Project: Deffcopta to Ork Boss Conversion – Aborted

This project log chronicles my mekboy attempt to convert a plain old Deffkopta into a Warboss on a warbike (trike). This project is now aborted. The Warboss and Trike will part ways into their own projects.

Intro

I acquired a beat up Deffkopta in a trade from a friend. he threw it in as a freebie as the rotors were busted and he didn’t want to go through the hassle of fixing it. It sat on my work table, imploring me to do something with it. After 2 weeks of ideas percolating through my head, I sat down Saturday to do something with it.

Da Plan

As I got to looking at it, I decided that the main chassis and driver would make a good foundation for a Nob Bike. (Had I pulled out my Ork bikes and looked at them first, I might not have gone this route. But ignorance is bliss as they say, so I happily plowed along.) I decided to make rough cuts along these lines:

Da Cuttin’

I started with the rocket launcher assembly. I want to save as many bits as I can for future use, being a propa’ Mekanik that I am.

Next came the overhead rotor assembly.

Now the tail rotor assembly. This was a bit tricky with my coping saw, but I managed.

And last came the skids. In hindsight, I should have done these first, but that’s a trick for the next one I guess. These photos also show the cleanup I did with my Dremel tool to carve out the areas missed with my coping saw.

Da Scrappin’

Now to find suitable wheels for a bike of this size. The intent is a Nob Biker, so weedy wheels just won’t do. I settled on raiding a new Ork Trukk I had waiting to be built. I’m not a big fan of the new mondo-sized Trukks, so it was going to be parts to fix up older Trukks anyway. Here’s a mockup with 2 rear wheels, the rear axle from the Trukk, and 1 front wheel.

Pretty rough, but it shows that the wheels work with the chassis in size and scale.

I decided to use the back section of the ladder-frame for the new Trukk. It’s designed for the axle, but the other side up to give it lift. By flipping the axle with the risers up instead of down it give a low-rider feel. With the axle in the correct position (risers down), the whole back half of the bike was just too high and destroys the chopper/trike feel I’m going for.

Da Tricky Bitz

I set aside the rear assembly to dry and set into the trick part: the front forks. My original concept had me just robbing the front forks from some spare bike frames that I picked up on ebay. When I pulled them out however, I discovered my scale problem. The current bikes are just too weedy compared to what I’m using. So, scratchbuild it is.

I nicked the front rotor assembly from the nob bike in the box set and attached them to 2 lengths of aluminum tubing.

Now the wheel. This is an age old problem, using a vehicle wheel on a bike. The rim is off-center towards what should be the outside of the wheel. This will look odd on a bike from the opposite side. At this point, I hadn’t settled on how to fix it just yet, but I knew I had to trim down the center riser on the “outside” of the wheel to make room for the rotors. While I was at it I drilled a hole through the center for an axle.

Now the axle. Just a simple 1/16″ length of brass rod. I cut it long on purpose as it’s easier to trim back than having to cut a new one if it’s too short.

I finally settled on hand cut discs of plastic (cut from a 25mm round base with no slot) to cover up the majority of the dead space in the rim. I put a small length of aluminum tubing in the back of the rim to hold the disc out at the proper location. Here’s the whole assembly put together.

Da Buildin’

While the front end set up I went back to the rear. Here’s the assembly attached to the kopta frame.

The upper forks proved a bit easier to produce. I raided an old Ork Bike (the ones with the treads in the back) and stole the gun assembly. I cut the guns off, cut off the barrels and used the housings for the upper forks. Since they were a matched set already it made it a snap. For the top of the forks, I used the central housing for that same gun assembly.

Now I mocked it all together to see how it would look on the bike.

It turned out to be quite a bit too long, so I shaved down the center housing to fit down between the upper forks. This shortened the assembly by 1/4″ and lets it fit on an “Attack” sized base from Dragon Forge, albeit just barely.

Here’s the fully assembled piece.

It’s rough, and needs lots of cleanup. I have plans for a rokkit motor in the back and I’m working on how/where to attach the dakkaguns. This bike’s so big that it could easily be a warboss on a bike though, so I’m trying to decide if I should go that route and modify his weaponry before I go any farther. (Power Klaws are a must for a Warboss.)

Quick Update

After lots of feedback on this piece I’ve decided to make it a warboss on a bike. As such, I need to completely redo the rider so I’m essentially starting all over.

Here’s the current state: