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 - 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 - Orkspendables Trukks - Chassis

The usual slow progress on my Orkspendables Converted Trukks. I ordered some resin wheels from Kromlech's eBay store, so I haven't bothered with the Ork wheels yet. I never really liked the 'nailed on armour plating' look that the GW wheels have, although if the undamaged Kromlech wheels look too neat, I might consider their 'Raider' wheel sets.

Ork Trukk chassis with middle axle and suspension removed. 

So, I built the chassis of one Trukk in the regular way, with axles for six wheels and cut the middle axle part from the chassis of the two other trucks, gluing the ends back on. The white square was just a piece of scrap styrene that happened to be the right size to reinforce the join where the cut was a bit wobbly. (It's not just parts that go into the bits box. Offcuts and scraps can also be useful!)

Another Ork Trukk chassis given the 'cut and shunt' treatment.

I also raised the rear suspension of all these vehicles with some bits of plastic, to make them a little higher off the ground than regular Trukks. This will give them more of a Kustom feel, if only by about 4mm. It also allows me to use large wheels all the way around them, rather than small ones at the front.

The cut out suspension areas make the two 4x4 Trukks much shorter than the original, which isn't really fair for the tabletop if I want these to be played as regular Trukks. However, the Secret Ingredient I will add to each trukk should bring the length back to 'regulation'. I am also tempted by a few other bits in my bits box which aren't really on the movie trucks, but would probably look good on these vehicles. We shall see!

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 - Trukk Crater painted

Here's the Trukk Crater, with a slap of paint and ground cover. Paint as follows:
- light grey acryllic spray paint for the undercoat
- Tamiya Light Tan and Dark Yellow sprays
- Citadel Ogryn Flesh wash in the fissures
- drybrush of Citadel Rotten Flesh over the crater.
- Citadel Scab Red, Bolt Gun Metal and Tin Bitz over the 'trukk' pieces.
- Quick spray of Citadel Purity Seal (matt varnish) over the whole thing.

The ground stuff is the same material I use for basing most of my miniatures. It's a mix of stuff bought over the years, but mostly railway modelling 'gravel' or 'ballast'. I find that the light grey is a nice, neutral colour. However, since it is railway modelling material, it is a bit uniform. My favourite material, when I can be bothered to make it, is bits of concrete ground together. That makes a grit of differing sizes (less than 1mm) which looks a bit more realistic on the base of a toy soldier.

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 Trukk finally painted

I have had a few days off work and therefore the opportunity to do some painting (at last!).
Many months after I bought it I have finally finished one of my Ork Trukks (bottom of that post for the unpainted version). I added the horizontal roll bars at the back - they are just polystyrene tube or girder with bits of metal and masking tape. I also added some bits to the sides to make the tray look like it is one piece, with glyph plates and scrap plastic, so that they fill in the gaps. (These are where boarding ladders can be glued if desired.)

The main reason for converting them relates to my only criticism of the Games Workshop Ork Trukk model kit: It is a wonderful model of an Ork vehicle, that looks like a truly individual creation, bashed together by a mad engineer. That means that loads of models look like the same truly individual creation! So I convert mine to make them look a bit different to each other and any others on the table top.

The trukk was undercoated in Citadel Black spray, oversprayed with Tamiya Dark Red and then bashed about a bit with Citadel Tin Bitz and Bolt Gun Metal. Dirt was added with a Floquil Enamel Paint Marker, but this was a bit shiny, so I dusted a little bit of Tamiya Light Sand from the spray can, just around the wheels and chassis. The runes and emblems were picked out in a variety of paint markers: Pentel, Zig and Gundam Marker. These pens are also a bit smelly and sometimes paint comes out more thickly than with a brush - but they are great for quick touch ups and Ork graffiti. Lastly, the paintwork was covered with a light coat of Tamiya Clear.

WH40K - Tokens

Ork Trukk on fire, or 'Turn Two' as it is more commonly known.

I have bought some game tokens from Litko Aero Game Accessories and Gale Force 9. I bought the Litko tokens from their own website and the GF9 tokens from Maelstrom Games.

The flame and smoke tokens can be used to mark barrages, dangerous terrain or objectives. I put them on destroyed vehicle models to show that the vehicle is now a wreck. The tokens aren't as realistic as carefully painted cotton wool but they are handy and robust enough to be dropped back in the troop trays after the game.

I bought the following Gale Force 9 token sets a few months ago:

GF9 Fire and Explosion Markers (set of 6) 

GF9 Smoke Markers (set of 6)

GF9 Sci Fi Infantry Status Token Set ('Pinned', 'Morale Check' etc) 

GF9 Sci Fi Vehicle Status Token Set ('Weapon Destroyed', 'Immobilised' etc)
The last two sets are thinner pieces; black plastic backed with a velvet material, and are handy to use as reminders on the WH40K battlefield. 



Smoking: Makes an Ork look serfisterkated.








   

Recently I bought some Litko token sets and they arrived a couple of weeks ago:

Flaming Wreckage Large (set of 3)

XL Flaming Wreckage Marker

Mini Wound Marker Set (set of 10 little skulls)

  

I has got... erm... lots of wounds left.

I use the wound markers by putting them near models that have lost some of their wound points (explanation for non-players: most toy soldier figures in WH40K have only one wound point, but a few models have two or more, such as leaders and characters.) Previously I had used dice, with the number of pips representing the wounds remaining, but occasionally they would get knocked over, or even rolled! Now, I will put a number of skulls down to represent remaining wounds.

Comparison: Litko vs Gale Force 9

The GF9 tokens fit together better than the Litko ones, and are made from slightly thicker plastic. They have a good range of basic tokens that would suit a lot of tabletop games, including the big names: Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warmachine and Flames of War. 



The Litko tokens are more interesting to look at, and their store has a much bigger range, to suit all the games already mentioned, and a lot of other well known roleplaying and wargaming products. However, the plastic stock is a little thinner, so the tokens need to be glued together.

In any case, I glued all the tokens with 'Tarzan's Grip', so they should stay intact under gaming conditions. (Whoops, drop, clatter...)

No worries Boss - dat will buff out!

Overall verdict: these tokens aren't mandatory for a tabletop wargame, but they are handy and colourful. Both ranges are quality products, at reasonable prices. I recommend you choose a token set that suits your game system first, and then go for the style that you prefer. The GF9 products fit together better, but the Litko have a wider range and are more visually interesting.