Scratchbuild: Ork Gobsmasha

I started this one when I was kinda in a bad mood. Work had been stressful, I was processing a few things emotionally, I was going off Project Sulaco, and finding myself at loose end creatively. So I ended up opting to do another orky scratchbuild. I've done a great many of these, and truthfully I fear falling into a rut without realising. I've got a method for these locked in, and while the results speak for themselves, it gets samey to write about. That said, I find these fun and therapeutic in way that Project Sulaco wasn't really. So, with that in mind, the Gobsmasha.

In order to put the Gobsmasha onto context, we have to go back the earliest days of the 40k setting. You know, the 1st edition, early Epic, mostly metal rather than plastic, pre-me, sort of time period. As I've mentioned before, actual 28mm scale vehicle kits were not something GW could easily do, which is why things like jet/motorbikes and dreadnoughts were so common unit types at the time. And in many ways still are, but I digress. This isn't to say there wasn't a demand for heavy vehicles at the time, the 6mm scale Epic system was all about that, and 40k had vehicle rules from day one, but GW was a much smaller company back then, and such things were a major investment for them. It's not like you can 3D print stuff in the early 90's is it? As such both the 1st edition rulebook and subsequent White Dwarf articles featured a variety of scratchbuilds and kitbashes, even to the point of featuring plans for complete vehicles. Games Workshop absolutely would not do that today. The Gobsmasha, as featured in this link, is one such vehicle. It's one of the numerous and oft odd battlewagon-adjacent vehicles that turned up in Epic, had an obscure resin model in 28mm, but otherwise has been forgotten. it's overall vibe is typical of the super early Ork vehicle pool, sitting somewhere between a self-propelled gun and an olde timey traction engine.

 

Now, I could have gone and attempted the plans as is, but I didn't for three reasons. 1) Size creep is a thing, and I'd probably end up with something more akin to a Grot Tank or buggy than a modern Battlewagon. 2) I'm not a fan of papercraft stuff, being too clack-handed and impatient. 3) In my hubris, I felt that in between my bitzbox, my experience, and a hot glue gun, that I could free-form something better. Arrogant, I know, but those plans are 30 odd years old, I've got things they didn't, and this ain't my first barbecue. I use the word "hubris" as I ended up crafting the front wheels from 60mm bases, and the result isn't perfectly circular, something that sets off my perfectionism something fierce. It doesn't matter in the wider context, although it's a shame I wasn't able source some suitable lids for use in this project, that would have sidestepped some faff. The main body was built up from three tubes hot-glued together in a H shape, which was then layered with old toy truck panels and such. My stockpile of resin pieces from Ramshackle Games came good with a boiler and chimney piece suitable for a traction engine, while the weapons are GW plastics. Now, as a first edition thing, the Gobsmasha predates the modern orky armoury, but there's some fairly obvious equivalents to go for, i. E. heavy bolter = big shoota, a convention I've used on this and many other projects. As the Gobsmasha had a big cannon on it and two machine gun type things, this led to me me treating as a Big Trakk, like my recent Basilisk. That's not actually ideal given the size this ended up, plus it doesn't actually have trakks, but I didn't feel adding all the ancillary stuff that comes as standard on a modern Battlewagon. That would spoil the effect I was going for. Innumerable rivets later, I got to drybrushing.

Its good to be back :)

My time at the TFNation Manchester Mini-Con

OK, there’s no big project on just now, so let me talk a bit about the my experiences at the TFNation Manchester Mini-Con instead. Which happened last week.

 

 

I left on the Friday evening before the Mini-con, having opted to take a cheapo train, and staying the night at the venue hotel. This wasn't my first choice, but I’d left it too late to book the Premier Inn as the prices had shot up to parity with the venue. At that point, might as well have the expensive hotel room, right? The train journey however was a bit of a bitch, the train both being late, and breaking down at a station. I ended up arriving at the hotel at 11:45PM, which was far from ideal, and made a mental note to file a compensation claim when I got home. On the plus side, I’d actually received a room upgrade, which resulted in a room larger than my flat and featuring two separate flat-screen TVs. I wish I could have enjoyed it more, but it was comfortable enough for my needs.

