Orks has always been in my heart, ever since the pointy hat days of 2nd edition starter boxes. I have done all sorts of different incantations of them, my most recent having been some freebootaz that I began (and promise to finish!). My local Warhammer store is starting up an escalation league in January and I thought that it would be a great opportunity to crank some orks out. Instead of freebootaz however, I decided to go with speed freaks. There have been some conversions that I have been dying to play around with, and I figured this would be my chance.

I first outlined what would be in my starting 500 points list: Zhadsnark, 6 bikers, 1 buggy and a trukk with 10 boyz.  I have wanted to mess around with making an ork trukk for some time, but the viability has been a bit lacking. Now they seem to be worth putting on  a table, so my ideas are getting to see light. The ork trukk kit is great, mind you; It really gives a nice ramshackle look. I had something different in mind, however, and looked toward the Taurox model for the answers.  I really liked the front of the taurox, and thought it would look fantastic as the front of a trukk.

I started by assembling the front to the bottom/bed of the taurox, as indented. While I didadd the supports for the tracks, as seen in the picture above, I eventually chose to remove them. They did not work quite as well as I had hoped, for putting the wheels on.These two kits, at times, seemed like they were made for one another. I had to shave the bottom of the ork trukk bed, but ultimately it fit on surprisingly well. The trukk bed was built per the kit, with the front of the bed used to seal off the back of the cab, built to taurox kit standards, as well. The wheels were mounted on using the axels/frame of the ork kit. I shaved down the rounded center, to sit flush against the undercarriage. The whole build ended being a little longer than the original ork trukk, so I needed to use some plastic rod to connect the front wheel axel to the rear wheels.I added the standard piping to the taurox and gave it the ork trukk smoke stack on the side. I used two big shootas from the deff dread kit (I think that’s where they came from) and cut them to fit the turret hatch on the top of the taurox. For the back of the trukk, I added the roll cage bars, filled the gaps on the sides by cutting the corrugated trukk bit in half and shaving the ends down enough to fit against the sides. The hardest bit was the top half of what I used for the back of the cabin. The top of the taurox cabin has a lip in the back, so I had to cut the piece so that it could slide in with the lip inserting into it.Let’s be honest; that taurox front was too clean looking 🙂 So I cut up some plasticard to act as metal sheeting, and glued it across the front, in patches. Cutting the vent off the top of the ork trukk kit engine, I fixed it into the hood by cutting a slot just big enough for the end to slide into. The spikes were made out of leftover sprue, cut and whittled into spikes as I watched Gremlins 2 to pass the time.

The next step was extremely tedious, but I feel the outcome is well worth it. I used very thin plastic rod and sliced it to make very thin wafers. These served to be my rivets for the plasticard sheeting I added. I went through and glued them, in different densities, to each one. Through each panel, I also drilled a hole here and there, where a rivet should be. It is a nice way to break up the monotony of the task, and it looks like a rivet has fallen out, adding some character to the piece.

At this point, the trukk as primarily finished. I have plans to add spears and some skulls on it, but the core of the build has been completed. Next WIP, I will introduce you to the crazy lot that ride this beast into battle; the bloody skull trukk boyz, and I will talk bikers.

Thanks for reading 🙂 – Soph

• Games Workshop orks trukk Warhammer 40k WIP