Vehicles always help to make a gameboard pop and add to the effect of the buildings and minis that you use them, and when Axiom over at Magpie & Old Lead posted a wasteland trader with a large saurian carrying his wares, it made me get off my arse and finish my own, as well as realise just how many different vehicles I've worked on over the past couple of years.
Vehicles generally break down into three broad categories in my mind - those that are purely terrain pieces for the most part (but might serve as means of delivering troops to the table), those that minis can ride on the back of and those that are a vehicle and rider, be it mechanical or organic in nature.
There's a mixture here, so get ready for pick n' mix style experience, in which I hope most people will find something to interest them.
Since I already mentioned the guy, here's my own wasteland rider on a saurian - I think he was originally a Ral Partha mule-cart driver, but the addition of a feather in his hat, kneepads and the obligatory cyberpunk visor lead make him more sci-fi - or wastleland pimp, as one observer put it...
Next to him is a walker made mainly from parts by Ramshackle Games and build on the capsule from inside of a Kinder Egg, which took more than a little inspiration from The Luggage in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.
Next up are a pair of bikers, another Ramshackle guy on the right, completed with Kaharadron Overlord parts, and a bike and sidecar which I think is from the VASA range by Urban Mammoth.
Ork trucks from the old Gorka Morka game are great if you can get hold of them, and offer plenty of chances for modification too. The only issue is with the narrow beds in the back (designed for the narrower bases that game used), which I have seen some people widen, but I couldn't be arsed with.
No one's going to be winning any races in this Quad Gun Tractor, but I chose to include it here as it made an appearance in my recent post about my Chem Brute (which can be read here) and as it was parked halfway into a garage, no one could see that the rear has been modified to hold a gunner. I see this as a wasteland vehicle capable of pulling a load or packing a punch in its own right.
Vehicles don't just have to be sourced from wargames companies or model makers either, both of these off-road vehicles were originally toys based on characters from the Cars films. But with something like this, you really do have to be careful and make sure that the eyes and mouths are well hidden!
Likewise, this hot-rod came from a McDonalds Happy Meal, and didn't need much to make it look like something that could be seen cruising the streets of a cyberpunk metropolis or post-apoc frontier town.
It seems like everyone and his mother's done their own take on the Road Warrior and his infamous interceptor, but mine's just a nice, chunky-looking muscle car that I picked up at a local antiques dealer/flea market and gave a muted paintjob. That guy knows bait when he sees it...
Even things that were never envisioned as vehicles can be converted with a minimum of effort, like this toy pistol that became a land-speeder or cargo-hauler.
Here's another tip when on the lookout for potential conversions - smaller ranges of diecast models like Hot Wheels and Matchbox often produce vehicles that would be far too small if made in the same scales as the regular cars that they're better known for. This means that something like the speeder-bike from Star Wars: The Force Awakens (as shown above) can be used without much of a problem in 28mm scale.
And last but not least, vehicles don't have to travel exclusively on or above the ground - everyone needs a huge tunneling machine, whether they realise it or not.
I hope that you could stay with me through the course of this rather random and meandering post, and, as always, let me know what you think, either here or on social media.
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