I awoke the next morning, or possibly later that morning, finding myself awake and not fully compos mentis at about half seven. I would have liked more sleep. Aware I was on a time limit, I dressed, packed my overnight bag, and went for the breakfast buffet. It was a good buffet. 9/10. Would make Ron Swanson happy. The hash-browns were however circular. Not bad just odd. Having attempted to start the day right, I entered the dealers room for the main reason why I was attending: to assist the Toy-Fu charity, thus seeing friends there and at the forge section. After which things get a bit blurry. The Mini-con is obviously not a huge event, and its probably not unfair to suggest that Toy-Fu was the biggest fish in that small pond. I spent much of the day working on the stall, picking a few indulgences along the way. Not as much as I was expecting too, if I’m honest. The new wave of Legacy United toys wasn’t present, which was a shame. Then, of course the wonderful thing happened: two good friends, James and Claude, gifted me with a DragonZord. It was in honour of the character I play in our collective online RPG campaign. This made my day. It made the trip. Thanks again, both of you. And thanks to everybody on the stall, and the convention in general for your company.

Things calmed down towards teatime, with clearing up going relatively smoothly. Myself and my friend Karl opted to walk to the train station thereafter, having a nerd chat in the miserable weather. He boarded his train, eventually making it home without issue, and I paused for a burger while I got my bearings. I was aware that bus replacements were running, so I’d got there early thinking that I might have to change trains or similar. As it turned out, the train I was booked on no-longer existed, fecking charming, so I rolled the dice on another train. It was packed, but I actually lucked out and ended up home an hour earlier than expected. And thus, an enjoyable if somewhat knackering 30ish hours came to a close.

 

 

So what toys did I get? Well, here’s a brief rundown.

A Matchbox Mini Cooper: Picked out from a bag of battered toys, the mini is a classic with obvious Gaslands potential.

Combiner Wars Scrounge and Cybaxx: You know, sometimes working on a stall has its upsides. This toy is very difficult to get hold of, and is an article candidate for this blog.

Mighty Morphing Power Rangers DragonZord: Is love. Just, love. I probably won’t write about this one, I don’t have the necessary experience, but I will appreciate it.

Fall of Cybertron Air Raid: I always kinda wanted this one, its from a period of interesting retools. Its also an article candidate.

Up next on Sunday: another orky thing, see you then.

Transformers: Legacy United Thundertron is Something that Exists

 

The 2012 Prime: Robots in Disguise Thundertron toy

 

While the opening salvo of Legacy United is full of interesting and refreshing choices, Thundertron is one of the more surprising. He was a curiosity in the mass market Prime toyline of 2012, a seemingly toy-first voyager with no fictional appearances. It wasn't until this year that I learned that this chap had a novel appearance and was being positioned for an antagonist role on screen, at least until Beast hunters happened. I may have to do a deeper dive into Prime and the Aligned continuity at some point. Because, much like the Holy Roman Empire, the Aligned Continuity was neither of those things. But for now let me end this paragraph with a one sentence summary of Thundertron and his appeal. He's a cat pirate robot.

 

