Machinas: Col. Jack's Special wip

After finishing the last of my cars, I was already feeling a little withdrawal, so I picked up this '54 Chevy Bel Air. It's another M2 Machine (from the Auto-thentics line.)

Instead of converting this car to be used with one of the factions, I decided this would be my "personal" car -- the car I would drive as a player during games of Machinas. So I decided to outfit it as I would a real car in the Wasteland (with a few liberties.)

I had to make a little bit of background to explain a couple things, and I'll share that when the car is finished (though, Colonel Jack is a character in Mark Twain's "Roughing It," one of the books found by the Church at 7602 Oak Street -- for those who follow the Machinas background.) But I will explain how I built a couple things.

The stovepipe exhaust is a thick piece of brass rod slipped into some brass tubing which was bent to fit into a hole I drilled out of the car body. The snorkel on the right was made using the same brass tubing capped off with the air filter canister that I took out of the engine compartment.

The push bar and metal slab are plasticard. For the wraparound bends of the push bar, I used a lighter to warm up the plastic and bend it into shape.

The guns use the same construction I've used for all my other .50s -- brass rod, plastic tubing and cut pieces of plastic sprue.

The baggage was set onto the body and then sculpted (out of green stuff) straight onto the car. When the green stuff cured, I "peeled" the baggage from the car; this formed a mold of the car body so that the baggage would fit perfectly back onto the car after I added a bit of superglue.

Part of the baggage includes a spare .50 machine gun, and some survey sticks (part of the varied background of this car.)

I had some green stuff left over, so I added armored covers to all the wheels.

I'm still not sure what color to paint Col. Jack's Special. I'm trying to decided between black for the "cool" factor, and a desert yellow for the "practical" factor. Or maybe desert yellow with black flame job? Or all-rust like my Runnin' Gunners for a more "realistic" look. I'll figure something out.