Wartrukk Conversion

...so one of the models I got in a Craigslist lot is the Ork Wartrukk:

I don't know when the above model came out - second edition?  Third?  Before I started playing 40K, anyway.  I've also never been entirely clear if this is an old unit that's no longer supported by the current codex, or if it's the previous incarnation of the current Trukk.  Regardless, the model sucks.  It's extremely boring, and the scale is all wrong.  You can see that I added some Freeboota touches with my Green Stuff press molds and a Grot rigger, but that was about it so far.  I decided the model needed some more attention - since my other Trukks are going to be running Wreckin' Balls & Boarding Planks, I decided to see if I could scratchbuild these to make this model a bit more interesting.

I started with the Wreckin' Ball.  I took some wooden balls I had picked up at the craft store at some point:

I randomly drilled some holes in it with my pin vise:

...then I cut the tips off of a handful of toothpicks:

...and glued them into the holes.

Next, I took a sprue of chains from a Reaper Razig weapon pack:

...and added one to the Wreckin' Ball:

Next, I need to build a mount for the Wreckin' Ball.  I took an assortment of styrene rods, plasticard, my hobby saw, mitre box & tubing cutter, and just started playing with different shapes & lengths until I got something I liked:

 Then I mounted the Wreckin' Ball to it:

Then I punched out some rivets and added them to the mount:

I added some more chains around the "spool" and mounted the whole thing in the bed of the Wartrukk:

Next, I started on the boarding plank.  I actually didn't have any craft sticks, so I took these wooded squares:

These also came from the craft store.  They're very brittle, so I just scored them with my hobby knife and snapped them off to make planks:

Then I cut two lengths of styrene "I-beam" and glued the planks across them in a haphazard fashion:

Rivets were added:

The ends were closed with plasticard:

Some "hooks" from a fantasy Chaos banner were added:

Next, a mount was made from styrene:

...and it was mounted in the bed of the Wartrukk:

(Even though the new Trukk models have a plank on each side, I thought this model would look too cluttered if I added another one on the other side, so I decided to leave it at that.  if a rules lawyer want to argue about it, I'll just say it's on a swivel).

After looking at it, I decided it needed a bit more detail, so I added some "hand cranks" for the Wreckin' Ball assembly:

A few other touches - I gave the driver a pirate hat (he is a Freeboota, after all):

(For some reason, the pirate hat with the sunglasses cracks me up).

I've also been meaning to re-purpose one of these sprues from all the Reaper bits I've been using:

It turns out it's the perfect size to use as a bumper for this model:

...and that's about it - overall I'm really pleased with how it came out - it went from looking terrible to being an interesting model.  I considered picking up a cheap toy car in a much larger scale to give it "monster truck" -style wheels and scale it up a bit closer to the current Trukk model, but I think that would be a ton of work to make it look right... maybe if I see something fitting next time I'm at the dollar store I'll give it a shot.