miscellaneous: deep strikin' santa 2015, sent

As it happened, the day I received my Deep Strikin' Santa package from Total Anorky I was busy by the fire, hobbying the final touches (rivets!) to the present for my giftee - Lt. Gregor.

A long-time Ork player and master plasti-craftsman, Gregor is known among the scratch-build and kit-bash community for painstakingly working on an Orkish Navy. His kit-bashed masterpieces include boats built on Land Raider and Rhino frames, a "Red Orktober" submarine based off a Chimera chassis, and some of the coolest deep-sea Mega-Armoured Nobz I've ever had the pleasure to witness. Seriously. Click the link. I'll wait.

His builds are inspirational, and it was both exciting and terrifying to draw his name for DSS.

After perusing 3rd party bitz makers for pirate-y Ork heads, I happened across Kromlech's Anzac Ork heads and Afrika Korp torsos and came up with a plan. I've spent almost all my hobby time since October inching towards a boat worthy of Kap'n Gregor's fleet. I hope I've done the ol' Mek justice.

Ork River Patrol Trukk! (clickable)

Turret and mid-ship Gunner

Rear Gunner

Rear Gunner (low angle)

Turret Gunner and Kap'n

Grot Pilots and other details

Packed and ready for "ship"ping!

All-in-all it a ton of fun returning to the army and scratch-building that got me started with 40K. I've got big plans for 30K Mechanicum at the moment, but not before another Ork project that could stack well with a long-haul (and long-pined for) build towards a fully functional Speed Freekz army...

(This post was originally written on 12.24.2014 while awaiting confirmation of the package's arrival.)

flashback friday: supashokka dakkawagon

A few weeks back, I was rummaging through several old and/or incomplete projects and thought it might be nice to try and record them all in one place. Once a week, I'll try to dredge up an old project to share on here and reminisce. Next up, the Supashokka Dakkawagon!

WHAT WAS IT THEN?
I created this beast back in 2009 for a Battlewagon Konversion Kontest on Da WAAAGH Forums. It was originally envisioned as a giant, multi-tiered, single-chassis flatbed vehicle in service to a massive cannon - a wheeled, Orky version of a German railway gun. Thankfully I never quite got the chassis to match the vision in my head, because what I ended with was a mobile fire base on steroids pulling an Apocalypse-sized Shokk Attack Gun on a ridiculously tiny gun carriage. It's one of the most succinctly Orky creations I've ever made.

The Supashokka is made from a plumbing fitting found at the local hardware store. I took it apart, reversed the tube, and slapped half an M&M container on the end of it. I then added various bits, plasticard and wires 'till it looked suitably crazy. The carriage is entirely scratch-built above the treads, has a magnetic "trailer-hitch" for attaching to the Dakkawagon, and allows the Supashokka to rotate horizontally and change elevation.

The Dakkawagon is actually my favorite part of the piece. It's just so beefy and dakka-laden that I can't help but fall back in love with it whenever I pull it off the shelf. It's armed with four Big Shootas, two Rokkit Launchas and three Zzap Guns. It's like a mini battleship. In fact, I've never called the front ram section anything besides a prow, and it's magnetized to be removable for transport/storage.

In the four years since I built the thing, I've lost track of all the little easter eggs and references I put into the Supashokka Dakkawagon. It's juvenile, but the one that stays with me is the hand-glyph behind the gunner and the license plates that read, "Two in the Waaagh, One in the Warp"

The Supashokka Dakkawagon actually hit the tabletop once in an Apocalypse game using a data sheet of my own devising. I honestly don't recall how well it performed, but I remember having fun with it.

WHAT DID I LEARN?
I learned the importance, particularly with Orks, of letting a build flow organically. I can honestly say that, aside from the big gears holding up that piece of plumbing as a cannon, the final result looks nothing like what I originally envisioned. The gun carriage, the prow, the placement and configuration of the weapons all just happened as I tried to balance things to my aesthetic.

