Da BuzzMork (or possibly BuzzGork)!

[SotonShades]

Greetings all!

This idea has been bouncing around in my head for a while now, and this week I reached the point where I just had to start sticking stuff together! This is going to be a BIG project by pretty much anyone's standards and whilst I may not be going into quite the detail that Blackadder is doing with his Warlord, I do hope some people get some inspiration from it. So, what is Da BuzzMork? Here is an extract from the fluff I have written for it;

Imperial observers have had an almost singularly hard time identifying and codifying Da BuzzMork. Like the vast majority of Orkoid vehicles, it has a rather ramshackle appearance, appearing to be little more than a collection of vehicles and junk piles hammered together, though its considerable bulk certainly adds a sense of solidity to the structure. With each encounter it seems to have additional or retrofitted armaments and often entire new hull sections. Furthermore the glyphs and identifier marks change constantly; of particular note is the craft’s name. Whilst the majority of the lettering is painstakingly repainted regardless of the repairs on the craft, the ‘M’ is often replaced with a ‘G’. Whether this is in deference to some aspect of the Orkish deities or simply down to a rivalry between the Meks that maintain and repair the craft is unknown.

Referring to the class of Ork vehicles is largely folly, due to the ‘unique’ method in which each is created. However, most seem to follow certain basic patterns or sizes, such as the commonly found ‘Trukk’, ‘Battlewagon’ or the slightly rarer ‘Warkopta’. Certain Orkish creations seem to defy even these broad categorisations, along with the laws of physics, being of such tonnage and scale as to be incomparable. The BuzzMork is one such machine.

In the basest distinctions, the BuzzMork would be described as a Quadrotor Helicopter. However, such a term does not do justice to the vastness of the heretical xenos creation, being of comparable mass to small Orkoid ‘Krooza’ starships despite being a purely atmospheric craft. Additionally it serves as a mobile base of operations for the Ork warlord known as Spearsmasha and his helicopter mounted Waaagh! Capable of hangering, launching and retrieving smaller aircraft during flight potentially hints at its classification as an aerial aircraft carrier, though its formidable payload of bombs and arsenal of weapon batteries could equally mark it out as a heavy bomber. One comparison that does seem to stick is that Da BuzzMork is like an insect hive; while transporting Spearsmasha’s followers, a drone of whirring rotors can be heard for miles around as a deep buzzing. When attacked, deffkoptas swarm out of the ventral access portals to protect the mothership and larger warkoptas are ejected via a steam catapult on the fight deck. Any damage the enemy does manage to inflict is quickly filled in and repaired, often acting as the source for further expansion or adding extra armaments.

Little more is known about this mighty craft. Mechanicus Adepts have calculated that the quartet of rotors that provide both the lift and manoeuvring capability to Da BuzzMork cannot possibly produce the levels of thrust to keep such a behemoth aloft, let alone carry hordes of Orks into battle and tons of munitions to unload into their foe. This has lead to the speculation that a primitive though powerful anti-grav generator may have been installed onboard. Indeed, this theory is backed up by eye-witness accounts of projectiles and particle weapon’s beams being turned away from Da BuzzMork’s hull, even when clear of the downwash of the rotors. Like the rest of the technology observed on Da BuzzMork, each of the engine cells that powers the rotors appears to be hastily cobbled together, the result being that while they are all extremely large, none match the others. The net outcome of this is an often erratic flight profile for the craft, presumably as individual engines experience temporary increases or lulls in power output and speed, though equally this could be the result of the pilot’s over exuberance with the throttle levers.

I say extract... it's more a case of "This is most of what I have so far, more to come and this stuff needs a good edit as well!"

Well, this isn't the Background forum, so I suppose I had best post some modelling bits as well? How about a picture of this behemoth with a couple of other models for scale?



It's not THAT big. For scenery. This won't be scenery. In fact, once I'm done, it will actually be on a flying stand, perhaps a foot or so above the table top! It will also have 4 huge turbo prop engines on pylons coming out from each corner. And guns. It's going to be an orky super-heavy vehicle; it will have LOTS of guns.



This is the right hand side, for reference.



And the back. By the way, that is a double width baneblade chassis on the top... again, mostly for scale.


Now, this is very, very early WIP. Most of the tape will dissappear or be buried under a papier mache layer/behind armour panels etc. It's mostly holding joints together while glue dries. Before I get to painting this, there will be no cardboard exposed. I hope. This really is just providing the bulk.

Naturally I am also working on rules for Da BuzzMork, which I'll post later somewhere. For now, think Tau Manta, but slightly worse in many respects, better in some others and far, far more Orky!

