Post-Apocalyptic Rogue Trader

Bane

Vassal
I've finally crossed over from Fantasy to the lure of Science-Fiction. I didn't think I had enough capacity in my mind and imagination and certainly not in my miniature collection, to do both. I and didn't want to start without giving it some proper thought and consideration. So after much though and consideration I went with what I know and love best: post-apocalyptic.

With inspiration from Mad Max, Hugh Howey's novels, Walking Dead, Fallout, Justin Cronin's "The Passage" etc, I decided to go for it. After deciding upon the context (I've imagined a dusty, barren world with rusty remnants from a past era, where water, plastic and fuel are much sought after items) I started reading the Rogue Trader rulebook to give me some grounding in that universe too. It was there (and in fact on this forum too, specifically Whiskey Priest's proposed game at BOYL 2016: http://forum.oldhammer.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=6756) that made me plump for Logan's World; Helsreach for a location. I liked the idea of Mercenary Gangs fighting and alliancing with Bandits and Slavers in a stark, ungoverned world.

From here I needed to gather some 40k miniatures, as I have next to none. Initially I wanted to procure some old school Citadel miniatures, as I did for Fantasy many years ago, but after some digging I realised that I didn't actually have the same nostalgic connection with them that I did for their Fantasy counterparts, having not collected or played with them back in the 80's/90's. So I then decided to look at combining a load of current ranges of miniatures, basically having no restrictions on what I purchased apart from ensuring they were decent sculpts that tied in with my background (I may well include some iconic and dynamic Citadel later).

And this is what I ended up with after a few purchases from Foundry, Hasslefree, Copplestone and Zinga (plus an Ebay 1:43 model car which will be Mad Maxed to shit):

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You can see that I've started to create molds of Ork bike wheels for the car here.
 
I then wanted to create a photographic backdrop which will provide a visual context for this world and for which I can photograph my models in front of. I hope to extend this into a modular gaming board at some point.

Getting hold of a load of junk from my garage, recycling and some plumbing bits from B&Q I set to work and created this oil refinery type thing:

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and some barrels and a shipping container:

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The painting stages were relatively quick, sprayed with grey primer and some brown aerosol to create a rusty/metallic base:

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and then scratch on some metallic paint with a scouring brush:

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Followed by lots and lots of washes of oranges, browns, and greens:

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The next stage was to add some textured rust with some dry pigment and matt varnish:

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Followed finally by some flaking paint on the shipping container, using crackle medium and acrylics and some oil spillages with Nuln Oil:

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A baseboard was made from mdf, pva, sand and some cheap off white paint were mixed together for the basing and some clump foliage and some MIG pigments added to create the barren wastelands (these MIG pigments will also feature on my models). An appropriate backdrop was then printed onto A3 cartridge paper:

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Some small posters were added, mainly from Walking Dead adverts, Fallout images, hazard signs etc:

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So now I've got the motivation to paint these mercenary gangers....
 
Coronel_Oneill":378azc5g said:
Very good scenery, yes!!. And the car?. I`m thinking about buying the very same model for my genestealer cult :razz:

Cheers! The car's 1:43 and there's a whole range of diecast cars that I've been keeping an eye on ebay that may be as appropriate for a genestealer limo.

Blue in VT":378azc5g said:
Trash bits bashing at its best!!! Well played!
Cheers,Blue

Cheers Blue, I love a bit of trash building, it's great fun. I'm doing something similar for fantasy in making my son a castle for his birthday; see my blog for more on that.
 
Wandering the barren desert wastes with a mission and a reputation; Psycho Sam. The crazed punk who had a hunger for violence, who shot and then judged, yet who sought a redemption and a metamorphosis into someone better. But not just yet, he had to fulfil a self-imposed quest.

He had committed many vile deeds, cared little for anyone and knew that he saw life on Helsreach as cheap fodder for his own gains and for his own survival. But he knew could be a better person, could fulfil a transformation into a more splendid person and undo all of his dirty, ugly, yet necessary past. He remembered his mum, or at least an older woman, reading to him as a child, books with faded colour pictures from a different world and time. The older hand brushing the dust away from the pictures of that hungry caterpillar and all that juicy, intoxicating food, foodstuffs that he had never even seen the like of in the bleak sepia of his childhood. Never so colourful and so appetising. But if he could just eat that chocolate cake, that ice cream, that pickle, that Swiss cheese, that salami, that lollipop, that cherry pie, that sausage, that cupcake and that watermelon then maybe he could transform into that beautiful, new different species and his current past would become someone else's.