Coming in 2nd in the competition, I also learned a little humility. There were some fantastic builds I was up against and there are several builders on Da Waaagh that should be designing kits for a living.

WHERE IS IT NOW?
Sitting, primed black, on the highest shelf above my desk. Digging it up in pictures made me realize what a great test bed it could be for several air brushing and/or weathering techniques. When I get serious about learning how to use weathering powders, I know the first model I'm looking to.

flashback friday: armored krumpany: support trukks

I recently found myself rummaging through pictures of several old and/or incomplete projects and thought it might be nice to try and put them all in one place. To this end, I'll try to dredge up an old project once a week to share with the world and reminisce. This week, we finish out the Armored Krumpany!

WHAT WAS IT THEN?
As detailed last week, the Armored Krumpany was my attempt at Orkifying the Imperial Guard's "Armored Company" rules. Tanks were the back-bone of the army, to be sure, but the supplemental rule-set also featured armored fighting vehicles in support roles. Most of these support vehicles were based on the stalwart, mutable Chimera chassis, which sees use as a troop transport, mobile artillery cannon, giant flame-thrower and missile launcher. To that end, I got to work kit-bashing the new (at the time) Trukk kit...

Belcha: final work-in-progress shot

First up was "The Belcha," an Ork equivalent to the IG Hellhound. Using multiple types of plasticard sheet, I-beams, rods and tube, along with various Ork bits and a smattering of non-GW kit, the intention was to make a relatively fast-moving, flame-spewing, death machine.

Belcha: painted

Belcha: details (clickable)

While I made the rules for the flame-throwing cannon particularly nasty, I tried to balance that by giving it a nice, Orky weakness:

BELCHA Capable of reducing whole squads of infantry to smoldering piles of ash and metal, Belchas are one of the most fearsome vehicles in an Armored Krumpany’s motor pool. Unfortunately, its light armor combined with its massive fuel cannister make it fearsome to the Orks as well.   Armor BS Front Side Rear Belcha 2 11 11 10 WARGEAR Belcha Cannon: Essentially skorchas on growth hormone, Belcha Cannons are capable of spewing large gouts of liquid fire over long distances. To fire, place the flamer template over an enemy unit so that the whole template is in range and LOS while over as many models as possible. Roll to hit once. If successful, all models touched by the template are hit. If unsuccessful, each model is hit on a 4+. SPECIAL RULES Bada-BOOM!: The massive fuel tank used to arm the Belcha Cannon makes the Belcha particularly susecptible to penetrating hits. When the Belcha is penetrated add +1 to the roll on the vehicle damage chart. This stacks with the +1 for being open-topped.

Building the Belcha just got me warmed up. With the back-story of the Armored Krumpany firmly rooted in a Big Mek lootin' his ideas off the battlefield, I figured he needed some way of draggin' back the big bits. I launched into the next support vehicle right away.

Wrecka: from above

Tanks and other armored fighting vehicles are at the forefront of any Armored Krumpany - both as fighting machines and as spoils of war. However, in it’s no easy task to recover conquered vehicles in the heat of battle. Without the Wrecka, damaged and disabled vehicles would be nothing more than battlefield debris. Born from a simple Trukk chassis, Wreckas have been retrofitted with hooks, chains, cranes, arms, magnets or other bits designed to transform debris into scrap, and bring it back as loot.

Wrecka: right and left

I gave it a super-sized "towin' engine" by keeping the engine halves separate and bulking out the space between. The headlights, one of my favorite single features on this build, are the searchlights from a Chaos Vehicle sprue sandwiched between two pieces of plastic tube. The towing apparatus in back was all from scratch, the chain coming from a dollar-store necklace.

Codex wise, a Wrecka was the dedicated transport for a Wreckin' Krew - a 12-strong Ork Boyz unit whose special rules (the ability to tow vehicles, including the enemies) was tied to the Wrecka.

