Axles & Alloys - WIP - "Red Racer"

With a bit of a break away from CYO duties these last couple weeks, I have tried to work on some gaming stuff. What I have been most successful with has been converting some die cast cars (Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Maisto, them sorta thangs) for use with the excellent free rules set called Axles & Alloys. You can follow that link to Coopdevil's blog; his link to the rules are in the right hand column. A very simple set of rules to allow car-to-car-to-car combat, much like Mad Max and Car Wars. 

This is my first attempt at converting cars, after having researched doing so on youtube and post-apocalypse gaming websites, as well as Hot Wheels restoration/conversion videos. Blake and Brett also gave me great inspiration with cars they have converted.

I have referred to this first one as "Red Racer," simply because thats what I started with. It is an off-brand (not-Hot-Wheels/not-Matchbox) model, that I purchased as part of a big 7 lb.  box of die cast cars sold on ebay. I started with this one since there were at least 3 similar models with lots of racing decals on them, so if I "messed this one up" (if thats possible), I had the others to fall back on.

This is the original model, before any conversion.

Working in a well-ventilated area, the first thing I did was remove all the stickers by rubbing cotton swabs dipped in acetone across the decals. I tried to keep away from any plastic parts, expecting the acetone could melt or warp the plastic. I worked on another model while this one dried. I then started cutting up some card that I had (from a cereal box IIRC) and started supergluing it to the car in places I thought were appropriate - reinforcing the front bumper, adding some protection across the windows, over the front fenders to protect the motor and tires, and armor plating the rear wheels. I purposefully did not cut them straight as I envision this car being hastily armored by someone with minimal skills and/or equipment. The gun is a leftover bit from Warhammer 40,000, either an Ork bolt gun or an old Space Marine bolt gun, superglued to the hood. I also drilled a hole in the rear bumper and added a bent piece of copper wire as some sort of oil-sprayer or napalm dropper. After all these bits were added, the back looked a little barren, so I sculpted a bedroll in greenstuff on the trunk to balance out all the additions.

Red Racer showing the decals removed, card armor and plastic gun added, and bedroll sculpted in greenstuff.

Then a coat of black primer, shown below… 

The whole model primed black. This side shows the bullet holes added to some areas. It also shows the nice detail that I kept from the original model in the driver side window. It is the webbing found in race cars that looks appropriately metal/armor-like. I'll paint it to match then other armor plates.

The passenger side, showing the bit of brass wire out of the trunk to represent an oil-sprayer device or some such, for some sneaky tactics...

This is where I stand with this model so far. Not sure what color it will end up being (perhaps keeping it red), but I want to make all the armor plates nice and rusty. I have a second vehicle I am working on at the same time, more of a sanctioned driver with a car built especially for arena dueling.