Apocalyptic Mobile Heavy Transport

[Wardukw]

Well ive been thinking about this project for a while now and all  needed was that right little bit of inspiration to get off my butt and build it and so i have at least made a start on it and here is the bit at the beginning .
Its 2036,,,the world is in a total nightmare,,,the dead walk the earth and as per the norm,,,the living are trying their best to survive anyway they can,,most people try their best to live in this world of the dead but its only the ones who have the balls to take things to another level and change their world around them to make a life ,,well a life for whats its worth in this world now.
Peterson City,,Canada..named after Frank Peterson who in all his wisdom and skills took a bunch of lost souls and turned this no name little crap hole ( his exact words ) into a fortress built from what ever came to hand.
It began with the borrowing of 20 and 40 foot containers,,took a little while to teach these people how to drive a trucks and fork hoists but they managed and over the space of several months the walls were built,, using the tops of the containers was walk ways its very easy to patrol ..hand rails welded out of steel pipe makes good things to lean on,,not much happens here which these people are not complaining about at all.
It was decided that they needed to get a much better idea of the country around them so they started to do scouting missions..bikes ,,quads ,,4x4s and even the odd peddle bike came into use but the biggest problem was the size of the area they had to scout which being in the absolute middle of nowhere became a problem,,one person mentioned aircraft ,,of course the next question is ,,who the hell knows how to fly a plane and where would you land it ?? ,,didnt take long for them to click ,,helicopter is the only way to go ,,then it was all on,,,finding a flyable craft , a pilot was another problem so the word went out amongst the folks to see who had any clue on how to fly a chopper and the only person they could find is this kid,,18 yrs old and with a total of 3hrs logged flight time on choppers ,,thats 3hrs more than anyone else so hes now the pilot.
Matts Oilfield Services solved that problem ,,sitting at the back of a work shop in what can be called buggered condition is this UH-1 Huey,,no rotor blades fitted ,,panels missing on the fuselage and the cockpit was a mess,,birds had nested in it at some point and only Old Bob who served in the USAF for 29 yrs as a flight engineer and mechanic has even the slightest idea on how this thing worked but with persistence and a couple of very handy service books got this thing to work and strange as it seems hes back in the air again as the co pilot and chief mechanic ..not bad for a 71 yr old bull of a man .
Another issue brought up is fuel and travel time as the chopper will keep using more and more fuel the further it flys so an idea was suggested about a mobile transport which the craft can land on ,,refuel and rearm if needed and then be driven to the last spot it got to before needing to refuel and then take off again without having to do it all over again ,,its less wear on the craft and if there is a problem the truck can go get it .
The idea is a good one and Frank knew right from the get go what was going to be used for the truck,,,a Foremost oil field truck,,,8x8 with high flotation tires and he knew where there was one ,,he was wrong ,,it is a oil field truck for sure but not a Foremost,,its a MAN and he'd never seen one like this but hell who cares ,,it works and thats all that matters,,the mods took a few weeks of hard work to build but at the end were pretty easy,,an ammo storage box,,extra fuel tanks for the truck and the chopper ,,weapons mountings and the best score ,,a complete ACAV turret found of all places in some abandoned barn.
The weapons were picked up from everywhere they could find them ,,the best score was a very long distance scouting mission for a Canadian Army storage facility..taking nearly two weeks to find as it buried in the side of a mountain but it was found and the biggest surprise was that the main door was closed but unlocked but it still took 2 of the 4x4 trucks linked together to be able to pull it open ,,no power and that meant no easy opening door,,inside they found so much things they couldn't take it all in ,,7 MAN 4x4 and 6x6 trucks,,three Humvees with no engines in them and no engines could be found too.
The best part ,,,crates and crates of weapons and ammo but not only that,,clothes and boots and pretty much everything to expect to find that the military would use,,the score of extreme cold weather clothes made alot of people very happy as winters here seem if anything to be getting worse.
The weapons which came from here were trucked back to Peterson in 4 trips using a total of 15 trucks and trailers ,,not just semi trucks but pick ups as well and the MAN trucks found at the Hole,,its nick name as its a hole in a mountain.
Hundreds of M16's and M4's ,,L7A1's and A2's GPMG's ,,MK19 40mm grenade launchers and M2 and M3 50cal machine guns with a few thousand M9 Beretta hand guns ,,not all of those were takin but most .
The life of this truck began 6 yrs ago and still flies to this day with its flights only happening once in a while to check of the deads numbers as these things ,,even thou their still well over 400 miles away seem to be heading north,,right towards Peterson..only time will tell what the future holds for this town and its people.

