Milki Tours Expedition Vehicle.

Hello and Welcome Back, 

"Hello Traveller, I am Milki! Want to get further out in the Rust lands looking for the good loot but don't want to spend days yomping across the wastes, camping, fighting off angry tribals and the various monstrosities trying to eat you? Then you need Milki Tours! For a reasonable price, I can run to were you want to go. Saving you time and inconvenience in Big Milki there. Ain't she a beaut?"

"For extra cost you can camp in Big Milki overnight, yup she is that big or ride up top for that safari experience. You can even haul cargo up top. Now dont get ideas about bumping old Milki off and stealing his ride. The cockpit is sealed and there is a hidden anti theft system. No one messes with old Milki"

"What's that? Where did I get this fine Expedition vehicle? Well no one makes these things, ya know. Big Milki started life as a wreck I found out in the Rustlands. In a previous life it was an ancient Neta Corp Mu light transport ship. Little wonder the old empire dumped it here, it was an antique when they ditched it. Probably couldn't find the parts to keep it spaceworthy. The engines were totally shot. At some point some clowns had ripped off the rear hatch and looted what ever the empire stuffed in it. Judging by the damage I am guessing they used a very bog bot. Anyways, I got the under deck plasma reactor with a little work and a few cusswords."

"For some reason the old empire hated old Arla class cargo transport cars. There are loads of them dumped on this rock. Well, I salvaged the wheels and electric motors from a couple. They needed a fair bit of cleaning up but they work well. Plus spares are easy to come by. The old Mu plasma plant runs them happily. Lots of plates where added to the hull to armor it up cos the rust wastes are a dangerous place. I even managed to add a twin laser cannon from the wreck of a Hornet class drop ship, although the fire contol system is a converted holo game contoller. The military one had been wiped before it was ditched here. The game comp does the job nicely instead he he. A huge plow was added to move obstructions out of the way. You know the kinda thing, rocks, plants, tribal huts, big monsters, that kinda thing."

Big Milki was the product of a Billmakingstuff pateron challenge. For some time I fancied building a Crawler for an expedition team. I decided that I would go for trashbashing as much as I could for the model. Mainly to see what can be done with what's laying about.

The hull was made from a Ferro Rochia box and the bridge section was built from a quarter of a Pot Noodle pot. The rest of it has been squirreled away for a future build. The wheels are made from milk bottle tops, 16 of them. I like these bottle tops as they are so useful for sci fi trashbashing and collect them from time to time. The hull was armored up with EVA foam sheets. The plow was made from plastic tube frame and cut up gift cards. 

The roof had platic mesh added as decking. The rear door is made from corrugated card, the ladder is a cheap razor handle and the rear steps are made from razor covers. The rest of Milki was built from a deep bits box dive. I am lucky that decades of model making and wargaming has given me quite the bits box. The mantic laser cannons were fitted to a couple of bases from various sources. The lamps and cannon lens are made from beads and stick on pearls used for card making. 

I have always fancied a Crawler land train. In future I hope to make a trailer car and flat bed trailers for Big Milki. They should be easy to make and the bits are plentiful to salvage. 

The Big Milki name grew out the nick name the other Discord group users gave it when I shared wip pictures. Now I plan a 28mm figure for the character of Milki. No doubt he will be joining my planned crew of colonists for the world of Corrosion (and showing up in my Skirm games).

Thanks for looking and stay safe out there.

Rusters!!

Hello and Welcome back, 

Rusters, meet the Rusters...Great, now I have the theme tune to the Flintstones going around my head just with the word Rusters in it. 

The Rusters are a faction of the Skrim game by @billmakingstuff. The best way to describe them is as a tribal faction with cultist overtones (they worship a giant robot wreck in the Rusty Peaks). According to Bill's lore they arrived on a cruise ship that crashed on Tapu aka "the Gutterlands" centuries ago. The tribals claim the rust covered lands are sacred. They cover themselves in home made rusty junk armour and bear home made or salvaged weapons. The Rusters and Colonials are often in conflict over territory. 

Like Bill's Rusters the bulk of my Rusters were made from Warlord black powder Woodland Indians. The armour is made from scraps of plastic card, bits of cut up plastic toy bullets, bits of vinyl beads, beads and other assorted bits. This force of Rusters took over a month to put together and paint. Cutting up scraps and adding them took quite some time. Pouches and skulls came from the bits box just to some extra detail. 

Some Rusters wear helmets that resemble the robot head they worship. According to Bill these are made from hollowed out artillery shells. Mine utilises the toy bullet tips as they are the ideal size and shape. 

The Ruster on the right had a helmet made from a plastic tubing cap with holes drilled in it. 

The weapons were cobbled together from the muskets and various bits from the bits box. Some scopes were made from bits. Axes were made from plastic card attached to the Woodland Indian clubs. 

This Ruster on the right has a old missle attached to a lance for those precision explosions, assuming the warhead isn't a dud. I hope he doesn't mind getting caught in the blast.

An old Grenadier Barbarian leader (from Forlone Hope) was selected to make a leader (right). I wanted a figure a bit bulkier to stand out from the rest of the Rusters. The hand left hand was in right position to add a firearm, in this case a GW Necromunda Orlock autogun. Like the others, he had a lot of armor added from scraps of plastic. Although I am not sure about the logic of using a large land mine as a peice of armor. I hope its a dud. A cloak made from some weird animal skin, was made from Greenstuff putty and added to make the figure stand out futher. 

I wanted a female figure, so I picked up a Amazon from Forlone Hope (left). Once the hair and head had been removed the conversion work was easy. The hardest part was building armor around the breast area. I didnt want to go down the Maddona cones route. 

The paint was mainly rust tones with some dry brushing and the odd detail picked out. I plumbed for light blue skintones to make the Ruster flesh pop against the rust. In Skrim they are aliens but in Post Apocalyptic games they could be mutants. 

The Rusters will be a useful Post Apocalyptic faction. I can see them being a third faction in the war between the Skrap Knights and Rustlords. Or maybe to use them as foot soldiers in either faction's Warbands. 

Thanks for looking, 

Take care out there.

July's Hobby Progress

Hello and Welcome back, 

Time for my hobby Progress update for July. 

July turned out to be another a busy month in the real world. Family birthdays, builders and DIY has eaten the month up. Like last month, it has left little time to get some Blog posts up. There is another pile of figures waiting for pictures and writing up. Unfortunately the DIY list is long so I suspect it might also keep busy for most of August. 

The Forlone Hope figures arrived and I leapt into converting them into Rusters. Speaking of Rusters I managed to get them painted up. I also painted three Ramshackle figures. As usual better pictures to follow once I catch up with the blog. 

Rusters in primer

Ramshackle Games figures

I started to build a Expedition Crawler for @billmakingstuff's transport challenge. The aim for this build is to use as much stuff from the recycling for it as possible. There is quite a way to go with it, but it is going forward. 

Figures finished* = 0 (total 7) *Figures that needed bases finishing from 2024

Figures painted = 13 (total so far 83)

Figures reworked = 0 (total so far 6)

Vehicles finished = 0

Vehicles reworked = 0

Figures bought/arrived = 13 (total so far 59)

Vehicles bought = 0

I am still waiting on the Heresy order. In addtion to the Barbarians and Amazon from Forlone Hope I also ordered 10 metal figures inspired by the drawings in the old 40K book by BMT3D. These are usually limited runs so are worth collecting. 

That's all for now.

Thanks for reading and take care out there.