The Warforge Miniature Modelling and Conversion

Puts the ‘Vroom’ in ‘Vroomdakka’

So, I figured I should probably finish this looted dreadnought, now that I've received the buzzsaws I needed.

Totally cool, right? Notice the stuff on the back?

Now it has an engine! I had to kill some time while the buzzsaws soak to remove paint from them, so I got to banging together an engine. I still have some stuff to add, though. It's a separate piece, and like everything else, it's removable and attaches with pins and magnets.

 

What do you guys think?

Mine’s shootier than yours!

Now with more dakka!

 

I tucked two shootas in place of the targeters. What ork needs targeters, anyhow?

I realize they're not Big Shootas, but the longer barrels that I tried looked really, really stupid sticking that far out from the frame of the body - I got the impression that they'd get sawed right off by the axe if they were too long, so I went a bit closer to the dread's profile. I also realize the banana clip pointing forward somewhat conflicts with the pose of the leg, but I liked the way the dreadnought looked with the forward-curving ammo clips, so I did it anyway.

I've left the upper part of the torso separate from the lower so far to facilitate easy painting, but this picture also helps to show you guys how I mounted the shootas in.

A bit of handy dremelling with a flat disc popped the plastic targeters right off. The putty's a plumbing epoxy I've discovered in my basement - I've actually used it on previous projects, like the gargant, as a structural reinforcing thing. it's wonderful - dries in all of five minutes and cements whatever it touches in place.

At the helm

A bit more progress! I took the grot and fitted him inside the cockpit and bolted him in nice and proppa. I like the way he is right now - enough to be happy to leave it alone for at least the moment. I tacked a gobbo shield onto the shoulder as well. I also added cabling onto the claw - one into the handle, and one into the claw itself.

 

The upper torso's not attached yet for expediency in painting and priming - I figured it'd be easier to get at some of the cockpit if I left it open like this, so I probably won't glue it down for now. You can see where I stuck all the cabling up - it's visible if you look close at the gobbo behind him, though the camera doesn't really capture them in the front views.

 

I need to figure out what to do to the other arm!

RoboGrot 9000

Been working on wiring the grot up a bit. The general idea is that he's tangled in some wires and connected to others, all of which will probably keep him from falling out if he gets too excited. A lot of the back won't actually be seen - I plan on gluing the wires to random points on the interior - but you get the gist of what I'm going for. The greenstuff is still drying, so I haven't put 'em back inside the thing yet, but I gave him a bionik eye and tried to make it look like one of the wires was going in under his skin on the back of his choppa hand.

 

I think he's looking pretty cool. In the mean time while the GS dries, I'm going to scuff up the dread a bit and try orking it some.

And I’ll form the head!

Alright, so I couldn't help myself. If I decide to change the pilot, I can always pin the old hand back on. He actually looks a bit like tarzan with this pose, especially holding the wire like that. You might get an idea of why I'm hesitant to add something like a helmet to this fella from lookin' at these - the 'hair' on him is pretty well integrated into his left shoulder, ears, and back.

 

And resting in position in the dread...

 

Now with 100% more pilot!

Got home from dinner and started rummaging with a lot of ideas floating around in my head. I was test-fitting a lot of things inside the cockpit - whole orks, the weedier ork drivers from the trukk kit, grots...

Then, I found one little dude that fit perfectly inside the cockpit opening. The fella fit like a glove. I got him about a year ago. He is the flag-waver on the fantasy Goblin Rock Lobba.

I cut his little flag-pennant off, and he fit the angle or the inside of the dreadnought perfectly, leaning out of the cockpit but still holding on to a lever inside the machine with his foot dangling back inside flush against the bottom of the 'coffin' area. He fits the width of the slot just right, too. I couldn't ask for more.

 

I thought about giving him a hat or helmet like that, but the biggest problem with that is the way these snotlings are sculpted - everything seems to be one big solid piece. I'd have to remove that hair from him, and the head is pretty narrow, so I don't know how decent that would end up working. I think I'm happy to leave him how he is and operate under the assumption that there's more snotlings working inside there behind him - I'm considering stringing up a bit of cabling behind him and putting an LED in there to backlight him, too, but I'm not sure how that would look.

In an odd twist of fate, I actually dropped the torso and that scroll thing just popped right off. I was originally just going to leave it there because it was on the dread when I started, but I seem to be able to replace it easily at this point. There's some ugly marks where it used to be glued, so I can't leave it bare. I'm considering either reattaching it or covering it over with an ork or goblin wooden shield... I could always do a corrugated armor plate, though. Or maybe a glyph plate.

Anyway, it's coming along.

Extra pinchy!

More progress on the looted dreadnought!

I added cabling hanging down from where it would have connected into the old leg - I couldn't find guitar string, so I made my own cabling out of thin green wire instead. The little dude on the base with him is a snotling doing the 'nyah nyah' face, oblivious that he's about to be stepped on. I don't think I'd actually be able to fit a grot in there, as a goblin is substantially taller than a snotling... I don't even know if I'm going to leave the snotling there, but he seems appropriate until I figure something better out.

 

I've also been working hard on that hand that holds the choppa. You'll notice it's now much more sufficiently grabby - I had a warmachines mercenary warjack with a very nice claw that I carefully sawed off the arm. Then, using a table clamp, I put the choppa in the grip and slowly, carefully tightened the claw pincers around the choppa until they were holding it good and tight! I had to chop the melta down a bit to make it fit, but I think I'm going to run cabling from that forearm attachment up to the hilt of the choppa anyway.

 

I had to cut the shoulder joint on the dreadnought down in order to accomodate a magnet of suitable strength that could hold up the weight of the pewter arm. Having done that, though, it's much more stable.

Thoughts or ideas? This mini is shaping up to be a bit more expensive in bitz than I originally guessed!

Dread on da move!

I was rummaging around a little bit this afternoon, as I found myself with a refreshing amount of spare time, and I collected a bunch of bitz together that got my brain's little gears turning. I quickly produced my ideas into a sketch:

The concept is pretty simple. A looted dreadnought, turned into an orky killing machine. It'll likely be piloted like grots, as I'm prone to the little blighters being the commanding force behind warmachines. It'll hopefully get a nice big gob on the front to emphasize it's orkiness.

Here's the basic bitz pinned together for proof of concept.

 

I have no idea what that left leg is from. I think it came from a BWBits.com grab bag. I wanted to reposition the whole dread to look completely askew in an orky 'almost out of control' manner, so I hacked the left leg off; the standard dreadnought pose does not allow much flexibility, and replaced it with this bit I found in my bins. The axe will probably get some cabling going from an improved-upon hilt into the mechanisms of the arm.

What do you guys think? It's obviously got a ways to go, and I'm debating what to arm it with presently. The 2 ccw option is a given at this point, as it has two close combat arms, but I need to give it 2 more weapons; either big shootas, rokkits, kustom mega-blasters, or skorchas. I am tending towards either shootas or rokkits, though as I run Kult of Speed I have little experience with dreadnought setups.

I'm also not entirely sure what to do with the grot I want piloting. My original thought was to put a goblin in there with a wire in each hand, touching them together, but there isn't enough real viewing space in the coffin area to show this. Instead, I'm considering maybe having a grot on the ground near it with cabling running all the way up from him into the cockpit.

Perhaps I could put him right square near where the raised foot would set down, oblivious that he is about to crush himself by fiddling with the wires.