Mining dump truck

 Ha, I guess you have already forgotten that I have a Genestealer Cult in their own mining settlement! Well, I still don't have a proper mining settlement, but you know, I'm slowly building it. But never mind! I have a Genestealer Cult and it keeps on growing. With that idea in mind I got this kit some time ago. It's the Humpt1 Dumpy by Miniature Scenery.

I had never purchased anything from them, but the pics on their web were awesome and I had read some nice reviews, so I gave them a chance. I'm tremendously happy with the quality of the kit, lo please let me share :)

Like any other MDF kit, it requires some patience to assemble. I have to say that it's not particularly complicated, but it takes some time, as it has quite a lot of pieces everywhere.

Well, these are just the tyres. You can certainly get tired too soon

But if you endure, you can get some more complex shapes

And they eventually turn into something that finally makes some sense

The assembly instructions expresely recommend you to paint the cab now, as it will apparently get more difficult to do later. Experience in life has taught me that, if a manufacturer gives you any piece of advice, it is wise to follow it. Kind of a fortune cookie sentence, I guess, but true nevertheless.

So let's paint it then!

I thought it also was the right moment to add a driver. I couldn't build an accurate 4th generation hybrid with my current bits; you know, the kind of bloke that can take the risk to expose himself among regular Imperial citizens. Well, this will have to do:

Anyway, no one pays attention to the driver

No one will even note his feet

I decided that, if I had to paint this part, I could as well paint the rest as I assembled it.

So here you have the basic shape

Miniature Scenery produce some other variants of this kit. They all share this basic structure and vary on the rest. It's very cleverly designed (which you can see in the sprue too) and I guess that having different models also enhances a WH40K feeling, as they all look like part of a common Standard Template Construct, just like it happens with different variants on a Rhino or a Chimera chassis.

In this case, it's a dump truck (you may have guessed that by the name of the kit). The dump body itself is amazing. Once built it hardly looks like a MDF kit.

Some hours involved

Painted in regular custard yellow

There's a joint on the side that reveals the MDF pieces. I simply glued a cardboard on it on which I painted the usual Fodinae Conlegium ('Mining Guild') sign. My handwriting with brush is awful, of course. I should have designed it on the computer and printed it, but I was on my own personal rush, you know how these things happen.

It will have to work

OK, time for heavy weathering! My usual recipe is to give a brown wash (why on Earth is it called 'wash' if the model gets dirtier?), then some darker brown stains and finally a burned brown layer with a sponge:

OK, now it looks like being used on a mine in the Dark Millenium

The plate is a decal from a model kit. The 'DOG' is from this kit and had me laughing for ten minutes

I could have added bits or stuff, but I think it works nice as it is

However, I still think I could add some rocks or something in here

The truck is a real monster, let me show you a size comparison pic alongside some regular infantry and my other special stuff of the Cult:

I seriously need a proper backdrop to take pics

Well, this is it. The kit is highly enjoyable and reasonably easy to assemble, so if you were thinking of getting some stuff from Miniature Scenery, I definitely encourage you to do so. The only thing you may have to consider is shipping. In my case, I could expect that sending stuff from Australia to Europe would involve some custom issues (minor setback, I expected it to be much more expensive). But, foreseeing that I would have to pay customs, I wouldn't of course just order a single kit, I took the chance to purchase some more stuff. So... you can expect some more MDF kits in the future ;)