08/09/2022

Tactical tractor

 A tiny interlude today, some kind of palette cleanser, or even mind cleanser, I would say. A quick and easy (oh, surprise) thing just for fun.

It was an opportunity project. The Suberlings had two of these:

And of course they play with no one of them

It's a tractor from a plastic ball toy capsule vending machine (if that thing has a name, I don't know it). Of course one of them had to be confiscated. It was just perfect for my backwater world ambientation.

First thing to do was to fill the gaps with mere cardboard:

Less is more

Then I started to add random stuff from here and there, to give it a kind of sci-fi vibe:

Anything works

Just add glue and throw stuff at the tractor

I didn't really wanted to give it a hard WH40K feeling. Skulls. Gothic. More skulls. Nah. More Rogue Trader, less 40K. A bland sci-fi looking would work good enough, specially considering that the tractor has a lot of curved shapes. Making a transition towards current 40K would mean a lot of absurd work. It simply wasn't worth of it. I insist. Less is more.

So let's lick some paint on it!

The primer worked way better than expected, it was my main fear, to see paint flaking all over. But it was just perfect. I painted the driver's seat first:

Once again, simple but efficient. Not good. Efficient

How would I paint it? Well, if you've seen my previous post, you might have observed I used a lot of green!

So I was on a row! Same recipe

Of course the secondary colour had to be yellow

Then it's just a matter of details

Yup, it says Iohannes Cervus there. Yes, tm, of course

I don't know if the Iohannes Cervus is taking the pun too far, but I had to do it :D

The driver was kind of an issue. I didn't have any proper seated mini, so I had to improvise:

Bits from one of my old civilians and tons of green stuff

I wasn't able to put him with his hands on the wheel or anything, the pose didn't work. So I thought of some kind of low tech weapon. I combined a crossbow with some other bits and called it a day.

My first option was a regular cap, but the hat with earflaps was too tempting to let it go

Regular industrial blue for the jumpsuit and little thing else

The guy on his seat looks like this:

Hum. Ya dammit rodents, get outta my crop field!

Added some additional wires and stuff

The purity seal is the only 40K specific bit here, I think

The final step was the rust and weathering effect. This thing has gone through a lot, so it cannot look clean and sharp!

This tractor has been in my family for generations. And generations. And generations. And...

Yeah, got it Mechanicus certified each decade or so

Look, it even has a purity seal, the machine spirit is at ease

Most trusted piece of tech this side of the galaxy

Most sexy rear view in the Eastern Fringe

I don't have a real use for it in terms of gaming, but it makes a nice piece on the board, even if it's mere scenery.

Oh, but of course. Once you have a tractor, there are some things you have to do. Have to, I say. The following pic is absolutely necessary.


Local farmer overriding the military power of the Imperium. Pictograph taken c. 994.M41

23 comments:

  1. Excellent find Suber, and what you've done to it is awesome, the painted version looked great, but the weathered version was totally sublime. Would look great on any Sci-Fi board. and that last picture is pure class ! LOL

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    1. Thank you! Well, it all started as a big joke, when I saw the toy I immediately envisioned the last pic, so I knew I had to do it! XD

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  2. Claro que tiene nombre ese juguete de las máquinas de bolas…, cachivache que regalen los abuelos a los nietos. Pero oye, debes ser la primera persona, capaz de lograr sacarle partido a uno de esos juguetes. En serio, no sé cómo logras ver que algo tan absurdo, puede convertirse en una pequeña joya. Bravo.

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    1. ¡Pero esa era la gracia de los viejos tiempos! ¡Rescatar basura y cachivaches y convertirlos en algo aprovechable! A ver, se nota que esto es un juguete, pero a mí me vale :D

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  3. Holy crap! That's looking amazing!

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    1. Haha, thank you! You never know when a tractor can come in handy in war...

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  4. Joder que maravilla...

    Y buenísimo el nombre.

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    1. ¡Jaja, gracias! Es una de las mayores tontunas que he hecho nunca, tanto de hobby como de título del post XD

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    1. Thanks! I think that in the end the investment of 1€ was worth of the whole thing :D

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  6. In japan those ball toy dispenser machines are called Gashapon. In the states we just call them gumball machines because it's mostly candy or very small items. I have a mech that's Battletech scale out of a machine once... but nothing ad big as this rig.

    Speaking of the rig, absolutely love it! Green and yellow are those classic farm colors, and the weathering looks great! Awesome little side project!

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    1. Thank you! I went for the classic John Deere looking, hence the translation into Latin (er, I mean Gothic) "Iohannes Cervus". I can't take myself seriously!

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  7. I was looking at the early pictures and thinking "Where's this going?" It wasn't until you did the weathering that it suddenly all came together and I thought "That's really cool!". It does look very Rogue Trader, which I like, and I could easily see this on some backward agri-planet. I like the sculpting on the driver too!

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    1. Thank you very much! It was all a huge joke, I really didn't want to do anything too elaborate. It is indeed a "John Deere meets Rogue Trader" thing, and I found it all terribly funny, so it was an automatic green light in my mind :D

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  8. Very nice use of a toy! The bright green and yellow certainly give me the RT vibe for sure. And that driver/operator is some really nice greenstuff work!

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    1. Thank you! Those are the colours of John Deere, and I really thought they fit into my general RT-ish ambientation (even on a desert wasteland!), so it was kind of a no-brainer, I knew I had to do it all!

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    2. John Deere for sure. We have a JD museum about 30 mins from where i live with some really cool old old tractors and other farm equipment on display.

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  9. Excellent conversion work Suber. Who needs expensive miniatures to turn out a work of art ... not you :) Brilliant stuff!

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    1. Eco-awareness for the win! XD
      Thank you!!

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  10. y yo ahora como loco buscando uno por los bazares.... menos mal que encontré un at rt de star wars muy baratito y lo conversioné para que fuera una carretilla futurista, que los bultos de las naves no se descargan solos :D

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    1. ¡Jaja, eso quiero verlo! La idea me parece buenísima

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  11. This project is magic. I think you already mentioned it in one of the comments above, but I love the inscription for John Deere. It's a great touch that conjures up that weird oldhammer feeling of countless ages of decaying technology.
    I hope you do a post on your weathering technique, because it's fabulous.

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    1. Thank you! It is all kind of a tribute to that era of RT, when you were encouraged to get your hands on the shampoo or whatever. Anything worked, and the daily cultural references were just part of it. I still enjoy doing that!!
      About the weathering, thank you! I'll make a step by step, but trust me, it's the easiest, laziest way I could find! It's just a wash with Vallejo "brown sand" and a tiny sponge with dark brown. I'll try to make a detailed post on it!!

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