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So I have been meaning to throw up a little tutorial for people that want to make some deffrollas but don't want to fork out the what? $25-30 each?

Here is a list of tools and material you'll need:
Plastic spice jars, 2 for each rolla (get some at a dollar store)
Thick plastic clothes hanger (again, dollar store)
Green stuff
Bits of spare sprue
An empty 2L bottle of pop (no name brands with just a flat outside will be needed, no weird designs or curves like on the coke bottle)
Plastic cement, contact cement, what have you.
Something that can easily and straightly cut a thick plastic coat hanger (I'm a plumber, I have mini copper cutters and they make this an effortless job. you can either pick some cheap ones up at a hardware store for $10 or find something in your garage, or dad's garage that will work. doing it with a knife is possible but hard, and slightly dangerous)
Magnets (optional but recommended to answer those in game problems having a rolla glued to the front of your wagon causes)
Knife, hopefully an exacto, not a steak knife.
A straight edge (ruler, level, straight edged metal bar...)

Now, I did not take any pics of the spice jars I used before I cut them up so this is just a quick paint example:
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Basically you need something with a hub along the bottom and enough straight cylindrical plastic right after that hub to make it half way across the front of a battle wagon.

Next you need to cut those plastic spice containers to fit in front of your wagon. This does not have to be an exact thing by any stretch, in fact you don't want the 2 halves to be touching, you want some space to adjust the width, the gap between the 2 containers will be covered later with that 2L bottle.

So put the bottom hub approximately lined up with the hub were the ram/deffrolla usually slots into and mark just shy of half way, pic to explain:
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Note: this spice jar is not the one I used, I just forgot to take pics of me doing this process, also note the angle of the camera is off and it doesn't look lined up but it is, the camera is too far right...

So you should now have 2 bottom pieces of plastic spice jars.

Next step is to set the length of the bars that will be attaching the rolla to the wagon (made from the coat hangers). This easiest way to do this is only explainable in a pic so here it is:


Notes: this is not the spice jar I used, just no pics, that is also a pen I am holding and is too weedy to be a proper bar but the process is the same.
If you look at my index finger it is what I am using to hold the place of were I want to cut, when I lift the bar away from the wagon I leave my index finger were it is and mark this spot, then cut it.
For the other bar just use the one you just made to mark and cut the new one.


Now, you need something that is going to cover that gap between your jars, so cut open a 2L bottle and get that center piece to use, pics :





Now you want to make at least 1 side straight, I'm sure you didn't cut straight in a circular motion so straighten an edge.

Because this plastic is hard to mark I just use a ruler with my knife, note that because I had to hold the camera I didn't have my other hand on the ruler or this shot:


Now that you have straightened an edge you can get the plastic to the right size to fit the spice jars, I couldn't get a pic of me doing it so this is a quick paint example:


Note: you need the put the outer edge of the jars lined up with the hub on the wagon for the rams, then you need to fit the plastic to the INSIDES of the hubs along the outer edge of the jars so that it looks all like one piece between the hubs (look at the "finished" pics to see what I mean)

Mark and cut the other edge to fit (maybe mark with a sharpie, I did it by eye but I have a good one)

Now that you have the 2 pieces of jars and the piece of plastic to fit between them (I hope you cleaned it!) you can glue it together to make the main "barrel" of the rolla.
I suggest that you preroll the piece of plastic in the direction it should already have a curve too, you want it to naturally pull inwards instead of expand off the pieces of jar. This way when you glue it and wrap it around it will want to stay wrapped instead of unwrap. It should only wrap around the jars once so cut it to length.

Here is a pic of it glued, if you look close you can see that the jars are pretty far apart, like I said you just adjust the length with the 2L plastic:


Note: you'll notice this already has the "bars" attached, ignore them

Now you will want to get those "bars" attached, for this you need green stuff.
I took some green stuff, mixed it yhadda yhadda, then I rolled them into cylinders with flat tops and bottoms. Place the cylinder in the middle of the "hub" of the jar, The cylinders need to rise above the outside of the hub so that when you push the bar into it it wraps around it (see pic). Then dab some glue inline with were your bar will cross (again see the pic) Then press the bar into the greenstuff and the glue, make sure you keep the edge that will be made from wrapping the 2L plastic in a spot that will hide it.

