Mad Maximillian 1934: the Rennfahrer Autowerks V12 "Sternschnuppe"

The Rennfahrer Autowerks V12 "Sternschnuppe"

Go for Speed! 

I have a Mad Maximillian game coming up next month at Pacificon, which is lighting a fire under my exhaust pipes to finish up a couple of cars (and a track). 

Behold, the "Sternschnuppe".

The Build

I started with a die cast Audi model car, and tore it down, added some epoxy for the nose and cut the fins out of styrene. The windshield is from a minis blisterpack. 

changed out the pipes, as these made the car look too much like Dick Dastardly's

Tore down. Pay no attention to that red heap :)

Ready to Race

Here she is all ready to go next to the Victorious Marmon 500. 

See you at the races! 

Mad Maximillian 1934: Brutus V12

Putting the "GRRR" in grill

I'm a bit obsessed by making cars for Mad Maximillian 1934. This is my Brutus V12 driven by the famed racer and adventurer Oscar Schlepper.

With a crack driver, a single machine gun, some extra armor on the engine and an ACME caltrops dispenser, Brutus is innit to winnit.

Mad Maximilian: Captain Terror rides again!

 Captain Terror:

Just completed my second vehicle and driver for Mad Maximilian.
This one is an homage to one of Speed Racer's chief nemisis-es... and the leader of the race car acrobatic team, Captain Terror.

One mean dude

When building the car, I reflected upon Terror's visage, and the guy looks like a burn victim, with that rictus grin, so the car had to have flamers!

My pal McGraw, when seeing that I had laid out all my parts for the car and had flamers, Double Dog dared me to make them forward facing. Well evil can't just pass up a dare like that- so I made them 180 to fool everyone (and probably burn myself up during a race at some point).

The Captain! 

The making of a race car villian:

This project started as a Stuts Benz, that I scored off of Ebay for a decent price. I took it apart and stripped it down using Jasco paint stripper- the exact same stuff we use in my family to strip paint off of big cars. Caution when using it- wear two pairs of rubber gloves and glasses- you don't want to actually look like Captain Terror.

Fresh off the factory floor.

the original "DIP"

Ready for a rebuild.

  With the spare tires removed, there was a built in set of ports on each side. I ran a brass wire through them and bent it at 90 degree angles. These would be the pipes for the flamers.

 Once I had the car ready to rock, I watched a few episodes of Speed Racer (I heart Youtube) and did some research. This toy car is a good replica of the Cptn's vehicle. I used it as my inspiration. Those pipes "do" look like flamers...

  After I figured out the car and how I wanted the flamers to work , and had color scheme, I needed a driver.  Taking the body from the Eureka driver I had, I took a head from one of my Triumph of Death minis, and did my best to sculpt a cape. The feather was from a mordheim plastic sprue of days gone by.

I love the way Eureka built the big period steering wheels onto their drivers

What's Next?

 I've already made turn templates to lasercut, and worked with McGraw to create track templates, from which to lay out tracks to test. I've got a couple more vehicles already started, but need drivers- so keep posted race fans!

Cheers!

Mad Maximillian: The Marmon Meteor

Guido Veloce in his Marmon Meteor 500.

 Like squirrels on crack, my game group has fallen in love with yet another game. This time it's Mad Maximillian, published by Mana Press and sold through Eureka Miniatures.

May I present Guido Veloce,driving his Marmon Meteor 500,equipped with a Big 8-125 horsepower engine. And light auto cannon- and ram blades. Standard stuff in Mad Maximillian. 

light auto cannon to clear the track

spinning blade ram plates, because homage's need to be filled.

I had to jump in on the action, so scored a car on ebay and went to work. Before I hit that buy button, I knew what theme I wanted to do- one of my favorite shows as a kid was Speed Racer. It had to be done!

Zeppelin eye view

This is the view you should get used to!

 Historical Context
(from Wikipedia)
Marmon Motor Car Company was an American automobile manufacturer founded by Howard Carpenter Marmon and owned by Nordyke Marmon & Company of Indianapolis, Indiana, US. It was established in 1902 and was merged and renamed in 1933. They produced cars under the Marmon brand. It was succeeded by Marmon-Herrington and later the Marmon Motor Company of Denton, Texas. The name currently survives through the Marmon Group of Chicago, Illinois.

the 1911 Wasp

 
Marmon won the first ever Indianapolis 500 with the Wasp. They were also the first car company to have rear view mirrors on their cars. Quite a bit of cool history