The Ork Dreadnought!

 

So, waaayyy back before I started building things for the Cauldron event, I had the urge to work on scratch-building an Ork Dreadnought. I know they've gone by various names- Killa Kan, etc, but the ones that really appealed to me are the very old ones from early editions of 40k. I've been building a bunch of roughly 40k-ish Ork stuff over the past few years- go back on my instagram and there are some trucks, a motorcycle, etc. I do eventually want to play a game with these things (Gorkamorka, Rogue Trader, maybe just OPR Grimdark Future), but I've mostly just been building them on and off. Ork stuff is fun to build because it's deliberately kludged together and kind of scrappy and messy. It works well with my approach to kitbashing and scratch building, and since I'm generally an orc and goblin loyalist across fantasy and sci-fi, it made sense to just keep building stuff. I have a good selection of space orks for Space Gits an any other purpose you can imagine, so why not keep building stuff. 

I've mentioned my DIY ethos in other posts, but there are a few reasons behind it. One, this hobby is ludicrously expensive if you just buy things, especially seeking out old models. Right now that's not in the cards for me. Second, I think creating stuff within constraints is both fun and meaningful. I try to hold onto this in my art practice as well, but it's fun to say- let's build a dreadnought and spend exactly $0 on it. I'm lucky to have an extensive shop, some light machine tools, and a kind of infinite amount of scrappy materials/hardware/etc.. and I've accumulated enough model bits from kits etc. that I feel pretty well equipped to do these goofy scratch builds. And I know I'll care a lot more about it (and feel freer while doing making it) if I work from scratch. Spending money makes me precious with models and materials- and this is the opposite of that approach. 

This guy started out with a variety of components. The claw and part of the gun are Ramshackle Games bits I've had. The ork head is from Spellcrow, and the arm with cigar came with my Space Gits Kickstarter. The torso is from Mantic Games (I don't love their stuff, but I have a lot of their Space Orc Commando parts). The real fun is in the body of the thing. 

The body is a piece of PVC pipe, turned down on my lathe to add some ridges and details. The legs are made from some oddball Molex type connectors sourced from Ax-Man Surplus in St. Paul, MN. 

Sidebar- if you ever find yourself in the Twin Cities, go visit Ax-Man. I went there on a field trip during my first ever sculpture class along with my dear friend Andy (Whalehazard Guitars among many other awesome things.) Whenever I'm back in the Cities, I insist on Andy driving me to Ax-Man and perusing in great detail. Everything is on offer, from glassware monogramed for other people's weddings to a baffling selection of electronic components, dental tools, strange knockoff toys, and an aisle labeled Realm of Tape. Go visit. It will change your life. 

The guns and feet and the missile rack are all made from crimp-style wire splices and spade terminals I've been hauling around forever. One of the great joys of bashing is just looking at an object and saying what could this be? 

The hatch is turned down from acrylic, and the armor is some plastic card stuff, pinned in place with quilting pins for rivets. What a joyful undertaking. I made this nightmare mutant mass of power arms and Ettin heads, and I got as far as painting it before I decided it felt like it didn't fit, and replaced it with a giant axe. 

Then this thing basically sat on the back of my work table for two months while I cranked out everything for the Cauldron event. I picked it up a couple of weeks ago and went after the painting in earnest. 

And there it is! Perhaps I should refine my sci-fi photo setup a bit, but I'm pretty happy with this monstrosity. Banners like this are always particularly fun. So the hobby table is weirdly empty at the moment... debating my next move, but it might be a circular 1490 Doom board. Thanks for reading and stay tuned! 

An eclectic weekend of hobby undertakings

 I took a bit of a break from hobby work after the Cauldron event- it was nice to step back and do some regular studio work and a couple long bike rides. But- Labor Day weekend turned out to be all over the place with hobby endeavors in a pretty fun way. Philly Indie Tabletop met on the Monday, and folks wanted to play TWO new games I've never played- Gaslands and 1490 Doom. Both require pretty minimal preparation of miniatures, so I decided to knock out a car for Gaslands and a three-mini Doom Company for 1490 Doom. 

I admit I was working fast and had not read the Gaslands rules. I knew I had this little police van kicking around in my bits cabinet, but that's the only small car I had. So I just went for it. 

Sprayed them gold because I had leftover gold from the Cauldron tokens. Then all the washes and drybrushing I could handle. 

It came out great, including the Perry Napoleonic driver with a chainsword. BUT- then I got to the table and realized this van is WAY TOO BIG to fit along with Matchbox cars. 

Case in point. I ran it as a School Bus (Dr. Frazzle's Manic Schoolbus), which meant it could be loaded out with all manner of silly weapons- caltrop dropper, flamethrower, etc. 

The schoolbus quickly became a target, though, and despite 20 Hull Points it got knocked around pretty hard. I enjoyed Gaslands but we played with 6 players- so a bit slower than I'd hope. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to play 1490 Doom, but that's next on the list. 

Pretty happy with this little Doom Company though. Mostly Perry bits leftover from building my Turnip army, some mysterious helmets and the central one is a Ramshackle Games helmet. I usually go for a more riotous color approach, but off white, red and tan looked really good for these guys. Left to right- a Saboteur, a Beekeeper, and a Scavenger. Very excited to try this game out soon!

AANDD... just for good measure one more hobby project this weekend. Until yesterday I'd just kept my paints in little rows on my work table. Kind of crazy. Plus I would set some of them upside down when they got empty, and eventually that would cause an avalanche of falling paint bottles... which drove me crazy. Happily I live above my woodshop, so it was time to address this issue. 

I had a weird little slab of oak I'd been hauling around for years that I decided to use for the back panel. The shelves are maple. After some fiddling around I realized I could drill a small hole in the middle of each larger hole, and that would let me put paint bottles upside down without them falling over. 

This seemed like a nice solution. A little sanding, then glue up and a coat of oil. 

LOOK AT ALL THAT TABLE SPACE! What a revelation! I find little projects like this extremely satisfying. Now it's finally time to finish that scratch-built ork dreadnought I started before the Cauldron event (that's the bits in the foreground). Planning on sharing a detailed build log of that project soon. Thanks for reading, and apologies that this post is a bit scattered... I think I'm trying to frantically cram in hobby time before the school year starts up again.