The Warforge Miniature Modelling and Conversion

Green (and rumbly) Christmas

So, the mysterious Mr. X has outdone himself.

Not content to have provided me with some of the nicest-painted boyz in my collection, he volunteered a couple months ago to help me with painting my converted warbikes. As I've had virtually no time for the hobby at all this past semester, I jumped at the chance to get a bit of help with the greenskins, and X did not dissapoint at all.

Yesterday evening I was informed that a package had arrived...

And when I cracked open the box this morning, what should come tumbling out (not literally, of course!) but my dozen greenskin bikers and their cherry rides!

I quickly set about assembling the riders and bikers and got the bases I'd painted for them out. After a bit of gluing, swearing, and pinning, I was able to get them all securely assembled into the impressive squad you see below.

Needless to say, X has done a fantastic job bringing these models to life. I've snapped a dozen shots of individual bikes to show off some of the painting.

 

Even up as close as the shots above are, they still look awesome, and I'm exceedingly proud to have these gitz in my possession. I have a feeling I'll be building something to pay back the favor!

Thanks X, and happy holidays to everyone!

Pills here!

I've had a little time in the past few days to put together a dozen 74x40mm biker pill bases. Thanks go again to Ozzie over at The-Waaagh.com for being so spectacular about helping me get 40mm round and square bases I needed.

I'm simply torn between painting the bikers red or blue! On one hand, I'm a bit of a deffskull, but on the other my bikes need to be good an' speedy...

Weighted down with dakka

So I've been working on the Nob'z bike for a little bit today, and I've gotten it to about 90% done. There are a few things I need to continue to detail such as the long ammo feed chutes that go to the side of the gun. I would like to make the nob a proper banner so consider the current one a placeholder for now.

 

And one without the rider, so you can get a better look of the assembly on the back of the bike:

I need to add some battle damage and maybe some more up front, too, like headlights on either side of the forks. I'd also like to work a little more on his power fist to properly sell the concept. I think the Nob'z bike has turned out decent so far, though.

Half a Nob Biker

The Nob's about halfway done, but I figured I'd throw pictures up to prove that I am still working on the project despite the little lull.

I started with all sorts of ambitious ideas for the Nob before I realized that I also intend to make a Wazdakka, and if I loaded the Nob up too much it'd be very hard to tell which one is supposed to be the character! That said, I opted for a power klaw for the Nob, but I wanted one that also looked like it could be functional for riding - I can't see an ork steering very well with klaw blades shearing through the handle bars by accident. The metal fist bit is from the fantasy miniature, I believe his name is Gorbad Ironclaw?

Anyway, I tacked that on, greenstuffed the seams a bit, made some quick hydraulics from sheet styrene, adding cabling, and that was that.

 

I actually made a sidecar for this at first before I decided to scrap it - I didn't like the way it was looking, and I honestly couldn't picture any sort of gun mount in my head that didn't also interfere with the positioning of the handlebars or the nob himself. I peeled that off and strapped two wheels to the sides instead for a trike type design. The extra wheels are from some Warzones mini I picked up ages ago, though I'm not sure I remember which any more. I've put a very basic wheel guard over them for now, but before I take it much farther I have to figure out where the guns are going on this. I may try putting them further up on the body of the bike, just behind the forks.

Anyway, I'm still going at it, but suggestions would be nice. I already have a fun banner pole in mind, though.

Ten and Eleven done, Nob next!

Here's the next two of the group, making ten total. I tau-ized the first one, adding a shield drone to the front, and a pair of burst cannons to the side of the bike. I am saving the sidecar / quad ideas for the Nobz bikes - one nob for each 12-biker squad. I'm making them at the end of each dozen as a sort of 'reward' for continuing the mob.

 

Bike number 11 has been commandeered by a pair of ambitious gretchin. One drives, the other shoots.

Most of the converting I am doing to these bikers is trying to be discreet, so you can place it next to a stock biker and there will be a resemblance in style.

Nob next, I suppose.

More wheels, more guns

Made one yesterday and one today in my free time, which makes eight and nine

 

That second bike actually has a third barrel slung underneath the two middle ones, set slightly back so as not to interfere with the wheel. I copped out and used another of the biker front tire guards on him, which means there are two bikes that both have 'em, but I figure in two dozen-strong mobs you can space them out far enough that they'll still look unique anyway.

I'm going to dig for a burst cannon for number 10. I'm looking forward to the Nob at #12 a fair bit - I am picturing a grot in a sidecar with some heavy armaments.

The tiniets of steps

Banged out a seventh. I've been super busy with my new apartment recently, as well as a few other projects, which is why I've only managed to get one done today.

 

Only two pics for now - the lighting in my apartment is terrible and I am working on figuring out how to adapt to it, but you get the general idea. I had a pair of loose big shootas from an ork dreadnought that I got off of ebay that looked like they would fit the part, so with a little bit of hacking and styrene work I got it all to fit together. The two ammo feeds are hanging off the rear of the bike.

The first half dozen

So after a bit of playtesting, I've come to realize that I do really like bikers. I was sort've miffed that they could no longer screen other units in 40k 4th ed after the new ork codex came out, since that 4+ cover save was really something, but now that we have that back in 5th ed, I'm willing to give these boyz a go. When paired up with what I hope will eventually be 30 lootas, I expect the ridiculous amounts of ork shooting I will have flying around the table during my games will be more than rewarding.

This will probably be a pretty slow project, since I've got a lot going on right now and little time to bash these together, but I figured I'd throw what I've done up here so far as I brainstorm ideas.

As of right now, I have the parts to make 21 of the newer bikes, though I expect I'll need at least two more boxes - one for making a Wazdakka bike, and one for the extra 3 bikers I'll need for an even two dozen. Below is the start of the first six I've put together so far.

I will admit that they're not that technically impressive, but I'm starting to get the hang of them. My ideal goal is to have no two bikes quite the same, but I may find that a bit difficult as I get further on in. The first four I put together were pretty much stock bikes as I swapped bits and pieces around from the kits so I had unique front plates (by the handlebars) for all of them.

 

These are all pretty straightforward. The only things I've been changing are the weapons the riders have, but I'm not sure why - something in the back of my head says I might want to save some of the warbiker parts to make squads of 'trukk boyz' later, since I have like six or seven trukk kits lying around in my apartment now that need to be built.

The riders on all of the bikes are pinned together, since I am obsessive about my miniatures being solidly constructed. They are removable to facilitate painting easier, and when it's all painted up I'll just glue them down onto their seats (there is a pin sticking out of each seat on the bike for them to pin to)

These two I started getting a bit more adventurous:

 

The one with the gun between the handlebars is something I have been considering continuing. I have a bunch of those guns - spares from warmachines mercenary warjacks - that fit comfortably in that space with a bit of hacking down. Obviously, just that front gun is not enough, so I strapped an autocannon onto his bike.

The one to the right is something of a play on the older ork bikes - I used the guns and front plate from one of GW's old plastic bike kits to somewhat reproduce the older edition outline.

I expect about half the bikes in my squads won't have guards over their front tires, since I like the 'chopper' ish appearance they have without all that weight on the front.

And a group shot:

I'm starting to struggle to come up with interesting weapons combinations for these bikes. I have a couple heavy bolters I'm going to use for the next few, but a majority of my heavy weapons collection does not work for this - weapons from devastators like plasma or lascannons don't make any sense on a bike (unless it's Wazdakka) since they're essentially firing big shootas. I would really like to save a couple of the guns from these bikes for use in other conversions down the road, though, so I expect I'll end up scratch building a few weapons.

Anyway, that's all so far.