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I need to make some meganobz and some buggies, and i want to take alternative models, because meganobz are too expensive and the buggies are awful

For the meganobz i thought that black orks from age of sigmar are really good, they are cheaper and big enough

For the buggies i tought about the mechanicus kataphron battle servitor, using the base as a minikart and instead of the body i put an ork that drives it

Any suggestion? (I prefer use GW models for the conversion)

If you're going to add plasticard armour to orcs/orks to create meganobz, then you can use pretty much any nob/boss models. Black orcs are slightly smaller, I believe, but should do. Remember that not much of the orc/ork will be visible under all the mega armour anyway - you're almost using the original model as just an armature.

The really cheap approach would be to get a bunch of nob/boss heads and arms, and attach them to cheap boyz bodies which have been lengthened slightly with discs of plasticard, invisibly under their mega armour.


The battle servitors are great models (I'm converting some to mek gunz), but not very wide or long. You could widen them by inserting plasticard between the sides, but there's no obvious way to lengthen them as the track assemblies are one piece (per side). Unless you want to add an axle and wheels for a half-track look? The other problem is that the servitors aren't that cheap to start with.

If you can find some suitable driver/gunner figures and tyres, the cheap approach would be to build the rest out of plasticard girders and rods and whatever's in your bits box - war buggies are really just beach buggies with guns and almost no armour. I've also seen buggies converted from land speeders (with wheels attached) or cut-down trukks (leaving heaps of spare bits for other conversions - in fact you can turn 2 trukk kits into 3 buggies and still have heaps of leftovers) or even looted Tau Piranhas (with wheels attached).

Luciusletroll has a great tutorial for converting normal Nobz to MANZ:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/30/469636.page#4976972

Hope this helps!

 Cleatus wrote:
Luciusletroll has a great tutorial for converting normal Nobz to MANZ:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/30/469636.page#4976972

Hope this helps!

That help for sure man! But i think i need to improve my skills to obtain that results


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Clang wrote:
If you're going to add plasticard armour to orcs/orks to create meganobz, then you can use pretty much any nob/boss models. Black orcs are slightly smaller, I believe, but should do. Remember that not much of the orc/ork will be visible under all the mega armour anyway - you're almost using the original model as just an armature.

The really cheap approach would be to get a bunch of nob/boss heads and arms, and attach them to cheap boyz bodies which have been lengthened slightly with discs of plasticard, invisibly under their mega armour.


The battle servitors are great models (I'm converting some to mek gunz), but not very wide or long. You could widen them by inserting plasticard between the sides, but there's no obvious way to lengthen them as the track assemblies are one piece (per side). Unless you want to add an axle and wheels for a half-track look? The other problem is that the servitors aren't that cheap to start with.

If you can find some suitable driver/gunner figures and tyres, the cheap approach would be to build the rest out of plasticard girders and rods and whatever's in your bits box - war buggies are really just beach buggies with guns and almost no armour. I've also seen buggies converted from land speeders (with wheels attached) or cut-down trukks (leaving heaps of spare bits for other conversions - in fact you can turn 2 trukk kits into 3 buggies and still have heaps of leftovers) or even looted Tau Piranhas (with wheels attached).

The idea of 2 trukks for 3 buggies is really nice, i just have to see how build them.. there is any post that show how to built custom buggies?

Custom buggies:

1 Get your claws on sufficient wheels.

2 Build a chassis of appropriate size.

3 Build Axles for to hold the wheels.

4 Attach axles to chassis. Maybe use small round springs or several layers of (plasti)card to make leaf spring suspension. Take a look at old trucks, buggies and cars from real life inspiration.

5 Build an engine block (or loot from toy). If not confident about this, build an engine bay to hide where the engine should be, add a huge grill, air scoop, side vents, chunky hinges to pop the bonnet and other orky features.

6 Make a barrel for fuel, and smaller boxes or barrels to represent batteries, pneumatic fluid resevoires, etc. Use wires/pipes/straws to connect these to the engine bay/block / transmission / etc as appropriate.

7 make an exhaust manifold. Do you want this just coming straight out the side of the engine like old race cars? Will it be fed under the buggy and out the back? Perhaps spat up behind the gunner like an old truck?

