WH40K: Puppetswar Big Gun

Big Momma gun add-on kit from Puppetswar.eu

Another conversion/add on for a Warhammer 40,000 vehicle model, this time from Puppetswar. They are another Polish creator of resin miniatures and accessories. These Poles certainly know how to make a nice wargaming product!

All aboard the Warbus!

I really like their Ork style Warbus, but I plumped for the Big Momma cannon, because I had a spare Rhino in the stash, and the Mekboss in me likes really big guns.

The main piece is a single mould of the big gun and front/top armour, which can be glued straight on to the top of the Rhino kit. (You need both sides, all the floor pieces, the top piece, the rear hatch and the tracks from the original kit. You will also need a hatch, the headlights and any accessory pieces such as badges that you want to add.)

There is also a rear piece with fans moulded on it - this goes directly over the rear door of the Rhino. There is a dozer blade (very large), an ammunition crane, and four ammunition pieces.

In the pictures you can see some brass bits and bobs which I added, partly to hide some gaps, and partly just for decoration. I also used brass tube to extend the crane. I just wanted to strengthen the crane pieces and decided to make it taller.

I realised that, unlike the Vindicator, which this resembles (but much bigger gun - some sort of envy, perhaps?) there is no driver hatch or vision slits. So I added a couple of pieces from the bits box to represent sensors for the driver, who presumably is watching a screen to steer this thing. I also put a spare eagle on top of the gun, for martial decoration.

That dozer blade is huge.

Puppetswar sells it and a similar piece separately as the 'War Plows'. It it would be a wonderful cow catcher for the armoured train I am going to build (one day).

Tools and Tips - Cheap circular cutter

I found this in the tool section of a discount store, among the blister packs of carton cutters and soon-to-be-rusty socket sets. It's a tool for cutting small pieces of pipe. I have used it on brass and styrene, and it works very well, considering that it cost all of two Australian dollars. I have cut lengths of brass pipe of approximately 5mm and 6mm diameter, and styrene tube up to about 13mm diameter.

It works by a circular blade (not very sharp itself) which freely rotates and is gradually screwed down over two steel rollers. The pipe is turned by hand on the rollers, as the blade scores and then cuts into the pipe. I have found that the brass tube does bend in slightly at the cut, so if you have bought two thickness of tube to slide into each other - for instance as pistons or gun barrels - you will have to file back the cut end so that the smaller tube can fit inside the larger. Also, when working with large but thin styrene tubes, the plastic can warm slightly in your hands. This means that the cutter will crush rather than slice through the plastic. I recommend going slowly. Again, the blade will score as you turn the tube, which means you can eventually snap the cut portion off. The end may be a tiny bit rough with a cheap tool like this, but sanding or filing will fix that.

Ork Flakka Trakk turret, with gun barrels made from sections of brass pipe.

I have been able to cut sections of pipe down to only a couple of millimeters length - basically brass rings. This tool is an incredibly cheap way to cut tubes for converting models: gun barrels, roll cages, suspension parts, pistons, rings and even 'brass' shells from fired ammunition.