Orc does something Orky (repurposing a 1:32 Mini Cooper)

[Red Orc]

I was given a Mini Cooper kit by one of my sons who reckoned I could cannibalise it for bits. He'd found it in a charity shop sans box, instructions, transfers, paint, glue... just slightly-damaged sprues in a bag.

So my plan is to do something Orky with it. I haven't actually played 40K since 5th Edition, whenever that was (probably about 10 years ago). But looking at the Mini it's 1:32 and therefore too big to do anything with to help any other projects I might have. Also, I'm not doing anything 'modern' as such. It would be an extraordinary task to turn it into a VSF truck or something for BoB or VBCW. So I thought I may as well turn it into some sort of Ork Wartrukk. I already have four of the old 1990s ones (bought from Ebay in a fit of Orky fervour) but I'm a firm believer that if you have four of something that's no reason not to get another one. Six is a good number. Maybe I'll stop at six.

I have put the wheels on - that's as far as I've got at the moment.

I rested the shell on the chassis. Just to prove it really is a Mini. But it isn't glued on (the model has lots of pins and grooves and whatnot to help it stay together).

'Red' Ork for scale (a Mini, with a mini...)

I will be canvassing opinion on how to develop this, and reserving the right to do what I want whatever anyone else says. But I'm a mediocre modeller and painter at best so I will be asking for advice as to where to take this.

[Red Orc]

Parts of the kit are quite nice - there are some interesting engineering greeblies (or as we Mekboyz call them, 'orky do-wotz'). Even the underneath has a bunch of detail that is unlikely to be seen (unless my Trukk flips over of course... I meant, unlikely to be seen on the original model).

This brings me to my first dilemma - which way up should I put my chassis?

The nicely-detailed surface is the underside (and yes, that exhaust pipe lying in the front does go down the middle); the much-less-interesting side that's all angles is the surface that what I will call 'the cab' rests in.

I feel I have three options.

The first is to flip the chassis right over, use the underneath as my new floor (maybe with granny-grating over the top), build a cab to stick over on the left on the (now) 'dropped' section, bang some sides on, bosh, we have a Wartrukk. Main disadvantage - can't really use the wheel-arches very easily as they're configured to be the wrong way up, but could maybe hack them up until they fit.

Option two is use it the 'proper' way up (and using the wheel-arches without modification), put a cab between the 'real' front wheels (over on the right in the photo), and build up the mid-section so it matches the raised section. I can't see the point of trying to make it up anything like properly, as it won't be anything like the right size for a Trukk, which is why I'd move the cab from the centre. Main disadvantage - would probably need to do a lot of greeblying to make it look OK (or OrKay).

Option three - and I'm just throwing it out there - is to build the Mini more or less 'as is', then cut the front off, and set the driver and gunner in the back, which would now be the front, then build up the new 'back' as a flatbed... sort of makes me think of an old Bedford van actually. Main disadvantage - I'd have to build up the back in the same way as option two, and it's arguably more work, basically for the joke of having the cab of the Trukk look like an over-sized Mini back-end.

So, that's what I'm thinking at the moment...