Vehicle

Conversion
Workshop
 Predator Tank to Guard Carnodon 12
CONTENTS
Grot Kans to Snow Walkers 14
Intro 2
Ork Buggy – A Tribute to the Mad Max franchise 16
Achilles Ridgerunner to Guard Armoured Car 3
Hernkyn Pioneers to Squat Bikers 18
Achilles Ridgerunner to Ashwastes Prowler 6
- Basing the Prowler 10 Crane Unit – A True Scratchbuild 20

something recognizable and real. It could be the size of tires

INTRO compared to a vehicle body, the size of rivets and plating on
When working with vehicles, particularly those of a science our tank, the size of handlebars and steering wheels. The
fiction universe, there are a couple of key factors to matter of scale should ideally be resolved without needing
consider. to place a character or more next to the vehicle, although
they help a lot.
First, you must consider the balance between realism and
fiction. Stray too far from established vehicle design and Again, adding things with a known size in the real world is
your vehicle will seem alien and uncanny. This is fine for the a big help. Things such as headlights, handlebars, fuel, and
vehicles of alien races, but something to be conscious of equipment cans, these all show the scale of a vehicle nicely.
for your human characters and their rides. They also help it look “alive”, not just fresh from the factory
– lived in, and far more interesting than a basic vehicle in
If you look at the designs in universes such as Star Wars or pristine paint.
Warhammer 40,000, they tend to leave some things very
“human” on their vehicles. It might be the comfy bucket Third, the level of detailing on a vehicle should be roughly
seats of Luke’s Landspeeder and other airborne transports, the same all over. This means that for example, if you add
the way jetbikes look and handle much like motorcycles of loads of extra rivets, they should be distributed evenly
the real world, or that most sci-fi aircraft and landing craft across the vehicle, as should stowage and other detailing.
bear a resemblance to modern age aircraft. A bit of the Too much detail in one spot risks leaving the rest looking
mundane mixed into the fantastical helps us relate more bare and unfinished.
easily. I have fallen victim to this at times in the past, spending too
Second, you need to properly show the size of your vehicle. much time and energy on a pilot´s hatch for example, and
All our miniatures are scaled down versions of larger things, leaving the rest of my vehicle too poorly defined.
but the eye and brain need something to “lock on to”,

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 The top of the roof was then filed flat, and two discs of 1mm
ACHILLES RIDGERUNNER plasticard were glued to the top of the construction. A spare
TO IMPERIAL GUARD ARMOURED CAR bit of grating was added behind the turret (to keep with the
overall detail level of the vehicle) and rivets were added,
Having considered these main points, we can have a look matching the size of other rivets on the vehicle.
at converting existing vehicles. My original take on the
Genestealer Cults Ridgerunner, this one was made in 2021 A turret ring from a Leman Russ also helped change the
to expand my Imperial Guard vehicle pool. I always liked the look of the Chimera turret, moving me further away from the
Forgeworld light vehicles, so when they were retired, I felt original piece.
that the Guard needed something to replace them. To soften up the design and match the smoother lines on
At the time, I was working on some vehicles for an the chassis, I eventually sanded all the edges and corners
Armageddon Steel Legion force, so a desert armoured car of the turret and covered it with thinned Vallejo Putty,
would fit nicely with that theme. simulating the look of a cast turret, rather than welded or
riveted as seems most normal with the Imperial Guard. The
The Ridgerunner has an easily recognizable silhouette, cast turret was common during WWII, so the shape and
and I wanted to do something to change it up. An Internet texture may be familiar to history buffs. These sorts of small
search brought up some of my favourite WWII armoured changes really help bring builds to life, and makes for more
cars, particularly the British mid-war designs from the desert interesting stories to tell. For easier turret rotation I added
campaigns. The Humber, Daimler, and the WWI Rolls Royce magnets, but a slot system could have been used as well.
with their small turrets were exactly the kind of thing I
wanted to build. I trialled a few different pintle mounted weapons, but in the
end they all ruined the silhouette of the vehicle and made
In my bits box, I found a turret from a Chimera. This came it too top heavy, so I decided to let the twin las be the only
with a Heavy Bolter as standard, but in order to approach weapon for my armoured car.
the gun barrel silhouette of an armoured car, it was outfitted
with a pair of Forgeworld sponson lascannons, also from the All that remained for the build was to find the right amount
bits box. of stowage. With a few noteworthy exceptions, stowage
is usually kept to the rear areas of historical vehicles. This
With the turret and body taken care of, all that remained makes sense if the unit is heading into enemy fire, so I did
was to merge the two together. To cover the rear deck of something similar.
the Ridgerunner, I simply added layers of plasticard until the
height was equal to the roof of the vehicle.

