Retro 40k Duck Style

Remember these:

Following my serach of the ‘Loft of Shame’ I discovered a project that I started back in the early ’90s. I remember getting one of the original Ork Battlewagon kits, but being somewhat disappointed by it’s lack of firepower when compared to my friends exciting Space Marine Land Raiders and Predators. Following receipt of WD 131, my opinion of the humble Battlewagon kit was redefined by the legend, Tony Cottrell’s epic Gobsmasha conversion. This adds a Battlecannon (Yes that is a school Berol pen lid) and protection, while trading off Ork transport capacity (they can walk!)

Unfortunately 12 year old me, wasn’t quite up to his skillz and 30 years of neglect had left my ‘smasha feeling a little the worse for wear. When I tried to strip the 30 year old brushed on primer off the model, the cardboard perished and the whole thing fell apart!

This left me with the task of rebuilding the basis of the model, which was surprisingly simple, plasticard construction, turrets made from 3 slotta bases, exhaust made from the 30 year old bendy drinking straw and as per the original box art, the addition of a Massive banner, as everything and everyone in 2nd edition seems to have a banner!

For painting, I wanted to stick to something that closely resembled Tony’s original paint job, but I also wanted to try out the hairspray technique as I’ve never really tried that sort of thing before. So I started with a light prime in Grey, followed by airbrushing a chocolate Brown all over the tank, leaving it looking a bit like a large Dairy Milk Ork vehicle.

Next up I sprayed the whole thing with two coats of matt varnish to seal in the Brown and then 2 heavy coats of the cheapest hairspray that money can buy. After leaving that to dry for a bit I hit the tank with three thin coats of Vallejo Model Air dark red and then a gently highlight of VMA light red for a gentle panel highlight. I didn’t want to airbrush too light a colour as I wanted a more subtle highlighting effect on the tank. I then brushed painted on a tin bitz colour to the mechanics and engine part of the tank at the back. I wanted to see how the hairspray technique worked on both airbrushed and hand painted acrylics.

At this point I’d sunk a good few hours into getting the tank basic paint done and it looked like this.