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It's invariably the case that the new ork Spearhead makes me immediately drop whatever else I'm working on in favor of some new, impulsive ideas. Anyone who has seen the way I work knows I have no problems jumping from one project to another!

So, when it came to playing with the new Ork Trukk sprue, I couldn't help myself. I've started putting this bad boy together, and it is an awesome kit - you could blindfold yourself and still put together an impressive looking vehicle with all the parts that come on it. Still, despite all the impressive parts, there's still an element of standarization in the design possibilites. You can swap front plates around, change which side the driver is on, that sort of thing with relative ease, but you still end up with a fairly similar (though awesome) design.

I, of course, never leave well enough alone. It's my job to tinker on things that don't need tinkering with! I wasn't going to be happy just assembling the new trukk kit - I needed to do some converting to make it unique. I sat down and eyeballed the kit for a while and decided on a few simple changes, the first and foremost of which would be to replace the back two tires on either side with treads for a 'halftrack' appearance that I think is rather orky.

I dug through my bits and decided that the tracks off a rhino weren't going to cut it this time - too thin, and the tires on the new kit are beefy, so they need something similar to match. I found the answer in a Tamiya Track and Wheel Kit that my local hobby store carried. This set is a must for anyone looking to spruce up some ork vehicles - I even used them on my Battlewagon scratchbuild.

I've blabbed enough - I'll get to some of the pictures.



Here is a look at the trukk-so-far. There's a lot of extra stuff yet to add, but it should give you an idea of what I'm going for with this. I actually have a couple of parts from the old trukk kits that I'm trying to mix and match in - the tires that I save from this project will go towards turning the old trukk chassis, which are smaller, into buggies. The lighter grey plate between the driver's area and the crew is one of the old trukk kit parts. Once I figure out a nice glyph or icon to put on that plate's center, I think it'll look a lot better.

Here's the vehicle from the sides:











That last picture shows the underside of the vehicle, and the Legos I used to build it! Why Lego, you ask? It just so happens that they are one of the easiest ways to control the spacing and positioning of the trakk wheels, making it a lot simpler to get the treads to line up properly. One of the biggest problems I had with my Battlewagon was making the treads sit evenly with eachother - this is my solution to that dilemma.

Obviously, the legos will be covered up and properly concealed once I'm done. There's also the issue of the trakks themselves - they look somewhat 'empty' or 'bare' right now, but I have plans to armor the tread assemblies so that only the bottom half of the wheels and treads are going to be visible. I might also put some more worky bits between the two wheels, depending on what I find as I sift through my bits boxes.

The weapons on the trukk haven't been decided yet. Same goes for the wargear - part of me wants to put a wrecking ball and boarding planks on this, but I'm not sure what I like yet. Whatever I add will probably be magnetized and removable, in any case.

There's still also the issue of headlights, which I hope to add with LEDs once I figure out where I want to put them and the switch to control them. I can hide the batteries pretty easily underneath the body of the trukk bed between the tracks - I can probably put the switch under there, too, actually.

More to come when I have time!

Looks great! I am thinking I might sacrifice some of my old Legos in the name of the Emperor! (Or for a super heavy walker... haven't decided.)

Still, finish a project... please?

nice concept, but to me, Lego looks too Lego-ish. I love the idea of a half-track trukk though, might check how the old wartrakk tracks look on the new trukk (they'd need to be thickened somehow), or of course Russ/Chimera or rhino or Land Raider tracks

nice. not as mind-blowing as your usual stuff, but still, very interesting. I was thinking of putting the big gun's steel wheels on a truck for a 'Ard boy truck, but maybe i have a few spare tracks liying around too.

I just hammered this out fairly quickly, but does this sort of idea look good? The track guards?



I think it would let me add some interesting armor plating, but I'm concerned that I might be covering too much of the track and wheel up with it.

I think the track guards are a bit too low. It's nice to see the detail on the tracks and wheels you've added. Maybe trim it up so it's only covering half the tracks?

I figured I'd bang out the other track guard just to get an idea of how the whole thing might look, and I raised up the bottom of the skirt on my earlier test one. I should mention it's fairly obvious if I stick with them they won't be kept nearly as clean or plain as they are now - there would be an additional thin layer of armor applied unevenly over this one to add details and give it that properly bolted-together look. I don't know if it's worth the trouble, though.