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Backpacks, tools and fuel cans were taken from various of Hades Hive were an example of the classic Armoured
Genestealer Cults kits, while the single tarp is an old Infantry regiment type which the planet is famous for, so I
Imperial Guard bit, finally seeing use after many years. designed vehicle recognition numbers, regiment markers
and came up with names for each vehicle. For the armoured
When painting the vehicle, I first applied the same Vallejo
car, the name “Lucky 7” seemed like a good play on the
71.009 Duck Egg Green and 71.052 Neutral Grey that I use
often fatalistic “gamble with death” personalities of WWII
for all my Steel Legion vehicles. These were faded on the
desert recon groups, so I made sure the vehicle number had
top areas by using the original colours mixed with 71.132
a seven as its key designator. The classic Lightning Flash
Aged White for a sun-bleached look. I wanted to push the
symbol of the Steel Legions was drawn up as well, though
idea that these vehicles were old and used, veterans of the
only as a black outline. The decal paper I generally use is
war against the Orks of Armageddon.
see through, meaning that light colours won´t be shown
Using printable decal sheet, I designed my own decals for well, but black outlines come through perfectly. The outlines
the unit I wanted to portray. The Armageddon 813th out were then used as guides to paint the rest of the design.

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According to background material, many Imperial regiments those decals sitting on uneven surfaces, further dissolving
frown upon the use of vehicle names and “nose art”, but it the decal mounting film. The Microsol is quite strong, so I
is accepted in veteran units. am always extra careful when using it. I don’t like it when my
decals come apart or begin stretching as they dissolve.
Application of the decals followed my usual process. I put
down a gloss varnish which is allowed to dry for a day to With the transfers applied, I added pigments for dust and
make sure that it has hardened completely. The decals are used a sponge to add scratches and flaking paint with
then cut from the sheet and laid on wet tissue paper. Many 70.822 German Camo Black Brown. The almost-black brown
people use a small dish of water and let their decals float of this paint contrasts nicely with my basecoat, making for
for a minute or two, but this runs the risk of having decal visible scratching and damage.
detach entirely and float off, so I prefer wet tissue paper. To
help with the application, I use Microset from Microscale
Industries, while small amounts of Microsol are used for

5
 When I first tested the underbody and wheels next to the
ACHILLES RIDGERUNNER cab from the Ridgerunner, I noticed that the wheelbase
TO ASH WASTES PROWLER was very wide, to the point that it would not be reasonable
compared to the length of the vehicle. I decided to narrow it
Here is a more recent example of a conversion using the down by cutting as much as possible of the plastic between
same base vehicle. the actual suspension, and this brought it into a more
In 2023 I wanted to build an even more rugged looking realistic width. I also placed the wheels as far to the front
offroad vehicle for a gang of wasteland travellers. I looked and rear of the vehicle as possible, with the middle of each
at existing vehicles and decided on using the Achilles wheel just barely within the length of the chassis.
Ridgerunner from the Genestealer Cults line. It already has Using an 80mm length of 4mm plastic tubing and various
a nice design, and I knew it from previous experience when I components from the bits box, I constructed an underbody
built my Imperial Guard armoured car. In this case, I gave my for my newly raised and widened vehicle. There is even a
vehicle the working name “Prowler”. Legions Imperialis shipping container underneath there!
For this rebuild, I needed the biggest, most brutal looking For the front bull bars, I used a piece of railing from the Ash
wheels I could find, and those happened to come from Wastes Hab kit, cut to fit my needs. It already has rivets
a Cargo-8 Ridgehauler kit. As I only needed parts of the in the same scale, and the tubing is of a diameter which
underbody and some wheels, I grabbed one of the trailer looks close to realistic for this type of thing. The vehicle
kits.

6
still needed a bit more detailing, which was delivered by the Once I was happy with these effects, I masked off the lower
Imperial Guard Sentinel, in the form of lights and stowage. body and painted the upper body of the vehicle. I decided
on a dirty white and dark green colour scheme, reminiscent
My vehicle needed a gunner, and fortunately I had one left
of the “official” colours for the Squat Prospectors of
over from a set of Votann Hernkyn Pioneer hoverbikes. A bit
Necromunda. Using a mix of Vallejo 71.132 Aged White,
of converting on the arms and gun mount gave me a good
71.032 Golden Brown, and a little 71.037 Mud Brown allowed
fit for the Ion Beamer weapon.
me to modulate the colour slightly across the vehicle, giving
When it came to painting, I began with an all-over black me a more interesting look than if the vehicle had been
primer coat. The rubber tires were given a highlight with sprayed with a single colour. A stripe was masked off and
Vallejo 71.115 Blue Grey, and then masked off before I began airbrushed with Vallejo 71.007 Olive Green, highlighted with
working on the chassis, suspension, and undercarriage. I 71.014 Gunship Green. Already, I had an interesting two-
added steel and oily metal effects to all the exposed parts colour scheme that would be easy to embellish using decals
underneath the vehicle but held back from rust and dust for and weathering.
now. Depending on the vehicle and its owners, I sometimes
The bull bars were painted in the same colours, hinting
choose to go for a cleaner look, and the Squats seem like
at their being a part of the vehicles design, rather than a
the kind of people who would keep their vehicles in relatively
modification. The rims for the wheels were also painted in
good condition.
the dirty white, again telling the story that they were part of
For the dark metal of the undercarriage, I started with a dark the original look. To paint the rims without disturbing the
brown, in this case 71.040 Burnt Umber. This was followed rubber tires, I cut some round masks to go around the rims.
up with 71.073 Metallic Black, and finally I used the airbrush
Once the rims had been painted and weathered, I removed
to apply Citadel Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade, to shade and
all the masking and began looking at stowage. Once more,
tone down the metallic look. The various tools, as well as
since this was to be a long-range vehicle, supplies would
suspension components, would get a bit of extra care at a
need to be carried by the crew. I was looking at the Prowler
later stage, but for now I needed a base to work from.
as a gun platform vehicle, not a troop transporter, so most
of the carried equipment would need to support that role.

7
Spare ammunition, a radio system, and the backpacks or For the decking underneath the gunner, I used a bit of extra
baggage of the vehicle’s driver and gunner would be the first time and some layered washes to bring out a worn look. The
lot of stowage. The stowage was mostly painted separately vehicle should appear well kept, not new.
and glued on once dry. Looking at the vehicle once more,
The gunner was built from Votann and Prospector bits, I
I got to thinking of why the Prospectors travel the wastes.
painted him in a similar style to my other Squats, mostly
Though they may occasionally end up in a skirmish, their
dark greens and browns with some dirty white armour
first purpose is finding new deposits of minerals and ore,
plating. The gun was painted up in red and metal to add a bit
so I decided to include some surveyor “ranging posts”,
more red to the build, a focal point for the viewer. This also
strapped to the vehicle.
marks it out as clearly alien in nature, not just an autogun or
I made the posts from the stems of used Tamiya 87.103 another standard weapon.
Craft Cotton Swabs. I normally use these to clean my
The first bit of weathering consisted of chipping with sponge
airbrush, so I go through a few bags a year. It´s nice to be
and drybrush, using mainly Vallejo 70.822 German Camo
able to use them for something in my builds occasionally.
Black Brown, an almost-black brown that I use for most of
Also, my grandfather was a surveyor and I remember him
my vehicles. This was followed by an all-over wash using
always having some of these posts in his car, just in case he
Citadel Seraphim Sepia, diluted with two parts water to one
needed to go out for work.
part wash. Once this had dried, I washed more selectively
Before the weathering stage got too far, I added decals. This along edges and corners, as well as around rivets, using
time, I chose icons and text from the Votann decal sheet, Seraphim Sepia and in some cases a mix of Seraphim Sepia
adding hints that the vehicle might once have belonged to and Citadel Agrax Earthshade.
one of the clans, before being stranded on Necromunda.
I diluted some of the Golden Brown and Aged White paints
I often add some numeric codes from the Necromunda
I had used for the airbrush stage of painting and added
Enforcer decal sheet, truly one of my favourite sources
dots and streaks of them to further distress and weather
for random decals on vehicles, but in this case, I chose
numeric codes from the Votann sheet, since they fit the
style. The code 13-704 fit nicely on the front and side,
while a larger 704 marking was placed above the driver´s
compartment.
I considered naming the vehicle, but decided against it,
since it felt too frivolous for the hard-bitten prospectors.
I chose mostly black and white decals to avoid too many
colours, but the stylized flower/cog of the Thurian League fit
nicely in red, so I added one to each side of the car.
The windows were painted black and got a greenish tint,
just to add a bit of interest. They were then given a bit of
gloss varnish, to give them a glass effect compared to the
otherwise completely matt vehicle.
The plate below the bull bars was looking a bit bare, so I cut
out a plasticard triangle and added a Necromunda decal
to make it look like a road sign, presumably one that the
prospectors have picked up along the way. Very fittingly, the
sign says “Warning” underneath the symbol.

8
the white areas of the vehicle. This helps a lot to make the For the loose fuel can, I again made a leather strap from
vehicle seem older and used. 1mm masking tape, wrapped around the can three times.
I then cut a loose piece and glued it on, so it looked like
With all the components built, painted, and weathered, it
the end of the strap, and used a small piece of 0,5mm
was time for some dust. In the wastelands, nothing stays
plasticard for the buckle. The single can was placed near the
clean for long, and the same would be true of my Prowler.
righthand door, while the double holder was placed on the
Using Vallejo 73.105 Natural Sienna pigments diluted in AK left, near the fuel cap of the vehicle.
Pigment Fixer, I used an old 12mm wide brush to deposit
I did some final weathering using diluted acrylic paint mixed
dust and pigment fixer around the treads of the wheels,
with Seraphim Sepia wash, to bring everything together, and
underneath the vehicle, as well as in corners and so on
added some more very fine chipping with the same German
along the upper side of the cab.
Camo Black Brown I used for the vehicle already.
I then used the same wide brush to remove pigments from
Finally, I needed to decide on whether to use a base. I
the outer edges of the tyres, since it would naturally be worn
sometimes use bases to tie my vehicles to a setting or
away while the vehicle moved through the wastelands.
warband, but for this vehicle I felt like I wanted it to show
Once I had the pigments on, I added the stowage I had the vehicle advancing at speed. To do that, I constructed a
painted, and weathered the ranging posts, also adding a base with a small hill in the middle and used pinning rod to
strap made from some 1mm wide Tamiya Masking tape, suspend the vehicle above the base at an angle, mid jump.
wrapped around the four posts I chose to use. The posts
In the end, however, I kept the vehicle removable since the
were then superglued into a bunch and placed along the left
base might make it too impractical for gaming.
side of the vehicle.

9
 the story I wanted to tell here, I placed part of an Imperial
Basing the Prowler shield pylon from an old terrain set submerged into the
The idea of basing vehicles can often become quite a sand. A roll of cable was also laid out, possibly left there by
discussion. For most walkers, a base is needed to make someone who tried to salvage the pylon in the past.
them stable enough for gaming, but many people prefer Once more, I waited for the Milliput to dry. Once this second
their tanks and armoured cars without bases. I, however, layer was dry, I applied Vallejo 26.809 Industrial Mud to add
generally like my vehicles based, mainly because I get to tell a bit of sand texture and to even out any sharp edges that
stories about the location they´re traveling through. Every might remain. The “ash” parts of this “Ash Wastes” base
vehicle base can be a mini-diorama! should ideally be softly flowing.
With the Prowler, I wanted a base primarily for display While waiting one final time for the base effects to dry, I
purposes. While gaming, I will be using the car without a painted up some resin plants to add onto the completed
base for easier movement and such, but on the shelf it´s base. These are made by Greenstuffworld and come as a
nice to have a bit of backstory. sprue of finished plants. I have been wanting to test them
To that end, I grabbed a spare 170x110mm oval base, and out for a while.
began by adding some Milliput rock casts. For these, I used Importantly, I made sure to stay away from the greens which
a rock mould from Woodland Scenics. After mixing the I had already used on the vehicle and crew. It is tempting
Milliput, I simply pressed it into the mould, waited about an to do so, but this runs the risk of having everything look as
hour and a half until it was mostly dry but still pliable, and if it´s the same exact colour, and often that doesn´t come
then pressed the three small castings flat onto the base. out so great. Instead, I picked a nice bright green – 71.094
A few drops of superglue made sure that the rock castings Green Zinc Chrome – which I shaded with thinned The Army
stayed put until they were dry. This gave me a small rock Painter Orc Skin Speedpaint. Once this layer was dry, I added
formation rising out of the wasteland, gently sloped on one a bit of The Army Painter Warpaint Rainforest (a light vibrant
side but with a sharper drop on the other. My vehicle would green) to the tips of my three plants and left them to dry.
be partially airborne over this formation, implying that it was
moving quite fast through the wastelands. The shield pylon was converted just slightly and painted gold
and black (good Imperial colours), contrasting well with the
I left the Milliput to dry for another hour or so, then mixed vehicle without being over the top on the wasteland base.
up a second batch which I used to smooth out the areas I then brought out the paints for the base, beginning with
around the rocks. I considered such things as sand flow and a black basecoat. Then came the colours I wanted for my
where wind might deposit it, but I wanted to make sure that rock formations. Having researched different types of rock
most of the nicely detailed rock was shown to the viewer. formations, I knew that I wanted this to look like slate, so
Once I had the putty where I wanted it, I used a bit of water I needed to bring forward a very matt grey with variation in
on my gloved fingers to smooth it out and gently push it the specific colour across the rocks. Some brown would be
to cover all the edges of the base. Finally, I pressed a few fine here and there as well. I started from 71.115. Blue Grey
bits of debris into the soft ground cover. A few bits like a all over to get a good base tone, adding some of the lighter
discarded motorcycle wheel and an old can or two can help 71.046 Pale Blue Grey into a mix for the first highlight and
the wasteland feel like a place where humans might live. For

