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So, I'm not going to lie, I'm not a big fan of infantry-based heavy weapons. That said, I've been finding a need for them recently, so I decided to dust off an old design for a gun chassis. Basically, long ago, I wanted to have a way of making interchangeable weapons that were based on a tripod (so, the lascannon, autocannon and heavy bolter) and so came up with a way of doing a gun chassis that looked cooler than either the old GW ones or, well, the tripod. I only made one then, but decided to mass produce a big batch of them when I wanted to include some autocannon heavy weapons team.

The gun chassis start with a trip to the hardware store to get some wheels. There are lots of possible options, the important thing is to pick one and then stick with it.



The first step is to break the "wheels" out of the package and cut out a chunk of sprue of appropriate length to serve as the axle (or whatever else you want for the axle).



Then jam in the axle to one of the wheels. I used greenstuff to really anchor that sucker in. Of course, you have to make sure that it sticks straight up perpendicular to the wheel.



Once that's cured, you do the same thing with the other side. As the side that was already done will be heavy, you sort of have to squish in the other wheel from the top.



Now, the heavy weapons come with these convenient pins that fit into the tripods, so it just makes sense to use the tripods. Start by chopping off the front leg.



And then glue/GS it onto the axle.



Then it's just a matter of cleaning things up. Especially GSing over the screw holes in the wheels.



Of course, you could be done with it here, but I like to spruce it up. I usually put down a couple of platforms on the side, a winged skull from the vehicle sprue on the front, along with some other bitz.

Then cut off the heavy weapons of choice. Note how conveniently it fits in.



Then you just have to paint it all up.



Then all you've got to do is take out one of your loaders and big bases. That and make a gunner.



Put them all together, and you've got some heavy weapons teams to put down the hurt on the enemy!



The best part is that all you've got to do is paint up the heavy weapons, and they just plug into the gun chassis. A good-looking, low-effort way to make swappable heavy weapons.

How well do the guns stay on the bases? Did you magnetize the wheels/base in some way to provide a secure fit?

These suckers are surprisingly heavy, so they sit on the base just fine. Because the bases have the sand and grit on there already, I think that provides enough traction.

Hmm, have a look at the link in my sig, around page 4/5...

It's a good look - I have a question about using them in a game though: why not glue the chassis and gunner onto the big base? You could still have the gun itself pegged in and unglued to switch your options around. And the loader is obviously unglued as a wound marker, which I think is a very cool idea. Just having everything loose seems like it is finicky to transport and to put together before every match.

It is a little futzy pre-game, but if I glued down the gunner and chassis, then I wouldn't be able to use those heavy weapons bases for mortars or missile launchers.