Der Red Orktober – Ork Invasion Part 8

Wow, just over a year since I did a post on my Albino Ork Army called Da Blud Lettas. Funny how that can happen but not surprising with me as I have, to date, 1.2 billion projects on the go.

I decided to add a “Pirate” unit to the Albino Horde as I kinda, sorta fell in love with the Flash Gitz (Pirate Orks) from Games Workshop recently. I don’t know why they never appealed to me before? I love pirates and I love Orks so it only seems natural that the two entities should meet and tick my box.

Naturally, as is the IRO way, I didn’t just want to build and paint them… hmmmm… they needed something else……. hmmm?????

I KNOW…

Every Pirate needs a ship soooooo…….

My Ork Pirates needed a “Land Ship.”

I decided to combine an Ork Battle Wagon with the Gloomtide shipwreck terrain from games Workshop  I had.

The original plan for the shipwreck terrain was to make it NOT a shipwreck, as in rebuild into a proper sailing ship BUT then… well… Pirate Orks happened so yeah… hahaha.

Here was my blueprint haha

Here is the final built result of the two combined kitsverage mechanical engineering skills haha. Oh and be warned there’s a lot of pix.

Der Red Orktober

The Bow

The Stern

The Port

The Starboard

Now for some details.

The figurehead conversion was a little tricky but fun at the same time. The hairline is a bit off to my eye still but passable. See the comparison below.

As you can see above I went with some forward tracks. These are for steering. They don’t actually move in real life and were put in place to give the whole thing balance and stability. The canon was an after thought and also doesn’t move in real life but looks like it could dish out some pain and misery.

I was definitely adding a giant claw to the land-ship, how could I not? I also wanted a lot little details so that your eye constantly finds things. I like the little gargoyle in the third last picture in this group.

I was a bit lost with what to do with the stern of the ship but then it hit me… use the front plow thing of the Ork battle wagon for the stern haha. I also wanted to keep the ships rudder as I felt, aesthetically, it was cool but also would help steer the machine through sand or snow. Works in my brain. The gunner was  an afterthought when I realised there were no guns so no defence!!!! He is fixed in place just to make the whole thing even harder to paint haha.

With the starboard side I decided I needed something different so I went with a Grot Tank Turret, why not aye?

It actually swivels which is cool.

I particularly like the iron doors hanging and swinging from below the turret.

Now let’s look at the bridge, upper deck, mast and main canon.

I was wrapped when I found this little control desk thingy for the bridge in the first pic. I was going to go with a big ships wheel but I’d done that with my Grot Ship a while back. I like the holes in the bridges floor. The whole ship looks like it’s barely holding together due to the timber parts but then the big slabs of metal and iron contrast that.

The upper deck is nice and wide so that several Ork Crew members can man it.

I had to keep the mast of course and did consider making a sail but abandoned the idea when I remembered that I’m hopeless with a needle and thread.

The canon doesn’t turn in real life but looks as mean as hangover on Boxing Day.

Now the next section is something I’m quite proud of if I don’t say so myself.

I’ve never used magnets in the hobby but I’ve seen it done and was always keen to try. So, I decided to make the upper deck to the land-ship removable with the use of strategically placed magnets. The only problem was the smallest magnets I could find at the local hardware store weren’t that small.

Heres a video of me demonstrating the removable/magnetised upper deck. Be warned, it’s thrilling stuff haha.

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Ok, take two haha. I forgot about the whole “can’t use cool music on your videos thing”. So here it is again but with a royalties free tune. Der Red Orktober!!! First time I’ve magnetised anything. I will be painting the magnets so they’re not so obtrusive. Lots more work to do on this. #orks #orks40k #warhammer40k #battlewagon #kitbash #conversion #miniatureconversion #greenskinz

A post shared by Imperial Rebel Ork (@imperialrebelork) on Dec 8, 2019 at 3:23am PST

Here are the two separate pieces.

Heres the lower deck deck which I think looks pretty cool. Note the treasure chest.

I have yet to build the Flash Gitz Ork miniatures but here is part of the crew including Kaptin BloodToof in the first pic.

The real challenges I faced with this build was joining the bow and stern together. I used several long, cut up sprues, as joists to connect them plus some external armour plates to strengthen the whole thing. The wheels and tracks were also a bit tricky but then I decided that, as I will be basing the whole thing, I’d simply glue them onto the sides. Therefore the belly or hull of the ship does actually scrape along the ground. If I hadn’t of done it this way I would have had to of built some sort of chassis. In my mind though, this land-ships tracks will be doing all the hard work to navigate through terrain.

I will be basing this beast and will be keeping things simple but I’m open to suggestions.

The painting of this bad boy will consist of, mostly, red but also a mishmash of other colours like yellow, blue and green.

I hope you like it.

Thats it for me for 2019 guys so I’ll wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very happy new year.

I’m sorry the last quarter of the blogging year hasn’t been as succinct as usual just lots going on is all.

Its been a big and happy year for me and my little family but went by in a flash.

I’ll still be around liking/commenting on your work I just won’t be posting anything else for 2019. Have no fear though for I shall be tinkering away still and I will return in 2020 in a BIG way!!

Take care.

Cheers

IRO