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The new drop pod model is awesome, what a great kit. My main complaint is that the rules now don't match it capacity of 12 vs harnesses for 10 and it just doesn't seem possible for anyone to actually exit it.

I think it is the harnesses. If you drop from orbit a harness over the shoulder is not going to help you much upon landing and the fact that when the drop pod opens the harnesses would be in the open position rather than the closed position since everyone just got out.

So I am looking at other options on how to build it. Attached are some images I took of the ones I have built so far. I have three. I went ahead and built one the correct way. The other two I built the frame but left the innards out so far. Well here is what they look like:









Oh yeah and the other thing. I heard some mention of dreadnought drop pod conversions. I thought I would just see how a dreadnought fits:



Anyway, I am mainly fishing for opinions and if there is anyone out there that wants to see what a drop pod looks like with various bits left out you can use this as a resource.

Which version looks best/reasonable?
If you left anything out would you put something else in?
Has anyone else done something along these lines?

I think i'm going to shave down the doors on all mine so their actually flat and you can put models on them.

thanks for the post though, any better pictures of the dreadnought drop pod?

It look pretty awesome =D

wash-away wrote: any better pictures of the dreadnought drop pod?

I will see if I can get some closeups later. There are a couple problems that I see:

1) The "top" of the drop pod is about 5mm too low for the dreadnought to fit in.
2) Even if the dreadnought can be squeezed in, there is no way to get the storm bolter or missile launcher in.
3) The only way to get him in is to build it around him (this model had no arms) so it is kind of like bird cage. It is apparent that a dread would not be able to stroll out of a normally constructed drop pod.

I think that the conversion for a dreadnought drop pod will be required to be open on one side. I am still thinking about it.

The old FW dread drop pod only had 3 doors. Shame about the price and build quality.

I dont think that they intended it to be a Dread drop pod with some work im sure it can be done but im happy that I can now afford a drop pod lol, always wanted one but the FW ones are just to much.

Any thought on using it as a Death Wind Assault pod. I think that is the correct name, the same one from Forge World with either the Missile launchers or Assault Cannons mounted inside of it.

Mat &

Here's my issue with the drop pod. Think about how this machine works:

I'm in an assault craft in orbit around a planet. I load ten men in a metal pod. We launch. We need to be going pretty damn fast so we don't get shot down by orbital defenses or flak guns as we descend. It's got to be packed with anti-detection gear to baffle radar, and once you burst up to speed between your launch rocket and the gravity well, you've got to kill the power.

Then you're descending. The terminal velocity of an object depends on the atmosphere, but let's imagine a 6 ton object in earth atmosphere with a drag coefficient somewhere around .2 (betweena bullet and a sky-diver) and an area of 15 meters square (about 3 meters on each side of the pentagon.

When you reach terminal velocity, you're moving at 179 meters per second! OR or about half the speed of sound. so even with retro rockets, you're going to SLAM into the earth. The bottom of your drop pod will be buried, and you'll have to blow the doors off to get out. IF you haven't been crushed by pressure changes or your sudden stop. The pod will be hot enough to set the earth steaming and you will almost certainly have a few fires around you.

Why can't GW represent THAT in the rules. The doors houldn't drop, they should pop off with small directional charges. This thing should be modeled with a crater around it.

As I recall, didn't the FW Dread Drop Pod only have one door? You could glue three of these doors shut, mess with the other two to open sideways like french doors, and something to blow the strut between them to make a nice wide opening for him to walk out of.

What? You expect 40K to adhere to physics? HAHAHAHA

Seriously though, watch any of the movies that include drop pods (mainly just the DoW opening), about 20m above the ground the rockets fire to the point almost stopping the drop pod mid air before it actually lands.

Marines survive this because a) they're marines, and b) the pod likely has inertial dampening technologies to reduce the forces on its occupants from such sudden velocity changes.

The FW pods have three working doors, or at least the dreadnought variant does.

Mat &

combat engineer wrote:The FW pods have three working doors, or at least the dreadnought variant does.

Mat &

I've seen the FW marine drop pods before and

1) i like them better then gw,
2) they have 5 working doors.

as for the dreadnought, you might consider a plasticard floor (where the bottom comes in 2 peices leave out the top one) and brass rod the doors. you'll have to remake the floor but with a stop to your local train shop for floor stuff it shouldn't be to hard.

erm, ease up on the physics.
now, explain how the warp works, how daemons are created and sustain thier form.
GW has physics screwed mate, your wasting your breath.

Scottywan82 wrote:Here's my issue with the drop pod............

When it comes to any Sci-Fi, you must suspend disbelief. There is sooooooooo much that should not work based off of physics in 40K.

i mean come on bolter shells have explosives made from heavy water and you can't belive the way drop pods work. don't forget Gauss weapons those just defy every law of physics there is.

ptlangley wrote:
There are a couple problems that I see:
1) The "top" of the drop pod is about 5mm too low for the dreadnought to fit in.
2) Even if the dreadnought can be squeezed in, there is no way to get the storm bolter or missile launcher in.
3) The only way to get him in is to build it around him (this model had no arms) so it is kind of like bird cage. It is apparent that a dread would not be able to stroll out of a normally constructed drop pod.

