GW doesn’t sell a plastic Ork Big Mek just yet, but there’s no reason why you can’t make one fairly easily from bits.
I actually started with a plastic push-fit Ork Boy for this conversion. A multi-part Ork Boy would work just as well. He has been heavily modified using bits from all manner of other GW kits, most of them also Ork kits. Since Ork Meks love to tinker and tamper with bodging things together, why not build the Mek himself the same way?
Orks are a favorite for GW modelers who like to convert as it fits their background so well. Creating characters from bits is a great way to customize your army.
One bit that really inspired this conversion was the head which comes from the Ork Stompa kit. With the bolt in his mouth and electronic coils sticking out of his head it just cries out to be on a Mek conversion. Since Big Meks are famous for their “Kustom Force Field” the electronic coils on his head are a great looking part for this conversion.
This was my first version of the Big Mek. The most laborious part of the conversion was creating the backpack for generating the Kustom Force Field that is an essential part of what Big Meks bring to the battlefield. I did a lot of rummaging through bits boxes and quite a bit of cutting and test fitting to build the backpack. On my first version I really liked the bits projecting from the backpack, but wanted something taller. I went rummaging through my bits for a specific old bit that I think comes from the Battle For Macragge boxed set.
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| First version Big Mek |
I found the long bit I was searching for and added it to the backpack. I really liked the shorter part with the small sensor dish it replaced. That bit comes from a Dark Angels landspeeder. I kept it by adding it to the much longer bit now sitting at an angle on the backpack. The right hand of the Big Mek comes from a Runtherd’s grabbin’ stick.
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| Final version Big Mek |
The left arm of the Big Mek holding the control system for the backpack comes from the Ork Stormboyz kit. This Kustom Force Field controller on the Big Mek’s left arm was inspired by the actual Big Mek model (now in Finecast) by Games Workshop. Other bits have been added to it after some bits were clipped off.
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| Big Mek holds a controller wired to the backpack |
The rear view of the backpack reveals that I’ve used bits from multiple kits here as well. There are parts from a Deff Dread, an Ork Shoota and more.
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| The force field generator backpack has lots of gadgets. |
Here’s the Big Mek fully painted with his Kustom Force Field generator. I call him Big Mek Red Skull and thematically painted the skulls on the model in bright Citadel Mephiston Red.
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| Painted and ready for battle! |
The face plate I used from an Ork Deff Dread has lots of cool lights and buttons on it. I painted them bright colors to make them stand out and brighten the look of the whole model.
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| Bright lights, buttons and more on the backpack. |
Big Mek Red Skull is an Orky genius, at least by Ork standards anyway. He even built his own Big Mek Stompa. If you missed my articles on how I converted and painted the Big Mek Stompa shown here you can read about it and see work in progress photos of that conversion via this link: Ork Big Mek Stompa: Krump Da ‘umies!
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| Big Mek Stompa: Crush, Kill, Destroy! |
There’s nothing like building your own unique characters for your Warhammer armies by converting as it makes your army unique from every other one you’ll see on a tabletop. If you’re pressed for time or short on bits even small changes to basing, arms or heads can give a model an interesting twist. For example, I re-based and did some minor conversion work on the Space Hulk Broodlord model for my Tyranid collection. You can see that article at this link.