10
finished with pure Pale Blue Grey, each time from a higher
and higher angle to simulate light hitting the top of the
stones. Finally, I dry-brushed 72.034 Bone White onto the
raised edges of the rocks, to make them look sharper and
more jagged.
To contrast the grey, the desert sand around the rocks
would be the same Natural Sienna colour which I had
already applied to the wheels of my Prowler, bringing base
and vehicle together and deepening the story being told.
This process began by airbrushing with 71.079 Tan Earth
onto the ground to prepare it for the pigment application.
Once that was dry, I made a very wet mix of Pigment Binder
and the Natural Sienna pigments and painted this slurry
onto one part of the base at a time. With so much pigment
binder laid down, I slowly shook more pigments on top,
drying up the binder and adding to the thickness of the
pigment layer. I alternated between the wet slurry and dry
pigment, slowly moving around the base until everything
was covered to my satisfaction. While this dried, I grabbed
another flat brush and used it to apply dry pigment over
the rocks, so it went into the crevices and holes. I then
airbrushed pigment binder on top, tying that pigment down
as well.
The plants and shield pylon were applied on top of the dry
pigment layer, after which a pair of 2mm diameter copper
rods were drilled up through the base and into the rear
wheels of the vehicle, at the angle I wanted. The Prowler
ended up nicely suspended, shown as it jumps this little
outcrop on its journey through the wastelands.

11
 the hull hatches for spares from other Imperial Guard tanks,
PREDATOR TANK to make sure they matched the turret hatch.
TO GUARD CARNODON The tank originally had a pair of lLascannons as its main
When people think of the Imperial Guard, one of the first armament, but the Space Marine weapons seemed far too
things that comes to mind is probably the venerable Leman advanced and bulky for my vision, so I cut those off and a
Russ tank. It is an unmistakeable silhouette, seen in almost dive into the bits box brought out a pair of old autocannons
every Guard army. For those exact reasons, I chose to go which were pinned in place.
in a different direction with the tanks for my Armageddon The tank was looking much as I wanted it to, and with the
force. The idea for the force was to show what is known as addition of a searchlight it came very close to complete. It
a “scratch company”, a unit made from surviving elements needed a pintle mount, to give my exposed driver a reason
of other forces, equipped with old, refurbished or second for sitting up in the turret. All the Imperial Guard weapons
line equipment. seemed a bit large and clumsy, but I found one that was
So, I turned to the designs of the Horus Heresy era. During slimmer in a Genestealer Cults kit and converted it to fit
the Heresy, the Imperial Army had their own “Predator Tank” the style of the tank. Instead of mounting it on the turret
designs, a tank much more commonly associated with ring as is often seen in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, I
Space Marines. Knowing that Armageddon was a settled used some copper and brass parts to build a vertical stand
planet at that time, and a factory or forge world at that, it in front of the hatch. A pair of small, metal shields from a
seemed reasonable that stockpiled equipment would still Necromunda kit and an eagle medallion were also tied to
be around. Therefore, an Imperial Guard Predator tank might the gun casing.
just fit the bill. The hatch itself was also given a ring on top of the
But I didn´t want to just take a resin Carnodon from viewports, made from copper wire. The addition of the ring
Forgeworld, so instead I turned to my bits box. By using helped push the tank further towards a human-sized design,
sponsons, a turret hatch and tank commander from a given the diameter and placement as a handhold.
Leman Russ tank, I changed the shape of the tank quite When it came to painting, the base colours were the same
a bit, and some additional armour plating on the body as the ones I used for the armoured car. Duck Egg Green
and turret further moved the design away from “sleek and and Neutral Grey were airbrushed on in stripes, trying to
dangerous”, and towards “heavy and brutal”. I also switched emulate the look of previous work by painters over the

12
years, when working on Armageddon Steel Legion vehicles. I turned to my custom decals once more and found a
These fairly light colours were balanced with weathering and vehicle number for the tank, identifying it as belonging to the
chipping to bring the tone of the vehicle down, while decals same unit as my armoured car. The tank was named “Vita
and freehand design brought small bits of other colours into Brevis”, Latin for “life is short”. This is half of an old motto
the mix. which reads “Ars Longa, Vita Brevis” or “skilfulness takes
time and life is short”. This seemed just like the sort of thing
The weaponry, both for turret and sponsons, was kept dark
a tanker who is fighting Orks might write on their vehicle.
and metallic, to show that this wasn´t a parade vehicle, but
rather a tank which had been brought out of storage due to
necessity.

13
 flimsy or made the resulting walker too tall and the body too
GROT KILLA KANS small for the legs. I was even able to use the existing pelvis
TO SNOW WALKERS of the Penitent Engine, cut slightly and placed underneath
the Killa Kan body. A bonus of using these legs, was also
A few years ago, a winter invitational was held in the that the attached feet looked very industrial, and not
US which revolved around skirmish combat on a planet dissimilar to some sort of snowshoe.
which was covered in icy wastelands, traversed mainly by
mechanoid walkers. I got involved peripherally because I Once I had the legs and bodies sorted, everything else
liked the concept and visuals which were used, and I felt like came together quite quickly. Each walker got a buzzsaw
building some mechs. arm from a Penitent walker, and an autocannon of some
sorts. I deliberately varied the designs a bit, hinting at a
Most of the builds I saw early on were huge, more along the non-standard build, possibly put together by people isolated
size of Imperial Knights towering over the wastelands. from large population centres using the parts they had
I decided to go in a different direction and built a warband available. Plasticard and spare rivets were used to hide
consisting primarily of infantry, with smaller, single-pilot some of the more Orky detailing, and an Imperial Guard
walkers to support them. I always wanted to build a multi- hatch was added to one of the units.
wheeled unit to accompany them but the right vehicle never Combination flags/antennas were added from the bits
materialized. The Snow Walkers became the only vehicles I box, these came from some Imperial Guard accessory
constructed for the event. My concept for them was that of kit, I believe. I also used Tamiya 12676 0.65mm miniature
a tiny, cramped unit. More like a single person submarine, cabling and some wire wrapped cables to connect the legs
full of valves and instruments inside; too warm inside and to the bodies and used the same cabling on the arms and
too cold outside felt like the right amount of grimdark for powerpacks to upgrade the detailing and have a similar
the event. design in all parts of the build.
I had recently bought a box of Grot Killa Kans, so to find Fortunately, I had lots of spare headlights from older builds,
the right combination of parts, I began by building a Killa that I added to the lower front of the body for a more
Kan body and laying it out on my table next to every single Imperial look.
mecha leg I had available. I was quite surprised to find that
for the look I wanted, almost everything was oversized. In My painting was inspired by a dieselpunk rendition of WWI
fact, the only legs that fit properly were those of the Sisters and WWII armoured vehicles, mainly grey with chipping in
of Battle Penitent Engines. Everything else either looked too Vallejo 70.822 German Camo Black Brown and metal chips

14
on the very edges of plating here and there. All the decals
came from a Forgeworld Death Korps of Krieg decal sheet,
to emphasise a baroque, Imperial feel. With the vehicles
largely painted in monochrome black and white, and the
snow bases also adding very little colour, the flags really
stood out once I painted them up in bright red.
The bases needed to be snow covered, of course, so I
tested lots of different effects. In the end I built up some
variation in the ground using Milliput, airbrushed down
a dirty white, and covered the whole thing with Citadel
Valhallan Blizzard snow effect paint. Before this had time to
dry, I pushed my walkers into the soft snow effect, making
sure that they would look as if they were sinking slightly into
the packed snow.
To add a tiny bit of interest to the bases, one of them got a
piece of Imperial Ruin embedded into the snow, while the
other received a Necromunda manhole cover with snow
melting on top of it.
Could this mean that our pilot is close to finding the warmth
of a hideout nearby? I also added some footsteps into the
snow cover as it dried, and once it had dried completely,
I used diluted Seraphim Sepia to add a bit of dirt to the
otherwise very bright snow.
I built up another layer of the Valhallan Blizzard on top of the
dirty snow, but before doing so I dripped some tiny drops
of blood red into the snow, so it would be hinted at through
the top layer. The effect is subtle, but quite effective, and
establishes a connection to the red banners.
In the end, I did not have the opportunity to participate in
the event, but this build was enjoyable none the less, and
having some background material to inspire a build was
very welcome.
Who knows? Maybe they will eventually get their day in the
sun (or snow), with a future event? Until then, they have a
place in my cabinet, as a learning experience in terms of
the build and working with snow effects, and in terms of the
enjoyment I had while working out which pieces to use.

