Study: George’s Gretsch (Illustrator)
October 2, 2026
Santa Fe
October 18, 2026
Masudaya Space Tank M-18 (Blender, Substance Painter)
Sixth 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, their 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 the pilot textures; quad view in Blender.
The 3D design was pretty straightforward; I probably spent 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 markup texture placement, and then drew the texture maps in Figma to maintain 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 domed cockpit) is still a challenge for me. In fact, it prompted me to sign up for a Udemy course on product lighting and rendering, so I can learn how to be more intentional about lighting setups in my future projects.