The greed for speed

 

Last year, in my final post before Christmas, I mentioned that one of my sisters had given me the Forge World Ork Nob Warbiker set, and that, instead of the usual 3, I was trying to squeeze 5 bikes from it. When I looked at the kit I realised there were too many cool parts to use, and I didn't want them to simply disappear into my box of spares. And besides, why have some when you can have many? I promised to share the other two bikes when they were done, so now I'm making good on that.

These two are mainly made from the pieces in the kit, except, crucially, I had to use the cut-down chassis from an old Space Marine Bike, in order to provide most of the structure of the first one above (the one with the caterpillar tracks at the front). Fortunately some of those left-over bits from the Nob Biker kit allowed me to almost completely hide the old Marine bike behind greenskin gubbins. You can still make out the engine block in a couple of the images, though I subtly changed its profile by trimming the foot plates from beneath it.

The other one got the trike wheels at the back, so I decided to use that wider rear space to mount a diminutive hanger on. He's probably got a very hot left foot right now from the overtaxed exhaust that he's precariously balanced above. I also figured I'd bring in a fresh Ork head for the rider. One with a piece of iron bolted to the side of its jaw, which I grabbed from the Age of Sigmar Orruk Brutes set. I think mixing in a few odd pieces from other kits, and slightly varying my painting style helps to get across the idea that Orks grow to different sizes, can have a range of skin tones, get injured differently, wear different prosthetics and like to tinker with all their equipment. Basically, in short, each and every Ork and Ork vehicle can be unique. Something which is fun, if a little time-consuming, to try to capture across an entire army.

Talking of which, these two new bikes mean their ragtag squad is now 15 strong, if you include the two larger bikes (that actually count as a buggy and a skorcha). 

So I'll finish off with a quick snap of the gang getting their rev on, ready to go start a fight someplace.

Big, shooty and stompy.

Orks love those three words. And nothing embodies them quite like a Deff Dread lumbering its way towards the enemy with unpleasant intentions. 

A great big rusty robot, ready to grab its foe, and start furiously chopping and sawing until nothing is recognisable.

Not so different from me doing a model kit conversion, then.

This particular beast started life as the very excellent Medium Panzer Walker (also known as a Kampf Läufer, or Luther/Ludwig/Lothar) from Paolo Parente's beautifully realised Dust miniatures game. The box it came in had three different weapon configurations, none of which I had any intention of using. Those were put aside, and instead I grabbed a few arms and other bits from Games Workshop's bona fide Deff Dread kit.

This isn't the first time the Kampf Läufer has appeared on this blog. You can also see it here. Sort of.

Some hacking, sawing, gluing, bleeding and about 5 years later, et voila.

There are a few other Ork Walkers planned and underway, so this won't be the last you hear of this unit. Pop back in, let's say, another 5 years and we can see how far I've got with them.