With access to a laser etcher comes great desire to create insane things. Right now I'm trying to work on Infinity-related terrain, which of course has to look all sleek and sci-fi. Unfortunately, laser etchers aren't good at doing curved or sleek material, and so to practice building things until I can achieve something like what I want, I've been doing another fun project: Ork buggies!
The ones sold by GW are very outdated, meh-looking, and overpriced. Many other companies do a version, but they're often solid resin blocks which puts them even more expensive. I wanted to see if I could craft one out of basswood, partly to test my ability to make 3d objects, but also partly in case gorkamorka starts up again!
After a mis-step with scale, and an outcome that looked more trukk than buggy, I managed this:
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| Proper mad, proper orky! |
The driver's Kromlech, the gunner's from a 40k starter, but otherwise it's all lasercut!There were a few lines that didn't quite match, but again that's why I started with Ork vehicles: if something doesn't quite work, it's because the Orks built it that way, not because I messed up... right?
I went for a typical looking roadster: tombstone front, enclosed engine until I can work out the V8 look in card, and funky custom wheels that worked way better than I could have hoped.
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| Sorry for the blur, pretend they're speed lines! |
I have a weird rule with my Ork vehicles in that they all need to have some element of them that's directly ripped from the Ultramarines. This is because as a child, and fan of the Dark Angels, I was frustrated that all artwork on any Space Marine box was the boys in blue. Also, any painting guides, most prevalent decals... So now, as a small way to claim vengeance, my Orks clearly smashed an Ultramarine force some time back and the meks have been scavenging ever since. (It helps that Orks revere the colour blue as lucky, so there's even lore justification!) Also visible in this angle is the deckplate, and rear ladder of sorts to get up on it.You can see there's a few places where the lines didn't quite gel, but the advantage is then being able to go back and measure and adjust files.
Also fun was adding a few orky glyphs to the side, to help when I got around to painting this. Here you can really see where some of the lines didn't quite work, including at the front where, if I'd been paying attention, I could have just done a solid piece from nose to behind the driver without any need for separate pieces! Barely visible is the fact that this Ork gunner is magnetized to the firing post, allowing him to be removed in transport and adjusted to fire different directions.
I like that one of the glyphs the Orks like to use is an arrow, which while I know it's meant to represent speed, really just look like they need a reminder which way it drives!
On this you can see the driver's step, which is essentially just the plug to make the side plate stay on, expanded slightly to hide its original purpose. Right behind is a plate without that, and I'll have to look for a way to make it make more sense.
And a final top-down shot of the whole buggy! It's almost identically the same size as the original GW one, except for height. For some reason the hood plates didn't entirely line up, but otherwise I was very happy with the way it turned out, especially with it being my first attempt at something truly a model, and not just tokens or similar!
Soon, painted pics, and my second attempt at a buggy. Also, Mad Max style cars!
