Flipped a coin whether this was categized as a car or sci fi and it came up sci fi so here it is.
For those that don’t know. Fallout is a post apocalyptic/sci-fi video game that takes place in a wasteland world far in the future. The overall feel of the game is as if it was the late 1940s to the mid 1950s (fashion, architecture, vehicles, etc) as “retro” was apparently the thing in 2077 when the war occurs. The subject of this build is the Chryslus Highwayman car from the Fallout 2 game which was released in 1998. I have played through the game at least 5 times and just after Christmas this year I decided to build one. As this was pretty early in video game history the action and graphics were very limited. In the case of the car there was only the one still render of it that just appeared when you reached your destination. There were no other shots at all so the little detail visible was all I had to go on.
The game car was supposedly modeled around a '57 Chevy but it is far too low, long, has 4 headlights, chunky front fenders and larger fins. All in all it looks far more like a late 50s Chrysler (not to mention it is called a Chryslus) The only part that looks Chevy like is the roof line. A few years ago when I first wanted to build this I checked out the different available Chrysler kits. The AMT '58 Belvedere (Christine) kit has about the right roof line but was just off a bit in the body shape and the front bumper was way off what I needed. The AMT '57 300 kit has a roofline that is off but the rest of the body and bumper were perfect. Now of course I could get both and transplant the roof but the slight difference just didn’t seem worth doubling the cost so I went with the overall shape of the 300.
The game takes place in 2241 so 164 years after the war which means that the fusion powered Chryslus was built to last! The only alteration I need to make to the body was to open the trunk as the game clearly shows it has no lid. Although I could have raised the rear fins a bit I was happy with how the Chrysler ones looked stock so just opened the trunk, roughed up the body in random patterns with 880 grit sandpaper and called it good enough.
Cool! I loved that ride when I played the game. I hope you don’t omit the fusion motor (if I remember that right) and the fuel saving contraption for it. Painting it could be very interesting, too! Good luck with your build and have a nice day!
No motor, fuel cells or regulator as you never see them actually installed in the car.
BUT…
That is a great idea to have some thrown in the trunk! I will need to add them.
I needed a basic “blower” so dug through my spare parts and found some parts from an old Corvair kit that I could use. Not sure why the game designers felt a fusion powered car needed a blower but they did!
Corvair racing headlight pots (bottom left) and tranny base (center of sprue).
Underneath was just assembled enough to hold the wheels on and will be painted NATO black. I have no idea what a fusion fueled car would look like under there anyway so curbside it is
The 300 bumper of course does not have anything like that so I had to make it up. Even though I will be knocking the chrome down I wanted it all the same chrome as the kit as a base.
The bar was easy I just used a piece of chrome sprue with the ends sanded at an angle to meet the stock bumper. I dug through my spares for something I could turn into the bumperettes and found the chrome headers from an old Covair build.
And the rear is stock since it is never seen in the game I just had to wing it. The stock 300 rear fits with the game car’s theme anyway.
Ready for weathering.
Very cool! I just discovered Fallout Radio on You Tube where they play 24/7 music from the game complete with the funny DJ…might be good inspirational music for you.
Evolution of the interior. The game doesn’t show it ever but since many other things in the game are in remarkably good condition for being 150 year post an atomic war I kept it intact but grimy. Loads of clutter as I would expect in a desert wanderer. Since the little part that can be seen in the 16 bit graphics shows brown seat and a original body coloured dash I went with a grungy, weird, brown and grey look. Again this is not supposed to look “real” but mimic what I imagine it would have looked like in the game.
The kit interior is VERY nice if anybody wanted to build it stock. Since the trunk will have no lid and be filled with scavenged goods I covered the molded gas tank void. Want to have the back seat give an idea that there is stuff there so glued some spacers in the back seat to fill space.
Threw some spares box packs and a 1/48 300 cal MG on the front seat for clutter. The gun is out of scale but there were all sorts of strange weapons in the game so it looks the part. Then everything got a heavy black wash with Citadel Nulin Oil to grunge it up and add definition. Still needs a coat of flat to tone it all down.
So… a major part of the game is collecting items for quests, obtaining better weapons and gathering stuff to sell. The car was a major contributor to this as each item is assigned a weight so it allowed you to store far more items than if just walking around carrying 200 pounds of junk. All of this stuff went into the open trunk so I needed some recognizable items to fill it up with.
One item that can be collected are Vaulttec bobbleheads. These were pre war promotional items for the shelters (vaults) and each one would give the player a perk when found throughout the game so had to have one
The rest of the stuff represents armour (the helmet), robot /electrics parts (the upside down Sheridan tank searchlight), guns (the off scale machine gun), ammo (box and random shells) and some mystery boxes and bags. All the items a good post-apocalyptic wanderer may collect.
Since the surface was all roughed up in step one the rest of the weathering is pretty straight forward. First wash with Citadel Nulin oil. The idea here is not to make real looking weathering but to duplicate what is seen in the game.
Never played Fallout 2 but loved Fallout 4 for hours and hours. Same art deco retro vibe. Your car would fit in perfectly in that game as well. Nice work!
