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Author Topic: Dakota's Mecha Guard - Two legs good - four wheels bad  (Read 2621 times)

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Offline dakota

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Dakota's Mecha Guard - Two legs good - four wheels bad
« on: April 16, 2010, 04:25:12 PM »
My Imperial Guard Mecha List

Concept:

When I first got into 40k, it was the dreadnought that sold it for me. Huge armoured beasts striding through the masses of infantry, laying waste to all before them. Of course, way way back then, vehicles were few and far between, and only the foot sloggers mattered. Then came plastic rhinos, metal landspeeders, and ugly landraiders, and so on. But it was the dreadnought that I loved. Why have wheels or tracks when you can clamber over piles of debris and push through stands of trees? To help us mech-heads White Dwarf even published useful rules articles (yes, this was that far back! can you even concieve of such a time before it was just faked battle reports and sprue diagrams). This allowed players to customize their dreads. Your movemnt speed, weapon points and so on were up to you. You picked the stats and paid the points. Long leg marine dreads, short legs, missile or laz-cannon? And of them all, the wraith-lord ruled, standing tall and proud over the others with its two guns and two arms. Ork ones had that too, but lets face it they weren't wraithlords let alone a spirit warrior.

Each blister pack had to be picked up and considered for it's contents – what guns do the arms have?Did it have two adapters to plug into the body for guns and arms. Did the ork one have the middle section? Great days.

To this day, no matter the intended army build, I always try and slip a dreadnought into my army lists. But as my armies grew my ability to take dreadnoughts shrank. Tau get crisis suits and broadsides – fine, orks get dreds and kans – cool, eldar... well even if they call it a creature, it's still a dreadnought to me. Likewise, for tyranids too. Guards get sentinels – meh!

Last year, for a challenge, myself and my gaming buddies did the tale of four gamers and each put together an army. http://www.40konline.com/index.php?topic=176107.0
Knowing the new IG codex was due out it seemed like a plan. Now I know everyone raves about the new codex, leafblower this, mech that, but the old codex gave me a 1/3 more stuff, cheap ogryns, decent hellhounds etc. anyway, ramble ramble ramble. The point is, they had no dreads. Lots of tanks and things that go boom! but no dreds. Sentinels are fine and have legs and all, but no arms, not even a measly combat blade  thingamy anymore.   

 Then a while back I saw the range of mechs from Paolo Parente's Dust game and fell in love. These were the gritty, clunking mechs of the Imperial Guard for me. Not the super-heavy knight titans or stompas but a proper 40k scale tank-mech. The other influence over this army project was an old game PS2 called Ring of Red. In this the Cold War was fought over a divided Japan with a variety of basic mechs. They had that early Battletech feel, rather than the glossy Gundam/Marcoss/Transformers slick look. From then on it was just a simple case of working out what they could stand in for, and working out how to put in as many walkers as possible.

The List

HQ – Primaris Psyker 70pts

El – Sly Marbo 65pts

Troops – Veteran Squad – 3 x grenade launchers 85pts

Troops – Veteran Squad – 3 x grenade launchers 85pts

Troops - Veteran Squad – 2 x Melta-guns 90pts

FA – Scout Sentinels 2 x Heavy Flamers 1x Auto-cannons 120pts

FA – Armoured Sentinels 3 x Auto-cannons 180pts

FA – Vendetta 130pts

Hvy- leman russ Squadron 2x exterminator – heavy bolter sponsons, pintle stubber 180pts

Hvy- vanquisher heavy bolter sponsons, pintle stubber 185pts

Hvy – Medusa 130pts

Tactical notes:

The army uses a mix of outflanking and fast moving troops and vehicles to attack objectives at the back of the board – scout sentinels, vendetta with melta veterans and psyker on board. The exterminators and armoured sentinels would give it some anti-armour/MEQ punch. The list looks pretty balanced and fairly tough. Admittedly, an assault army packing a heavy powerfist load-out would be a nightmare for it with all those squadrons, but when isn't that going to be a problem (Answer =Gretchin/gaunt hordes)?
It also only has three fragile troop units which is a problem but I figure it's a mech army and that's the point of it.

