Making Killa Kans
The killa kans have arrived. Actually, they have been here all along, I’m just now getting around to posting on them. These have to be some of my favorite heavy units. Inexpensive, lightly armored dreads with a little shooty and a lot of choppy. Any foot slogging ork force should seriously think about building a squad. And for their price, there is no reason to not max it out with three kans. Except, of course, that GW only sells them in packs of two. It is precisely for that reason (and that fact that I am cheap) that I decided to make my own.
The main “kan” was made by stacking the outer coverings of button drippers. They are used in sprinkler systems and you can get a bag of 25 for just a few dollars at Home Depot. The arms and legs are made from old sprues (obviously). For the feet, I picked up some small metal grommets. I got the ones that had a rubber seal on one side to help them stand. I made the powerklaws out of the dozer blade tips from the old imperial accessory sprue. The engine on the rear came from the mufflers of the old rhino kits and the top hatch from the same sprue. Various other bits were placed on the models to add a little orky flavor; banners, sights, armor plates, etc.
I made two sets; the first with big-shootas and the second with rokkits. For the big shootas, I took two of the ork shootas, mounted one on top of the other, and slightly offset to the side. I used the shootas that have the ammo belt hanging off the side. For the rokkits, I picked up a bag of plastic power connectors for computers at Fry’s. The rokkits themselves are small dowels that have been sanded to a blunt point and glued into the power connector.
One of the problems that anyone who scratch builds ork vehicles faces, especially fiddly ones like kans, is that they tend to be fragile at the joints. As you can see on this last pic, one of the kans lost an arm at the battle of the army transport case.
