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First of all, a big thanks to everyone on dakka dakka. I've been living here reading many the blogs for the last year. Its been really inspirational stuff. This blog is hopefully going to give back some of what I've taken. My Ork army started last year as ebay junk. Three big boxes of half painted, assorted, broken, models and bitz. The aim was to get better at converting/scratch building as I hadn't really done much of it before. I don't have too many wip pictures, what I have is in my gallery http://www.dakkadakka.com/core/gallery-user.jsp?u=36892 I still have a lot of work to do, however, so plan to update as I move along from here. Ok here goes some pics





Rollbars drivers and gunners have just been added. Still need to add some steering wheels.
Drivers and gunners still a major wip in terms of painting so they are not yet glued in place.

Most of the trukks have been converted up broken classic trukks. I've used some of the old driver legs with black reach bodies and hacked and slashed the arms into new positions, a bit of greenstuff required still so I shouldn't really have put any paint on yet.

Planning to do lots more mud and rust on the trukks. I have tested using some orange chalk (ground up) on the current gw model trukk. But decided I'd be better off waiting and getting some proper weathering powders. The paint-scheme that was done on the forgeworld mega grot tank is pretty much the look I'm going for.
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Orks/GROT-MEGA-TANK.html

I have a plan and a little bit of wip done for making a mega-grot tank but it'll have to wait for the next update.

I really love your modeling and painting Wazzdig Dagga, I even voted in your gallery before you started this thread, but I forgot to log in before hand (doh!). Great work, and you built all this stuff from ebay junk! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your army! (subscribed)

These are great! I'm a firm believer that no Ork vehicle should look the same. You've definitely achieved that "gathered scraps" look. Keep it up!

Thanks for the nice comments. Here's the update as promised. Ok mega grot tank skeleton is complete.


I'm using this kit as the basis for the mega-grot tank, Scale wise its the same length as an IG Basilisk, no idea what size the FW mega grot tank is so i'm going to make mine with the approximate footprint of a stock battlewagon( Then I can always use it as a stand in BW when i'm done.) The parts are a bit more delicate than a gw kit but nothing too complicated about the build (much easier than building 1:72 scale matchbox and airfix kits). First up I built the track units and sawed the base in half with a junior hacksaw. Then grabbed some bits I thought might be useful
This is the first project I've bought proper plasticard for! I've only used plastic creditcard, cardboard and random pieces of gw vehicles. I'm finding the proper stuff easier to cut, score, carve, glue etc. I stuck the two halves back together spaced out and cut some plasticard strips for the top. I decided to use the top that comes with the kit an I'll modify it as I go, to look more scrap heapish. The strips were glued to the sides notches to in the top for the top to fit on I'm basically just building a solid shape here that I can work from.


Ok, well the other thing needed was the pointy prow/plough? the grot tank has. I cut two strips from a big yogurt pot for some nice curved plastic. Its soft not brittle so should be fine. Glued it at the back with hot melt glue, plenty used so its nice and solid.
The next step was to cut some big corners of the thickest plasticard sheet in my pack. More hot melt glue and the prow now has a nice 90 degree angle (The plasticard does glue with polycement but wierd scavenged plastics often don't). I left a bit of excess on the top triangle so I measured it against the hull and cut to size. I've glue it directly onto the track guards. The armoured skirting is a page binder measured and cut to fit. Its glued to the bottom of the track guards. I built the main turret minus gun. I'll add it later.

Well, that's all the progress so far but I'm pretty happy with the basic shape. I'm considering whether the main turret needs to be farther forward. The plan from here is to make lots of armour plates, and stick junk on until it looks scrappy enough.

More progress on the grot tank. Its all happening much quicker than I thought. The proper plasticard is sooo much easier to work with than junk.
I've a bit of work to do with the top as I'm not 100% happy with it yet. The bastion gun ports are supposed to be like side sponsons but I'm not really sure about them, I might rip them off. Well, they might be ok after further grotification.
The next step will be to add more scrap to the plough and the main turret.

I've done absolutely nothing to the back yet. It needs lots of exhausts to be like the forgeworld model. I've none in my bits box and I'm not confident about scratch building them so I might just go to a bits seller. I'm going to do the guns after I'm done with the rest. I'm thinking 2x TL rokkits, 2x grotzookas and 1x scorcha is a fairly mean payload.

Looks great Wazzdig Dagga, and thanks for including a SM in the photo to give an idea of scale. Should have no problem getting the bitz you need on ebay, also will look even cooler when you got a few grots running around the place.

Thanks Boys "R" Us. I haven't had much luck on ebay or in bits sellers looking for exhausts, but I've given myself a blister drilling holes in assorted plastic tubes.

