Ork Supa Stompa Gutrippa transformation

A long time ago (over 4 years since this post publishing to be exact) I created a pair a scratch build Supa Stompas.

I was very happy with them and used them on a few occasions but after some time I upped my game and put them away thinking that I will come back to them someday. That and the fact that I switched to playing Imperial Guard almost entirely made me forget about them.

After a long time, the day had finally come. I wanted to try a different army for one 'away' game and decided to use my Orks with a Supa Stompa.

I pulled them both out of the box and thought: "damn you are not as good as I remembered". 

Construction-wise they were ok for the time. 
Painting wise they were state of the art for their time.

It's easy (even for me) to look at them now and go 'damn this looks really bad' but that would be unfair. I was not born with maxed out scratch build skills, they grew (and are still growing) over time. Only by doing can you increase your skills!

As for painting, let me just add that prior to having an airbrush I hated painting. It was the worst part of the hobby for me. Now when basecoting a single tank does not take so much time that it feels like hours I started to enjoy it.

I decided to upgrade the black Stompa as it was the least appealing of the two.

I try not to throw away my hand made creations since there is a lot of sentiment connected with them (there are some exceptions to this rule!). With that in mind (and a general feeling of wanting to preserve its original flavour) and a goal to arm it with weapons that actually fit its roster, I started my work.

Work is quite a big word because I simply took all the 3D printed parts I had and simply started bashing them together. Typical for me, no greater plan in mind, just go with the flow.

The first things to go (from the original model) were the hands and head. They were way too small for the body they were attached to. I felt that the head is one of the defining elements of this construction, and the unit itself has a gaze of Mork titan killer gun which sounds like a head-mounted weapon so I knew it had to be sone kind of cannon

I was also thinking about dropping the 'belly gun' (not a big fan of those) but it was glued so firmly that I had no choice but to leave it as is.

The other weapons in the roster were two integrated Soopa Blast Guns and one switchable, either a third Soopa Blasta gun or some kind of gun/axe weapon. That meant that  I had to have an arm that could be replaced so here come the magnets!

I had some 40k bitz which I purchased here and there, for builds like these but decided not to use them.

For one they are way too detailed, giving the overall mini islands that are super detailed and the mundane ocean of the rest. 

Two, for some reason (that is unknown to me) I seem to have an allergy to 40k bitz? 

Almost everything that uses them seems to get that 40k look. 

It should not be a problem in this case since that's the game I'm going with! But for some reason, I decided that nothing fits and opted to go for the proven design of a big minigun. Easy to scratch build with some plastic tubing and other plastic bitz.
Don't get me wrong, I love when other people use original 40k bitz, or when minis are kitbashed, but in my workshop when I scratch build I tend to keep those bitz off.

The construction phase ended up looking something like this

As you can see the original torso is visible, but covered in new plates of armour to give it a much more Orky look. I was thinking about adding rivets but after coming to a grinding halt with a Gaslands War Rig project due to rivets I passed.

I've added a piece of guitar string to the minigun arm. Originally I intended to connect it to the back since it's a bit empty but that would not allow for weapon swapping so it had to go with another point on the arm itself.

The shoulder-mounted missile is from a manticore model, the plasma arm is from a knight model. The shoulder itself is made out of two misprinted Gunwagon platforms. You can see the same Gunwagons used as the feet(?).

The finished construction is a little bit modified, in these pictures you can clearly see that all of the armour plate edges are straight, I decided to change that and cut off bits and pieces here and there to give it a more used up/damaged look

The almost end result (after some damn good painting) looks like this:

Why almost finished? I want to break up the red some more on the middle/top sections but am not a huge fan of adding glyphs and checkers. Will leave it for now and maybe come back to it later.

To say that I'm happy with the result would be a huge understatement! 

Ecstatic is more appropriate in this case.

How to paint:

Airbrush:

Reds:

1. I undercoated with Rust Orange (1 layer, fairly transparent) Vallejo Air (after a bit of testing I can clearly say that either the model has to be white OR it has to be primed white).
2. Fairly even but not total coverage of Vallejo Light Red
3. Sparse coverage of Vallejo Plain Red

Glowing blue 

1. Prussian blue (Vallejo)
2. Followed by sparse GW air Lothern blue

Black on muzzles/tires/threads

1. Vallejo Air Black

Brush:

White and yellow parts undercoated with Vallejo Medium Sea Grey.

1. Whites (all pure white was done with Vallejo white + glaze medium 1:1, thin coats!):
2. 3 layers on the missile head
3. Dots and lines on the blue to make it pop

Yellow

1. Vallejo pale yellow
2. GW Yriel Yellow

Threads were coated with Vallejo Gunmetal Metal while wheels had some elements pointed out with Vallejo Medium Sea Grey to make them non-black blobs.

All of this was finished up by a lot of panel washing with AK blue-black panel wash.

And as a final touch, I applied some corrosion/dirt on all armour panel edges using a piece of ripped sponge and GW Warplock Bronze.

It was a LOT of fun, hope to repeat this process in the future with another one of my old models!
What do you think about this creation?
Any suggestions about breaking up the red, maybe I'm overreacting and it looks good as is?

Leave your thoughts in the comments below!