Rolling In My Taurox

Several years ago, I was given an Imperial Guard Taurox. I've been sitting on it ever since (metaphorically), and now that the UK has returned to lockdown, I thought it was at last time to put the thing together.

Like virtually anyone who's ever seen one of these things, I thought it would be much better without the weird caterpillar-track things. I got some wheels from Ramshackle Games to replace them.

It was fairly easy to trim down the end of the Taurox's suspension and to glue the wheels to the end of them. Unfortunately, the wheels weren't perfect casts (they were very cheap, so I can't really complain), so I decided to fill in the miscast bits with mud that would have accumulated while the vehicle was driving odd-road. I made the mud by mixing watered-down PVA glue and basing flock (the stuff that looks like brown sandy stuff). I added some to the underside of the chassis, where it would accumulate.

My approach to "converting" the Taurox was to leave off as much of the detailing and weaponry as possible. To me, it looks like the weird offspring of a Humvee and a British WW2 armoured tractor, and I thought that giving it a comparatively "clean" shape would make it look more like a civilian vehicle (albeit one covered in armour and probably full of concealed weaponry). Just the sort of thing that a genestealer Magus or a bunch of crooks would drive around in.

Painting was pretty simple: I sprayed it black and made the underside very dirty with brown. The upper panels got a thin brown wash to suggest accumulated dirt, and the paintwork was chipped a little. I added a few silver details - they probably started off as chrome.

I think it looks suitably mean. Maybe it could do with some more colour, but I quite like the anonymity of it all (well, for a small armoured car). 

Next up is another model that I've had for ages. He's a Privateer Press elf called Narn, mage-hunter of Ios, and he looks like the sort of chap who spends a lot of time trying to look badass - in fact, exactly the kind of guy who rolls around town in a decommissioned Taurox. To begin with, I painted him in the green colours of my wood elf warband, but his posing made me think that he'd be much better suited to my cyberpunk elf squad. I stripped him and repainted in in darker colours. It's hard to see, but he's got a crossbow and quarrels strapped to his back. 

Anyhow, here he is, about to go out on the town.