Bruce, looking forward to see what will likely be shooting out of the sleeper cab.

Brian, nice job of raising the exhaust, though how is the engine going to get air in the first place? Needs a snorkel for sure.

Awesome Campaign going on here! This is proving very inspirational for me. Keep it coming everyone!

@Hakan - Hat's off to you! Beautiful job. I like the body combination, and the colors and markings.

@Thomas - Awesome scene and notes, interesting dialog w/ Zon, and nice dust effects.

@Alex - Nice progress on your Humvee. I can appreciate the work that goes into fig. conversions for vehicles.

@Christopher - Thanks for the links.

@Bruce - Nice progress, the tanker will look great when you get it "loaded" w/ weapons.

@Brian - Love the schwimmy, about the windscreen "Don't mean nothing, Drive on".

I finally got my truck in the post which will go w/ some 1/20 Racing Figs which I've had for years.

I've been researching/developing the story along the lines of survivors escaping the Apocalyptic madness out into the desert, searching for fuel, energy, food, arms, etc.

This kit is a basic snap-kit. Stripping all the chrome, and will be opening up the driver's door.





I had a lil ol jug of brake fluid, which worked so far to strip the chrome plating. But I'll be trying the Windex after reading about it here.

Using the dremel to grind around the door line, it's now ready to score w/ the xacto and pop out.



Here's the Figures. I've had a few of these in the stash for years. Have some conversions to be sure!


This chrome just has to go!!!


comments q's concerns critiques welcome!

Cheers Dave

@Dave, I retried the chrome/windex thing a second time on some extra car parts my wife had left over and I didn't get the same results. I am thinking that the chrome tree I have on the truck where not plated correctly to begin with.

Anyway, I have just finished up the basic modifications to the truck, and I am starting to add on the armor plating
The M-240's are on their way from Lucky Model ( http://www.luckymodel.com/?ad=cym ) Now I am pretty much just waiting for them to arrive, Live Resin to release their M-134 Mini gun, and convert my figures.

Later

Dave, a truck in 1:20 scale ?!?!
This monster has to be larger than my complete diorama!!

I am really curious how that build will be in the end - by the way, what do you use as load, accessories or weapons?
Are there any in 1:20 scale?

Cheers
Thomas

Bruce: Nice work on the cab. Can't wait to see the 240's sticking out of there.

Brian: The little beast is looking cool. Have you named it yet?

Dave: what a huge truck. I had totally forgotten about that scale and the Tamiya racing figures. Should give you some options.

Happy Modeling, -zon

People, does anyone know if somebody makes 1/35 scale skeletons?

Bruce, there is the Verlinden Skeleton (half buried) which I had used for another diorama.



I have searched for skeletons in 1:35 and 1:24 for a long time, but I did not find anything really useful...

Cheers
Thomas

Thomas, thanks for the reply. Just not what I need, I guess I am going to have to rethink my zombie vignette.
Later

I was in the same situation - doing a zombie vignette without zombies...

If you want to do something with zombies, you have to switch to 30mm figures. There you find more than enough undead figures.

For Example (not my diorama...):
VIVA LAS VEGAS Last stand at The Palm Lake trailer park


Cheers
Thomas

Bruce, Warriors use to have one but it's discontinued. You might be able to find one floating around.
http://www.internetmodeler.com/2003/july/first-looks/wa35503p.jpg

Not sure about how they look but I found this one.
http://www.hlj.com/product/kad35-011

@Thomas, that is an outstanding dio! Just great!

@Alex, the warriors kit looked great, but if its gone...oh well
The one on hobbylink looks like it will work just fine, thank you
Later

Bruce, there are some 1/35 skull sets out there. I know Warriors (WA35538) does one that's still available. It's not a full corpse but it could be a head start on making your own zombies. Maybe torn clothing with stretched sprue bones.

During the last week and weekend I worked a bit on the face of the buildings.
Today evening I finished the first step on the weathering of the doors of the workshop using hairspray (OK, not really hairspray but the chipping medium from AK) and salt (different grain sizes of salt to get different textures).

This appearance will not be seen ever again - before removing the salt:


outer face of the door...


... and interior of the door ...


... some washes, rust streaks and more work on the details will follow...

Cheers
Thomas

I finally have gotten the tractor cab finished to the point where I am just waiting for the weapons to show up.

This is the cab with the sleeper doors removed and the headlights blanked off.



Passenger side with diamond plate armor welded on.



