Saturday 23 July 2016

Converted Ork Battlewagon - Seriously Huge!


There's a monster living in my cupboard and it's really big and frightening. It might even be green one day. Unfortunately for Disney, there's no franchise opportunity here; it's actually just a converted Battlewagon that I've been working on for some time.

Growing up in the days of yore (also known as second and third edition) I always liked those huge converted Battlewagons that people used to build before there was an official kit. I do like the official one stylistically, but it wasn't enough of a monster for me. It just didn't have that crazy appeal that can only really be found with a pile of spares and a heap of plasticard. With that in mind I hatched a cunning plan and set to work on another monolithic project.


The original body started out as the official Battlewagon. I took the surprisingly small vehicle (this thing is supposed to be armour 14?) and mounted it on a set of Baneblade tracks. I then used various parts from a heap of old Gorkamorka Trukks (thank you eBay, I had like 10 of them for £20 - bought purely for spares) to begin filling in the gaps; slowly building up a colossal hull of crazed odds and ends.

Scale wise - it's longer than a Baneblade and taller than an Imperial Knight Cerastus. I think I have a problem! (Ok the real problem will be painting the thing!)




The converted Killkannon uses the standard Kannon from the kit combined with a Vindicator's Demolisher Cannon and a few reinforcing struts that I built.







Ask not for whom the Grot-Rokka rocks, he rocks for thee


The aft castle is actually the hard top of the original Battlewagon kit with plasticard added and some bits of roof from an old Warhammer scenery house thing. Illustrious Captain Bognobba started out life as an ammo runt. I cut the end off of the bullet that was in his mouth to make it look like a cigar and added an Ork captain's hat to him to create "the look".




 Just to prove that I put some work into the back too.



I added a custom deff-rolla under the chassis - I had to do something in there. I might actually add a whole row of them eventually!


For scale. I just noticed that the door has fallen off in this picture - it isn't glued for painting purposes.

If you're wondering, it's official name is the "Kruntankk" .... why? Well it was the name of my Big-Lugga in Gorkamorka (and it just sounds so damn funny!).

10 comments:

  1. This is really beautiful. Forgeworld used to have a kustom Mega Fortress and your is actually bigger (Th KMF was closer to a land raider in size)I've got a baneblade chassis sitting around for a similar project and if mine comes out half as good I'll be happy.

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    1. Thanks. It was a real labor of love and took me about 2 weeks to put it together to this stage (most of the time was spent holding various bits of plastic up to it, trying to decide where to put them!).

      Good luck with your project, just keep at it, think "Ork", and take your time.

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  2. That's is a beast! I can see it soaking up a lot of firepower on the table due simply to it's looming presence.

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    1. I don't think it has ever made it to the end of a game alive. On the upside at armour 14 it tends to take a bit of killing, which detracts from the Killa Kanz and everything else that is doing most of the actual fighting while it lumbers about trying to fit between the scenery!

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  3. "Well I just had this baneblade sitting around..." ha

    Lovely model, I think my favourite part though is the Grot rocking out.

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    1. Thanks. I try to keep a sense of humour with the whole Grot Army. People tend to stop laughing when they get flattened by a bunch of space goblins on the tabletop though!

      I actually got the Baneblade tracks on eBay, although the 2 sprues I got didn't contain enough parts to build both track units completely. It actually took ages to put them together with various other bits and pieces (but it cost me about £20, compared to the £85 they'd charge for a new one - well worth it!).

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  4. Damn! This is a frekkin' ful-fledged landship!

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    1. Yeah, it just kept getting bigger and bigger as I was working on it. I'm not sure how I'm gonna find the time to paint the thing now!

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  5. Very impressive build! It is way more intimidating than the standard battlewagon and I love the grot theme!

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    1. The grot army was a dream I'd had for a long time. Eventually I just started buying old metal Gorkamorka grots on eBay and well ... the rest is history.

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