Black Top Warriors Alley Rat

Original Kit:

Black Top Warriors Alley Rat

Made By:

Revell (kit #2145)

Scale:

1/25

Other Post-Apocalyptic Models
 

Steel Monsters Enforcer
Brazil Microcar
Avatar AT-99 Scorpion
War of the Worlds Monte Carlo SS
Twisted Metal Sweet Tooth (Review)
Freedom Project Tricycle (Review)
"Corvette" Fighter
Dune Sand Crawler
Black Top Warriors Pink Poison
Edge of Tomorrow Sgt Rita Vratraski
Left 4 Dead 2 Stock Car
Black Top Warriors Alley Rat
Black Top Warriors Killer Bee
Transmorphers: Fall of Man Police Car
Halo M12B Tundra Warthog
Night of the Comet Buick (Review)
V Laser Jeep
Walking Dead Chopper
Blood Drive 1967 Camaro
Misery Machine

The year after Revell launched their RAMS: Rebuildable Action Model System toys, they tried their hand at another in-house property with Black Top Warriors. They took three of their most apocalypse-ready toolings, mashed together a bunch of the anxieties of the day (2012, killer bees, pandemics, etc.), and called it good. "Alley Rat" was arguably the face of the series, a repop of their classic "Sneaky Pete" custom Chevy pickup with new graphics, new box art, and a brief bio. The tooling was pretty worn, but not unbuildable - just lots of parting lines, some flash, and a few sink marks as would be expected for a kit this age.

Starting with the chassis, I wanted to keep things mostly box stock - including the kit-supplied front beam axle. I knew it was incorrect for a 2WD Chevy, but as a custom vehicle I figured it'd be fine. I wasn't prepared for how weak it was: the weight of the unfinished model was enough to cause noticeable flex at both ends of the axle. I ended up making brake lines out of stiff wire to act as supports, which seemed silly but worked surprisingly well. I also added a few armor plates to protect the engine, transmission, and rear end. In an effort to keep the general tone of the box art, but also get rid of the undersized wheels that came in the kit, I replaced what Revell provided with a set of semi truck wheels and low profile tires. The fronts came from the same International Transtar 4300 Eagle that had previously donated parts to the Duel rig, the rears were the leftovers from my Salamander, and the tires were from some late model muscle car, used to represent a set of period run-flats. Maybe not ideal for the post apocalypse, but for a vehicle that operates slowly and exclusively within city limits I deemed it an acceptable trade-off.

The engine was mostly stock as well, though I did replace the belt drive with one from my parts box so I could add a power steering pump. It was wired and plumbed, the air cleaner was replaced with one from a Hot Wheels Tee'd Off, and a battery was dropped in behind the block. The exhaust headers and mufflers were from the kit, but the pipes between them were recreated using round rod stock to avoid the multiple offsets that Revell had included.

Inside, I went with a dull red base to give it a little interest and let the extra details stand out. These included the kit-supplied CB radio, my own boxes and cans, a backpack, a first aid kit, some miscellaneous bottles, and a scratch built flashlight.

The body went together surprisingly well, considering the general difficulties around tilt-nose hoods lining up with the rest of the vehicle. No such problem here: all I really needed to do was a little cleanup where the hood, cowl, and windshield all met, then I painted everything satin black. The floor of the box had some nice detail on the top side, but was totally blank on the bottom. It seemed like a good opportunity to try out Hasegawa's Wood Finish. I went with the "Walnut" sheet, which had a decent gray-brown that seemed fitting for this project. By slicing it into strips and applying those directly to the boards, I was able to get a decent finish with no concerns about ragged edges or smeared paint. Another sheet cut to fit the underside of the bed gave that blank panel some much-needed texture.

I skipped the "armor plate" decals in favor of some custom panels cut from sheet styrene and detailed with embossed rivets punched directly into the plastic before being painted TS-42 Light Gunmetal. The kit had plates for the hood and rear fenders, but skipped the doors - I swapped these last two, making plates for the cab but not bothering with the rear fenders. Those weren't the only decal oddities, though. Front and rear windows were provided, with dirty glass and reinforced edges...plus bullet holes with blown-out "metal" around them. In the middle of the glass. Weird. I kept the idea of reinforced strips at the edges, but covered the glass with fine mesh by Atlas. While I was at it, I also put some mesh over the headlights.

Most of the chrome was badly marred by flash, and had to be sanded down and redone. Fortunately, since it had a matte finish, it was easy enough to touch up the bared edges with paint and aluminum BMF. I also drilled out the horns, made new stacks from aluminum tube, added a Fireball Modelworks trailer hitch to the rear bumper, and replaced the antenna with lengths of guitar wire. The lights were all finished with craft gems, including the clearance lights on the roof. By this point I had ignored the decal sheet beyond using it for inspiration, and didn't see any reason to change tack now (not that the door decals would have fit with my new armor plates, anyway). I redrew the skulls to match what came in the kit, and made new "Black Top Warrior" and "Alley Rat" decals to look like they had been brush painted. Everything was then given a heavy weathering of dirt, grime, and rust streaks.

I could have stopped here, but it didn't quite feel finished - the box was too empty. Also, I didn't like the tiny outboard gas tanks as the only fuel supply given the world it had to navigate. I had a pair of "early attempt" gas tanks left over from the Blue Mule, and one of those fit the width of Alley Rat's box perfectly. I also tossed in the storage containers from a Moon Buggy, a toolbox, a scratch built wooden box, some tools, a funnel, a length of chain, and a water jug.

As I was adding these details, I was thinking about how this rig would navigate the city and how it would be so much easier to have a mini bike to do scouting, recon, and supply runs. As luck would have it, AMT's Bigfoot kit included a Honda Trail 70 that would be perfect for this. The bike was a neat little kit unto itself with a nicely detailed engine, plenty of separate parts, and lots of potential for upgrades. Among these were clear parts for the headlight and taillight, basic wiring and plumbing, improved brake linkage and kickstand, and custom decals over bright blue and chrome paints. I couldn't bring myself to dirty it up to match the truck, so headcanon is that the drivers of Alley Rat found this in a garage recently and recognized its usefulness. It fit - snugly - in the back of the truck along with a custom wooden ramp to allow easy loading.

Speaking of drivers, now that a mini bike was along for the ride there should definitely be two. After looking around some, I found two good candidates: both wearing coveralls tied off at their waists and wearing work boots, appropriate for scrounging the city looking for useful bits of scrap. The first was "Modern Female Mechanic Crew: Jennifer" from DEF Model, which also had the benefit of long gloves that could serve as hazardous protection gloves. The Starbucks cup wasn't quite right, but with a little selective painting it made for a passable travel mug...and I know at least one person who would absolutely carry their travel mug of coffee through the post apocalypse. The other was a Maschinen Krieger "Female Mechanic (A)" from Brick Works. As with much of the Ma.K. line she was in 1/20 scale, but I got her anyway with the thought that she'd simply be "tall" in 1/25. Both figures received the same black boots and blue coveralls, with one getting an off-white Decepticon T-shirt and green gloves to represent chemical-resistant nitrile. The other got a green top and her wrench was painted silver chrome.

Overall, I'm happy with how everything turned out. Of the three Black Top Warriors kits, Alley Rat was very average - not as good straight out of the box as Pink Poison, but far better than Killer Bee. I still need to practice my figure work, but I'm finally starting to feel like the results aren't entirely arbitrary. It's too bad that the series was cut off after just the three kits, but given Revell's extensive catalog of kits and the basic premise of the series I could see myself adding my own takes in the future.