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​Preproduction: ​1986 Dreadnok Swapfire

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The Dreadnok Swampfire was a combination of different vehicles, since the Dreadnoks pilfered and combined different vehicles. The serrated edges of the helicopter blades were intended to be used to hack through reeds or opponents. The image gallery below shows Guy Cassaday's early "Dreadnok Swampcraft" illustrations. These pencil, pen and marker illustrations show the progression from loose, gestural drawings to tight line art that starts to consider the engineering challenges ahead. The three sheets show color breakdown, an exploded view, and decal placement.
​ Roll over the images below to find out more, or click the images to enlarge them.

This earlier illustration shows triangular pontoons and two small guns on the bow of the craft.

This illustration shows the raising and lowering functionality of the pontoons. They appear to be the more angular pontoons seen in the first illustration.

This detailed illustration notes (left to right): gun detail, rub strips, rotating gun, 1/2" removed, one piece tail section, and on the blade end close up it shows a pivot point and securing hole. It also notes that Guy turned over costing model and exploded view illustrations on 5-6-85. Note the two front bow guns are still present at this point, and the pontoons are angular.

This later illustration shows the rounded pontoons found on production samples. Also note the addition of the curved serrated helicopter blades, and the removal of the bow guns.

This exploded view indicates the individual components needed in manufacturing to build the Swampfire.

This decal placement illustration is dated 7-31-85.

This color breakdown illustration indicates the three colors to be used in manufacturing the Swampfire.

Guy Cassaday built the Dreadnok Swampfire model from scratch. The color-change (photochromic) plastic stunk. The pontoons were sonic welded (to avoid water leaking in and causing mold), and they smelled “like a toxic waste plant.” The smell was so bad they added vanilla extract to the plastic. Roll over the images below to find out more, or click the images to enlarge them.

The costing model shown here uses blades from the 1983 Cobra F.A.N.G.. Guy often used pre-existing parts when building costing models for speed and ease of construction.

Hand built prototype

Here you can see the functioning blades and pontoons on the hand built prototype.