Machinas: Red Rex and Saint Chevro's Corvette

There are a few lone wolf racers in the Known Wasteland, among them Redding Rexicus, aka Red Rex. As are most of the lone wolves, Red is his own crew chief, mechanic and driver.

Though Red is skilled at everything he does, he has yet to enter the Machinas races in Seven Hills. The Machinas' high intensity races require a full crew working round the clock to repair the vehicles between each race. Since Red lives alone, he sually takes weeks off between each race to get his car back into shape. But it is also a testament to his driving skill that he often wins the few races he participates in, earning enough money to acquire the parts he needs to repair his priceless '49 Mercury (known in the wastes as the "Red Merc.")

This '49 Merc model is by M2 Machines. I added another exhaust stack (I just like the look a lot) out of the engine. Since the Red Merc has no support vehicles (or wagons or pack animals), it carries all of its own baggage as well a few spare parts, made with green stuff, brass and copper wire and a couple spare parts stripped from spare engines.

Saint Chevro's Corvette

Saint Chevro's Corvette is an official Machinas racer belonging to the Yellow faction. The Yellows are one of the original racing factions (Red, Green and Blue being the others) founded by the Church.

Though Saint Chevro's Corvette has raced in the Machinas a couple times, but since it has excellent maneuverability and acceleration, it is used mostly to represent the Yellows (and the Church) in the Mountain Races among the foothills of the Only Mountains.

This '55 Corvette is modeled with baggage showing the car as it would look traveling between races. It is armed with three .30 Brownings on the hood (in the Machinas rules, these guns could be counted as either Twin .50s or Fixed Forward Guns.)

I removed the windshield to flatten the car's profile out a touch (though the baggage quickly unstreamlined that idea). I also added a brass exhaust pipe on the right side of the car.

This car is from Hot Wheels' Boulevard line. One thing that I had a slight problem with was the rear wheels which were set too close to the quarterpanels resulting in the tires scraping against the panels. I removed the chassis from the body and set in a small amount of green stuff to raise the rear end just enough to clear the tires.

Small notes

I have five cars primed. I think I can get to one or two of them soon. In the meantime, here's another story I wrote- this one is actually child-friendly. I had some time to myself, so I went out to lunch with my notebook, though, this is all I could come up with: "The Adventures of Little Boy and Pillow Bob"

Machinas: Travelers and Racers

Work is still bad, but I'm finding a little half an hour here and hour there to devote to the painting/building table. Walmart had a couple M2 cars for models I didn't have yet, a '58 Impala and a '57 custom Dodge Royal Lancer (I have the non-custom version, too.)

I also finished converting the '49 Mercury I picked up last week. The Mercury and the Impala I decided to outfit for travel in the Wasteland as opposed to racing on the Machinas circuit. What separates these "traveling" cars as opposed to the racers is that I add a lot more baggage, fewer of the heavier weapons, and more defensive measures.

The Mercury lacks a ram, has plenty of baggage and a modified engine (by which I mean I simply put the exhaust as a stack sticking straight out of the engine rather than a pipe out the back.) The Mercury is armed with twin .50s and, barely visible just under the guns, a flamethrower - a little more weaponry than needed, but perhaps this car belongs to traveling marauders?

The Impala is more of a good example of a Traveler in the Wasteland: Lots of baggage, the only armament is a tail gun, big engine (big pipes, anyway), and not really a ram, but more of a push bar for clearing road obstructions. I left the windows all open more because I like the look; a usual traveler will have the windows all armored.

Then we have my Custom Dodge Royal Lancer. I actually picked this car up for a couple reasons: It's a model I didn't have yet, and also it is from M2's line of "Auto Projects." These are cars in varying degrees of "maintenance," complete with excellent weathering already painted for you!
This one is a Racer- some heavy windscreen armor, machine gun and rocket tubes, and no baggage  to weigh her down. She could use some more armor, but Brother Pilots like to live dangerously.

Now a quick word of caution if you purchase a car from M2's Auto Projects line: These cars will randomly be missing pieces (by design.) There were two Lancers on the shelf at Walmart, this one which was missing a door, and another which was missing a wheel. I need cars with four wheels, and that's actually a spare part I don't have any of in my bits box. So be sure to take a close look if you purchase any cars from the Auto Projects.

