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I'm looking at converting up a few double-autocannon Rifleman Dreadnoughts from my AoBR Dreads and have been trying to plan my conversions. Looking at a variety of different sites, it seems like the cheapest way to do it is to just put the Aegis Autocannons straight onto the Dreadnought as the arms themselves. I mean, these are definitely usable, but I'm not a huge fan of how they ultimately look - it looks like you tacked Aegis Autocannons onto a dreadnought and not really like actual dreadnought arms.

So, the next method I was looking at was using a Dreadnought Lascannon arm for the right arm and a Missile Launcher arm for the left and then after some chopping and shaping magic, attaching Autocannons to the remaining shoulders. These look much better than just the Aegis Autocannons themselves, but this conversion starts to get pricey if you're just buying the Lascannon and ML arms separately and didn't get them as part of the Dreadnought box set. I went onto ebay and took and average of the prices for completed auctions of Lascannon arms, ML arms, Aegis autocannons, and IG HWS autocannons. While the per-autocannon price was actually cheaper for IG HWS autocannons compared to the Aegis autocannons, for a set of left and right TL autocannon arms, based on these averages, you're looking at spending $23-$25 per set.

Which brings me to Forgeworld arms - with the exchange rate as it is right now, FW arms are running ~$22 a set. I'm a little shocked that it's actually cheaper to buy these from FW rather than spend the time and money converting them up.

Anyone else out there have any other ideas to make cheap, good-looking Rifleman Dreads?

You're converting guns? Start here lol.

http://www.gundamstoreandmore.com/gundam.html

http://www.gundamstoreandmore.com/ban950931.html

It can be hard to navigate, but the gundam models themselves are really neat and high quality, sometimes with all sorts of rubber joints you could hack out and use, and you can usually find a really neat looking gun or two. That punisher thats been rolling around with the 2 guns on either side of the turret got it's cannons from http://www.gundamstoreandmore.com/enwalgunheav.html or http://www.gundamstoreandmore.com/enwalgunheav1.html, I forget if it's 144 or 100 scale. Seems the blog with the pic in it got overloaded by the 5th ed guard codex and died lol.

Interesting. I appreciate the links - there's some really interesting stuff there.

I'm really trying to stay with GW models to maintain the cohesiveness of the army. And with the price of those sets, with completion of the conversions, I'd probably be running close to the cost of the FW arms.

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I used IG heavy weapon bitz and made three like this. I wanted them to look a little more mechwarrior than normal so I did away with the armored shoulders.

There is a pic of all three together in my gallery too.

They are fun to play with. 12 strength 7 TL shots at 48"...mmmmmmmmm. Just don't shoot at Land Raiders.

Great dreadnought conversion there. I can't see the joints - did you do some wizardry on them?

Nice conversion, they look pretty close too the FW ones i have .... thumbs up

I used IG Autocannons for my Dreads too. Simple and hassle free.

I know Grey Death's Sons of Medusa FW Ven. dread has a converted right Autocannon arm.

@rdlb - Very nice - simple, I may very well go that route. Nicely executed.

@person person - Thanks for pointing that out. His SoM dread is very nice. I've sent him a PM to ask him how he did it. I think he did the TL Lascannon to TL Autocannon conversion, but figured I'd get his input if I can.

Thanks for the compliments you guys.

I wanted the barrel ends offset a little bit (the lower barrel sticks out more) and the IG cannons just kind of fit together with a tiny bit of filing. If you have two just try it and you'll see.

Again, these are a blast to play!!

I used IG auto cannons and trimmed them up to fit onto 2 25mm round bases glued together bottom to bottom. Then cut a round hole to fit onto AoBR hard points. Doing 25mm square bases would also give you desired effect. The main thing is that you don't have to destroy perfectly good dred weapon arms for the desired out come. Sorry no pics at this time.

RB

So, I converted up my first Rifleman Dreadnought yesterday using a standard AoBR Dread and 4 IG HWS autocannons I had lying around. Wow, it was pretty simple. I'm looking forward to getting the rest of the ACs I need to finish my other two Riflemen.

Rather than going rdlb or RBs route, I took the AoBR arms, cut off the MM and associated bits from the right arm, the DCCW from the left and used plasticard to square up the shoulders. Then I used Grey_Death's TL-AC arm as a guide for where to cut the ACs (although I realized after the fact that since I wasn't using a TL-LC arm as a base, that I was missing some of where his ACs attached). I glued the ACs together and then to the Dread shoulders and then added the half-drums of ammo to the sides. I've got a few more bitz I want to add for details, but it's generally done. I'll try to post up pics later today.

rdlb wrote:



Automatically Appended Next Post:

I used IG heavy weapon bitz and made three like this. I wanted them to look a little more mechwarrior than normal so I did away with the armored shoulders.

There is a pic of all three together in my gallery too.

They are fun to play with. 12 strength 7 TL shots at 48"...mmmmmmmmm. Just don't shoot at Land Raiders.

Loving that dread conversion. nice and mechanical looking and even more bulky than usual.

Well, it's not the best pic in the world, and I need to refurbish the body on this Dread, but here's my first take on the Rifleman arms. They're not spectacular looking, but they'll get the job done, IMHO.

two thumbs op

You're camera seems like it focused on the mouse. Shoot the photo on a plain white background to get the camera to focus right, or maybe the dread was too close for the camera to focus on it. Also a tripod or a stack of books will get it to be sharper.

The dread does look very cool. Have you played with it yet? Has it shredded all manner of transports and flying machines?

I coped out and bought my auto cannons arms

Those are some awesome conversions! I think I just found something to do on this friday night.

Hope this helps:

I agree with not just tacking on the Aegis cannons BUT they seem to fit the bill OK.

I added the smallest tank tread cover on top of each arm (IG) giving a bit of a linebacker look to the dreadnaught and it lines up ok.

The old holder/hinge for the space marine hunter-killer missile fit in between and I used old storm shields (that match with the tread guard perfectly) to cover the side.

I am sure other things can be used to cover the guns but I wanted to be able to see the ammo drums.

The balance is nice too where it is not too front or rear heavy.

Any suggestions of a good cover for the sides?

Dread-Sexy. Heh.

I bought mine off Forge-world. Was wanting to convert them up, but couldn't get the bits I wanted at the time.
I've only made one, so I'll probably be snagging some ideas from this thread if I make more.

Is there rules in the codex that allow you to take a dread with 2 twin linked auotcannons

yes, just check options for SM dreads.

RB

Quick guide -
Get the Dread Lascannon Arm, and saw off the end. Add an ammo thingy and you're done! For the left one, get another TLLascannon, and take off the barrels and stuff. Glue them on the Missile arm, without the missiles on it. Add ammo stuff. Ta-da!

I built mine from using the spare parts from the LR Crusader kit.

The unused lascannon sponsons made the arms.



to to finish painting this guy up...

This dread's legs just look weird, someone's been trying to get benefits from True Line of Sight.

Rangerrob wrote:I built mine from using the spare parts from the LR Crusader kit.

The unused lascannon sponsons made the arms.



to to finish painting this guy up...

that dreadnought is from Frisco....

Frisco...FASA...Anime...Dude asked for a cheap Rifleman Dread...that's what this is.

That is so en COOL

Rangerrob wrote:Frisco...FASA...Anime...Dude asked for a cheap Rifleman Dread...that's what this is.

I just think that the legs make it look...errmmm......like a pansy swan.

I only did the one arm, but the IG autocannons work well. It's very easy to integrate them into the stock Dreadnought arms: