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So, after lurking on the forums, making only the occasional comment here and there, i decided to actually write up a proper WIP log thing. I always love reading this style of post on the forums as they can give excellent inspiration sometimes. I am going to have to ask you all to bear with me somewhat, but if this all goes to plan i think it could be worth it... maybe.
so without further ado... here goes:


Iv'e always liked the idea of warbikes. the 4+ cover save, the S5 twin linked Dakka guns and the new 6th ed movement rules... not to mention the cool models.
The only problem is that i only have 3 of them. and they cost 40 bucks a box.

My current warbikers:



to get around this i decided to convert/scratchbuild some bikers.
i'll be working with
2x Ork Warbiker boxes
3x SM scout bikes (just the bare minimum bike and wheels from Hoard O Bitz.com)
4x Deffcopters that i got from a friend.
combined with the three i have already, i hope to end up with a total of 16 bikes. two squads of 8.

I've had the deffcopters for ages but the only other things that have arrived so far are the scout bikes, so i figured i'd cut the deffcopters into usable pieces and start on a scout bike/deffcopter conversion.

Deffcopter (From the Black Reach set):



Deffcopter after being cut up (i cut the other side to match... obviously)

I managed to break two scalpel blades whilst chopping up my deffcopters but in the end i came out with what should become 4 warbikers. (and a few cuts on my hands/fingers).


unadulterated Scout bike next to the one i cut up




The first step was to attach a front wheel to a the deffcopter arms, i had considered building one from scratch but since i would have to make a rear wheel from scratch i figured the front should come off a kit. Both to make it easier on me and to create a bit of continuity throughout the models. One thing that is important when doing heavy conversions like these is to spread the parts out throughout the entire squad/army. I plan on using the fenders, covers and other bitz from the warbikeers box on the converted bikes whilst scratch building fenders and covers for the standard warbiker bodies (i'll show pics for clarification when my parcel arrives.) this helps to tie the models together. Rather than having a half standard warbikes and half scratch-build, they will all look like modified warbikes.

once the front wheel was removed from the scout bike i attached it to the deffcopter body.
i'm not brilliantly happy with the way they flush up together, but it will have a face plate over the top so it doesn't really matter. also, a paint job does wonders to a conversion.


the rear wheel was always going to be the hard part. i didn't want to use two scout bike wheels on the one model (for the same reasons as i outlined above) but i found an old lego wheel lying in dad's toolbox yesterday. i kid you not. we were painting part of the verandah (that has been sitting there with just an undercoat for almost 8 years... but that's another story) and when i went to get a screwdriver to open the paint tin there it was. a little lego wheel. so i decided to use that for the bike's rear wheel. It already had a spot for an axle to go in, but it didn't go right through. so i drilled through the wheel and used the clear ink-holding-innards of a pen as an axle.
The next part was the hardest, but i managed to eventually get the wheel attached with it's little plasticard housing.

The wheel, axle and housing (yes, i use the insides of pens where possible rather than actual plasticard rods because i'm a stingy bastard)


unfortunately, my housings weren't big enough.

the plasticard is supposed to be covering the exhaust and flush with the curve of the wires

A pointlessly long explanation on how i finally managed to get them to fit can be found below (i typed it out before realising it was pointless but it seemed such a waste to just delete it)


here is a picture of the scratch built warbike next to a standard one. as you can see in the photo, mine is a fair bit shorter/less choppa-like. to fix this i'm going to elongate the forks.



After cutting the wheel off the forks and drilling into the handlebars and wheel i added two plasticard rods (not pen innards this time).


after gluing most of it together i now have an (almost) finished warbike.




