Sunday 25 March 2012

WWG Police Patrol Cars

Once I'd finished making my police station I knew what was going to be next on my card modelling list - police patrol cars. You can't have a police station without any patrol cars. Up to now the only police vehicles I'd made were a police van and two interceptor patrol cars. I needed some bog standard police cars. In other words, these -
Four seemed like a fair number to build, just to start off with. I may build some more in the future, but for now I'm happy with these four. You get two cars on an A4-sized sheet, with the numbers 01 and 02 on their roofs. WWG very helpfully provide a bonus sheet with an extra 36 numbers printed on with the numbers 03 to 38. I can't imagine anyone making 38 police patrol cars but if you're mad enough to want to the option is there.
Here's a hint for you if you're using any of the higher numbered roofs. I cut out the roofs of cars 01 and 02 and replaced them with numbers 03 and 04. These were kept in place by strips of masking tape on their reverse side. This made folding down the back, front and sides much easier. Some of you may be tempted to glue the new numbers directly on top of the old ones and this is certainly a viable option. I decided not to as it would have made their roofs slightly taller. I should point out that I printed these onto 250gm Satin Photo Paper, which is a lot thicker that the matte photo paper I normally use. I like to use Satin paper for most of my vehicles as it gives a nice shiny look to them, without being too glossy. I have used Gloss Photo Paper on a few of my cars, like the aforementioned police interceptors and on my sports car. These are the kind of vehicles you expect to see highly polished.
This front view of two of the cars shows an inherent design fault that is only noticable when viewed from this angle. Check out the wheels - they appear to bent at an odd angle and are pointing inward. This is due to the sloping sides of the car. However, when viewed from above as in the two previous photos it is barely noticable. Personally, I can live with it. If they look good on a gaming table then I'm happy.
At first glance the two cars look identical (apart from their roof numbers) but they aren't. The difference is subtle but car 01 (at the left in the above photo) is cleaner than car 02. Car 02 has more mud splashes on its sides than car 01.
And the other difference is that they have different number plates., as you can see here. I'm not sure why one is a combination of letters and numbers and the other is made up of just numbers. Probably an American thing.
You can see the mud splashes on Car 02 better on this photo than on the previous one. If you want to use these cars in your own games they can be found in the World Works Games' set, Mayhem Police. The set is very good value for money at $11.50 and can be found in the Vault section of the WWG web page. Not only do you get these cars but also the police station itself, and some more vehicles - police van, motorcycles, helicopter and SWAT APC. The latter three are on my list of models to make.
These police patrol cars are very useful models to have. I wish I'd made mine a lot earlier as they'd have been perfect to use in the ATZ scenario - Quarantine from the Haven supplement. Expect to see them making an appearance when I play my "Assault on Precinct 13" scenario later this year.

28 comments:

  1. "Call for backup!!!"

    Really nice work. The station, the cars, the cops and the zombies. ANd you have some gangers to throw into that mix.

    I am sooooooooo looking forward to the Assault on Precint 13!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm afraid you're going to have to wait a bit longer for that epic scenario, Johnny. Even so, I don't think you'll be disappointed with my next scenario, which I'm playing this weekend. Woot! first ATZ scenario of 2012 - I'm a happy bunny!

      Delete
  2. I am always amazed at how good those paper vehicles look, great job.

    I'd love to see that motorcycle and helicopter :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Mathyoo. I like the police helicopter but I'm not too keen on the motorcycles. Even so, I will make them both.

      Delete
  3. Good idea using satin paper for vehicles.

    I'm actually not too happy with the way WWG designed their cars, the design flaw with the slanted tires you mentioned looks really silly when viewed from the front, and it makes the cars too narrow in my opinion. I'm pretts sure they did this so they could add a tab between the top and the sides of the hood. Nevertheless, good, clean builds as usual.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Satin paper works very well for a lot of vehicles. That front view of the cars certainly shows up the vehicle's design flaw. To be fair to WWG, most of their vehicles are designed very well. But this particular model is definitely their weakest link.

      Delete
    2. It doesn't help that all the "normal" cars are baased on this design, like their taxis and red/blue civilian cars ;)

      Delete
    3. That's true, Robert. They have gotten a lot of milage (pun intended) out of this car design.

      Delete
  4. Excellent build, nice clean look to these, despite the mud !

    I wish my one (one !) had turned out as good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Joe. I know that a clean build isn't the same as clean textures. I've been asked many times to write a tutorial on making card vehicles (especially on how I make the wheels). Keep on nagging me to do it and I will eventually get round to it. It's on my "to do" list... along with loads of other stuff!

      Delete
  5. Really Look effective you have to look hard at them to tell they are card models. Nicely done Bryan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Simon. I think the use of Satin paper gives the illusion that these aren't card models. The other thing is in how "edge" my models. A white edge can destroy the illusion that this is just a card model. A lot of people edge their models with felt tip pens. I use acrylic paints, which means I can match the colours perfectly.

      Delete
  6. Great job on those. Thanks for the tip about the satin paper. I'm glad to hear there's a new batrep coming up. I hope you have a nice enjoyable game with it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Satin paper won't work for a lot of card models, Joe, but it is perfect for vehicles like these.

      I am thoroughly enjoying my latest ATZ scenario. I'll get the batrep posted as soon as I can.

      Delete
  7. Very neat stuff.

    I have always liked WWG stuff. They have arather neat hearse in their Shelldrake pack. But I find the tyres difficult to master, always very gluey. Any tips?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Irqan, a lot of people struggle with the tyres. Here's how I make mine.
      1. Cut the two pieces out, ignoring those fiddly tabs.Ddo it my way and you don't need tabs.
      2. Reinforce the half curve of the tyre with thin card.
      3. Reinforce the circular tyre piece with thin card as well.
      4. Cut out two semi circular pieces of thick mounting card, slightly smaller than the size of the tyre. It needs to be smaller to take into account of the thin card you used to reinforce the curved bit.
      5. Stick one piece of mounting card to the inside of one of the tyre's semi circles, making sure you add some glue to its edges.
      6. Cut a rough semi circle shape out of foamboard.
      7. Stick this inside the tyre. This will be sandwiched between the two pieces of mounting board and will make the tyre solid.
      8. stick the second piece of mounting card behind the remaining semi circle of the tyre.
      9. Glue the semi-circular tyre piece to the vehicle.
      10. Glue the circular tyre piece to the vehicle.
      11. colour in the edges of the wheel.

      Delete
  8. Yes, these are lookin good Vampifan, very useful, and there are so many ATZ scenarios to use them in, what a bonus.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, TE. I'm sure that I'll find lots of uses for them.

      Delete
  9. Nice cars Vampifan. I could definitely live with the slight angling of the wheels. They look great for card vehicles, and the price is certainly right.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From arms length on a gaming table, the design flaw is barely noticable, Adam. Yeah, I can live with them.

      Delete
  10. Those look really nice, but I would be too tempted to "crash" them during a game, since they are made of crumply paper.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That wouldn't work with mine, PapaSpanky, as my vehicles are reinforced with mounting board (very thick cardboard). My paper models do not crumple!

      Delete
  11. nice, i made 2 wwg police cars last year one like this and one on fire, mine dont look half as cool as yours, i could never get the wheels to look good, whats your secret

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Check out my reply to Irqan above to see how I make my wheels.

      Delete
  12. Very nice Bryan. 38 Police Cars... is that a challenge? :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It most certainly isn't, Adam! Perish the thought!

      Delete