Warhammer 40,000 – Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy

Let's finish the industrial vehicle theme with a Buggy, the Rukkatruck Squigbuggy, that will be de-orcified within this building review. The Squigbuggy was introduced along with a couple of other new orc vehicles on the Speed Freeks release.

The Squigbuggy isn't the first Ork vehicle that I convert, I did some work on the Battlewaggon and the Ork Bomba. I bought it last year, it was one of four vehicles not exclusive to the Speed Freeks kit back then (the Kustom Boost-blasta and Shokkjump Dragsta would only be available through the boxed set). With the latest price update it is now 40 EUR, like the other medium sized ork vehicles.

The kit comes with a single plastic sprue in a large, flat box, along with a coloured assembly instruction, but unfortunately without decals. With the snakebite symbol and the painted teeth on the box art you could get the impression, that those were included. Interestingly enough, the orc vehicles come with a large oval base, eventhough they wouldn't be needed to put them on the table.

It is amazing, that the whole kit fits into a single frame, especially with the colourful crew of Orks and Grotz included. Casting is crisp, properly moulded details and little work on the mould lines needed.

We are going to begin with the chassis. The undercarriage is the largest piece within this kit and has a couple of pieces added to it, the rear axle, hood, radiator, exhaust pipe, gear lever, a large bumper with spikes to it. But as we are going to get rid of all the orkish icons, we have a bit of work to do.

First let's remove the teeth from the fender and the ork icon from the side panel. As we're going to use this as a generic vehicle, without the ork crew, we need to remove the feet from the pedals. As this is hard reach place and the plastic is rather thick, it is best to drill some holes into the plastic and go from there. As removing the feet creates holes in the underbody, I used plastic card to cover those.

Now let's assembly the prepared parts. So far we have quite a good impression of the size of the buggy.

The flatbed of the Squigbuggy has a large compartment to store the squigs, it shoots them with his squig launcha. But as we're not building an Ork vehicle, we need to replace this part. Again, rather thick plastic, so it took a bit of time to cut it out. I thought about covering it up with plastic card, but I had the flatbed cover from the Goliath Rockgrinder as a spare part and it fits surprisingly well.

The flatbed has a supporting structure with a some bars as a railing to the left and right, along with the dashboard. I had to do some refitting on the steering wheel, as it has a gap for the drivers hand.

The wheels are surprisingly un-orkish, so no work on them necessary. The anti-roll bar is added to the cage over the driver.

Now for the passengers door along with the squig launcher, that is repurposed as some kind of air intake for the engine / turbo charger. I cut the tip of the launcher, to give it a more regular look.

The Squigtruck comes with circular saw blades on each side, imagine something like the chariots with scythe blades. Depending on what you want to achieve or which army / warband you want to support with this kit, you can either add them or leave them off.

Now for the crew. The Squigtruck comes with two grot helpers, one handling a squig and the other one scratching his head.

And then there are three orks, one of them is the driver and lacks now the feet. There is one with a mobile squig cannon and one just sitting on the flat bed. Nice, dynamic trio, can be used for a couple of different set ups.

Here you see how the ork crew is meant to be added to the buggy, and some Genestealer Cult crew. You could of course use Goliath or Orlock with this kit, the brute Goliath would be next to some chaos cultist as a Mad Max style speed cult be among the best fit for my taste.

Here's the build less orkish Buggy / Truck. I might to add some filler to some of the gaps, like where I cut out the squig pen.

The Squigbuggy is a medium sized vehicle, very close to the outline of the Kustom Boost-blasta and Shokkjump Dragsta.

Conclusion
Back when I bought this kit last october it was 35 EUR, and I already had the intention to convert this into some generic Necromunda or Inq28 vehicle. I was torn a bit between the Squigbuggy and the Snazzwagon. The Squigbuggy won due to the more open built and that it was easier to convert. If you're looking for a Speed cult like the Digga Nobs, some Mad-Max styled Ashwaste Nomads, the Snazzwagon might be more interesting for you. Depending on what you're after, maybe using this as a truck for Catachans or smaller truck than the Goliath for the Genestealer cult, some parts from the Imperial Guard vehicle sprue could be useful, like the tools or barrels. I went for a less professional, backyard garage style, that would fit with the Underhive, so I'm quite satisfied with the crude ork mek techniques.

35 EUR wasn't a bargain, 40 EUR since last monday didn't make that a better deal. For just 6 EUR more you get a much more complex kit, like the Goliath Truck. Especially if you keep in mind, that the regular Ork Trukk is "just" 32,50 EUR and that price range seems more appropiate for the one-sprue vehicles. I was a bit surprised that Games Workshop went for a total of 6 different vehicles, instead of a modular one, as none of them cover any options. They are build as they are shown in the package and that is a bit unusual for orks, especially if you have build the some of the bots or Battlewaggon.

For this project the price was okay, as I used the truck itself for the conversion shown above, and all the ork parts will be used for a nice addition to the Maulers, Dino's Blood Bowl Team. He is thinking about doing a Squig Kebap stand for the side line, and the squig pen will make a great center piece, along with the lots of individual squigs and the herding grotz. The ork with the mobile squig cannon, could be easily converted into a t-shirt cannon, as you might know them from american sports events. Getting your hands on these bits is nearly impossible or rather expensive, so the "secondary use" of the crew makes this kit in our case a proper deal.

Warhammer 40,000 is a brand by Games Workshop.

I bought this kit at Radaddel.