Daily archives: June 30, 2008


On the modelling table- Post Apocalypse Pony

Post Apocalypse Pony- front view with grunge

I mentioned my plans to make a bunch of cars inspired by Mad Max, Car Wars and the upcoming Death Race remake, so here’s the first. This is the Post Apocalypse Pony, a 1980s Ford Mustang that’s seen better days and has been kitted out to survive on the grim highways of the future.

It started out as a Monogram Snap-Fix kit. I haven’t made many modifications to the body or interior, just added a cache of weapons and equipment. Only after finishing the weathering did I think that it should have had some battle scars or dents. Oh well, the driver’s just very good at avoiding things but crap at cleaning his vehicle.

Interior-

Post Apocalypse Pony- interior

The tub was painted Tamiya Buff with detailing picked out in silver and flat black. The seats are Games Workshop Snakebite Leather. The dash is flat black with white and silver detailing. The passenger seat has been sacrificed to make space for supplies and weapons, all of which came from an old Airfix multipose set of US Marines. There’s a knife on the back of the driver’s seat, a pistol in a holster on the doorb and the submachine gun propped up on the back seat as well as binoculars, a water bottle, ammunition clips and an entrenching tool. Before fitting the tub into the body I may add a few more bits and pieces because I don’t think it’s cluttered enough. The interior was given a wash of Games Workshop Badab Black to pick out details.

Body-

Post Apocalypse Pony- From above Post Apocalypse Pony- right side Post Apocalypse Pony- Rear view with grunge

I’ve made no changes to the shape of the body. The bonnet has been painted a nice dark blue, a Games Workshop foundation colour but I forget its name, and the trim is flat black. There were no instructions on the colour of the lights in the rear clusters so I made that up. Rust was added in various spots and then I experimented with a wash to weather it. The thinners I’ve been using for quite a while was so full of paint that it was no longer any use for cleaning brushes. But it did provide a nice grotty green was for the car. I pooled it on the roof and let it run down the body naturally, pooling wherever it was stopped. It looks a lot like the sort of algae you often find growing on cars in scrapyards, as if the vehicle’s been discovered in a barn and pressed into service.

Chassis-

Annoyingly the photos I took of the underside of the car are all out of focus. I’ll get some more before I put it all together. The chassis was painted flat black and a sump guard was made out of a piece of plastic card. Then the whole thing was liberally brushed over with rust and a few silver spots picked out where stones have caught it.

The wheels were painted flat black and then the ribs were picked out with silver.

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Another step toward algae diesel

An American company called Solazyme has announced that its algae derived biodiesel has passed US standards testing and is compatible with unmodified diesel engines. The process can use waste materials and has a big advantage over farmed biodiesel in that it doesn’t take capacity away from food production.

via Jalopnik

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Critical Mass, June 2008


Critical Mass, June 2008, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

It didn’t rain during the ride, but it was still a bit grey and cold. I was about to blog a picture from my phone when we set off, and then I forgot to post over the weekend.


The tropical Atlantic ozone sink

Measurements in the Atlantic have shown that the actions of ultraviolet light and sea spray are scrubbing ozone and methane out of the atmosphere in the area faster than expected. Which is fairly good news, if only we can stop pumping out so many pollutants the Earth may clean the rest up faster than we deserve.

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