The Truckdoza

Alreet! Welcome Back.

Need transport across the Wastelands? Come book the Truckdoza. Rough terrain is not a problem. The ram deals with obstructions and barricades with ease. As the wasteland is a risky place a twin machine gun is mounted on the cab to deal with those pesky bandits and mutants.

Many years ago, I picked up this cool pickup truck from Ramshackle Games.

Picture courtesy of Ramshackle Games.

The model is heavy and I can be clumsy. I dropped the truck from height and snapped some wheels off. It was assigned to the rework bits box.

During the Covid Lockdowns, I discovered the truck while looking for bits. I also found these cool looking tracks in there, from a cheap B&M stores toy tank. They matched the length of the truck perfectly.

The problem was fitting them. Stripping the truck down, I had to remove the truck bed component. I ran some Balsa wood batons the length of the Truckadoza. This allowed the tracks to be fitted with small wood screws. The dozer blade was fitted from the orginal model. The rear gate was made from a gift card I had been punching rivets from. Some resin junk armour was added from Ramshackle games. A Fox Box Ork Jerrycan and back pack (now availble from Ramshackle games) was also added.

The Truckdoza was parked (pun intended) until last week, when sorting bits for the Junk Raft (see my previous post).

I added googly eyes to hide the screw tops holding the tracks on. The vehicle needed foot boards. The were made from gift cards and interesting looking bits cut from plastic food trays. Another backback was added from the bits box, along with a Ork Skull which was painted in mythril silver as a nod for the film Mad Max fury road. 

Some armament was needed. Another bits box delve turned up another Ramshackle Item, which has lurked there for over a decade. A mount was made from two circles of EVA foam. Rivets were added. I am using tiny nail jewels. You can buy packets of 1000 quite cheaply. They are consistant looking and a better match to the model scale.

The model was primed black and heavily drybrushed in sheet metal. The whole thing was washed in brown. I could have left it there, in a oxidised grimey metal state. Grey was sponged over the metal panels and then colours sponged over the top to give a worn or chipped paint look.

Thanks for looking, take care out there.

The Junk Raft of Tapu

Hello and Welcome back, 

Time to visit the world of Tapu, known as the Gutterlands from the Skrim game.

The Junkraft was found on the shore of the Slosh by Morti Krilly, a Colonist of Tapu. It was clearly a Ruster vessel, and Morti proceeded to salvage it (well, steal it more like). 

After paddling it across the Slosh, Morti decided that it was too much hard work. Digging through the junk that covers the Gutterlands, Morti found some sort of wrecked air vehicle. Soon he set to work to build a air boat from the wreck and the junk raft. The engine and weapons were little more than rusted junk. A smaller working engine was found in what looked like the wreckage of a personal transport. After cleaning it up, it was installed as the prime mover the raft. 

Soon he had a working air boat and Morti was earning a living transporting salvage teams across the Slosh. The raft is as ramshackle as it looks and Morti deliberately keeps the speed down to a few knots, for fear that any faster would have the raft fall apart. That and going any faster becomes terrifying.

Inspired by a pateron challenge to build a water vehicle on the Bill Making Stuff discord channel, I set off building a raft. After some time of thinking of a propulsion method I decided on air boat. 

It is built from plastic milk bottle tops, a bamboo skewer frame and EVA platform (holes and rips courtesy of my cat Dixie, who loves to steal and play with my EVA foam sheets). Some panels cut from food trays were added.

The aircraft bits came from a cheap 1/48 prepainted snap together kit. A lesson learnt is to wash the model before using it. Then scrub it to remove the paint. 

After the dark wash, the paint and primer just washed off some sections requiring a repaint. 

Thanks for looking,

Take Care out there.