Workshop Wednesday: Kitbashed Battlewagon Part 1

WHOO! Free time means I can build stuff again! Time to let my inner ork out to play! At first I was going to build and paint some Ork Nob Bikers, but that’s boring. So I went crazy and made another Battlewagon from spare parts. =D Part one will have me build up the general silhouette first and then figuring out what I should do from there.

I started with some Leman Russ treads I bought as a seperate bit a whole long time ago. I wanted something larger (like land raider sized) but didn’t want to pay Land Raider prices for it. So I took a saw to it…

And lengthened it by a good 3-4 cm. I also had a Battlewagon ram bit that I had wanted to use in another Battlewagon build that sadly never saw the light of day, so I decided to cannibalize it for this one. I had previously broadened it for my other build, so I had to broaden the chassis of my Battlewagon as well. Not an issue, considering I was planning to build most of the hull up from plasticard anyway.

Here’s me fooling around with the general silhouette of the tank. That basilisk gun is wayyy too huge, but I like the idea.

I then start adding stuff to flesh out the main hull. The front is from the chassis of a rhino (I think I got that piece for cheap off ebay), and I didn’t like how the cool console piece always ended up being hidden in a rhino. Plus I wanted my battlewagon to be open-topped, so me cutting up that chassis for parts really killed two birds with one stone. Also liberated some doors, and used one part of a push-button as a door handle, and random plasticard bits to detail the whole thing up.

And the bottom of the hull. I generally just go into a kitbash without too much prior designing and measuring; it tends to lend itself to the orky aesthetic better that way. For example, I didn’t realise how long my tank was going to be so I had to add some more plasticard halfway through the build. But some greenstuff to make it look like and ugly weld, and personally I think it looks more interesting like that now. Also, the addition of some teeth, which is supposed to represent the front opening of the assault ramp. Ork land raider, remember?

Some additional detailing, and grafting on the ork top turret to the tank to make a semi-sponson sort of silhouette. In addition, the lengthening of the tank meant that I didn’t have enough tank treads to go around, so I built some tank tread guards out of plasticard and plastic I-beams to cover all the empty bits.

Next was the turret. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to have the ork turret (it’s too high and the cannon is too dinky) so I scratchbuild another one out of some extra battlewagon bits I had lying around, plasticard and plastic tube (and the hatch which happens to be from a killa kan). Incidentally, I reliased that I shouldn’t have made the turret just a flat box, but it’s a bit too late for that now. I’m undecided which one I’m going to use right now.

Next up: detail work!