Some of these foods Sam had already come across of course. Meat products were only available now wrapped in skin and all reputable drinking establishments had an assortment of pickled products on their shelves. A few years ago he had inadvertently stumbled upon an old chupa chupa vending machine in a derelict mall and smashed it open to recover it's colourful and flavoursome riches. Eight lollipops in all, only two left to suck. He'd had cheese of a sort, but it looked nothing like that holey, yellow image. But it would do for now. The baked goods and the ice cream, that's what drove him on, spurred him to an even more elevated psychosis and ever more despairing acts of violence. He had acquired an old recipe book and some of the ingredients, but was a long way from any kitchen or baker who could help the transformation from bare parts into a new whole. But it would happen, he knew, it was his destiny.

So Psycho Sam continued to wander the wastelands alone, accompanied by his reputation, his quest and a couple of tatty old books. And his shotgun.


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The Oldhammer miniature from BOYL 2015, sculpted by Mark Copplestone. I went for some earthy camo trousers with a deliberately brown overall palette, as will feature on most of my gang. I imagine a bleak world not just because of prospects but also due to a lack of colour, everything faded and simplified. His plastic blue shades being the only speck of bright colour (plastic being a very expensive commodity).

For this post-apocalyptic setting, I'll be using plenty of dry pigment to get the barren and dry look that I wanted to create. I've generally mixed the dry pigment with some matte varnish and dabbed that on and whilst still wet I've sprinkled some of the dry stuff straight on top. I've even drybrushed it onto the shrubs to make them look dusty too. For all of this I've used MIG pigments after reading that they were probably the best out these. So far pretty happy with the results!
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Saffron and Mal. Sometime lovers, always fighters, these two have history and reputation. Mal was a one time famous smuggler and captain of his own ship, now desperately trying to raise funds, through mercenary activities, to buy a new ship and hire a new crew, ultimately trying to recapture his halcyon days. Those days were in decline as soon as he met Saffron, the swindler, the con-artist. When she entered his life, he (understandably) let his guard down as she used all of her cunning, training and charms to disarm the rogue and take from him as he took from others. Slowly but steadily his steadfast power as leader of the crew diminished as her hold over him increased. He became obsessed by the challenge she presented.

As his attentions became more and more focused on her and the challenges she bought to his authority and self-restraint, his motley crew grew uneasy without Mal's strong leadership. His distraction caused several missions to go wrong, endangering the crew and limiting what was being pocketed. It was not long before they mutinied and stole his ship and cargo in embarrassingly easy circumstances, discarding the two squabbling lovers and fighters in a far flung corner of the system that became known to them as Helsreach.

Stranded with just their clothes and some basic weapons, both soon realising that they could actually work together quite effectively, rather than in opposition. Exploring the area and surviving by whatever means possible (always at the expense of others) they eventually overstepped into the domain and dealings of the notorious local crime lord, Adelei Niska. Realising their skills and potential to serve him, he hired them to complete a series of dirty missions, which they completed with great success. The loot they've taken from these jobs and the payments they've received means they are getting closer to be able to buy that new ship, maybe just one more big job would do it..... or maybe they can double-cross their employer....


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Both of these figures are from the Foundry "Gangers" range which I picked up from last years BOYL. I think they've got some real character in the sculpts; mean and grizzled, proper versatile veterans of a post-apocalyptic world. You can see the use of MIG pigment dust a bit more clearly on this picture, it's really helped me create this barren and dry landscape that will be the setting for my 40k gangs.

I took a punt on their outfits, Mal had this mesh design sculpted over his torso, which I decided should become a string vest underneath his long leather jacket. With Saffron, I wanted a splash of colour in this drab world, so she got some pink dyed hair, a pale blue cowboy hat and a Batman t-shirt (this was inspired by an illustration in the Logan's World section of the Rogue Trader rulebook, where a Squat is wearing the same logo).

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And here are Saffron and Mal hooking up (slightly reluctantly) with Psycho Sam preparing for a new, paid mission. But they need some more crew and are currently looking out for a few more comrades and a car....
 
LilBroGrendel":1yaf1eqg said:
Nice scenery. I especially like the way you created those oil barrels - simple and effective :)

Cheers! I've put together a short tutorial if anyone is interested in making their own scratch-built, quick and easy barrels. The materials you need:

A battery
Cartridge paper, or some thick paper
Superglue
Pencil
Blu-tak
Craft beads
Brown tissue paper
Pva
Flexible electrical fuse wire
Rust coloured washes


And here's how I issued them:
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Thick cartridge paper wrapped around a battery seemed to give the right sort of diameter to the barrel cylinder. Superglue was quick and easy to bond the paper together.

