'The Blue Turd', the Arbites' (and mine!) least favourite transport...

Yet another post in the ongoing decal-related series, this time featuring a large Arbites armoured transport I finished recently.

I nicknamed this one 'The Blue Turd' as it is, quite honestly, an absolutely terrible model.

More photos, and an explanation after the cut...



 A *very* long time ago, when I was less cynical, had a functioning spine, and even had enthusiasm for the wargaming world outside my own games room, (2012, to be exact), Mongoose publishing launched a Kickstarter on the back some fantastic greens and a lot of promises, to which I chucked in several hundred pounds.

Fast forward to April this year, after four years of delays, excuses and sculpts varying from 'quite nice' to 'fucking abysmal', (all of which are now sat, unpainted, in a large drawer in disgust) this lump of resin finally turned up as one of the last releases owed to me, almost as some kind of insult. I mean, just look at it...

The striations, the terrible moulding, the horror!

I mean, seriously, who makes a production mould using a 3d master this bad? By this stage it's like they just weren't even trying. If I'd had any kind of comeback whatsoever, I'd have sent it back and told them to shove it somewhere unpleasant, but a, I'm not that kind of person, (I just make passive-aggressive blog posts), and b, Mongoose had sold the lot to Warlord, so there was no point anyway. 

Anyway, I thought that as I almost certainly wasn't going to do the Dredd table with I'd originally planned, I'd attempt to co-opt this into some kind of transport for my Port Imperiale Arbites. 

To start with, I undercoated it. A lot. Mainly to make some attempt to hide those bloody striations under a layer of paint. It didn't really work, tbh, but here you go, this is what I managed to make out of it... 

 An Arbites roadblock stops a squat cargo convoy

 Group shot. That Justice Dept eagle is close enough to an aquila, right? 

 Discussions start getting heated...

 Your name's not down, you're not coming in...

 Now, scram! 

 You have 15 seconds to comply!

 Overhead shot, showing the roof decal.

This roof decal didn't quite work out, either. I think I left it in the setting solution for too long before placing, and it became very flexible, to the point it warped quite badly. I've used weathering to hide the problem. It also didn't sit very well on the surface, due to yet more of those bloody striations.

One other thing I'm doing to all of my Port Imperiale-based vehicles are number plates. I just thought it would add a unifying touch to all of the different vehicles that are based there. 

Here's one on the back of the cab...

Also, while I'm writing this, here are a few more shots of the squat cargo convoy. I've had these painted for years, so they might have cropped up in the past, but I don't think I've taken any shots of them. These are all made of bits from Ramshackle Games, and named 'Huey, Dewey, and Louie', if you can guess the sci-fi reference! ;)

Until next time!