Change of heart: Doomwheel

While discussing the Doomwheel and its potential (and weaknesses) with my Inquisitor group, I kinda had a change of heart. You see, my idea of Nurgle is subtle decay added here and there, not the boil ridden and infested dregs of humanity you usually see. Rust, lack of maintenance, that is more my kind of thing.

So....what if the Doomwheels I'm making didn't start out as Chaos? In Epic it is a huge warmachine with voidshields and heavy weapons, but what if the beginnings were much more humble?


The way I see them now, mine are a creation of a Techpriest on a long forgotten Forgeworld before 30K, made in limited numbers, experimenting with the process of creating a more mobile combat servitor, explaining the subtle differences between the 4 wheels. When this Techpriest went rogue (which is not the same as crossing over to Chaos!) he took his servitors and staff with him. Some of his staff split off to Chaos, taking some of the Doomwheels with them, and creating, eventually, the large War engines we know today. Now, this Rogue Techpriest could very well end up in the retinue of a ambitious Inquisitor, or be a force by himself, forever tinkering on his children to improve them. This gives me yet another reason to purchase a set of Kastelan robots and their handler...if I had the money. It also motivates me to get cracking on the Techpriest himself using the bits and pieces that I already have. I just need to find a proper name for the Imperial Doomwheel or code them properly.

While trading bits I managed to find somebody with a set of double weapons from the Sentinel, so these will be added to my stash and processed to fit on the 4 Doomwheels with a pin and magnet combo. Even if it means purchasing new magnets, these will make life so much easier for such a machine. Plenty of weapons combos I can give them :)

The painting scheme for them hasn't changed though. Dirty white with rust. Now to find proper decals for them (that don't cost an arm and a leg).


And in other news....

• Kim may be released in the weekend. From what I heard sofar, and to combat her depression, they have plans to send her to therapy 3-4 days a week, and support to help us put the kids in daycare as this is unaffordable on a single salary (2 kids 4 days a week is 2250 euros in daycare costs a month,,,,way more then I make) with help from our parents for 1-2 days a week. I'm still thinking about taking parental leave once a fortnight, but I would lose a days wages that way. Then again daycare for 1 day for both my girls costs more then what I make on a day! Oh well, a lot is going to change, that is for sure, fortunately Kim is cautiously optimistic atm.
• I managed to trade half a moving box of kits for a Star Trek Kazon Fighter/Cruiser for my starport, and some other kits for my WW2 and Modern Russians. I've listed a dozen more kits plus some GW lots for sale on various podia.
• Mark, a very talented local painter whom I always offer a ride when leaving the club, has offered me a Space Wolf Stormwolf for my trouble. It is already built, but I'm pretty certain I can remove all of the SW symbology and turn it into a standard assault boat, with magnetized weapons and a generic paintscheme, and a swappable cockpit so it works in 28mm and 20mm, and also doing Starport duty. And work for my Inquisitor warband(s)
• I'm eyeing the Space Marine Stormtalon for conversion to Starship for the Space Port. Simply repainting the cockpitglass makes it look suitably 20mm, plus a few changes to the weapon pods and other cosmetic changes will make it look the part. Sofar no luck in finding one secondhand that isn't badly put together, my aim is to find one still in the box so it will be easier to convert for my nefarious plans. And as cheaply as possible.
• GZG informed me my stuff has been processed and will be shipped asap.
• I'm spending a bit of time each night cleaning out the hobby room, putting more stuff up for sale, trying to get extra income and save up more for the future (and future purchases), as well as looking for parts on various for a to complete what plans I have. No buying!!

And I'll leave you with a inspirational video of Doctor Fausts Painting Clinic; the Kastelan

Doomwheel, part 3

It has been a extremely good week sofar for the Doomwheels. Today, a letter arrived from Australia with 4 round half bits in em, enough for one Doomwheel. Thx Mr. Zeidler! Yesterday, a bits box arrived that I had won on Ebay.de a few weeks back but had been slow coming as for some reason the seller didn't send his bank details, but only wanted a bank transfer. A few emails later.....

...a GW Batallion box ends up on my doorstep. In it almost 700 grams of Space Marine, Chaos Space Marine and vehicle bits, plus a few assorted Bretonnina bits that will be handy for Mordheim and a few nice Eldar weapon bits that will be handy for my Kroot conversions. I had made a bid on the box cause I saw at least 7 bits that would be useful for the Doomwheel, and figured the rest would make good trade fodder. Boy, was I in for a surprise! In it were 22 bits that I need for the Doomwheels, half round bits, ring mounts, weapon mounts, plates, the works. And 3 Terminator Assault Cannons, which sell for more or less what I paid for the box in the first place. Also, a set of small multiple missile launchers from a Terminator were in the box, so in theory, if I found enough parts to make a 5th, a missile version could be made. Or I could equip them with magnets (all or just a few) so I could magnetswap the weapons around....meaning I would be able to do a heavy bolter or twin linked bolter versions as well. Or whatever weapons would tickle my fancy really. I'll put some more thought into that this week

Also in the box was a set of 4 exhausts from the bottom of a drop pod....which come in handy for Epic sized Blight Drones as built here > epic-blight-drones-tutorial I'll make moulds of the 4 engines so I can cast them quicker, and get a few servoskull sized lasgun or similar weapon only Nurgle nasties to field alongside my big boys. Parts for these I have already, got a bag of painted and unpainted Tyranid Rippers from a lot of Nids I once picked up for BFG conversions that are just perfect for this.