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Two barrels per battery when cut in half.
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The ends were cut again using the battery as a template. it's ok for the circle's diameter to be slightly larger then the cylinder, a squished appearance will look quite good (see later).
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Push the circles into the cylinder, I used a pencil with some blu-tac on the end to force it into position.
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I used some craft beads to add the spout to the barrel:
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Some very flexible electrical fuse wire was wrapped again around the battery to ensure the correct circumference and superglued into place
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Some brown tissue paper was dipped in pva, which created a nice wrinkled effect and wrapped around the barrel
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Finally the barrels were primed with some small amounts of grey, allowing the broen tissue paper to be visible in patches, as a rusty underlayer:
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Finally several rust coloured washes were added. Done!
 
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Stoksie is a hard bastard. He's got those eyes that penetrate you and search out your weaknesses as well as a physical presence and bulging bulk that intimidates the shit out of you. You only get to see those eyes close-up though and not many have lived to tell that tale, because Stoksie likes nothing more than to get you from a distance. By nature a loner, Stoksie teamed up with Doc Shivers because of his one fear, the fear of being hurt. He's hurt others many, many times, often in quite barbaric circumstances; the red haze descends and the innermost fears pour out in a full beserker's frenzy, so he has seen pain, caused pain, but it scares him shitless, having it done to him. He's trained his body, honed his reactions so that he will always make the first move, fire the first shot, down his man before any response is forthcoming. There's been some close-shaves on his health, but he's survived, relatively unscathed.

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He took a bullet to his right bicep in the last gunfight. It hurt like fuck. He wasn't careful enough, didn't see the fourth man until it was a split second too late and took the bullet. The initial response was one of pure fury, bullets spraying with unerring accuracy and ferocity; one of his battle lusts that make him seemingly transcend his own body and operate on a different time scale to his adversaries. They didn't survive; the man who shot his arm, died looking into those eyes.

Then, the shock of mortality, the pain, the blood. He could just about deal with those, although he hated the sight of his own blood, but what scared him, really scared him, was that this wound could be the one that debilitated him, made him microscopically slower or fractionally less flexible. Worsten his performance, make him a less effective killer.

So he teamed up with Doc Shivers, a fugitive found hiding in a warehouse, on the run. He offered the Doc unshakeable protection from the Slavers who he had escaped from (and all the others that wanted their revenge upon him) in return for medical support and reassurance. Doc Shivers was more than happy to team up, especially with someone who asked for so little in return, rarely spoke and had already been brutally efficient in keeping the Doc alive.

That's all Doc Shiver's wanted, to survive. He'd swindled so, so many, charging astronomical sums for surgical work that needn't have been so complex. Performing operations that deliberately enfeebled the patient - paid for by rich clients and bounty hunters - conducted deliberately unsuccessful identity face swaps and even adding bizarre mutations on unsuspecting patients. Doc Shivers was not a man of morals, but he was a bloody good surgeon who's skills were renowned and much sought. But he had made too many enemies and needed to re-group, survive and eventually flee to a safer, location, away from his assailants. Stoksie may well be that ticket, but was certainly that protection...


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These two are both from the Copplestone range of miniatures and are really nice, clean and crisp sculpts, as you'd expect from such a talented sculptor. The clean lines and crisp details make the painting experience nice and easy and there's a good amount of character and dynamism in the faces and poses.

I like the ripped clothing and the little bits of flesh poking through, break up the larger areas of fabric whilst there's always some detail to keep you interested as a painter; whether it's the sunglasses, the knee pads or the bandana. With Doc Shivers, I went for a slightly medical looking pale blue/white suit that I hoped would help make him stand out from the rest of the crew as less of a hard warrior and more of a supporting/civilian type who still knows how to look after himself with a gun.

You can see how they line up with their new mercenary chums, all dirty and dusty:

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I've started work on the Mad Max style car for them (although I'm now thinking of also making some sort of camping van for the group to help transport them all around) and I'll post up some Wip photos in due course. Thanks for reading!
 
