Hydra Conversion

I spent a while Friday afternoon building this, a Hydra Turret to use for my Imperial Guard.

I have been planning to build a couple Hydra turrets. I have been in the acquisition phase of the build, working to a mental plan. My original plan was to build a twin Gatling gun mount with the gunner in a basket between them. I didn't like any of the baskets I started on. None of them were going to look anything like any other Hydra conversions I had seen. So if the turret was going to be different, I decided to make it really different.
This is still a work in progress but is far enough along to show what it should look like in the end. I thought about It only having one gun and the WYSIWYG Nazis taking exception but it has more barrels so I figure they even out. I am thinking about adding a search radar dome, a tracking radar dish and some other bits. I am debating adding an ammo feed from the back of the column but then I will not be able to elevate and depress the gun. I have eyeballed one of the young master's Avatar toys that has a flexible plastic ammo feed but I can't bring myself to appropriate it for the greater good, yet. I have also been thinking about adding a hunter killer missile to the top of the gun but I need to check if the Hydra can take one. This is really a proof of concept model and I plan to make a tutorial when I build the second one.

Fluff wise I plan to call it a Field Expedient modification. The Catachans needed air defense and The Munitorium had none to issue. So in typical Catachan resourcefulness they took a normal Chimera, some sentinel controls, some borrowed electronics and added a cobbled together Gatling auto cannon. It might not be pretty but it works and that is what counts.

Last two 500 point league games

I played my last two 40k league games at Heroes Hq in Mocksville. My first game was against Robert G and his Tau. His army consisted of two firewarrior squads, a kroot squad and a Stealth suit squad. We rolled a Pitched Battle and Seize Ground. The Objective roll maxed out so Five objectives. I ended up placing three of them and made the optimum placement to hold the three and be able to support each unit. Then I lost the roll for board edge and Robert thanked me for placing them so well. Robert placed his models first and spread out to cover the three objectives I placed in cover. There are objectives in the bottom of all three of the ruins.

I deployed to try and make a run for one of the Tau objectives. The missile launcher stood back to provide cover while one infantry squad advanced on the right and the platoon command advanced on the left. I held the Sentinels in reserve to out flank and the Stormtroopers to deep strike.

Robert made short work of my Platoon command but I managed to kill on of his stealth suits which broke and fled the table.

My one Infantry squad hunkered down on the only objective I would control.

I dropped the Stormtroopers into the Tau backfield and killed a few but they were burned down quickly. My sentinel arrived and charged into the Kroot squad. I manged to kill a few but they ended up destroying both sentinels. Another loss for the Catachans. I did learn to not castle up all the objectives because you don't know if your opponent will thank you for making his game easier.

The second game was against Steven J and his Orks. he had a Big mek with custom force field, two boys mobs with a nob and shootas in truck and a killa kan. We rolled pitched battle and capture and control. I placed my objective in my backfield up on a sky shield platform. I set an infantry squad with a flamer and my Platoon command with three flamers close to the objective. my plan was to sacrifice my infantry squad to get a chance to flame the Orks. I had a break when my sentinels immobilized his truck and the boyz had to foot it to the sky shield platform. Steven missed a difficult terrain roll and I managed to get a flamer shot killing several orks. The orks charged in their turn and wiped out the squad. Then my platoon command flamed the surviving orks killing all the boys and putting a wound on the Big Mek. My sentinels them shot him and took his last wound.

The doomed squad takes one for the team.

On the other side of the table the stormtroopers had advanced up and traded shots with the killa kan, losing a couple troopers but finally killing the Kan with Plasma fire. The infantry squad moved up spraying the orks with lasgun fire and doing little damage. Stevens truck fired up the stormtroopers killing the third one and they broke and ran for the table edge. The Orks came out to charge the infantry squad but came up short. Then the missile launcher hit them with three frag missiles killing most of the mob. The rest broke and ran leaving me with a win. My first one of the league.

We have moved onto the 750 point round and I hope to get some games in after Easter.

