, I won actually, and it generally turned out OK. The theme here is an unwanted vehicle and neglected vehicle handed over to convicts for use in the GRIMDARK future of 40K. Certainly looks like it.

 

With respects to rules, I'm fielding this as the basic Leman Russ Battle Tank, my third. I may swap the turret, but I like its rerolls for now. Its not considered the optimal choice in competitive play, though, the current fave is the Vanquisher variant. That's cheaper and better at killing other tanks, so I see the appeal of it, but I think the stock russ will last better. Whenever the tournament crowd fixates on something too much, it gets more expensive, look at Bullgrins, but we'll see. At present, the vanilla Russ is a consistently reliable damage dealer that punishes an enemy for trying to take objectives.

Not bad, but I need something else to do.

Project Chem-Dogs: Part 9

So this week, I finished off my first 1000 points, and had a game on the Monday.

 

I'll start with the tank. As mentioned, this is a proxy model by Ramshackle Games, the Battledog, assuming that I'm not mixing up the names again. This was built as a Leman Russ Demolisher, and the bulk of it was done last week, what I mainly did here was apply waterslide transfers and weathering. I loathe these, and despite some cautious optimism last week, I lost at least five trying to get them on this tank. You can't rush them, and if they get folded, you are in real trouble. I will likely seek an Aquila piece to recast, and maybe some generic number transfers too, because my failure rate is frankly unacceptable. On the plus side, the use of matt mod podge to smooth the surface and seal the things seems promising. My first tank has also had its numbers replaced with an Aquila which went much smoother. Otherwise, this tank went pretty well. Sufficiently well that the speed of painting is getting pretty near to one of my Orky rust buckets. That's good. Its relaxing.

My main task this week was the three kitbashed/green-stuffed Ogyrns. These are Wargames Atlantic's Landsknecht Ogres, which I can say is another good, versatile kit, but I needed to make them more sci-fi. The work I did to make them fit my themes ended up rather involved, and frankly a bit rougher in sculpt, than I intended. I was leaning into the rags over orange jumpsuit theme, but the trousers had to go further than that, so I ended up adding crude knee-pads and pockets. These models are very fancy by themselves, and they needed to look more like prisoners, and those puffy pants were a challenge. By comparison, the gasmasks were easier, as where the kitbashed bayonets, the larger size of the models making some things easier. I had some issues with the undercoating, I got too close on one of them, but once that was sorted, I painted them in the same manner as my infantry. These came out table worthy, but the larger size seems to highlight weaknesses in my techniques. People seem to like them, though.

Having got these chaps together, I was able to have my first 1000 point game in ages, and it was a rematch with the same guy. One hoped that my Demolisher closely followed by the Ogryns would give the Orks some trouble. We only managed to get three turns in, but it was a close draw when we called it. I made a few rules mistakes, but we both were learning, and I think we both had a good time with it. Having tanks on the table made my force work, and I was pleased to see the Ogryns perform the "bouncer" role with some talent. I think I might retire the autocannon teams, or reshuffle them into infantry squads, but I'll see how I go. My 1000 point list seems workable, but I have ideas to further tune it.

On that subject, I also worked on a Hellhound using parts from my hoarder-level bitzbox, but I’ll save that for a future article I think.

 

Up next: The conclusion, but probably not the end.

Project Chem-Dogs: Part 7

Following on from a long-awaited delivery, this week has seen me having three things on the go.
1) Finishing the Catachans/Cadians I'd built with grenade launchers by mistake.
2) Building two flamer guys to correct the above, alongside a second Platoon Command Squad I’d been wanting to do, for batch-painting purposes.
3) A tank, which will be our focus today.

Now, if you're doing Imperial Guard, you're doing tanks. With enthusiasm. Its just a given. Its like being a fire fighter, and wanting ride on the fire engine. This is not a judgement, just an observation. So I knew that I was gonna need a few, but i was mindful of cost, and not being sure if which ones I wanted. What I ended up doing was to order two of Ramshackle Games' tank range, in the knowledge that it would be about a month before I got them, there would most of the possible gun options in the box, and I could make final decisions later on. Then a balance update happened which changed the math on the assorted Leman Russ units. Ultimately, I decided on two of your bog standard Battle Tanks, although only one would be complete in time for the Tuesday cut-off.

As models go, the "Battlecat", is fairly typical of Ramshackle Games' output, offering an inexpensive proxy for the vast majority of Leman Russ variants. I had actually considered magnetising those weapons, until sanity reasserted itself. This is a low budget resin model, and attempting such a thing proved impractical with the tools I had. Also, while a model of this size is more resistant to shattering than some resin pieces Ive worked on, its not exactly in the Goldilocks Zone for the material either. Its big, heavy and will need a lot more finishing than your average plastic kit. And possibly the hot glue gun. On the plus side, I received more sponson weapons than I was likely to use for the foreseeable future, and I could easily make completely new additional turrets in lieu of magnetisation. I used the spraycan method here, priming it first, masking off the tracks, before spraying most of it green. Weathering was much the same as the Sentinel, although I ended up going a bit further than I had originally intended on that. I found a few mistakes/oversights late it the process, and concealed with with rust and muck. The crew-woman was prepared separately, and is a Cannon Fodder head atop an Iron Brothers body. The hull lascannon and its mount is out of the bitzbox, with a green stuff tarp. The HK missile another resin bit, I think from those Orky robots I did a while back. I’m not entirely happy with the “T42” number I freehanded, and subsequent feedback has confirmed that, so I’ll probably repaint it. I loathe transfers, so I’ll try stencils first.

I also managed to fit in my first two games if 10th edition this week, at a mere 500 points a side. My opponent was a gracious fellow whom was similarly rusty, whom promptly, as the Americans would say, handed me my ass. I made the mistake of approaching things like an Ork in my first game, but as my foe actually was Orks, that ended poorly. We had time for a second game, which was a lot closer due to my brain turning on, even if I conceded by the end. My foe deserved those two victories, nice guy, and you know, Megamind meme, learning from your mistakes. In the second game, I had a better handle on my synergys, and perhaps my load-out was not ideal for use against the new Green Tide. Initial thoughts? Mortars good, but Sentinel guidance is mandatory. Infantry blobs can grind down ork units, but you need to add force multipliers. The autocannons where a bit underwhelming here, heavy bolters would have been a better call. Orders good, detachment rule has its moments, but is limiting. Here's a couple of pictures from the day.

 

Up next: probably finishing the infantry I mentioned in 2), the other tank, with an eye towards a 750/1000 point list

Scratchbuild: Ork Gobsmasha

I started this one when I was kinda in a bad mood. Work had been stressful, I was processing a few things emotionally, I was going off Project Sulaco, and finding myself at loose end creatively. So I ended up opting to do another orky scratchbuild. I've done a great many of these, and truthfully I fear falling into a rut without realising. I've got a method for these locked in, and while the results speak for themselves, it gets samey to write about. That said, I find these fun and therapeutic in way that Project Sulaco wasn't really. So, with that in mind, the Gobsmasha.

In order to put the Gobsmasha onto context, we have to go back the earliest days of the 40k setting. You know, the 1st edition, early Epic, mostly metal rather than plastic, pre-me, sort of time period. As I've mentioned before, actual 28mm scale vehicle kits were not something GW could easily do, which is why things like jet/motorbikes and dreadnoughts were so common unit types at the time. And in many ways still are, but I digress. This isn't to say there wasn't a demand for heavy vehicles at the time, the 6mm scale Epic system was all about that, and 40k had vehicle rules from day one, but GW was a much smaller company back then, and such things were a major investment for them. It's not like you can 3D print stuff in the early 90's is it? As such both the 1st edition rulebook and subsequent White Dwarf articles featured a variety of scratchbuilds and kitbashes, even to the point of featuring plans for complete vehicles. Games Workshop absolutely would not do that today. The Gobsmasha, as featured in this link, is one such vehicle. It's one of the numerous and oft odd battlewagon-adjacent vehicles that turned up in Epic, had an obscure resin model in 28mm, but otherwise has been forgotten. it's overall vibe is typical of the super early Ork vehicle pool, sitting somewhere between a self-propelled gun and an olde timey traction engine.

