Random Encounter 1 - Scratch Built Ork Stompa

Following a huge amount of support from fellow bloggers I'm going to throw in a few random encounters These random encounters will include some of the non-zombie stuff I've been creating over the past few years, either just before or alongside the Outbreak City project.

Well badly Mech!

I recently discovered that Warhammer 40K had it's 25th Anniversary. That sounded like quite a cool landmark until I realised that it meant I had been playing 40K for 25 years; Yikes!


Ball point pen Supa Rockets!

As an Ork player who has never owned anything but Orks so, quite frankly, I'm not that good at 40K and haven't really developed any strategy other than a massed assault. GW got me into this hobby so despite me playing a whole heap of different games now, I still play 40K and LOTR occasionally.

Belly plates. Sigil is off the original Stompa.

Sat in my bits box for a number of years was the interior of a small waste paper bin which my buddy James said "You should make than into a Stompa." It seemed like a good idea, but I guessed a scratch-built Stompa would require quite a bit of work and whilst my bits box was full, there wasn't quite enough Orky Stuff.

Titan Close Combat Weapon - GW, Lego and other bitz.

With the introduction of Apocalypse, and the super-heavies, the Orks were blessed with one of the coolest Orky models ever, the Stompa. I picked one up and after struggling to build it (It isn't the easiest kit to build, but it looks good) I found they had very kindly included a few optional accessories. The excuses had to end, I now had the Orky bits I needed to scratch build another stompa.

Big Shoota turret.

The model progressed with polystyrene being parcel taped to the waste paper bin to build a basic frame with a layer of papier-maché on top to give a solid base for everything else to come.

Da bit dat makes da smoke and noise!

The feet were cardboard tube 'legs' with Hirst Arts blocks and for everything else I raided the bits box and tried to replicate GW's Stompa as closely as I could.

Ork pilot, otherwise known as a Stompa-er.

Cardboard and plasti-card 'plates' were glued onto the papier-maché with individual rivets super-glued in place. The head was a deodorant cap with stuff stuck on. Cannons, shootas and rockets were made from everything from pipes, to pens, to bits off an old star wars toy - essentially all the best junk out of my bitz box. I used spare goblin and Ork figures and one I'd saved from the original Stompa.

"We will fix it, we will mend it!"

It took quite a bit of time to finish and being a model for a GW game, enter scale creep (it ended up bigger than intended), but all it does the trick.

Shoulder plate courtesy of Darth Vader's Tie Figther circa 1980 something.

We tend to work on 'secret' projects for our 40K Apocalypse games so that there can be a big reveal come gaming day (a tradition stated by James), and this one was fun to deploy.

That's what I call a Deth Kannon!

And I couldn't post this without a comparison shot. Mummy on the left, completely scratch built. Baby on the right; GW's kit, with a few bits missing, used on mummy.

If 40K is your thing here's a video from a 40K Apocalypse game played in the Man-Cave back in May 2010, 7000 points per side. The two Stompas see action side by side.

Next time, we return to the construction of Outbreak City for my All Things Zombie campaign.

Where have you gotten to Zombie Ad?

I have been meaning to write this post for about a week now, no, make that about a month, erm.. actually how about more than two?

Outbreak City - Eastern Front 2011 (Figures courtesy of Colin)

In answer to a question posted by The Extraordinarii today:

"Where have you gotten to Zombie Ad?" The answer?... Life got in the way.

Life, you say, what have you been up to? In short, I...

• Almost met my match with my new Outbreak City gaming table project
• Ran a display/turned participation game with fellow blogger Colin, awesome stuff
• Worked away from home for two months (for the interactive entertainment software industry's leading publisher). In one word, EPIC!
• Battled the undead side by side with quite possibility the UK's leading expert and author on zombie survival - Sean T. Page from the Ministry of Zombies
• Played some great new Euro games
• Built a Dystopian Wars table commission
• Finished (almost) a 40K Demon Army commission
• Started a Malifaux Crew (Ressurectionists of course), just for me
• Had my busiest month yet with Zombie Shop, it's a Halloween thing
• and, to cap it all off - I started a collectable soldier and wargames figures company with my best friend JJD UK (We even sell 28mm Zombies of which I have my hands on some sets right now).

Like I said... life got in the way.

Life is at it's most exciting when you step up to the plate and say "I'll give that a go."

Blogging took a bit of a back-set so that I could spend what little time I had left with my family.

A very wise fellow blogger once said, try not to do too much otherwise you might face burnout. I'll pay a little more attention in future, thank you Bryan.

Without further ado my fellow zombie gamers... thank you for bearing with me, forthcoming posts include some of the stuff above and plenty of other bits and pieces I started but never quite got around to finishing.

Zombie Ad's back!