WH40K - Crater or Trukk Go Boom!

I didn't want or need six of the 'Moonscape' craters in the terrain pack from GW, so I bought a single crater from a stack of 'bits' being sold off by my FLGS.


I have made this: an Ork Vehicle Crater. Although I like the flame and smoke tokens I discussed previously, this piece is supposed to be what is left when one of my wonderful Ork creations goes 'ka-EXLODE!'
I just added a few bits of cut up plastic and leftover Ork vehicle parts to the crater. All the bits are polystyrene, so it is all glued together with ordinary model glue. That's the beauty of plastic models - easy to cut and convert.

WH40K - Ork Battlewagon with KillKannon, a bit of paint and a lot of salt

I started painting the Battlewagon with Kill Kannon, as follows:

- undercoat of Citadel Black spray

- coat of Mr Hobby 'Steel' spray

- coat of Tamiya 'Light Gun Metal' spray

- first ever attempt at using salt to part mask a metal colour, and have paint chips when the next colour goes on

- coat of Tamiya 'Dark Red' spray.

I left the model overnight to dry between colours. I used the two metallic colours because I wanted to come up with a method for painting a vehicle quickly, but with some depth. I am never going to produce a Golden Demon level paint job, but I am happy with the way these toys look at arm's length, on the table top.

As it happens, I overdid the salt (dabbing on water and sprinkling salt) and it only stuck well to the top of the model. I let that dry and sprayed with the red colour. Once that was dry, I scrubbed off the salt, revealing worn 'metal'. It looks like the Orks have been stomping up and down the roof of their car with steel boots on, which they probably have. Next time I might salt the top surface, wait until that dries, and then do each side in succession. However, I am going to have a bit of a bash with more gun metal (actually GW Bolt Gun Metal) and an old tank brush. That should even things up. Then weathering with paint marker pens and a very light spray of Tamiya 'Light Sand'.

WH40K - Ork Battlewagon with KillKannon

Another project which is taking a looong time from impulse buy to playable model: a KillKannon armed Battlewagon. (Orks are strong advocates of the BFG. They also approve heartily of More Dakka.)

I have made some minor conversions on the hull, adding a few glyph plates, some height to the uprights on the rear deck and closing up the cabin with various spare bits. Most of the work was put into the turret. I used polystyrene tubing for the barrel and mounted that on the gun that comes with the kit. The rear half of the turret is made from the sides of a spare turret, taken from another battlewagon kit. 

The gun barrel is much larger than the one supplied with the Deff Rolla sprue (extra bits that you can buy from GW or some games shops.) I think it is also a bit smaller than the resin Supa Kannon from Forge World, but it would probably be acceptable to represent that weapon in an Apocalypse game.

When I put the turret on the vehicle, it looked like it was just sitting there. So, I used some leftover parts of the turret to make a sort of basket. I also used one of the 'boarding ramp' pieces to make a ladder on the basket. It would be a tight squeeze for an Ork but I figure that the gun is operated by Grots.