WH40K - Idea for Battlewagon conversion

I've had an idea. I've got the Goffik Rokkers lying around. They are older minis of WH40K Orks, as a band. I think they could 'count as' an Ork Weirdboy - but they would be a bit bigger on the table top than the Weirdboy's standard 25mm base. I've got an unbuilt Ork Battlewagon. And I've got the old bits box...
So, I will put the Rokkers on stage, and put that stage on a tower, and put that on a Battlewagon. Add amps, speakers, Grot roadies, power source of some sort, and I will have a converted, re-imagined Weirdboy Battle Tower.
The tower was originally an Epic piece, and several people have built WH40K scale conversions since then. Mine will be a rock 'n roll one. I might even put an MP3 player and speakers in. Must leave room for battery changes.
Who knows? Maybe the Weirdboy Tower will re-appear if and when the new Ork Codex is released. I hope I make it the right height. Wouldn't want to have an advantage (or disadvantage) if 'the real thing' was released as a model!

Dust Warfare - Headswaps

I bought some British Army style heads from the Victoria Miniatures webstore. Victoria Lamb is a superb miniatures painter and designer, and well known in Australia for her work. She sells miniatures and conversion parts to turn 30mm toy soldier minis into Victorian era heroes, including Highlander style kilts and bagpipes!

I bought a selection of Victoria's 'Brody Helmet' heads as well as some heads with Tam O'Shanters and berets, to convert my Dust Warfare Allied troops from US Army (and USMC) into British Army. It won't change them from a game rules point of view, but it will personalise my army. The next step will be painting them in khaki and similar colours.

Since the heads are all moulded on a sprue of white metal, I clipped each head off with a 'spike' of metal running from the neck down. This made it much easier to place the heads in the neck holes of the orginal miniatures.

Allied Command Squad

 
Allied Recon Squad.






Who's in command here? Robin Hood? When did your men last shave?

At least these chaps have remembered their helmets.

Once I've finished painting these guys (yeah, right) I want to paint my Allied Walker models in the WW2 'Mickey Mouse' colour scheme, of black circular shapes over olive or dark green camouflage paint. I will be going for more style than historical accuracy, but Dust Warfare is a game with walking tanks, heroic rocket men and Nazi Zombies, so historical accuracy is lower priority.

Below is an example of a model truck in Mickey Mouse camouflage, which I found on the model making website www.miniatures.de (The model in the photo is not mine; I am impressed by it and want to follow the example of the person who made it!)

http://www.miniatures.de/mickey-mouse-pattern.html

WH40K - Orkspendables Trukks with Kromlech Wheels

Not much work done on these in the meantime, but here are some pictures that better show the wheels. I added some brass tubing to the 4 x 4 Trukks to represent transmission shafts.

The rear view shows the little plastic blocks I added to raise the body from the rear axles. This brings the body roughly level, now that there are wheels of the same size all the way around. (In the original model kit, the front wheels have a smaller diameter, so their axles are lower than the rear ones.)

This view shows how the tyres come in left and right varieties. Because I bought 14 wheels (in the four styles sold by Kromlech), I ended up with one extra right hand wheel and missing one left hand wheel. That's only important if you care which way around the tread goes, and I decided that the Orks didn't care about one wheel. So, the centre left wheel (middle of this picture) is the 'wrong' way around.

If you do care, just buy an even number of wheel sets from Kromlech!

WH40K - Orkspendables Trukks with Kromlech Wheels

Here are the wheels I am using for my Ork Trukks, inspired by Expendables 2: The Expendening. These resin wheels are from Kromlech miniatures. The Trukk chassis are just resting on the wheels for now. Because the original design of the Trukk has smaller wheels at the front (and I have adjusted the height of the rear suspension pieces) I will use styrene tubing to make sure that all the axles are the same width. Once they are glued to the Trukks, I will be able to add more plastic bits around the bodies to make that Land Rover shape I am (sort of) after.


Here's the range of four different wheels. Note the relatively small area where the resin mould stub has been removed. A quick bit of filing and a lick of paint and that won't be visible.

