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.