Study: George’s Gretsch (Illustrator)
October 2, 2026
Santa Fe
October 18, 2026
Masudaya Space Tank M-18 (Blender, Substance Painter)
Number 6 in the new series. Most of my Blender renditions of tin toys from Japan’s golden age are of the anthropomorphic robots that came to define the era, but I occasionally dip into other categories as well. In particular, the tin toy space vehicles produced during the 1950s-60s were rich in variety, chock full of innovative features, and nowadays almost as sought after as their humanoid counterparts.
Masudaya, makers of the legendary “Gang of Five” robots, were especially prolific contributors to the mid-century tin toy vehicle category, not just with their science fiction toys but with conventional car toys as well. With its “Bump-n-Go” action, spinning radar antenna and working taillights, the 1959 Space Tank M-18 was a popular early entry in their lineup, and served as a major blueprint for many of their future vehicle designs.
Left to right: The OG M-18 Space tank (without antenna); Substance markup and references for pilot textures; quad view in Blender.
The 3D design for this one was pretty straightforward; I probably spent just as much time drawing and mapping the textures as I did on the modeling itself. Texturing the pilot was a fun challenge: I planned to do it all in Substance Painter, but ultimately just used Painter to mark up texture placement and then drew them in Figma to ensure visual consistency with the other decals. As with some previous tin toys I’ve made in Blender, figuring out how to depict believable-looking clear plastic components (like the M-18’s cockpit dome) is still a challenge for me. In fact, it prompted me to sign up for a new Udemy course on product lighting and rendering, so I can learn how to be more intentional about lighting setups in my future projects.