Staying on track

As is my way, I've decided to start a bunch of new modelling projects before the other fifty are finished. Over the next few months I've planned to make a selection of old, beaten-up vehicles for my Imperial hive city, Kruenta Karoliina Arx Rotunda.

Actually, 'plan' is too strong a word, as, on that front, I'm probably a lot more like Heath Ledger's Joker than Christian Bale's Batman.

"I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it!"

But with a little luck, in the coming weeks, some of those chased cars (and perhaps other vehicles, both wheeled and tracked) will be prepped, painted and posted here.

So with that in mind, it was pure luck that while visiting a friend last week, I happened to walk past a small enclosure full of rusty, old tractors.

I particularly like the way the first machine has oxidised heavily on its (now unused) tracks, but the rust gradually fades further up the vehicle, revealing the original paint job, before getting thicker again near the top. It looks to me like the rust is at its severest in places on the vehicle most exposed to, or most likely to trap, water. Also worth noting is how the (presumably heavily oiled) piston in the bottom picture has sustained no visible damage whatsoever, whilst the rest of the vehicle is completely battered.

Although I'm intending to vary the degrees of abuse I add to my vehicles, these pics are pretty close to the kind of thing I've got in mind.

Therefore if everything goes according to those plans I'm unable to make, look out for at least some of this deterioration appearing in my forthcoming projects.