WH40K - Orkspendables Trukks

After a long gap, here are the Ork Trukks inspired by the vehicles in Expendables 2, or as I call them:
Da Orkspendables.

They started with the Trukk chassis plus resin wheels from Kromlech. The 4 x 4 chassis were cut down, and all of them were slightly rebuilt to keep all the wheels level (theoreticaly. The trukks wobble a bit on the ground.) The bodies are mostly bits out of the bits box. I added the Ork Warbikes to give the trukks that 'Long Range Recon' look, and to make the 4 x 4 variants a bit longer, so they are about the same size as a standard Trukk in the game. The bikes are stock, with some bits trimmed off to make them a bit lighter. These are sneaky Blood Axe Orks, not yahoos like the rest of them.

I haven't decided whether to paint them maroon to match the rest of the army, or sandy coloured to make them look like the movie. Either way, the paintwork will be very 'bashed up'. I know that I have left the drivers in which will make them harder to paint, but I wanted to see what the whole vehicles looked like rather than build sub-assemblies and glue them together later. Either way, I will paint to tabletop standard, not GD winner so it won't be that much of a hassle. Also, it looks like it would be hard to fit 12 boyz (or 6 Mega Armoured Nobz) in those trukks, but they just hang on as best they can.

WH40K - Fernvale Specialty Scenics

I picked up some cast resin scenery pieces from Underworld Games in Ipswich, Qld.

These are made by Fernvale Specialty Scenics. I have found a number of miniature and hobby sites that sell them, but the designer's blog/website is here:

http://fss-resin.blogspot.com/

I bought five of the 'Rock' series and two 'Pond' series.

RF-001, RF-002, RF-003, RF-004 and RF-005.

WF-002 Pond and WF-001 Oasis.

These pieces are approx 10 - 20 cm wide and up to about 8 cm high. They are moulded in dark brown or black resin, with realistic looking rocks and a coarse, sandy/foamy surface for the ground. They look like they will paint up very easily, but I will add a little flock and dirt to the bases.

They do look as if actual rocks have been used as casting material, but I think this is perfectly acceptable. Nothing looks more like rock, and I don't have the time or the skill to find and assemble natural looking scenery and make terrain pieces from it.

The smallest rock looks like a good aiming spot for a firing squad.

The key reason I like these pieces is that they have been carefully arranged to allow WH40K scale (28mm) figures - with bases - to stand among the terrain without toppling over.

The rock pieces would look good in any desert or alien wasteland - add plastic aquarium or home-made plants to make them more like jungle scenes. The large pond could have a chemical tank and green paint added for that 'toxic spill' look. The small pond could easily be used to represent the horror of horrors, the nastiest place in any Ork settlement: The drops...

The smaller pieces in the Fernvale Specialty Scenics range were about AUD 5-6 each and the large ones AUD 8-10 each. Very reasonable in my opinion.