Trash Terrain: Sanitation Truck

An armed sanitation patrol meets with stiff resistance from local residents not keen on the idea of being forcibly cleansed.

One of my favourite elements of this hobby is the chance to root around in charity shops and other second-hand sources for something that could be converted into a vehicle or piece of terrain for the gaming table. Recently I came across a rather chunky fire truck in just such a place and snapped it up for around a quid (and stumbled across a sealed box of Dark Eldar Wyches for the same price, which was a nice bonus).

The truck originally had a boom arm with a cherry-picker on the end, but I removed this and it ended up being used as part of a debris barricade. I also closed in the cab and added some leftover parts from a Star Trek Runabout model in order to lend a far more sci-fi feel to the vehicle.

The cork additions on the side of the truck just didn't work, and so I ditched them in favour of a piece of armour plating from a Tamiya model that I can't recall the name of at the moment. Unfortunately I did this after the above pictures were taken, so it's only visible in the completed images below.

After giving the whole thing a grey base coat, I painted the main body with Citadel Iyanden Darksun, the windscreen with Vallejo Pale Blue and picked out the metalwork with Citadel Leadbelcher. The flashing lights on top were supposed to have that sweet effect that casts the colours out like real light, but the final coat of blue ink covered all that up, though the result was pretty good and I decided to keep it anyway.

I painted the tyres with a slate grey housepaint, weathered the exposed edges with a 50/50 mix of black and dark brown artist's acrylics and dry- the wheels and lower parts with Citadel Dawnstone to simulate accumulated dust. Finally I washed the entire thing with a much diluted solution of the above mentioned black and dark brown with an added drop of washing-up liquid to act as flow aid.

I'm seriously pleased with the results, as its left me with a nice, chunky utility vehicle that can be used for multiple different roles within a game scenario and will also function very well merely as a piece of terrain to add colour and depth to a tabletop.

Please be sure to let me know what you think, either here or on social media and share with me any similar builds of your own.