Welcome to my blog, the story of my continuing journey into the World of Zombie Wargames.

Monday 9 March 2015

Tractor - Take Two

(The original one is on the left)
I wasn't one hundred percent convinced as to the usefulness of my latest bargain buys (see last week's blog) and had to agree with some of the comments that held a similar view.
So, with a burst of enthusiasm I decided to see if I could remedy the situation, after all, I had nothing better to do, nor any inclination to have anything other than a lazy Saturday afternoon.
The picture on the right is the before and after effect of my efforts.
"Side view"
I did strip down the very soft polyethylene toy into it's components parts (carefully forgetting to wash it in luke-warm soapy water - of course) and I cut the more obvious bits of flash off too, before spraying all the model's component parts in Poundland grey primer.

"Different side - view"
One thing that I noticed whilst painting the model was the track width of the vehicle exceeded the with of the wheel arch mudguards. this was easily remedied with a good set of pliers and I very quickly has a pair of axles fit for purpose (just) though some measuring may have been a bit more helpful.

rear view" - ooh err missus
As I'm no great shakes with a paintbrush ("No kidding ?", I hear you say) the painting was done in my usual style of "Quick n dirty", I wasn't very accurate nor did I care much, the model wasn't going to win any prizes and any improvement in its look,  no matter how minor would, be a success in my book.





"Oh dear, deer, Deere"
I picked a dark(ish) green that reminded me of a John Deere tractor (entirely the wrong shade as it turned out) for the mainstay of the vehicle and then commenced to dirty it up with washes of browns and so on, before finally giving it a quick, very  light, dry brush of white.

So that's it then, the finished model shown here with Sid for scale.
it doesn't look too bad (if you squint), but could probably do with varnishing, (it being soft plastic) and in my eyes it's good enough for a wargame.
"Gratuitous waffle"


Here's another before and after pick, purportedly to show roof detail (but really just to pad out a rather boring post).
Including time waiting for the undercoat spray to dry, I doubt I spent more than 3 hours total on it.














30 comments:

  1. Great work. (No wonder the worker looks so tired!)

    You've really taken this from "toy" to "model" for your games - success! Only a few more to do ;)

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    1. Thanks Sam (and welcome) I'm quite pleased qith how it's turned out and yes the otheres will get done "eventually".

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  2. damn fine work joe; looks to me like a fine job!

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    1. Thanks Colin, I thought it quite a success too for such a quick attemot at the "conversion"

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  3. A perfectly well used heavy-weight to crush the hungry wanderers. Nice!

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    1. Thanks Jay, at least it fits the bill now the only problem I see with using it for mashing zeds up, is its speed.

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  4. They really do look so different. If they were not side by side and with no explanation you would utterly believe them to be different models.

    I can't think what else I can say they really just look so very different.

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    1. Thanks Clint, yep I ocldn't believ how different they were either and I think it was your comment on my last blog post that probably stirred me into action !

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  5. the tracktor looks great Joe! alot better...

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    1. Thanks HW it does look a lot better especially as it was just a quick fix"

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  6. Great job, I like the dark colour, makes them a bit smaller to the eye.

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    1. Thanks Mattyoo, I doub't it'll get used much other than for cover and there size doesn't really matter, but it still has to fit in.
      (I'm considering red for the next one btw)

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  7. That is a huge improvement, Joe; it looks very real now! And I think that quick and dirty (especially the "dirty" part!) is just the right finishing style for a cheap model like this.

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    1. thanks C6, much appreciated, I don't really think that it's worth spending a lot of time onsuch a chep model either -works for me

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  8. It now looks the part. Nicely weather Zabadak ;)

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    1. Bah autocorrect weathered tis the word I was after!!

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  9. they look much improved. what more could you ask of a lazy saturday?

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    1. Thanks CW, yes, a lazy Saturday afternoon well spent.

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  10. That's a great improvement, can't wait to see the trailers done.

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    1. Thanks Bob, at least I know it doesn't take much of an effort to get these looking OK and I should really have a go at a trailer - thanks for the nudge.

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  11. Oh Yeah, much more realistic, I would count your efforts a success, well done.

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    1. Thanks Tex, I'm still amazed it came out so well, so quickly too.

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  12. Looks like a winner to me, your "quick and dirty" painting has worked really well for this tractor

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    1. Thanks Chris, it had to be like that , the model just isn't worth spending too much time on

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  13. No squinting necessary, the tractor looks very good.

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  14. No squinting necessary, the tractor looks very good.

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