Friday, June 10, 2011

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.

6 comments:

  1. Love your scratchbuilds as always!

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  2. Nice stuff.

    That trukk came out in 1997 with Gorkamorka. GW later reboxed it and sold it from 40K when 3rd edition came out.

    It's really way out of scale with the new orks with clean and subtle styling, which is very different from the new stuff.

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  3. Very nice. I especially like the wreckin' ball.

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  4. Love the work you have done, and I must admitt I had a bit of a laugh at the driver as well. The kit was origanlly released with Gorkamorka which someone has already commented on. The first glimse of it was at Gamesday in 1997 at the battle of Big Tooth River. They were then used as part of Fat Bloke battle report a month Latter in a game based on Rokes Drift. They were then released as part of an Army deal along with what was supposed to be the limited edition Praetorians. So they are in fact a late 2nd edition vehicle, and at that time all vehicles seem not to be to scale, apart from the Leman Russ. GW changed the vehicle sizes in the 3rd edition to more realistic scales. But I think you have done a fantastic job dragging it kicking and screaming into modern times.

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  5. The Plank and Ball look good.

    One thing I did for some of of the old ork truks was to stretch them out. First cut the truck in half behind the drivers. Then use a couple sprue/styrene tubes about 2.5/3 inches in length to put an extension between the front half and the rear half. Cut a piece of sheet styrene large enough for ten 25mm bases to fit on roughly 5 inch by 3 inch. Glue this on top of the back as the replacement floor of the truck bed. Then take the old truk bed and cut the two side walls off. Trim them and glue them to the rear section of the new truk bed. This will leave a gap between the plate between the drivers and the new side of the truck bed, glue a couple pieces of sprue/styrene rod between the truk bed side and the plate to make a rails. I built the truks so I could put ten boys on it when I moved it around. You might have to make it a little longer to add the boarding plank and wrecking ball.

    ColKG

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