You can also see the front and rear of each wheel. The wheels are about the same size as the originals from the Trukk models, with 4mm axle holes.

These wheels are nicely moulded. The detail is reasonably good, for what is supposed to be rubber tyres made from scraps and bolts. There are no bubbles in the resin, and they should paint up very nicely.

The wheels are called 'Raider Wheels'. Kromlech sell them in their eBay store, in two different packs of two (so 14 wheels makes 7 packs.)

 Kromlech also threw in some free samples: an Ork Nob head with German style cap,  a power armour shoulder pad adorned with chainmail and a chaos style head suitable for power armour or a hefty rebel type figure.

WH40K - Ork Trukks inspired by Expendables 2

Here are some pictures from the opening scene of The Expendables 2, showing the modified Land Rovers used by our heroes. (The pictures come from trailers for the movie, and from the company who made the modified vehicles - Portal Rover)

They have inspired my next addition to my Ork forces. I want to convert three Ork Trukk models to represent the three converted Land Rovers seen at the beginning of the movie - two 4x4 and one 6x6.

They'll get plenty of armour plating, and extra 'bits' to cover the engine areas. I'll trim off a lot of the spiky bits and put gun mounts in the appropriate places. I have bought three Trukk models and also a Skyfire Landing Pad (to cut up into armour plate.) I still want the Trukks to look Orky, so they won't be to clean or even.

WH40K - Ork Flying Gun Thing

You don't have to buy an entire GW model kit to get the good bits. There are lots of bits sellers on the net, who will sell you separate parts from those kits. Obviously interesting parts like weapons and wheels sell more quickly (and are more expensive) because people who build conversions and dioramas want more of those bits. Random pieces of vehicle hull might languish on a retailer's shelf and be a bit cheaper. That's good if you want to build some WH40K terrain to represent a 'burned out' vehicle hull.

I had a few bits left over from the Ork Bommer kit, and a "Super Gatler" from the Ork Stompa, bought from a Bits seller for inclusion in some conversion or other. (Possibly the as-yet-unbuilt STOMP-E which remains in pieces in the bits box.) I also had a couple of Tau Devilfish engines, from the kit which eventually became my first Ork Fighta.

All this has been combined with a Tau Piranha model to produce an Ork Flying Gun Thing. I'll come up with a name for it, or take any suggestions...

(As I was building it I realised I could avoid using all the wings, engines and weapons from the Piranha. These in turn could be added to a Battlesuit to make a super-flying Battlesuit! It's the Mekboy DNA in me, I swear...)

The brass bits are from a packet of brass... bits... which I bought at a hobby store. I can think of lots of uses for those. 

Although in real life this model is completely glued together, in the game I like to think that the engines swivel for a very crude VTOL effect. The 'feet' underneath it become landing gear, of a sort. More skilled modellers than I could actually make that work. Check out Work In Progress for some amazing conversions.

The 'face' on the nose is made from a Warhammer Fantasy Black Orc shield, and the 'anchor' part of the dragging chain mechanism from the original Dakkajet.

VRROOOMMMMM! FREEAAAAOOOOWWWWWMMMMM!
Dakka dakka dakka dakka dakka dakka!

WH40K: Even More Dakka on the Dakkajet!

The rest of this kit has been built straight from the box. However, I used a lot of the optional pieces, to maximise the number of guns and bombs this contraption will carry. It's not in accordance with the rules for the model in the game, but it is the way my Orks would go!

The vertical stabilisers on the tail are from old Ork War Trukk kits, and the lower stabilisers on the wings are from the Tau Skyray variant of the Devilfish/Hammerhead kit. I also assembled the ork pilot and Grot gunner, a gun turret, and assorted missiles and bombs, but I will paint those separately. The tan coloured rocket pods are from an old robot model kit that a friend threw into my bits box. I also changed the 'anchor' at the back of the plane for a double chain axe head. The pilot thinks it is funny when that digs into the runway or whatever is on the ground during one of his flybys.

Planned paint scheme will be metallic grey or silver all over, for that classic 1950s look, with dark red highlights on areas like the stabilisers to match the rest of my Ork forces. If I can be bothered, I will add suitable nose art. Any suggestions?