Things to Waste my Time on

 I finally started working on my pile of shame of forever WIPs. The first finished result is this. The Rat Bus. It started out as a diecast 1/72 scale model of a Mercedes-Benz coach. I did some heavy kibashing here. There's at least four different Hot Wheels and two Maisto cars that donated parts to this build.  I also tested some new painting techniques. For the cab I spray coated the whole thing in a rusty brown primer, then added acrylic color with a sponge on top of it. The graffiti is done with Posca markers. I used Citadel Technical Typhus Corrosion and Dry Rust for extra rust and stains. The Wheels come from a Maisto trailer and hot rod The interior is painted, but my sh***y iPhone camera doesn't get that Engine was kindly donated by a Hot Wheels truck called Rat Rig The Citadel rust effects make things much easier Me sketching some graffiti What I started with

Recently I started doing some basic beginners' teams again, consisting of a buggy and a car, each armed with a machine gun. The idea was to try out a few different looking designs, but keep the effort on a moderate level. Here is the third team: Bangers & Mesh Had the Morris for some time. Looked for a partner. I wanted to use a British car. But not a Land Rover. And all the Jags and cabs I had were weirdly off scale. So I found this really vintage Ford Zodiak. The buggy Matchbox Morris Minor Saloon. I had so much fun to hot rod this incredibly tame car. The Wheels are salvaged from other Hot Wheels. So is the engine and the roll cage. The car This is a wild one. The Ford Zodiak MK IV was the upmarket brother of the Ford Zephyr. This started as a Matchbox model from 1968. I got it badly beaten, hood and engine missing. I gave it new wheels (from a Hot Wheels car) and a new engine. Made the little Lewis machine gun as an afterthought. When I found the wing in my bits box, I just...

Recently I started doing some basic beginners' teams again, consisting of a buggy and a car, each armed with a machine gun. The idea was to try out a few different looking designs, but keep the effort on a moderate level. Here is the second team: The Killing Joke Some time ago I had made this buggy . So I decided to give it a wing man. Unfortunately next to every possible other car the buggy looked huge in scale. So I decided to remake it in a smaller version. Had to slaughter a premium for that. The Buggy I used a 2024 Hot Wheels Meyers Manx. It's hard to turn such a jolly hippie car into a mean looking wasteland racer. Some chopping was done in the rear to make room for a gunner. I liked the wheels, so I kept them. The gun is from Implements of Carnage II, the other parts came from my bits boxes. The Car Hot Wheels '57 Plymouth Fury  I love the rust effects on this. Used Citadel Typhus Corrosion Technical paint The Wheels are salvaged from another Hot Wheels car. I lowere...

Recently I started doing some basic beginners' teams again, consisting of a buggy and a car, each armed with a machine gun. The idea was to try out a few different looking designs, but keep the effort on a moderate level. Here is the first team: Mediocre I think it's pretty obvious where the inspiration for those came from. The Buggy  I used a Matchbox Ford Model B Coupe as base. The car looks pretty neat as it is. Maybe one day I will try to do a more detailled Cranky Black.  Front Wheels: Hot Wheels, Rear Wheels: 3rd-party, Gun: cheap Chinese 1/72 Tank model The Car A Hot Wheels '59 Chevy Impala gave its life for this Sawed off the trunk cover, widened the wheel arches with a tremel Gun and oil barrel are from Implements of Carnage. Wheels are 3rd party More views of the whole bunch:

Whenever I find the time, which I hardly do these days, I try to focus on long time WIPs. One of those is building a war rig. I love the idea, I love the aesthetic, there is just so much room for details to get lost in. The most adavanced project at the moment is a 1/64 semi, I think it's a Peterbilt cab, probably made by Playart. I got a couple of incomplete sets from Ebay. On this particular one the hood piece was missing. So I went with a exposed engine / rat rod look. The trailer is taken from a different set of what could be the same model. It had broken rubber tires, of which some where lost. The thing is huge. Here is an older car I made for comparison. The overall building concept and color scheme are mostly clear at this point. There will be another turret at the back of the trailer, most probably with a harpoon. Some barbed wire is waiting to be attached. Maybe some more details. And then there is the painting and weathering of the chassis and wheels. The other project is...

 A while ago I got a batch of nice fotos of some of my Gaslands cars as a birthday present. A lot of them are already pubkished on this blog. Here is some more Hot Wheels Custom Datsun 240z Hot Wheels '67 Oldsmobile 442 The second car I ever made for Gaslands. It's funny to look at my very first batch of models. I would do a lot of things differently now. The (Rigor Motor) engine that is just glued on top of the hood looks so weird, but I didn't have the time to cut a hole in the hood. Nor the patience. The rear tires are just wrong. The gun I kitbashed from so many tiny bits, for I didn't have any gun parts. But Iove how confident and efficient I was back then. Today I overthing everything. This i s why so m any projects are frozen in WIP status. I have some concept in mind and the get lost in the details. Scale, Color scheme, purpose, somehow realistic details like exhaust pipes and such. I can get lost for weeks deciding on wheels. I have so many now. Back then it wa...

  A while ago I got a batch of nice fotos of some of my Gaslands cars as a birthday present. A lot of them are already pubkished on this blog. Here is some more Matchbox 4*4 Chevy Van It carries a Hot Wheels Tanknator turret Actually the first car I converted for Gaslans ever Actually not a Chevy at all Hot Wheels 8 Crate is modelled after a Ford Ranch/Parklane Wagon

 And how this affects building miniatures for Gaslands. 1/64. That's a scale most people out there who like toy cars are familiar with. The most common brands for relatively cheap and nice to play with diecast toy cars may be Mattel's Hot Wheels and Matchbox. Recently Majorette and Maisto have joined the game. Majorette slightly upmarket, Maisto depending on product line. They have some super cheap cars in 1/64 and some more like Hot Wheels premium range. And they normaly are considered as 1/64 scale. 1/64ish probably, more or less... At least when growing up Hot Wheels and Matchbox for us were synonyms for 1/64. So what is a scale, what does 1/64 mean anyways? Scale ratio is a tool, which helps to make models or maps or projection of real things in a different size. It states how the size of the model is relative to size of the original. 1/64 simply means: 1 cm in my model represents 64 cm in my original. That means if a Hot Wheels model of a car is about 7 cm long, the origin...