This will be a one project only type thread centering on my Battlewagon. It’s one of those things that’s been on my back burner for a couple of years now. My tournament army is completely painted and I have the time to leisurely work on this, and it will take some time. I’m used to kit-bashing but constructing things out of thin air out of plastruc and tubing is something new for me.
I’m starting with a Chaos Landraider I got off ebay for a good price ($25, I think). It was slapped together, spray painted black with a TON of spikey bits all over it. You should receive a free pair of shark gloves when you buy any chaos vehicle kit! It took about an hour to deconstruct it into it’s basic parts as seen in the first image.
My first task is to address the engine compartment. The exhaust stacks are just too weedy for a propa ork vehicle to I’m gonna mak’em larger and noisier (you’ll just have to trust me on the noisier part). I’ve shaved off the pipes from the original and cut out new top plates for the new exhaust to sit on. Of course, the new pipes just can’t come out of the engine straight up, they have to stick out at funky angles.
I’ve cut tubing to the lengths/angles I want them. The smaller rings are mainly spacers that will snuggle between the actual exhaust pipe and the heat shroud that covers the exhaust tube. You won’t see these when it’s completed. The next step will be drilling the vent holes in the shrouds.
I’ve also removed the interior engine detail that normally faces forward into the crew compartment. This will be attached facing up, right next to the engine exhaust plate. I’ll put some sort of grating/screening over this so you can see the engine beneath it. This does take up some of the inside room for troops but I’m not concerned as I’ll be putting up a wider platform up top to support a majority of the troops.
