I was out of town for 10 of the last 12 days with no access to my hobbying supplies, but still managed to sneak in a few nights of working on Da Ironbullz to prepare them for our May mini-tournament.
My first few games with Da Ironbullz taught me that Deffkoptas are currently criminally undercosted, especially when run as Deffskullz with a (sadly now Legends) kustom mega-blasta.
I had planned on eventually converting a "skwadron" of at least three unique Deffkoptas, but I decided to work a second Deffkopta into my list sooner rather than later.
Unlike my first Deffkopta conversion, "Da Red Barrun", which was based on an Ork Warbiker with plasticard wings and a central propeller at the nose of the fusilage, I decided to go decidedly more "helicopter-y" with this second conversion.
"Da Skout Choppa" was based on an Astra Militarum Scout Sentinel cabin supplemented with plenty of plasticard and bitz from the Deff Dread, Killa Kan, and Space Marine Stormtalon kits. Like many other conversions I've already done for Da Ironbullz, I had to pay my respects to Warhammer Fantasy (R.I.P.) with a classic pewter banner topper from the Goblin Wolf Chariot affixed to the tail!
The look I was hoping to achieve for Da Skout Choppa was something like a single-seater news helicopter: not particularly bulky with just one top rotor and one tail rotor. Its base design was somewhat similar to Da Red Barrun, which gives the illusion of flying by magnetizing the Deffkopta to the top of a ruined building.
Overall, I am very happy with how Da Skout Choppa turned out. Looking forward to painting him!
Da Ironbullz are getting involved in the psychic phase!
I knew I'd add a Weirdboy to the army eventually (Wuzgob is a key player in the backstory for Da Ironbullz, after all), but wasn't originally planning to take more than one HQ for our mini-tournament in May.
That changed after playing a few games earlier this month and seeing how valuable it is to have at least one psyker who can buff your troops, deny enemy psykers, and give you the option to take psychic secondary objectives (although it's unlikely I'd do so).
This Weirdboy conversion is still in its early stages, but it's already presented some unusual challenges.
For starters, I wanted to have Wuzgob levitating off his base as if he were surging with Waaagh! energy. I also liked the idea of two grot "handlers" being tasked with keeping him near to the ground by chains and ropes.
While Warhammer Fantasy Night Goblin Fanatics models were the perfect starting point for this idea, the Weirdboy's standard 40mm base size made it tricky to get the angles to work such that all three models (Wuzgob and his two handlers) could fit on the same base.
The torso of the old pewter Warhammer Fantasy Savage Orc Shaman had been lingering in my bitz box for six years, waiting for the right conversion idea to come along. Wuzgob's conversion presented just such an opportunity!
Here's where the conversion stands as of the end of week 16 of the hobbying sprint; I'm planning on finishing this model over the course of the coming week.