"I was just minding my own shit, taking my sweet time over my warm milkshake, just feeling the vibe of the tunes playing from the kitchen of Greasy Kim's Bar and Diner. I'd been on the drugs for a while so I was feelin' pretty spaced out and fluffy, not really sure how long I'd been there, or even why I was there. And then "boom!", I nearly shit meself. Not expecting that. Out of the smoke arrives this crew of tough guys, guns out, shouting all loud like. They rough me up asking where some guy called Abdul Goldberg's at. It's a name I'm only just familiar with, maybe a few weeks ago, he's been winning gambles with the best of 'em here and fleecing some of the town's tough guys. They've been looking for him. It's a name you can't forget once you've heard it. He's got a rep now. Anyway I tell these guys that I've never met the fella, no idea what he looks like; not sure why they're bugging me about it, all I'm doing is just tryin' to chill. Apparently he was here earlier, relaxing with his crew. I tell 'em that I kinda remember a group relaxin' and chattin' in the corner,, looking all smug like, but I don't know when they left or where they went. I get a smack in the face for that honest information. Fuckers. I'm pleading with this big thug, sayin I know nuthin and then out of knowhere this crew comes in and shoots the place up, all these thugs around me now slumped over, blood everywhere. No idea how I got missed by all that shootin. And then through the carnage steps this fella, he was the fella I saw earlier in the Diner. I'm focused now. He's all calm and serene like in his movements, real elegant with his long coat swishing behind him. I look into his eyes as he approaches me and somehow his eyes flicker between hard arse, piercing like and then like the whole things a joke, I didn't know how to read him. Shit meself properly this time. Anyway he comes up to me, pats me on the back, slurps my milkshake and yells out to the kitchen that I need a new, cold one. One of the thugs groans and he sticks him in his gut with his sword, not even looking at the guy, but looking at me. I swear he made it look like the whole thing was one big joke. He clicks his fingers and he and his crew walk out all silent like. I promise this is the truth, exactly what happened, no bullshit. This happened. Who is he then, this Goldburg, really, I wanna know?"



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My version of Abdul Goldberg, using a very cool Hasslefree miniature. I'm not sure that he entirely fits my imagination of what Goldberg looks like (based upon the cant information in the Rogue Trader rulebook), I imagined a slightly portly, fun loving gangster with a hard edge. I've caught the hard edge with this mini, but didn't have time to sculpt a belly onto him that would have made him perhaps slightly more jovial.. I was tempted to add some blood and gore onto the sword, but decided he was already tough enough looking and was worried it might go over the top.

The backstory is based on the information given in on pages 243-244 of the Rogue Trader rulebook, where the sub-plot generator is located. This is the excerpt I used to give me some context:

"Abdul Goldberg has crossed you for the last time - it was pure luck that your paths should cross on this isolated planet outside of imperial control. He and his crew are relaxing down at Greasy Kim's Bar and Diner, unaware that you and your crew are ready to pounce. The diner is mostly deserted, with only a few lonely vac-heads and spacers to witness the fight."

Obviously I chose one of the vac-heads/spacers to give his account and changed the outcome slightly, imagining Goldburg to be way too savvy to be caught in a diner by a group of thugs..

Here you can see Goldburg with his crew, post diner chillax, a proper bunch of rogues.

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Here she is (sans paint and headlights)!

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I love model making and the aspect I enjoy the most of a project like this, is the problem solving. When I was a kid making models for the first time (largely Airfix), the problems were just in following the instructions and putting the correct bits in the correct places without swamping the model in glue. Lego was actually the big step for me, moving away from following instructions that came with boxed sets, to using my imagination and creativity to make my own space ships from a massive pile of different shaped and coloured plastic blocks, all he time ensuring functionality. In the case of spaceship Lego, it was often symmetry; ie: "Do I have enough pieces to construct two of and those fuselage's?" and/or "Will that opening gangway ramp actually fit over the size of the entrance I've made?". As an adult these type of questions and experiments to find the solution keep me happy and take up a lot of my thinking time. Thinking time easily out-weighs my making time.

So with this build, over the past month or so, a lot of time has been spent thinking about how this is going to work.

1. Research. Find images that inspire. Obviously MadMax was a huge inspiration but I needed plausible builds that have already been built and accomplished by model-makers to give me some reality inspiration:

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Thanks to all the modellers who made these, sorry I have not given you credit by name, but rest assured you have completely inspired and reassured me.

All of these show the sort of thing I wanted to achieve, looking especially at wheels, suspension, exhausts and post-apocalyptic additions. Further research into reality showed me that most of these are modeled at a 1:35 scale, which in my experience is just too large for 28mm sci-fi. So I resumed my search for 1:43 plastic kits, rather than die-cast, the latter being much more difficult to model and convert as I discovered with my Freeway Fighter model

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2. Scavenge and purchase parts. I plumped for this Heller plastic kit, it cost me about 7 quid from ebay, the sprues have lots of pieces (40) which means I have more control over what I include and exclude during the build. I liked the aesthetics of the car too, the curves and character of the car fit in with the Mad Max vibe as well as just being quite pleasant to look at.

