Konversions 101 - Da Looted Wagon

[Mad Dok Rob]

So, the topic came up at Tanksgiving about scratch building and konversions (k, not c, cause we da Orks) and not being able to to them or not knowing how and what not.  Since I was planning on building up a Kill Krusha tank for next years Tanksgiving (a superheavy that can have a Deffrolla...what is not to love) and a Gargant for next year's Megabattle (a huge F-off Ork...what is not to love), I thought maybe I would post of couple of threads explaining how I did each to give everyone that has wanted to try some scratch building or conversions some ideas.  Now the Kill Krusha and the Gargant are going to be scratch builds, so lets start with something a little simpler, converting a model into a Looted Wagon.

This first mini article is going to be about this wonderful Tau...thingy... that I got from Kai (sp?) in Planeville.  It has a big gun.  Orks love big guns.



It has a really nice paintjob on it, but it needed to be stripped.  After da tankbustas gave it some love, I figured they would strip it down and rebuild it.  I never actually stripped paint off a model, but a little simple green mixed 1:1 with water and 36 hours submerged did the trick.

rub it with a toothbrush after that and it is ready to go.  A toothbrush is really a great tool to have for a minature painter.  For years I have used them to clean off pewter miniatures before priming them.  It is great for getting off the mold oils and residues.

I need a few more bitz to orky this up, so on Ebay I ordered a bunch of Deff Dread bitz.  Once they arrive (and once finals are over next week) I will give the next installment.

[Mad Dok Rob]

Ok, so I am going to start with the turret.  So I pull out the turret, the bag of deff dread bitz I got off of ebay, my ork bitz box, and a length of 14/3 wire (this is the wiring that is in your house to do all the lights and outlets).



I want to add a tank commander to the turret.  I grab a few pieces from my battlewagon and a left over head from the Dakkajet.



The hardest thing about doing conversions is getting over the fact that you are taking a knife and cut up a 50$ model.  Do it a couple of times and you will get over that feeling.  You can always find a replacement on eBay if you screw it up really bad....which is had to do.  I took a screwdriver to the Tau tank to pop off the closed hatch.



So after gluing on the hatch from the battle wagon it is time to add some gubbins to the turret.  This is when I grab my pin vise.  This is the best miniature tool ever. Basically it is a little tool that holds a drill pit.  Very very handy.  I plop a magnet in the back where I am going to put the Ork Boss pole.  It is nice to be able to take this stuff off for storage.  I then put a pair of holes in so I can run my Big Mek piping.  I take a piece of the copper wiring from the 14/3 wire and then twirl it around a paintbrush to get the correct shape.   



I do this two more times.



I have not glued the tank kommanda or the three copper wires into place yet. I am going to paint them all up before I glue them into place.  It will be easier to paint them that way.  now the turret is mostly done, but not quite.  I will add some Ork Glyphs later, but I want to have the whole thing put together before adding the glyphs. 

The last thing I am doing is removing the landing gear on the bottom.  We Orks don't get that whole anti gravity thing.



At this point, I need to figure out where to go next.  There is basically one or two ways to go.  Either I put the jet engines back on and add some skids to the bottom (I like the idea of an Ork vehicle uncontrollably skipping across the battlefield...kind of fits in with the "don't press that" rule).  Or, I picked up a cheap M13 tank model that I was going to loot, but I can take the tank treads and literally chain the Tau vehicle on top of the treads.  It would sit pretty darn high, but that would make it look suitably Orky.  Feel free to tell me what you think.

[steelforge]

This is looking awesome!

[Benjamin]

I have to say, the skids definitely sound more evocative than tank treads.

[Ian Mulligan]

Jet tank!

[SiniStarR]

Got to say the skids sound unique. Even just 1 in the front with the engines in overdrive makes a great movie in my head!

[Mad Dok Rob]

Ahh, now that the feastday of Christmas is over, time to get back to looting.  With all the new minis that my wife gave me for Christmas (Warmachine Starter set and a boatload of new Sophies...plus all the new grots I ordered) I want to try and finish this pretty quick so I can move on to other things.  So I decided that my Ork Tank is skipping across the battlefield on a big ski.  So out into to my garage and I find this.