This thing is getting mixed reactions at the other forums I post at, too, so I'm trying to figure out if it's anything of an improvement over the unguarded track design.



While I dwell on this, I guess I'll work on the underside - adding in worky bits and concealing the fact that the track chassis is built on lego. I snipped the spikes off the front wheels so it would sit flush with the ground.

I don't hate the track guard idea, but they're still too low, I think their lower edges should be higher than the track wheel centres, i.e. chop off about the lowest third. And surely the orks would use the track guard tops as extra standing room? - so move the 'walls' of the truck top out a bit - that will also help the trukk look less like the standard kit (and might even hold 12 boyz, gasp!)

Personally I like the idea of the track guards, makes it seem kind of like a troop transport instead of ye olde tractor, though it depends on what you're getting at with your Orks. Some detailing will definitely flesh out the idea, and I agree with raising the track guards a little bit so they don't conceal quite as much.

Well, I think you need to have the trackguards in a similar "design" as the trukk overall look, for the guards to look like they "belong". I'd go with partial trackguards, parts missing, sections of track visible etc, to give it that ramshackle look. Your trackguards are too solidly built.

Cheers

Those tracks are dead sexy...Don't you dare cover them up! If you do, you might as well just use wheels.

ender502

Only criminals cover their tracks.

I've been fumbling around with the track idea for a little bit, but I think I made some positive headway on it last night. I wanted to fill the space between the two wheels in on other side, so I figured some sort of track bracing mechanism that goes into the middle was required.

I've also been messing around with the idea of an open track guard which I think looks passable, but I can't make up my mind. On one hand, it gives the orks aplace to stand, but on the other I don't know if the general shape meshes all that well with the trukk. I may re-make the track guards by simply gluing somewhat irregular pieces of plasticard together in the same sort of shape, to see if that does any good for how it looks in my head. I can easily picture diamond plating and glyphs riveted to the top of it, though. It's fairly simple-looking right now, but I'd remind you guys that it's still at a relatively early stage.







I've yet to properly ork up the track wheels, which I will most certainly do with rivets and the likes. I'm actually sort've liking the idea of leaving the engine exposed up front, but I don't know why - perhaps because I'm not too fond of the front plates that the standard trukk kit comes with. I've also still got the addition of headlights in mind for this model, and I'm working on figuring out how to modularize weapons into that little cupola-esque gunner spot.

I dig the newest design the most, meself. You've got me interested in putting those monster tires on the old trukks and mashing up some buggies though ...

- Salvage

Every time I think I like the track guards I look at the picture of the Trukk without them and I realize that it just looks so much more Orky to not have any Track Guards.


In other words, I vote for no Track Guards.

I agree with salvage, the newest design is the best.

Spent most of the day out and about, and saw Sweeny Todd, but in the mean time I managed to make some proper track guards for this thing, rivets and all. There's a few nice spots ripe for the addition of glyphs, but that'll come later once I figure out what I want to put where.









As an aside, I find this relatively hard to photograph - for some reason, the white just gets completely washed out no matter what sort of lighting I have in place, making the guards just look like white blobs. It'll photograph better tomorrow once the sun's up again, I guess.

Anyway, there's more to do still, but I thought I'd keep this rolling.

i like the latest track guards the best. now you just need to make sure the track wheels themselves look a little more orky.

Wtf? How you get the pattern on the plastic card? I mean in the third picture. Or playing my eyes tricks on me.

Symbio Joe wrote:Wtf? How you get the pattern on the plastic card? I mean in the third picture. Or playing my eyes tricks on me.

Plasticard comes in a lot of different patterns. Hobby Stores have it for flooring in doll houses and Model Train shops will have the stuff in TONS of different patterns, I'm sure that's all that is ^_^. It looks thin enough to be the patterned stuff I've seen.

Another thumbs up on the latest iteration of the track guards. You've hit all the spots I was going to point out in earlier versions with this one (see: don't cover the sides, and don't go as far down the front or back). I do suggest you cut the rims from the front of the small road wheels, they seem a bit..off the way they are right now. And hubs on the larger ones would probably look good as well. Just some thoughts.