I plan on picking up an M2 Apache pickup when I get a chance. When I talked about my class of chopped cars the Nomads use for running contraband (the flat-topped cars), I mentioned four vehicles by name. I have models for three of them, but not a fourth ("Dark Soul.") I was looking for the right car for the job and have decided to try something different; I'll take a pickup and chop the top. I'm not sure how it'll turn out, but I'd like to give it a try. I figured dark soul would be the car running the most cargo since it runs during the latest part of the night, so it needed the best carrying capacity and a good engine. Apache pickup. We'll see how it goes.

Hopefully, I can get to painting these sometime this week. I'll see how work goes. It's been busy, but now that I know what to expect (last week was the first of several hellish weeks,) I can plan my free time a little bit better.

Machinas: 33 Ford hot rod, the Red Cricket

I found myself a couple hours of free time, so I finished up my '33 Ford hot rod, and started on a couple new cars- a '55 Corvette and '49 Mercury.

The Red Cricket was an impulse buy a couple weeks ago. The only conversions added were the twin .50s, the armored wheel covers, the body fairing behind the driver seat, and the blanket roll on the back. The Cricket was a Hot Wheels car (1933 Ford model which is often available from Hot Wheels.)

I don't have a background for this vehicle (being an impulse buy), so I think I'll just add him into the Circus faction. The Corvette and the new Mercury also don't have background's yet; I bought the Corvette just so I could add another vehicle in the Sports Car class to my collection. And the Mercury I bought just because it looks mean and belongs on the Machinas circuit.

The Corvette is from Hot Wheels' Boulevard line. I removed the windscreen, added triple .30s and some baggage. Among my Machinas models, baggage on the car usually indicates it's a car driven in the Known Wasteland. And no baggage usually means it's either a Church vehicle or a vehicle specifically tricked out for the Machinas circuit.

On the Mercury, I only had time to remove the hood (which was riveted on; this was one of M2 Machines cheaper cars.) Then I added an engine from a nice pile I've collected from some of my other cars. Those lovely large fenders have ample space for a pair of .50s I'll add. On the back, I think I will do a twin or triple-tube rocket launcher on one side and some baggage on the other side.

Taking a break, maybe

Work just got bad. Bad enough that I'm looking for another job. In the mean time, painting may slow down for a bit. I do have another Machinas car still on the table, primed and ready to be painted. Those cars only take an hour or so at most to paint, so it may still get done before long.

If you're bored, have a read of my latest story; it's mostly for parents, especially those delaying the Birds and the Bees talk with their kids. And it's a true story.
"Billy Berries and Caplooey"

Machinas: Sun Up and Sun Down

From left, Sun Up and Sun Down

The Running Nomads, a group of black marketeers who operate among the nomadic towns to the north, operate a fleet of around a dozen cars, including these two, known as Sun Up and Sun Down.

Sun Down was the first car built, before the Running Nomads
started cutting the cabs all the way down to the body.

While the majority of the Nomad's vehicle fleet is kept in the north to do business, the gang also does business with the further flung reaches of the Known Wasteland. In order to get contraband to those areas, the Nomads stripped down four cars, re-engineered and rebuilt the bodies to have low weight and a high cargo capacity, fitted them with fast engines, and ran the cars ragged. (For a relatively recent counterpart, imagine these cars as the post-apocalyptic version of the original moonshine runners that would eventually evolve into Nascar cars.)

Sun Up is run so often, the paint is almost completely peeled away.
The Nomads will repaint it soon, at this point.

The original four cars were called Sun Up, Sun Down, Afternoon and Dark Soul. The cars would be sent out on fast runs during the time of day they were named for (Sun Up for the morning, Sun Down for the evening, Afternoon for the afternoon, and Dark Soul for late night). When one car arrived at its destination, a second car resting at the destination would speed off in return carrying trade, currency, messages etc. In this way, the four cars would run a near constant (if limited) relay and supply line.

Afternoon, right, now belongs to the Seven Hills Circus faction.

Afternoon and Dark Soul would eventually be captured by The Church. Afternoon was sold to the Seven Hills Circus who repainted the car and race it. Dark Soul still rests in the Church garage while the Vestal Mechanics learn about its ingenious engineerings built by the Nomads.

Sun Up and Sun Down still race to and from the north, carrying contraband, stolen supplies and fuel.