In the meantime I've made some progress on painting my big mek. I just recently finished sticking bits on him (previously he'd been sitting in disgust in the bottom of a box for about 5 months). I'm hoping to get him finished soonish and have him as my first fully painted model. (edited to replace pics)

As you can see I decided to go a bit psychedelic and have the KFF purple. I painted Vmc salmon rose as a basecoat then some VMC violet red (almost identical to warlock purple) followed by liche purple squiggles coming from the bottom. Pink squiggles from the top, followed by white squiggles (I'm adding about half of water and glaze medium to the paint now). Mixed up a dark angels green glaze for the darker part and did more squiggling. Went back to the violet red and mixed that up as a glaze. More squiggling, I applied it over most of the pink while keeping most of the white highlights clean a little went to the edges of the dark areas to blend a little.
The skin needs a bit of work still as I want to deepen the shadows a bit more and probably strengthen the highlights too. The side effect to having the purple has made the blue look more powder/baby blue, than I'd like, but I think it will be ok after its dirtied up a bit.

Some pics before painting


I think he needs a fuel canister for his burna, so I'll have to stick one on.

Quick update: got a bit more painting done on the KFF mek. I need to touch up some details, and I think another highlight on the skin. But he's nearly done! He'll be the first model I've painted to completion in a while.

There's a couple more shots in the gallery. These latest pics should be a bit better because I finally got the macro setting to work on my camera. The other pics were just cropped in Paintshop pro.

Loving the scratchbuilt Grot tank.... consider the idea stolen

that purple on the mek is very cool!

I love the Mek. I agree with Sageheart, the purple is sweet.

Really digging the purple effects on the mek, nice job!

Thanks for the compliments, everyone. Hy hubby suggested I use the purple ( He drilled and magnetised 16 terminator arms while I painted it.)The purple has been a bit of a journey. I used to do it with layering and blending working from dark to light and it always ended up looking washed out instead of bright.

Here's some of the lootas in case anyone is wondering about the deathskulls part. I'm hoping to finish them off with some wires etc and then start painting them soon. (I did them about 2 or 3 months ago they've been in the gallery but these are better pics cos you can actually see what was chopped up.)



I probably won't have another update until at least the weekend as my two little boys (21mths and 3.5yrs) have caught a chesty cold, so I'll be a bit busy with them, (and probably not sleeping much).

Really nice Lootas them, and kudos to you for not using the boxset

Ok this is a little update, unfortunately the chesty colds are turning into chest infections so I'll probably not be posting a whole lot over the next week. I've done nothing on the mega grot tank. I finished of an Arwen model I had kicking around 'cos my mum complained that I wasn't painting anything pretty (no surprise after looking at that big meks ugly mug). I've done the Mek's base, probably a bit too much junk stuck on. I ground up some of my chalk pastels for the rust, applied it with a soft brush and have sprayed it with the W&N artist fixative for chalks.

You can see his feet there so he's pinned on already, despite the fact that I'm still planning to put a bit more paint on him (I've entered him in the leaders competition so really will have to finish). My pics today came out clearer so I got to see just how much more work he needs to be finished finished instead of "ah he'll do finished". I did a little bit more work on the truck drivers and threw a wash on them.

The chopped off feet are so the guy can actually fit in the not so spacious cab, can't be seen when he's in place.

@ Boyz 'R' Us I don't deserve as much kudos as you think, I actually bought two boxes of the new lootas, and built them first, and shock they got some paint on them too.
But yeah couldn't bear to have more lootas all the same had to convert more. The spare bits from the box did get stuck on some ebay boyz so I got the two mekboys and the eight burnas too.

Always great to see more Orks, especially Irish ones!!! Great painting and converting skills, I love the lightning on the KFF especially!

Great work. That Warboss is looking awesome - conversion and paint... AND base! The Bigmek is wild too. Wonderful conversions and painting.

Never mind those AWESOME trukks!

Thanks for the kind remarks. The black reach warboss to Big Mek with KFF conversion is finished!

More pics in the gallery. Hopefully I manage to paint some of the other models in this army to completion too. I've done some work on the grot tank too. I got a dreadnought exhaust and combined it with the straws I gave myself blisters on drilling holes.

I also changed the side sponsons to look a bit more boxy.
I have some mult-ipart Night goblins I'm thinking of converting up for grot crew. Not sure if this would be ok. I'm actually planning on getting sometime in the future the forgeworld grots as £2 a model seems a pretty reasonable price. I'm a bit worried about how fragile the resin might be though. I thinks its a bit brittle?