After a morning of hanging out with other gamers, I made it home and managed to get a bit of time in to work on this. I asked my buddy Brian about what might be the best way to mount headlights onto the trukk, and after a bit of discussion we decided I might want to mount them atop wheel guards on the front tires. That was all well and good, but that required I make wheel guards for the front tires, and there wasn't really any spot on the model around the engine I could anchor it to, so he was nice enough to provide me with an idea.

Seemed workable, so I set about making it. Sketches always help my building process, anyway!





I now have a nice big spot on the top of the wheel guard to mount a headlight! I've already sorted out a lot of the wiring, but I need to make an enclosure for it yet.

I've only made the forward guard on one side so far - I managed to get one of my nice, new, shiny xacto knives stuck in my thumb deeper than usual in a bit of a friendly fire incident, so I'm taking a break for a little while until it decides to stop bleeding. I still want to leave the engine open and exposed because it seems like the right thing to do.

I think I might hide the switch for the headlights on the underneath of the vehicle so that it can't possibly be accidentally turned on during transport and burn out the LEDs or batteries.

I also definitely plan on riveting up and decorating those back orange wheels, so don't you worry.

Maybe stick a big orked-up lump of armour plate between the track wheel hubs? They look too Imperial with full guards, but too exposed without anything.

yup, I'm liking those full-length wheelguards, looks a lot more 'natural'. But I still think the trukk rear 'side walls' need to be moved outwards a little to match the increased width of the trukk rear

It was a bit tricky to do with my left hand (I'm right handed), but I managed to make the other front track guard despite my carved up thumb.







Headlights will be added atop the front wheel guards tomorrow. I considered putting them up on the roll bar behind the driver, but I don't think I'd be happy with how that would look.

Just offhand, I'm not sure if I want to put the stock front plate on the trukk or not. I'm on the fence about it, because it helps make the guards blend in better but it's also kind've ugly and I like the engine exposed.



Maybe just some sort of front bumper. I don't know.

Bit of an interesting question for you guys.

I have dug through my LED supplies and I've come up with two choices - a large yellow LED, or a smaller red one.



What do you guys think works best? I'm leaning towards the yellow one simply because I'm not sure I like the idea of red headlights. Whichever gets picked will have a small enclosure built around the threaded area to conceal it properly and attach it to the base.

Both? ^_^ One for turn signals >.>...

wow, that looks great ein (as usual )

I thing the front armor doesn't fit in there right., maybe something like a covered up engine block and you can oly see the upper part and the front troeugh a hole of some sort.

edit: turnsignals on a n ork vehicle, that would be hillarious. and I thing that orky front headlight should be at least as big as the new guard searchlight.

I don't think this looks all that bad.







The lights are big, but I think they fit the model. I've not wired them in, though, or decorated the light casings yet - I want to put rivets around the white plastic part. I think leaving the wiring leads for the LEDs exposed in the back might not be all that bad.

The bumper I put on the front there is just a placeholder. Maybe. I think. I could just keep it and put big orky teeth on it pointing up, maybe add to the image of a 'face' on the front, but I don't know.

The front end of this thing is looking a lot better after a bit more work today, and I hope you guys agree!

I took the LEDs I wanted and decorated them up with dags and rivets, then secured them to the top of the wheel guards. The nice thing is that the way they are set up right now, I can actually change the LEDs in the event they ever burn out, as they're simply held in the assembly with a rubber gasket.

The front end needed some love badly, so I started adding orky teeth to the spiked ram front. It wasn't much later till I realized I didn't like the look of just the bottom row of teeth, so I did my best to come up with a grill to protect the engine and add a top row of teeth.

Pictures!









The LEDs aren't live yet, as I'm still working on how I want to wire the underside together.

I like the way it looks all put together, but I'm starting to regret actually assembling some parts of it because painting this will be mostly impossible. It would have been really smart of me to leave bits like the engine out, but it's already securely glued down and into the frame. Stuff like the front grill as well, I can tell, will be a source of pain if I ever decide to pick up a brush for this thing. Same goes for the track undersides and the side walls on the rear of the truck.

Still, no sense worrying about it for now. Honestly, when do I paint anyway?

I hope to get the wiring all set soon.. maybe even later tonight, before I move on to the driver area. I will certainly leave the driver out until later painting, for what it's worth.

Just a little addendum:



Thought the eyebrows were necessary.