Now the bike is essentially finished. all i need to do now is attach a few more aesthetic bits.
one thing to remember is that since i will be scratch building a couple of loaders and dakka guns i decided to save the standard ammo box for a different model. instead i will probably use some random IG ammo/power boxes i have lying around (i think they are from the sentinel kit... which i have never bought. i just seemed to acquire 4 of these little boxes)
An exhaust is also necessary, but i think i'll take this from the standard warbike kit, as the other deffcopter conversions will all use the deffcopter exhausts (probably) which are still attached . he will also get some spiky bits on the back wheel housing... oh, and he needs a head.

okay, so maybe it's not quite as finished as i'd like. but the rest of it is all relatively simple and easy.



anyway, so that's the first step. i'll update when my parcel of goodies arrives and i make a few more.
They will not all be this in-depth, but i will post pictures of the finished products and a few comments about what was hard, what i did to get a certain result and what i'd do differently next time so that others can learn from my mistakes. I do hope i haven't rambled too much, but i find it difficult to explain this kind of a process without flying of onto somewhat unwieldy tangent every once in a while.

The pictures don't appear to be working.

are you kidding me... that took forever to type up and the pictures don't work?

is it all of them that aren't working or just some that aren't coming up?

EDIT: i used the static link from my flikr account. i selected the photo in a medium size and then right clicked open photo in new tab... does this not work?
and if not, why can i view the photos when i read the thread?

You should use the Dakka gallery. It never fails.

Haha, i now am using the dakka gallery.

Hopefully things are working now (although i still can't tell, because they were working for me from the very beginning)

I can view the pictures fine from work at the moment...

Nice conversion but I have to critique it a little in that the chasis of the bike looks a little bit, well... Tiny, I think maybe if you left the motor in place behind the biker it might help stretch things out a little?

overall great job so far and I look forward to seeing the rest of the speed freak parade..

mullet_steve wrote:
I can view the pictures fine from work at the moment...

Nice conversion but I have to critique it a little in that the chasis of the bike looks a little bit, well... Tiny, I think maybe if you left the motor in place behind the biker it might help stretch things out a little?

overall great job so far and I look forward to seeing the rest of the speed freak parade..

yeah, i definitely agree with that. hopefuly the addition of a dakka gun will fix that. i've also stopped worrying about whether or not the wheel can move, i mean, they're all getting lovely snow bases so there's no point... well, by lovely i mean passable, but hey, gotta start somewhere right?



anyway. photo time


First bike:


as you can see i decided to change his front wheel. it didn't seem quite right... don't know why.
it feels a lot better now that he has a stock wheel.

Bike 2:


this one looks a tad odd from the side. the faceplate doesn't seem to fit too well with the deffcopta handlebars but it looks a lot better in person.
this is actually the wheel from the first bike. it seems to fit better with this one.

Bike 3:


For this one i used a lego wheel on the front and a scout marine wheel for the back. the chain from the wheel to the engine is from the deffcopta tail rotor. i had planned to keep these for my dakkajets (i will probably do a simillar thing with them as the bikes) but i accidentally broke one. so it got used here instead. I don't like the front wheel so much though. the lego wheels work much better for the rear wheel.

Bike 4:


See what i mean about working better at the back?
obviously i still have to put a plasticard cover over this wheel (like with bike 3) and probably green stuff the join between wheel and bike.

Bike 5:


This one is probably my favourite so far. he has the tracks from one of the warbikes at the back and a scout bike body. a bit of green stuff will fill the gaps and tidy up the bit where the forks meet the front axle. The wheel is a lego wheel... but /cut in half/
i'm a genius no? (i seriously can't believe i didn't do this for the other one

Bike 6:


This was a pretty simple conversion. just a scout bike with a warbike front. once it gets orky exhausts, glyffs and other whatnots i think this one will look pretty good.



also, on the topic of wheel sizes, this is a front on photo of lego vs standard vs half-lego:


the lego wheels also seem a lot orkier when cut in half... probably because the rubber cuts slightly jaggedly. personally, i like the effect.


EDITED for ineptitude regarding photos... again

so... not much in the way of progress, but i did get one more partially done





this one was definitely the most fun so far. the green stuffing isn't great but this is my first time using it, so i'm pretty happy.
and sorry about the harsh light... i should be getting a decent camera within the next week or two

other than this though, no progress on the warbikers. i've really lost interest atm. give me a week or two and i'll probably get back into them.
I did, however, get this built.


a (partially) orkified earthshaker artillery cannon for my deathskulls warband XD
i have two more cannons sitting on the shelf but i still need to make carriages for them.

Wow! Looks like a LOT of work went into them. Keep up the good work.