Passenger side again, with armor painted steel, air cleaner added, and headlights raised up over plow.



a 3/4 view of the front, you can see the screening over the front windows, and the electrical cords to power the re-positioned headlights



This is the drivers side. Sideview mirrors will be added after the cab is permanently attached to the chassis.



Last picture is of the cab dry fit to the chassis...stil some work to do on the chassis



I am seeing this a a survival project be a group of people with no sheet metal experience. Basically just finding an oxy /acetylene touch, and some sheets of steel and having at it. So it's supposed to look really, really rough and uneven.
I think i got that part down

Later

Thomas, I've been holding off on commenting much until you made some more headway. I'm very impressed in how your building looks. Great little details.

Bruce, Your rig is coming along nicely. The mesh windscreen is a nice touch. Have you thought about maybe painting one of the doors a different color, like it was a replacement taken off another truck. Maybe some sort of cow catcher and radiator guard for the front bumper to nudge stuff out of the way and protect the rig. And I'm going to suggest lots of spotlights and some smoke flare launchers.

Just seen this on youtube ...

scenes and vehicles from the new Madmax 4


if you like


http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=SuDlzD8TmI0#

@Thomas, those doors came out great!
@Alex, hadn't thought of painting the doors different colours, be something to think about. The cowcatcher/plow is on the drawing board now

Later

Thank you for your kind words, guys...

Bruce, your Truck reminds me of Spongebobs Snail - with the front light extension it looks a little bit like Gary

No offense, this truck will be a massive zombie nightmare, for sure ...


Today I worked a little bit on the roof of the workshop:







Cheers
Thomas

Thomas: The steel is looking appropriately rusted. Nice work.

Bruce: I'm liking the rig. Can't wait for the guns to show up.

Sadly I am getting zero bench time. Hopefully soon as I need to finish some guns myself.

Happy Modeling, -zon

@Zon, yeah, me too

In the mean time, here is the beginning of the side armor for the chassis



just something to do while waiting for the mail to get here from China

Later

Outbreak pictures.
It's mainly Hazmat guys. The base figures are a mixture of figures from the spares.


Respirator is made from tanks from US flamethrowers. I added a styrene band and back plate.


Some assembly and base painting done. I still need to arm them...and give them weapons and ammo pouches. They're still pretty rough looking.


The diorama will be set in a town street. I picked this up to park on the street. It was inexpensive and not a bad looking little kit.


The Road

I still haven't done much with this one. I did make some weapons; a couple of crossbows and sawed-off shotguns. I thought I had taken some pictures of them but was wrong. I wanted to have a tie-in with my scout Mutt from EOD1 so I picked up another one. I had to use the TOW Launcher version. It's the same kit, but with an added sprue for the launcher.


Assembled the suspension and mocked up the sides. I'm not going to make it an exact copy of the one from EOD1. I figured that even with a fleet of these converted Mutts there'd be alot of deviation. The story is that the horsemen come across this on the road and note the lack of fuel and that it was from a survivor settlemnt that had been overrun a few months earlier.
Anyway, I thought about lifting it and adding some larger tires. I decided against it at the last minute.


Painted the tires and undercarriage. I plan on mudding it pretty good so I just spritzed the undercarriage.


After that's dry it'll be cardstock and trial & error. I'm going to close in the cab. I'm debating on closing the rear in or leaving it open.

That's it for now.

Hey guys, don't know if anyone checks the site news so thought this might be of interest;

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/news/13613

Well, some updates, if just to keep the forum on the first page

These are of the armor frames and the diamond plate covers for the tractor wheels.

This is the completed framing,


And with the armor applied,


I still have to figure out the covers for the modified fuel tanks. Screens or doors?
and then to weather now or mount the cab and then weather. Guns seem to be on the slow boat, still waiting for them

Later

Hello?? Anybody here?
Well, I guess I'll just dust the place off and keep on truckin'

Continuing on with the cab, we now have;

the braces for the plow attached. I notched out the bumper for the left and right I beams, the center one slipped thru a an opening in the center of the bumper.


and the view from the front


and the I beams to actually carry the plow


this is the beginning of the plow, note home made support to hold the plow blades up while they are glued in place


from the side quarter you can see the up-right supports glue in and at the bottom of the blade the re-enforcement diamond plate applied.


this photo shows the re-enforcing diamond plate a bit better as well as my favorite coffee cup!


And that is about it for now,

Later

Bruce, It's looking sharp.

Spent today working on the Hazmat figures and working on a Mini Cooper for part of the street scene. I can't have the streets completely empty. Speaking of which, I think there might be some zombies making an appearance there. I'll have to play around and see how it looks. I've got to start getting the stuff together for the Road scene.