Anti troop – psyker ,scout sentinenls, exterminators, medusa & grenade vets
Anti mech – medusa vanquisher vendetta melta-vets marbo, other auto-cannons / grenades on the rear armour.
Objective clear / capture – medusa, vets, scout sentinels, armoured sentinels.
Ojective hold / contest – vets, vanquisher, medusa, exterminators 

Conversion Notes:

The exterminators will be based on Gunthers from the Dust range. Yes, I know that the twin-linked Auto-cannons are on sponsons not the turret, and conversely the three hvy bolters are but this isn't a tournament army but a pure vanity project.

The vanquisher will be another Dust mech. The possiblilites are:
Another Gunther but with the single cannons on it's arms – not sure how to get this frame though, or whether I'd just convert one.

 The plastic Luther from the forth-coming Dust Tactics http://www.boardgamegeek.com/images/boardgame/36367/dust-tactics

The orginal resin Jagdluther http://www.dustgame.com/products_d.php?nid=2&id=22

 The “Fury of Ivan” mech http://www.dustgame.com/products_d.php?nid=2&id=28 is also a possibility. Either way, this'll probably be the last bit I'll do for this army

The medusa will be based on the four legged mechs from the old PS2 game Ring of Red. My plan is to use the chassis from a Defiler to give it four legs on the corners. The middle leg hole would get covered by “gubbins”. This would then be topped out by the Forge World  Vanaheim pattern Medusa. Not too sure how this is gonna work, but plasti-card and bitz will help.

So that's the plan, I'm going to try and post a comprehensive unboxing and build guide for most of this army. Hope you like it and feel free to critise etc.

Offline dakota

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Re: Dakota's Mecha Guard - Two legs good - four wheels bad
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2010, 12:51:53 PM »
Un-Boxing the Gunther

Ok, so the first of the Gunther's arrived all the way from China. As you can see from the Pics below, it's ten frames of plastic, one of which is a polythene type soft plastic for washers and connectors. Along with a fairly clear 16 page instruction booklet/catalog. The plastic is typically thinner than GW stuff and is 1mm thick rather than the 2mm they use. The next is the higher level of detail. Bits that would be molded on or come in one piece are separate here. The gun arm is a good example. This is 29 pieces per arm. Notes on scale – First up, the scale is quite 40k it's close but no cigar as they say. This is a 1/35 scale kit worked off quite a true scale rather than the heroic scale of 40k. I'm not sure how much this will show in the final build, my feeling is not that much, but I've been wrong before. The only pieces that are definitely going to show it are the hatch copulas and the tools that are stuck to the shins. Even then....meh? 
Having picked up the Honoured Imperium terrain set on saturday (my unboxing review - http://www.40konline.com/index.php?topic=197973.0 ) I've decided to use the shattered aquila for a base for one of them.

For scale purposes, I've included a Rhino chassis and a space marine in all the shots. 

http://www.dustgame.com/products_d.php?nid=2&id=2


The Box


Sprues laid out


Main Body Sprue


Arms


Turret


Shoulder joints


Legs


Pelvis & Tools


Washers & Felixible connectors


The first page of the instruction booklet so you can get an idea of the complexity and information offered
« Last Edit: April 19, 2010, 12:58:57 PM by dakota »

Offline dakota

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Re: Dakota's Mecha Guard - Two legs good - four wheels bad
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2010, 12:55:10 PM »
First 18 Parts - The Main body

And we're off with the second bit...
 Yeah, holding fire with the turret for now as I may GW that bit up a bit more with some spares I've got on order. The cupola from the standard 40k IG guard vehicle sprue is just a little too large and intrudes over the smaller hatch. I've managed to pick up a Baal hatch and cupola from Bits and Kits along with some more hatches for the Medusa conversion. So until they arrive in the post that bit isn't getting made.