I think that the conversion for a dreadnought drop pod will be required to be open on one side. I am still thinking about it.

No offense, but I can't fit 10 Space Marines in any of my Rhinos - old or new. I can't even fit 10 Space Marines in my Land Raiders, let alone 16 into my Land Raider Crusader.
So why should a Dreadnought actually *have to* fit in the Drop Pod?

Don't get me wrong. THIS post was EXACTLY what I was looking for because I was unsure if you could leave the couches/central column out and still maintain structural integrity to the model itself. THANKS for the tips that you can leave the central column and grav-couches out and the model will still work (i.e., model is still structurally sound w/o central column/couches).

I will be building 2 for my Deathwing dreadnoughts, and doing so w/o the grav-couches. I personally have absolutely, positively, NO problem with my dreads popping out of a model that (a) it can't fit in and (b) probably couldn't fit THROUGH one of the 5 doors...

farseerixirvost wrote:
So why should a Dreadnought actually *have to* fit in the Drop Pod?

I could actually imagine a Marine getting in and out of a rhino or Land raider door. One thing that is hard to see in the dreadnought picture is that he has no arms/weapons. I guess as long as it is a little unreasonable for him to be in there it might as well be completely unreasonable.

I am leaning towards leaving the central column in as shown in the second photo. The drop pods above will be for infantry I will probably get another one or two for dreadnoughts. For the dreadnought I will leave off one or two of the vertical spars could be left out and then scratch build a larger door.

I found that using rubber bands to hold the vertical spars in place helps a lot in assembling the top section without gluing to the base. One doubled at the top and a few at the bottom.

I like the idea of the drop pod without the central column and harnesses, looks pretty cool.

I suppose it's all imagination as to how models fit in the transports, as they're not all to scale. I'd love to see a techmarine and thunderfire cannon fit into the pod!

Quistis84 wrote:I'd love to see a techmarine and thunderfire cannon fit into the pod!

Maybe I will see if I can cram them in, I have a feeling the techmarine will have to ride on the roof rack.

haha lmao! I can just see the techmarine clinging on with his servo arm!

OK I finally got a chance to get some new pics:

Techmarine and Thunderfire... where the techmarine goes I have no idea.





This view shows it isn't quite small enough... close enough for government work.



More dreadnought pictures. I thought it might be good to see what is necessary to get a dreadnought in a drop pod. You can't wedge him in you have to build the bird cage around him.



Closeup of the fit.



It didn't quite show upas well as I hoped but there are circles showing that the top doesn't quite meet the base and the smoke launcher is touching the ceiling.

Has anyone gone mad and tried converting the new model to a different number of sides, e.g. a six-sided larger one for dreads? Or a four-sided one with bigger 'door frames'? Either would require adjusting either the doors or their frames to fit, of course, but would give some pod variety.

@ ptlangley, your photo with the top taken off made me wonder if that might be a sensible option - a dread pod which literally blows its top off once it lands, to allow the dread easy exit.

Hmm, regardless, you have the problem of how to show the pod armament, since the dread itself is so bulky. Possibly model a hatch on the floor between its legs, where the storm bolter will emerge after the dread has left?

Clang wrote:Has anyone gone mad and tried converting the new model to a different number of sides, e.g. a six-sided larger one for dreads? Or a four-sided one with bigger 'door frames'? Either would require adjusting either the doors or their frames to fit, of course, but would give some pod variety.

@ ptlangley, your photo with the top taken off made me wonder if that might be a sensible option - a dread pod which literally blows its top off once it lands, to allow the dread easy exit.

Hmm, regardless, you have the problem of how to show the pod armament, since the dread itself is so bulky. Possibly model a hatch on the floor between its legs, where the storm bolter will emerge after the dread has left?

if your trying to make a 4 door drop pod box you might as well scrap the kit and built it from scratch.

youbedead wrote:don't forget Gauss weapons those just defy every law of physics there is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coilgun

Rudimentary and far short of the Necron version in 40k, but certainly obeying physics as we know it.



Ghidorah

No offense, but I can't fit 10 Space Marines in any of my Rhinos - old or new. I can't even fit 10 Space Marines in my Land Raiders, let alone 16 into my Land Raider Crusader.
So why should a Dreadnought actually *have to* fit in the Drop Pod?

Don't get me wrong. THIS post was EXACTLY what I was looking for because I was unsure if you could leave the couches/central column out and still maintain structural integrity to the model itself. THANKS for the tips that you can leave the central column and grav-couches out and the model will still work (i.e., model is still structurally sound w/o central column/couches).

I will be building 2 for my Deathwing dreadnoughts, and doing so w/o the grav-couches. I personally have absolutely, positively, NO problem with my dreads popping out of a model that (a) it can't fit in and (b) probably couldn't fit THROUGH one of the 5 doors...

