Dusting up the Beast

Probably my favourite Indiana Jones film is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The combination of archaeology, mythology, nazi soldiers and lots of wonderful pulp action. Though we know it wasn’t real, and though we know that there was no actual historical version of it; I am sure most of us who have thought about recreating the Indiana Jones films on the table have wanted to use that tank. It appears at first glance to be a Mark VIII with a turret, the reality was that it was built specially for the film and was built up from an excavator.

I wrote back in 2012 about finding a 28mm model of the tank, since then I found it was available from Empress Miniatures, I was able to order it and go through the resin pieces and constructing the Mark IX Beast. Following the application of the white undercoat, I started the base coat of Vallejo 70912 Tan Yellow on the Mark IX Beast tank. Having thought about the result and I didn’t like the Tan Yellow, I went ahead and made the decision to repaint the tank with Citadel Layer colour, Ushabti Bone. I then shaded the tank with various washes.

The next stage was to start to tone down the shading with some drybrushing with Ushabti Bone.

The effect was to give the tank a dusty feel as though it had been driving for some time in the deserts.

I was quite pleased with how this turned out.

The next stage will be  further weathering.

See the full workbench feature on the Mark IX Beast tank.

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