That wall hanger is going to be my ski.  After some bolt cutter action and a little 100 grit sand paper to sand it down, I am left a flat piece of metal.  Unfortunately, I do not own an anvil, so I take a framing hammer to the stairs in my garage and end up with something vaguely ski shaped.  Not perfect, but good enough for Orks.



Now before I try an attach this thing to my wagon.  I take my pin vise and attach 3 magnets around where the turret is.  I am trying something new and I will explain the magnets later.  I also reglue the original landing gear back on because I am going to use them to attach my ski and if the ski doesn't work I have something to fall back on for my tank to stand up.



Now that ski is heavy, so I trim a few old pieces of sprue down...



and attach it to the back landing gear.  This is to give the Zap a Gap more surface area to bite on when I attach the ski.



Finally I glue the ski to the bottom of my tank (and to my fingers...).  Now I wait to see how well this holds up.  Hopefully, if it works like I hope it will, it will be time to add all the ork bitz on, do the base painting and then put the gunner in.



The right side of the picture has the other looted wagon I am building.  It is just waiting to see what parts are left from the Tau wagon.

[Mad Dok Rob]

Ok, so now the last (almost) bit of modeling.  This involves cutting up some plasticard and gluing it to various points on the model to represent bolted on armor plates.  Then I took a rod of polystyrene and cut little pieces off to represent bolts.



Now we glue on the various Ork Bling.



That pretty much finishing the modeling on the body, except for one thing that I will do after it is primed.  There is the matter of the Tau drone controlled guns.  I looted wagon can have either two big shootas or two rokkits...and I have two pods, so...

A proppa mek is not going to let sum computer fire his gunz...that is a little weedy.  So we are going to rip the top off an put a grot in there.  I take a dremmel and  carve the top off.  Doesn't need to be too neat since we want a beat up look.



Next, I am going to take a couple of grot gunners from my battlewagon kits and attach them to the top.  Last thing I am going to do is drop a magnet into the front of the gun in case I ever want to run them as rokkits.  It is easy enough to make a piece that magnets on.



so pretty close to done.  Once I prime it, I have one more modeling thing then it is off to paint.  Which I am not going to go into depth on, but I will post the finished model.

[Mad Dok Rob]

Ok, one last quick modeling thing.

I put a few magnets where the turret attaches, because I am worried that all that 14 gauge wire will make it too heavy and tip.  With the primer on, it may not be a problem, but I am a bit paranoid.  So last year I built my daughter a kitchen set and recently saw this and bought a can so I can repaint the fridge so she could stick magnets to it.  Then I thought it might be cool to use in the miniature world.



So I painted the underside of my turret with it.  The paint and 3 neodynium N40 magnets should insure that I do not have to worry about the tank falling apart.



Now off to paint.  When I get it done I will post the finished pictures.

[Benjamin]

Magnetic paint came up in a different conversation I had last night. It's really brilliant. Halving the number of magnets needed and installed is just so much better all around.

[Mad Dok Rob]

And now the looted wagon is finished (well aside from the clear coat + dull Coat, but that doesn't change what things look like).  On the right is what the Tau provided, and on the left, is what the Orks have created.





And here is a shot of both New Looted Wagons side by side.



Well, I hope this gave you some ideas of how to make your own conversions.  I will do another one of these when I put together my Ork Gargant. 

[King of the Elves]

Robert, what did you use to strip the model, I tried using other stuff before and it hasn't worked out. Also where can you but this mixture called "simple green"?

[the_trooper]

Simple Green can be found in almost any grocery store / super market.  It's an environmentally friendly version of like Pine Sol.

http://www.simplegreen.com/shopping_where_to_buy.php

[King of the Elves]

Simple Green can be found in almost any grocery store / super market.  It's an environmentally friendly version of like Pine Sol.

http://www.simplegreen.com/shopping_where_to_buy.php

 Thanks Rich, does it matter what kind you get or does the generic all purpose work well?

[Grand Master Steve]

ha ive underestimated the Orks. I didnt think they had the ability to loot Tau tech.