Hello again and welcome back to the bizarre world that is my lockdown hobby time. I now I’m going crazy when I first started to write this and was referring to something I thought I had added to last week’s update but on reading back I hadn’t at all. What I thought I had said last week was that whilst trawling through my boxes of shame I came across a brand new, still in shrink warp Ork Trukk. Now I know it’s been there a long time because the price tag, from GW, was £18. I’ll let someone else try and do the carbon dating on that but it’s been there for quite some time. So I thought I would make use of it and do a little bit of kit bash. Now that really was my intent with this and thought I might even have a finished model for you this week. I know I was deluding myself but I thought that just once I may not get carried away. Well that might happen sometime but not this week.
The basic idea was to take the Trukk along with a little inspiration form the trucks that race in the Dakar Rally and see what I could come up. So basically a flat front to the Trukk with a covered load bed, how hard could that be. I started work by playing around with the cab and actually building it around the floor plan and one of the front plates or the original kit. I wanted it to have an interior, which with hindsight was bad idea as it will be nightmare to paint, and I also wanted the finished model to at least look like it might work. At this stage I also decided that I would mount the engine behind the cab which influenced a few decisions. Mainly the radiator on the front and tunnel through the cab to get all that cool air to the engine. Nothing complicated and that bit at least seemed to go ok.
I then started to build up the cab and that is where things got a little bit tricky. Mainly because I knew that whatever I came up with I would have to have a way to remove it in order to paint the interior. The structure for the cab was pretty basic with straight sides and a slight slope to the front. I then cut out some windows so that you would be able see inside and then added some bars, mainly so there wouldn’t be big open gaps. To make it look a little bit more interesting I add some strips around the edge to look like reinforcing bars, added some bolts for detail and then used a knife to add lots of damage. With a few bits added from the kit and another special something fastened to the back, which I will cover later the cab body was done.
That then slides onto the cab bed to give me a finished cab and a way of still being able to paint the interior. I think.
With the engine in place behind the cab I could get it line up with the radiator and still have the drive shaft connect to the rear wheels. But it just looked so tiny and lost behind the expanse that was the back of the cab.
So I needed to do something to the engine that would fill up the gap a bit. Plus once it finished it’s going to get painted red so it needs an engine that at least looks like it could go fast. With it sitting behind the cab I had already worked out how to cool it but needed a way to get air into the engine. The answer put the air intake to one side. I used some bits here from a Zinge Industries engine kit and to both make things fit and fill in a bit more space I added my take on a turbo. It might not actually work but I think it will and as a grot rigger that’s all that’s needed to make it work. That was then attached to the exhaust system that came with the kit and I had an engine that looked like it would be able to fill the space nicely.
That then fits nicely on to the chassis and I think it works quite nicely and fills the space well. Now at this stage I got a bit carried away after sharing some WIP pictures on Twitter and Darren asked me what I was going to fit to the fifth wheel. My plan was going to be nothing as it was going to have a covered load bed, but when he suggested a rocket catapult that got me thinking of new ideas. But I still wanted to finish off my original idea so added a few magnets so that I could remove the load bed at a later date. So that’s another project for me to think about. I’ve used the original load bed but to give it a slightly different feel I’ve just swapped it round so that the back will now be closed off and the front is open to the engine. Again I’ve added a few magnets but this is more to do with making things easier when it comes to painting than anything else.
I’ve then made a roof to go over the load bed to round off that Dakar feel to the whole thing. I’ve still get a few bits to add to the roof to try and tie it in a bit more and it will also need a host of rivets adding again to help tie it in with the original kit. There will be some roll bars connecting the roof of the cab to the roof of the load bed. Again it’s just a little bit that I think helps to bring all the different parts together.
Now I’m happy with what I have done so fare but just feel it needs a little bit of something at the front, around the front wheels and some sort of bumper. I’ve not got that worked out but once I have that will be the last bit for this build. Then it will be on to paint, where trying to do that interior will be a pain. I’m thinking painting it, then adding some masking tape to the inside of the widows, paint the rest and then try and pick out the tape. I’ll see how things go but that is the plan for the moment. I’m hoping to have the build finished today so that I then get some paint on it for next week’s update. I’m going to say I will have it finished for next week as I know that won’t happen but it will have some colour on it.
That’s it for this week, I hope you are all keeping yourself safe and sound. Remember that things will get back to normal at some point so just hang in there and try and enjoy yourself whenever you get the chance. So until next week hang on in there and I’ll catch you all next Saturday.
