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Well, Friday night started out like any other...


And from that mess, I decided to take two of my AOBR Dreadnoughts, and see if I could make something with a bit different loadout.

The first one... Dreadnought with a Multi-Melta and Twin Linked Auto-cannon.
(Although, given the nature of the weapon, I could easily say it's an Assault Cannon, depending how I want to spend my points)






And here... here's the Ironclad that's almost done. I need to add two Hunter-Killers, and its Ironclad Assault Launchers... but for the most part, it's done... he needs a name too.

I'm loving the twin-linked burst cannons on the one, looks nice.

Avrik_Shasla wrote:I'm loving the twin-linked burst cannons on the one, looks nice.

Thanks!

Burst Cannons are just so versatile..from a bits perspective. I'm working with a smaller one to turn it into a larger scale Assault Cannon for my single squad of Terms. The second edition Assault Cannon is just too darn small...

I really like that first one.

What have you used to make that? the pipe like structure that you have used for the arm is very cool.

StubbyGB wrote:I really like that first one.

What have you used to make that? the pipe like structure that you have used for the arm is very cool.

Aye it looks like some plastic wire sheath or something. Still looking good there!

See if you can find any spare heavy bolter sponsoons, they usually come with some plastic ammo belts for the burst cannons, it'll make have mOAR DAKKA!

Otherwise, keep up the good work!

Nice splatter effect on the armor behind the "drill" on the second model! Ugh! Very appropriate

thegreatcow wrote:

StubbyGB wrote:I really like that first one.

What have you used to make that? the pipe like structure that you have used for the arm is very cool.

Aye it looks like some plastic wire sheath or something. Still looking good there!

See if you can find any spare heavy bolter sponsoons, they usually come with some plastic ammo belts for the burst cannons, it'll make have mOAR DAKKA!

Otherwise, keep up the good work!

This is indeed what I used. Nothing more than the generic rubber sheating from a cord to an electronic device. It's actually from a very old USB trackball that died quite some time ago.

I'll dig around for some HB Ammo cans/belts - more dakka is better dakka.

First one.
Tau burst cannons are being used left and right as assault cannons for the SM players and I do not understand why. They don't even look like they go with the army. You also used a chaos piece to put them on. I'd rather see a box of plastic card used with just the ends of the cannons out. This way it doesn't look like the Imperium is using Alien Tech, which we all know is heresy.

The second ones drill arm started off good but ended badly. It looks like you glued things on to the end of a Multi-melta arm. Which is what you did. There are a few pictures on this site of how people have made arms. I'd suggest looking at them and try to duplicate them.

Paint job is not the greatest. I'd once again suggest dry brushing. It's easy!

I'm taking it that the drill is water cooled? If so there should be a tank for water. Another thing on the drill is way too much blood. I'd think that arm is for going through tank armour and not some big fleshy human. Just some things to think about.

Reason Burst Cannons areso popular is because they look somewhat like a Minigun, not a bundle of Straws.

Yea the burst cannon is one of those things that GW just did right. It really can be used in every army except nids. Hell I bet if your good enough with GS you COULD make it usable in a nid army.
OT Nice conversions there. I really like them


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Wow mauleedlovesyakface you really are just a bundle of inspiration to others. I hope my sarcasm was just exploding there. Everytime I see you post your strait bashing others on their attempts to do things out of the ordinary. So for the hell of it, we look at your gallery to see if your constant cutting down, actually has merit. Meaning are your skills just that good. NOPE. You have one picture and its taken from another member on here. Ive only ever been annoyed/angered by another poster once. Now twice. I hope I stop seeing your posts in the near future, simply because they dont help anyone on anything.

Akula wrote:

Its this pic right here thast says it best. your cannon have too many mold lines, too stubby a set of barrel ends and no drilling, you can get away with any of the three maybe any two of the three, but all three looks pretty bad frankly. Spoils what are otherwise very nice conversion jobs. You need to do something with those cannon ends. Sleeve them, drill them or file and reface them.

Nice job on the blood spray.

KingCracker wrote:
Wow mauleedlovesyakface you really are just a bundle of inspiration to others. I hope my sarcasm was just exploding there. Everytime I see you post your strait bashing others on their attempts to do things out of the ordinary. So for the hell of it, we look at your gallery to see if your constant cutting down, actually has merit. Meaning are your skills just that good. NOPE. You have one picture and its taken from another member on here. Ive only ever been annoyed/angered by another poster once. Now twice. I hope I stop seeing your posts in the near future, simply because they dont help anyone on anything.

QFT.

MLY, you manage to be a dick in just about every post. Yes, the arm is has mainly anti-tank uses, but so do lascannons, and that doesn't stop their crews from targeting terminators or the odd commissar. Say the Ironclad is assailed by a big mothertrucking demon. The 'clad isn't going to keep plodding towards a tank while this big demon hacks at his armored shell. If you're going to be a douche, at least do it when you're absolutely positive you're in the right. Other than burst cannons, please name a few ways people can use bits to make assault cannons?

OT, I'd recommend putting a few more wires (maybe guitar wire?) from the Ironclad's uberdrill to the torso or the upper arm. This could represent the large amount of power required to drill through a few inches of armor, or just embellish the look of the model.

