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I really love the idea of the Meganob unit. In an army filled with models intented to sop up wounds, here's a squad that are as tough as terminators that can klaw their way through anything. So, when those SM templates start falling, you can just shrug 'em off and and keep on krump'n.

So, my plan is to field a 9 squad of Meganobz, but I didn't wanna fork all that cash over to GW, so I decided to make 'em myself. I'll update this thread as I make progress.

Here's the first completed Meganob. Still unpainted, as I want to get to a fieldable 3 models before I paint any. Legs, arms and klaw from an AoBR warboss. Head/torso (inside) from an AoBR Nob. Rest of the body scratch build from 1mil plasticard, and various styrene tubes and rods. Big light from some bitz bag that I bought.

Back 'engine' portion made from a Tau drone, and a stickbomb chukka from the ork battlewagon. Leg hydrolics made from styrene tubes/rods.


I'm pretty happy with him for a first effort. He's a little larger that I'd like the rest of my guys to be. He could easily function as a Thraka. Next ones will be slightly smaller.

Here's WIP #2. As I built the main body armor portion for this guy, I thought I'd try for a sloped top. It ended up looking a little like a barn roof, so I went with it. I'll paint the shingles up nice and rusty. Torso and legs from AoBR nob. Head, klaw from Nobz box. Kustom Twin-Linked Shoota that I bodged together from left over boyz box bitz.

While the upper body was built similiar to the first one, I went a totally different route for the pelvis. I wanted it to be shorter, and fit the natural slope of the hips better. It was a real pain to glue that odd shape together, and carve out the plasticard just right, but I think it paid off. He sits nice and low, and the legs attached with only a minimum of chopping.


Next for this guy will be backpack, and leg hyrodlics. Hopefully that part will go faster the second time around.

Feedback and ideas very welcome!

Edited: Fixed image links.

You could try using a terminator body as the... well the body, then try to make it look like the armor is looted and patched together from a bunch of different things for the third one.

I like the blocky look of the GW models. I don't really /buy/ an ork cramming himself into some old 'umi SM armor. I DO see some mekboy carving up an SM tank and using it for part to make some powered armor of his own. =)

Besides, this way is more work. And the longer I work in this, the more I can put off actually painting them. I like the modeling part better. =)

Very awesome! I am converting mine out of the AoBR Termies, but their not as good as yours.

very nice

i agree first guy looks to big

i think differently i want mine to look great for the smallest amount of work possible

i will go the extra mile but only if i have to

I love orks because of the humor and personality that they bring. So making unique and hilarious models is very amusing to me.

When I painted through my last set of 43 boyz, it was all about efficiency, but since I don't need quite as many Meganobz, I can afford to slow down a bit.

Though, I'm guessing that if I'm gonna get to 9 total, I'll have to standardize on a design for mass production.

Pssh standardize my ass. Put some effort into them. Make them LOOK the way the FLUFF says Orks are. Make them different, and put some on your personality into each one. That way they all look different, yet the same. And they will look better because you added that special flare to each one
They are looking pretty damn good btw

Nice. I definitely like them all looking different.

I think #1 still needs a little more leg armour and pistons - that's a lot of weight he has to carry around!

KingCracker wrote:Pssh standardize my ass. Put some effort into them. Make them LOOK the way the FLUFF says Orks are. Make them different, and put some on your personality into each one. That way they all look different, yet the same. And they will look better because you added that special flare to each one
They are looking pretty damn good btw

Thanks. I appreciate it. It's hard with Orks. You need to have so many models to be able to leverage the deployment flexibility that I see as one of the ork army's big advantages. But at the same time, their fluff and personality surpasses all. I mean, what other faction has it's own distinctive dialect that any player will know?

I think I can standardize on a base frame, body, leg mechanics, and make them unique from there. Decorating is fun. Deciding on the mechanics of how it will plausibly work irl, while building it to not fall apart is a greater challenge.


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Clang wrote:I think #1 still needs a little more leg armour and pistons - that's a lot of weight he has to carry around!

You're probably right. I'll make up for it on the next one! =)

I have a policy that I don't go back after I call it done. I think that's the only way to keep yourself going forward with so many models to build.

Tonight's update:
I worked on the backpack. Took longer than I thought. Just about done, though. Smoke stacks made from small Tau drone bit, and a AoBR big shoota. Main barrels from hobby shop tubing, closed in with the .5mil plasticard.

Front view. I'm gonna add some cables and tubing to the rear. Maybe get it looking a bit like a moonshine still. It's looking really clean now. I need a spigot or something back there. I'll do all the rivets at once at the end.

I didn't mean use just termi armor, i meant use the termi torso as an upper torso and then drop a gob on it and beef it up a little bit and you have the torso acceptably done, then do the stomach area with more armor and do the legs however you want to, just don't use termi legs stick with orky... it doesn't look proppa otherwise... also, some random bits would work to give the models flavor and individualism, like adding some tau armor bits in or marine shoulder pads, or part of an ig vehicle worked into the armor.

