Kitbashed Ariadna Traktor Mul

After the Dozer reported for duty, it was time to rush the Traktor to the action. Today's post will be a little longer than usual, as I did quite some custom job on this one. But don't worry, there are still photos to keep you entertained...

The idea for this project was first sparked in my mind after... well after I saw the price tag of these remotes: A couple of them for 41,95€ was a bit steep for me and I only needed one really. As soon as I decided to take on this project, I started looking for some suitable models to be the basis for this conversion. I looked into the opportunity to use old WH40k Orks tanks at the early stages; but I quickly moved away from that idea because they were too big to sit on a 40mm round base and most probably they were off scale.

The solution found me during one of my routine eBay searches. I think most of you would know Micro Arts Studio, the Polish mini designer company which have a beautiful product line of scenery and accessories in "Designed for Infinity". Well, it turned out that they also have a product line called Iron Brotherhood and one of those resin miniatures was the perfect fit for me. I quickly ordered one and it was what I based this conversion on.

This figure was used as the basis

I assembled the chassis and the tracks of this Iron Brotherhood before diving into my bitz box. I found the "head" within my Abyssal Dwarf leftovers, while I also used bits from Warhammer Dwarf kits.

In the club, we have an urban themed scenery elements to play Infinity. So I decided to create a base that would hopefully fit to the theme. I laid some cork on the base for the road and some balsa for the sidewalk. I carved the cork a little to look like drain. After that, I placed the mini on the base and attached the head bit to its place. At the front , I drilled a couple of holes to place a piece of paperclip which will support the lights.

Early stage

I was also busy with the other decorative bits like the traffic sign, the baggage bits and the lights. Traffic sign was scratch-built from tea stirrer and some plastic sheeet. The baggage bits were from a Warhammer Dwarf kit. I just glued them in couples to place them at the back of the mini. The lights were from another dwarf kit's bit. I tore that bit apart to get into a shape which could be used as lights.

Various bits & pieces I used

After getting all the pieces I wanted, I put them together to see if they looked ok together.

At that point, only the weapon arms were missing. I wanted this mini to have missile launchers. Even though I could have done them from scratch, I learned from the 40k players that there was something called "Havoc Launcher". After checking those bits, I felt that that might work and went for them. However, my friend who was supposed to bring them to me was some 2 months late :) My would-be traktor sit on my desk idly all that time.

Anyways, at the end I got the havocs and saw that all those 6 barrels are tad too big for this beauty. I had to cut them down to 4 barrels and attached them to the sides. It was time for painting.

Even though the original paint job did not have any camo pattern, I wanted to try a 3-color NATO camo design. I started with dark brown base on black undercoat then masked it with Tack-It before spraying the green paint.

Ready for green

After laying down the greens, I removed the masks and did blacks of the camo with regular brush. I forgot to take photos after that point so I have to jump to the conclusion now :)

While I was just about to finish, I thought that it would be a nice idea to add a a piece of urban trash somewhere and did the tiny McDonald's cup. I also tried to do a smoke plume out of green tufts and did the minor freehands on the weapon arms: The Ariadna faction logo and a "2" in a digital font, which happened to be its name :)

Well, that was pretty much it and I think it is damn close to the original figure (minus my painting ofc). Hope you enjoyed it. Comments are welcome as always...