I mean, I could just end the article there. Cat. Pirate. Robot. The appeal should be self -evident. But no, I just going to waffle on like I usually do. OK, so, the robot mode, like the toy in general, is a reinterpretation of the original Prime release rather than a 1 to 1 revamp. The difference is mainly in the shoulder pads and the type of cat he is now, but otherwise it's very faithful to the spirit of that old voyager. The robot mode is predominately blue and white, the overall form being evocative of olde worlde, age of sail clothing. Think of the cat head as a puffy shirt, the skirt armour as part of a long coat, and his head having some sorta sailor's hat built in, and you'll see where I'm coming from. The most piratey bits of him are of course, the beard, the cutlass, and, what was it? Oh yes. THE PEG LEG! Rarely has an on the job maiming been so important to a stereotype. Why hasn't he fixed this? He's a robot, spare parts must be an option, or the Lockdown Method for Self-improvement. Maybe he can't. A closer look at the sculpt reveals chips, scratches and holes which have been left unpainted and subtle. It's a good effort, gives him a bit of faded grandeur without hitting you over the head with it like Siege often did. The closer look also reveals hollow areas in each limb which is much less good. Aside from being scenes a faire, the presence of the peg leg does however prompt a discussion about posability and balance. Fortunately, they got this right; Thundertron is not appreciably more difficult to stand than any other Transformer, and there's a plan b if a joint is too loose, the spare foot/boot/dancing-shoe. Outside of combiner wars, I admit that this is fairly unusual accessory, which goes on to form a matching blue cage guard for his cutlass. Posability otherwise is acceptable but not first class for a legacy release. All major joints are represented, plus or minus a foot, including concealed waist, ball jointed skirt armour, and pretty good shoulders despite those big shoulder pads. The wrists and neck however could have had a bit more motion. 5mm port functionality is there, but with the foot ports being committed for common sense reasons. His cutlass meanwhile uses a tab to slot into his coattails, and interestingly, his right shoulder. There's a rumour going around that Thundertron is getting some kind of leader class re-release, and those slots might play into that in a Coronation Starscream sort of way, but it's unknown at time of writing. Otherwise an extremely characterful robot mode, if gappy.

Achieving his lion/fur-baby form is another point of interest, as Thundertron goes from ship's captain to a Zoids-style ship's cat. The original toy had a possibly unique transformation where the largely decorative front legs were formed from shoulder kibble, a trait the new toy also has, but with a new spin. Here the entirety of the leg is stored in each shoulder pad, granting improved articulation over the original, if not hugely spectacular posability overall. These legs also tend towards the decorative, as the instructions direct you to peg these into the main body at the elbows, but you don't have to. Leaving them unpegged allows you to make use of transformation joints for better posing. The conversion is atypical in some other ways too, the back legs taking me by surprise, but it's got the same basic problem as the robot form: gaps. The hollow areas in the legs are still a thing, with the main body looking incomplete from several angles. Thundertron doesn't have an organic beast mode, and therefore a few hinges or seams aren't a deal breaker, but this is unflattering. Otherwise, we don't see any major visual change from the robot mode, just with those pirate aspects remixed and downplayed. The wear and tear of the robot mode is even less overt here, most notable on the back, near his faction badge. It's an attractive blue and white, with gold highlights, the overall shape of it having animalistic feel. In terms of play value, we have an opening mouth, a few 5mm ports, and storage for the sword on the back. As mentioned, posability sorta depends how you approach those front legs, but otherwise have just enough to make you wish there was more. I was pleased to note during photography that it can balance on the back legs alone, but a little in the neck would have been lovely. Certainly not a bad altmode, far from it, but one that feels a touch secondary to the robot mode.

All things considered, I'd compare Thundertron to Jhiaxus in terms of overall vibe and design approach. It's a fundamentally unexpected toy of an obscure character, and a massive breath of fresh air, that does well in robot form, but less well in altmode. Thundertron is more consist in both modes, in that the beast mode actually looks like something, but the hollow parts aren't a plus. He's definitely charming as is, but if the rumoured re-release addresses that weakness? Let's just say that this toy will likely be downgraded to "Something that exists".

Project Sulaco: Part 6

So, Prometheus exists, doesn't it? Not a good film, even by the standards of trend-chasing prequels. It's got one honestly scary moment among the mediocrity, like a shiny penny in a wastepaper basket. Speaking of which…

 

So, I had now moved on to the painting of these guys, having done research on methods for painting black. This research led me to contrast paints and the concept of "slapchop" or more properly "underpainting". For this technique, instead of applying a contrast to a white undercoat, something I loathe, you apply it to an intermediate colour, usually drybrushing a grey or white over black. This removes some of the unpredictability of contrasts, here being Black Templar and Fleshtearer Red, setting a foundational tone for the colour work. Clearly, I need to learn a bit about colour theory as I ended up with a darker ruby red, but that works. As did the black; its subtle, but there's more to it than merely spraypaint. I wouldn't be opposed to using this approach again in future, although I will admit my brainworms giving me trouble for the entirety of the process, until I finally decided pull the plug.While these meet the three colour table-worthy standard, I’m not happy with how they look. It had become a chore, and given earlier difficulties, its probably for the best that I draw a line under this, and maybe come back to it with fresh eyes and/or better skills.

