Sunday, February 22, 2015

Warhammer 40K -- The Waaagh! Payloader (Grot Rokkit)

Hi everyone,

We didn't have any firm plans for this weekend.  And, when we stumbled on the fact that the Bay Area LUNAR (model rocket) club was hosting a model rocket launch at Moffett Field, we rushed home, shook the dust off of our small trusty model and headed down for a quick launch.

All went relatively well.  We got help with how to get our igniter installed properly - and had some discussions about properly loading our parachute.

Rocket motor installed - igniter installed!

Our rocket on the launch pad - ready to go!

So....  The launch was great - even took slo-mo video with our phone.  And, the landing wasn't bad.  Our 'chute didn't fully deploy - but for our little rocket, it slowed down the descent enough that all was good.

And, then....  we started thinking....  We had purchased a payload capable model rocket after our last rush of rocket enthusiasm a few years ago.  We had it 80% assembled - but hadn't had any ideas better than launching a Lego astronaut (which, by the way, didn't really fit very well).  Now, seeing the payload capability through a Warhammer 40K lense, we got pretty excited.  Couldn't we launch Orks!!  [Here is a link to the Estes model rocket website if interested.]

Hauling out the payload rocket, we determined that the immediate answer was, "no - not easily."  The standard Ork has pretty broad shoulders -- and they just won't fit into the transparent tube of our payloader rocket.

We pondered using some of the more narrow Orks - such as the Trukk drivers and such - but finally decided that a Grot Rokkit would be totally more appropriate anyway.  (We could picture the Orks forcing the Grot pilot into his cockpit for takeoff!!!  "Git in der yuz scum!")

In fact, as we read a little bit about the Ork Pulsa Rokkit - we realized that having the Grot on board was even anticipated in the rules (where the Grot pilots the Rokkit to the landing spot to increase accuracy).

So, we got to work....

First, we needed a cockpit.  The extra cockpit from our Dakka Jet worked well with just a little bit of trimming to fit into the tube.

We found a good cockpit in our pile of bits....

Way too short, though - what to do with the extra space?  So, we modified a Blitza Bommer's bomb to fit onto the rear of the cockpit.

Our cockpit with the bomb glued on the back....

We added some odds and ends to make the build complete:
- sensor and headlight package looted from Space Marines
- Ork symbols
- a fuel tank of some sort
- heat vent
- additional missile warhead from a Burna Bomb (more dakka!)
- some cowling pieces also from the Ork flyers, and....
- "aima" (cross-hairs for the Grot pilot)).

The Grot vehicle fully assembled - ready for a final test fit in the launch tube.

Good test fit - time for painting :)

For paint scheme, we decided that the Ork Space Program would use White + Red.  So, that was the color of the main lifting vehicle -- the Waaagh! Payloader.  Then, the Grot vehicle (which is taking on the name Waaagh! Lander 7) was painted Yellow since the Ork faction building the Rokkit are our Yellow Orkies (not the Pink Orkies). 

[We are calling it the Waaagh! Lander 7 because we learned that all of the Mercury Rocket missions had a "7" in their names as well.  Since this is our first set of rockets, seemed appropriate to use this same convention.]

Here is how things look once all together.

The Waaagh! Lander in front of the Waaagh! Payloader.  We have some painting work yet to do, but coming along. 

Here is the underside of the Waaagh! Lander.  You can see the heat vent we added, and some of the other bits to make the build look complete.

It sounds like we may have a chance to launch our Grot toward the heavens in about 1 week.  We plan to report in on how that goes.

Here is the Waaagh! Payloader fully ready.  Confession - we haven't loaded the rokkit motor yet - will have to do that.  Then 'Ere We Go!  Launch time! 

A close-up of the Grot in his Waaagh! Lander -- loaded up in the Payloader capsule.

PS:  Also curious to figure out if the Apocalypse rules for the Ork Pulsa Rokkit are still OK to use.  If they are, maybe we'll bring our Rokkit to the Apocalypse battle we're planning to join in a couple of weeks. 

1 comment:

  1. Hi everyone,

    Helpful comment on DakkaDakka that there were some rules for the Ork Pulsa Rokkit posted on the GW website (maybe still are - or were??). He passed us a link to them.

    http://imgur.com/R1W4Tgd

    We're going to work on building a Lancha (Rokkit gantry) to hold out Grot Rokkit for the Apocalypse battle and plan to use these rules. :)

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