Toy Farmer
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"Sir, Do You Know How Slow You Were Driving?"
Page 4


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With everything painted, all remaining parts can be added and there weren't many, primarily steering wheel, control levers, that sort of thing and you're ready for decals. 

 Keep in mind that the decals are for a tractor designed and built in Germany and mine's in Texas.  As a result, you won't need all of'em.  Basically I used the Porsche and Junior names on the sides of the hood and the silver version instead of the yellow.  This photo gives you a clearer version of the nameplates which are extremely small.  Yes, they are silver in color though  they look white in the photo above.

I also used a couple of placards on the engine, along with the Porsche name on the back of the seat and that was it.  The license plate decals weren't used either.  I planned on making my own for the vignette in order to have it legally licensed in Texas. 

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I found an image of a Texas license plate, then scanned it to create a custom decal.  With the license plate in place, we're down to where the fun really begins...weathering and the creation of the vignette.

Weathering is a subjective art and how much any vehicle is weathered depends on factors ranging how new they are to how hard they've been worked and everything in between.  Most equipment like the Porsche Junior are pretty well kept, so I limited the weathering on this model to a few oil and fluid stains, along with some drybrushed grime, a little black wash on the wheels and bottom of the body and drybrushed steel on worn edges.

Pretty subtle, really, and not easy to see in the photos, but appropriate  for the scene I had planned.

In order to to create the vignette I had n mind, I needed two things...a seated tractor driver and  a  standing Texas State Trooper. 

A fairly quick search on Amazon with the search string '1/24 scale figures' got me what I needed.  The tractor figure was actually a Truck Driver from Master Box...MB24044... that was nearly a perfect fit out of the box and was an injected styrene kit.

None of the figure kits has instructions...aside from basic assembly...which isn't particularly surprising.  The driver does go together rather quickly, though i did leave the hat off for the moment to make painting the face easier.  Being a Texas scene, jeans, an off white shirt and a jean jacket were a natural choice, along with a straw Stetson-style hat instead of the optional gimme cap.

The Texas State Trooper?  I couldn't find a standing Trooper in the correct scale, soI wound up doing a lashup combining parts from two Master Box sets...MB24027 and MB24064...along with a little reanimation as needed.

Regarding the Trooper, I built up the body first sans arms and added putty where needed.  After the putty had been contoured and allowed to dry, arms came next, along with the head.  After everything was good 'n dry, a shot of primer had the figure ready to paint.

When it comes to painting the Trooper, standard uniform would be Texas tan for the clothes and black shoes or boots.  Normally the Trooper would be wearing a Stetson, but he was in such a hurry  to ticket the farmer for slow driving that he left his stetson in  his cruiser. 

If you decide to go with with a police officer instead of a Trooper, there are many, many uniform variations, though the majority of police uniforms in my part of Texas tend to be a dark blue or black color.

Once your figure is painted, the gun belt, holster and other accessories need to be added.  Those are almost exclusively black leather,  So True North Satin Black was used for those, as well as as the shoes.

By the way, unless you have the eyesight of an eagle....and even if you do...I would strongly advise you to pick up a headband magnifier before working on figures.  Many of them incorporate fine detail that can barely be seen with the naked eye until you pop that detail out with some very delicate detail painting.  I use a Donegan OptiVisor and have for decades.  The interchangeable optical glass lenses do a superb job.

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