 

Now, I could have gone and attempted the plans as is, but I didn't for three reasons. 1) Size creep is a thing, and I'd probably end up with something more akin to a Grot Tank or buggy than a modern Battlewagon. 2) I'm not a fan of papercraft stuff, being too clack-handed and impatient. 3) In my hubris, I felt that in between my bitzbox, my experience, and a hot glue gun, that I could free-form something better. Arrogant, I know, but those plans are 30 odd years old, I've got things they didn't, and this ain't my first barbecue. I use the word "hubris" as I ended up crafting the front wheels from 60mm bases, and the result isn't perfectly circular, something that sets off my perfectionism something fierce. It doesn't matter in the wider context, although it's a shame I wasn't able source some suitable lids for use in this project, that would have sidestepped some faff. The main body was built up from three tubes hot-glued together in a H shape, which was then layered with old toy truck panels and such. My stockpile of resin pieces from Ramshackle Games came good with a boiler and chimney piece suitable for a traction engine, while the weapons are GW plastics. Now, as a first edition thing, the Gobsmasha predates the modern orky armoury, but there's some fairly obvious equivalents to go for, i. E. heavy bolter = big shoota, a convention I've used on this and many other projects. As the Gobsmasha had a big cannon on it and two machine gun type things, this led to me me treating as a Big Trakk, like my recent Basilisk. That's not actually ideal given the size this ended up, plus it doesn't actually have trakks, but I didn't feel adding all the ancillary stuff that comes as standard on a modern Battlewagon. That would spoil the effect I was going for. Innumerable rivets later, I got to drybrushing.

Its good to be back :)

Resin: Iron Brothers (Ramshackle Games)

 

While Orks remain my main interest in the wargaming scene, that doesn't mean I haven't dabbled in other armies over the years. I have, at various times, fielded Dark Angels, Chaos Marines and Necrons. Some days, you want to actually have an armour save, you know? One WH40k faction I was always tempted by was the Astra Militarium, or the Imperial Guard as they were classically known. These were an army of underdogs and WWII tribute acts, but with one thing or the other, I never pulled the trigger on them. Part of the reason was skin tones; I always found that intimidating, and went out of my way to avoid fleshy bits on models. Ork green is a totally different matter. That technically doesn't exist, so have room for your own take. Human skin is something you see every day, so you can tell when it's wrong. But you know what? I'm better at painting these days, I'm sure I can figure that one out. Some day. Eventually. These Iron Brothers however have full head helmets and are quite inexpensive, so I can work out a colour scheme while I'm figuring how how to do skin. 

 

The Iron Brothers are from Ramshackle Games' military range, a source of Imperial Guard proxies sold on their low price and head variations. I used the default helmet style for these. After a couple of false starts, I decided to follow an old speed-painting guide from Midwinter Minis, see here, to paint 5 of them. In 40k terms, this would be half an Infantry Squad, or a heavy infantry unit in Xenos Rampant. The basic idea is to spraypaint the main colour, then pick out fabrics and detailing with appropriate colours, and then wash it with Agrax Earthshade. Once that's dry, tidy it up with a bit of highlighting and drybrushing, and it's done. I don't normally paint like this, and I'm very set in my ways when it comes to undercoating. That said, I can't argue with the results. I had an issue with my black paint, but these do pass muster as the rank & file. I even added in black boots and brown gloves for variety. It's a quick process too, you could easily do these of an evening and let them dry overnight. Here I used Color Forge Desert Sand Spray, Citadel Zandri Dust, and Death Guard Green for the major colours, with Vallejo leather and Dark Gunmetal for detailing.

I probably spent just as much time prepping and basing these models though. Part of that's just me being me, but its also the fundamentally "one dude in a workshop" nature of Ramshackle Games' product. Aside from a certain degree of flash and brittleness inherent to the resin, these come pre-moulded on little bases of limited use. the Killbots had these too, although I neglected to mention it then as they had plastic bases with them, so it didn't matter. Consider these tobe side effects of the casting process, because it's what they are, and that's fine. I used 32mm bases here with gap filler on top, which are possibly a hair too big, prompting some additional gubbins to fill the space. As models go, they are smaller than Orks and rough around the edges, but not in a bad way. Lessons learned, with a new bottle of Vallejo Black in hand, I took a swing at another 5. These had the benefit of experience, but also different poses. Generally I was happy with the process, and worked more brown into the mix for pouches. By completion however, I was thinking that black wasn't ideal for the guns so I tried something else for the next group.

