Death race 40,000. Or building a better Ork Buggy. Or unleashing my inner Mekboy.

I've been following Captain Crooks and his plans to host a violent racing game at this years Oldhammer weekender, Deathrace 40,000. Quite apart from the fact that the game looks awesome the Captain is coming over from Oz to run it and he sent me a cheesbarian in the post. It would be rude  not to join in.

Now there really is only one choice I could make for my vehicle and crew it just boils down to how green I paint the orks and how red I paint the truck. I had an idea how I wanted the thing to look, it had to be a Orky monster truck so I could crush the opposition with my tires.

Something like this Beverly Hillbillies monster truck:

I decided to use a standard GorkaMorka truck but give it big wheels and whilst originally I wasn't thinking of exactly a Beverly Hillbillies truck but the idea is growing on me. To find big wheels I decide to do a quick search on ebay for suitable toys and that's when I found this:

Not quite the size wheels I was after but very cheap and remote control. It is quite possible a giant light bulb lit up above my head at this point. The car arrived all the way from Hong Kong at the weekend and L started stripping it down to see what I had.

First off its a good size, I should have put a miniature in this shot but trust me when I say it's about the right size.

The body of the car itself is a very thin polystyrene shell and easily removed.

The actual machine underneath is simple and has a few useful points for attaching pieces with screws. A bit of snipping of excess plastic on the RC car and a bit of drilling and I very quickly attached the front of a GorkaMorka Truck. I didn't quite match the front axles molded onto the truck with those of the car but its good enough and when the driver and gunner are in place it won't notice at all.

 And here is the driver to test for size! He was actually saying, "Vrooom, vrooom", at this point. Or maybe it was me.

 At the back is a point for attaching the rear spoiler, trimmed down it is the perfect point for attaching the truck's rear. So far so jolly easy, a quick test to ensure the thing still drove and it did. The truck may be light but it is way heavier than the original car shell. But the motor is actually pretty nippy.

 Here is a side view to show how well this was working, the truck bed is higher than on the original model, in fact the rear of the RC car is just higher than the rear top of the trucks cab. This means the bed starts above the front seating and slopes very slightly up towards the back. I could not have planned it better.

 Here I've added the front to the trucks cab and we are really looking the business.

 Latter that night I started extending the trucks base. I added two lengths of H section plaststrut. I smiled a lot as I used liquid poly to weld the plastic to the bottom of the truck bed much as a Mekboy would weld steel beams to strengthen his latest creation. This proved problematic at the plaststrut interfered with the suspension. I dremmelled out a suitable space in the beamand began to plan the floor. The rear wheels gearing  stuck up into the space I needed and even more so when the suspension compressed.

I had to leave a hole in the floor and am currently thinking about my options. A mesh cage over the hole and the mechanism below would look cool but perhaps Orks don't care about health and safety and it should just be left as a hazard for careless grots to get killed in.

 Ive been adding rivets and have begun to think about what else to add. If I'm going to drive it with crew in the back I'll have to stick them down but then the truck becomes less useful as a gaming piece which is the primary aim. I tried out the secondary use last night and managed to jump my Ork waggon over two rhinos (side to side). The only thing to fall off was an exhaust.