So Mr. Modulork threw down the kitbash and converter gauntlet and held a contest to product any ork conversion (as long as it included themes of iron and teef). I decided to give it a shot, and while I initial leaned into digital kitbashing, I ultimately went with a blend of digital and practical. I wanted to share some images and walk you through my process.
First thing that went through my brain, was that this would be a great chance to try my hand at sculpting somethings big in Blender. I have been learning more and more about Blender sculpting, mostly while working on projects for Horus Heresy and Turnip 28 (I plan to add posts on those soon). So I knocked out a quick body, with plans on using one of the awesome Mr. Modulork beast rider heads.
I was pretty happy with how the basic body shape looked, and then went to work adding details. A lot of the heavy lifting on those details was done by using VDM (vector displacement map) brushes. For those just getting into Blender sculpting, VDM brushes are relatively easy to use, and give great results.
I then used pieces of MrModulork’s truck and artillery kits to armor up the body. I merged these in, and then cleaned up the geometry so make sure it would be manifold and print.
The sheer size of this beast was intimidating, the largest single piece I have ever printed on my Saturn. MrModulork gave me some printing tips, and after adding a good number of drainage holes and bracing to a hollowed out body, I pushed start and waited. Ten hours later, I was hoping to have a workable body.
While it was printing, I went to work merging beast hunter bodies to the Wartrack gunner body, and then building up some harpoon cannons. I wanted to have a savage, rough and ready crew on the beast, and decided on a whim to see if I could proxy a hunter rig.
Plenty of old plastic and metal bits (check out the last pieces of my RT era ork battlewagon in red), and some balsa wood and chain later, I had a pretty good lucking rampaging beasty.
I had hope to be able to paint it for the competition, but one of the big things that drew me to participate, was that it would be a competition where painting would be a bonus, but not required. The focus on kitbashing allowed someone who is a rather basic painter like myself to have hope of victory. I did prime black and then do grey and white drybrush coats to show off more of the details. I will come back to this post and add more pictures once painted.
Do what do you think? Would you like me to include more posts like this? More detail or less?
The Daily Assassin 
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