I have a ton of ideas for detailing for this model, as well as what guns I want and where I'll put them. I'll make up some plans using the pictures I have taken soon, so you can all get a glimpse of what's going on in my head. However, there is such a huge surface area for me to cover that I'm sure I'll need some help. So any ideas or suggestions are very welcome! If anyone wants to donate some Orks or Gretchin to populate and crew this huge vehicle, they'd be more than welcome too! Lol.

For those who don't know, or haven't guessed, this is to go along side one of my other projects, [URL="http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?7897-Ork-Kopta-Force"]Da Kopta Force[/URL]. I won't be neglecting them while I work on this. Hopefully one will inspire me with the other and vica versa.

Right, I should get some more stuff up soon. Let me know just how insane you think I must be to attempt this, and/or anything else you want to say of course.

Shades

[alshrive]

in my mind i am seeing an Orkoid version of this....

[SotonShades]

Yep, but a hell of a lot less streamlined, bristling with guns, flaking armour panels and miscilaneous scrap and hopefully swarming with Orks and Grots!

[fuzzbuket]

oh my i cant wait to see this finished

[Zac78]

Awesome idea

[olberon]

oooh i love those plans!!! these prjekts make me always want to start my own oks army and go to town with it, just for the hell of it :P

Hmmmmm, maybe next army will be orks since my wife loves them...................

[SotonShades]

Evening Gents, Ladies and Orks!

Like any good Mek, I have managed to come home with a bag full of materials for building (along with a few Christmas presents...) and have most of the rest of the weekend to myself so hopefully I will be able to crack on with this and get some pictures up for you all!

And just so you know, the bag that was so full of stuff is almost entirely for Da Deffarsenal. I'm still not sure I have enough plastic tubing for all the barrells I want to add. We shall see.

[SotonShades]

I ran out of styrene tubing quicker than I thought...



So, let's start at the very beginning(ish) as it is, indeed, a very good place to start. I started roughly forming the housing for the Deffarsenal by cutting the back plate off the styrene sheet and then a second identical plate (again, ish... unlike Blackadder's Warlord, I don't have to be too neat!) I then used the sedond plate to size up the armoured cowling, which I glued to the edged of the back plate with the brackets you can see here providing more stability/strength, as well as somewhere to glue the second plate too...



This gave a good thickness to point where the many barrels will be attached to, moving them away from the hull of da BuzzMork. The Stormboy is there partially to hold the deffarsenal up for the photo, but also for scale. The gunner is actually a Deffkopta pilot I built years ago (I had an idea for a skwadrun riding what were essentially jet engines with wings and guns, but gave up on that when I started buying Black Reach ones cheaply on bitz sites) but I only assembled his seat for this project.



Can't believe I never thought of this idea before, though I guess it was because I never had the bitz lying around in front of me. Can you tell what it is made of?

I felt it looked suitably mechanically (and surprisingly reminiscent of the Harrier Jump Jet seats they had in the flight simulator at my old uni) and sized about right for the gunner controlling such a big array of weapons. I'll be adding more control levers and the like, as well as some kind of armoured platform to raise him above the upper cowl slightly.



Only thing left was to start adding guns. And missiles. Those two supa-rokkits are actually hollow. If anyone is interested I can eplain how I made them, but it is a lot of very samey pics, so I won't go into it now. The barrels where just various diameter styrene rods, cut to length and cleaned up or made rougher and placed semi-randomly.

[SotonShades]

As I said, I ran out of tubes far too quickly;



While I have kept the place ment of the barrels fairly random, I have generally placed the shorter ones closer to the front/bottom of the Deffarsenal, though kept a greater variety in the calibre across the whole array.



I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire 687856 shots or only 687855?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as theere is probably a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, which would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
-: attributed to Orky 'Arry

There is still space for a few more guns. It deffinitely needs more guns. This thing fireds 33D6 shots right? Only 3D6? erm...



So, name them bitz time! Who can spot all of the GW weapon's I have used so far?

Shades

p.s. if anyone wants to send me a few more guns to add, they'd be greatly appreciated!

[SotonShades]

Hi Folk, Folkettes and those less into folk music...

Just a wordy update for now while I wait for some gun barrels to dry. Not on the Deffarsenal though... I'll be adding more to that later!

I haven't been sitting idle over Christmas (well, not all of the time at least) and have built the raised platform for the Deffarsenal gunner and am Currently welding together the first of the Flakka Gunz. Boy, are these things burning through plasticard! Hopefully it will all be worth it in the end though. I'll try to get some pictures later this evening/tomorrow (though I'm sure by now you are all aware how likely that is!)

Until then,

Shades