DA TRUK
ORKY WARTRUK

I decided some time ago that if I was going to build an Ork Truk, it would be built from one of two kits. Tamiya's US M3 Halftrack (or one of it's variants, depending on what I could find) or their Quad Gun tractor. The Gun Tractor won. There are many advantages to building a Truk from a 1/35 kit. For a start, it will look unlike anything anyone else has. Secondly, most appropriate kits cost less than the official Truk model. And finally, since you have to convert the official truk to fit enough orks anyway, you might as well make something really cool by scratchbuilding anyway.

So I had a Quad Tractor. To make it able to carry orks, I needed to remove most of the roof, and some of the back. I then added 4cm in length to the chassis and the tray area I built. I used laminated plasticard to create the chassis rails and the walls of the tray. A third axle was needed. Fortunately, the winch motor housing in the kit was exactly the same shape as the differential bell housings on the axels, so no problem there. The leaf springs were salvaged from another kit. The wheels are from a couple of toy construction vehicles which happened to have the same wheels. I liked the wheels in the kit, but there where only four unfortunately.

I decided to arm he beast with a Rokkit luancha and bolt on big shoota. The rokkit launcha is a chopped down version of the Havoc launcher on the Chaos vehicle accessory sprues. The big shoota is made from a huge cannon of an Epic Mega Gargant, various bits of imperial vehicle accessories, and the ammo feeds from IG Autocannons.

Various bits of extra armor plating where added to hide unwanted windows, a massive ram plate was added, and several bull bars and grab handles added. The bars and handles are made from 2mm plastic rod. I heated them gently over a candle, and bent them to shape. Because, as we all know, Red ones go Fasta, the Truk is painted red. A base coat of Red Gore is followed by Blood red drybrushing, which gives a nice rusty sort of red. I also stippled on Vermin Brown to simulate rust. Now I have a unique truk, which can actually carry 10 Orks in relative comfort. It cost me $29 for the kit, everything else I already had. The official truk costs about $35, and you have to convert anyway. So why not use some sort of 1/35 scale model for YOUR next Orky vehicle? There are plenty to choose from! I'm using various light vehicles for my buggy squadron, and something like a German Maus Super heavy tank would make an awesome basis for a battle wagon!

Here we see Sprogz Shootaz demonstrating the speed and comfort in which ten Orks can be carried by Da Truk. Since I don;t have any Truk Boyz just yet, Sprogz Lads have volunteered to test drive the beast.