Well, you shouldn't, the vehicle models in Warhammer 40k are actually not the same scale as the foot models. If they were properaly scaled a Rhino would be slightly larger than the current Landraider model is. The reason for this is that the vehicles would start to take up to much space on the table top if modelled to the same scalle. (I think the Inf and like 1/34 and the vehicles are like 1/44 or something like that.)

Clang wrote:Has anyone gone mad and tried converting the new model to a different number of sides, e.g. a six-sided larger one for dreads? Or a four-sided one with bigger 'door frames'? Either would require adjusting either the doors or their frames to fit, of course, but would give some pod variety.

@ ptlangley, your photo with the top taken off made me wonder if that might be a sensible option - a dread pod which literally blows its top off once it lands, to allow the dread easy exit.

Hmm, regardless, you have the problem of how to show the pod armament, since the dread itself is so bulky. Possibly model a hatch on the floor between its legs, where the storm bolter will emerge after the dread has left?

I have been thinking about this. Maybe purchasing two kits (10 vertical spars)and making 3 hexagonal based drop pods using 3 vertical spars on each one. I guess I will be one engine block short and I would have to scratchbuild the base but it seems doable. I could probably use some of the doors but they would need pretty significant modifications. The weapons mount would be tricky as well.

Maybe I can sketch something.

that's pretty awesome.

Ghidorah, that mass driver's not quite the disintegrator ray that GW's described the necrons using. I think that GW's liberal use of science/sci-fi terminology has gotten us turned about when hearing things like plasma and gauss.

For this very reason, I put on my trusty GW-issued blinders so that I never worry about things like anti-grav, tractor beams, conversion beamers, D-Cannons, harlequin kisses (monofiliment wire? I use that to go fishing!), earth-shattering psychic powers, and creatures from other planets, dimensions, and times. It all makes perfect sense after I slip them on. Of course, I completely lose track of my budget and for some reason the FLGS has my credit card info next to the register in case I call in a special order...

Gavin Thorne wrote:Ghidorah, that mass driver's not quite the disintegrator ray that GW's described the necrons using. I think that GW's liberal use of science/sci-fi terminology has gotten us turned about when hearing things like plasma and gauss.

For this very reason, I put on my trusty GW-issued blinders so that I never worry about things like anti-grav, tractor beams, conversion beamers, D-Cannons, harlequin kisses (monofiliment wire? I use that to go fishing!), earth-shattering psychic powers, and creatures from other planets, dimensions, and times. It all makes perfect sense after I slip them on. Of course, I completely lose track of my budget and for some reason the FLGS has my credit card info next to the register in case I call in a special order...

lmao, that made my day.

Ratbarf wrote:Well, you shouldn't, the vehicle models in Warhammer 40k are actually not the same scale as the foot models. If they were properaly scaled a Rhino would be slightly larger than the current Landraider model is. The reason for this is that the vehicles would start to take up to much space on the table top if modelled to the same scalle. (I think the Inf and like 1/34 and the vehicles are like 1/44 or something like that.)

I disagree competely. I've seen this logic touted out many times in the past and I've always disputed it. Model vehicles always look too small when compared with their miniature infantry counterparts. It never looks as if a miniature transport vehicle can hold as many men as it is supposed to. It is an optical illusion. In real life men take up much less space and can compact down into tightly group clusters when needed. They also don't have large, round discs attached to their feet.

40k Vehicles are scaled properly. In fact they are actually on the larger side. If you put a Rhino next to a properly scaled (1/35) m113 model. They are pretty much the same size (even though the m113 model is in a much larger scale). In fact 1/35 scale military models are perfectly sized for 40k modelling. That is because the standard 40k vehicle kits are monsterous.

Need a dramatic example?

Okay, assume an average man is 6' tall. The average guardsman miniature is around 3 cm tall. Obviously this is 1 cm = 2 feet (or 1.2 inches = 2 foot if you prefer to stay entirely in Imperial measurements). This is 30mm scale (ie: the height of a 6' man in the miniature scale is 30mm or 3 cm).

So now we can determine what the real world dimensions of a Rhino would be based on the model. It measures 12 cm in length and 5 cm in height. Multiply these values by a factor of 2 we get. Length = 24 feet. Height = 10 feet. Lets compare these dimensions to a real world vehicile like oh an m113 personnal carrier (by all observations the real world model for the Rhino).

That Rhino looks plenty big to me. In real life it would be incredibly huge. I don't think it need to be made larger at all. In fact it could probably be made smaller and still accomodate 12 people. Keep in mind the M113 pictured above holds 13 people in real life. The Rhino looks like it could hold 20 men!

Now where does this leave the drop pod? Well I believe its internal dimensions are fine but the door arrangement leaves much to be desired. It obviously doesn't appear to be able to accomodate a Dreadnought. Perhaps an entire panel (including the support beam) blows off when it lands?