Laser Cutting a Laser Cannon for Dark Future

I've been messing around with ways to make weapons for Dark Future that not only are cheap and fit the sized cars I'm using but that will also be familiar to anyone who plays Dark Future. So laser cannon should look like DF laser cannon on first glance. Proxies are great, and necessary since DF weapons are so hard to come by, but I think that they should be similar to the originals.

Thanks to some of the kind folks on the Dark Future Facebook page I have some images of the original Df weapons sprue to base my designs off of. This is my first attempt, a laser cannon that I designed, cut, and painted in under two hours. It's a bit melty, a bit sloppy, but I think still reads as a turreted laser cannon.

Thanks Allicia!

My Illustrator design.

Mounted on a Matchbox Baja Bullet.

Quick paintjob to show actual detail. Due to the acrylic being clear I often can't tell what it's really going to look like until it's been painted.

By no means perfect but retains the silhouette and proportions of the original and is  thus quickly read as a DF laser cannon.

Dark Future Hot Wheels Renegade.

I've been getting drawn back into Games Workshop's abandoned game Dark Future recently via the Facebook Oldhammer: Dark Future Group and although I don't have a copy of the game I do have a small collection of vehicles that I've always planned on converting to use in the game. One of the great draws of Dark Future is that it used a scale that allowed Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars to be armed and play in the game. And given that the actual cars used for the game are getting rare quickly due to renewed interest it's looking like I'll be using toy store proxies.

A common type of vehicle in DF is called a Renegade, basically an armed and armored dune buggy used by the less pleasant types of  Dark Future baddies. Recently I found a Hot Wheels car called Bull Whip that I decided would look cool as a Renegade. All it would need was a bit of arming and armoring and a new paint job.

Low profile tires on an off-road vehicle?! Balderdash!

Nice 1970s throw-back graphics. Dork.

Disassembly was super-easy since the body was only riveted on with plastic. I remember the older cars used metal pins and those took a lot more Dremeling. These ground out like softened butter.

I wanted to add some mesh over the windows and luckily had some Kotobukiya mesh plate which would match the scale really well. You can find it here. Taking apart the car beforehand made it much easier to add the mesh.

I reassembled the whole thing, added a cut down gun from Rebel Minis and laser cut some wheel covers to mask the goofy low profile tires. Then it was just a matter of painting it in various layers of paint and weathering effects. I did a few layers and then lightly sanded the whole thing. I dry-brushed multiple layers on top of each other. I added graffiti and militant decals. Then more dry-brushing and finally paint spatters. And honestly, I overdid it.

It's been a while since I've painted anything like this and wanted to try out the whole bag of tricks. I might completely paint over the whole thing again and just imagine it to be recently car-jacked and painted in new gang colors. Although I'm not totally happy with it I had fun with it and honestly, it only cost a buck. And I think that's one of the main draws for painting and playing Dark Future. Other then the hard to find road tiles and the original minis it remains a gaming bargain seeing that you can pick up a new vehicle for less than a dollar.

Now I just need to find an original Dark Future Chainsaw Warrior.

The Necro-Mags were also my Necromunda gang.

G.G.G.