As I mentioned at the time, the Grot Tank was an interim project. A stepping stone to something more involved, a Battlewagon. There's a fair whack of history involved the concept, with Battlewagons being the Ork heavy transport, beyond that things get muddy. There was a 1st edition kit with no actual weapons, which went out of production, and bunch of related vehicles in the 6mm Epic system kept its spirit alive. The Battlewagon still had 40k rules though, but by the time we got the modern Battlewagon in 2009, it had long been the domain of conversion projects. Even after having been split into the Gunwagon and Bonebreaker variants, the battlewagon is an unusually malleable vehicle by GW standards. This prompted me to spend a long time mulling this project over, both in terms of tactics and build. Eventually I settled on a Dethrolla and Killkannon variant. The Dethrolla I should not need to justify, but the gun does need a justification. You can make the case that any ranged weapon is not cost effective on a Battlewagon and the Killkannon limits passengers. The thing is, I had the mental image of those Epic models and wanted to put my own spin on it. Amongst other things, this meant tank treads.
Now, the design and production of those tank treads proved challenging, although I think I got the hang of it by the end. My initial design wasn't working out, and I eventually opted to recast my prototypes in a two-part Oyumaru mold. It took a while to figure out, and much finishing was required, but things came out better than the previous one-part blue stuff attempts. The wheels meanwhile where built up from wooden discs and washers, and I found some useful bogie parts in the bits box. The method of assembling the tracks was largely the same as the Grot Tank, just bigger, although I did feel the need for additional wheels after the fact, to help fill gaps. I'm pretty sure I can attempt interlocking tracks next time.
The actual hull was a far simpler matter, being mainly a trailer toy stripped and then built up with flat packers and bits. Of great help was what remained of a firetruck, which worked great for the front end. The turret was built up from offcuts and an aerosol lid, while the gun was a bit of a spray bottle. I made the dethrolla by hot gluing bottle-tops together and then wrapping it in a foam sheet and too many rivets. This was probably one of the rougher aspects of the build, as while I've made rollas before, it was quite a while ago, and I didn't really have a plan for mounting it. This prompted some changes up front, as I tried not to make the vehicle too long, and opted to connect it to the wheels, bulldozer style. It worked, although I had conceal a few sins with weathering paints. Around the same time, I also realised that it's possible to inscribe panel lines into foam sheets with a craft knife, thus allowing me to add detail after gluing. It's my new favourite technique. On the downside, I feel I phoned in the detail around the turret base. Maybe that would have benefited from some more riveting, or possibly a bit of wall filler to add texture. That worked well on the back/right panel. Painting meanwhile saw the return of the Pébéo Studio Acrylics stuff I used on the Grot Tank, but remixed a tad in the case of the silver to darken it.
Nit-picking aside, I was really pleased with how this turned out. An "enter into a modelling competition" sort of pleased. I'll update this post if I get anywhere.
Update: I was a runner-up, awesome!
Work-in-Progress Pictures
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