Not sure if this belongs here, but I felt like Brush and Palette was more WFB stuff.
Anyway, you guys ever have a holy grail model you have always sort of wish you had, but never got? Well, one of them is this old school Ork Battlewagon from Rogue Trader days. I never had much of a reason to get it since the rules for it weren't included beyond the 2nd edition box set. I am pretty sure it wasn't included in the 2nd Ork Codex, so I guess they discontinued it before that came out.
It comes with a driver and 6 boys as shown above.
So this wasn't really even on my radar until I revamped how I collected games, primarily sticking to what came in each box set along with some other minis that might be mentioned in expanding it. Like how the 9th edition 40k sets mention the Space Marine ATV thing in the rulebooks, or 4th edition The Battle Rages On mentions a host of Space Marine and Tyranid units to add to the scenarios. In the case of 40k 2nd edition, the scenario guide included a table for reinforcements and one of the few units it mention was the Ork Battlewagon, and its vehicle card was included in the starter set.
So I set out to get one, and to paint it like this:
I got one off ebay still sealed, and was disappointed to find that it was missing a pretty important piece - #16 which is a wheel mount for one of the ear wheels.
I couldn't believe it was missing in a sealed box, but I have seen doing some research that this piece is missing or loose on many sales, so I am guessing when packing, this piece may have come off. The seller was nice enough to refund me some money, so I decided to hunt down another used battlewagon, and use the part off that.
So after searching and searching I found this guy:
So in terrible shape, but it had some things going for it. All the spikes were there, most of it was complete with the exception of many of the accessories, and obviously didnt come with any of the boys aside from the guy hanging from the pole. I did ask the seller about the part I wanted being present, and he confirmed it so I bought it.
Anyway, once getting it I was happy to see it also had the driver, and was glued together what what I assume was tube glue, as opposed to liquid glue, which had its advantages. While a pain in the ass to clean off, most of the parts came off pretty well, and after stripping the paint off with break fluid and cleaning off what remained using dental tools, I got it surprising clean and it gave me the idea to go ahead make a second battlewagon.
I had a lot of gaps and scrapes to fill and sand, but overall pretty happy with the result.
Not everything went well. This wheel broke off the peg and the only way I felt would be best to mount it back on is with this pin.
But I was able to make a resin copy of the part I needed. The peg actually broke off inside the wheel, and I had to drill into it and pull out what I could. Then I stuffed the hollowed out part with a metal pin, and other pieces of plastic to bind it so it wouldnt snap off later. The worst of it look-wise is never going to be seen so I feel its a success.
So I decided to use the refurbished one for my 2nd edition Ork set, and use the good set to make a Rogue Trader version, which I have always loved. The 2nd edition is very cartoony, and I am thinking all the accessories for the kit will go to waste on it, and prefer to use them as they intended on a more Mad Max looking vehicle. I do have Rogue Trader stuff so this will go nicely with them.
Will be assembling and priming it this afternoon so give me a bit before I post pics.