15
 I felt that the foremost exhausts were muddying the
ORK BUGGY otherwise clean lines of the vehicle, so I greenstuffed a set
A TRIBUTE TO THE MAD MAX FRANCHISE of pipes leading from the front motor block to the rear one,
making for a lower profile and a better view of the motor
When the most recent Ork trucks and buggies were in general. Also, since I was removing details anyway, I
released in 2018, they did so after a period with some great smoothed out the fenders for the rear wheels, removing all
road movies, first among them (to me at least) Mad Max: the protruding metal “teeth” along them. This again helped
Fury Road from 2015. Although it would take me a bit of create cleaner lines and a smoother look. For the same
time, I got converting on the “Boosta Blasta”, and slowly reasons, the chains in front of the driver, and the jagged
worked towards something more in the style of the jalopies metal along the upper edge of his window cutout had to go.
of Fury Road’s Warboys.
A skull on top of the front grille and an added chain on the
The roof of the vehicle was flattened down and sanded nitrous tank were all that remained to do, in order to bring
smooth. A piece of Necromunda railing was turned into a out the feeling that I wanted to convey.
platform for the lancer, and I used various Ork Stikkbombs
mounted on plasticard rods to make my “boomsticks”. The I´ve always had a thing for Orks in yellow, and the flat roof
lancer was converted from a Bloodbowl Ork Thrower with was begging for some stylized flames, so my Orks became
the throwing hand coming from a box of Boyz. Bad Moons. I began by spraying the entire vehicle black,
and then highlighting the roof and sides of the vehicle with
Vallejo 71.115 Blue Grey.
Once this was done, I painstakingly drew and cut individual
flame shapes from masking film and stuck them down
where I wanted to keep my black flames.
I masked off the rest of the vehicle and then used 71.132
Aged White, highlighted with pure white for the top of the
roof, and used 72.706 Sun Yellow for the main part of the
body, with 72.705 Moon Yellow for the brightest parts.
72.708 Orange Fire was used to shade corners and lower
areas, before removing all of the masking.
Once the masking was off, I repainted the tubing. First in
black primer, and then I used 69.821 Rust Texture paint to
add a nice, gritty texture to all the parts which were going
to be bare metal. This is a relatively new paint from Vallejo,
which has very fine, jagged-shaped textural pieces added. I

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have begun using it on most of my terrain and other things
where I want a corroded metal texture before I paint it in my
normal rust approach. I then used my usual tricks – dark
browns, rust washes and such – to add a varied but dark
rust look to all of the metal parts.
Finally, I drybrushed 69.065 Dark Metal and 69.064 Light
Metal onto the exhausts and engine blocks, to bring back
some contrast and further vary the look of the metal.
The tusks and skull were painted up in bone colours,
and a dark red was stippled onto the cowlings of the two
supercharger units. After all, red ones go faster, as the
Orks say.
The boomstick charges were also painted up in red and
given a coat of Citadel Agrax Earthshade Gloss, to make
them look as if they were freshly made and quite possibly
leaking explosive fluids.
Compared to my newest Squat buggy, this one is missing
some of the weathering techniques that I have recently
started using, such as the dusted wheels, but I could easily
go back and add it if I felt so inclined.
Other than that, I feel like my original goal for the piece was
achieved. Whenever I have brought it to events, no one
has had doubts about the inspiration, and the black and
yellow paintjob is sure to draw the eye of people wandering
by. The hardest part about the conversion was smoothing
out the roof. Some very careful scraping to remove all the
detailing as well as the gunner´s turret ring, and careful, slow
sculpting using greenstuff is what saw me through. That, and
lots of sanding with increasingly fine grit, ending up at 2000
grit Tamiya sandpaper!

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HERNKYN PIONEERS
TO SQUAT BIKERS
Since the return of Necromunda in 2017, and the first
handful of Squat chartacters, people have speculated about
their return as a playable faction.
With the almost simultaneous release of freshly redesigned
Squat Prospectors for Necromunda, and the rebranded
Leagues of Votann for 40K, suddenly a wealth of bits and
kits were available for converters to use. The sculpts are
beautifully done and the 40K range is large and well
thought out. However, for Necromunda, I was missing
some vehicles.
In 2nd edition Warhammer 40,000 (way back in the olden
days), the Squat faction had access to Warbikes and
Wartrikes for the dwarves to zoom about on. With some
wheels and springs from my bits box, and a new box of
Hernkyn Pioneers, I set about converting their hover-trikes
into proper Warbikes once more. It was quite an ambitious
project, as I wanted to use only bits from the Hernkyn set
and the relatively new Orlock Outrider Quads kit to make my
conversion easier to copy by others.
Laid out in the image below are the parts I used from each
kit to make my bikes. All the hovercraft components from
the Votann bikes were left off, while the suspension and In our games, I have been using them as wolfquads, mainly
larger rear wheels from the Orlock Quads were used in because of their immense size, but also since Squat
combination with the hoverbike front fork, to make the new Prospectors have horrible initiative in-game, and it feels
bike. While I was at it, I also cut down the long dusters that so undignified to have them tumbling off their bikes every
the Hernkyn were wearing, making them into shorter leather chance they get. With two boxes of the Orlock Quads and
jackets instead. This was more suitable for my bikers, I felt. one box of Hernkyn, I was able to build two regular bikes and
one Trike.
The finished look is a huge bike, far larger than the dirt bikes
and such used by other gangs of Necromunda but fitting So far, only one of my bikers has been painted. I decided to
for the proud and bombastic Squat Prospectors. The front go with a classic black cowling for the bike, faded to a dark
suspension may not look perfect, but it follows the lines grey for most of the parts.
of the existing chassis quite well, and the rear suspension The tires were painted much as I did the ones for the
came together exactly as I had envisioned. Prowler, using a black basecoat, Blue Grey for highlights and
pigment dust diluted in AK Pigment Fixer.

