Gaslands: Refuelled Chop Shop Challenge - Los Vochos

Gaslands: Refuelled comes out in September, but here at Osprey Games HQ we couldn't wait. And so, without further ado, please let us introduce the Gaslands: Refuelled Chop Shop Challenge. Over the next few weeks we are going to be showing off our Gaslands creations, and we invite you all to do the same! If you want to show off your cars simply email us at [email protected] and include 'Chop Shop Challenge' in the subject, and we'll include it in our upcoming gallery of Gaslands awesomness! You can also share your creations on Twitter - just make sure you include #chopshopchallenge in your tweet!

You can find more articles like this on Phil's blog.

I had so much fun putting together my last car for Gaslands: Refuelled that I snagged a couple more Hot Wheels and set to building a couple more. Both cars are VW Beetles - one a '49 Beetle pick-up, the other simply labelled as "Custom VW Beetle" and so fit together really nicely... so nicely, in fact, that, rather than fill out the team I'd started previously, I immediately thought of them as a new team.

With some education from a friend about the Beetle's Mexican connection, it didn't take long before I started thinking of them as part of Team Caudillo, a Puebla-based subsidiary of Rutherford. For all intents and purposes, though, they're a Rutherford team. Unlike previously, I planned out the full crew before starting on the vehicles.

El Técnico

El Rudo

Following on from Dusty Roads, I maintained the wrestling theme - lucha libre in this case - with these vehicles. "El Técnico" is the lucha equivalent of 'Face' or 'Good Guy', while "El Rudo" is 'Heel' or 'Bad Guy'. El Técnico is a basic car armed with a mortar and a mine dropper. I also gave it the Fully Loaded perk to make full use of the boost to both weapons' ammo rating. El Rudo is more of a blunt instrument, designed to hurl out vast quantities of bullets from its two heavy machine guns. This is achieved by piling on the Rapid Fire, Loader, and Dead-Eye perks, while armour plating helps to keep it in the game for longer - it's a proper gun truck. Combined, the pair add up to a full crew's worth of 50 points.

The build was really swift and simple. El Técnico's roof rack is already on the model, so it was a simple case of gluing a mortar to it. Similarly, El Rudo got two machine guns on its roof. Both weapons are resin test casts from North Star's upcoming Implements of Carnage sprue for Gaslands. Very nice pieces, and all I really did was clip down the gun barrels so that they overhung the cab less.

Painting-wise, my original plan was to continue the lucha libre theme, using a lucha mask stamp as a team logo. A test-run, however, revealed that it proved just a little too large for the doors, and an awkward fit on the ridged bonnets. Plan B, then was to just keep it simple, with a blue-and-metal palette reminiscent of the mask of Blue Demon. Drybrush pretty much everything with khaki and metal for weathering, then coat it all with a brown wash, before picking out the tyres, windscreens, and weaponry with a dark wash. Varnish and add a bit of static grass - job's a good'un.

I don't know if they're going to win any races, but I'd hope that they'll be able to blow up some other vehicles.

Until next time...

Gaslands: Refuelled comes out on 19 September. Preorder your copy today!