Wednesday 10 February 2010

WWG Camper Vans

This review follows on directly from my previous look at my WWG vehicles. I mentioned that I had made the blue and green pick-up trucks that came with the Mayhem Armoury set but that I had converted them by way of a kitbash that transforms them into camper vans. These are the results of my conversion work.
The kitbash that you can download from the WWG website offers you two choices of camper van bodies to fit in the back of your pick-up truck. The small body comes in eight different colour schemes - black, blue, green, orange, red, turqoise, white and yellow. The orange, turqoise and yellow options do not match the colour schemes of the pick-up trucks. The large camper body comes in six colour schemes - black, blue, green, red, turqoise and white.
I have added the small camper van body to the back of my green pick-up truck and the large camper van body to the back of my blue pick-up truck. The camper bodies are very easy to make and simply slot into place in the back of the trucks, although you have to remove the back panel at the rear of the trucks first. Obviously, there is more work involved in the larger body but it is still an easy kitbash to make. My camper van bodies are glued in place and as always, are reinforced with thick mounting board.
I cut the rear doors out and glued them to a piece of thin card that was slightly smaller than the height and width of the back wall. With the back wall being glued onto mounting board this meant that the doors were not flush with the walls and are slightly indented, which was the effect I wanted to achieve. From a personal point of view, I have never ever been in a camper van so I have no idea how cramped they are. The smaller one looks like it will be very cramped. I doubt if an adult could stand up straight in there. The larger one seems to be the better option for travelling in. 
These vehicles would make for useful options for a small group of survivors to run about in in a zombie apocalypse game. The extra space in the back allows for more folks to take part in a mission or allows for more loot and/or newly found survivors to be carried. A pick-up truck is a useful vehicle for any group of survivors to own but these camper vans are even more useful.
I received some great feedback on my review of my WWG pick-up trucks but a common question that I was asked was why don't I use die-cast vehicles? I know that not everyone reads the comments to my posts so I'll explain here. The first and most important reason is a lack of availability of the vehicles I want to use. Living in England, the majority of die-cast vehicles on sale here are, not surprising, English. This is no good to me as I set my ATZ games in Mayhem City, USA, so I want American vehicles. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get say, a model of an American ambulance, police car or taxi in the UK? Or if you can get them, just how expensive they are? Which brings me onto my second reason - cost. On the whole die-cast vehicles in 28mm scale are expensive. Yes, you can pick up some great bargains in supermarket or toyshop sales but you need to be in the right place at the right time... and I'm never that lucky! I do have some die cast vehicles, mostly cars and vans, that I was able to buy cheaply but to match my card model collection would be an expensive proposition and I seriously doubt if I could get everything that WWG issues. The beauty of the WWG models is that they are ridiculously cheap; there is a great deal of choice and the vehicles fit in perfectly with the scenery. Stick with me and I'll show you that card vehicles aren't a bad option at all.

7 comments:

  1. "The beauty of the WWG models ...." part of what you said, Bryan. Their stuff looks so nice!
    Another excellent job with your vehicles.
    BTW my facebook is down :(

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  2. Once again, thanks for your kind words, Roger. Sorry to hear about your little blip with Facebook but I'm glad to see it's all sorted now. We can continue our chewing the cud and putting the world to rights, lol!

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  3. Wow, I'm gone for a few days and you have several more posts up!
    Nice job, I didn't even know the campers were on the menu!

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  4. Hi, Willy! Nice to have you back. You know me, regular as clockwork. That means two posts per week... well, most of the time, anyway.

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  5. The low camper top is used in the US mostly to give cover the junk contractors, couriers and Joe Six-pack carry in the back. They also lock, and will protect your valuables. Very few people actually camp in them

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  6. hi, nice to have you back they also lock, and will protect your valuables.very few people actually camp in them...well most of the time any way..

    Camper Van For Sales

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  7. This is really nice. We go on a lot of road trips and i think this can be the best option.
    camper vans

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