Machinas WIP: Still working on Sun Up and Sun Down

Yes, those straight pipes are big- but that's OK- I wanted them to look imposing.

I usually pump these cars out in a couple of days, but I got sidetracked by a great weekend with friends including playing Zombicide for the first time, resulting in my backing Season 2 (an hour before the Kickstarter deadline.) Great game- not deep, but with a group, it was a lot of simple fun. It's also difficult to find a miniatures game that my friends enjoy- they loved this one.

Anyway, as you can see, the cars are constructed -- actually, they are also primed (I just hadn't taken a photo yet) -- and are almost done. It shouldn't take too long to paint them since I'm keeping the schemes simple: Sun Up (the Fairlane) will be either  a desert yellow or (probably) an orange or brown, and Sun Down (The Mercury) will be black with dark blue highlights. Then, of course, chrome, rust and dust on top of that.

I angled the stovepipes on the Mercury for a couple reasons: To give it a little more "speedy" appearance, but also to lower the profile so I can store the car better in foam - Pretty AND practical!

I was at Walmart and picked up a little impulse purchase, this little '33 Ford hot rod. The guns are my usual construction, along with some plasticard armor for the driver. I used green stuff for the fairing piece behind the driver. I also added a little bedroll with some leftover greenstuff -- That's something to consider, especially if you're doing post-apoc conversions: Leftover green stuff can easily be sculpted into little bundles, bags, or bedrolls, so don't let it go to waste. The other thing I do with leftover green stuff is to roll it into long strings or rods. The strings make decent cables, and the rods I can either cut into discs (for drum-fed machine guns) or make into small fuel tanks (like for a flamethrower.)

I'm not sire what color this little guy will be. Since it was an impulse buy, I don't even have an idea for a background. So I'll sit him on the back burner until I come up with a background, which, in turn, will help me decide on a color scheme.

This little hot rod is my first car that is of the "Sports car" class. In Machinas, there are several classes. They are Motorcycle, ATV, Sports Car, Sedan, Pickup, SUV, RV, Bus, and Big Rig. Keep in mind, you'll need a little more space if you play with the larger vehicles. Some vehicles might fit into more than one category, in which case, just choose the closest fit. (For example, I have a 59 Chevy Delivery wagon that I'll probably class as an SUV, though it would also be fine in the Sedan class.)

Post-Apoc film: Undying

From the Kickstarter; this is NOT a still from the movie, which has
not yet been made.

There's a Kickstarter for  a short indie film called "Undying" which takes zombies in a different direction. Watch the KS video; they explain it pretty good.

The writer is a co-founder of Wasteland Weekend (for the uninitiated, it's a big Road Warrior fair/party/festival/donnybrook) and the visual effects guy has worked on a few high-profile movies (Jurassic Park, Lord of the Rings.)

Anyway, take a look. I'm sure the film isn't going to be a big Oscar contender, but it still looks like it will be a lot of fun: Undying Kickstarter.

Machinas wip: Sun up and Sun down

The Sun Valley started like this

When they're finished, I'll explain their names (Sun Up and Sun Down) when I describe their background. But these (along with my ram car) will represent a new class of car, namely, one that is unarmed -- Again, the reasoning will be explained when the cars are finished.

And has progressed to this

The Ford Fairlane (the gray car) will simply have the chopped top and the body leveled off just like my ram car. Though, instead of a small pilothouse, I think I'll just do a periscope of some sort. This car will also have a ram but without spikes (so more like Col. Jack's Special.)

The Fairlane will also have some straight pipes coming up through the hood.

I sort of bumbled into the way the Mercury Sun Valley (the green car) came out. I cut off the top and set it aside. Then, while figuring out how to make this car different, I grabbed the chopped top and see how it would look fit back on. It sit nicely on the car body, with the post "grabbing" the inside to hold the top into place. And it didn't look half bad. It's actually turned around in the photo with the rear window facing forward. So I glued it down.

I used green stuff to strengthen the posts and blend the top into the body. And yes, it has that neat El Camino effect, with a nice large cargo bay (or area for a large machine gun mount or missile or mortar tubes) but I'm sticking to my original idea which will involve covering that large hole and blending it into the body. BUT, I will file away the "El Camino" look for later, because I do like how that looks.

I will also give the Mercury a pair of stovepipe exhausts (like Col. Jack's Special.) But I'm not sure if I'll have the pipes straight up or if I'll try something a little different and slant them back to give the car a more "speedy" look. I'll figure it out when I get the pipes built.

