Grot Mege Bomma

I’ve struggled to come up with a title for this project as it’s something going to be something of a Frankenstein creation that is trying to be all things to all grots. Following on the back of the Redemptor project I’ve got the kit-bash bug again and now want to do a flyer. The two things it has to have a big Gatling style cannon and big bombs, I’ve made Gatling guns before so I’m ok with this part, as for the bombs I actually want a bomb bay which I think will be the main challenge. After a bit of pondering I’ve settled on a rotary bomb bay with four big bombs and four medium bombs being the starting point. This means that starting with an out of the box Orky flyer I need to make it wider and longer.

I’ve made a couple of pages of notes to remind me of the key bits I want to add so it’s to get going. With the flyer in hand the first thing I did was to cut the fuselage into three sections, nose, main body and tail. The reason for this was that I only wanted to widen the main body so I need some way of dividing things up. By picking and then cutting on existing panel lines I think I can put things back together without it looking too disjointed. I then used some thin card I got from a craft shop draw out and cut some templates to fill in where I made the cuts. I find it much easier and cheaper using the card to make a template before moving on to plasticard.

The nose and tail just needed the gaps filling in so that was nice and easy. Although I had to quite a bit work to the nose code to fit properly. This was because the mounting plate had moved and it was now at a different angle which made the nose point sharply down.  For the main body I needed to get the pieces that could act as spacers to keep everything aligned once it was widened. I did this by getting something that would fit with the fuselage in its normal set up, then I cut these in half and added new sections to get the width I wanted before fixing the fuselage back together. There’s still a long way to go but I think the layout I have now will work.

One thing I would also like to share is that whilst I have a good idea of what I want to end up with the whole process is very fluid. So I’m sure I will spend lots of time on things I think will work only to find out I’ve made a complete mess of it. So a top tip here is don’t worry about it and if you build something that isn’t right, either change it or better yet throw it in your bits box and start again. It will be the perfect piece for a future project, you just don’t know it yet.

This is a key part of the build and will determine just how long the overall model will end up being. So it has to be done before I can carry on. This is the second version as the first, whilst I think it had real potential, was just too large.

(Pictures of both bomb launchers here)

By shrinking things down I have managed to get it to fit four large bombs and then by making longer mounts I can fill in the spaces with the medium bombs. At this size I can get it fit the fuselage, even if it does mean one of the bombs sticks out of the bottom a bit. It just means it’s always ready for use.

Whilst I was pondering what to do with the main fuselage I started work on the tail. To start with I filled in hole from where I cut this section away from the rest of the fuselage and then added a bit of gubins to make it look a little more interesting along with one of the mounts for the bomb launcher.

I had decided to go with a double tail fin set up just because I think it looks a bit more interesting so I went with the bits that come with the kit for the Waz bomber but I’ve left the mount for the tail gunner blank at the moment whilst I decide what to do with it. I was planning on adding some A10 style extra engines in front of the tail section but after playing around a bit I decided it would be easier to build them into this section instead. I got the engines from a bits site and are from the little Marine flyer which I think is a storm talon.

A little bit of trimming allowed me to get a good fit and I then cut out a couple of thick bits of plasti card to use as the wing mounts. To get a good fit I drew a centre line down the pieces and then marked where the whole need to be cut out. For a good fit I used a couple of drill bits that matches the radius of each end and then drilled out two holes. It was then a simple case of cutting lines between the wholes to get a nice wing mount shaped hole.

These could then be mounted to the sides of the engines along with random bits of plasti card to give them a more orky feel. I also spent a bit of time to distress everything with a sharp craft knife so things didn’t end up looking too neat.

For the tail wings I used the large central tail wing, and mounted it about the standard one to get this double height contraption. All in all it makes for very large tail section but I think it will end up fitting the overall feel of the model.

This is where things got a bit mixed up and I stopped keeping my notes and pictures up to date. The result is that the next few pictures represent a bit of jump. I’m considering it my Blue Peter Moment with here’s one I made earlier. I’m showing the base here as I built it to test that the work I had done on the fuselage could be supported and it also make it easier to take pictures for the next steps.

For the fuselage I’ve cut a normal fighter in half and then used a section from some Mechanicum scenery to extend it and act as a bomb bay. I’ve then used some plasticard to widen everything to so that I can mate up a bit more neatly with middle section. It’s a bit disjointed but I like the overall feel and it will balance on the base without tipping over which is a relief. Another close call and not something I planned is that will just about fit in a KR Case so I should be able to transport it once it’s finished.

Because it’s a lot longer than a normal fighter I though the wings needed to be bigger so I picked up some more wings up on line and I’ve added them to the existing wings to give it a much bigger wingspan. It also means I can add more rockets and bombs under the wings to give it more dakka.

When I shared what I’d done with some friends the overriding comments were that they liked it but that the wings looked to wimpy for an ork creation. A bit of idea sharing over a brew and I was told to go away and do better. Either to make the wings thicker or to add more wings. The more wings seemed like a better option so it was on e-bay and the K-Wing creation was born. Now just by moving wings to a higher position gave it a better look and then with the addition of the smaller lower wings I was really happy with the result.

