28mm on the cheap: Post-apocalyptic vehicles, before and after

In my last "28mm on the Cheap" article, I offered a how-to guide on turning toy cars into gaming models. As promised, here's the followup article showing before and after shots of a few more toys-to-models conversions.

All these followed roughly the same easy process as in my previous article: disassemble, convert, prime black, drybrush colors, a few heavy washes, drybrush with tan for dust and seal. Thus, I haven't included much in the way of instructions or procedure. These are mostly just before and after pics to get you inspired, along with a few tips along the way.

Land Rover by Fast Lane/New Ray

Fast Lane is the Toys R Us box name for a slew of toys, and many of their 1/43 vehicles are simply New Ray toys in a different box. New Ray toys are partially metal with lots of plastic parts and are notable for producing well-detailed toy vehicles at a very affordable price. Here's a very similar toy to the one I purchased.

Some paint and a lot of additional bits later, here's the final result.

The machine gun seen in this almost-completed picture is on a pin so that it can be removed for storage or switched out with some of my other vehicles that also have holes to accomodate weapons with a pin mount.

Peterbilt Tanker Truck by Fast Lane/New Ray

Another New Ray product, this truck is no longer available at most Toys R Us stores, but can be found elsewhere. Here's the original toy:

This toy was extensively diassembled and modified.

In order to make it possible for figures to stand all around the tank, the bed was halved and widened and moved outward, and the tank was moved back.

1/43 trucks are large enough to accommodate 28mm drivers. This driver was made from various Games Workshop Imperial Guard body parts. The pictures don't show that one hand is on the wheel and one is on the shifter.

One other tip: The paint jobs on toy cars are so sturdy that after the initial paint-over, you can usually scratch the paint you applied away with your fingernail to reveal the logos from the original paint job. In this case I was able to bring back the Peterbilt logos on the front and sides of the hood.

GeoTrax Dumptruck by Fisher-Price

This Fisher price vehicle comes from the GeoTrax line of vehicles that run on plastic train tracks. It cost me a dollar at a resale shop. The GeoTrax line has many vehcles that have an exagerated style that can be adopted easily to sci-fi settings. Here's the original toy.


And here's the final product. The wheels came from another toy found at a resale shop.

The roof is detachable, and I removed the plastic ballast and electronics (it had light and sound) so figures can be placed in the bed as well.

Silverado Dually by Jada Battle Machines

Widely available (with new paint schemes each year), this 1/32 scale vehicle is covered with guns and it quite usable right out of the box.

I still decided to raise the bed gun, add stowage and railings (made from the roll cage that comes inside the truck cab) and give it a good dirtying.

At 1/32 it's a bit larger than my other cars, but looks fine on the table.

How do they compare?

Here's all but the Fisher-Price truck in a rough scale comparison. The Mahindra Scorpio (far left), Silverado and VW are 1/32. The Peterbilt Tank Truck and Land Rover are 1/43.


We've decided to run a post-apocalyptic "Road Warrior" scenario at Little Wars in April, so these vehicles will doubtless play a starring role at the convention!

— Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member