Gargant: an Epic Man Against Machine Story - Part 1.

You might have noticed the Work in Progress (WIP) List over there somewhere to the left. And you may have noticed the entry concerning the Armorcast Great Gargant.

This little piece of kit belongs to my friend , Anthony Pearson, and he gave it to me several years ago now, to build, convert, individualise and otherwise pretty up, as a remarkably devastating WMD in his Ork army.

So, you ask, Mr. Clever Pants, why have you not completed this task? Because it scares three kinds of bodily fluids out of me.

Firstly, the size: this beast is HUGE, I mean mega-big. And although it is made of resin, it is heavy. So lifting and holding while painting is prohibitive.

Secondly, how do you take something that is actually quite expensive and only available occasionally on Ebay, and have the temerity, nay, the BRASS, to drill, cut, saw and mutilate the casing, then add a variety of bits, pieces and such-like, as well as obscuring much of the piece with shattered plates and battle damage, Green Stuff modelled laser blasts and heaps of rust?

And finally, by adding your own ideas and additions, are you detracting from the original design, or do you have a responsibilty to make your own mark on the piece?

While struggling with these moral dilemmas, resulting in deep therapy sessions, interviews with experienced and knowledgable men of letters, and constant, frantic, sometimes fruitless experimentation, Anthony kept looking at me with his puppy-dog eyes, and made me feel guilty.

So I said stuff it and got stuck in.

I don't have earlier pics of the piece pre-conversion, but this shows the original idea for a colour scheme, which I loathed with a passion. It also shows the beginnings of the battle damage, with plastic plating cut off the GW plastic Gargant kit, a Green Stuff laser blast above the square plate on the right, and extensive rust texturing, using various grades of sand and crushed talc, liberally applied with wood glue. The red tinge on the rust is from Forgeworld weathering powders. Thought it would work, eventually disappeared under the paintwork and weathering.

Here is more of the damage, with a peekhole cut out of the raw, trembling resin. A small section of the GW Gargant, a box with a gretchin inside, was glued into the hole and surrounded by plate.

And the back with more rust, a few plates, Forgeworld resin Ork glyphs and bits of mechanical detritus including a wall heater to demonstrate that nothing gets wasted when Ork mekkies get their hands on someone else's crap.

You will notice the three arches in the casing. I kit-bashed and painted the pieces that would eventually reside in these openings, the two feet and the giant phallic cannon, finishing them before the main casing. I like to do this if there is anything that I intend to add to a piece after major painting, be it shields, flags, or any equipment. By simply adding them when the major work on the main casing is done, I don't feel like I have done a massive job of work taking many days, only to now have to face fiddly pieces of detritus that tests my patience. I also seem to do a better job on them.

Funny that.

This is the right foot. Fire Dragon for comparison. Big, isn't it? Spiky bits courtesy of GW Gargant.

I don't have pics of the cannon separate from the casing, unfortunately. Anthony may, so bear with me.

The next Part will have pics of the almost complete bottom section, including the cannon and feet, and a couple of extra additions.

Y'all come back now, y'here?

Cheers
Peter C.

PS. As always, I return for an encore. A smaller Armorcast Gargant, also owned by Anthony, also getting the treatment and waiting the brush after a black undercoat.

The machine gun on the right shoulder gives an idea of scale. Still hefty, but a little less threatening.

PC