So, more Nurgle nasties for the Inquisitor team to fight :)

Also, payday is coming up, and I will set aside funds to buy bits for the other 2 Plague Drones....should be about 20 euros in parts (with free shipping) and 7-8 euro plus 4 euros shipping for the engines. I'm aiming to limit my spending to 50 euros for May, if I want to spend more I'll have to sell more, simple as that. There is 12,50 Pounds left in my Paypal account that I want to save for the AK-47 purchase, Also, I will be visiting the new GW store for some painting advice and chats on friday with nothing but 1 euro cash on me for a can of soda....that way there will be no impulse buying of any sorts. And after that I will visit my storage space to look for my Mordheim rulebook and more stuff to sell.

Oh, and I have 4 basic Doomwheels finished now. They build so easily :)

Doomwheel, part 2

I've sidetracked the drone for now. I know I want 2 or 3 more, but simply cannot afford the expense atm of an additional 30 euros in shipping and parts for 2 more, and buying a box of them is way out of my league (46 euros).

I received several envelopes with bits sofar, either paid for the shipping or got them for free, for which I thank my benefactors. My mate Sander even sent me a box full of Imperial Guard en Space Marine bits for nothing, bless him. Anyway, we had a brainstormsession tonight with a few mates to see how we want to arm them. Options were assault cannons, lascannons, twin bolters, heavy bolter, (heavy) flamer, CCW, meltaguns, plasmaguns, next to the twin linked bolter that is already on it (the gargoyle faces). It had to be within budget for 2 more models, so a total of 4, for a max of 10 euros of additional bits. Nothing beats a brainstormsession while kneedeep in bits, and with a budget looming!

In the end, we settled for a twin Assault cannon version using the Dreadnaught assault cannon so it can double as a grenade launcher, twin autocannons using the old Ork Biker ones, twin (heavy) flamer one using the Sentinels flamers and a CCW version using lots of left over spikes and pointy bits, plus 2 CCW off the Sentinel (that nobody ever uses). Thx to my mates Sander's giftbox we managed to find all of the weapons in one go! I've got enough parts to make 2 more basic wheels (just tanktracks and 5x 40mm 2mm thick round bases glued together) and I'm edging towards using biker bases for these, 50x25mm pill shaped ones. 12 of them in 2mm MDF will set me back 1.20 Pounds but then the postage hits. Hmmm. I've got a big bag of plastic 25x50mm bases....not a hard choice, I will just round off the edges and save me the expense. Jay, 10 euros saved!

Now off to actually build 2 more.

Plague Drone conversion, part 1

I'm a fan of Father Nurgle. I like to see rusted and decayed things. I like most of the artwork. And I really like the Forgeworld Blight Drone. However, I do not have the funds to buy one for Inquisitor (or Killteam) and to be honest, it is a bit big! But according to the fluff Blight Drones come in various shapes, so I assume they come in various sizes too :)

I spent some time online to see if people made look a like conversions before (they did) and if I liked them (up to a point). People use the more affordable Plague Drones for this, and I picked out 2 conversions that I liked the most.

This one:

What I like:

• It's a tutorial video. Someone has taken time to make one so other can make it. I call that cool :)
• The idea for the eye

What I don't like:

• Weedy engines, and much too clean
•  The tail
• For some reason the inverted pose makes it feel like a slow and lumbering bumblebee. 
• Why hide all of the details of the abdomen!

But there is also this, The tale of Spunky

What I like:

• Big engines!
• Pose, if a bit hunched
• Guns like the original

What I don't like:

• I like the idea, but it is missing something. It doesn't feel complete to me.

So, what did I do? Well, make up my mind first. I liked the first one better for some reason but it needed bigger engines, so I ordered the Robogear vehicle that has them (only 3.50 euro for the entire kit) and some Plague Drone bits like the body and a set of legs from a bits supplier for 8 euros. The carapache I already had. These other bits arrived 2 days ago and tonight I finally have the time to sit down and play with the bits.

But it didn't do anything for me. Drat. Now what? I wanted one cause it looked cool, I spent money on parts and it just doesn't click. So back to looking at pics of the Blight Drone and playing around with the parts that I got. I had already opened up the abdomen and inserted some srpue bits, so I turned the entire thing around, in the original Plague Drone position.

