“Herbie Goes Apocalypse”

OK so as this is my last week before yet another challenge month ”Zomtober”, I thought I finish my month of “Quick fixes” with another one of Dave Stone’s excellent resin vehicles, this time in the form of this post-apocalyptic VW Beetle. Taking inspiration from the movie world once again I thought I’d base it around everyone’s favorites “Bug”, “Herbie”. Now once again there was a little prep work to do before I could get into the painting, so taking some of my aluminium mesh I cut out shapes to match the rear quarter windows and glued these in place. I also thought the bodywork was a bit to “pristine” for a car that had spent it’s life “fighting for survival” in the wasteland, so once again I dug out my ”dremmel” and a “ball” tipped grinder bit, and added a few dents and scrapes, I also managed to knock off the passengers head at this point, and lost it! Luckily I did find one of the heads I’d removed from one of my “He-man” conversions (Merman I think), so with a little greenstuff work I was able to replace it (only thing was the head was “bald” so I added a “crash helmet” as this seemed sensible headgear), and talking of safety, I also though the poor chap was a little exposed, so I built a “crash barrier” out of cocktail sticks, mesh and a bit more greenstuff (for the corners) and drilled a couple holes in the headlight apertures to mount it. Then it was out for a spray coat of matt black.

And so to the painting, I started by giving the whole body of the car a coat of mid grey (darker version), then mixed more mid grey (lighter version) with some cream and painted this over the top, then taking just this mid-grey stippled this again over the top in a “patchy” pattern, then it was time to add the stripes and numbers. I did consider using a “hole punch” to make a hole in some masking tape to form a “mask” template to paint the circles for the numbers, but then spotted that the top on my superglue was about the right size, so dipped this in the lid of my black paint and used it to “stamp” on the black ring edges of my circles. I then filled these rings with white and added the number “53” freehand, I also free handed the stripes along the top of the car in royal blue and bright red, they’re not perfect by a long way, but good enough for an apoc’vehicle. The engine cover I painted in shamrock green, to look like a replacement part, now the more cynical amongst you might think I only did this so I’d have less numbers and stripes to paint! And you would be right (listen to your cynical brothers the rest of you!!!), anyway this was then highlighted with more of the same lightened with a little white. The “drum” in the back was painted in deep bronze green again highlighted with more white lightened deep bronze green.

Now we get to the fun bit, weathering the hell out of it! First off I took some chainmail and slapped it into all the dents and scratches I’d made on the body, along with any other area’s that would end up rusty (and there were a few!), I also dry-brushed this over the mesh “bumper” and the “tube” weapon in the “passengers” hands (both still separate at this point). Next it was in with the chestnut and then a little orange to represent old and fresh rust respectively. Then I repainted the tyres in black (these don’t get rusty!) and I could crack on with the figure. I decided on a camo scheme for his trousers so a base of deep bronze green was put down first then “splodge’s” of stone green and olive were put over this. His helmet I painted coffee then highlighted in cream, then added stripes running down from the crown in royal blue and bright red to form a sort of “Union Jack” pattern. His jacket I left black and just highlighted it in dark grey, and his scarf was porcelain blue, with light blue highlights. His chair and cross belt were done in chocolate brown and leather brown, with a touch of chainmail on the metal shoulder pad, and his flesh was European flesh and after his eyes were added, this was highlighted in the same with a bit of pale flesh added. Next the whole thing was given a coat of “Quickshade Strong tone”, then the “rusty” bits were once again picked out in the same way as before, and lastly dry-brushes of saddle and Eurasian flesh were applied to add the road dust, I may have gone a bit “mad” with the weathering as you can’t see too much of the original colour at all now, but too late now, (oh well) a final spray over with matt varnish and “hey presto” Herbie rides again!

And that was that, just a bit of fun to end the month, now it’s straight from one type of apocalypse and into another! As Zomtober begins…..

So till next time, Cheers Roger.