Hi guys

I got lazy and put my Galloping Goose project on the shelf. Here is my new ACTUR build. I'm starting off with a 66' El Camino. Mods will include removing both doors and replacing with bars. Cutting out inner fender wells. Scratch building a 4x4 unit. Making my own 44 inch tires. Custom platform stretching from on top of the cap to the back of the bed. I'll make up some more stuff as I go along.
Here's a pic of the box art.


And here is where she'll start. I'll be taking off the doors and inner fender wells tonight.


Oh, I checked on a 1/25 scale 50 cal machine gun..........guess I'll be scratchbuilding one of those as well.

Updates to follow soon.
Hermon

Well it's been 1 hour and I'm making good progress. The doors are gone. The inner fenders are gone as well. I'll start fitting the interior later. The door frames and gaps will have to be filled in with plasticard.



Here are the materials I'm planning to use for the homemade tires. Basically 4 graduating sizes of electrical plastic conduit I stole from work. I have several different styles of 1/24 scale wheels that will fit the center hole perfectly. The sections on the right are already glued together. I'll take them to work tomorrow, chuck them up to a drill and try to bevel the edges to give the sidewalls a rounded effect. If everything works out as planned I'll then take some evergreen sprue and glue on some thick treads.



Gotta go! How the Grinch Stole Christmas is coming on and the kids are yelling.

Hermon

subscribed .

me too! seems like a really cool subject.

No no no no NO!

You snagged them from the SCRAP PILE!!!!!!

Modelers don't steal and they NEVER confess!



Cuhail

I am interested in this build. Someone said they were going to do a World War Z vehicle for the What If campaign but nothing ever happened.

I would recommend some armor (slat maybe) for the front of the vehicle to protect it as you run over the undead. Be careful with the size of the gaps between the bars on the doors, you don't want them to get hold of you too easily.

You may want to check out a book called PATIENT ZERO. It has special ops and zombies. So far there are no armor but I am only 1/4 through the book.

Have fun,
Tony

Hey thanks for the interest guys. Pretty cool when other people watch your build as it happens.

Hey Murph, I DID snag them from the SCRAP PILE........only the scrap pile is located in bins in which said parts are seperated into various sizes......and I conviently placed said parts in my cargo pockets on the way out the door.
Nah, I have an electrition and a plumber at work that "donate" stuff like this to me all the time.

Tony, there isn't a zombie book written that I don't have on the shelf somewhere.
No armor on the front. I'm gonna make a big steel bumber (with winch?) and bull bars for the front. As for the spaces between the bars on the doors, I'm planning on using some screen door mesh on the inside of the bars. Almost the perfect scale to replicate real wire mesh. Also got a pintle mounted flame thrower in mind for the top deck to cover the back 180* of the truck. The front will have a home made chain gun hopefully.

OK, got some puttying to do so I can fit the cut down interior tonight.

Hermon

OK I have some putty drying so during the down time I went through the spares box and came up with this. Whaddya get when you cut the ass end off a 1/48 scale 250lbs. bomb?
Answer: You get a nice "fuel" tank to feed your custom flame thrower, complete with a hand valve at the top.



I'll make 2 or 3 of these and set them aside for later. Also found some big ole chrome speakers from a Donk kit. I'm gonna put them in some Simple Green for a few days to knock off the chrome and make some KC offroad lights for the front bumper/push bar.

Hermon

cosigned




Those tanks look great, good idea
"chain gun"... is this one of those multi barreled gatling guns?
if so, I have an extra from an MRC 1/35 helo, looks like this:
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal9/8601-8700/gal8670-AH-1-Chan/25.jpg

also if you have the gun from a 1/35 m163 vulcan is a good look in 1/25
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k290/SprueOne/reference/DR_vulcan_.jpg

Lookin good so far, I love builds like these because it's interesting to see how you turn other things into items for your build such as the tanks. Keep up the good work!

Thanks Joe. To be honest I'm making this stuff up as I go along. My scratch building abilities mixed in with my model building skills would be just about enough to fill a thimble. Basically, I get an idea and then spend hours looking through threads from Culhail, KSO, OldDragon and many others to find out how to build it.

KSO, that is indeed what I'd call a chain gun. Thanks for the offer. We may have to do some trades soon. I'm rethinking the whole rapid fire thing right now. With a flame thrower covering the back and sides of the truck I'm not sure what to do for front cover. I mean, it takes a head shot to take down a zombie, right? So how many head shots can you make.....at speed....rapid fire.....with a large caliber weapon? Yeah, a 50 cal will dismember them but then you still have arms crawling around and heads laying there chomping their teeth.

I dunno. I'm still thinking it all over.

Hermon

I subscribed this should be interesting i love horror flicks cant pass this up



Build On,
Justin

im doing something similar, using 2 pink panther kits in 1/35 scale as a base..

going to be loaded down with .50 cals, m-60s and a flame thrower too

i look forward to following this thread

Hey thanks for the interest guys. With all the people jumping on board I may have to forget the Zombie chase truck and start a chase bus.