I then got the Space Marine turret hatch bit (mine is the Chaos one) and reversed that so it now had top cover for the eye. Now the armour plates are mostly ok, I will just need to sculpt a new cover one for part of the SM Turret hatch bit. Since the number of Nurgle is 3, why not give it 3 eyes, but not 3 infront, but 1 in front and 2 on the sides (or maybe even more?). I fillled in the sprue bits with superglue and maizena and set it aside to dry in the upright position, so I could now dryfit the engine parts till I found that the slightly tilted forward and exhausts tilted outward, away from the sides works best for me.

And then I dropped 1 of the bloody engines on the floor right in between a pile of boxes underneath my cluttered desk. Cue swearing and sweating while I bend underneath a table in the hot exhaust of my pc with a little handheld light, searching for the damned thing. After 15 minutes Kim came up to see what I was doing, and she asked if she could help. I gladly accepted and 5 minutes later she fishes the thing out of a box in the pile that I'm sure I searched twice. Shows what I can do.

After thanking her she started asking questions about what it is I'm making. After a short Chaos gods in 40K course I came to the shortest , apt, description I could find. A big mechanised fly that shoots back when you try to swat it. There. Apt enough?

Anyway, I stuck the engines on with bluetack and took some shots of how it stands now.

As it stands now, more upright, and the head bit angled downwards towards normal sized miniatures, I feel it looks a lot more menacing then the other conversions.

What I need to do now is:

• Let the idea fester in my head :P
• Resculpt the top armour a bit so it covers the head bit partially, leaving most of the cabling exposed.
• Add 3 or 4 gun(barrels) underneath the head, not too much, I don't want to overpower it.
• Add cabling from the engines to the top and bottom hole
• Add leggs to the first 2 holes in the body (this means ordering more legs)
• Greenstuff up the engines so the look more organically armoured and suitably Nurgle, Also, add spike coming from the center angled downwards.
• If I'm ordering up more bits, why not add the parts for another one? I'm quite enjoying this :) (meaning no I can't cause I don't have any money right now, unless I sell more stuff. But not needing a Carnifex carapache does bring the costs down a bit.)

Quite chuffed now, I am :)

Doomwheel, part 1

Taking the advice to heart, i decided on one or two things to convert and have fun with. Don't bother with selling for now, just have some plain old fun. But what to do? Recently I joined the Epic FB group to see if it was a place to sell my Epic on, next to the Oldhammer FB group. One of the posts passing by was of teeny Epic scale Plaguedrones. Papa Nurgle approves indeed! While googling for conversions of the things (after seeing the price for one on Forgeworld knocked the wind out of me) Google for reasons only Google knows, showed a picture of a Epic Doomwheel.

A Doomwheel? Well, a Epic chaos Warmachine, a spikey spinning monowheel of death. I instantyly recognised it from a article I read what feels like aeons ago, namely this one: Audrey's Deathwheel

Made in 2004, this thing has been in the back of my head for over 11 years now :)

Hold on. So, you say, I don't play Epic. What gives? Indeed I don't. Part of me would like to (but that part of me whants to do all that is fun anyway! :P ), the other part of me is more practical and knows I have a lot of Epic stashed, but none of it is really complete enough (or painted) to game with. So in the near future I will sell all of it.

So what I need a Doomwheel for? Well, I need 2 of them :D And in my mind, they are prefect heavy weapons servitors, or worse, for Chaos. In my mind anyway.

2 problems.

1. She used parts that were readily available, for the most part, in 2004. FFW to 2015 and things like BFG cruisers bridges, Chaos Epic turrets and old school autocannons are as rare (and as expensive) as hen's teeth.
2. I ain't got no bits box to speak of (yet).

Fortunately, Epic still has a loyal following, with updated army lists etc and some people have built Doomwheels for their armies., Some ages ago, others more recent.

Other sidebits, other weapons, but still the same vibe as the original. I can work with that.

The lack of bits isn't too much of a problem. I've posted wanted ads on various forums, and gotten some replies back from people who have bits, so I'm trading freely to get them. Only 1 bit is a bits of a problem, this one:

You only get one of these per Chaos Vehicle sprue. I've got 1 sofar, and I need 7 more! Alternatively I could use the other 2 as well, but I prefer to stick as close to the original as is financially possible. So maybe I will nee to look at the various bits sellers to get them. Unless you, my readers, have some spare? I'd be very happy to take them off your hands :)



As I recently traded a big bag of Imperial Guard bits, track links turned out to be the least of my problems as I have quite a few of them. 40mm round bases however, I do not have, so I substituted them with ply 40mm round bases (2mm) and glued 5 of them together for a base to work from. This means it is bigger then the original, and the vehicle is about a head taller then a Space Marine, but I will base them on 2mm bases so the difference is less visible. I used a 12 track, a 8 track and a single spare track link slightly cut down for each Doomwheel. The slightly cut down one will be the base of the Doomwheel anyway and partially hidden by basing. So no problem there.

Anyway, after some fooling around with sharp knives, 5 minute expoxy and superglue (not neccesarily in that order) I've gotten this far and am now waiting for parts :)

Well, that is it. If anyone feels like helping, besides the half ring x7, I still need the following items:

Each of these I need 4 times.