40K HOBBY: Building a Kustom Battle Fortress
Rabscutle here, and my inner Big Mek has been, very, very busy.
After my mad dash to get models ready for Adepticon, and my even more mad dash last year to get ready for the Narrative track at WarGamesCon, I decided I wanted to start earlier this year. I’m brimming with excitement for this year’s event, especially since my Orks get to shine on the grandest stage: Armageddon.
Why Narrative? Because it is a blast kids. It is a chance to play with all your over the top Apocalypse toys, wake up later than the main tournament, play with AWESOME people and most importantly, setup right near the beer cart. You get to have fun, with almost no stress and win prizes for doing things that are awesome. What’s not to love?
What I’m Bringing
Last year I was Oscar the Grouch – angry green dudes in trash cans… I brought an army of Dreads, Stompas and Killa Kans. This year, I wanted to do something a little different and focused on creating an army of tanks.
The first task up: building my own Kustom Battle Fortress based on the rules in Imperial Armour 8.
What I Built
I’ve always liked the Shadowsword model, but had the primal, Orky urge to “adjust” it to my needs. First step was a different gun. As BigRed advised, no self respecting Mek would use a silly thin kannon like what comes with the kit.
So… I added some barrel:
Next, I needed to break up all those pretty Imperial Lines, and added sponsons, glyphs and various other modifications to Orkify this once beautiful Imperial Machine.
Then to paint and final touches. Since this is a table ready model, and as we’ve already covered, I’m not a great detail painter, I went for the simple approach… I caked the model in Boltgun Metal and then a fat coat of Badab Black. Yeah it is cheating, but damn does it look spiffy. Next, to keep with my Deff Skull look, I used Enchanted Blue and Skull White to bring out all the glyphs and break up the mountain of metal. Also adding bits of Blazing Orange to show hints of more detail to the model, I came out with something I am pretty happy with.
But then… it wasn’t… well… enough. I needed to add something… something familiar to anyone who saw my Narrative list last year: Grott Bombs.
My preferred method is to use two Deathstrike Missiles with Grot pilots glued on for dear life. What you get as a result isn’t just a tank. It is something truly over the top and Orky:
I have more to paint up: next on the agenda is Kill Krushas and a Meka Dread. I’ll be posting reviews/build dairy’s of those soon as they are done. Man I’m excited for this year’s event and can’t wait to bring the pain to the Imperial hoomies who stand in the way of my beautiful loot all over the table!
Are you up for Narrative? What are you bringing? Am I going to be the only one representing the Green Tide?
