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Hello,

After watching the amazing film Ork Max: Fury Waaagh!, it has become a mission now for me to convert some rad cars to be so chrome, and so shiny; so that Gork and Mork will witness my glorious ride!

Overall, I want to convert some cars to warbuggies but I haven't a good idea what scale of car to use. I know military scale can vary quite a bit, (a 1/72 sherman or a 1:35 m113 would fit), but the few tutorials or scales I found online only compare between 40k and military. Civilian cars being much smaller than your average AFV; I'm at a loss for scale.

I've found that 1/43 or 1/48 scale models and buildings look best next to GW stuff.

Typically for vehicles you want to go around 1/35 to 1/48, 1/35 being on the "too large" side and 1/48 being a touch to small.

However in the context of cars, I think 1/35 or bigger is better for Orks, otherwise the wheels will look too small and in general the vehicle will look too small for an Ork to fit in the driver's seat.

You can even go down to 1:25, which will give you nice sized wheels and Orky sized driver's seat, but the overall vehicle might be a bit too large, so you could chop the chassis to make it have a smaller footprint.

But it all depends on the specific vehicle I think. Vehicles that are large to begin with (trucks and whatnot) you can use a smaller scale like 1/48, smaller vehicles things like cars you probably want to go much larger scales. Here's someone who has pictures of vehicles of various scales next to 28mm humans (remembering Orks are going to be bulkier again).

http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/28mm-on-cheap-sci-fi-bikers-and-post.html

Yeah, 1:48 would be my first choice, but if you see a cheap 1:35 or 1:32 vehicle and are happy to chop it up, go for it. Remember that buggies are very small vehicles, only jeep-sized.

Unless you only ever play casual games, I recommend you try to roughly match the GW buggy dimensions (around 10cm long, 6 cm wide) to avoid arguments about 'unfair' modelling.

 Clang wrote:
Unless you only ever play casual games, I recommend you try to roughly match the GW buggy dimensions (around 10cm long, 6 cm wide) to avoid arguments about 'unfair' modelling.

You usually have to compromise on the dimensions because no real cars are close (I have 70mm long and 55mm wide written down for the official buggy, I don't have it on hand to check but that's what I wrote down when I was making my conversion).

You'll struggle to find vehicles that are that wide and short AND look like an Ork could actually fit in the driver's seat.

It's one of those times I think you have to allow a bit of leeway and just pick what looks cool rather than trying to match GW's model.

I just found and remeasured my fairly standard model, and yeah, 5.5cm wide (not including wheel spikes) and 8cm long (including front armour shield but not any spikes etc). And around 5cm high including exhaust pipes, weapon and gunner

I agree that few real-world vehicle have those dimensions - but since a Mad Max style army will by definition be full of conversions, I still think it's worth trying to roughly match the standard dimensions - I've seen so many games ruined by arguments over 'unfair' modelling :(

I'm mostly going to focus on the smaller buggies seen in the mad max movie I'm trying to make for the Orks. The smaller cars in 1:32 should be okay, as one if s V8 VW Beetle and a 32 Deuce Coup. With conversion work and the cutting that'd have to be done to make it 'Orky' the dimensions should be close.

Sidebar: So glad I quit 40k. The obsession with size just makes me roll my eyes every time. It's this environment of tournament lawyer nazis who have become obsessed over it. Back in 2nd ed when I started the game no one cared too much & no one yelled MFA at each other over conversions.

On topic:
Steer way clear of 1/35 or larger for this. GW crew will be large for a 1/43 Beetle but if you accept that you likely won't be able to seat them side by side you're good. Orks are huge for this so maybe move the engine into the front & chop the roof, put a cage in its place & then use that to pintle mount your weapon.

 Red_Starrise wrote:
Sidebar: So glad I quit 40k. The obsession with size just makes me roll my eyes every time. It's this environment of tournament lawyer nazis who have become obsessed over it. Back in 2nd ed when I started the game no one cared too much & no one yelled MFA at each other over conversions.

On topic:
Steer way clear of 1/35 or larger for this. GW crew will be large for a 1/43 Beetle but if you accept that you likely won't be able to seat them side by side you're good. Orks are huge for this so maybe move the engine into the front & chop the roof, put a cage in its place & then use that to pintle mount your weapon.

A 1/43 VW Beetle would only be 36mm wide, I think that's way too narrow IMO given an Ork's shoulder width is in the region of 20-25mm. And the wheels will also look way too small.

I think you're better off going bigger and chopping it rather than going small and having to replace the seats and wheels and widen it. But then it depends what effect you're going for I guess.

Die cast cars and trucks are a great starting point for conversions and they're quite plentful. For most 28mm gaming I use, but in many cases 1/40 or bigger might be best for orks. A Dremel is best for cutting these up, but you can do good things with a thick pair of wire cutters and a file works too. I think I did the bug below without the dremel.

The Kinsmart brand is easy to find online and often in drug stores. and they makes a number of cars in 1/32 for around 8 bucks each. It sounds big, but when you're making an ork vehicle it should be perfect. I took one, cut off the top and slapped on a set of tires from one of those truck board-books that target often sells for a buck. As far as a comparison, the figs next to it are solidly 28mm to the-eye.


Here's a Kinsmart 1/32 chevy pickup


They're both too big for 28mm humans (I've since sold the truck because of this), but if for orky constructions they're pretty good.

You can see more pics here:
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2012/03/28mm-on-cheap-sci-fi-bikers-and-post.html

Some 1/43 vehicles might work, especially if you're using larger cars or trucks.
Here's a 1/43 camaro (modded), crown vic (also by kinsmart) and Toyota SUV (raised).

And a 1/48 tanker truck converted from a "New Ray" brand toy.