Gaslands Refuelled - Mini-Sherman

 

Ok, so the mini-Sherman was always a CarWars thing, but it was my favourite vehicle from that game, and so I wanted to make one for Gaslands.

My mini-Sherman was a panel van with a rocket launcher under the front bumper and enough armour to weigh the vehicle down during a cyclone. That's pretty topical right now over here (I'm looking at you Cyclone Alfred!).

Oz Wheels makes a series of excellent Matchbox scale vehicles of iconic Australian brands. Brands that were quintessentially Ozzy (yes, even the Ford Falcon. Just watch Mad Max) before we destroyed our car manufacturing industry over here by selling out to globalism.

Oz Wheels has a series called 'Barn Finds' and these vehicles come pre-grubby with worn paint work that just screams Gaslands. So, I purchased a number of panel vans and set about looking for the appropriate rocket launchers to put under the front bumper.

Vanguard Miniatures make some nice Sentinel style walker units in Epic scale, the weapons on which work well also for Matchbox scale vehicles. So, I nicked two rocket pods and put them to use on my new (old) mini-Sherman.

I remember one excellent game of Car Wars where our town was invaded by a band of rev-heads eager to kick us out of the place. We took out their vehicles one by one until eventually just their leader was left. We ended up pinning the guy between our vehicles, with me in the lead. Given I only had a forward-facing rocket launcher, but a tone of armour, I just slowed the guy down as we hemmed him in. In the end, we crawled to a stop, and he was out of ammo. He quietly surrendered at that point. But my mini-Shermon was a rock, an almost immovable one at that, with an acceleration of only 5mph. Once I got up to speed, I wouldn't break as it took too long to get going again.

The business end of the mini-Sherman

I'm still considering if I should put a bull-bar on the front of the vehicle just above the rocket launchers. But for now, my mini-Sherman is ready for the table. All I need to do now is make the Gaslands vehicle profile for this thing.

Lesser Fort Rust-n-Nails - part 3 - tabletop ready

 

Well fan, here she is. Lesser Fort Rust-n-Nails is finally tabletop ready.

I am awaiting on (small scale) barbed wire to arrive from eBay. Once I have that, I shall add some to the crenulations. I should also add some small clumps of vegetation to the base. But here she is, finally. Tabletop ready for Gaslands.

But wait! There's no gate, I hear you say. Well, fear not dear fan. Indeed, there is a gate. Two in fact. The first is a chain gate that is constructed, but not yet painted. You can see that below. The chain fits into a gap between the shipping containers that form the wall and an upright container that forms the tower that leads to the viewing platform directly above the gate entrance.

The second is under construction and is a busgate. What's a busgate, I hear you say? It's a bus that has been armoured on one side and is use as a gate. You just drive the bus backwards to open the gap, and forwards to close the gap again. The bus itself is the gate. Think Mad Max 2 with Mel Gibson where the refinery had a bus that was the gate (if I remember correctly, as it's been a few years since I've watched that movie).

So, still a few more cosmetic things to do. But Lesser Fort Rust-n-Nails is ready to go onto the tabletop for a game of Gaslands.

Still Under Construction - Lesser Fort Rust-n-Nails - part 2

 

So dear fan, Lesser Fort Rust-n-Nails nears completion (the first part in this saga can be found here). It would take decades to construct a medieval castle. They should have just used PVA glue, cardboard, coffee stirrer sticks and some small shipping containers that you can get off Amazon. Yes, the final stages of fabrication of Lesser Fort Rust-n-Nails draws neigh. So, here's a quick visual update.

The corrugated iron is just carboard that's been smothered in PVA. Once dry, it's as hard as nails and ready for the gaming table. I did do a couple of layers of PVA just to make sure though.

The ladders are made from matchsticks and MDF offcuts I had laying round. These were just PVA glued together insitu and left to dry. If I wasn't being lazy with this one, I would have constructed the ladders separately and then added them later. I did kind of smother the ladders in PVA glue as well just to make sure they were properly stuck together and sealed.

Over the base, I have used some gap filler, and the rest is sand spread over PVA. The gap filler had a matchbox car run over it several times whilst still wet in order to make tyre tracks at the entrance and up the back escape ramp.

I think it's ready for painting. I do still want to add some barbed wire along the crenulations. Let's see how I go there.

Mr Whippy for Gaslands

 

The Goblins have been having fun. Having found an old, abandoned Mr Whippy ice cream truck, they duly set about outfitting it for both combat and refreshment of those hot summer afternoons when all you want is an ice cream.

