Tuesday 7 August 2018

BOYL 2018 (Part 2) - What an (Orky) Tanker!

Following on from Part 1 of my Bring Out Your Lead 2018 (BOYL) report, the Saturday saw me taking part in an all-comers tank battle organised by Whisky Priest. Rather than muddle our way through any of the various vehicle rules published by GW, Whisky Priest was championing 'What a Tanker!' by Too Fat Lardies.

Battle is engaged!


 In order to participate, we just needed to bring a suitable tank. You may have already seen Asslessman's Metal Slug or airbornegrove26's insane Pizza Tank. As of a 10 days ago, I wasn't planning to participate in the game, so hadn't prepped anything of my own. In fact, I didn't feel I had anything suitable to use. Then I asked WP if I could join in, and started delving into my hobby supplies to see what I could put together.

Sadly I lacked any kind of suitable hull. I did have the domed top piece from the GW Shadow War Armageddon terrain, and was wondering if I should procure a second to make a rolling tank. And then I wondered if I could scratch build something...




The Roller-Crusha is the result of a single evening of scratch building using whatever was at hand. The hull of the tank is made up from three cardboard inner rings from Sellotape, covered over with crudely cut sections of a pizza box.


The tracks are made from strips cut from the pizza box, with added plasticard strips. The rivets are slices of plastic rod, while the black side sections are 50mm bases mounted on cardboard counters from an old kids memory game.


The cockpit is a turret from one of GW's space marine flyers and all the guns and other various plastic parts have come out from my bits box. The two resin fuel tanks are vehicle parts from Ramshackle Games.


I think the result looks like a hybrid between orky tech and a WWI experimental tank. It certainly amuses me! Painting the beast is what brings it all together though.


I used the same colour scheme as my orks - a dull mustard-yellow with blue detailing. I had fun with the weathering yet again on this one!


I also scattered a few orky glyphs around the hull for visual interest. They do kind of relate to the Roller-Crusha itself, if you take a few liberties with the translation.




So fully equipped with a suitable tank (masquerading as a SU-85 tank destroyer), I entered into the fray, only to be unfairly targeted and the first tank to be obliterated on the field of battle!





The Roller-Crusha meets it's doom crossing a small river.

If you're looking for an intuitive and fast-paced tank game, you could do a lot worse than looking into 'What a Tanker!'. The system easily handled our eleven tanks and provided for a very fun showdown. I can imagine it is a very slick system for smaller games with a handful of tanks on either side.

BOYL 2018 blogposts:

24 comments:

  1. That is a great conversion, and you certainly waited until the last minute to produce it!

    Who made the red Leman Russ with the longer tracks? Makes it almost look like a plausible vehicle.

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    1. Nothing like a last minute panic to focus the mind!

      The red tank is by Alex over at leadballoony. You can see the build on his blog: https://leadballoony.com/2014/06/26/tanks/

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    2. Oh thanks!

      and 2014, no wonder I did not recognize it.

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    3. I did have to search out the post :)

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  2. OMG I didnt realize yours was mainly cardboard! That's brilliantly executed!!!!

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    1. Cheers! It was a build of necessity - I'm surprised it actually managed to not look utterly crap!

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  3. That tank has a great 'punk' oldhammer vibe. Love it!

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    1. Thanks! It's certainly as insane as some of the early RT creations I think!

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  4. That game was silly but boy we had some good laughs !

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  5. Wow. I'm so in love with your tank, it's really cool. I never thought you could use WWII rulesets like that one for this. Oh, I have so much to learn!!

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    1. I'm more and more of the believe that rules give you mechanics to skin however you like. And there are some really fun slick rulesets out there!

      Glad you like the Roller-Crusha :)

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  6. That is a really amazing scratch build. Very Orky. I'd say the others, with their fancy plastic models, were just jealous and targeted you unfairly.

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    1. I'd agree. Those plastic tank commanders have no honour!

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  7. Excellent final results on your scratch build ... looks like a commercially available piece!

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    1. I'm not sure it holds up to close scrutiny as a commercial offering, but it does enough to pass muster I think!

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  8. Great stuff Jon! A one night to be proud of. I'm not familiar with the rules of the game at all, but if it's vehicle combat then I suppose you could port whatever vehicle you wanted into it. Can you "build" what you like or is it purely a tank game?

    Looking at that group shot of everyone playing makes it look like a lot of fun. Next year...next year :)

    Great build mate :)

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    1. Whisky Priest is the expert on 'What a Tanker!'. I guess there's plenty of flex to do counts as - we had a buggy masquerading as some fast lightly armed Italian tank I think.

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  9. Very cool - that tank is absolutely ace... I love a rolling-wheeltank.

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    1. Rolling wheel tanks are the best! Thanks :)

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  10. Replies
    1. Thanks Kym. I was worried halfway through, but it turned out ok!

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  11. The Rollacrusha really did turn out fantastically well: it doesn't look home-made at all.

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    1. Thanks buddy! I really enjoy the nonsense element to it.

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