Norm's Atomic Dumpster: Sub-Orbital Lander

Natalya mounts a vigilant watch whilst Bob the Borg trudges his way through his endless menial tasks

I've always liked the idea of having spacecraft as terrain pieces for a skirmish game, as they look good on the table and they're also very easily built into a scenario that involves loading something/someone onto them to escape or capturing what's already aboard.

Equally appealing is the idea of recycling old stuff in order to do the same, and I've seen toys from the Action Force/GI Joe range used in this way on multiple occasions in the past and subsequently spent ages scouring Ebay for something suitable, only to be amazed at the prices people ask for them!


A few months ago I took the plunge and spent a little bit more than I would have liked on an ERTL model of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Runabout, which while a little out of scale with 28mm, still makes a rather nice shuttle on the tabletop.

Y2K Peregrine by Miniature Scenery - okay, please stop drooling now, it's pooling on the laminate...

Though I've assembled and painted more than a few tanks and AFVs in my time, this was my first official spaceship, and I'd seen examples of things like the simply amazing Y2K Peregrine by Miniature Scenery that were painted using techniques such as sponging the paint on, and I obviously wanted by Runabout to have pretty much the same effect.

I decided that what I needed was a dry-run, and so I managed to find an Action Force vehicle that I thought looked futuristic enough to pass as a lumpen ship that was intended to spend its time running routine drops around the planet of Enkaiden (where the godforsaken port of Far Corfe is located), and actually managed to buy one for less than £20.

Hair bun scrunchies - when you're without a sponge and desperate to paint

My next issue was that I couldn't find a single sponge in the house that I could nick for the paint-job, so after a quick consultation with the wife, she agreed to sacrifice a scrunchie thing that was apparently meant to be attached to the head somehow.

It felt like a scouring pad, but I was desperate to get into painting the thing, and so I thought, sod it, and pressed it into service.

Action Force Snow Wolf - disassembled, washed and stickers finally chiseled off

I'd chosen an Action Force Snow Wolf, supposedly a snow vehicle, but I thought there was enough in terms of engine intakes and cockpit canopies to make it a believably ungainly sub-orbital workhorse, so it was dutifully disassembled, washed and the stubborn stickers removed.

Blistered paint from re-entry, or baked on birdshit?

Then it was out with the Halfords primer and to work - then the scrunchie thing and white paint began to have their way with the upper bodywork, and the results were enough to give me mixed feelings almost as soon as it was on.

As black as midnight itself...well, as black as Badab Black, anyway

I almost always feel better about my work once I've been able to apply a liberal layer of wash, and this was no exception, as it allowed me to start adding streaks of what should look like dirt and wear to the already pitted and ruined paintwork.

Look right...

Look left...

Then straight ahead

Put back together and with the metallic parts dry-brushed and then washed with Devlan Mud, I could see things that I wanted to improve upon, but all the same I was pretty pleased with this as the result of an experiment and my first attempt at a rust-bucket spacecraft.

All done making the engines look knackered

Functional rather than beautiful

I still need to think about an official name for the thing and add some marks identifying what company of mercentile guild it belongs to, but for what it cost me, I think that this turned out to be a rather nice addition to the landscape of Far Corfe.

So what do you think?

Have you done something similar?

Do you want to tell me what I could have done better?

Either way, let me know in the comments below.