The Asstopus Howitzer Hauler (workshopping names still)
Beware of the Asscannon image dump! It was a great build and the idea definitely evolved in directions I wouldn’t have predicted. Butt that’s the fun part, sometimes even feel like I’m on the sidelines letting the build do its own thing. The little arsetisans comp was a blast to work toward @MichaelX and @Oxymandias and it’s enjoyable to see how differently even a subcategory of a contest can be interpreted.
My long overdue attempt to put another servohauler chassis to use began by widening the wheelbase to accommodate the girth of the Chaos Space Marine Venomcrawler. Tossed some pen bits in a hole I unceremoniously reamed with a dremel and slapped the Dreadquake stack topper on the end of the barrel. I had originally planned on cutting the barrel down but loved the howitzer look especially given the chassis I was planning so I kept the length. 40k scout walker legs became the pistons to ram the barrel harder if the daemon misbehaves. This was an important detail, and a day 1 idea. Nervously I took a dremel tool to a Forgeworld Dreadquake in the no-going-back moment of the assembly.
Also of note here, snuck in some cheeky “truck-nuts” near the hitch. Kroot grenades, I couldn’t resist. Couldn’t convince myself to use these as such on prior builds, but this seemed to be my “opportunity”?
Speaking of Day 1 ideas, here is my hitlist of important ideas. Thought you all might enjoy
Some combinations made and bits added. As this will likely be a hellcannon proxy I used some leftover spikey arrays from the metal hellcannon kit.
Small details showing the drive gears from the main boiler to one of the turntable wheels. Spent a lot of time on nearly invisible details but I get stuck on functional ish mechanics… more on that soon.
One of my favorite parts, a rangefinder / targeting spyglass made from a mosh of bits, Kharadron, 40k Orks, Skaven wheel, and a pin from the trash box.
Starting to take shape now!
Mocked together the first and most important tentacle. I wanted the daemon to be attempting to turn the accursed torture machine off. Each tentacle was a wire with a tube of greenstuff to give it rough form when cured. Then it was installed with another layer of GS that was sculpted using ball end tools of varying sizes. Stab Stab Stab. Lastly a slow process of creating suction cups and pushing them into place with the same ball end tools.
Assigning the crew was tough but eventually landed on needing to scratch one guy together. I’m happy with the mix of RA and FW and I think my hellcannon crew stand-in fits decent enough. He’s made with Scibor legs, kroot accessories, dwarf miner arms?, a Kharadron rivet gun, and a bluestuffed hellcannon head. Also had to make a claw hand for the FW daemonsmith since I looted his pipe smoking hand for my sorcerer build. I think he’s my favorite daemonsmith of the range so was happy to see him as the arsetificer of the asscannon.
Final stage of the build. Finally had an excuse to use my favorite custom steam whistle!
Noodlebeard has arrived! Zero plans, this is the result. I ended up removing the Venomcrawler mouth then smooshing it back into place over the beard before sculpting the second tier of the Sarlacc mouth meets Bloodborne cosmic horror. Not really much explanation here, it happened. That is all.
Nothing to say here. I like this picture. I suppose it does show some of the barrel detailing too. Riveting all the additions took quite some time as well.
Random creature alert. For some dam reason I thought it was a requirement to use a sculpted horseshoe crab to slightly elevate this guy toward the beast he’s “encouraging”. In addition, more example of time spent on a entirely covered lavapunk base.
The sub-assemblies mostly ready for paint! Didn’t want to do subassy painting but it was pretty necessary for all those hard to reach crevasses.
Ah back to under-details I promised earlier. Couldn’t stop myself from creating piping from the control platform back to the primary boiler. How else does one expect to steer and aim this monstrosity!? Time wasted… practically yes… but I enjoyed it.
Suction cups, so … many … suction cups… Obligatory furnace grate eye patch… check, weird steampunk hat, check.
Weird peek at the malformed ass
Steam powered torture screws on the carapace were another must have. Especially since I looted the Chaos pointed star crest for my Destroyer that left holes open for just this purpose.