I decided that I wanted bigger wheels and raised suspension so as to fit into a desert environment as well as a raised engine and side exhausts to give the appearance of a suped-up version. For this to happen I had to go and scavenge some bits:

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•Wire gauze from Halfords for the windows.
•Plastic off road wheels from the Ork bike kit
•Plasticard (plain and the double diamond tread plate kind)
•Jewellers chain so equipment can be secured to the vehicle
•Plastic piping of a variety of radii for exhausts and roll cages etc
•Springs from a pen for the suspension
•Guitar wire for tubed pipes
•Computer circuit board parts for engines and other machinery parts
•The only purchases were from Zinge Industries for fuel tanks, spotlights, and other equipment a post-apocalyptic car might be carrying


3. Making

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Having made the brave decision to cut the back of the roof off (I spent a lot of time considering the pros and cons of this and the ideal position to cut), I could start constructing the car. I cut out a space for the raised engine in the bonnet, which is made from a part of a computer circuit board and glued all the seats, steering wheel and dashboard together. I used some embossed plasticard for the floor which attached to the underneath of the drivers seat - it would be visible in the back of the trunk.

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I remember reading an article from a very early White Dwarf, by John Blanche I believe, about keeping a tidy workspace. I don't adhere to that philosophy and have grown fond of such games as: "where the fuck is that drill bit" or "I had that bit perfect length of paperclip in my hand just now", or the dreaded: "bollocks" as the tiny spotlight slips out of my fingers, bounces onto the table and either silently settles on the carpet ("fuck") or nestles amongst the general mess ("for fuck's sake").

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I added the roof's spotlights to a bent paperclip. Gluing the wire mesh into the window space was a proper pain in the arse. I ended up using some Uhu thick glue as superglue did not work (bizarrely), and it was, as you can imagine, quite messy and imprecise.

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Here you can see the backboard made of the textured plasticard. Really hard to measure the right shape prior to cutting.

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When putting it all together I discovered an unforeseen problem: two interior wheel arches needed to be made to cover the space where the wheels will show. I've also added some guitar wire as a flexible piping from the engine.

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Biggest problems: cutting plastic the correct shape to fit into weird and impossible to get to shapes and using the right type and amount of glue for the right materials.

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Next problem: Making the exhaust. Just bending plastic tubing invariably makes it snap or flatten out. So I had to introduce some heat from a lighter. But just the right amount or else it melts obviously. I found the best way to do this was to rotate the tubing 360 as it is exposed to heat, use tweezers to manipulate the required bend and then run it under cold water immediately. This took quite a few attempts.

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Using a range of different radius meant I could insert one inside the other to make a more interesting shape, breaking up the long tubes into smaller sections. I added an Ork bike exhaust for the end piece and used a lot of precision plastic glue..

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You can also see the jewellers chain that's been added with the help of some superglue to the spare tyre and sleeping bag etc. The grey resin bits are all from Zinge Industries.

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Raising the suspension of the car was the biggest problem of all. I had to make some plasticard supports, seen here in black (the back two being slightly smaller than the front two) with holes drilled in to support the thick paperclip axle. Springs from a couple of pens were used for the actual suspension and were superglued over a plastic rod.
Blu-tac is your closest friend when model-making, perfect for doing that dry run (at least three times) before you break out the finality of the glue..

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Here's a closer picture of the front two suspension columns.

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And another dry run with the blu-tac helping me out.

4. Complete the build. When the functional side of the build is complete, there's usually some aesthetic improvements to add. In reality I added most of the additions during the functional build, but a few adjustments were made when it was all put together.

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The frontof the car needed something extra, to make it have more of a Mad Max appearance, so a bumper with spikes and a skull were added. It helped elongate the car shape too.

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Space for a passenger (with gun) was created and a hole drilled into the back for later addition (a Copplestone miniature).

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The chassis was raised slightly higher than I had anticipated, so I needed to add some bulk to the undercarriage to reduce the gap to the floor and to break up the very flat line of the bottom of the car. So Arrabella (so I've named her) was given some addiional barrels, which are actually fuses and other barell shaped objects from a computer circuit board (as you can gather there's some great shapes on these for miniature model making).

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And here's Abdul Goldberg getting excited about his new ride. It's been pimped.


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Right I'm off to spray the bastard, wish me luck because I'll be gutted if I fuck it up now!
 
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