Trash Terrain: The Mining Contraption

Flanked by his hastily hired bodyguards, Merrick Mass-Driver negotiates the sale of the mining contraption to a less than convinced local Forgemaster.

I kept on seeing one post after another online where someone had chanced upon something in a charity shop or pound store, then retreated with said discovery to their hobby lair and proceeded to transform it into something that was frankly amazing; and so I decided to keep my eyes open for a chance to do the same.

There's a Coldplay reference there, but I'm not going to be the one to make it.

About a week ago, I stumbled upon the above find, still in its original plastic bag and priced at just 25p, which seemed like the perfect choice for just such a project. Originally it was a wind-up toy from a Burger King kid's meal, and I had planned on scanning the leaflet that came with it for some background, but it got recycled before I realised, so apologies for that.

After being washed in soapy water and having its winder removed, I decided that the best way to deal with the toy's awkward chicken walk was to pose it as if it had come to rest on uneven ground. I based it on epvc and then used filler to build up a mound under the toy's right foot. Once this was dry I textured the base with a mix of filler, sand, budgie grit and emulsion.

Base coat - do you see black, or very, very, very, dark grey?

Once the model was primed, it finally began to look more like something that I could work with, and I found myself calling it a mining machine, rather than a toy. Watching the ginger-nut inside the canopy disappear from view was something of a turning point in this process.

Dry-brushing - starting to look sufficiently grimy.

Dry-brushing with Citadel Lead Belcher began to bring out the finer details and shows just how much presentation can change the appearance of an object, changing the tone of the model almost completely, going from something comical to retro sci-fi instantly.

The finished article - all those layers, just to paint the bugger yellow all over again...

I masked off the grills and canopy with blu-tack, then stippled the main carapace of the contraption with the sponge from a scrubbing pad and Iyanden Darksun. I used Wraith Grey on the canopy itself and Mechrite Red on the flashing light on top. I finished by giving the carapace a heavy wash of Nuln Oil in order to pick out all of the lines and panels, then gave the whole thing a wash of Agrax Earthshade, then dry-brushed the base with successively lighter shades of grey emulsion.

I'm disproportionately happy with the results, having got myself a unique piece of scatter terrain for 25p, and will be on the lookout for future projects in this same vein.

So, as always, let me know what you think in the comments section below.