Scarpia's Warhammer World - Battlefortresss Conversion

- COMPLETED 26 MAY 2004 - Warboss Bobz Killa Konktikz are notorious looters, and their next victim was a Necron Monolith that Bob swatted from the sky like a fly with his powerklaw. Well Gooba chewed on this one for a bit, and finally came up with a great idea - Battle Fortress!. I brought this to the Golden Deamon at Gamesday 2004, but came up empty in the open competition.

Some have said that a Monolith is un-lootable. It is made of living metal, it phases out, blah, blah. blah. Any Deathskull worth his weight can loot anything - and this is no exception. Here's how it happened.

Big Mek Gooba, second in command of Warboss Bobz Killa Konviktz, and a few of his most trusted mekz easily cut down the metallic warriors as they left the hovering pyramid, the ork burnaz leaving large scorch marks along the fallen bodies. The number of metal 'eads issuing forth lessoned, and Gooba's bionicly enhanced eye picked up a slight shimmer surrounding the pyramid. Having fought the Necrons consistently for the past few weeks, the big Mek knew exactly what that meant.

"Quick ya gitz, fire da chain gunz!" Gooba shouted at a group of Meks on the back of his nearby wrecka. Two strange weapon mounts, each resembling a large spear launcher, turned and fired their payload over the Monolith, each spear trailing a length of heavy cable followed by even heavier chain. The spears flew true, landied behind the Monolith, and imbedding themselves securely in the ground. The cables and chains draped over the Necron construct, and tightened securely as the wrecka's engine raced, pinning the Monolith in place.

A struggle between ancient technologies and basic physics took place, the technology winning as the wrecka began to be pulled backwards by the straining Monolith, its wheels tearing up earth as they spun. The shimmering became more pronounced as the living metal of the Monolith paused momentarily in its phasing, trying to identify the source of the restrictions on its movement. Gooba shouted again, resulting in large a mass of grotz leaping onto the wrecker, and the physical effort of the 100 gretchen changed the direction of this tug of war.

Knowing he only had moments, Gooba ran forward, his one natural eye fixed on the homing beacon, its internal light radiating brightly. Climbing up the side, and he adjusted the nozzle on his burna to its most focused setting. With a whoosh of compressed flame, the crude ork tool cut through the homing beacon's base, removing it from the top of pyramid.

Immediately the shimmering reversed itself, as the phaseing processed hallted, but the machine’s struggles increased as it shook itself violently against its restraints. Gooba almost fell from the pyramid’s top, but was able to sink his bionic hook into a support structure at the last moment. Bracing himself, he kicked out with a maniacal glee, smashing the glowing power crystal with his steel encased foot. A horrific explosion resluted, blowing him off of the Monolith and throwing him meters away from the machine, his bionic arm left behind and still anchored.

Grunting in satisfaction, Gooba picked himself off of a smashed grot. Ignoring that the smaller creature had padded his landing, he swatted at it, only to miss horribly due to the missing appendage. His foot connected, however, and he gave it a good kick. A grin straight from a child’s nightmare appeared on the flesh side of Gooba's face, and he turned to observe the Monolith sitting securely under the restraints, no longer shimmering, its struggles weak and impotent.

“Iz knew if it werkz fer a squggoth, dan it muzt werk on anyting” Gooba muttered to himself. His bionic eye returned to the violently glowing homing becon, still clutched in his natural hand. Gooba's grin grew wider as his gaze shifts to the now rising git. Gooba thrusts the homing device into one of the gitz hands, and hauls it to its feet, the wretched creature still reeling from being squashed and kicked. Reaching behind him, Gooba grabbs a superstikkbomb, engages the fuse, and shoves it into the grot's other hand. .

Standing dumbly, the shaken Gretchen looks confusedly at the items in his hands, and than at the Big Mek before it disappeared in a shimmering wave of light.

‘Dat otta be a nize surprise fer dem metal ‘eadz – now letz get goin’ on dis ding – Bobz gunna want hiz new fortrezz soon!”

One part Monolith, one part old M60 main battle tank, and a bucket load of expensive bits willl hopefully = battlefortressl!

All I wanted off this model was the propulsion, I stripped off the trakks and carefully (read broke) off the main wheels.

This is the underside bottom of the monolith. The first challange is how to get the trakks to fit..

Two pieces of plasticard were cut, notched to fit the ridges and edges of the monolith base. Note that they run tight against tall center tabs (visual back center). In this case they run along the sides of the monolith (the front being where the door/ramp opens)

Once they were dry, a flat piece was cut to provide a smooth undercarriage. Note the overhang, this will be necessary for the rear drive sprocket mount. You may have also noticed the slope cut in the front on each of the side pieces of plasticard. Not shown in this picture is another piece of plasticard cut to fit that shallow slope.

Here are the M60 wheels, laid out to get some idea on how many per side I will mount. The first problem arose, in that the clearance is not great enough, requiring the wheels to be mounted away from the side of the plasticard by at least 1/8 inch, if not more. The current solution is to stop by the hobby shop, and pick up some plastic channel (I wanted some I-beams anyway).

