Mad Max group build kickoff

[Beekster]

Since my own brand of insanity started discussion about this, I suppose I should be the one to kick this off.  Welcome to the Mad Max Group Build, starting immediately.  The time frame is open-ended, since these kinds of projects often take a while to percolate.  The guidelines are pretty simple:  Build anything that was actually seen in the four films or is broadly consistent with the Mad Max universe.  The cruel basics are this:  Human society has broken down completely as a result of massive industrial pollution, climate change, wars over resources (oil, water, food...you name it) and the failed states that result from those, along with a sprinkling of nuclear skirmishes to seed the globe with varying amounts of radiation.  The decline itself takes roughly a generation, and the setting for Mad Max:  Fury Road is about 45 years after that.  This world has no widespread electricity, though some enterprising sorts might make a windmill or couple dozens of slaves to bicycles and battery arrays...anything to power a welder.  Nothing computerized works any more, because they can't be made and parts are long since gone.  Manufacturing as a general rule is history, so humans scavenge what they can.  Vehicles are from the 1980s or earlier, before computers...or are retrofitted with carburetion or mechanical fuel injection.  Warlords like Lord Humongous (Road Warrior) or Immortan Joe (Fury Road) have the relative wealth to acquire muscle car equipment like superchargers and turbochargers.  Loners like Max will have whatever they can find and keep running.  The world's major cities are gone, ruined, possibly radioactive.  But much of what human society created before the collapse is still out there...broken, missing parts, beat up and rusty.  But there's probably something useful on that wreck you just came across...  Warlords will want to control oil and the ability to refine it, at least into low-octane gas and diesel.  Auto graveyards will be mined for raw materials.  In George Miller's brief for Fury Road, there is a shopping mall buried in the sands of the advancing desert which is close enough to be scavenged for anything and everything you would find in a mall.  But after several decades, pickings are thin.  Weapons?  Sure...pistols, shotguns, rifles...America alone has nearly 300 million of them right now.  Ammo will eventually get scarce, and the ability to make more is very limited.  Military-grade hardware will be very rare indeed.  Throwing spears with explosive tips, crossbows, arrow-launchers powered by compressed air (which any semi tractor can produce in abundance), and flamethrowers fueled by the dregs of the refining process.  Warlords will have to raid each other for resources, and their minions will encounter each other in the poisoned wreckage of the World That Was...

I'll be going for a War Rig variation in 1/32:  Mack R700 with extended wheelbase and tag axle, tanker with third axle and fifth wheel for a B-train, and another trailer of some sort.  And whatever takes my fancy to make it both lethal and survivable.

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

Cool! I'm in and already have a couple of kits in mind and hope to start one soon.

[BUCKY]

There ya have it, folks! Time frame, and guidelines! Let the fun begin!!!

[Deleted]

So ive never seen a MadMax movie or anything. So is this open to really anything as long as its in the MadMax steampunk post apocalyptic era. Or does it have to be a madmax model that any of the manufactures have realeased??

[Beekster]

Nov 17, 2017 16:41:44 GMT -6 @snakebitemetal said:

So ive never seen a MadMax movie or anything. So is this open to really anything as long as its in the MadMax steampunk post apocalyptic era. Or does it have to be a madmax model that any of the manufactures have realeased??

The Mad Max world isn't steampunk, it's post-apocalyptic and devolved from the current era by way of the cascade of calamities listed above.  It doesn't have to be a Mad Max movie kit, of which there are very few. But it does have to fit into the parameters listed in the introduction. Honestly, it's probably best to see a couple of the movies at least. Mad Max is a cult classic, and finds Max in a world where the collapse and lawlessness have already begun but society still functions, more or less. It explains how he gets to be Mad Max.  The Road Warrior returns us to Max several years later when things have really gone off the rails sideways, and it's one of the best automotive chase movies ever made.  Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome moves the timeline along another couple of years, and is the weakest of the four movies thematically. Most recent is Mad Max: Fury Road, which is set a few years after Thunderdome, about 45 years after the collapse, and Max's part of the world has become very unpalatable indeed. It gets my vote for the best chase movie ever made. For the purposes of understanding this build, I'd especially recommend seeing Road Warrior and Fury Road to get a sense of what kind of machines we're looking at. Everything is earthbound; there are no functional airplanes in this world save for the Gyro Captain's little autogyro in Road Warrior. Everything is old and nothing is electronic.

[Beekster]

Here are the quintessential examples. The Mack R700 with tanker is from Road Warrior. The Mercedes-Benz S-Class atop a Kaiser military truck chassis is from Fury Road, and the twin-engine War Rig based on a Tatra 813 chassis is also from Fury Road.








photo sharing

Everything is adapted and modified, and there are even more bizarre smaller vehicles to be seen in the various films. The War Rig is just that, a combat vehicle meant to lead a group of motorized fighters. The tanks can carry extra fuel, water, or anything else liquid deemed necessary for the mission. The Mercedes-Benz rig is a rolling cracking plant to make fuel on the move, at least according to the script. The Mack tanker...well, you'll have to watch the movie to see what kind of load it carries!

Firearms and ammunition for them are scarce in this world, so combat requires the use of other weapons to kill or disable personnel and disable or destroy vehicles. Outright destruction really isn't desired, since the vehicle itself is a valuable resource worth capturing, to say nothing of whatever it is carrying. Boarding combat by personnel is common, hence the spiky nature of defenses to keep the crazies with the Molotov cocktails at bay.

[dogfish7 (R.I.P.)]

[intimidator]

Looking forward to watching this...

[Beekster]

Nov 22, 2017 9:38:20 GMT -6 intimidator said:

Looking forward to watching this...

Don't just watch it, Intimidator, build something!  This GB is tailor-made for all you car modelers, so build us a lethal rat rod...

[BUCKY]

I have no doubt that you can whip one out, Brian!!

[intimidator]

I'll see what I can find....I don't think I have the parts to do one though.

[Gothic]

Are 3D printed parts allowed?

[BUCKY]

I think that would be okay, bro.

[JCON]

I don't know why they wouldn't be... go for it!!!

[Beekster]

I'm curious, Gothic...What kind of 3D printed parts are you thinking about. Bucky's right, anything goes for materials so what you make it out of doesn't matter. I'm still trying to find a good resin caster who could cast up a couple of dozen truck wheels for me.

[Gothic]

Armour plating, some tank tracks, few weapons, like maybe the belly turret from say like a WW 2 Bomber, heavy duty front and rear bumpers,

[JCON]

Coolness!!!

[BUCKY]

Sounds like a great plan, Gothic!!!

[Gothic]

No one has the parts I need so, I'll just ship to shapeways, my printer wont do the frosted look,