I got bored one day and decided to make a tank from junk bits and cereal box card. I thought I might make a small merc force for 40K, just not spending much cash on it instead of forking out a wedge of cash from GW or similar, so as I usually do, set to work cutting, sticking and glueing one together. The main body what I started with was an old cigarette box with the lid set in at an angle. I just started to bolt stuff on bit by bit, layer after layer (I won’t bore you with a tutorial today, unless anyone wants to know) It is mostly cereal box card, but there is the odd bit of plastic, roll up filters, wire and paper (The main gun and side guns are made from just rolled up paper, I could have used straws or any kind of tubing, but it was the only thing I had at hand at the time!)
At this point, I got bored again and shelved it until I had more materials, a little later than that, my nine year old daughter saw it and blagged me for it, after her pleading for a while, I gave in and gave it to her unfinished. Here’s what it looked like:
Later, she then decided that she DID want it painting! So I had no choice but to sort it for her.
I first gave it an all over silver spray undercoat a couple of times and left it to dry.
Next, I used a chestnut ink wash, then a brown wash,and last a thin 50/50 ink/acrylic black/brown wash to weather it somewhat to detract from the bright silver from the spray.
After the washes had dried, I started to paint it with some details, a bit of camo on selected bits (Forgive my camo, I’m not the best at it at all, but it’s ok) painted the wires and did some out lines on the flat panels to add interest etc
The base is made from a CD insert you get in the spools of disks, its clear and thin, but seemed appropriate as the tank is made from waste stuff anyway. I got to work layering dark grey flock, patches of brown flock, odd.patches of grey railway ballast and then static grass in tufts.
The tank was then varnished and glued on to the base. Voila! Done.
My daughter hasn’t seen it yet, so it will be a great surprise for her when she gets up in the morning!
I must admit, I am quite surprised every time I get some random bits to make something from junk, how well it turns out from just a few hours all in all, how people spend lots of good money on modelling materials that are just as good as stuff you might be chucking in the bin. I recommend it to everyone. Sure the tank is rough around the edges and if I had taken my time to get it right (Im not a one for precise measuring and stuff, with things like this, I don’t have any plans or drawings, just an idea that just evolves as bits get added until it looks near enough.) With more time and effort it would have been epic, but as its for my kid, I reckon she won’t mind at all.
I do plan on doing some more tanks, but these will be in 15mm and more like robotic tanks (Think terminator Hunter killers) Keeping this one would have meant I would have to put a force together in 28mm, something I don’t have space to do (yet another army….Later perhaps!) but I think that the same idea will work for 15mm as long as I keep the size down (Yeah bolting things on can quite easily lead to putting too much on and blowing the whole scale, so I will make sure to bear it in mind) Her’s the finished article:
Conclusions: It worked out better than what I expected considering, I would urge all you wargamers to try and have a go at making your own, have an experiment, all its going to cost you is some glue and paint, everything else is free (well, the basing flocks and static grass and ballast weren’t, but they cost pennies in this case, you’ll probably have them anyway)
I just hope my kid doesn’t expect me to get her a load of minis to go with it (And lets hope they won’t be at GW’s uber prices!!)
Next time I make a tank, i’m thinking magnets and lights hmmm…….
TTFN
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The Grinning Skull 
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Very nice post, and tank! I envy your talent.
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Thanks David, I’m glad you like the tank! I’m really not that talented, it’s something anyone could do with a few bits and pieces, glue and paint!
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