How to build a

Prussian Steam Walker


Adventures in wargaming Victorian Science Fiction (VSF),  War of the Spanish Succession, Punic Wars, World War 2, post-zombie apocalypse,and other gentlemanly pursuits

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I lucked out and picked up a horde of Foundry Prussians on eBay. Naturally, they need some sort of VSF contraption(s), so I started thinking. I had one of the famous Wild, Wild West toys in a box that I had not yet decided what to do with, so decided to make it Prussian.

Here's how I did it.

Click on photos to enlarge

Step 1: Cut things off
I do not have a photo of the pieces before assembly, but here is what the toy looks like when you start out:
I cut off the gentleman on the top, leaving the steam boiler.

Step 2: Put it together
I am short cutting the story a bit, as I did not have my camera to take photos of the assembly process, but here are the parts I used:

  • 1" PVC pipe cap from Lowe's
  • 4mm Doll eyes from Hobby Lobby
  • Barrel from an Emhar 1/72 scale British WW1 18 pounder field gun
  • Card from a box of macaroni
I took the PVC pipe cap, and filed off the imprinted wording on the end. I also had to file one part flat so that it would fit on the walker base. I also drilled a hole into the cap so that the gun barrel would stick through.

Next, I glued the pipe cap to the walker base. After that dried, I added rivets (the doll eyes), glued the gun into place, and added the vision slit made from card. Here is what it looked like:



Step 3 Primer
Primer black with the cheapest spray paint I could find.

Step 4: Paint
I painted the model using cheap, Folk Art acrylic Medium Grey. I used a dry brush technique to bring out the detail in the walker legs. I also added a hand painted Tatzenkreuz to prevent friendly fire incidents (added by the crew.) Generally, I leave national markings off of my vehicles so that the can switch hit for other nationalities if need be, but decided to make an exception in this case.

For game purposes, it will be armed with a light gun, and have medium-light armor with a crew of 2. The British obviously dubbed it the "walking dust bin."