Post Apocalyptic Tonka Conversion Project, Part 1

The pre-rusted and well-played with Tonka Off-Roader I purchased on Ebay arrived today. I'm quite pleased with it. Though small, the interior is well-scaled for TBLeague female characters. Before receiving it, I had given consideration to stripping off the paint and cleaning up the rust and repainting it to desert colors, but then that sort of defeats the purpose of buying a very roughed up one in the first place. In fact, I may have to give it a little more damage for that wasteland look. Here are some photos with Kamiko and Laura and some of the ideas I have in mind for how to modify it. These are just ideas at this point...subject to change. I would like to know your thoughts and suggestions.

_DSC0006_0005 by Gary Menten, on Flickr

_DSC0005_0004 by Gary Menten, on Flickr

_DSC0007_0006 by Gary Menten, on Flickr

_DSC0008_0007 by Gary Menten, on Flickr

_DSC0011_0010_1 by Gary Menten, on Flickr

Ahh great purchase sir, so much potential! I would too go with the 'more weathering' option than trying to clean it up.

My ideas to your ideas:
-external equipment racks would make it look a bit more massive, which might be good.
- the hatch for the third member, I think it might look fun if that Luna lady crams in the back here.
- armor plate with vision ports sounds good, maybe with some tank like pushing hatch.
- the rotating zombie blade might be a bit overkill, I think. A very big, evil, spikey bumper might work. Probably built like a snow plow to push zombie horde pieces away to the sides. With saw blades, they would all land under the car and it might be even more bumby.
- anti zombie grids sound great, grids were the first thought I had when I saw that car.
-two to four headlights might be good to make the var feel larger
- a same with the mirrors. But maybe add an asymmetric amount, maybe just one on the right, or two on the right and one on the left etc.

As the whole car looks a bit small and funny, I think it could need an adorable (Japanese?) name, maybe written on the front, contrasting the horrible spikey bumper/sawblade.

Ovy wrote:Ahh great purchase sir, so much potential! I would too go with the 'more weathering' option than trying to clean it up.

My ideas to your ideas:
-external equipment racks would make it look a bit more massive, which might be good.
- the hatch for the third member, I think it might look fun if that Luna lady crams in the back here.
- armor plate with vision ports sounds good, maybe with some tank like pushing hatch.
- the rotating zombie blade might be a bit overkill, I think. A very big, evil, spikey bumper might work. Probably built like a snow plow to push zombie horde pieces away to the sides. With saw blades, they would all land under the car and it might be even more bumby.
- anti zombie grids sound great, grids were the first thought I had when I saw that car.
-two to four headlights might be good to make the var feel larger
- a same with the mirrors. But maybe add an asymmetric amount, maybe just one on the right, or two on the right and one on the left etc.

As the whole car looks a bit small and funny, I think it could need an adorable (Japanese?) name, maybe written on the front, contrasting the horrible spikey bumper/sawblade.

Than-you for your suggestions. I rally appreciate the feedback.

Looks like a great find, and I look forward to see what you end up doing with it.

If I were to add more cargo storage, it would also be to the back to help balance out that rather too square box shape to the back — and it wouldn’t have to necessarily be to block out that back window, unless you thought of a way to do it to make it look like much of it was part of the vehicle. I would think a back window like that might be a bit dangerous, though. Just some thoughts.

Stryker2011 wrote:If I were to add more cargo storage, it would also be to the back to help balance out that rather too square box shape to the back — and it wouldn’t have to necessarily be to block out that back window, unless you thought of a way to do it to make it look like much of it was part of the vehicle. I would think a back window like that might be a bit dangerous, though. Just some thoughts.

I'm not going to rush into it for sure and I'm probably going to try a few non permanent things to see how they look. I like Ovy's idea about the spikes coming out of the bumper, mind you and I'm definitely going to put a pintle-mount MG in in front of the passenger seat. Maybe a second one on top of the vehicle.

This is great find and definitely has so much potential. Your ladies look awesome in it!

Everyone's suggestions so far are excellent. I'd also probably add a bit more weathering, to make the tires look more dusty -- which I'm sure you are already intending to do!

I’d say go full on Mad Max and cannibalise some other car parts to make it into a really outrageous hybrid!

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:I like Ovy's idea about the spikes coming out of the bumper...

nah, man, you don't wanna impale the undead on the front of your vehicle!
I thought something more like railroad cow-catcher and this googled up--

seriously, I have one of those and your ladies fit really well...
more dirt, more rust, dremel "Tonka" off the tires, scythe blades
at neck level to decapitate at 70mph.... gonna be a fun build!

GregT wrote:

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:I like Ovy's idea about the spikes coming out of the bumper...

nah, man, you don't wanna impale the undead on the front of your vehicle!
I thought something more like railroad cow-catcher and this googled up--

seriously, I have one of those and your ladies fit really well...
more dirt, more rust, dremel "Tonka" off the tires, scythe blades
at neck level to decapitate at 70mph.... gonna be a fun build!

Actually, I kid of like the idea of spring-loaded scythe blades that would pop out the sides or the top when required.

Shiny post apocalyptic cars?! I'm glad you are planning on beating it a bit more, what a curiously cool find, I remember having something similar but it was made out of plastic and was a "proper" military truck/jeep.

As for what I would do, apart from weathering and beating up a bit I would go with racks and some form of armor, could add some homemade post apocalyptic hatches.

Its a great vehicle with lots of potential, go for it!

Rather than the gun in front of the passenger seat... or in addition to the gun on the hood in front of the passenger seat, maybe a couple of Lewis guns with drum magazines, one on each side of the hood just in front of the doors, for a stylized WWI fighter plane look.

And yes, admittedly, a Wacky Races look.

Speaking of which, have you seen the post-apocalyptic re-imaginings of the Wacky Races vehicles?
https://www.hotrod.com/articles/mad-max-fury-roads-co-writer-gave-wacky-races-the-wasteland-treatment/

Now you have me wanting to build something like this. But those Lewis guns on eBay cost as much or more than you paid for the entire vehicle.

Very cool looking project! Indeed I'm also looking forward to seeing more.

davidd wrote:Rather than the gun in front of the passenger seat... or in addition to the gun on the hood in front of the passenger seat, maybe a couple of Lewis guns with drum magazines, one on each side of the hood just in front of the doors, for a stylized WWI fighter plane look.

And yes, admittedly, a Wacky Races look.

Speaking of which, have you seen the post-apocalyptic re-imaginings of the Wacky Races vehicles?
https://www.hotrod.com/articles/mad-max-fury-roads-co-writer-gave-wacky-races-the-wasteland-treatment/


Now you have me wanting to build something like this. But those Lewis guns on eBay cost as much or more than you paid for the entire vehicle.

What the British used on their SAS jeeps in WWII were either short barrelled Browning .50 calibers or twin Vicker's "K" Machine guns which look a lot like a Lewis and were also used on aircraft and were very reliable even in the desert.


http://www.m201.com/sasjeep.htm

The twin Vickers would look even better than a Lewis!

davidd wrote:The twin Vickers would look even better than a Lewis!

Not when you've seen the price they cost at Armorpax.... 50.00£ That's more than I paid for the vehicle They were great guns mind you. Very fast firing, magazine fed and very reliable. However, they were only made in .303 caliber, which is a round you don't see much of any more. What I actually plan to use is the FN MAG mg, (M240 in the US, or C6 in Canada) which is another fast firing and super reliable weapon which has been around since the late 1950's and is currently used in 80 or more countries.

That twin gun/WW1 plane idea is great, maybe go full post apocalyptic and use two cheap assault rifles connected through a frame? They could be tilted by 90 or 180 degrees. Might even look more appropriate in scale to the tiny jeep, vickers might make it look even smaller.


Btw, you probably googled every post apocalyptic car on the internet now, but another great source of inspiration might be googling for 'post apocalyptic toy cars/hot wheels' etc, where people unleash the apocalypse on their little old toy cars.

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:They were great guns mind you. Very fast firing, magazine fed and very reliable. However, they were only made in .303 caliber, which is a round you don't see much of any more.  What I actually plan to use is the FN MAG mg, (M240 in the US, or C6 in Canada) which is another fast firing and super reliable weapon which has been around since the late 1950's and is currently used in 80 or more countries.  

 You tend to think a bit more realistically, or at least more plausibly, than I do! I usually go with what "looks cool" but would utterly fail in the real world.

davidd wrote:

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:They were great guns mind you. Very fast firing, magazine fed and very reliable. However, they were only made in .303 caliber, which is a round you don't see much of any more.  What I actually plan to use is the FN MAG mg, (M240 in the US, or C6 in Canada) which is another fast firing and super reliable weapon which has been around since the late 1950's and is currently used in 80 or more countries.  

 You tend to think a bit more realistically, or at least more plausibly, than I do! I usually go with what "looks cool" but would utterly fail in the real world.

Going where we are with the comic crossover adventures, it's my intention that the vehicle will be modified for missions in Dinosaur Valley. Probably not for the first couple of missions, but Kamiko will realize rather quickly that the rusty hunk of junk needs a serious upgrade to go play around in that place.

Ovy wrote:That twin gun/WW1 plane idea is great, maybe go full post apocalyptic and use two cheap assault rifles connected through a frame? They could be tilted by 90 or 180 degrees. Might even look more appropriate in scale to the tiny jeep, vickers might make it look even smaller.


Btw, you probably googled every post apocalyptic car on the internet now, but another great source of inspiration might be googling for 'post apocalyptic toy cars/hot wheels' etc, where people unleash the apocalypse on their little old toy cars.

I've actually been looking at some light Land Rovers used by the British army as desert patrol vehicles and not only do they have a military look, but also a sort of post apocalyptic look as the same time.

Right now I'm looking at arming the vehicle with one of these on top and:  




One of these for the passenger.

Great choices!

The top one was just ordered tonight. The bottom one...I'll wait until next payday I think.