Wrecka: details

WHAT DID I LEARN?
These were my first truly kit-bashed vehicles. They're where I started refining my plasticard skills and figuring out how to view model parts not so much as pieces of a puzzle, but as elements for a collage. With a sharp hobby knife, the right structural bits, and some glue, a given piece can become just about anything.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Like may completed builds, they sit on a shelf in my hobby room. The Belcha on the shelf of painted and finished stuff. The Wrecka on the shelf of things I still need to paint. Looking at many of the pieces I have from defunct projects, I feel like many of them would make great test beds for honing various painting techniques. When I look at the Wrecka today, I see an opportunity to try out various weathering techniques - salt mask, oil washes, weathering powders - to approximate the look of a famous, dim-witted tow truck...

flashback friday: armored krumpany: krumpin' wagons

I recently found myself rummaging through pictures of several old and/or incomplete projects and thought it might be nice to try and put them all in one place. To this end, I'll try to dredge up an old project once a week to share with the world and reminisce. First up, the Krumpin' Wagons of "Codex: Armored Krumpany!"

WHAT WAS IT THEN?
Somewhere in the middle of 2007, when I was just dipping my toes into 40K, I got the idea to satisfy my inner Big Mek by looting the Imperial Guard's Armored Company and making a mini-Codex of my own. From the inside cover...

In the grim, dark future, a Mekboy slaved away building trukks, buggies, and koptas for a nigh-unstoppable embodiment of Gork - his Warboss. With a load of strength and a smidge of cunning, the Boss had ransacked the planet, destroying or mobbing up all the planet’s clans into a single green tide. His green tide. The day an entire battalion of mechanized ‘umie made planetfall, the Boss was ready. With a cry of “Waaagh!” so tremendous it shook the earth, the clan rushed forth ready for another great krumpin’. As battle raged around him, the lowly Mekboy could not contain his excitement when a well-placed stikkbomb crippled the treads of a Leman Russ. He rushed to the tank and climbed inside, his wrench absently dispatching the crew as his mind boggled at the new technology. His world shrank as he focused on the shiny, new worky bitz, trying to fathom the orderly tangle of ‘umie engineering. He did not notice the dissipating thunder of his clan outside. Climbing out of the Russ a day later, his pack full of gubbinz and good ideas, the Mekboy could just make out the silhouettes of ‘umie tanks and transports disappearing over the horizon. At his feet laid a sea of dead orks. Putting two and two together and somehow getting four, he decided that if the brute power of tanks could destroy the most powerful thing he’d ever known, then by Gork, he would have some of his own...

Unfortunately, I couldn't afford all the Leman Russ kits I would need for the project, so I went about figuring out how to make my own. Armed with a compound saw, basswood strips and some plasticard I was able to start churning out chassis.

Suitable turrets eluded me until I chanced upon electric plugs at the local hardware store. With a little work, I started churning those out, too.

Exterminator Turret | Eradicator Turret | Plain Turret

Slap on some bits and bobs for detail, nick and scrape it all up with a good hobby knife, and add lots and lots and lots of rivets, and you've got a "Krumpin' Wagon!"

Ultimately, I ended up with 9 Krumpin' Wagons, 3 of each turret type, before I moved on to other projects.

WHAT DID I LEARN?
Despite their simplistic nature, the wooden framework and hard plastic shell of the electric plug makes for a sturdy, resilient model. This project is also where I started working in earnest with plasticard. I figured out that the thick sheets are best cut by using a sharp knife, metal ruler, and multiple light scoring marks before they'll just snap apart. I developed a few different ways to weather the edges of plasticard plates. Scraping a sharp hobby knife along an edge, pulling the blade along the edge while constantly changing the angle of the blade, and multiple quick, sharp angled attacks each create a very different look that look great alone or when used on top of each other. This project is also where I started slicing off bits of plastic hex rod to make Orky rivets, a method that would be de facto standard until I started using Grandt Line rivets a few years later.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
One of each tank type was painted and donated to 40K Radio's annual Toys for Tots auction back in... 2009 I believe. Three more were given away as a Christmas gift the year after that. The other three I still have, unprimed, a few shelves above the one in the picture.