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The metals, meanwhile, were painted using the same of Vallejo 26.809 Industrial Mud ground cover to smooth
techniques as the ones on the Ork Buggy, but with less rust out the base, before airbrushing on various greys. Finally,
and more shiny metal effects. To hint at a better maintained a layer of pigments was laid down, again using AK Pigment
machine, I omitted the rust texture step, and added washes Binder to make sure they stayed where I wanted them to.
of Agrax Earthshade to make the metals look oiled.
My plan is for each of the bikes to have different primary
The stowage was painted in a variety of colours, presenting colours on the cowlings, most likely one in faded red and
the chaotic, scavenged nature of the Necromundan one in a lighter grey than the first. Normally I wouldn´t paint
wastelands, while the leather seat of the bike was painted members of the same unit with different colours, but this
in rich red tones. These Prospectors appreciate a luxurious again emphasises the huge variety and individuality of the
ride after all. Necromundan Ash Wastes.
The bases were built up with Milliput, into which I pressed The way I see it, these Squats are not members of an army,
some of the leftover parts of the Orlock Quad, suitably they are contractors on a joint venture.
weathered and cut to look like wreckage. I then used a layer

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 I began by laying down a variety of dark browns and rust
CRANE UNIT oranges all over the vehicle. This was shaded with Agrax
A TRUE SCRATCHBUILD Earthshade, stippled with my usual German Camo Black
Brown, and then worked over again until I was happy with
At around the same time as I was working on my Ash the fully rusted vehicle.
Wastes terrain (covered in THE ART OF... Volume 8) I decided
that I needed some vehicles to populate my growing Once the rust base was fully dry, I masked off the tracks and
wasteland settlement. Inspired by some great builds that I removed the counterweights, since I didn´t want to get the
saw in the cabinets at Warhammerworld, I decided to try my yellow colour onto either of those areas. I then airbrushed
hand at making a small civilian crane unit. AK Worn Effects acrylic fluid all over the vehicle, making
sure to get complete coverage. After five minutes or so, I
This is a true bits-box build, I rummaged around and found repeated the Worn Effects application. I then left this to dry
the tracks from a Kataphron Destroyer, the cab from an for ten minutes.
old Imperial Guard Sentinel and parts from a Galvanic
Servohauler crane and built the machine up around those. Now came the fun part. I laid down a dirty white basecoat
If you look underneath the cab, you will see that I even with my airbrush and applied the yellows that I wanted for
used some smoothed out Milliput to connect the cab to my machine. Within two minutes or so of the paint going on,
the track unit. I applied water using a wide brush, and then used a large
drybrush to simply pull off the yellow paint where I wanted,
To this basic design I added power cells from a lascannon, exposing the rust layers below.
a fuel drum from a terrain kit, and then various lighting and
technical bits until it felt “techy” enough. Unfortunately, it This gives me very realistic looking flaking of the paint and
turned out that my original design was far too front heavy, leaves the yellow paint in the corner. If you look very closely
so I scratch built a plasticard frame and dropped in three at the actual model, you can even see how the yellow paint
counterweights, made from Milliput. The counterweights is flaking. Unlike most other methods, here we have the rust
had lifting hooks made from brass rod, and one of them has layer underneath the paintjob the vehicle has been given,
a hoisting chain attached. I figure that the operators must which is very pleasing.
have a way to switch the weights depending on what they Once I was happy with the balance between the bright
will be lifting, after all. yellow and the darker rust areas, I left the crane to sit
Once I added the counterweights, my little crane turned out overnight, ensuring that the chipping fluid dried completely
to be very nicely balanced, and gained some added weight, and would not reactivate. I then used all of my other usual
very welcome during games so it doesn´t get accidentally techniques, adding washes of Agrax Earthshade and
moved around the table. Seraphim Sepia, using pigments on the tracks and sparingly
on the more rusted parts elsewhere on the crane. I even
When it came to the painting, I turned to an old method of added some oil spills around the engine and fuel drum.
mine for fast but good-looking chipped paint. It´s a method
that I have used mostly for terrain, as it is a bit tricky to The piston rods for the crane were painted in a far brighter
control, but it was perfect here. metal, hinting at the crane still being in use. Old and derelict,
but not discarded yet.

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