While Orks seem to get a reasonable amount of attention these days, it wasn't always so. The GW design team would go for consecutive editions without giving them any real attention, so even a good codex, and the 4th Ed codex was infamous, would decay into mediocrity. Part of that was a stated belief by GW that Orks should have difficulty in dealing with tanks at range. I might be misremembering that, but Orks spent the time from 3rd edition to the 8th edition revamp with the Rokkit Launcher being S8 when your typical tank had AV14, meaning they could only harm it on a 6, and then only a Glancing Hit, which could just inconvenience it. There was a period when the only way Orks could deal with the famously durable Necron Monolith was to ram it with a Dethrolla, which was awesome, but no mean feat. Tankbustas were a thing of course, but also obvious targets, and I'm summarising a fair few years here. This, anecdotally, led to Ork players sourcing actually feasible anti-tank guns, either by whatever Looted Wagon rules were in play at the time, or going to Forgeworld for one of their, possibly not tournament legal, indulgences. For today's article, we have a combination of both. Basilisks were/are enduringly popular self-propelled guns, great to work into Ork armies, while Big Trakks are their rough equivalent. Kinda. It's more that they are midway between Trukks and Battlewagons, while having an option to be an assault gun. Today's subject is a Looted Basilisk, using the rules of a Big Trakk.
Like so many of my projects, this is something that's been sitting in my bitzbox for so long that I no longer recall its origins or why I got it. I assume I got it because my opponents were asking for it. I also assume that the model was somebody's first kitbash. Somebody added a Gorkamorka trukk gunner into a hatch, and proceeded to dab red onto bare plastic. I respect the enthusiasm, but the lad, I presume it was a lad, on the balance of probability, hadn't been trusted with spray paint. And they had issues with the track links, which is understandable. The vehicle was largely intact, with the gun still movable, but lacking much of the trimmings. There was a dozerblade which I snapped-off without really meaning to, the loaders platform was missing it's guardrails, and no additional gubbins like a Hunter-Killer Missile were present. With the exception of the tracks, none of that really counts as a negative when this is meant to be an Ork looted vehicle though.
I was fortunate to have a few spare track links, so fixing the worst of it wasn't a problem. The original owner had tried to add track guards to the top too, so I built those up as well, using parts of the gunshield to hide a few flaws. I then proceeded to replace the shield on one side only, leaving the left open for a big shoota. A new gun barrel was sourced from my bitzbox, while the ram and replacement panels were made from various materials in my usual way. i.e. flat-packers, bits of old trukk, scrap plastic and EVA foam. I also sculpted a few glyph plates in green stuff, before proceeding to paint. This was the usual drybrush-stipple-wash-rust-bucket style, but remixed slightly to acknowledge it's Imperial origins. A late addition were some freehand "blitz" glyphs as kill markings, following a suggestion from social media. I don't think I'd do the gun barrel in dark grey again, it doesn’t go with the blue very well to my eyes, but it does look as rusty as anything, so that's fine.
Job's a good 'un.
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