Righto then ,,this started as a Revell MAN 8x8 truck,,now the kit was ok but the tires were no good at all,,they must have been taken from the moulds to soon because they were all bent,,mounting them on the rims and you could see straight away just how bent they were so they got chucked into the parts box,,useful for dio bits ..so to replace them i used the wheels and tires from 2 Tamiya Mini 4x4's and it looked like this .
DSCF3168 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
But you guys know me ,,can never leave anything alone  so now its like a ADT ,,pivot steer and the pics aint going to show much at the mo but least you can get a good idea how this thing is going to end up ,,kinda 
DSCF3178 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3171 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3174 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3175 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr

Thats it for the mo,,,,many more pics to come as this is a pretty big build and hell theres still the back end of this thing to build yet too .


























 

[Old Wombat]

Well, I can see someone's going to be having fun for a little while!

[Wardukw]

Hahaha Guy ...ya know it would go much quicker if i didnt keep coming up with ideas for the bloody thing 

[Old Wombat]

Yup!

[Wardukw]

Well ive been playing with this thing again ,,,,added a few bits here and a few bits there ,,,built the fuel tanks for the chopper and made the sleeper/storage box a little more refined and added the turret which will be armed with a MK19 40mm grenade launcher ,,a super easy way to turn dead heads into lots of chunks 
Heres a few pics to show ya all how its going so far ..
DSCF3181 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3182 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3183 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3184 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3185 by Phill Harrison, on FlickrDSCF3186 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3187 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3188 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3189 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
DSCF3192 by Phill Harrison, on Flickr
More to follow at some point..this one is gonna take a little while 

[kerick]

Nothing like a raid on a fully stocked National Guard armory to fill out a zombie apocalypse defense plan! This build looks like a lot of fun. Is there an oil refinery in Peterson? Or maybe a tank farm?

[Rick Lowe]

That's coming along really well, Phil - looking forward to seeing the build progress.
The back story is pretty well thought out and cool, too.

Maybe the zombies are trekking towards/clustering around signs of life, much as the Triffids did, and lots of areas are, therefore, relatively zombie-free? Or at least needing only a little(!) sanitising.

If so, you could see the folk becoming semi-nomadic, moving on and taking what they could with them when the infestation gets too intense.
Sort-of a Mortal Engines-Lite, if you will.

Anyhoo, keep up the good work! 

[Wardukw]

Kerick mate ..well getting JP4 fuel for the huey is not that hard really.. kerosene is pretty much what JP4 is and if ya raid enough hardware stores you'll get plenty and theres hundreds for small and medium-sized airports all over Canada and the US and even if you could drain the fuel tanks from one medium-sized airliner you sweet..there thousands of litres of fuel out there..just gor ro know where to look 

Hey ya Rick  ..hope all goes well with you and the family..im dieing from the heat up here..bring on winter please.
Well the way things work in zombieland is fortifie like crazy ..re-kill any dead heads and try to sort out lasting food supplies ..i guess   
The way i got it figured is the huey will fly like 50 to 100 miles out and scout ..thrn radios back to the truck..weather of course plays a big part but mostly its to count heads from a height where thr dead cant get a direction to tey and follow the sound if they find any at all...the dead aint the only problem to..the living are also an issue to keep a eye out for  ..fact they would more of a problem than the dead so its either nicey nicey or nasty nasty.
The nomad side of things might happen at some point dew to repeated swams of the dead or food or weather..ya just never know but at some point a very long distance scouting trip might take place just for that purpose.
Winters might work for them as much as against them..its known that the winters can get cold enough to freeze a person solid..whats not known yet is whether it kills the already dead..its surmised that it might but theres no 100% certainty ..theres quite a few flokes out there who want to found out..myself included 

[Rick Lowe]

True, people are bad enough now, when we don't have hordes of Deadders to look out for... add the survive-at-all-costs into the mix and watch things crash'n'burn...

Family is well, thanks, but as you say - the heat!...    though winter can stay away a bit longer, for my money - we've only just gotten summer, dude!

