Getting about the place

I'm still waiting for the bits to turn up so I can start work on my Arbites. It's been roughly three weeks since I ordered them, and I'm beginning to wonder where they might be. But while I wait I thought I'd post some more about the city project.

On top of filling Kruenta Karoliina Arx Rotunda with denizens, I also wanted to have a variety of different vehicles dotted around. I'd always liked the models produced by Old Crow, so they seemed like a good place to start. Their website used to be here, but Jez (who was very helpful back when I bought these) seems to have another venture on the go at the moment and has changed the site. If you want to see the old range you could try here, under Old Crow Products and then 25mm Vehicles. They are well cast and relatively cheap, so in my opinion a very good purchase. They come up a tiny bit small against GW models, but I quite like this for my purpose as it helps to reinforce the difference between the civilian and military roles. I want everything to look rugged and designed for harsh environments, but I guess I'm happy if the military stuff is even more so.

The three basic models I bought were the Trojan Light APC, the Gecko Scout and the Provider Transport. I did a little conversion work to the vehicles, adding a few of the spare bits from Old Crow's range and maybe the odd piece from my bits box, but the main change was the doubling up of the wheels on the two heavier vehicles, and the adding and extending of the front bumpers on the Provider Transport. I felt these minor tweaks helped to exaggerate that robust, hard-wearing feel I was after.

While I was working on these I dubbed the yellow Provider a Mini-6, after the Cargo-6, that Dan Abnett mentions in one of his Ravenor books. I imagine mine is a smaller, flat-bed version of the thing he describes.

I painted these a few years ago. I know almost exactly when I did it, because it was just after my first child was born. As an in-joke I put my baby boy's initials on the side of one of the crates on the back of the delivery truck.

I'm not sure his mum found it all that amusing; probably because I should have been changing nappies or preparing a bottle. But he has a younger brother now, and it's a parental absolute that one's kids are treated equally, so I'll have to prepare another crate with his brother's initials on it. It's my duty. And besides, you know the old saying: If they don't laugh first time, repeat until funny.