8 make a driver's seat (sprue/(plasti)card/clay/whatever fits) and surround it in worky bits like foot pedals, levers, dials, wheels, etc. Alternatively create a cabin for the driver, obscuring the inside with mesh for the front window and port holes with iron bars for the side windows).

9 make a linkage for the driver's controls to the engine /front wheel steering if it would be visible and link the engine to the axles. Again look at real life pictures for inspiration

10 make a firing platform for the gunner. Traditionally for GW this would be open and behind the driver. Add a stand for the gun, maybe magnetise your weapon load outs. Include details such as spare ammo boxes/fuel barrels/etc as appropriate.

11 add orky details such as chunky armour plates, ramming plates, a few spikes (don't go full chaos on it), rivets.

Model railway stores will sell lots of different caliber/detailed sheets/rods/scaffold/etc that you can use for chassis/worky bits/armour plating. Toy/model vehicles can supply wheels/engines.

As you can see scratch building is labour intensive. Maybe pick up an evening/temping job and you'll get the money to buy a kit to convert, which will be much less effort.

If you are really trying to be cheap you can use card/corrugated card, but you'll need to seal it with varnish/layers of pva glue/filler/something to stop moisture getting in and warping the card. If you go big with structure/plates you'll need to reinforce with sprue/more card. You can make rods by rolling up thin paper and coating it in glue. Wheels can be scratch built, but cutting out clean circles and detailing them is not particularly easy.

nareik wrote:
Custom buggies:

1 Get your claws on sufficient wheels.

2 Build a chassis of appropriate size.

3 Build Axles for to hold the wheels.

4 Attach axles to chassis. Maybe use small round springs or several layers of (plasti)card to make leaf spring suspension. Take a look at old trucks, buggies and cars from real life inspiration.

5 Build an engine block (or loot from toy). If not confident about this, build an engine bay to hide where the engine should be, add a huge grill, air scoop, side vents, chunky hinges to pop the bonnet and other orky features.

6 Make a barrel for fuel, and smaller boxes or barrels to represent batteries, pneumatic fluid resevoires, etc. Use wires/pipes/straws to connect these to the engine bay/block / transmission / etc as appropriate.

7 make an exhaust manifold. Do you want this just coming straight out the side of the engine like old race cars? Will it be fed under the buggy and out the back? Perhaps spat up behind the gunner like an old truck?

8 make a driver's seat (sprue/(plasti)card/clay/whatever fits) and surround it in worky bits like foot pedals, levers, dials, wheels, etc. Alternatively create a cabin for the driver, obscuring the inside with mesh for the front window and port holes with iron bars for the side windows).

9 make a linkage for the driver's controls to the engine /front wheel steering if it would be visible and link the engine to the axles. Again look at real life pictures for inspiration

10 make a firing platform for the gunner. Traditionally for GW this would be open and behind the driver. Add a stand for the gun, maybe magnetise your weapon load outs. Include details such as spare ammo boxes/fuel barrels/etc as appropriate.

11 add orky details such as chunky armour plates, ramming plates, a few spikes (don't go full chaos on it), rivets.

Model railway stores will sell lots of different caliber/detailed sheets/rods/scaffold/etc that you can use for chassis/worky bits/armour plating. Toy/model vehicles can supply wheels/engines.

As you can see scratch building is labour intensive. Maybe pick up an evening/temping job and you'll get the money to buy a kit to convert, which will be much less effort.

If you are really trying to be cheap you can use card/corrugated card, but you'll need to seal it with varnish/layers of pva glue/filler/something to stop moisture getting in and warping the card. If you go big with structure/plates you'll need to reinforce with sprue/more card. You can make rods by rolling up thin paper and coating it in glue. Wheels can be scratch built, but cutting out clean circles and detailing them is not particularly easy.

Yea that's what i'm talking about with the buggies, really good and detailed, thanks very much! but the buggies aren' t a big problem, i wanted to be cheap more with the meganobz cause 6 meganobz are 98 euros, and if i use bitz and plasticard i can make 10 meganobz from boyz or black orks for 20/30 euros

For mega nobz, lots of the shoota barrels also make good exhaust stacks for the mega armour power plant. I won't bother detailing how I would do meganob conversions as there are already great guides linked above.

The main thing is making sure the armour looks like it is powered (so worky bits like pistons, gears, tubes and a power plant to make the worky bits work) and is heavily armoured.