Breaking an egg

As you may know, I've been fascinated with modifying HotWheels and other cars for use in Gaslands for quite some time. Last year I discovered this little gem in the random bag of cars that seem to accumulate like dust in every house with kids:

This looked to me like the perfect entry point for starting a War Rig. So of course I took it apart

and then started cutting.

The wheels had to go, since they look extremely flimsy. The boxy backside and fireman's ladder too. All I kept was the basic plastic body and the metal cab. Using some plasticcard / styrene, plus some greebly casts from other projects, I came up with this layout

Later I decided to cut out the windows of the cab. This took some effort, since the metal is quite thick in places and there is a large bar in middle of the cab, probably to stop the truck from getting squished by ingenious little people.

As they say, you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs. More to come...