Anyhoo.....here is a shot of my attempt at making tires. I'm what you'd consider poor white trash so I don't own a drill press or lathe. Everything is being done with files and sanding sticks. You can see in the 1st pic I have some more sanding ahead to get the rounded edge profile just right. She's getting there.



Next pic is my attempt at making a wheel. I have several different style wheels in my spares box but I wanted something more heavy duty....like a 2 1/2 ton military style wheel. I'll drill out divets in all the lugs later but you can get the general idea. So is this looking OK so far? Opinions please......




Still have a few gaps to fill and sand in the tires sections, then I'll start adding some tread with evergreen strips.

Hermon

Looks awesome. Very ambitious.
Are the styrene strips for the tread?

KSO, yes the styrene strips are gonna be tread. Unless there is an easier way of doing it?

Also, ran into a slight problem tonight. After removing the doors, the four roof posts are the only thing keeping the vehicle from warping. Have her weighted down on all 4 corners at the moment with paint jars. Probably should start building the roll cage now.


Hermon

Herman, those are great looking tires. Gives me an idea.


Robert

Robert, thanks!
Remember, if anything you see here leads to your making millions of dollars in the future I'm entitled to a percentage.


Got tired of playing with the tires. I worked on the rear axle a while. Those big tires required me to beef up the axle housing with some channel steel. I've also added some lift blocks.



I also rotated the housing about 30 degrees plus or minus to compensate for the driveshaft angle.

Hermon

I'm kind of jumping all over the place tonight. The rear axle is done and painted so I decided to jump on the engine.



I figured even though it's the end of the world and there are zombies running around everywhere, there is still no excuse to abuse your engine. That's why I installed a K&N air filter to collect all the blood and brains before it can be sucked into the engine.



Hermon

I love stuff like this and definitely will have to keep an eye of this thread.

I have three zombie style projects in the works.

The first involves a US Army convoy of M113s configured for zombie fighting. The lead is a equipped with a dozer blade. The idea was to have them trying to relive a besieged town of survivors as well as on a scavenging run. First they have to clear the road of abandoned cars. I have added a Mutt as a scout vehicle and am thinking about adding a cargo truck for transport.

The convoy is set to demonstrate the culmination of the lessons learned about zombie fighting. For example, the M113s act as mobile pillboxes. They are armed like an ACAV however the gunshields are removed for better visibility. M60s are converted to semiautomatic for accuracy and to save ammo. Longshots are to be taken with m16s or civilian scavenged hunting rifles.

The second project is a sort of perimeter guard for a human strongpoint. The centerpiece is an old Tamya M41 with a spotlight and field modified tarp frame for weather. The original idea was that the Duster was going to be part of Project #1's convoy but as that idea evolved I decided to put it in a defensive perimeter role.

The third is a group of hazmat suit wearing soldiers fighting during the early days of the zombie outbreak. The military is in the process of learning how to fight the Zekes. I used Zvevda's Soviet Assault Troops and Dragon Soviet Snipers as the basis for the hazmat suits. Gas masks came from various Dragon SWAT related figure sets.

These were the result of some friendly discussion on various zombie apocalypse scenarios. There is a great deal of variations that you can use for zombies. I went with the viral cause. Zombies are slow movers. They can be killed by headshots or by massive trauma to the torso/spine cord. Severed limbs are not animated. And they do not crave brains. Flamethrowers and molotov cocktails are only to be used for corpse disposal. They're still hard to kill, just not darn near impossible like some of the 80s zombie flicks.

I have not made any zombies yet. I'm not sure how graphic I want to be. I do wish that Dragon would come out with a civilian multipose series. It would make things alot easier.

Hermon if it comes to fruition I will put you to work, my cousin lives in Columbia, SC and we can use his barn for resin casting and making custom tires.

Robert

Build On,
Justin

Yes, of course!

Didn't like the kits dash so I decided to make my own. Just a piece of a gift card with some gauges. The gauges are from the internet. Reduced and printed on photo paper. Pictures aren't that clear but they look pretty good. The two black gauges have a bezzle around them made from thin slices off a piece of round evergreen rod.



Oh yeah, I decided to remove the top so I could work on the interior. When everything is finished I'll glue it back on.


Hermon

Decided to go with a shotgun seat. Don't know if I'll add a machine gun yet or not. I took another gift card, measured and cut it the way I wanted and test fitted it. I'll add the bars later on. The bars on this side will match the curve of the steel plate floor. Drivers side bars will be straight across. I'll make a little round platform for the seat so that it will swivel 90 degrees.




I think I'm also gonna cut an access hole at the back of the center console to enable the driver and passenger go from the cab to the back of the truck. Almost forgot, I picked up some of that wire mesh today like Adam is using on his truck. I'm thinking about using it on the inside of the door bars so no undead hands can reach up and grab the crews ankles.


Hermon