ColKG

40k league to 750 points

I managed to play four games at 500 points for the league. It left me at 1 win, no draws and 3 loses. I did refresh myself with the rules but I am still finding something new every game. We have moved into the next cycle, gaining 250 points to add to my list. I went through several lists but decided to go for more units with less upgrades. I will use this cycle to prepare for the next cycle at 1000 points. The list follows for my Catachan Imperial Guard Company Command squad 1 Flamer Senior Officer bolter Infantry platoon Platoon Command 2 Flamers Junior officer Bolter Infantry squad 1 Flamer Sergeant Bolt pistol Power weapon Commissar Bolt pistol Power Weapon Infantry Squad 1 Flamer Sergeant Bolt Pistol Power weapon Heavy Weapon Squad 3 Missile launchers Special Weapon Squad Demo Charge 2 Grenade Launchers Veteran Squad Demo Charge 1 Meltagun Sergeant Las pistol CCW 2 scout sentinels auto cannons Stormtrooper squad 2 plasmaguns Sergeant Hot shot lasgun I need to make two models with bolters and no power weapons to field the list. I dropped the power fists I had in the list because they rarely lived to swing back. I added the commissar so I can combine the squads and maybe have a chance against some of the marine assault squads. I know a couple people are going to have a 2+ save so I added a couple demo charges to at least give me a chance. I dropped the power weapon from the storm trooper sergeant and used the points else were. I went through at least five versions of the 750 list and choose this more stripped down list with more potential in later rounds. I will not be able to get any gaming in till after the Easter Holidays but maybe the weekend after that. ColKG

Catachan Grenade Launcher Conversion

I have been working on my 40k Catachan Imperial Guard army for a local escalation league. We have been playing 500 point games and will ramp up our lists to 750 points in the next round. I have been toying with several different lists and one requires more grenade launchers. Five more to be specific. I recently picked up a Catachan Command Squad which has one grenade launcher. I have another female Catachan Grenade Launcher to add to the ones I already use. I still needed three more. I bought a big lot of Catachans from a buddy of mine who was reinvesting in At-43 RedBlok. He had several models converted to grenade launchers using Necromunda Bits. I needed more lasgunners at the time so I broke apart the models but saved the bits. Always Save your Bits. Here is a shot of the bit in question. I believe it is from a Cawdor Heavy. back in the fabled time of bits ordering he had picked up a handful. It has one problem.

The back side has no detail. On the Cawdor heavy is sits against the model's chest so no need for detail. After test fitting to a basic Catachan, I realised that you could really see the missing detail on the back. It left a large gap in between the launcher and the basic Catachan's chest.

Here is a detail shot of what a regular grenade launcher looks like on the back.

A little green stuff later and this is what the Necromunda grenade launchers look like now.

Here are the new additions to the Catachans. The rear rank is an original Catachan Grenade Launcher on the left and a old style Catachan body with the new arms from the command squad on the right. The front rank all have the Necromunda bits with freshly sculpted details.

First Escalation League Battles

IT HAS BEGUN! I have played my first two 500 point games for the GameOnGw 40k league. I made it out 2April11 to Heroes Headquarters in Mocksville NC to meet several other league players. I picked up some models I ordered and socialized a bit then got down to gaming with Kris M. to owner of the shop. My 500 point army was as follows: Platoon command squad Junior officer with power fist and bolter, three flamers and a grenade launcher 1st Infantry squad: Sgt with bolt pistol and grenade launcher 2nd Infantry squad:Sgt with bolt pistol and power weapon and flamer Heavy weapon squad with three missile launchers Storm trooper squad Sgt with hot shot las pistol and power weapon two troopers with hotshot las guns two troopers with plasma guns two scout sentinels with auto cannons (proxied above by two oop Imperial Robots) We rolled for scenario and deployment, resulting in Dawn of War and Annihilation. Kris' army was Blood Angels and contained

A 10 man Tactical squad with a flamer and missile launcher in a Rhino.

A Whirlwind

and a 9 model Assault Squad

This is early game, possibly bottom of round two. I moved onto the board and tried to hide in cover. Kris moved up his rhino and dismounted the Tactical squad. In what seemed like a good idea at the time I moved my grenade launcher out of cover and tried for a shot at the jump squad and missed. I then shot the missile launchers and destroyed the launcher on the whirlwind. That was the high point of my game. Kris moved up the Tac Squad and proceeded to bolter down the heavy weapon squad. I had out flanked with the sentinels and held the stormtroopers in reserve to deep strike and they didn't arrive till late in the game. I shot a bunch hit some and did few wounds. Kris moved up the Assault squad and took on my junior officer, who didn't live to swing his fist.

My next turn the storm troopers and sentinels arrive. I dropped the stormtroopers behind the assault squad and manage to kill two of them. The sentinels fire at them also and Kris makes his saves. On his next turn Kris tank shocks the stormtroopers who move out of the way and jumps the Assault squad to the other side of the cover from the stormtroopers.

