Weekly Waffle #311
11th March 2023
It’s been a couple of weeks and that has been down to a combination of a lot of travel for work reducing my hobby time and I have to say a loss of mojo when I have had some time. For me the mojo is such an important part of getting things done. Gone are days of stopping up into the wee hours because you had to have something finished for a tournament. Now it’s all about the fun and when that’s not there I just can’t be bothered. So when the buzz for Dysfunction Wars started to fizz I was finding it hard to make the time to paint. I’ve got bits done and to be far a couple of good sessions should see them finished, but I just haven’t been bothered.
Now I don’t want this to be all doom and gloom so when I run into these little road blocks a way to smash them down is to do something fun. And fun for me is always Orks. I can’t remember the last time I actually played 40K but I keep adding to my Orks because they are just fun.
I’ve had the idea to do some Ork Bikers which are based on Goliath Maulers, which I know is an obvious choice, but I have to say that I’ve not seen that many yet. I’m sure they are out there it’s just that I’ve not found them yet. The design has been very organic and I’ve not made that many changes but what I have done I think works quite well. I’ve basically broken the Mauler down into two haves which is how it builds up naturally. The front half has stayed as it was out of the box and all I’ve really done is add some damage to rough things up a bit. I’ve kept the weapons the same but I have swapped out the barrels to make them look a little more Orky.
The bulk of the changes have been in the rear half of the build and I’ve broken these down into two parts. On the bike itself I’ve added a large fuel tank and the bolted some big exhausts onto each side. The idea was to bulk out the rear of the bike but I’ve used a lot of these exhausts on other models so I’m hoping it will help tie them all together. A bit more damage and some piping to get the fuel out of the tank along with more chips finishes that part off.
The last part of the kitbash was the rider and I decided to keep the original legs as I think they are meaty enough to work. I used a T shaped piece of spru to join them together and angled it to line up with the seat back. This the allowed me to drill out the body so that it was all lined up and then I used some green stuff to join everything up. I’ve used the bars off of some Ork bikes and just played around with the arms, and a heat gun to get everything to line up. What you end up with is something very Orky without a ridiculous amount of effort.
I’m really happy with how the riders turned out. Even adding some little sleeve tops to had the join between the arm and the body. Much easier than trying to sculpt muscles.
With the build done all they needed was a lick of paint. I wanted them to tie in with the rest of the boys so I’ve gone with red because it’s fast, some blue for a bit of luck and the some some yellow for a bit of pop. I know it’s not to everyone’s taste but I like the look so for me that’s all that matters. Just a little bit of weathering before sealing everything with a mat varnish. That’s good for protecting what is intended as a gaming model but it also helps to dull the colours and make things look a little more used and abused.
That’s it for this week. I hope you like the bikes and I have a few more ideas floating around in my head. Including a way of kitbashing a war trike to fit in with style of bike and some Ard boys, just because. Until next time keep yourselves safe, have fun and I hope to catch you all again soon.