It seems that I don't merely dislike slogging through Ork Boyz, I dislike slogging through Space Marines too. I'm just more of a kitbash, rusty scratchbuild, drybrush robot kinda guy. A shocking revelation there. The contrast paints here, while clearly having uses, just aren’t sitting well with my paint style. I’m not having fun here, and if I’m not having fun, or happy with the end result, what’s the point? So, I’m ending things there. I’ll take a week or two to think about what happens next. I may start another long term project, perhaps one with more of the bits I find fun, I may revisit the vehicles I planned, but just now I’ll take a break.

So what have I learned here? Well, I think I’ve managed to get useful practice with sculpting, and picked up a few painting tricks. I was probably over-confident from the outset, but I wanted to try something different, and there’s no shame in that it didn’t work out. But whatever I do next, I’ll have better idea of what I can actually do, with a few extra tools in my toolbox. Its said you learn more from a fialure, and that's a positive view I'm choosing to take.

Cheers for now.

Kitbash: Looted Basilisk

While Orks seem to get a reasonable amount of attention these days, it wasn't always so. The GW design team would go for consecutive editions without giving them any real attention, so even a good codex, and the 4th Ed codex was infamous, would decay into mediocrity. Part of that was a stated belief by GW that Orks should have difficulty in dealing with tanks at range. I might be misremembering that, but Orks spent the time from 3rd edition to the 8th edition revamp with the Rokkit Launcher being S8 when your typical tank had AV14, meaning they could only harm it on a 6, and then only a Glancing Hit, which could just inconvenience it. There was a period when the only way Orks could deal with the famously durable Necron Monolith was to ram it with a Dethrolla, which was awesome, but no mean feat. Tankbustas were a thing of course, but also obvious targets, and I'm summarising a fair few years here. This, anecdotally, led to Ork players sourcing actually feasible anti-tank guns, either by whatever Looted Wagon rules were in play at the time, or going to Forgeworld for one of their, possibly not tournament legal, indulgences. For today's article, we have a combination of both. Basilisks were/are enduringly popular self-propelled guns, great to work into Ork armies, while Big Trakks are their rough equivalent. Kinda. It's more that they are midway between Trukks and Battlewagons, while having an option to be an assault gun. Today's subject is a Looted Basilisk, using the rules of a Big Trakk.

Like so many of my projects, this is something that's been sitting in my bitzbox for so long that I no longer recall its origins or why I got it. I assume I got it because my opponents were asking for it. I also assume that the model was somebody's first kitbash. Somebody added a Gorkamorka trukk gunner into a hatch, and proceeded to dab red onto bare plastic. I respect the enthusiasm, but the lad, I presume it was a lad, on the balance of probability, hadn't been trusted with spray paint. And they had issues with the track links, which is understandable. The vehicle was largely intact, with the gun still movable, but lacking much of the trimmings. There was a dozerblade which I snapped-off without really meaning to, the loaders platform was missing it's guardrails, and no additional gubbins like a Hunter-Killer Missile were present. With the exception of the tracks, none of that really counts as a negative when this is meant to be an Ork looted vehicle though.