But back to the bit I did make. In shape and feel, this reminds me of the German half-track Sd.Kfz. 250/1 leichter Schützenpanzerwagen . And it has that same trapezoid, angular construction in the nose.  The main body has an articulated rod that joins it to the  legs under  it, which with the flexible washers is free moving to allow for a better pose. This is the only slightly fiddly bit and the rest of the body and the detailing all fit together easily and cleanly. The engine compartment at the back is separate and attaches simply, along with the engine access doors. Although there's no engine detail, the underside of the doors is really nicely detailed, so fitted the upside down to show it off and give it more of a grilled appearance. I'm also leaving off the rails from the main body as they're properly to scale and a little to thin to survive transportation. Likewise, the headlights are going to be some Leman Russ ones I've got spare or a space for a brass aquila.


Offline lijah_cuu

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Re: Dakota's Mecha Guard - Two legs good - four wheels bad
« Reply #3 on: April 20, 2010, 02:25:54 PM »
Looking good mate!!!

Offline dakota

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Re: Dakota's Mecha Guard - Two legs good - four wheels bad
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2010, 11:04:45 AM »
The Pelvis
This was a bit more fiddly than the main body as it has a three way connector to construct inside the frame to allow the main body and the legs to join on to it. Essentially, this is three spindles with holes for the other pieces to push into. This seating is pretty firm and will hopefully allow me to totally disassemble the Gunther for transport. As with the other sections there are numerous hatches and vents that are separate pieces rather than molded on as they would be on a GW piece. So for instance, the vents on the front of the pelvis have a gap between each slat rather than just being a solid piece.



The Arms
Again, the difference between this and a GW or even FW kit is quickly evident. The arms are fully articulated, from the ball joint housing that connects to the main body to the sliding hydraulic piston at the top. Both arms seem to pop into the main body fairly firmly, so hopefully these will never need to be glued so the kit can be disassembled for carrying. 




Offline dakota

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Re: Dakota's Mecha Guard - Two legs good - four wheels bad
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2010, 11:12:53 AM »
The Guns
At first I thought they were going to be quite fragile, but the main body of the guns is a mix of breech detail that I can't conceive anyone ever being able to see, removable magazines, and the long flak-kannon barrels. Each end of the gun has a pair of interior pieces to give it a front and back detail. This in then encased in four other pieces to give it sides. Sadly, the only bit that seems to be missing is an ejector port, that said, I've never seen a German flak kannon up close and it may well have a gravity eject where spent cases fall out of the bottom of the gun as they appear to do here.




Offline kototama

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Re: Dakota's Mecha Guard - Two legs good - four wheels bad
« Reply #6 on: April 22, 2010, 03:44:41 PM »
Now that's what I call a gun. How tall will that thing be once complete?

Offline dakota

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Re: Dakota's Mecha Guard - Two legs good - four wheels bad
« Reply #7 on: April 25, 2010, 04:01:32 PM »
The Legs
Last bit, and I've found that one of the joints is a bit too fragile. A small piece in the back of the knee just won't stand up to any substantial re-positioning. This bit caps a piston and fits into a slot to regulates the amount of travel the knee can do. Sadly, the gluing area is just too small, and this little bit snaps off. On the next one I'll use some plastic-rod to replace this joint and it will neither show  nor matter. This really, only really matters if you wanted to use this model as an action figure or toy, as a wargaming figure it'll be fine.





Here's a first shot of it put together and standing, now it's a case of covering it with aquilas and bits.
Posed, it stands about 18 cm tall without a base, so maybe 19/20cm tall when it's striding over walls and terrain etc. 


Offline kototama

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Re: Dakota's Mecha Guard - Two legs good - four wheels bad
« Reply #8 on: May 3, 2010, 03:48:31 PM »
That thing is frightening. It will look great with one of Chris' cadians smudged on the underside of one foot.

How did you get on with that reddiprene38 stuff you picked up at salute? I'm toying with the idea of getting some.

Offline Semaj_14

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Re: Dakota's Mecha Guard - Two legs good - four wheels bad
« Reply #9 on: May 11, 2010, 09:32:34 PM »
Sweet mercy! That thing is a small titan!
Cant wait to see it painted and whatntot
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