Scratchbuilding an Ork Stompa for Warhammer 40K

Every Ork Warboss needs a Stompa at his disposal, so I finally jumped on the bandwagon and decided to build my own. Hopefully, I can document my materials and build process so that anyone else can build their own. My goal was to build a simple Stompa, with interchangeable weapons, for as little as possible, using household supplies. Right now, I'm too cheap to break up any complete kits for bits, though I might steal some of the left over pieces from my current Ork boxes. Plus, I wanted to experiement with a couple of ideas I had/techniques I wanted to try and this is my chance to do it. I'm probably not going to go whole hog on building extra platforms, powerplant, etc.

My other goal was to build this as cheaply as possible. I almost binned the idea given the new plastic Stompa kit is coming out in March 2009, but it's $95 and doesn't have the options to build a Big Mek Stompa or Klawstompa. My goal is interchangeability and being able to pull off weapons as they get destroyed.

Construction

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 kid's pail (mine was free, but you can buy these for less than a dollar). We got one as a party favor. You can probably find these pretty cheaply. They're also pretty strong, stronger than the yogurt tub I was originally considering and a bit wider at the bottom.
• 4 pill bottles (free). I use these a lot. I'm old, so I have a lot of them lying around.
• 2 tops from a can of spray paint (free). I've been painting a ton of horde armies, so I've gone through a bit of primer.
• Wine foil (free). Half the fun is obtaining the foil.
• 1 Dry Erase pen (you can probably find one of these lying around for free)
• 2 Dental floss packages ($1.99 ea, or free if you use a lot of dental floss. I had to buy one)
• 2 Shoe shine sponges from a hotel (free for me)
• Small juice straws or tubing (free)
• Some plastic card (already had this lying around)
• 1 Spare CD disk (free)
• Assorted rare earth magnets (you can buy these from a variety of sources)
• 1 spare paint pot (free)

Construction

1. Sand and file the pail and the spray can top to remove any lettering or logos. The sanding will also help make the pail a little more receptive to glue.
2. Make two holes in the side of the pail for the medicine bottles and the glue the bottles inside. I glued a ping pong ball in between the two bottles for some extra stability. I used Liquid Nails for my gluing.
3. Using some plasticard to cut out some teeth for the head. I marked the center and then glued the teeth from the inside out to make sure the mouth stayed centered.
4. Find some suitable eyes and glue them on.



5. Cut trapezoidal shapes out of your wine foil. For reference, I flattened mine out, trimmed of the seam part as well as the part that goes over the lip of the wine bottle. I then cut the remaining piece in half and then made it roughly trapezoidal. This helps because the pail is wider at the bottom than it is at the top.
6. We're going to use the pieces of foil as armor plates. Glue the pieces of foil to your stompa starting from the bottom layer and gradually work your way up. I had to glue 2-3 pieces at a time and then use a pair of rubber bands to hold the plates in place.
7. For the plates around the arm posts, you'll have to do a little measuring and trimming.
8. Beginnings of feet, a dental floss container glued to a disposable foam shoe sponge. I cut down another pair of medicine bottles (told you I had a lot of these lying around), glued the caps onto to shoe sponges, and then glued the stubs of the bottle onto the caps. This forms the leg posts. The piston is two simple pieces of styrene tube cut at a 45 degree angle.



9. Orkified with some plasticard dags and lots of rivets.



10. Detail of the arm post. I found that the inner diameter inside the cap of a spray paint can is an exact fit to the outer diameter of the medicine bottles I'm using for the arms. I cut one in half to make the shoulder pads. I'm experimenting with adding an outer ring to the arm post to support a close combat weapon/claw/lifta-droppa.



11. The component pieces almost ready for final assembly and then some painting.



12. Take your spare CD disk and glue it inside the pail. This will be the platform that sits on top of the leg posts.
13. The cannon is made from the a cut down dry erase marker glued onto the spare paint pot with a short length of styrene tube glued underneath to look like a recoil compensator.
14. It's hard to see from the pictures, but there are 4 magnetized hardpoints. One at the end of each arm post and one on top of each shoulder guard. I'll probably add another one underneath each arm cap. This will help support cannons, rockets, and other weapons and let me pull stuff off as it gets used or damanged.

Painting

1. Now that construction is completed, prime the entire Stompa with a black primer followed by a lighter coat of Rustoleum Camoflage Green. This will give it a little bit of shading.



2. Pick out specific pieces in Tin Bitz, VMC Gunmetal, or VMC Brassy Brass and was as appropriate
3. Use VMC Gunmetal to weather the edges of each plate.
4. The rust was done by lightly sponging Citadel Bestial Brown and then Citadel Blazing Orange on top of it.
5. Paint the dags using Citadel Dheneb Stone (Foundation) followed by Skull White.

Post Mortem

Initially thought about using a yogurt tub, but decided to go with the kid's pail, which my 5-year old son was gracious enough to give up for the cause. The pail is the same height, but has a wider base and is stronger. A quick note on wine foil, not all foil is made the same. It seems that a lot of wine foil now is more like metalized plastic and has a tendancy to be a little springy ... hence my need for the rubber bands. Some brands of wine use a heavier lead foil, which bends easily and holds its shape well. This type works the best. After priming, I'm really happy with the way the plates turned out. They really look like something an Ork hammered into place.

The rust effects turned out the be a little too over the top. My opinion might change once the figure is done, but right now, they look a little too bold. I think I should have used smaller rust spots.

Notes

Last updated	1/19/09
Author	Michael Kan
Pre-requisites	None
Related Articles	Making Rivets