How not to survive the apocalypse... "survival" bundle content
Cybersox
Posts: 9,082
I'm used to seeing some rather inane items crop up in the DAZ3d catalog, especially when the term "steampunk" is invoked, but I'm finding it hard to remember anything as completely impractical and counterproductive to the supposed theme ofa bundle as the "Halcyon Fragment Outfits" and the "XI Post-apocalyptic Bomber Truck".
I mean, if you're stuck in a situation in a situation where all of the rest of your assets are being cobbled together from scrap, spare parts, and leftovers, exactly what kind of survivors would place their priority on creating snazzy custom matching unIforms with highly intricate decorative trim for both genders? Especially when one also assumes that they either would have to make multiple copies of those outfits or accept the end result of smelling horrifically while sweating under that leather for extended durations. But as illogical as those outfits are, at least I can hope that they were probably never intended as survival gear in the first place, and that their presentation as such was only due to the fevered imagination of a DAZ marketing person who needed to fill a bundle.
On the other hand, I can't even fathom what kind of theoretical thought process might decide that using the body of a vintage bomber fuselage as an improvised tank would make sense given that those bombers were notoriously lightly armored in order to maximize their operational range, with the flight crew forced to wear 25 lbs of body armor and steel helmets given the scant protection of the airplane bodies themselves. And that's before one wonders why said designer would leave the body extending back so far when that would leave the resulting vehicle with poor balance and hindered manueverability, or how, since the engines on the now missing wings are also missing, exactly how the whole massive thing is being powered and steered, let alone where the fuel would be stored...
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On the other side of the equation, at least the Hacyon Fragment stuff doesn't have peculiar holes in it, or gratuitously bare midrifs, and if you refit the male boots to female, they might make rather spiffy ubiforms in some peculiar not altogether SF universe.
But survivalist,? Not even close.
I love this bomber truck. It goes well with Cybertenko's road chaser made from WW II era fighter plane.
Post-apocalypse genre is like steampunk or cyberpunk - it's all about what's cool, not what makes sense.
....hmm an old B-17 fuselage on a truck chassis
Now I have seen where some people converted old aeroplanes to ground vehicles: Here's an RV conversion made from forward part of a 737..
..and the forward part of the fuselage from a DC3
There was even an old Boeing 307 cinverted into a yacht:
However, in both of the RV conversions these the fuselage sections were centred on the main chassis with wheels at the rear. The yacht similarly has a hull that extends the length of the fuselage. As to the converted B-17 "tank", I would imagine if armed personnel were in the rear section ready to egress, or it attempted to back it would likely end up like this Boeing 737-900 NG where the rear hold had not been emptied first. Note that the main undercarriage is also actually bit aft of the aircraft's true centre.
Despite it's name "The Flying Fortress" (primarily because of all the gun turrets as well as gun emplacements at midship) the B-17 was minimally armoured and many took serious hits from fighters and flak that often were fatal to the crew inside. This one below encountered several Japanese fighters (no AA fire from the ground) and was totally shot up, yet miraculously landed at a base in New Guinea. 3 of the 9 crew members were lost. As can be seen the bombardier's position in the nose which was only a Plexiglas bubble) was completely destroyed (one of the fatalities)
Aeroplanes are not "tanks" due to the added weight (the B-24 Liberator was even more pone to fatal damage) save for maybe the A-10 Thunderbolt which has an armoured titanium bucket (colloquially referred to as the "bathtub") surrounding the pilot, avionics, and other critical systems along with ballistic glass windscreen that can withstand small arms fire as well many multiple redundant systems (even backup manual controls). Empty weight of the A-10 is about 73% that of the much larger B-17. and the overall size is about half that of the B-17.
Yeah, the Bomber Truck definitly puts form well before function.
I think I saw the casing for the blower underneth the cockpit, so there's an engine but... The creator obviously has not driven a forklift, steering in the backwheels...
https://www.daz3d.com/xi-post-apocalyptic-bomber-truck
link to product
Anyone who has played alot of survival video games or read countless post apoc novels have an expectation of down to earth common sense approach to SHTF survival methods.
I consider that product an interesting idea, which a design that doesn't would work that well when tried out in reality. For the next attempt the PA might want to use the chassis of a longer two-axled truck, connect the engine with the rear axle and have the steering on the front one. Would still be a female dog to drive around in, but - hey - it's Apocalyps, baby, so not a lot traffic around.
So yeah, nice idea but kinda put in it's place by too little logic used when designing the product. Which happens in the design studies for cosumer goods and other industrial designed wares all the time, too...
But the idea of people surviving an apocalypse and having access to fuel is still totally realistic, right?
Combustion engines can be made to run on almost anything, manure from animals comes to mind first, woodgas has also been used during WWII and if one has access to electricity, everything including seawater can be turned into your regular gas - US Navy did a study around 2010, about making aviation fuel from seawater, using an atomic powerplant on board an aircraft carrier, and even then it would have been more cost effective than hauling the gas to the ship.
Ps. The cost for building and maintaining the powerplant were included in the calculations.
No surviving stock vehicles could be adjusted for special fuel with regular car workshop tools and places like refineries or factories would be first to be targeted in case of atomic war.
Anyway, I'm taking Fallout and Mad Max as my guideline what's realistic in post-apocalyptic settings. Maybe it's powered by pocket nuclear reactor?
Mkay. I guess they can look up how to do all that on Youtube.
Looks great and goes well with, well... Other weird rides.
Post apocalypse ,,, one could probably work something out with a wood(biomass) gasifier.
Same thing can be done with plastics (Pyrolysis gasifing it down to diesel).
FEMA has a set of plans you can download, though there are better designs that are more efficient and solve some of the tar build-up problems.
