WH40K - Minor conversion of Ghazghkull Thraka part 3

The converted Thraka model now stands on some of the resin 'Cityfight' base pieces released by GW a couple of years ago. I have added some more details to the upper body, including a sight piece on the gun/claw, and a missile launcher and sensor cluster on the shoulders. The missile launcher was made from one of the 'rokkit' bits on the Lootas sprue, trimmed slightly to fit into a pintle mount piece from the Battlewagon kit. I ended up leaving the legs as they were - it would have been a fiddly job to separate them, and I don't think it would have changed the pose much. I might still change the details on the kneepads before painting the figure, but that's it for the lower half.

WH40K - Minor conversion of Ghazghkull Thraka part 2

I have added the 'drilly bit' on top of some cog shaped 'gubbins'. I also glued some old earphone cable to bits of paperclip (for strength) and placed pieces of styrene tube on the wires. These make 'power cables' to drive the drill.

On to his gun arm: I had the idea of mounting the claws that come with the original model on the fist shape. I did quickly clip a notch into the base of the claws so they would fit better. I also used the single claw from the plastic Nobs sprue, trimmed to fit. I wasn't happy that the gun barrels were large enough, and even broke them off at one point. But I have added some more styrene tubing over the original barrels to bulk them up and I think that improves the look. The barrels are in fact slightly wonky, but I don't think it will show once everything is painted. His waist has been extended by a plastic cog, and the cables from the drill have been passed through that piece and wrapped around. I haven't modified the legs at all, except to clip off the mounting peg.

I am still considering putting some sort of claws on his feet, perhaps cut from the end of a Trukk boarding plank. Also, I want to put something on his upperback/shoulders - perhaps some missiles or a sensor mount. Nothing large, but enough to use up some of the space there.

WH40K - Minor conversion of Ghazghkull Thraka

Ghazghkull Thraka is a character in Warhammer 40,000, a famous and brutal warlord for the Orks. The model is quite impressive - larger than any other ork figure, except for Deff Dreads and vehicles. He has over-the-top weapons and armour, as is appropriate for an Ork of his stature. Unfortunately, his weapon/arms are posed in an ungainly position, extended at his sides and pointing downwards. Fortunately the figure comes in pieces so he is not too difficult to rearrange.


I will be making some minor conversions to the figure to make a Mega-armoured Big Mek. I have enjoyed converting my ork figures and vehicles and think there is a heavy Mek influence in my force. On the table top he will still be played as Thraka, but with a name like OverDriver, or Da Big Spanna. It may be a while before I find a cool enough sounding name for him...




In this case, I clipped some of the power cables back a little, and I drilled and pinned at the joints so that the arms would stay on. I used the head from the plastic Warboss in the Black Reach boxed set, which is actually even bigger than Thraka's head. I also glued one of the hub pieces (actually two pieces) from an Ork bike over Thraka's jaw piece. It's now outrageously 'gobby'.


He also has a plastic cog glued to his chest as a sort of Mekboss medallion. I have since snapped that off - I want to make it more of a trophy on a chain (very '70s).

Since taking the photos, I have added a backpack fuel tank (from the Burnas and Lootas) trimmed to fit over his powerclaw. This gives me a flat surface to attach another 'screw' piece like the one on the Deff Dread. I will include some 'gears' and other bits to make it look more like machinery that is powered and driven by some sort of greasy engine. Orks are great advocates of the 'Dieselpunk' aesthetic.

I also added some plastic tubing pieces to his guns. I think the guns are a little underscaled so I might continue to add more ammunition, sight bits and gubbins to bulk them up.

I haven't decided whether to re-pose his legs. They are a solid unit, and it would be tricky but not impossible to neatly cut one off and place it at a different angle, but I don't think it would change the pose of the model much. I will add a 'belt' of plastic parts to give him a couple of millimetres extra height. Then I will decide what sort of base to put him on. Maybe something from Back2bas-ix.

Thraka as he appears for sale on the GW website.

