Scratchbuild: Ork Deff Dread

This tale begins in much the same way as those Killer Kanz back in April. It was TFNation week and I was in a holding pattern, expecting a joyous but likely expensive weekend. There's always a tightening of the old belt before that, and I had two weeks off, so I wanted to save something for week 2. But I needed something to do, and an Ork discord server has doing its monthly challenge, specifically the "The "Waaaghust Walker Challenge" held by the 40K Ork Community Discord. " so here we are. A change of pace following all the humies I've been doing lately.

As to why its a Deff Dread? Well, its me falling back into old habits with something comfortable. The thing about Orks for me just now is that I feel I've done all I want to at least twice. What remains is modernization busy work, which would be a chore, or unit types I'm not into. Yeah, I could do Beast Snaggas or bikers or such and such. But they look both expensive, potentially annoying to kitbash, and a ball-ache to paint. By comparison, your average ork walker is a more relaxed and fun form of creative expression. I have too many of these already, but, fuck it, its something I'm good at.

Now, with this I had no real plan beyond making a legal unit with proven techniques. Most of the raw materials came from the bitzbox, old toys, and robot kits that displeased me. We're talking assorted tubes, water pistol bits, choice fidget toys for joints, beads, and a lot of hot-glue. The weaponry was something that took a while for me to settle on. I wanted to go full melee with an asymmetric arm set-up, but it didn't look right, so I went for a klaw and shoulder rokkit combo. The overall form was inspired by the current GW plastic kit, but I ended up giving it a fat gut and an arse-mounted fuel tank. I think I was channelling the Gorkanaut, although its also somewhat cute with those eyes.

I had most of this done before leaving for TFNation, just before weathering and basing. I could have pushed harder, but I saw no point in rushing it. The end result turned out pretty well. 

 

Job’s a good ‘un.

EDIT: And I came third in the challenge!

Scratchbuild: Grot Mega-Tank

 

So, the idea for this started percolating in early December, when Project Tonks was coming to its conclusion. I was trying to slow down, as it was the holiday period and I work in retail. I still felt the need to do something though, as modelling projects are therapeutic for me. After some mulling over, I was reminded of a recent video by one EarthmanBrick, whom had recently done a Grot Mega-Tank, and decided to one myself. I'd amassed a substantial selection of suitable spares that I could use for such a project, and provided that I kept focus, this would be nicely relaxing. This project would be completed in the middle of December, during my usual blog break, with this write-up obviously being published later on.

So what is a Grot Mega-Tank? Well, as the name implies, it's a Grot Tank, but bigger. They often evoke interwar-era multi-turret tanks and dieselpunk landships in design, although made of scrap to an even crappier standard than the orkish usual. These are another creation by GW's Forge World arm, although given the recent website revamp, you can be forgiven for not knowing that. I wonder if Forge World is going to be shutdown in the near future... Anyways, Mega-Tanks are beloved by kitbashers and scratchbuilders like myself, although they aren't quite as meme-worthy. I suppose this is largely due to the smaller tanks having a critical density of popular weapons like rokkit launchers, and a Mega-Tank carries less of those per point. It's current rules are also, umm, interesting. There's an obvious cut & paste error regarding the twin big shootas that nobody has bothered to fix at time of writing, and the mega-tank's extensive supplementary weapon options have been amalgamated into one generic weapon set. So, I'm probably not building this for game performance then.