So I managed to pick up a length of plastic rod - this is about a 1/4 in width, and a rod of sufficent length cost all of $1.50.

The wheels were mounted along one edge, at one inch intervals (measurement taken on axel centers) with the first (front) wheel tight to the rod's front bottom edge. Note that if you try something like this you will almost have to adjust your configuration to match the tank rollers that you have - just aim for some kind of consistant and decent looking result

I mounted the wheels to the plastic rod, and when dry, mounted the wheel set to the bottom of the plasticard box. I found that I needed to add a single layer of thin plasticard as a shim along the entire length of the model in order for the rod to fit straight (vertically).

Here's a frontal shot, with a good cross section - plasticard base (with front slope), shim (hard to see), rod, and wheels. I am not going to fill in the rod fronts; this seems like a good mounting point for the roller.

Once everything had dried, I slipped on the trakks for a dry run, and one final clearence check. Looking good! Next on the list is to mount the rear drive sprockets.

I used another piece of the rod for a rear axle; This spans the rear end of the Fortress.

Simply glued on wasn't good enough - I discovered much to my dismay that the gray rod does not melt with the plastic glue like the rest of the stuff. Wheels popped off, etc. Finally, I broke out the classic superglue, and that held everything tight. Because I do intend on using this model, and because the plastic rod did not melt, I added some splice plates to the top and bottom. These will be hidden when done, and add a lot of strength.

Here's a good shot of the lower splice plates (white plastic)

While the chassis dried, I started work on the two front Zzap guns. I wanted to use the ball mount, so a lot of the metal ZZap gun had to be cut away for the weapon to fit. Cut away the plastic ball weapons, and notch the top and bottom for the gun to fit.

Here are the two completed Zzap ball mounts; a little blue stuff holds the gun in place while the glue dries the two halves of the ball together. Green stuff fills in the left over gaps, and as a final step when on the model, I will mount some small blast shields.

Back to the chassis - one side trakk assembly is complete, one more to go.

Both trakks are on now. Here's a rear shot.

Size comparison!

With t

With the trakks mounted, I am considering doing some modeling on the inside of the dakka-lith, the yellow highlighted area represents the available space.

The problem is that the sides slope in; reducing the usable space.

Also, this is probably the only part that will be visable; through the front door. Due to these reason, I will probably put down safety tread or mesh flooring, and a couple of ladders and gitz, but not a whole bunch of stuff. (unless I can leave the top loose.....hmmm.....)

A dry fitting with a zzap ball mount in place.

A single layer of plastruk mesh went over the bottom floor of the 'lith. The front piece is left out for your illustration.

This is the piece that the crystal sits in; I'm not going to use the crystal, but this piece offers structural strength to the pyramid.

So I drilled out the center with a very large bit on a drill press. Don't sweat it if you don't have access to a drill press, while that makes things easier, you can always put a lid over it (say from a Russ) and call the hole closed.

Now it was on to the rear gunz. Big shootaz here, so I assembled the balls first, and cut off a fair amount of the weedy necron weapon.

Big shoota time! here's the big shoota assembly line - if you are reading this, making big shootaz should be old school for you by now!

Check out the big shoota ball turrets - I had first envisioned dual, than tripple barrels, but I came back to the one large and two smaller barrel look. Sort of like the middle finger thing going on there too. Very orky.

Here's a dry run, butt side, with the big shoota ball turrets. I think these are sufficently modeled.

This is an inside view of the beast. Note the mesh floor, the plasticard over the center section, the side holes, and the back piece. I have decided to decorate the innards to a degree, and try and make the top completely removable.

This ladder goes up to the new hole up above, and will ultimatly be fixed to the top art of the machine.

Oh, and here's the top end (hard to see, but I think you get the idea. Normally this is where the crystal sits. Now, it's an access hole for da boyz!

It was time to assemble the top, and a dab of blue stuff held the ball mounted weapons in place on the side pieces of the monolith.

Before assembly, I covered the holes down the sides with plasticard bitz.

Here it is drying. No laughing at my clamps - you can't beat rubber bands and a coffee can full of nutz and boltz!

Side view. I did put these green rods in to fill the holes, but they, like everything else, will be painted.

With the top drying, I turned back to the engine compartment. It was boxed in with plasticard.

Back to the top. I began construction on the top firing step. Plastruk I-beams, and plasticard. Note the driver's spot; the old rhino piece was just calling out to me from the bitz box.

A close up of the firing step. The traction plate was applied over the regular plasitcard. The center area fitz any ork heavy weapon - zzap, kannon, or lobba, adding a little flexability.

Here it is together with the firing step bottom in place - oh, and a Kannon to boot!

Side view.

In the back I added a ladder, and put on the side frames for the firing platform.

In between the I-beam side frames, plasticard was glued in place. The top mesh grid was added, as was the crystal support from the monolith kit.

