Presenting the Armored Stegadon Walker

I promised some pictures of the armored Stegadon when it was built, and now the Mek-Grots of BigMek Gyvva have done the job and are ready to present it...

The Idea was to make my own Squiggoth, as this model cost about 1000 Norwegian kroner (pluss postage and fees) from Forgeworld. So for a half the cost (actually a little less than half) and the use of my bitz boxes I managed to put together the little brother of the Squggoths, the Stegadon. I did not expect it to be so small though, but I made the best of what I had to work with.

 Here it is from the side and from the front.

 

I built the Stegadon after the instructions provided by Games Workshop, but stopped once I had built the animal and the basic platforms on its back. Then I went into my bitz boxes for the Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard) and collected shields from the Ogryn/Bullgryn sets and an autocannon from my  heavy weapons sets. I tried arming this little beast with two heavy bolters but they would not fit properly because of how the front platform is constructed in the set, and I also thought about using mortars, but there was not enough room for that with the current configuration (but I have not totally dropped this idea yet). 

I had two thoughts when making this little beast. First I wanted to have something to walk alongside my organic bikes (Gore-Gruntas from Age of Sigmar) that I plan to build shortly (just need to build some Boyz so I get some spare hands with shootas as the Orks in the AoS start collecting box all have choppas as they are made for another time and place). 

Secondly I've been wanting to use some of those Ogryn/Bullgryn spare shields for a long time as they take up so much space in my bitz box. I have thought about making defense lines with them, but decided it would be much cooler to let the Orks have some of them as spoils of war. I have so many left that I have enough to make at least one more of these walkers if I feel like it at a later time, and I can also equip a unit of Orks with these shields if I like (but I fear the shields might look too big for them as the Ogryns/Bullgryns are quite a lot bulkier than your average Ork). 

I am very happy with how the front armor and the back part of the side armor turned out on this build. The back could only be one single shield because of the space I had available so it is as it is, and the platform is designed so the front part stands out further than the back so I had to add a single shield on each side of the front platform. That is why I'm thinking of using steel girders if I make another one as I could have the same width for the entire platform. Also it would be nice to fit a little more armament on such a beast.

The crew for this one will be a Grot gunner and a Grot tech (had one Grot with a wrench left after building my first stompa some time ago). I am considering putting an Ork on the back of the platform to have command of the walker, but I might sacrifice him for some more dakka and a few more Grots. This is something I don't have to decide on right away as the weapons will be added after some of the paintjob is done so I can reach the details that needs painting.

For my next AoS to 40K project, I am playing with the idea of making something with a set from the Ogor Mawtribes range, the set that can either build an Ironblaster or a Gnoblar Scraplauncher. Not sure what kind of weapon it would be yet, but the Gnoblars in this set is just amazing, and they would probably make for some nice Grots for other builds in the future if I decide to not use all of them in one build. From looking at the original sets, I either see this as some sort of walking artillery piece with a cannon of some sorts, or maybe as some sort of catapult lobbing some type of small bombs.

Right now I am building a Wazbom Blastajet for the Orks and this will leave me some spare rokkits and bombs and "big shootas" that I can use for my next Stompa but also maybe for a Scraplauncher or a future Stegadon build.