I like them. Termie-converted meganobz always end up too weedy, from what I've seen, unless beefed up so damn much it doesn't matter what they were in the first place. The first meganob is great. The second makes me think of Alice (of the "in Wonderland" variety). You know, drink the bottle and grow until you're wearing the house? It's rigged, it's ridiculous, it's... orky

Great start on them. Today has been a good day for me to browse Dakka. Getting some great conversion ideas for my orks...

Very nice looking. I'm impressed.
Also, avoid Termie-converted MANz like the plague. In all my years in this hobby I'm yet to see one that didn't look terrible.

Tonight I built the leg hydrolics on #2. Made them beefier, as promised:

Also added a spigot. =)

And added additional plates to the knees:


I'll clean you the extra green stuff tomorrow after it's dried.

Awesomely awesome!... i love em!

Last night, I based #2, and built his Gob. As well as refining the all important faucet on the back.

I'm not sure how much I like this gob. It's kinda like a bunch of shark teeth. Or a picket fence. Or something. What do you guys think? Any other ideas? I'm considering removing it and replacing with something different if I can think up a better idea:



Size comparison of #1 and #2. They're pretty close, though #2 is distinctly smaller:


Faucet detail. It makes me laugh. Fungus Beer Backpack.

They look really good and what are those white parts because my brother collects them and I think they would be very good to use instead of the metal one

GreyKnightT9 wrote:They look really good and what are those white parts because my brother collects them and I think they would be very good to use instead of the metal one

White parts? That's styrene. Plasticard sheets, and styrene rods, tubes, etc. Can pick it up from most hobby stores.

Love 'em. I've always thought the official meganobz were a bit small.

Hmm. Shingled roof, picket fence, beer tap? The second guy is basically riding around in a hillbilly distillery! Which is oddly fitting for an ork...

You could try the tire guards from warbiker kits they always looekd like obnoxiously large gobs to me.

ashrog wrote:Hmm. Shingled roof, picket fence, beer tap? The second guy is basically riding around in a hillbilly distillery! Which is oddly fitting for an ork...

Haha. I'm with you. It is pretty picket fence-y, but it's also on the guy who looks like he's wearing a quaint little house. It's hard to imagine, rereading that last sentence, but I meant that in the best possible way

oadie wrote:

ashrog wrote:Hmm. Shingled roof, picket fence, beer tap? The second guy is basically riding around in a hillbilly distillery! Which is oddly fitting for an ork...

Haha. I'm with you. It is pretty picket fence-y, but it's also on the guy who looks like he's wearing a quaint little house. It's hard to imagine, rereading that last sentence, but I meant that in the best possible way

Yeah I was thinking a dog house too. I def like these way better than the standard ones. Orks have that off center humor that makes them so fun to model

Those are some cool lookin' meganobz. Wish chaos still had chain axes, now i needa deal with sv2+...

Pretty good, especially the first one.

Looking good so far mate. Keep it up!

They all look great, but I like the second one the best
Toll booth of death ftw.

Thanks everyone for all the great comments! I'm glad you like em. "Tollbooth of Death" makes me laugh. =)

So, the picket fence just wasn't doing it for me, so I pulled it off, and replaced it with some i-beams. I like being able to see his face, and they don't all need huge gobs, right? I did save the other one for later use, though. I also reinforced the whole "Backpack Still" look with some guitar string, and some additional detail in the back. I trimmed up the greenstuff a little, and I'm gonna call #2 done.




I'll start my next one tonight. Not sure what it's gonna be yet. I was thinking of going on a vaguely super deformed anime route, with big shoulders and huge feet.

Hmm... Or maybe Tin Man from Oz...

initially didnt like it but once I really looked at it i was taken abck. thos a freaking awsome cant wait to see the paint job.

So, I'm working on #3 now, and have decided on the Armored Valkyrie, anime look.

I started with the TL Shoota, built from the standard combination of shootas from the Ork Boy kit. It looks pretty slick.


Then I moved on to the PK. I wanted to do something a little custom, so I took the standard Nob PK out of the Nob box, switched it from a lefty to a righty, and posed it out a bit. I don't like the stand nob box pose. It's very static. I also replaced the dual prongs with one big claw. I really like the giant can opener look, and now I have it. That was made with two pieces of 1m plasticard, glued together for thickness, and then cut to shape. I then took my dremel and carved down the blade portion on the inside.


Having got the easy stuff out of the way, I build up my now standard Meganob base:


And, after googling up some reference pictures from Robotech/Macross, I built a thin cardboard template and and the installed the nacels.



The open front will be filled with either missles, or more likely, missle covers with some orky hinge on 'em. The open portions underneath will be covered like big shoulder guards. Should be cool. Not sure what I'm doing with the feet yet. Tomorrow will tell.

Looks quite similar to the Tau crisis suit torso (no surprise really, as Tau is GW Anime) - I have a couple of spares of those, hadn't thought of using them for Meganobs, might try them out for my own conversions...

I think I've gone too far with these shoulders, but there's now going back now!