Here's a basic setup you could mount in the bed of a truck.
https://www.instructables.com/Power-in-the-Apocalypse-How-to-Build-a-Wood-Gasifi/
These aren't systems that can be commercially profitable, but after the apocalypse profit really won't be much of a concern.
It isn't rocket science, I was actually planning to make my own woodgas generator, until 2008 happened and took my company down, but I still have my stash of 20 something pre-computerized cars that can be converted relatively easy - Just waiting for the apocalypse to make a killing with them
Won't theh need scythes on their hubcaps for that?
Lawnmower blades will do just fine.
How to actually survive the apocalypse: Be reborn as a cockroach a few minutes before it starts.
If we are going for post apocalypse accuracy, the bundle needs stylish sentient cockroach characters... if it's just your typical video game grade fun kinda apocalypse, it's just fine as it is... look at the characters in the promo, they kinda look happy... and stylish... not cockroach's, but still quite stylish, so I'm assuming it's a fun video game apocalypse.
Yes, I agree the non-copyright infringing B-17 would be impractical, but have you ever seen the ridiculous stuff people do to real cars pre-apocalypse?
I've seen people make spoilers and ground effects out of plywood... I'm not gonna write off that B-17 so quickly.
When I did my service time with the German Bundeswehr (Army) our trucks ran on Diesel. And were able to get adjusted with simple tools to accept about every flammable oily fluid. Even cod liver oil... the only thing was that the energy of oils is different, so depending on what you fill in the tanks, you'd get a different miles per gallon output.
I expect the effort to adapt Max Mad Style V12 engines to anything then the fuel they are used to burn might be a tad bit higher.
Cybersox, I better never see any sort of zombie, mutant, monster, alien, giant creature, or anything that isn't designated 100% biologically accurate by a zoologist in any of your post-apocalyptic art, EVER. ;)
I remember watching a UK TV show about life after an apocalypse although I think it was more biological than nuclear. Anyhow, there was no problem finding fuel or vehicles to ride around in. Of course, this was not long after the event and the survivors (I think the show was called "Survivors") were a very small percentage of the pre-apocalyse population.
...I saw that. It was a British series that aired on BBC form the from 1975 to 1977 and was about a world wide engineered pandemic that nearly killed off the human race, Looking back it was rather chilling considering Covid.
thing is we know nobody is going to fare well in an apocalypse
but more frightening is one may happen sooner rather than later, I just hope I don't live that long
the fictional scenarios are a coping mechanism as well as entertainment for now
nobody wants to live in Westeros with dragons and white walkers either
Actually, just about anyone can convert a stock diesel car into a "greaseburner" that runs on vegetable oil. That said, if you want to have an apocalypse ready car, the ideal candidate would be an electric, as TeslaPower stations can be hooked up to an array of solar panels or a wind or water mill, and since electrics are practically silent, they're less likely to attract the zombies. :)
The great thing about the phrase "biologically accurate" is that nature has thrown out so many weird things that there's always some proof of concept that already exists in the wild. What with plants and animals that can live in the most extreme elements, live without oxygen, air, water, stay alive for thousands of years, spontaneously change gender, and create light, electricty, and chemical bombs, the range is pretty crazy, and now that even the old adage about nature never inventing the wheel has been proved conclusively wrong with the discovery that bacterias flagellem are actually rotary motors, what's left to rule out?
Except the problem with that line of thinking is that one person's cool may end up being patently ridiculous to everyone else - see: Joel Schumacher deciding to put nipples on the Batsuits in BATMAN AND ROBIN, Jar Jar Binks, and approximately 1/3 of the last Indiana Jones movie. :)
Or... there are these things called printed books, magazines, and libraries. ;)
...I work with a cyber apocalyptic RPG titled Shadowrun. Half of what I see that passes for cyberpunk wear here and at the other store, particularly what one would wear on a "job", would easily get a character "geeked" (dead) in the sprawl. I tend to go with for contemporary military covert ops and what would be appropriate outfits fop a specific assignement (like infiltrating a high tech facility or having to blend in as a corp "wageslave" in an office setting). The whole idea is to not make yourself a target.
...and you better have your gut and upper chest protected when the lead starts a flying as well as for female characters, proper footwear (eg boots without spike heels) to make a quick getaway if you need to.
I always ask players how their characters are dressed and "kitted out" for a mission.
So true. Likewise, I've often thought that one of the worst things that every happened to the comic book industry was the fact that the first major break-out character, Superman, was so ridiculously overpowered and invulnerable that it didn't matter what he wore, but that set a template for the generations of increasingly silly and impractical costumes that followed.
Your biggest problem in post-apocalyptic scenario is not going to be finding fuel, but keeping machines operating if the industry goes to hell. If this is total apocalypse like Fallouts, then after a few decades it's going to be making a single working engine out of multiple broken ones. Hopefully there will be lubricants and grease, usually they are oil or silicone based.
Post-apocalypse is fantasy genre. If this civilisation breaks then most of us starves and we're going to have bigger problems than riding cool trucks.
It really isn't any more realistic than steampunk nor it's expected to be. 100% percent of steampunk is plain silly. I strongly dislike steampunk. But I'm not complaining about steampunk models for sale because this genre simply isn't for me.
I mean, almost all starship models in Daz and Rendo stores have silly horizontal deck plans, but scifi and space opera just roll with this trope. Post-apocalypse might roll with its tropes too. \_(-_-)_/
I suspect those outfits are steampunk leftovers. There are little gears on the pockets–dead giveaway. The bomber truck at least looks interesting, could fit into a Mad Max type of setting.
If you want inane you should look at the Assassin Sister Outfit Bundle. Forget impracticality, it's outright idiotic. And there have been plenty others in the same vein, they come out almost monthly, and every new one is more asinine than the previous. As if their creators were competing over who could come up with the most absurdly vulgar skimpwear.