build: car wars: and so it begins...

Between Mad Max: Fury Road’s release and the ridiculously cool conversions of Dave Taylor, I was pretty much destined to start a game of vehicular mayhem. After some research into various rule systems and feeling the way the wind was shifting, I settled on Car Wars’ 5th Edition. It’s popular, it’s scaled correctly, and after a second look at the rules, it sounds easier than first suspected.

Of course, like the kit basher/modeller I am, I started working on cars well before I’d read the rules. After trips to Target and Toys’R’Us, I had a handful (or three) of die-cast cars ready to be transformed!

These cars (along with more-than-I-care-to-admit subsequent purchases) were divided into “tribes” based on theme/vehicle type. Some examples of which are below.

(clockwise from top-left) “The Cabbies”, “Retro-future”, “Rat-Rods”, “Serial Boxes”

Not quite ready to start with a wasteland tribe, I decided to work on the cars I felt might still be, at least tangentially, part of civilization. The kind of car driven by Max Rockatansky or one of the other MFP “officers” once civilization falls completely to shit.

’68 Mercury Cougar

A simple car for a man with simple tastes. The flame-thrower came first, but felt lackluster as sole armament. It may be off-scale, but I feel the high-caliber chain-gun rounds out the armament and car’s balance nicely.

’67 Chevelle SS

This one took some time. Inspired by the ridiculously awesome tank-turret flat-bed in Death Race: Inferno, I knew I wanted a cannon passing through the cab. After much consideration, I went full-blown crazy with it, deciding a laser-destroyer needed a chain of batteries and a (scoop-cooled?) computer to run the thing.

’69 Ford Torino Talledega

I’ll be honest, the seat (plucked from the Chevelle above) with the guns came first. The original plan called for it to be a magnetized “turret” sticking up out of the car’s back window. That… didn’t look nearly as cool as it sounded, so the concept shifted to a car designed to get in front of everyone and stay there. Thus the giant armor plate bracketed to the back with relatively little everywhere else.

Mustang Mach 1

I knew early on I wanted to do a car with rockets, and when I saw the spoiler on this thing, it seemed ripe for laying a Katyusha-inspired rocket rack. Add a backup weapon and a police-style ram in the front, and she looks ready to take on some bad guys!

I’ve got a couple more cars destined for this grouping, but have been temporarily distracted by piecing together “Amateur Night” or “Mirror Match” cars - four identical cars meant to even the playing field and be used for demos. I hope to have pics of those soon…