Hobby Champions: Steff’s Kitbashed Onryō!

Steff Sorensen’s been at it again. No, not the energy drinks (although we are suspiciously short of mango flavour…), but the hobbying! She’s whipped up a completely custom model to represent the new Konflikt ’47 Japanese Onryō walker in double-quick time, and we got her to tell us exactly how (and why!) she did it!

With the release of the new Ghost Infiltration Platoon I got really excited to build a new Japanese army, but, like everyone else, I couldn’t get hold of the new Onryō. (She tried. We caught her attempting to sneak into the Studio one night last week. -ed.) Like all wargamers, I have zero patience, and I wanted it right now! Then I remembered the below paragraph from the recent Ghost Infiltration Platoon article:

A note about the Onryō: The plastic kit which builds all three versions of the new Japanese Walker will go on pre-order in late November, but given how pivotal it is to the Ghost Infiltration Platoon, and how heavily it features in Invasion Amerika, we’ve decided on this occasion to release its rules alongside the rest of the new units. We know that wargamers are a creative bunch, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with to represent it between now and the kit’s launch!

So I got to kitbashing! As with all my conversions and kitbashes, I can’t do anything simply, and this job ended up being a serious multi-kit affair. I grabbed a Heuschrecke, Linebacker, Type 7 Sasori, and the newly cast (and as yet unreleased!) Chi-Nu turret to construct what I’m calling the:

Sekishoku Tero

My head-canon is that this is an early prototype of the Onryō programme, designed to move unseen through the jungle. Cleaving through US and Commonwealth soldiers and sinking back into the undergrowth, like one of Japan’s fabled Yokai, it’s almost as much a monster as it is a mech!

I knew I wanted a very predatory looking vehicle, but it still had to make sense mechanically. The Linebacker legs were perfect, because they have a ton of shock absorbers and pistons to give the impression of fast-moving power and agility, as well as having the very raptor-like talons on each foot.

I got the legs built and sat the torso of the Heuschrecke on top, but it felt weird the ‘correct’ way around, as it put the entire walker in an upright pose that I didn’t like. I then flipped it so the back, with its repulsor array gubbins, was facing forward. This gave it an angled-forward ‘leaning pose’ that looked very much like a dinosaur – exactly what I was after.

I decided to lean into this and gave the mech the tail from the Sasori kit, pinning it to the Linebacker’s rear exhaust port. I tipped the tail with one of the ‘thumb’ pieces from the Sasori’ claws, and for the arms I cut the Heuschrecke arms in half at the elbow, and added the Sasori leg to make a sort of scythed talon for each arm.

I made the ‘head’ out of the prototype Chi-Nu turret, and I actually used an entire Csaba armoured car turret that I found in the resin miscasts bin for a suitably-sized neck! I then covered gaps with the Sasori armour plates, popped a few vents and lights around the body, and covered the tank hatch with a greeble from the Linebacker, ending up with a very intimidating looking Japanese walker! For gameplay purposes, I’m treating this as an Onryō equipped with the twin Type 99 Shiboru Cannon – it’s definitely ‘mounted across both arms’, honest guv!