Halo M12B Tundra Warthog

       

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Original Kit:
Halo UNSC Warthog
Made By:
Revell (kit #1766)
Scale:
N/A
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I've always liked the look of the Halo Warthog, from its early appearances to the more recent designs. So when Revell released their take on the iconic vehicle, I had to pick one up. But I didn't want to just build another stock green version, and so looked around at some of the variants used in the games over the years and settled on turning it into the "Tundra" version with its cold weather camo.

The build itself was straight out of the box. Revell did a fantastic job of making a simple but well-detailed kit that went together with zero headaches. Even the features I didn't care about like the working suspension and light-and-sound gimmick were unobtrusive so they didn't impact the look of the finished model. Parts fit together tightly but most could be pulled apart in the event of an error. Just nice work all around.

To give it the unique paint job, I went with Tamiya TS-38 Gunmetal for the chassis/suspension and TS-26 Pure White for the body. To ensure no bleed through from the cast green plastic, I put a barrier of AS-5 Light Blue between the primer and top coats. Once the paint had fully set, I drew up the camo pattern and printed it onto clear decal stock. Over the course of several days I carefully applied it over the complex shape of the Warthog, touching up the few remaining areas with a custom paint I mixed up before giving everything a healthy shot of Dullcote. Various metallic colors were then used to pick out the latches, hooks, and other important greebles.

The interior was painted TS-63 NATO Black, and the gun was masked off to retain the green guard and sprayed with more Gunmetal. The tires were cast in brown - a likely attempt to make them look dirty, but were too uniform to look like anything but brown rubber. I shot each tire from both sides with black, leaving a mottled brown tread to better represent weathering. I then carried over this weathering to the rest of the model, using a combination of Vallejo and Tamiya weathering effects to give it a field-used appearance.

With the Warthog done, I wanted to give it a driver. Revell provided three figures with the kit, and while they looked decent they weren't what I was looking for. Instead, I went with Valkyrie Hobby's "Spartan Ari 117," sculpted by Alexis Arroyo. The quality of the figure was excellent, with a near-perfect parts fit and minimal cleanup needed. The only change I made was to the feet, which were originally sculpted wearing heels - not quite combat stilettos, but tending that direction. I replaced them with the feet from the gunner in Revell's kit, which had to have their mount plug filled but otherwise fit great. Her outer armor was painted the same NATO Black as the Warthog's interior, with a darker black for the bodysuit. Some light drybrushing and weathering highlighted the edges of the suit, and the visor was painted gold. Her face was painted with a combination of AK Interactive and Apple Barrel paints, and while I was trying to decide on a hair color I plopped the unpainted resin piece on top of her head. I was surprised at how much I liked the look, so I tossed all of my previous ideas and painted it in several shades of silver, gray, and white. Since she's a true 1/24 scale she doesn't scale exactly to the Warthog, but is close enough to look good to me.

 

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