Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I've been working on terrain for a Sci-Fi Desert mining settlement. You can see the two buildings I've made so far here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/367889.page

I wanted a civilian vehicle and a dumptruck seemed an obvious choice for a mine

Here's the vehicle it came from.


A Fisher Price dumptruck. It has train wheels for some reason, so I assume it came from a train set. It was 99 cents at a resale shop.

It makes sound and lights up when you press on the balast in the dump bucket. Unfortunately that had to go to make a place for models to stand, and I couldn't figure out how to easily wire up the lights with a switch.

I dug dents and gouges all overt, scratchbuilt a roof of .5mm plascard (a 99 cent for sale sign from the hardware store provides alot of material) and added a few 40k tank bits. The bump in front of the hatch is a mount for some of the pin-mounted machine guns that I've made for my other post apoc vehicles.


The train wheels were removed and replaced with wheels from another 99 cent resale shop truck


I had to remove the balast and electronics, cut away alot of the inside of the dump and make a floor from plascard. The cutaways with the clippers I used came out rough, which really matches the inside of a dump which is usually dented, dirty and scratched. The roof is removable, though I haven't built an interior.


Painting was simple and quick.
-Prime with Black spraypaint
-drybrushes of color being sure to leave black at edges, interior corners and vents
-Thoughoughly drenched wash of Burnt siena (allowed to pool in crevases and left to dry overnight) to make the rust appear in places where rust naturally would
-Dabs of silver sharpie at the dents and gouges
-Sealed with a light dusting of matte spray.



I also painted the inside of the clear plastic head lights (The lowest pair of lights)once the bulbs were removed with silver paint before gluing them back in.


Here it is among the previously made mining buildings.

pretty nice, the building on the right reminds me of the mission in black on the xbox.

Nice looking conversion. Personally I can see it making a great Ork vehicle too.

Ha!! Im not the only one that looks for toys to convert!

Nicely done

Great job, had my doubt when I first saw the truck but you ended up with a nice little dump truck.

That's a very cool little truck. Nicely done

I agree with everyone on here, very nice convert.

Because of this my nephews will have fewer toys.

Nice job, with the modifications and paint job it fits in surprisingly well with the 40k aesthetic.

Thanks for the kudo's folks.

As to the asthetic, I was equally pleased and surprised. I've converted a few toy vehicles for post apoc post-apoc gaming...


...but they're clearly not futuristic enough to also work in a far future universe. The stylized lines of the little kids toy lend themselves to Sci-Fi much better than the scale-model style die cast toys of older kids.

I think this truck will be able to be function in PostApoc and SciFi, armed or unarmed, as scenry or as a usuable miniature.

Eilif wrote:Thanks for the kudo's folks.

As to the asthetic, I was equally pleased and surprised. I've converted a few toy vehicles for post apoc post-apoc gaming...

Spoiler:

...but they're clearly not futuristic enough to also work in a far future universe. The stylized lines of the little kids toy lend themselves to Sci-Fi much better than the scale-model style die cast toys of older kids.

I think this truck will be able to be function in PostApoc and SciFi, armed or unarmed, as scenry or as a usuable miniature.

I LOVE that second one!

NoBaconz4You wrote:I LOVE that second one!

Thanks,
There's actually not a ton of conversion work on that one, mostly just painting and dirtying it up a bit. It's last years edition (different color) of this car. At 1/32, its a bit on the large size, but it looks good on the table.

I raised the wheels slightly, added bits from 40k and model kits, removed the front gun and rasied the mount for the gun in the bed by mounting it on a piece of an IG mortar. The railing around the bed is mostly the roll cage from inside the cab. The whole thing unscrews, and you can take out the roll cage and cut it up to make the railing.

The doors open up and there's an interior, so maybe someday I'll paint it up and install a driver, but there are many other projects in line before that. One suggestion if you do use this car. In addition to disassembling it first, mask off the windows and the top hatch before painting as. It will save you some time, and the nice armor detail on the rear window is completely painted on, not actualy molded.