I was fortunate to have a few spare track links, so fixing the worst of it wasn't a problem. The original owner had tried to add track guards to the top too, so I built those up as well, using parts of the gunshield to hide a few flaws. I then proceeded to replace the shield on one side only, leaving the left open for a big shoota. A new gun barrel was sourced from my bitzbox, while the ram and replacement panels were made from various materials in my usual way. i.e. flat-packers, bits of old trukk, scrap plastic and EVA foam. I also sculpted a few glyph plates in green stuff, before proceeding to paint. This was the usual drybrush-stipple-wash-rust-bucket style, but remixed slightly to acknowledge it's Imperial origins. A late addition were some freehand "blitz" glyphs as kill markings, following a suggestion from social media. I don't think I'd do the gun barrel in dark grey again, it doesn’t go with the blue very well to my eyes, but it does look as rusty as anything, so that's fine. 

 

Job's a good 'un. 

 

 

Project Sulaco: Part 5

I suppose I could make references to Aliens Versus Predator here. A few well-liked games, some decent comics, and a couple of mediocre movies.

While I don't have anything earth-shattering to report, I had found my groove with the process at this point. I'd opted to change the putty mix, and go thinner, thus improving the look of the fabric. I’d decided for the right shoulder pads to be covered that way, as it meant I didn't have to muck around with unit markings, adding an adhesive gem to suggest a clasp arrangement which was suitably gothic. The second five followed, and while their look was a touch less varied, their weapons were modded into what I'm gonna call heavy lasers. This involved three shapes of bead and a tiny gear to suggest something not a flamethrower. In Xenos Rampant terms, I imagine this as the Armour Piercing rule weapons for an Elite Infantry unit, with the flamer guys having Close Range Doctrine and maybe Demolitions. The squad leader was a little more involved, as while the other four models had uncontroversial firing poses, he his gun stowed and that's not something you need to see in every unit. I placed the gun onto the bolt pistol arm, and on the other a knife cobbled together from a Stargrave bit, putty, and an orkish knife. Said blade then broke off, bastard son of a bitch. So it became a knuckleduster instead. This left the final tidying up prior to painting, which meant I'd have decide on a colour scheme.

What I'm leaning towards currently is the Black Shadow scheme. That's black as the main colour, red for the fabric, then silver and grey, etc to pick out icons etc. I don't think camo is the vibe I want for these. It was however touch & go for a while as if I could get them painted and photographed in time for the cut-off, and ultimately I decided to leave that until next week. Just imagine the above sprayed black, with some metallics on them, and you won’t go too far wrong.

 

One thing I did manage to do was make a start on was the Autoguns. These were pulled together from the bitz box, mainly from Ramshackle Games and their robot range. I had some tracked lower bodies which I'd disliked for the robots, but they are good for machine gun turrets. It was just a matter of finding three matching guns and joining things up with nanoblocks. They need finishing it off, but seeing them alongside the marines gave me a long-overdue feeling of progress.

Up next: hopefully some paint, and maybe an APC.

Transformers: TF2010 Hailstorm is Something That Exists

It's kinda weird these days to look at the TF2010 line, especially given how Legacy and the movie franchise are today. It was a time of plenty; the first two live action films had been massive successes, if not critically, while Transformers: Animated had overcome an initially hostile reaction to be a fan favourite that was taken too soon. We were again in a situation where we were getting more toys than media, but both the live-action and animated styles were highly divergent from what came before, and, call it the classical style, was starting to reassert itself around the edges. Live action toys not actually in the movies were much less extreme, and modernised takes on G1 characters were coming back. Note, this wasn't the faithful-to-the-point-of-idiocy remakes we've seen a lot of lately, rather reinterpretations with different alt modes. TF2010 ran concurrently with the more nostalgic Generations, which was just getting started, although in truth this distinction was somewhat arbitrary. Think Kingdom and Studio Series, or indeed Studio Series and Legacy. Things would change when Dark of the Moon came along, but this lead a period of melange, where we had a bunch of toys supposedly of the live-action continuity rubbing shoulders with nostalgia bait, both sets sharing the same design principles and pricing. Hailstorm is such a toy, a dude intended for the bayverse, but truthfully tangential to it, whom honestly does not and did not look that odd on a Generations shelf. The dude didn't do much, but is reported based on the G2 comic character Mindset, although somewhat loosely. He's something of a pretool to Mindset actually, there would be a headswap recolour with that name shortly thereafter.