WH40K - Another Ork 'Big Gun'

I have built yet another 'Big Gun' for the Orks. Like the last one, this one is mostly from parts from the Trukk and Battlewagon sprues. Unfortunately I could not find the larger wheels that came with the original Kannon, Lobba and Zzzap Guns (not without buying the whole blister pack at 'collector' prices, anyway). So, I bought the wheels for the Warhammer Fantasy Battles Dwarf Cannon from a 'bits' seller. It turns out they are a lot smaller than the original wheel. However, they look solid and not entirely out of place, so I used them.

Other parts included the Zzzap gun from the Battlewagon, a boarding plank from the Trukk and a metal Big Gob piece from Ghazghkull Thraka.

Edit: If you haven't opened up a Dwarf Cannon and were thinking of buying the wheels as 'bits', be aware that they are considerably smaller than the old Ork Kannon wheels or plastic chariot/wagon wheels. They are about 12mm (0.5 in) across. However, I do think they look good as parts for WH40K weapons, and they certainly shouldn't look out of place as wheels on Ork or Imperial Guard heavy weapons, trolleys, carts or servicing equipment.

WH40K - Deff Dread Close Combat Weapon

I dug my old 'Deff Dread' out of storage. (That's the Ork version of a Dreadnought walker in Warhammer 40,000. There is a new plastic kit coming out soon that looks rather good, but it was about time I finished this one.)


Deff Dread with claws from two battlewagon kits, and the old chain axe (in black).

For a while I had wondered what to use as the fourth Close Combat Weapon, as the 'chain axe' looked a little too small. Then it hit me: a plastic screw of the type used in plaster board.



Deff Dread with new CCW


Close up of 'Da Drilly Bit'

When it's painted, I hope it will look like an auger or 'Da Drilly Bit'. The idea is that the Deff Dread grips the enemy with the big claws, bashes it with the chopper and while it's at it, has a go with the drill to see what's on the inside. An elegant combination of mechanical curiosity and extreme violence.

28mm - Ren and Stimpy

To show the scale of the resin scenery dumpsters in the post below, I used some old figures which I painted in the early 1990s. They are from the Grenadier 'Future Warriors' range, now sold by Mirliton, an Italian company. That particular pair came from the 'Interview to Rebels' pack.

Here's a pic of the bare metal from the Mirliton website:

On that day, way back when, I experienced a bright moment of painting zen perfection: the planets aligned, my mind focussed and I was able to paint Ren and Stimpy on their tshirts. I did this by just putting dots of colour on the minis, occasionally wiping off a mistake, until I had the figures just right. Although I think my painting has improved since, at least when it comes to rough and ready techniques to make an army look smart on the table top, these are two of my favourite minis, and I consider the detail work the best freehand painting I have ever done. Of course the rest of the minis are very simply painted, because I didn't want to distract from the logos on their shirts (and I honestly didn't want to mess up the rest of the paint job!)

28mm - Armorcast resin scenery: Dumpsters!

I bought two resin dumpsters (large rubbish bins) in 28mm scale. They are from Armorcast - the same company who make the Mega Cannon, although I purchased them from an eBay store called Players' Cove.


The dumpsters as they appear in the Armorcast store website.



The dumpsters scale well for 25-28mm, whether you are using realistic or heroic proportioned figures. They look like the type with big plastic lids, so they are probably suitable for settings from the 1980s to near future/cyberpunk. I would certainly recommend them for skirmish games or roleplaying games where you use figures and like a little more scenery. They are also detailed enough to suit a diorama or display.



The pictures show the dumpsters with 1990s Grenadier 'Future Warriors' miniatures, in 28mm scale, and a Games Workshop plastic Catachan Imperial Guardsman, for scale.

The surface of the closed bin had a lot of little air holes, which is not something I had found on the Mega Cannon. These will have to be filled with glue or putty, although the 'urbanised' paintjob I am planning will mean that they won't be as much of a worry as they would be, for instance, on the body of a clean looking car. The open dumpster shows a lot of garbage, some overflowing. Good for gritty city scenes. There was also a little flash or overflowing resin on both models, but it was easily clipped off and sanded back. You would have to do that anyway for large resin kits, so it's not a big problem.


Armorcast Mega Cannon as it appears on their website.