This little beauty arrived the other day from eBay, and I set about painting it in the colour scheme the Mr Whippy ice cream trucks have in my country. I think Mr Whippy originated in England actually, but I have fond memories of the overpriced ice-cream these mobile vendors used to disperse out to the masses of children who dutifully waited by the side of the road for the van to pull up to dispense their treats. It was a stalwart of my youth. On a hot summer's afternoon, the dulcet tones of a speaker distorted Greensleeves tune could be heard over the buzzing of flies and children would run to the side of the road to await the arrival of Mr Whippy.

Well, now thanks to the Gobo's, Mr Whippy is back to kick ass. In fact, we could call him Mr Whip-ass.

Sporting a ram, two side mounted machine guns, a 15mm scale Flames of War German anti-aircraft gun as well as an assortment of soft serve and ice cream, this old rust bucket may not be fast, but it can pack a punch all whilst serving up a refreshing treat.

The anti-aircraft gun can be removed and rotated to face its target (nice effect there) and there is even a little gobo at the wheel of the truck.

The vehicle was in much bad repair, from a paintwork perspective, but that was exactly what I was after. Now, she has been lovingly restored and ready for combat.

Soft serve anyone?

Under Construction - Lesser Fort Rust-n-Nails

 

I was watching a Mad Max style Gaslands Refuelled game played out on the Games Night YouTube channel a few weeks back and it inspired me to build a set piece fort for my own Gaslands games. Something in the style of the Mad Max Fury Road Xbox game where forts were built with lots of shipping containers. This would be a place to fight over or use as a haven objective to reach during a Gaslands road chase.

The name of the objective fort that the Big Rig had to reach in the Games Night video was called Fort Rust-n-Nails. I liked that. So, in the vein of imitation being the highest form of flattery, I've decided to nick the name. Behold, still under construction, Fort Rust-n-Nails (the Lesser, as the Games Night one was much bigger). So, behold, Lesser Fort Rust-n-Nails.

The fort already has a wire gate built for it. But I may attach it to a vehicle so the gate can be opened or closed by tacking control of the gate vehicle. Think Mad Max 2 with Mel Gibson where a bus was used as a gate. Could make an interesting objective in any siege game. Get over the wall and into the bus and the gate can be opened.

So, there is much to do still on this build. But as I don't have anything better to show off right now, I thought I would do a work-in-progress built post. By the way, I am just using PVA White Glue on this build and it's all been good so far. For the carboard 'corrugated iron' sheeting, I smother both sides of the cardboard in PVA glue to make it tough and rigid. That simple trick works wonders in making the cardboard tough as nails (so to speak).

Very early-stage construction

More under construction images: this time of the Gaslands Ramp (see post here) I built and posted about previously. I realised that showing the under-construction photos might help show how I put the ramp together in the first place. Something I omitted to show in that previous post.

Lesser Fort Rust-n-Nails should take a while to finish. But I shall show off the end result when it's done.

Gaslands Refueller Gyrocopter - part 2

So, how's that Gyrocopter working out for Gaslands, I hear you ask? Pretty good as far as I'm concerned. Part one of this build is back here.

I turned the buggy into a trike and put missiles on the forward wheel spokes. There's a mine dropper on the side and a machine gun mounted forward. Given the gyro is a converted buggy, this would need to drive a long straight template first to give it enough forward momentum and lift to get airborne. That makes it vulnerable in scenarios where the vehicle is on the ground initially.

I only had a clear flat base that I could use for the rotors being in motion. From a distance, the writing on the base doesn't hinder the aesthetic of the vehicle and it looks like it's in flight. If I find a better clear base somewhere, I may replace this one.

The flight stand itself is made from a few Star Trek Attack Wing base segments and can be added to or reduced depending upon what takes my fancy at the time. But the flight stand has a magnetic top to hold the gyro in place.

Looks nasty enough. Now to get a game of Gaslands Refuelled going so I can give it a try out.

Gaslands vehicle ramp

I wanted a vehicle ramp made in the style of the Mad Max Fury Road xbox game. There are lots of shipping containers rusting around on that sea floor in that game. Anyway, nothing I liked came up on Etsy or eBay and so I decided to make one of my own using model railway shipping containers, gap filler, PVA white glue, small pebbles and sand. And here's the finished result.

The containers are a wee bit small for match box cars, but these will do fine, nonetheless.

Not too shabby!