Project Tankbustas: Part 1

OK, lemme start out with a brief look back at Project Tonks, what worked and what didn't. As exercises go, that was quite therapeutic, and I am now entirely confident in my ability to make little tanks. As I was working to a self-imposed schedule of weekly updates though, I found myself getting a bit frustrated when something disrupted my plans, and on a couple of occasions had to put the breaks on, lest I speedrun the whole thing. I still need to work on this "self-management" business, especially as my day job has featured a store refit overlapping with the Xmas rush. Not fun. So with this being a new year, I feel I can spare the energy for something a touch more involved. I'm going to give 28mm scale miniature sculpting a proper try.

Stock Image of GW’s Tankbustas

Let's talk Ork Tankbustas. They are Orks, and they bust tanks. Who ya gonna call? Its not a complex topic. Unfortunately, Tankbustas are one of those units that suffer under the yoke of Finecast, and the "exactly what's in the box" convention of 10th edition. They are therefore a squad of 5, three with rokkit launchas, including the Nob, one with twin rokkit pistols, one with a tankhammer, and two Bomb Squig models/tokens. That isn't an ideal load out for their stated job, and you can't scale them up so as to get a critical mass of dakka to start seriously worrying tanks. As such they are not hugely good, and not great as models either as Finecast famously sucks. This does however present a good candidate for the skills I want to practice for this project: miniature sculpting. I've dabbled in this before, but never that deeply. But I have more confidence these days, and numerous scratchbuilds behind me. I'm pretty sure I can do this. And it's more up my street than airbrushing or 3d printing. As with Project Tonks, I see this playing out incrementally, starting simple, before going full sculptor later on. So here are the stages as I see them right now.

Stage 0: Preparation and research. Looking up videos on YouTube, getting the raw materials together and such. Obviously I did this over chrimbo.

Stage 1: Glyph Plates. As a warm-up, the creation of orkish glyphs via sculpting, followed by the creation of a single one-part mould to mass produce them. The target number is four, with the idea being that should I make too much putty, I can use the excess here. I have similar moulds already, it’s handy to have such things for other projects.

Stage 2: Rokkit Lads. The modification of two older style Ork Boyz to carry rokkit launchas, and one to have two rokkit pistols. This involves new weapons, stowed rokkits, and additional details like helmets or targeters etc. This would be a mix of green stuff sculpting and plastic tubing as appropriate, with some minor kitbashing.

Stage 3: The Nob. A conversion of an older style model to carry a rokkit launcha. This will require GSing and converting along the lines of stage 2, but will possibly be more challenging as Nobs don't usually have such a weapon. Said weapon also needs to be somewhat "extra".

Stage 4: The Tankhamma Lad. The modification of an older style Ork boy to wield a two-handed hammer made from explosives. If stage 3 didn't involve a lot of careful cutting and repositioning of plastic arms, stage 4 most likely will. Using putting to fill gaps in the flesh and muscles is fairly likely.

Stage 5: Squig prototypes in Das Clay. As a material, Das Clay is well suited to experimentation, so I can get my eye in before going for the serious modelling putty. The aim is to make at least three of the little blighters, starting large and getting smaller each time as I refine my technique. This will probably a couple of weeks, as I've not tried sculpting a whole figure before. Note that these are not bomb squigs at this point, just regular ones. I'm trying to nail the look of the little bastards before strapping them with rokkits and such.

Stage 6: Squig prototypes in green stuff and or milliput. As above, but with actually good materials. Possibly these could be used in other contexts, but we'll see.

 

Stage 7: Bomb Squigs in green stuff and or milliput. The actual sculpting job, I also expect this to be a multi-week affair as I need two of them. Due to their nature, these will also feature explosives, but given stages 1-4, that shouldn't be too bad. 

Stage 8: Painting. Need I say more?

When this post goes live, I actually have some time off, so I expect have something for you next week. Ciao fer now.