“Not So Over the Hill” (Season of Scenery)

A car again this time, and also a bit of a tribute to one of my musical heroes, the late lamented “Dusty Hill” of ZZ Top fame who we lost last year at the age of seventy two. Therefore when I decided to paint up the last of my “Wargames Terrain Workshop” post-apocalyptic cars, a “33’ Ford Coupe” it seemed the perfect chance to do a little tribute to the “Bearded Bassist” of one of my all-time favourite bands, what with it being the same model as the iconic “Eliminator”.

Now as you are probably all aware by now I can’t just leave these things alone and paint them “as is”, so a few “extras” were added before I could get to the painting (and probably why this has been sitting un-touched for so many years to be honest!). First off I wasn’t happy with the exposed rear wheels, so after taking some coffee stirrers and cutting and shaping them appropriately I glued then around the tops and sides of the rear wheels, using a bit of greenstuff as filler to hold them out away from the wheels themselves. These “boxy” covers then formed the base that I was able to build up the curved arches over using greenstuff, the hardest part of which was getting the two side equal and similar in shape, though luckily I was going to add dents to these later so could cover up the worst of the imperfections!

Next the rear of the vehicle had been turned into a flatbed/pickup type thing, probably so a figure could stand there, but the bases on my figures were too large to fit so instead I decided to go with the “Mad max” vibe, and put an additional fuel tank in there (though with today’s prices I wouldn’t fancy filling this bad boy!). I had some oil drums that I’d bought from “Scotia Grendel” a looong time ago, so taking one of these I set about building a framework out of coffee stirrers to support the drum. Then I needed some way for the fuel in the drum to get to the engine, so a hole was drilled in the top of the drum and a piece of florists wire was bent round so it fitted in the drum top and then disappeared under the wooden framework, a little greenstuff tidied the joint atop the drum and while it was out I also knocked up a filler cap for the side too, (probably health and safety wouldn’t approve of this solution by hey’ it’s the apocalypse!). The drum was then glued into place, and I was able to attack the whole vehicle with the “Dremmel” fitted with a ball topped grinder to add the dents associated with life in the wasteland. Now something was bothering me, what was holding the drum in place? What stopped it bouncing out of the back over rough terrain?…Nothing! Now luckily I had some cheap necklace chain I’d bought back when I was building “Ram Man” for my “Masters of the Universe” collection, so I dug that out and cut two lengths gluing the front length to the inner rear body, and the rear length to the tops of the rear wheel arches, these then needed blocks adding with a little more greenstuff, and finally I could start painting it.

As usual I started by giving it a spray coat of matt black that was then touched up with a brush. I then gave it all a dry-brushing with chainmail. Ruby red was then “stippled” over the bodywork avoiding the dents, edges and the right hand front wing. This was followed with another round of stippling this time with metallic red, I went a little heavy with this so more ruby red was “tapped” over this again. The front wing I wanted to look like a replacement part that had never been finished. so dark grey, with mid grey “stipples” was used to simulate a “primed” but unpainted part. The drum was then stippled (I did a lot of this!) with royal blue, then a mix of bright blue with a touch of blue grey went over this. I attempted to write “Dusty” across the roof in a ”slightly” fancy style with white, it’s not great but the weathering hides the worst 😉 and that’s what came next!

So taking some chestnut this was “stippled” (again!) round the panel edges, in the dent’s and anywhere there was exposed bare metal, then after I’d repainted the tyres black (I’d made a mess of them while doing the rust) it was out for a coat of  “Quickshade” (strong tone), which for some unexplained reason took two full days to dry completely! Anyway then a little more chestnut was applied over the last lot, and orange was added here too to give a little fresher rust effect. Then I dry-brushed some khaki over the lower portions to give it some road dust, now I usually use “Eurasian flesh” for this and I don’t know why I didn’t this time 🙄 but I didn’t like the khaki as much so did a second lighter dry-brush with coffee over this (again why didn’t I use Eurasian flesh, don’t ask because I don’t know!). A final spray coat of matt varnish finished it off. I don’t think three “sexy babes” would be seen dead in this (or fit for that matter), but apart from the rather heavy handed weathering, I’m fairly happy with the result.

So that’s the last of Dave’s post apocalypse vehicles that I own finished, and also my last entry for Dave’s “Season of Scenery”, in just under the wire as usual. I now have a month relatively “challenge” free, so I’ll have to see what I want to paint next, hmmmm….🤔

So till next time, cheers Roger.

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