Wednesday 14 April 2010

WWG Vans

For this week's WWG review I'm looking at the four vans that come with the Bits of Mayhem set. As you can see, they come in four colours - blue, green, red and beige (?). I'm not sure if the beige van was meant to be a white van (much maligned here in the UK due to most white van men lacking any road sense or good manners) but it hasn't turned out that way.
I was pleased to see that there is some variety in the number plates, and even happier that they are all unique. The designer logo (seen in red on the front grilles) reads WWG. Well, what else would it be?
Note the sliding doors in the centre of the vans. These do not appear on the opposite sides. Also, note how the upper halves of the vans taper towards the top. This makes construction a bit more difficult than if the van had straight sides but it's not a major challenge. As you all should know by now, I reinforce my WWG models with mounting card (or art board if you're American). For the sides and back I cut the mounting card to the correct sizes and scored them across the centre line so that I could gently fold them to the desired shape. For the van front I used three separate pieces of mounting card (for the window, bonnet and grille).
The spare tyres were originally just printed as part of the back of the vans, which did not look very realistic. So I cut out three small circles from mounting card for each tyre and stuck them back to back. Once they were glued in place I painted them in Citadel Chaos Black and added a dark grey highlight to their tops.
Vans like these are such a popular sight on the roads that I was glad that they came in four varieties. I'd have liked to have seen a proper white van. A selection of vans with company logos printed on them would have been a nice bonus. I suppose if your Photoshop skills are up to it, it should not be too hard a kitbash to do. WWG do offer one van with writing on the panels and that is the Channel 5 News van, which I shall review next time.

4 comments:

  1. I think it is official Bryan. You hold the worlds largest collection of very cool paper vehicles. I still can't get over how well your tires always come out.

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  2. I like the fact that they look sturdy with the backing board. The vehicles I have completed just do not look as solid. Very nice. Inspires me to get my THW super rules finished or at least to a point where I can play a game with them.

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  3. Hee hee, thanks Willy! There are still a lot more vehicles that I haven't shown you yet. The secret to good tyres? Make them solid! Reinforce them with multiple layers of mounting card (time consuming and fiddly) or two layers of mounting card front and back sandwiching a layer of foamboard (also fiddly but not as time consuming).

    @Graham. THW supers rules? That sounds like a mighty fun project. Best of luck with it and if you do complete it, please share.

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  4. Your stuff is always top notch! Great vehicles.

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