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This is my first real try at scratchbuilding a 40K vehicle. I started this some time ago, lost interest when the most recent chaos codex came out, and then just recently started in again. Not sure if mega defiler is a good name or not but it seemed descriptive.



This is in the early stages, most of the main pieces are framed out, but not complete and virtually no detailing has been added. All the legs, turrets etc. are fully articulating. I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with this all the way through or not, as its going to add a lot of difficulty when putting hydraulic details an such to the model.



I want to get your feedback on what kind of armament to put on him, especially from those of you who have played apocalypse with titan class units. Obviously his main armament is the big siege gun up front (I'm thinking this should be a warlord class weapon). I'm thinking about putting two reaper autocannons (like the turret on the regular defiler) up top, for AA but can also to shoot at ground targets. I also want to put two heavy flamers underneath the smaller arms in front. This still leaves the two "arm" weapons for the side of the turret. I'm not sure if i should make these warhound class weapons or something smaller. I want him to be a good all rounder but not overpowering.

Also I'm not sure what I should do about shielding and structure points. Is there a good picture of what the apparatus for a void shield looks like anywhere?

Any feed back you have on this would be much appreciated.

I forgot to add a picture with something for scale. Here is one with a chaos terminator (the metal kind)

Looks cool. I like the spider mandibles. Only issue would be the claws need to be much bigger

I like the front claws.

you are insane. brilliant, but insane.

looks ace to me.

It's certainly a nice start.

I'd probably go with fixed legs. As you say, keeping them articulated would add a lot of complexity to the rest of the build. Although perhaps just keeping one joint on each leg (I'd go with the 'shoulder' joint, where the leg meets the hull) movable would aid in table placement and storage.

asmith wrote: I'm thinking about putting two reaper autocannons (like the turret on the regular defiler) up top, for AA but can also to shoot at ground targets. I also want to put two heavy flamers underneath the smaller arms in front. This still leaves the two "arm" weapons for the side of the turret. I'm not sure if i should make these warhound class weapons or something smaller. I want him to be a good all rounder but not overpowering.

I love the flamer idea.

For the others, I'd actually leave the weapons off the top (they're not going to be much good for engaging ground units up there, so they would wind up being strictly AA) and just mount twin-linked Reapers on either side of the head in the same style mounting as a regular Defiler. That would let them swivel up to engage air targets while still being usable against troops.

Gives him the feel of having a bunch of smaller weapons for point defence while he's bringing the one big main gun to bear...

Speaking of which, I'd strongly recommend a thicker barrel for the main gun. Either a bit of tubing with thicker sides, or a couple of pieces of smaller tubing that can slot inside the current piece to thicken it up a little. Reduces the bore a little, but makes it look a little more feasible as a weapon barrel.

Also I'm not sure what I should do about shielding and structure points. Is there a good picture of what the apparatus for a void shield looks like anywhere?

I don't recall having seen a pic... but an easy option would be to put a couple of standards (using whatever Chaos symbols are appropriate) on him somewhere, that just slot in and can be pulled out as he loses shields and/or structure points.

Thanks for your responses so far.

As to the reaper mounts, they really can engage ground units from the top. I already I had originally thought to put them on the sides as secondary armament but they are too tiny comparatively and don't look right to me being the only side armament. Even a battle cannon size mount looks a little on the small side. That's what got me thinking maybe titan size weapons would be the way to go. I'll put a picture up with some other models to maybe display the scale better.

I would really like to model up something for void shields as it never seemed right to me that something that would require so much power to operate can't be seen on the model. I was hoping maybe one had been pictured in some obscure background that I hadn't seen yet.

make the claws bigger? look at the size compaired to that miniture! those things are HUGE! size wise they look good on that. nice scratch build so far!

Great work so far- can't wait to see the detail stage.

For increasing the thinckness of the gun, you could also cut the current barrel down a bit and make it the casing for the actual barrel, which would be a thicker tube slotted inside as insaniak suggests. Some bracing on the side (a la the Demolisher cannon) would also make it look a bit more burly too.

Good work so far. Breaking up the main guns line would help. I think add some reapers AC/lascanons and flamers would be good touch as well. Maybe a double havoc launcher on top?

So for your first scratch built 40k vehicle, you go for probably the most technically demanding? Impressive. I didn't understand what you meant by MEGA defiler, but then the scale picture made me go "Whoa!"

Good work. Keep it up.

Great build. Nicely done. The nice thing is that you can manufacture many of these once you have the tecnique down. Then this could be played in a game of Apoc as a whole unit of Mega-Defilers.

That is one of the cleanest, best-fit models I have seen on Dakka. I don't know what techniques you use to get that clean, but you could do well to write an article and let the common modeler see. I was expecting much poorer execution. I'd have to agree with Inyoka in that you didn't choose an easy first build, like, say, a helltalon. I would have to say that the claws could use to be bigger if you were just shooting for a scaled-up defiler, but I think that smaller claws could just be a touch of you "interpreting" the model as you see fit. Either way, go with what you like. Main weapon barrel needs greater wall thickness, PVC tube is your friend.