Necessity might be the mother of invention, but overpriced metal model box sets are the mother of conversion. Here are the Panzerknackers, in all their Bloo-Flame glory.
Tankbustas were one of my favorite unit in 4e. While they might not be the strongest unit for 5e, they're still fun to chuck on the table. These were made up of regular Boyz plastics, and a fair bit of plastic card and tubing. I had a fantastic time converting these boys up, especially the weapons. I wanted as many variations of rokkit launcher as possible, from the standard shoulder mount, to a large bore grenade launcher, to small, hand held rokkit pistols.
They all sport a masked helmet of some sort, a style cue taken directly from the 4e codex art for the unit. I liked the flavor, as it gave them a more predatory feel. I can just picture a small group of these guys hunkered down in some rubble, peering through vision slits, waiting for their target to trundle into range.
Also in the pipeline for this unit are some bomb squigs and a boy with a Tankhamma. I simply can not say no to a weapon so undeniably brutal. I've gone with a slightly different approach though, as the simple "Rokkit on a Stick" seemed a bit too disposable. I went with an actual hammer design, that uses the rokkit as an impact charge to bring the hurt.
Essentially, a rokkit-powered tank tenderizer. He still needs a bit of smoothing before primer and paint, but trust that he'll receive the full Bloo-Flame treatment like the rest of the lads.
These are funky! Great conversions and cool paint jobs. That hammer-wielder is just stunning.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you like them! I know they're not the most remarkable on the tabletop, but I really like their flavor, so I spent a lot of extra time and care in making them unique. I'm hoping to do a unit of Kommandos next.
ReplyDeleteI'm loving your Orks! The conversions are awesome and that blue flame is awesome! What paints are you using to get that blue?
ReplyDelete@SAJ: To be honest, I couldn't give you exact paint colors. I've got 3 different shades of blue from the Vallejo model range, but they've been well loved. Between general use and my homemade paint shaker, I can no longer read the labels.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, that doesn't bode well when it comes time to replace them, I think I'm going to have to eyeball them.
Of the three, the darkest shade is almost a royal blue. The lightest is a sky blue (very very light) for the edge highlights. The middle is closer to a mid-tone between the two extremes. Between those three, I mix various shades for feathering. I'm still messing around with wet-blending, but I've been less than happy with the results. Feathering takes a bit longer, but looks great for tabletop stuff.
Hope that helps!