Note: I built the Mega Cannon back in 2008 but haven't gotten around to painting it yet. A tip for prospective Mega Cannoneers - the working parts actually do work, but only if you glue them together in the right places. I didn't :(

WH40K - Idea for Ork Warboss Battlewagon

I have stalled in building and painting my Ork Battlewagons, for a couple of reasons. One is that I decided to paint the interior before completing construction, so there aren't any unpainted areas visible when the model is finished. That is enough of a reason to make the cars 'open topped' as per the game rules - so I can stop building them, paint them up and get them on the tabletop already.
So, it occurred to me that I should make a flashy Battlewagon for my Warboss - with lots of 'bling'. (Trophies, spikes, chains, enemy heads, etc). I will build this one with an open cabin, so that the Warboss miniature can stand there. I will probably included one or two of his favourite guns, and a driver figure from the Trukk model to do most of the actual driving.

WH40K - Quick conversion - Ork Rokkit Boy

A very quick conversion. I used two of the small rocket pieces from the Ork Stormboyz box (you get a lot of these left over). These were glued to the barrel of the Big Shoota piece from the Ork Boyz box. The barrel of the shoota was cut down, and the cog shaped 'gunsight' piece from the Lootas/Burnas set was glued on the end, to make it look less like a gun and more like a rail for launching rockets.

Of course it's ludicrously overbalanced, and it looks like the Ork firing it is about to get a face full of rocket exhaust. But that's what I like about it. (When I paint him, I will add scorch marks on his face.)

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.

Warlands - Box Contents and Scale Comparison

Here are some pictures of the Warlands vehicles from the boxed set. In that box you get one truck, two buggies, two white metal driver figures, three white metal gunner figures, two six sided dice, two ten sided dice and a small rules booklet, which includes cut out counters. The cars are nicely moulded, with only minor flaws. The figures are a little indistinct, but a clean paintjob would fix that. Scale is definitely 20mm, but they will work with vehicles in similar scales.



The truck. The tailgate is moulded separately. An airbubble is visible on the back edge of the cabin, but this could easily be filled with superglue, or left as a bullet hole. There are several bullet holes and areas of damage moulded on these vehicles, so it won't look out of place.

The Buggy. There are two of these, with the same 'battle damage'.

Here are some comparisons for scale. The green truck is an Old Crow model in 25mm scale. The bike is from the Grenadier Future Warriors range. The brown figures are 1/76 toy soldiers (It should be noted that figures in this scale, and 1/72 scale, are rarely consistent between brand names. Of course human beings aren't all the same size, but you will notice the difference when you mix brands of these or any figures.) The white car is a Matchbox model of a Bentley, in what it claims is 1:64. I have a tape measure, but not a Bentley, so I will have to take their word for it.

The vehicles and figures are clearly small scale - about 20mm or 1/72. The cars could be used with 25mm miniatures, but the more 'epic' the proportions of your miniature collection, the smaller these vehicles will look. So, they look good next to Grenadier minis (such as the 'Future Warriors' from the 90s) but tiny next to Games Workshop. In between would be ranges such as Street Violence. The cars would still be useable, but noticeably smaller. How well that works on your tabletop will depend on how picky you are.

If you were going to use these with larger minis, I would suggest moulding a new driver for the buggy, and adding a remote controlled gun, or a completely new gunner. You could also just use repainted or converted Matchbox or Hot Wheels cars, with the rules that come with this game.

Unfortunately, these little cars are visibly smaller than the 25mm scale Old Crow models. Old Crow make a range of 15mm models, but I have never seen them in the flesh (in the resin?) so I could not compare the two types.

WH40K: Scratchbuilt Zagstruk and Stormboyz Nob

Before I went away, I built two members of my Stormboyz hierarchy. I made a Stormboy Nob (squad leader) from an assortment of parts, and then went to town to scratch build my own Zagstruk, a special character who can lead a Stormboy mob. He's not a figure I need in my army, but by the time I got around to building him, I had a couple of plastic power-klaws available. The hard part was mounting him in a flying pose, but not having him overbalance. The base has a few pieces of scrap white metal superglued in, for that reason.






Games Workshop's model of Zagstruk is available here - but support your Friendly Local Games Shop!