[Wardukw]

Rick mate summer can bite my arse..
Im a cold weather person just like my mum..my dad and sister are mental ..they love the summer but ya know its hot when my sis complains and she lived in Oz for 9yrs .
I was bron in a cold place ..in fact it was - 49.4C when i was born..total fact 

[Old Wombat]

There's a touch of the mega-mining-dump-truck look about this thing, which is a good thing!

So is heat (a good thing), I wish it would come back! I haven't had a real Summer, yet!

If you haven't read them, I'd recommend Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide & World War Z (NOT the movie!). Excellent books!


I have my own ideas on zombies but I don't have the inclination to write a novel, anymore, so I'll probably release the basics a piece at a time across a bunch of zombie builds.

[Wardukw]

Hey ya Guy..i have this medical problem i was born with..when i get to hot i cant cool down..it can kill my butt because i roast from the inside out..my mum has  it too but not as bad as me..the last time i blacked out from way over doing on a hot day i ended up wrapped up from head to foot in ice bags..for 2 hrs to bring my core temp down..i hate summer    

Ya know theres really no rules in zombie land because theres no 100% reason why it happened..virus..cocked up medical experiments..military experiments..a bad pie from a gas n glup..so your own ideas are right and so are mine ..one thing which is the same no matter what kind of zombie story it might be. ...survival

[tigercat]

I'm trying to remember where I read that the solution to lots of Zombies was a Combine Harvester with the safeties removed

[Old Wombat]

Hey ya Guy..i have this medical problem i was born with..when i get to hot i cant cool down..it can kill my butt because i roast from the inside out..my mum has  it too but not as bad as me..the last time i blacked out from way over doing on a hot day i ended up wrapped up from head to foot in ice bags..for 2 hrs to bring my core temp down..i hate summer    

That's gotta suck!

How do you do in the cold? (Better than the heat, obviously, but how much better?)

Ya know theres really no rules in zombie land because theres no 100% reason why it happened..virus..cocked up medical experiments..military experiments..a bad pie from a gas n glup..so your own ideas are right and so are mine ..one thing which is the same no matter what kind of zombie story it might be. ...survival

Exactly!

My ideas may be partially derivative* & partially original but they're as valid as anyone else's. However, I no longer have the desire to write novels**, in any genre***.



[*: Well, you know, zombies! Right? There are certain elements that have to be! ]

[**: I used to, sort of. I had reams of plot development, scenes, character sketches & "technical" details, drawings of characters & things. I had over a dozen boxes, each one the basis for a novel. Then, when it came to the writing, the mojo would go away. Anyway, they've all been recycled into boxes & egg cartons, now. ]

[***: Oddly, the general "zombie" blood-&-gore genre has never interested me; 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, the "Resident Evil" franchise movies, (oddly) Warm Bodies, even World War Z (divorcing it completely from the book), Shaun of the Dead (Maybe? As I've never managed to see it in its entirety), plus a few others, are all I've found to be worth watching, so far.]

[Wardukw]

Ahhhh winter...the beauty which is this cold ..damp and most cases wet wonder of nature 
Oh im ten times better in the cold..i breathe better ..sleep better as it is i offen wake up with my nose blocked solid because i got to warm ..that can happen even in winter but my noss clears much faster then back to sleepy land 
One thing i do like about summer ..my clothes dry much faster 

There is one thing i picked up on with zombie ideas ..it easy to come up with the ideas..details and the like but putting it all into a story tho needs a different train of thought and thats the same with building these things we build..sometimes its easy on the idea front but making it a reality tho can be a time consuming pain in the rear end..sounds like you were nearly there Guy but like ya said..the mojo wasn't there.

As for movies .. ..those i have quite a few off..more than 1400 in fact..got a 2 terrabyte drive..1.3 terrabytes are movies ..theres another 300+ gig of rm on my 1 terrabyte drive  ..yes i have a problem 
Ive got all the Resident Evil movies..land of the dead..dawn of the dead ..Shaun of the dead.. both 28 days movies ..Zombieland 1 and 2 ..army of the dead..cockneys Vs zombies..funny one  ..deep snow 1 and 2  and many more ..kinda like the gene as ya might have guessed 
Oh if ya want to see a zombie movie which is surprisingly good ...Pride and Prejudice and Zombies ..good budget and good acting and pretty damn good fight seans.