 

The final l painted for this little project were a group of flamethrower troops with different heads, the "chem" variant to be specific. These heads had a face mask and goggles look which I felt matched the weapons. The bodies and guns meanwhile are clearly based off the chaps above, but with added bulk. I'd go so far to say the flamers are too big for the bodies, but I liked them more than the alternatives, and they match the backpack pretty well. I added some scrap plastic and EVA foam to improve the look and I tweaked the colour scheme a bit too, adding green, gunmetal and Soulstone technical to the head. The guns were done with Vallejo Sombre Dark Gray, while the business end of the flamers got an attempted burnt effect with copper craft paint. I probably shouldn't have bothered with that one black headband, but the overall effect came out pretty great. I'd use these as a Support Infantry unit in Xenos Rampant, with Close Quarters Doctrine and Engulfing to represent the burnyness, although I don't think there's a direct equivalent in 40k just now. I'd probably reshuffle these guys into other squads.

Much later: I realised that these had a "Bob the Hydra Agent" thing going on. Unexpected. But I think I have this method nailed down. I’m quite happy with the results.

 

Overall, I'd say these models are fine for what they are, but I had to keep reminding myself of the price angle. Depending which set you get, these work out to about 78p a model before postage, which is pretty damn cheap. Sufficiently cheap that any prep work you need to do, or additional basing material you need, seems churlish to complain about. Then again, Stargrave and Death Fields are a thing these days, whose models have a similar price bracket, look more professional if we're honest, and have all the advantages of being plastic. So, while I won't say that these models are for everyone, they definitely are a valid choice if the look of them appeals.

Resin: Killbotz (Ramshackle Games)

A little while ago, I apologised for a certain Gaslands fixation. That's not so much stopped as pushed to the background as I work on a project I can't share yet. One thing that has however come out of that is my re-acquaintance with Ramshackle Games, a small provider of resin models based in Nottingham. I've had several dealings with Mr Fell's products over the years, as my interests ebbed and flowed. It's cheap and cheerful stuff, and a boon to kitbashers. So after I did my Orky cars, I put an order for some stuff, and here we are.

The Killbots are spin-off of Ramshackle's line of robot models, a mix and match selection of approximately 28mm scale. These feature new bodies that resemble nothing so much as artillery shells with orky faces on, or something from Enter The Gungeon. The idea of an Orkish robot is both old and obscure, these being a thing in first edition, but were dropped in favour of the Dreadnought Concept. You are encouraged to be free form with their build, RG being in the habit of providing more bits than you are likely to use in one go. What I ended up doing was roughly approximating Meganobs, with a top-heavy humanoid look, with one melee arm and a twin machine gun arm. I did get pretty creative with a couple though, creating a mecha-squig, and with one wearing the lid off some super glue as a hat. I call him Mr Pointy. With respects to Xenos Rampant, I see these as some form of Elite Infantry with Mechanoid, Super Heavy Armour, and maybe Unstable plus a weapons upgrade. Elite robo-infantry do sidestep downside of Unstable, so I'm not sure how balanced that it is, but I can see this unit being in real trouble if forced to do actual activation tests. I must remember to run the numbers...

There's a few things I want to mention here. First off, a completely resin model is a slightly different matter from just using one of their bitz kitz. You need to pin connections with a bit if paperclip, which requires a small drill bit. That isn't ideal, as you don't want to breath that dust in. You'll also need to take a bit of time to prepare parts and use a filler or two when things don't line up. None of this is remotely insurmountable, but it's worth mentioning given the extent to which I post about Gunpla and Plamo. Don't go thinking this is gonna be as straightforward as those, it's a different skill set, and closer to my scratchbuilding. In fact, hot glue and bicarbonate of soda returned to help things stick. The matter of painting is probably a bit over familiar to the 3ish people whom read these, it's almost exactly the same as recent Gaslands projects. I just used “Blood for the Blood God” technical paint in places. It works though, and the pictures speak for themselves.

Job's a good 'un.

 

 

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…

 

 

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.