Monday, November 7, 2011

How to: Imperial Guard Heavy Support on a budget


I recieved an email last night, and even though I answered it, (as I always try to answer emails) it needs pictures. So I thought that deep in the middle of Necron mania I would show something IG style.

This is not necessarily completely on a budget, after all you will still need to purchase 9 basilisks. However, with this you will not need to purchase any more than that, and still get a flexible and viable option for your Imperial Guard Heavy support options.



First and foremost, I had help building these. A big thanks to Skye over at Green Rivets for his help with the Hydra Turrents. Here is the email, followed by pictures.

via email;
HI,
I have a query which I hope you can help with your expertise. It has nothing to do with your latest posts. Hope that is OK with you. I am asking because I know for a fact you are more familiar with 40K stuff than anyone I know. :)

I have trying find a cheaper way of getting Basilisk as well as Hydras, and I stumbled on a webpage which used the Basilisk platform mounted on tracks made from the track guide and tracks from the chimera chassis. (unfortunately, I did not bookmark the page)

I understand that the new chimera chassis is somewhat different from the older versions (which I only have experience with). So I was wondering if you could advise if the newer chimera chassis uses similar trach guides (those cyclindrical things between the outer and inner "layers" of the sides) just like the older ones?

And if you are wondering, I plan to use plasticard and an AA model from Maxmini with the remainder of the Chimera chassis to make the Hydras.

Thank you in advance!


Reply;
That is a hard one, since I have 10 chimeras, and 9 basilisks chassis that are old school. the only new chassis models I have are two Hellhound varients.

Here is what I did for my basilisks and Hydras. I have 9 basilisks which I bought. I did not glue the platform in, since they slide in so easily they generally do not fall out on the table. So basically if I want to play a basilisk, I simply slide in the earthshaker platform. I also have a couple custom colossus and 6 hydras. These are built to simply slide into the basilisk hulls. I also have partially done, a deathstrike missle, and 2 medusas that also slide into the hulls. This way I have maximum flexibility with what I want to play, and I will never need more than 9 hulls for my heavy support choices.

I will have to post up on what these look like, so I can show with pics.

So my suggestion, stick with the Basilisks chassis, and customize form there. Its easier and more flexible. The chimera hulls would be a little more difficult to do, but I am sure it can be worked out, however my experience with the new chimeras is very limited, been playing too long, and do not need new ones. I will do a post in a couple days, maybe tomorrow if I get the chance. Will show you how well mine turned out.

If you look closely, each Hydra's turrent has a magnet to allow it to swivel. The whole piece just slides in, so that I can switch out my colossus and other guns into any of the nine heavy support models.

Also please note: I had a forgeworld Hydra that I was able to scale the dimensions/ height/ width off of. So I was lucky in regards to that.