 

My initial thought was to create a basic hull, then the turrets before free-forming the lot together. Here my bitsbox came good with a much abused "Mr. Psycho" toy, from the old Craig Charles run of Robot Wars. This had a lot of applicable detail even if the scale wasn't 28mm, and once I'd added some big wheels out the back, the size was right. Regretfully, the plastic was aged and brittle, I suspect Gold Plastic Syndrome, and attempts to remove its friction motor caused the underside to shatter. I was able to fix this to an extent, but the front right track still shows the scars. The assorted turrets where made from lids and spare gubbins, with the two largest turrets being more intricate. When I came to attaching them I had some second thoughts though. While I don't plan as such, I found myself not feeling it. So I went away and thought a bit more about what look I wanted, before going for a more landship style. I retired the two big turrets, they're OK, just more suited to a Battlewagon, and built two ones with more of a wedge shape. Something vaguely reminiscent of a battleship, ya know? The twin grotzookas therein were then revised. I'd wanted external scrap bins and tubing to feed the barrels, as opposed to merely cramming the barrels with offcuts, but space was tight.  Then I remembered the Grotzooka you get in a Killa Kan kit, and replicated the shape with top-loading guns. The effects a little like an airbrush, or a kazoo, but it's obvious what they fire. With the matter of armament resolved, I then started adding armour plates and other surface detail. I also added an "observation tower" to go with it's somewhat boaty vibe. Having checked my measurements several times, painting then proceeded in my usual manner.

All-in-all, I’m quite happy with how this turned out. Its overall character and vibe is different from my assorted Battlewagons, while looming over my assorted Grot Tanks. Its pretty mega, versus your average gretchin, but ends up smaller proportionally than my ork crewed vehicles. I’m especially happy with the Grotzookas, but less so with the icons, although I had a few ideas in that direction. Good times, but I think I’ll hold off on making another for now.

Project Tonks: Part 8

Something something magic 8 ball…EDIT: Now with borderline acceptable pictures!

 

 

 

With three satisfactory Tonks completed, and the essentials of a forth underway, the home stretch was now in sight. Tonk 4 would become a refinement of the previous three with respects to the tracks, going smaller, and once more using keyboard keys for the shape of things. The hull and turret design however were a new approach, repurposing a cheap construction toy, the same type/brand as I’ve used for Ork models. This was built up with off-brand lego to make a more interesting shape. Turret rotation here was based on a screwhole, which would have been fine by itself, but added a bit of wire and a touch of hot glue to reinforce the connection. The gun, meanwhile, was built up from a glue lid, a bit of a water pistol, and a bit off an old tank kit. Detailing and painting continued in my usual way, although I’d salvaged a new style of plastic sheeting, which I used for a few panels. As I was out of gold paint, I did the rivets in copper, not that you can tell. Between the hyper-fixation and practice I did this one fairly quickly. I don’t know if I’d necessarily build the turret ring again like this, but its entirely fine, and I like the blue.

 

 

With Tonk 4 done, I moved onto Stage 5: The Tonk Destroyer. Within the rules of Tonks, this in found in the extra section, an alternate playing piece available for games of 3 or more players. The basic concept of a tank destroyer is a fairly self-explanatory one, but to summarise: a tank destroyer is often a vehicle along the same lines as a tank, just removing the turret in exchange for a bigger gun. This was mainly a WW2 thing, often a conversion of a tank proper, but they are still around. On balance, this would be a simpler affair than a turreted tonk, which is why I called it a victory lap. I ended up throwing this together from bits I’d collected for this project, before going all-in on moulded tracks. The tracks where salvaged resin examples by Ramshackle Games, while the gun and blast shield were out of an old robot toy. The body was made from another jenga tile, with one segment cut off, and hot glued on top for a gun mounting. The tracks are smaller than my scratchbuilt ones, which combined with the gun housing makes it look more super-deformed than my other creations, but its fine. It looks very single-minded. I dressed it with bits as I usually do, and added on a crude dozerblade because I was in a 40K sort of mode. It was about this point I realised I could paint this, but I wasn’t sure if I could get it done in time for Tuesday. Then I got snowed-in, OK, decision made. I did it in magenta.

 

Well, its a little ahead of schedule, but Project Tonks seems to have come to a nice conclusion. Time to start thinking seriously about the next project. In the meantime, I’m going to mull over how this all went, and maybe write up a summary. Cheers for now.