He assaulted infantry squad two and burnt them up. His tac squad finishes off the other infantry squad and I conceded the game. I had lost four out of seven kill points so no way to tie, a win for Kris.

My second game was against Brian B and his Space Marines. Brian only had 260 points he could field under the 500 point league restrictions.

His army consisted of a tactical squad and a scout sniper squad.

I dropped the sentinels and stormtroopers to make it a more even game. Brian was very new to 40k and as the game progressed it became apparent that several people had taken advantage of his lack of rules knowledge. It is sad that some people will take improper advantage of new players. I have been in the hobby a long time and have come to see the new players as tomorrows opponents. Unscrupulous players have turned many prospective players away from the hobby and these disenchanted players will turn even more people from the hobby. If you have to cheat to win then it is a sorry statement about yourself.

We rolled for scenario and deployment getting Pitched Battle and Annihilation.

We deployed with me hiding my forces in cover and Brian placing his scouts in cover and running His tactical squad into my guns. My 1st infantry squad and his snipers dig in and trade fire the majority of the game.

His Tac squad marched across the board burning down most of the heavy weapon squad. He charged my Infantry squad and won the assault. I was left with my Sgt with power weapon and a flamer. I then charged the tac squad with my platoon command squad and won the assault. Brian chose to withdraw and ran far enough that I couldn't catch him. He had a misconception about how the "And they Shall Know No Fear" universal rule worked but after consulting the book He decided it wasn't as great a rule as he thought. I assaulted him again and lost leaving his lone Sgt to charge my last wounded missile launcher team pictured above.

While all the assaults were going on my infantry squad and his sniper traded fire. My grenade launcher had a good run with frag grenades and was slowly wearing his squad down. His tac Sgt finished off my Heavy weapon team and came for the infantry but they finished him off. At end game it was another loss for me. I had lost three kill points to his one.

I could have fielded all 500 points of my army against his 260 points and been within the rules but i didn't think it would be fair. He had played several other league games and they had fielded their full 500 points against his but better a fair game to encourage a new player than an easy win to pad my league standing.

Off to a rocky start. I have started planning my 750 list and hope to get a couple more games in this weekend.

Sentinel Conversions

Here is another GameOnGw 40k League related project. My original plan for the league was to play my Praetorians but after determining the number of conversions I would have to accomplish to field the army I wanted, I decided to field my Catachan army instead. One problem is that all the sentinels I have assembled are either Armored sentinels or Praetorian sentinels. I wanted to field some Scout sentinels so had to build them. I had planned to do this years ago so I had the sentinels on hand. I debated whether to make them dedicated Catachan sentinels or a generic sentinel and went for generic. I save the regular sentinel pilot heads to use for someday expanding my Elysian Drop troop army so a found a few Valkyrie crew heads and used them for the pilots.

I want to be able to get multi use out of the models so I magnetized the weapons. I used 3mm magnets. A word to the wise always test polarity in the magnets. I used the first weapon to test all the hull magnets. Then after all the hulls were dried I used one to test the rest of the weapons. Right now I have multi lasers and auto cannons for all three and I may add more later. My current list calls for the autocannons so they will see the table first.

The sentinels came from different batches and had different plastic bases. I saved the plastic bases and will mount them on resin bases that I cast.

In the quest for WYSIWYG I wanted to mount smoke launchers. I tried adding them to the front or on the engine but they didn't look right. Then I decided to add them on the rear of the waist. I think they look like tail feathers and can't wait to see them painted up.

I want to do a detailed interior and didn't get them finished so I had to play my first couple league games with a proxy. I have primed the cockpits, started the painting and hope to have the interiors done before this weekend.

Commissar Conversions

Since I have started planning for the GameOnGw Escalation league, I have been working on several different projects related to my Imperial Guard army. One is updating some of my Rogue Trader era Commissars. Here is a trio of them. I had several armed with stormbolters but they are no longer legal upgrades so I have started to rearm them with plasma pistols and bolt pistols.

The other major change is to add powerfists to several of the Commissars. I test fitted a couple with the old RogueTrader space marine power fists but they were just too bulky. I raided the bits box and came up with a few of the old plastic Eldar powerfists. they are much slimmer and neater in my book. A downside is they all are the same so I have pinned the fist to the commissar's shoulder and have since sculpted the rest in.