I got two evenings to paint since my last update so I have a few pics.
Well my hubby got me a forgeworld runt-bot and grot controller off ebay for valentines day. Having read a lot about how much work the resin is etc I was a bit apprehensive, but I reckon it was less work than a metal model, to clean, glue, etc. I have just been doing the basic colour so not a whole lot of exciting just yet, but here's a pic showing it to scale with a meganob and Ghazghkull. I was thinking of using him as a stand in meganob... hmm... I guess not as its more of a kan size.

and the back

For anyone who's interested the metal is black, then tinbitz+black mix, then boltgun with a bit of the mix, washed with black+brown. I layer it on with a quarter inch flat-head brush, alternating between the flat of the brush(to pick out raised detail) and the edge (for streaks on flat areas) Its really a time saving device for me as I get a pretty good effect without spending hours on it. I'll touch up the metal areas with some finer highlight once I'm done with the rest. Lots and lots of detail in this model to pick out.

I had to dig my meganobs out and start putting some more paint on them. The metal and blue I had done before, so checks and dags and flames, well I got it done on two of them. Need to touch up a few checks with the blue paint. One guy got a bit of a rust bath as a test when I was painting my big mek and I think I'll have to tone it down a bit. I'm going to do the same wash as I did on ghazzy and the runtbot to tone down the shine and then just apply the rusty wash to specific areas. (These guys were originally covered with 2mm thick gold paint when they came into my hands, They had several dettol baths). Lots of cableing etc I'm going to have to learn how to do those black and yellow striped wire that look so good. These guys are my testing ground for the runtbot.


Last thing is the Mek junka truck I built a while back. I'd been holding off on painting it as I'd decided I didn't want it the same blue as everything else. Well, I got a bunch of half price foundation paints from the local art and hobby store. The acclaimed- if you want to paint yellow use this colour- iyanden darksun amongst them. So the truck is now yellow and possibly starting to look like the toy tractor it was built from again. I'll really have to tone it down with rust and mud. I was thinking of painting some crazy blue flames but perhaps it would be a bit bright. Any ideas?

I am going to go do some more work on these models now so I have more to show than basecoats!

Nice work on the lootas and the grot tank, oh by the way, fi you were to run the grot tank in a game how would you run it? as a stand in BW or are there some achual rules for it i am missing out on!

Awesome work - can't believe I hadn't come across it before! Came for the Ghaz pose (yes - that's what I'm after) but stayed for the KFF Mek (I want to do the same effect, but in blues... Just started my second try). Keep it up!

Small update, haven't done very much as I've been busy watching the elections here with bated breath. I've been waiting for this to happen since I first had the vote, so goodbye and good riddance to FF.
I've done some blue flames on the junka truck, I'm unsure about putting them on the side armour plates over the back wheels or not- any opinions?. I'm thinking I'll highlight them up too.

@arakasi: reply in your blog.
@a small waagh: the grot tank rules are available to download from the forgeworld website. So I'll probably be able to use them in a game or two but otherwise I will use it as a stand in battlewagon It has a similar enough length and height. The people here are not usually too fussy, and no local GW stores.
Junka truck just gets used a BW too, it has rules in Imperial armour 8 but I have yet to purchase the book.

Your conversions are fantastic! The grot tank especially has a very ramshackle look to it, brilliant.
The hot rod flames on the truck are very nicely done, and I like the tesla ball effect on the kff. Very cool.
Keep up the good work!

Ahh thank you for the rule update, and to the flames above the wheels, i think that you should put the blue flames there but only do a few and dont go overkill on them

The Mega Orks mob look like they're gonna turn out great, fantastic job on the Mek Junka Truck too. I'm really diggin' the overall appearance your army (any chance of a group shot?), and I don't blame you for using the Lootas boxset, they're great looking models too

These are so cool. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of your army.

Thanks for all the nice words. I haven't got any more pics just yet. I have been going cross-eyed painting checks and still have more to do!
I could try for a group shot if the weather is good on the weekend 'cos my husband can mind my boys. My lighting set-up is a bit limited (overhead halogen and two desk lamps) so I need daylight which means someone has to keep hold of the kids while I unpack all the models. My almost two year old likes to pick up orks and "walk" them along (that is bash them up and down) shouting monkey monkey monkey! So that is to be avoided if possible.

Hello All. Big update gap as due to family reasons I have just not had a whole heap of free time in the last few weeks. Hopefully more to come soon. I have added some rokkits to the mega grot tank. Here it is in the sunshine!


You can see a few little grots there in the pic too. I'm actually swarming with the little guys as I managed to get a bunch of the gorkamorka ones of ebay and then my hubby got me the forgeworld grots and grot tanks too. The meganobs got some wires painted before the hobby hiatus but I reckon I've run out of steam for finishing them at the moment and there's little grot tank tanks calling for paint. I'll get back to them again at some stage. Anyway hopefully I'll have more pics (of something soon).

The Grot tank is coming together wonderfully.

And you have my undying envy for having some Grot Tanks, those little things are awesome

Man there are so many awesome conversions that you have done so far. I dabble in simple conversions but yours are up there with Monkeytroll, Arakasi and Wib. I always check their threads for ideas. But I just added you to the list.