The ork siege gun has come a long way since last visit with most of the
construction done and painting about to begin. The photos show everything
that I could attach for the photos, but is missing skirts, rear ladder,
turret and driver controls, seats, and other interior assemblies.
When I decided to work on this, I wanted to capture a hint of the
orkiness of 40K, but not quite the same level of silliness or haphazardness
seen in 40K ork vehicles. The tabletop that these fit into is not quite as
fantastical as 40K's.
Ork construction is new too me, as this is my first ork vehicle. In an
effort to get a more "orky" feel to the design and finish, I built this
without the scale plans that I normally make, so construction has involved a
rapid series of mini redesigns. First, the revolving drum loader and ram
were junked, then the sponson enlarged to better accept the ork gunner and
moved forward for the left side ejection hatch. The commander's platform
was raised and made narrower than planned due to the new ammo rack that
replaced the revolving drum.
The sponson was made with concentric pieces of tubing from Plastruct and
capped with a ring of Evergreen styrene. The gun and all of the fittings
are from styrene strip and tube, with K&S brass wire for hinges and
grab-irons.
The superstructure and most details were also made from styrene sheet and
strip including the main gun mount and controls, the hoist and winch, and
the driver and sponson gunner controls (not yet photographed). The engine
exhausts are stacks from an semi-tractor kit. Supports for the commander's
tower were made from Evergreen styrene H, I, and C steel shapes.
Once basic construction was done, I needed to orkify the vehicle a bit, so
I added lots of applique armor. Hopefully, when painted the vehicle will
look like it was field modified, and have a roughness that seems more orky
than the clean construction of the basic model.
Though they don't show up well in these photos (I gotta get better
lighting next time around), the black squares are Grandt Line 1/4 scale hex
nuts on square washers, adding a little to the crudeness of the applique,
also used were GrandtLine rivets and Tichy Train Group hex head bolts to add
variety to the finish. Throughout construction, styrene has been solvent
welded with Tenax-7R, while brass and non-styrene plastic has been glued
with superglue.
Now its off to the paint booth.
The M-773 started life as a Predator kit. The turret is from a 1/35th scale BTR kit. The weapon is a Predator las cannon, usually sponson mounted. The painting was done in two very different styles. I did the M-773 first during a period when I was experimenting heavily with washes and shading. The M-937 was done while using lots of drybrushing (I still do). The figures are GW Cadian guard in metal and represent my current color scheme for the unit. I have the full company complement (minus a few pieces here an there) of the company command team, 3 rifle platoons (of 4 squads) and fire support platoon (2 anti-tank squads and 3 heavy machine gun squads). I use them in games of StarGrunt. Just thought some old-school conversions might be appreciated.