The altmode is a MLRS vehicle of seemingly made-up origin, although one tending towards realism. This was the style of Transformers without licenced altmodes at the time, things tended towards real world contemporary altmodes. Its somewhat small and stocky, although with a lot of nice visual touches. The caterpillar tracks for example are picked out in two different colours, and while predominantly green, there's a camouflage pattern applied to some of the flat surfaces. The cab meanwhile, which hints at the true scale of the thing, lacks windows but leaves the frame for them empty, an odd choice. Functionally it's not bad either, to a point. The launcher turns and tilts, not always a given, and it features two bars for then-standard 3mm clip system. That was a play feature that grew out of the movie lines, where weapons had a clip to attach them to toys, and it was pretty good, although it's not something Hailstorm gets much use by himself. The issue comes with the eight missiles. The big, red, and kinda-bad pressure-launched missiles. These didn't work great at the time, still don't, and this was during a period when spring loaded missiles where a mundane feature. It's a millstone around the neck of the toy; it doesn't look bad here, but the actual execution is lacking. If only these had a little more punch to them. In other news, there's a lot of robot bits on the underside, which isn't that notable, but put me in mind of a horseshoe crab.

Hailstorm's transformation is possibly unique to the mould, although telegraphed somewhat by the robot bits. What's interesting here is the difference between the upper and lower body. The legs form the front of the vehicle, in what is a fairly unusual manner with the feet in the middle. It's reasonably good at concealing the other mode, but the upper body isn't. Instead that has an accordion type compression going on, which adds a lot to the character of the robot mode, but doesn't do much with the lower arms and chest. What is very unusual though is how the tracks form the upper arms. Shades of Tarn there, I half-remember a custom along those lines. It is an interesting way of doing things, to say the least, by turns impressive and basic.

Above, I mentioned that TF2010 toys would fit on a Generations shelf without looking odd. For Hailstorm this is something of a technicality. Hailstorm is inherently odd, just not in way a typical Bayverse design was odd back then. Make no mistake, this is not the inhuman over-complexity of early bayformer designs where your eyes could have a hard time processing what they were actually looking at. Hailstorm has a much cleaner and well-defined appearance, still a lot going on, but with recognisable focal points and good colour choices. I love that chest plate, it's such a good look with the silver abs and white shoulder assemblies. He is however a hunchbacked ogre of a robot with odd proportions and a heavy investment in those missiles that don't work great. These stick out the back to a comical distance, and at that point you kinda feel that maybe the toy would have been better off with purely decorative examples. Or actual 5mm fist holes for that matter. This wasn't that uncommon at the time, Animated didn't do standardised accessories, and smaller bay verse toys without handheld guns often didn't bother with fist holes. It would have helped though. On the plus side, you do have the C Clip functionality, the option to leave the missile pods in vehicle configuration so they take up less space, and he's not doing badly for articulation. Due to his transformation he ends up with ankle tilts, and gravitates naturally to a missile launching stance akin to Energon Demolishor. He's not super-posable or anything, but it feels appropriate to his general vibe.

Is Hailstorm good? Now that I come to think about it, I'm not sure. His key feature doesn't work that well, which is a problem as he's largely built around it. But he does have character, and that does count for something. It's probably why this guy has kept a place in my collection when I've moved on objectively better toys. It's a transitional design, if you will, midway between the bayverse and what Generations would quickly become. A realistic vehicle mode, an unconventional robot mode, but with a transformation that isn't overdone. There is a place for such things. Regardless, TF2010 Hailstorm is something that exists. 

 

Project Sulaco: Part 4

Part 4. Well, Alien: Resurrection was far from a great movie, but at least it had Ron Perlman. 