Now the crystal support holds a crows nest.

Rear view.

A close up of the cage roof, and crows nest

I've started to add battle damage; it's hard to see here due to the reflection of the flash. Now that the structure is complete (although I am going to change out the exhaust stack), I can start gubbinzing it up.

More battle damage, and extra armor and "fixes" are being added.

As well as a large Deathskull emblem, hand cut from plasticard.

Interior shot. The ladder is glued in place to the top of the machine.

Size comparision - that's a land raider based battlewagon next to it.

Krusher parts. That's a piece of 1 1/2 plastic pvc pipe, and a couple of caps from dried up citadel paint (I KNOW everyone has a few of these).

The side supports - plastic I-beam, spear tips from a goblin sprue, and more sprue, this from the Monolith kit.

The caps go on the inside, and a hole is drilled though the center of each. A small dowel is than run as an axel. Index card was cut, and superglued to the top, than "rivited" with goblin spear shaft rivits.

I needed a top spike, and I spotted these on a goblin shield sprue.

The superglue fumes started to get to me, and my fingers were sealed together, so I stopped here for the day. Looking ok though!

I picked back up by adding battle damage! This one will soon be the access point for gitz.

And some more up front.

I managed to finish the krusher. Note the side blades, not only does it roll, but it is removable. The front ramp was also added to the model.

And it works, too! (here in the lowered position).

A close up of the grot nest. I need to make some green stuff sandbags as well.

In the back, we worked on the engine. A new, larger scale boiler was added.

After those bitz dried, the boiler was topped off and a smoke stack was added. You might be wondering what the gold stuff is; well the mek boyz in my employ don't restrict themselves to any singlur sci-fci universe; that's part of an X-Wing fighter I look for this to show up again in future models).

Here is the other side of the back. Note the smaller "grotz nest" on the right side.

The front ramp was "orkafied" with battle teeth.

And again, the ramp works. Spikes were added to either side of the door, and note the battle damage on the front right of the machine- it's hard to see but there is a hatch over the impact zone. When finished, there will be a grot shooting out from that hole.

I spent the rest of the day working on the crew; construction is halted until the chains show up in the mail. I may continue to detail the inside though.

Well the chains showed up, and they were much smaller than I had anticipated. So I ran the "steel cable" around the model, pinning it in place by drilling a small hole, sticking a model railroad spike through the cable, coating it with superglue, and than inserting the spike in the hole. I did add another cable wrapping around the entire model after this picture; next is some chain on the sides, and than I think she'll need to be primed.

The side chains were added

And the front ramp "scuffed" up a lot.

This is the final, pre primer shot. Enjoy!

Here's why I think primer is a good thing. Look how much better the boiler looks with a coat of primer.

and the other side. Wow, that even looks like a hatch (it's supposed to be!)

The business end of the Dakka-Lith. Note the battle scars and damage. Does it look restrained enough?

Side view.

Rear shot...

We couldn't keep da damn gitz off of it!

da lookout.

The FIRST thing to get painted is the Deathskull!

A necron player recommended 1 part dark angels green, and one part gold. I added some water to the mix too. Note that I painted all the original monolith parts the green/gold mix.

Close up of green gold paint, rear

Close up of green gold paint, front.

The first boltgun metal drybrush was added to the top.

Note that I decided to paint the added plates in many colors, but primarily blue (for the Death Skulls, of course). I tried to use as many different shades of blue as possible though.

Death Skulls Rock!

Close up

Close up. Next on the agenda is a rust wash over the entire model, than more rust, than another boltgun drybrush!

This is the rust application. The small panel in the middle got it, the bottom long one didn't. I like my looted stuff grubby.

For comparison purposes, the top half has the rust wash, the bottom does not.

While the rust dried, I slapped some lucky blue to the back motor area.

Here's the front with the dried rust wash.

After the rust wash dried, I lightly drybrushed boltgun again over the model, and added brazen brass rust strips from rivits, bullet holes, etc (see the top metal). I did touch up the Death Skull emblem, as me boyz would keep that somewhat nappy.

A close up of the front, and the grot peeking out.

A full frontal view with some boyz, and thte kannon installed.

The top deck.

The rear end. Well that's it for now, I'll add small details, but for the moment this pig is ready for WAAAAAGH!

Here's the mekboy/slaver modification.

And the dakka-lith in daylight. Note that the cannon got a repaint, and I finished the krusher.

Rear shot. Still more detail work to do.

I began construction on a scenic base. Wallplaster on a piece of tile lie underneath the dirt topping.

More model details are being added, such as these grot crewmembers on the port side grots nest.

And this one ta starboard.

Here's the base finsihed and ready for the model

And trying on the dakka-lith for size.

There were gaps between the upper and lower hulls, and I decided to add some more armor plates to hide them.

A close up of the front plates. The large bolt fixtures are from Grandt Line.

And a rear shot. Note the "weathering" drybrush of earth.

Voila!

Battle Fortress Conversion 1.0 - Da Dakka-Lith