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.

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.

Maddans World Independent Mining Crew

 Hello and Welcome Back,

Time for a visit to Maddans world in my Wild Galaxy setting (world background fluff to follow).

Maddans Independent Mininig was set up by a gang of miners from across human space who arrived at Maddans world hoping to make it rich before the world was claimed.

MIM is lead by Big Albert (the bald bearded guy in the centre) a miner from the Brittannia systems.

The gang. The Miners are armed with old autoguns and whatever protection they have managed to cobble together.

These figures are a limited run of the RT666 set of Space Pirates by Mark Elster, which I picked up from Facebook. I liked them as they have a old 40K Rogue Trader charm to them. I chose a yellow theme to tie them together and fitting for a mining crew.

This crew got a 40K Ridgerunner as a convoy guide (Maddans world is largely desert and convoys get regularly attacked by Bandits, offworld raiders or the local wildlife). I got this model as a birthday gift from my wife (I told you she was a keeper!). It assembled easily which feels unusual for recent GW 40K kits and I think it is a kit that could be a good donor for conversions.

I sprayed it yellow with Army Painter rattle cans. The stripe and striped top hatch was done with masking tape and sponging (taking a little inspiration from the Mad Max Pursuit cars). Lots of weathering was added using grey and brown paints stippled around the edges of the vehicle.

Thank you for looking, take care out there. 

The Boring Machine

Hello and welcome back. 

The ground rumbles and slowly this boring machine bursts from the ground. 

The machine grinds to a stop and a head pops out of the hatch and shouts “is this exciting enough?” (boring machine - exciting! Get it? I will get my coat!).

The head disappears and some furious clanging comes from the interior of the machine. “Bugger! There is no reverse!”

Ramshackle games makes the tunnelling/boring machine. It was a very quick paint job. At some point I might add a rubble and soil filled base just to finish it off. 

This tunnelling machine will be used as scenery. Unless I get my squat force finished and they might want to break into places. 

Thanks for looking

Stay safe out there 

Grumbling Gopher

Hello and welcome back.

I have a new transport vehicle for the wastelands or those frontier world space ports. The Grumbling Gopher.

This started life as a Gopher transport from Ramshackle games which has double axel at the rear. As it happens when it arrived I had been routing through my bits box and discovered some miscasts from an older now OOP Ramshackle kit. Back in the day Curtis from Ramshackle did boxes of miscast parts for cheap. It didn’t take long for the cogs to start whirring and for me to convert the Gopher into a halftrack. 

The Grumbling Gopher got a nice yellow paint job as is fitting to a service vehicle.

Thanks for looking 

Take care out there.

Wasteland Cargo Haulers

Hello and welcome back. 

With all the Ash Wastes and cargo haulers noise out in hobby land at the minute here is some scrap haulers I made earlier. About 10 to 15 years earlier. 

This hauler was built as a scrap built runner. The original kit was a 1/24 half track hotrod kit I got as a unwanted Christmas gift. 

The frames are all made from the kits sprues. The rear floor is recycled gift cards. Bits of the kit was reused as panels. The cannon is from Ramshackle games. The helmeted skull on top came from the original kit.

The convoy rolls out looking for loot.

The convoy returns with a captured Black on Black.

Then there is this beasty, known as the Thunderchild. It started as a 1/32 Ural truck. I like using 1/32 and 1/35 kits for 28mm Sci Fi conversions. The extra size makes them look better. Plus there is more room for bases. 

I left off the doors and built a new bonnet/hood. The platform is built from platformer kits. Some old Ork Bolters were added on plinths to keep the mutants at bay. The towing rig is scratch built from plastic I beams and the hook salvaged from a toy. The front ram is from a old 40K Rhino kit. 

Sadly this model has got an bit fragile with age and needs some repair. The platform is a little loose and now sits with a tilt. The rear axles have also come loose. Not sure if I should repair it or recycle the model for my future Post Apoc land train plans. 

But there is more. This monster began life as a 1/35 M113 APC kit. Insanely this kit was cheaper than the GW Rhino at the time. I managed to grab a load of Meccano wheels cheap on evilbay. They where fitted instead of the usual tracks. The back platform was fitted was the rear hatch fixed as permanently open for stashing loot. The side racks are granny grating and filled with junk from the bits box. 