With the wings sorted and extra magnets added to keep them in place I only had the final details to add. So a few exhausts and lots of bolts. It’s these last bits that always seem to take ages to finish but I go there in the end.

With the model finally finished it’s time to start painting. There’s a lot of surface area to cover with this thing so I started be priming it in black with the airbrush.

Then once the primer was dry it was time to start work on the colour. I’ve got a process for giving my orks a distressed look that takes quite a bit of time to do but it’s nice and simple so I tend to stick with it. I take a dark metallic paint, in this case a Scale Colour Black Metal and use an old GW Large Dry brush and liberally apply it all over the model. I don’t mind a few bits of black remaining and I’m not trying to get the colour into all of the details. Once that is done I then use a lighter metallic paint, this time a Vallejo Steel and using the same brush give everything an light dry brush. Then the last stage of this first part is to give everything a really good wash with Nuln Oil to nock all the colours back.

With metallic base down it’s now time to cover most of it with first or the main colours. As this is going to be a speed freak creation the main colour has to be red but to break things up a bit I’m also going to user blue to make it lucky and some yellow which is also a speed freak colour and adds a bit more interests.

For this layer I want to cover most of the metallic colour leave all of the edges a bit rough and also leave a few gaps to look like the paint has been scratched off or worn away. For the red I’ve used Citadel Khorne Red, the blue is Scale Colour Arianrhod Blue and for the yellow I’ve used Vallejo Filthy Brown which is a light yellow based brown. All of this has been done with a large brush but one that has a good point for the details. The trick is to try and make it look like paint isn’t done very well without it actually being a bad paint job.

Highlights will come next but I find that this first coat of proper colour takes a long time but the next layers don’t take anywhere near as long. I hope.

I’ve been working on the first highlight over the weekend and I’ve made some good progress but I wanted to so a bit of a comparison. I was going to paint up one of the stub wings and the compare with other but I got carried away and didn’t stop to take the pictures. So before I get carried away again here we have a stub wind that has had it’s first highlight of Mephiston red alongside one of the main wings that has it’s base of Khorne red. The aim here is not to cover all of the base colour trying to give the impression that the paint is fading or wearing away. The close ups show that things aren’t really that well blended but the aim here is to get something that looks good from three feet rather than up close as display piece.

The first highlight is now finished and it didn’t’ take anywhere near as long as it did to lay down the base colours. I’m happy with how it’s looking and I’ll be moving onto the details next.

With the first highlights completed I needed to have a change of colour so I’ve been working on some of the details. The first of these is the gunner that sits on top of the bomb bay. It’s a small details but offered a bit of change so at least it’s not red. The hardest part of this has been keeping the metallic lines on the clear canopy neat and tidy.

Next up with have the gubbins that sits behind the cockpit and I’ve decided to christen it as a Waaagh capacitor. I don’t actually know what it is but it looks cool and that’s enough for me. I also wanted it to look very different from everything else so I’ve used badger ghost tints over a metallic to give a somewhat translucent effect. Then I’ve gone over that with a gloss varnish to really make it shine. As this is going to be one of the only places I use a gloss finish it should stand out nicely when everything is finished.

Finally I’ve just noticed the marks on the pictures so I will be cleaning the camera lens and / or the sensor before I add any more pictures.

I’ve been plugging away this week and I’m getting closer to the finishing line. For this updated I’ve been working on the details and edge highlights which has been a slow process. It’s all about trying to bring out the details and give everything some pop. This has mainly consisted of adding silver to those hard edges and then using a few key colours to bring out the details, whilst at the same time trying not to throw in to many colours. I don’t want it to get to complicated.

Now it wouldn’t be much of a bomber if it didn’t have bombs, but not just bombs in this case it also has rockets. The model itself can actually carry six big bombs, eight standard bombs and ten rockets. Although I only have four big bombs and six standard bombs. And the entire project started with the bombs so it’s fair to say they are key part of the project.

The level of customisation is linked to the size of the bombs, so each of the big bombs has its own design whilst the smaller ones are a combination of designs. Although each of the bombs does have its own message written on it as that personal touch for whoever it happens to land on.

It’s taken me quite a long time to do this build but I’ve got there in the end. The colours may not be to everyone’s liking but I like the cartoon look and there is no denying that it’s going to be fast. I’ve tried to make it look a bit worn and also tried picking out some of the details with different colours without going to over the top. I solved the missing pilot dilemma by using a Kromlech model I’ve had in my bits box for while. Even though he clearly isn’t a pilot I still think if works well here. Now this whole project started with the rotary bomb bay that will hold eight bombs but now that everything is finished you can’t actually see it, but it is there I assure you. All of the bombs and rockets on the wings are magnetises to they can be swapped out or removed when used and it’s got lots of big shootas.

The only thing that I’m not really happy with is that now it’s been varnished it’s a bit shiny. I’ve used the same satin varnish I normally use but for some reason it’s turned out a bit on the shiny size. I can always pick up some mat and give it a once over with that but I’ve been working on it that long now I just want to call it a day. So I hope you all like it and I’ll now have a bit of time to think about the next project.