Machinas: Colonel Jack's Special

The Paint

I liked the idea offered up of doing both black and tan, but I wasn't sure how to go about merging the two colors. I looked through images of hot rods seeing if there was a scheme that I could copy, and I found one where the two colors were separated by a diagonal line just off the halfway mark on the car. But I still wanted something a little different. It was just a matter of a few doodles before I hit upon my little "Dusty Trail" scheme.

I wanted something "cool" (the black with chrome), but I also wanted something practical, such as a camouflaging color (some tan/desert yellow.) I took a little inspiration from motion camouflage seen on WWII warships, where a wave was painted on the bow to make the ship look like it was moving. Instead of a wave, I painted the dust getting kicked up.

I really enjoyed putting this car and background together. Since I have plenty of factions, I think any future cars I get will be purchased, converted and painted individually, so I can focus and put more thought and effort into their creation.

Colonel Jack's Special

Col. Jack's Special is owned by a man who named himself after Col. Jack, a character from Mark Twain's "Roughing It," (one of the famous ancient books discovered by the Seven Hills Church.) In the book (as far as I can remember), Col. Jack, a man off the frontier, took a bus (horse-drawn) through New York City. The ride fascinated him, so he paid the driver $20 to drive him and his friend Col. John all over the city. Jack told anyone who got on the bus that he had paid their fare and that they should sit back and enjoy the ride. Jack was entertained by the variety of people he met on the ride, which continued for the rest of the day.

My Col. Jack's Special has a variety of uses. Mostly, Col. Jack serves as a low-cost charter for Wastelanders. The only drawback to hiring Col. Jack is that he is only one man with one car, so finding him is difficult. But when you do manage to hire his services, you're treated to a fine ride, indeed.

When he's not transporting folks across the wastes, Col. Jack loads his car with supplies and explores the fringes of the Known Wasteland. He carries as much survey equipment as he can (note the red/white survey rods seen on the left side of the baggage). Since he is one of the few people willing to travel far and wide to map the wastes, the Church gives him a larger fuel allotment than is usually given out.

For better fuel economy, ruggedness and torque, Col. Jack runs a diesel engine, hence the stovepipe on the left of the car. He has also discovered, on a couple of his runs, a wide but shallow river, which, for a long time, prevented him from exploring a section of the western wastes, so the car's engine compartment was sealed and a snorkel was added.

Most people in the Known Wasteland like Col. Jack, but there are still those marauders who will take a shot at him now and again, so he keeps a large slab of armor to protect his rear, and a push bar to clear barricades and other road obstructions. He also has extra armor on the wheels and the windscreen (though, I left the armor off the side windows to help preserve some of the car's original lines.) And, of course, Col. Jack mounts twin .50s, because he understands that even his gentle nature needs the support of a little extra firepower sometimes.

Col. Jack has never raced in a Church-sanctioned event (he is still called Col. Jack, after all, and not Brother Pilot.) But he is known to join in a random Waste Race now and again. He prefers more friendly races where there is more nudging and bumping than all-out shooting.

Racing Col. Jack in a game

If you want to run Col. Jack's Special in a race, here are his stats (copy these down later for when the rules are released. If you want, I can stat out more special characters in the future, though, I think you'll enjoy making your own.)

Col. Jack's Special
Savvy: 6
Tech: 5
Speed: 4

Driver Signatures
Focused
Scouter
Off Roader
Pathfinder

Car Features
Well Built
Tuned Up
Inspected Ammo
Angled Armor
Twin .50s
.357

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.

Machinas: The Runnin' Gunners

Here's my new favorite faction, the Runnin' Gunners. The American Indian-inspired markings turned out the way I had envisioned them.

After the markings were painted, I gave all the cars a drybrushing of light tan for dust. This dusting all helps to blend everything together (rust, markings, and replaced body panels.)

Next up are two more cars for my Black Tops, and the plow car for my Vestal Mechanics. After those,  I guess I'll get in a couple more races/chases.

Then maybe it's time for a piece of scenery or two. I was thinking of a couple things: A simple stone wall to run along one side of the track (which would serve an actual function), and/or a set of toll booths to sit along the back end of the track (which would only serve to dress up the track, but still be fun to build.)