I've been slowly working on a few projects over the last few months and one of them is finally finished. I've converted my second Ork Wartrakk...again. It's been missing a wheel since my then-five-year-old got his hands on it, but there were always a few other things I wasn't completely satisfied with after I finished converting it. The front fenders were a bit underwhelming, the weapon mount put the scorcha above the gunner’s head, and despite being quite tall, it didn’t really feel as boxy as I wanted. So I decided to tackle all these issues at once.
The first step was getting some new wheels. One of the reasons used the same standard wheels as the one on the front of the Wartrakk was because they were one of the standard 40K wheel sizes, which meant you could easily order replacements from Games-Workshop. But then GW stopped selling them, so I had to come up with a different plan.
To replace the wheels on my little firecar, I eventually landed on the wheels from the Genestealer Cults Achilles Ridgerunner. These ones were quite a bit bigger than my previous wheels, which would require some redesigning.
I didn’t want the whole vehicle to tilt backwards, so I’d have to elevate the rear enough that it tilted forward instead. To do this, I decided to build my little trakk a proper undercarriage, like the one my big trakk. I also probably went a bit overboard with my dismantling and ripped off a few bits that I probably should have just left alone. Oops.
I made the basic frame of the vehicle with some long plasticard strips and some H-beams. I also added a ram mount on the front. I also put some brass rods in the Ridgerunner wheels to make them detachable.
I also built a ridiculously large transmission for the track out of a piece of a soap dispenser,
In order to have the trakk tilt forward, I had to drop the tracks below the rest of the frame, so they ended up basically turning into their own subframe. I used some brass rod to make some sturdy axles that wouldn't get bent or broken during normal use and I used part of a plastic twist-off cap (similar to those on a Squeezit cap) to make the differential.
Of course, while the brass axles themselves were pretty strong, I didn’t want those plastic joints supporting all the shearing stress on the bottom of the vehicle, so I cut some plasticard I-beams to connect the two sides.
Connecting I-beams at right angles was a bit tricky, but I just cut off the top and bottom of one beam so that they lock together tightly and ended up with a really great connection.
To connect the two subframes, I decided to model some pistons to look like a hydraulic suspension or adjustable traction bars. This would involve connecting tubes at some weird angles, so I started off by using some other bits of tube to make some connection points on the main portion of the frame that stuck out just beyond the flanges of the beams. I then chopped up some square tubing to make a C-shaped brackets on the track subframe.
A few little tubes at weird angles wasn't much to support the weight of the vehicle, so I decided that I needed something in the middle transferring the weight straight down.
My initial plan was to create two more, even smaller pistons to squeeze into the spot between the two frames, but they were just way too flimsy. Instead, I decided to create some springs out of some plastic worm gears. This meant that I could run some brass rod through the middle of the gears and solidly pin the two halves together.
The hard part was cutting the worm gears at an angle to match the upper frame. They're made of some pretty hard plastic and trying to cut them at an angle across their threads just made them want to spin. But eventually I managed to get them cut and they worked great!
The little suspension bars were surprisingly difficult to attach. Trying to hold them at the correct angle and extend them to the proper length when I couldn't even get my fingers in there was incredibly difficult. I used superglue and baking soda to get a quick bond, but even then I don't know how I kept them in position long enough to glue it all together.
The next step was making an engine for my little firecar. I used the engine from the Mek Workshop and simply cut away the chains that were attached to these bits. Taking inspiration from some of the crazy vehicles you see at tractor pulls, I made a little gearbox to go beneath the engine and ostensibly connect it to my oversized transmission below.
I also made some exhaust pipes out of plasticard rod. Working with such tiny tubes at very precise angles was challenging, so I ended up first cutting out some little plasticard guides and then gluing the rods to them. I could then maneuver all the pipes together and sand them down to the correct angle to attach to the engine block. I then sanded off the guides as best as I could, so the underside of the pipes is pretty messy, but they look good from above.
The next thing I decided to add were some roll bars around the driver. I also magnetized his seat, which made getting him in and out so much easier.
I also rebuilt the gunner's platform that I'd torn off and added a spot to add some gubbinz like a big grabba or a wreckin' ball.
At this point, I put things on hold for a bit to take my updated Firecar on a test drive. I played a short campaign with Cygnus and his brothers, which included my scorcha trakk going up against his scorcha buggy.
This particular encounter ended with both vehicles basically immobilized and their crews hopping out to beat each other up. Good times.
Once I got back to converting, the next step was making some new fenders. I spend a good deal of time sanding the joints to give them more of a smooth curve than the old ones had.
Before I stuck the two subassemblies together, I decided to airbrush them to make sure I got all the fiddly details painted. This ended up taking much longer than anticipated due to my airbrush being clogged and me accidentally shooting the nozzle across my kitchen while cleaning it.
Fortunately I did eventually get both halves painted and glued together properly. I made sure to mask out a few of the details that still looked good, as well as the connection points so I could stick them together with plastic glue.
I was also now able to add the front shocks that came with the Ridgerunner wheels and axle. Some very cool little bits.
I then painted up the trakk in my mob's classic Goff paint scheme, adding plenty of cheques where I could.
I'm pretty pleased with the finished result. My little firecar turned out nice and boxy like I had originally intended, without being any longer than it was before. And I can easily mount my second Big Grabba on it, which could be fun.
The ram mount on the front is also compatible with the ram on my big trakk, but it looks pretty ridiculous on my tiny trakk buggy, so a new ram is now on the list of future projects.
And if you want an even more in-depth description of the conversion process, I have a new video up on my YouTube channel.