Pic after it cured:


Note: Now it may seen weird that I made the bar reach the front of the rolla and glued it to it. The reason is purely for strength and integrity. You can choose to make the bar only reach the middle so that it is only contacting the barrel on 2 points, I just wanted these to last, and I don't think it looks too bad.

To make sure the bars are inline I placed the barrel on my table and let the bars lie on a book creating even pressure on both of them (this pic is an example of what I did, represented with a finished one)


After putting both the bars on and letting them dry you could just glue it to the wagon. But why not magnatize?

Now I wanted a clean look so I notched out a little space to fit the magnet into:


And were else would the magnet on the wagon go?


Last step is too cut up little bits of sprue and use them as spikes for the rolla which you can see clearly in the "finished" pics. I suggest a minimalist approach to this otherwise it'll take forever.


Straight forward and done. From here you could use some plasticard and add some stuff and make it look less "plain" but I like the plain look.

Now just paint


And here is what they look like on the wagons, and this process can be used on non standard wagons (plug of my new built landraider conversion)

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm,

more spikes! lol nice tut though...might have to borrow this sometime =)

awesome! i've been trying to figure out how to make some. Much appreciated!

I supose you could make a biger one of these and make one of those goff rock 'n' roller stompas.

seems like alot of work when you can just buy them from GW for $13

Farseer Jenkins wrote:seems like alot of work when you can just buy them from GW for $13

There is the reason why this is made. For those who DIY projects at home, inexpensively.

Personally, I think it's brilliant!

$13 might not be too bad, but it sticks to my craw to fork it over to attach it to a $45 (or whatever they run nowadays) vehicle.

Besides, you need to admire the ingenuity and craftsmanship of it!

nice recycling process you have there. A+ in my book.

I used a toilet paper roll, and some plasticard for the one i built for a friend. took the roll and used a sharpie pen to mark the outside of the roll onto the plasticard then drew in sawteeth, cut it out and then traced it again. these two then became the outer edges of the rolla. traced the paper roll again onto the plasticard, drew in sawteeth, and cut it out, but this time i also removed the inside of the plasticard so that now i had a ring, traced this a few more times, and cut them out. slid the rings onto the paper roll and using strips of cardboard glued them to the roll, then doing the same glued on the solid outer edges. using plasticard thick flat strips i then made iron bars for the deff rolla. using a plasticard tube cut to length run through the center of the paper roll tube and out through the drilled holes allowed me to attach the tube to bars using flush head screws. glue the screw heads to the plasticard bars and then insert them into the tubing.

the end product was a deff rolla that looked like it was made from giant circular saw blades and it actually rolls. Points wise, i give yours two dakka , 1 for creativity, and the 2nd because no matter how you look at it yours is cheaper than the one i made. I'm going to have to "LOOT" this for the next one i make.

Quick note on putting the 2L plastic on the spice jars. If you're having a lot of difficulty rolling it enough to 'tighten' onto the jars, try unrolling it a little, and putting it on the inside of the jars. Allow a little overlap, then you can just dab some liquidy glue into the joints and let cavitation take it from there.

needs more spikes but its good

Farseer Jenkins wrote:seems like alot of work when you can just buy them from GW for $13

They may be $13 in America but they are like $26 here in Canada, no way am I paying $26 for a upgrade for a ork vehicle, just not gonna happen. I probably wouldn't pay $13 either.

Thanks for all the reply s I'm glad you guys like them, a note on the amount of spikes: I like a minimal approach, thats just me, you can add as many spikes as you want.

Happy converting!

Looks a little clean atm, add riveted plasticard plates?

or you can use peeper shackers and green stuff some spikes/ cut up swords on them and prime them

winnertakesall wrote:Looks a little clean atm, add riveted plasticard plates?

I was thinking about maybe adding some little like plasticard boxes were the hinge that connects to the battle wagon is. You know, to bulk it up a bit, that is the only thing that looks too plain to me.

I just don't know when I'll get around to it though now that I'm back at work the free time has been drastically cut and I mean it's summer, or at least warm, time to get outside.

it needs more spikes other than that its great

Must Do Now. Except all of my supplies are at home and not here at school. Silly teaching all day.