 

Right, with my initial plans shelved, I was very much starting from scratch, and I was awaiting a delivery, I couldn't really get into things until Friday night. Even then, I was still a little uncertain where to take things. Looking at the models in question, the Infernus Squad from the 10th Ed Leviathan starter set, two options presented themselves. The first was to lean into the tacticool look, possibly replacing the flamethrowers for more conventional firearms. The second was to lean into the GRIMDARK and do them in cloaks and robes, or as I choose to call it, the not-suspicious-at-all-Dark-Angels look. Furthermore, while I was aware that the models were fixed pose, but I was honestly surprised at how limiting the sculpt was. I mean, James Workshop, your production values speak for themselves, I can't fault you there, but I feel you are being purposely obtuse here. There is no standardisation between each model and it's just a bunch of guys two-handing the same big gun. Is this the chapter house thing again? Anyways, as the GRIMDARK option provided the most opportunities for sculpting, I went for that, and started push-fitting the pieces to feel things out. They go together very nicely, but they don’t come apart easily once they do. This meant the initial five were sculpted/modded as whole figures rather than separately, which would have been sensible.

 

In terms of colours, chapter markings and name? That’s still very much in flux. I’d had the idea of using those tiny beads as the basis of an eye icon, this leading to assorted names, before choosing the working title of “The Watchful Wardens”. Yes, I can’t help being a bit daft about this. If you think that’s too much, read up on Ferrus Manus sometime. The bead idea didn't really work, but I felt I was on to something, and tried again with adhesive gems. I’ve gone for inverted version of The Eye of Providence, a symbol with a storied history, like the Freemasons, but is best known today for its use in conspiracy theories. I’m sure there’s a level of meaning I’m missing, but as far as stupid faux symbolism goes, I feel that’s pretty 40K. Relatively easy to sculpt too. If looking like a pizza slice.

Hopefully, I’ll be onto the other five in time for the next update, which will have modded guns I think.

Gaslands: Goff Party Bus

As part of my continuing attempts to enjoy modelling without spending cocaine money, I recently did a tour of local charity shops for raw materials. The success rate is wildly variable, but toy cars are a staple of such places, and occasionally chance favours you. Plus there's the whole "for a good cause" aspect. At one I found an Alexander Y Type, a bus/coach by EFE, and thus a nice little side project.

This was an idea I'd been sitting on for a while. I was aware of Scarlett Anne sponsored teams from an article on the Gaslands blog, and felt that they were a good fit for orks. This a team based around boarding actions and piracy, something very much in the Goff and Freebooter themes. One build the article suggested was based on a bus, and this was so inherently orky I had to try it, but it wasn't until my charity shop find that I had all my Squig in a row. As I wanted to keep it simple, I opted for the Goff clan colours, as doing a Freebooter and indeed a regular Scarlett team would require me building a boat on top of it.

I skipped the dettol step out of laziness, instead going at with a sanding sponge. I then started gluing on stuff like Eva foam and scrap plastic to suggest repairs and reinforced areas. The remaining windows were covered in wire mesh, and the hubcaps got a stick on gem. Premade bits came either from Ramshackle Games for the crew and ram, or North star's Instruments of Carnage kit, notably the harpoon launcher. The leftover glyph plates from Project Tankbustas were also added for a bit of easy flair. The crew and turret were prepared separately, so they could bepainted before final assembly. I was glad of that, as one the crew I selected went a bit wrong, so I painted another.

Painting was my usual therapeutic drybrush-stipple-wash-make-it-rustier method, although modified for the Goff colours. This, in what I choose to describe as an act of low cunning, led me to use some dark greys rather than a simple black. Yes, kunning. Not a half remembered painting tutorial. A matt black tends to eat detail, but a dark grey doesn't do that as much, and looks like faded black, which fits my vibe. I was also pleased at how my weathering of the wheel wells meant the glossy black of the tires wasn't drowned out by the tones of the hull. I even took a stab at painting some chequerboard patterns to break up the black. By free-handing it. It's crude, but it's crude in a way that fits, so that's a win.

In writing this I realise that I'm becoming more inclined to think about painting in a more, umm, call it a technical sense. I've found techniques that work, and it's register intellectually why they do. I must learning, or something. It's a simple little side project, but I'm quite happy about it.