Cars/civilian vehicles in the Imperium

[Dr_Ruminahui]

On 5/20/2024 at 4:08 AM, Evil Eye said:

I still want to make some printable cars, but whilst I very much enjoy going overboard with interior details (like the radial engine with drive belt connecting to a transmission on a chassis suspiciously similar to the VW Beetle) it did occur to me that for wargaming purposes, even if being used as an actual game piece (moving objective/escort mission or whatever) a full interior might not only be redundant, but also counterproductive. It'd make printing more difficult, and also cause durability issues. So with that in mind, would I be better off making such cars "curbside" models, with no interior detail and blank windows that can be painted as being blacked out? I reckon for our purposes it'd still give more than acceptable results whilst making printing and gaming much less of a hassle.

 

First of all, its your hobby so do whatever floats your boat.  If doing little details is what you enjoy, even if no one will ever see them and only you know they are there, by all means do that.

 

That said, from a more practical perspective, as an actual gaming piece, anything you can't readily see is kind of superfluous and unnecessary.  So my recommendation would be as you suggest, to make a "curbside" model with only those details that are visible on the outside of the model.  Although I don't know exactly how you intend to use them on the table, in most cases I think an outer shell would be sufficient.  Then, if you feel the itch for more detailed work, you could make models where the interior of the cab is visible and to which you can glue clear or broken windows, or versions that are just the basic frame of the vehicle to use as a burnt out husk as a terrain piece.

Edited May 22, 2024 by Dr_Ruminahui

[lansalt]

I think the Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy and the Kustom Boosta-blasta could be looted imperial civilian cars, so de-orkified versions of may be a common STC in the Imperium, or at least the more rural parts of it.

[Evil Eye]

Apologies for yet another necrothread, but a chance impulse buy for a separate project (which turned out to be a bit of a dud) revealed that 1:43 scale cars are actually perfect for 40K! Obviously, this particular example is going to need a lot of conversion to fit in with 40K (along with a pair of Genestealer Cultist crew, as this vehicle will be a car for a Cult motorcade) but you get the idea. I'm sure everyone has an oldscale Marine somewhere to give you an idea of scale.

[Terminatorinhell]

And now I wanna put a space marine in a sports car lol... Or a rolls royce 

[NovemberIX]

That looks about right, if I remember right, most 28mm minis scale to about O-scale in train, or 1:48 in diecast. I'd be willing to be that a lot of bodies and bits for slot cars would scale closely too.  Now I kinda wanna print a pickup to see how the marine would look riding technical.