Lots of bits, packs and other stowage cover this crawler. One advantage of being a old military modeller is that the bits box is pretty deep. I have to say that the M113 conversion is one of my favourite models. It needs more table time I think. 

Thanks for looking

Take care out there.

My big wheel buggy thingy…

Welcome back, it’s been too long. 

I am going to be showing you a little vehicle rework I have been working on. 

The Ramshackle Ramstoat as it should be.

So I was returning to Last City from a scouting run in the Ram Stoat when I heard a nasty crack noise. Before I could say “What the Spaff was that?” the ‘Stoat skidded wildly losing power. As I wrestled the controls one of my wheels went rolling past. There I was stranded at least six days march from home with a severely busted rig and low supplies. Looking at the Stoat the rear wheels had been ripped off. Often the metal quality is often poor unlike those vehicles of the ancients. 

As I tried to salvage what I could from the rig to start the long walk home a huge steam powered rig roared towards me. Fearing scavengers I prepared for a fight as a hatch opened and a face appeared. It was the fabled Mad Dan from the scrapyard. He cackled and yelled “stuck huh, let’s get you fixed up!”. 

He hauled the Ram Stoat into his fortified scrapyard and ran off into the piles of junk cackling while these huge mutant hounds stared at me growling. I retreated up some piles of junk to put some distance between me and the mutant mutts. In the distance between the junk piles I could hear clanking and crashing with Mad Dan muttering or cackling. Eventually I fell asleep and when I woke up he had fitted this huge wheel to the stoat. I managed to drive back to Last City, Mad Dan only asked for a “future favour” for the repair. I dread what the old loon will ask me to do in return.

The Ram Stoat is a resin vehicle for Nuclear Renaissance by Ramshackle Games. Sadly some rough handling of the model has resulted in the rear wheels spanning off.  I like this model too much to throw it out so a repair mission was launched. Initially the plan was to drill out the old spigots and refit new wheels but as it turned out there wasn’t enough meat on the model to do this.

Option 2 was to fit a new axel and wheels under the bottom of the chassis. This would have given the Ramstoat a more aggressive jacked up back end hotrod stance ala Fury Road. Except the front wheels and ram appeared to be digging into the ground as the model is low. Digging though my capacious bits box I ran into a rear wheel and swing arm off a 1/12 scale Yamaha Virago motorbike kit that had lain there for 25 years. The modeller maker’s mantra of never throw anything out has yet again paid off. Alas the shock absorbers from the kit have long since vanished. They would have made a nice bit of detail. With a bit of filing and sanding the swing arm and wheel fitted perfectly. Some sprue made up supports and the brake operating arm was made from some plastic rod. Gift cards made up some side panels. A couple of Orc Jerry cans were added for extra detail. 

Looking at the Jerry Cans they look a bit too large, I may replace them with 28mm scaled items at some point in the future. 

Thanks for looking. Stay safe out there. 

Sci Fi Dropship.

Hello and welcome back, we are off to the edge of human space. 

Every crew of Spacers need a drop ship to move stuff around the worlds they visit. It is always handy to have some fire support from time to time too. Ex dropships aren’t always easy or cheap to come by. 

This drop ship is a Hornet from the mantic game’s Warpath line. My aim was to build something that looks like it was found abandoned on a battlefield. Possibly lightly damaged or suffering from a some failure. Or maybe the crew had dismounted to be massacred. 

My idea is that this thing is used as a taxi and I wanted it to have a battered long suffering look. I added a couple of half spherical beads either side of the cockpit. The drop ship has been modified with a extensive sensor suite probably found on a crashed military search vehicle. A well informed crew makes better decisions. Who knows what other modifications are hidden under the hull panels? 

The more civilised worlds take affront at privately owned armed gunships whizzing about so the weapons can be easily removed by the crew before setting off. Not that they ever go to the more civilised worlds very often.

I have modelled the Hornet with the undercarriage down as this will be scenery in games more than a vehicle. Apart from maybe those “Get to the Choppa” escape scenarios (admit it, you read that in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s voice).

Thanks for looking, stay safe out there.