Thanks Inevitable_Faith, Private Benjamin, and evildrcheese.
I have been away from this PLOG for a little bit while I finished the Orks and then the Sisters of Battle armies. But I am back working on the last few infantry models and then the Tauros Venator...and then rebasing my
FW aircraft.
But first up a tutorial for the sentry guns that I promised as I was able to recover this from my WarSeer PLOG with the restoration of that site:
Now this is just my take on how to do this, feel free to take any part of it, do your own thing and create something else. This is just my way, as I have seen lots of variations on the theme of Sentry Guns, most seemed to be a little bit different than what I was looking for which was something like the
FW version, just not as expensive.
The base uses 2 pairs of Predator Lascannons for the strut parts, with some sprue from the old Vehicle Accessory Sprue (or anywhere else just as long as it is thin and has an angled part and you can get 4 identical bits of sprue), some track bits from a Tamiya Kit (or use
GW bits), 4 hinges from the old Hunter-Killer Missile, an old Rhino hatch, a new Rhino Door and some little bits for detail work (again your imagination is the only restriction).
Picture of the parts for the base:
Now let’s begin with the legs, cut the lower support from each side of the Predator Lascannons, carefully along the join to the main body and near the end (one side has an extra length that can be removed). Save the body, we are going to use some of them later. You will need eight support pieces (four of each side and when paired up they make part of our leg supports), so that is two complete sets of Predator side sponsons (which are actually remarkably easy to acquire as most folks use the Heavy Bolters on their Predators and usually buy them in pairs…tanks that is).
Then use your angled sprue (I use a bit from the old vehicle accessory sprue, but you can use almost any sprue as long as it is narrow, we just want it to be equal on all four ends so whatever you pick make sure you can get duplicates) and make the main part as long as the support pieces. Again, I just choose this length as it seems right, as if the parts slide together into the compressed Sentry Gun box, you can make them longer, just remember then your model’s footprint will get larger.
Then you trim the vertical end to your desired length, mine is about 5
mm, it really does not matter as long as it is equal between all four legs (a file is your friend here to make the all equal length as cuts are not that accurate…at least with my knife).
Now take the pairs of supports and a light layer of glue down the long end to secure it to the angled sprue. You want to extend the centre sprue out past the first indentation and raise the angled sprue a little higher than the supports. Again this is my choice to try and create the feeling that the leg slides out of the supports to extend the leg, it also creates the feeling of depth even though your legs are quite fragile. Once those start to dry set them aside and grab your hinges.
The four hinges start by cutting off the interior knobs (you might want to keep them if you have sanded too much off your supports or your angled leg sprue is really thin, but I find a quite test fitting should suffice to determine if you need to or not). Take them and glue them to the underside of your central support (in my case a Rhino door). This one you can eye-ball pretty easily, there are even nice little visual queues on the Rhino door to help. Let that dry and grab the legs again.
Your legs now need the foot support, find something to support the higher end (in my case a little bit of laminate flooring serves the purpose, but a book or magazine would probably suffice). You want the support to keep the body of the leg level as you glue on you feet. I used upside down tank treads from a Tamiya kit, you could use
GW treads or some other bit, let your imagination wander.
Once these start to set go back to your main support body and find something to keep it at the desired level without legs (some stacked bits are good for this, or perhaps some blu-
tac or something similar. Now take you legs and glue them to the insides of the hinges. With the object supporting the central base you should have no trouble letting the plastic glue set and give the legs the strength to support the body.
Next step is to glue the old Rhino hatch in the center of the Rhino Door and attach your little detail bits to add some definition to the sprue (so that it looks a little different than just cut up sprue).
Then add some of your neat bits to disguise the sprue. I have added some more Tamiya track links to the ends of my angled sprue.
Then we start on the turret. Remember those Predator Lascannon parts we cut the support strut off that I said we would use again. Grab two of the outer shells (the parts with the skull on the side).
Then cut them down, a cut at the join where the outer shell joins the Lascannon barrel (it will see like a logical part to cut leaving you a flat edge with a couple of rivets in line) and at the bottom where the power coil attaches to the bottom, again the cut should be natural making you a sort of box.
