The upcoming release of the new ork codex and the release of Codex Apocalypse has renewed my interest in orks and 40k in general.
After a 3 year break from painting any greenskins I've decided to start back up by kitbashing a new armored vehicle for my greenskins.
I started this project with an Eastern Express SU-152 I had in the basement and a stack of plasticard.
Somewhere along the line I decided that the vehicle would be end up being usable a looted Imperial vehicle in a standard ork list.
The two choices that seemed obvious were either a looted, armored - topped basilisk (without indirect fire capability) for use as a tank destroyer, or a looted demolisher for use as an assault gun.
I then added a plasticard superstructure to the rear of the tank. I'm unsure right now if this is a crew-compartment, engine room, or gun deck.
It seems awkward and tall at the moment, but I'm hoping to break up the lines by adding stuff to the sides and front.
I'll need to put tracks on it at some point. The plastic tracks that came with the Su-152 kit are kind of crummy. This is really just a practice/test model so I'll probably go ahead and use them.
At this point I'm a little stuck as to what to use for a barrel and how long it should be.
I then ventured into Petsmart and discovered a cheap plastic uptake tube for a fish tank filter that looked appropriate.
Consultations with a fellow Big-Mek (Keith Stuckmeyer), resulted in the decision to go with a shorter length barrel and hence an assault gun / looted demolisher. Keith also supplied a nice door which will look good on the rear of the tank.
Now I'll need bits to represent two kustom blastas (plasma cannons) and a big shoota (heavy bolter).
More updates soon.
During the last week I beefed up the front glacis plate and mounted the main gun. The aquarium tube worked out well, it was easy to cut with a razor saw and seems to be just about the right size to represent an ork weapon.
The glacis plate still needs some rivets and other details.
I added a cupola to the front of the rear structure to break up some of the boxy shape and to house a big shoota (representing a heavy bolter).
Next up will be a pair of sponson mounted mega-blastas. I'm thinking they will be similar to what beakies use on their land-raiders.
I’ve added the sponsons. The kustom mega-blastas are generic enough looking that they can reasonably be proxied for either multi-meltas or plasma cannons. I plan on adding some cabling running from each gun to the small round bit on the lower right-hand side of the rear of the tank. Both guns are mounted so that they swivel through the tank’s side arc, like a beakie land-raider’s lascannons.
The small round bit on the lower right-hand side is where the blasta power cables will enter the tank.