I also trim off the back bone parts of the symbol, changing it from a Marine icon to a simple skull icon on so many Imperial Guard weapons. Just personal preference as it cannot really be seen once the side sponsons are glued on.
Another image of the turret bits.
Now you will also need to cut out the inside tube and the plastic that extends out from your main body. Be careful when you do this (I used some clippers to remove the tubing), what you are trying to achieve is a smooth join between both halves.
Now glue them together to make a turret section (you may have to file down some of the edges to get a perfect join, especially if your saw cuts were not perfect).
Now build the targeting array, using the vent from an old Hunter-Killer Missile. Her is an untouched one and one I have filed down and trimmed a little section out of the middle of the front side.
Next, take a fuel tank from the vehicle accessory sprue and saw off the top half at the obvious join between the main can and the handle.
Sorry, that was not a great photo, but you get the idea.
Then take the handle and remove the lid. This part here:
Then file down the bottom until you reach the 45 degree angle. Cut a little bit back from the end and attach to the fuel tank bottom and the turret body. Attach the targeting array to the top and you should have something like this:
Now I used the top of the fuel tank to make the angled portion, you could use any bit of plastic I just found the excess plastic from the last job useful. The half tank covers the space at the front of the turret and the angled plastic makes the join look more natural. I glue the bottom of the fuel can along the line of the main turret side, so there is a bit of space between the bottom of the main turret and the fuel can.
Next up is adding the weapons, at this point I found several of my photos were really bad, so perhaps I will take some more in add them later, but in the meantime here is what it looks like with a couple of Heavy Bolters added.
Yes, it was about this point I realized that I had not drilled out the barrels yet, always something when you are rushing through a tutorial.
Here is what we have so far:
OK, some mid-point pictures to help with the guide. Here are some photos of the Lascannon Side Sponsons getting cut to make the centre of the turret.
The cut along the bottom (note power cable already removed).
The cut between the housing and the Lascannon barrel
I also added a Rare Earth magnet to the undercarriage and to the bottom of the turret for ease in swapping between a Lascannon or Heavy Bolter turret.
Now I have added some discs made from cutting up some thin plastic rod to simulate rivets. I really like the effect on the base.
The rivets were a little large compared to those already on the model and while I am looking to achieve the effect that this is a Guard weapon and not some Space Marine version. In the end I removed them, but have left them in the guide to show you what they look like.
Here is a look at the rivets version.
Here is the two types beside each other.
Next the Lascannon Turrets, the change is the need to create a couple of plastic discs to act as a joint between the Lascannons and the turret. I have used some of the spare parts left over from the conversion. The cut off Lascannon barrels have a couple of great spots that can be used to create discs. Just cut out one of the braced joints and to the same from another side and glue together.
This particular shot the half disc has already been cut out as it was being glued to the turret when I got my camera set up.
Here is what a disc looks like glued to the turret.
The Lascannons attached to the turret.
The completed alternate turret (which with the Rare Earth Magnets makes for an easy swap) with Lascannons.
Now since we used two pairs of side sponsons for each Sentry Gun we have enough parts to make two separate turrets for each one, with the Rare Earth Magnets the swap is a snap.
I also ended up removing the old Rhino hatch and tested out an alternative.
I discovered something else that could be used as the round swivel portion of the sentry guns. An old slotta base for doors and barracades from an old game.
I just remove the raised plastic tabs and get this:
Support with Rhino Hatch
Support with Slotta Base
I went for the same colours on the Sentry Guns as I did for the armour on the Drop Troops, rather than the Desert Yellow of the aircraft and Sentinels. This was because the aircraft and walkers were painted by their crews while the Sentry Guns are maintained by the Adeptus Mechanicus and thus have no ‘personality’ per say.
All three:
Two Heavy Bolter Sentry Guns
Two Lascannon Sentry Guns
The long painting (and converting) war continues...
CB
Finished Forge World Elysian Army 
Finished Tau Sept Cadre 
Finished Ork Waaagh | 
Alaitoc Eldar Warhost 
Finished Order of Our Martyred Lady - Sisters of Battle 
Finished Necromundian Imperial Guard Regiment 
1000