Conversions are well-done, keep up the good work!

Rico.

Mmmmm feedback - good stuff.

On everyone's suggestions - The burst cannons are indeed just right... There's alot of things you can do with them - plus, there always seems to be far more burst cannons laying in the bits box than assault cannons... SM sets don't come with spare AC's; but Tau sets seem to come with spare Burst Cannons no matter what you buy...there jsut always seems to be on on the sprue. Overall, I just think Burst Cannons capture the feel of a gatling type weapon more than the Assault Cannon does.

Yes... the mold lines need to be cleaned up... alot. I found the perfect thing to resolve the issue with... so I'm going to clean them up, and re-apply the paint, and hopefully it will look better. I'd love to drill out the ends.. I just need a tinny drill bit to do it... I'll check the local hobby store.

I love the suggestion to add more wires - definitely going to do that tonight... I'll use the wires that the hose-bit sheathed - good stuff.


on MLY - The dry-brushing is there... alot of it. The camera flash really seems to have abscoured the golden yellow/sunburst yellow combination, but its there. Funny you mention it was done with water colors... because I used a Baal Red wash over the Scab red and Red Gore base coats... The drill's power cable was a last minute add... water cooled? No.. I picture more of it as something that taps power straight off of the Dread's powerplant for added power. So a Seismic Hammer or power fist isn't appropriate to whack a guardsman or two with, because they're anti tank weapons?
I know I don't owe you an explanation - I just wanted to shed some light on a few things you seem to have overlooked.

Well Rico it is pretty simple.

I'd go to a place that sells or trades bits and I'd get an Assault cannon or cannons from the Speeder. I'd use that one.

As for the drill I'd find a barrel to put on the back of the dread and put H2O on the barrel.

Or I'd do the easy thing and buy the drill from Forge World. If I didn't have the money I'd look at this site and look for a way to make an arm.

I think a FW would be the best bet because it's already made and looks great.

After looking at the models once again I will say that this guys does a good job of putting combat damage on the models. I think he should practice with gyeing things together and getting better seems as suggested earlier. The right arm really needs to be fixed.

I again recomment dry brushing this model and then painting in the battle damage. I also still think the drill is too big for going into flesh vice big Nids.

Akula wrote:
Mmmmm feedback - good stuff.

On everyone's suggestions - The burst cannons are indeed just right... There's alot of things you can do with them - plus, there always seems to be far more burst cannons laying in the bits box than assault cannons... SM sets don't come with spare AC's; but Tau sets seem to come with spare Burst Cannons no matter what you buy...there jsut always seems to be on on the sprue. Overall, I just think Burst Cannons capture the feel of a gatling type weapon more than the Assault Cannon does.

Yes... the mold lines need to be cleaned up... alot. I found the perfect thing to resolve the issue with... so I'm going to clean them up, and re-apply the paint, and hopefully it will look better. I'd love to drill out the ends.. I just need a tinny drill bit to do it... I'll check the local hobby store.

If you don't have a suitably sized bit or are afrid of messing up (my case), an alternate selection. Paint the actual gun barrels "boltgun" silver. Paint the holding discs a grey color-moderate in tone). Then apply a drop of black paint at the end of each barrel. Will work as an alternate and the offsetting colors will show the "opening" of the gun barrel well.

The second one can have a name like Big Daddy


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As for the Burst Cannon talk.

It is not ok for the Imperium to use Alien Tech. If you do you are going against the Imperium and will be burned.

For those of you that say "but there are so many for the Tau!" It does not make it right. I have extra assault cannons from the Black Templar box set. I believe they are out there. You just have to look.

1xx700007117 wrote:The second one can have a name like Big Daddy


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MauleedlovesYakeface wrote:As for the Burst Cannon talk.

It is not ok for the Imperium to use Alien Tech. If you do you are going against the Imperium and will be burned.

For those of you that say "but there are so many for the Tau!" It does not make it right. I have extra assault cannons from the Black Templar box set. I believe they are out there. You just have to look.

you're right, except they're not burst cannons. They're assault cannons If you think about it they have the same idea: rotating barrels to fire many shots. one shoots pulse rounds, one shoots bullets. the burst cannon doesn't really look exclusively tau, except maybe the round bit at the back. Why do you take such offense to a creative solution to a problem? He obviously doesn't have easy access to assault cannon bitz, so who can't he use burst cannons? Hell, I plan on doing almost the exact same thing with a terminator. Is it really such a bad thing that it's not exactly an assault cannon bit? It looks enough like an assault cannon to be one. Maybe it's a variant pattern.

That being said, I'm not really a fan of how that arm turned out. It seems to stick too far out from the dreadnought's body, and i don't like how the guns are offset from one another. It also doesn't seem armoured enough for a dreadnought. Maybe use some plasticard to close it in a bit?

I love the cannons. I love the drill. I love the blood spatter, the battle damage Hell I even love the colors and i HATE yellow with a passion.

the only thing I do not care for is the power cable for the drill. It just looks out of place to me. And please paint the wings on the chest plate of the cannon dread.

Overall they are great looking models.

Regarding the burst cannon tau opinions I would have to say that the burst cannon bit is the best bit GW has ever produced. I play guard and all of my Autocannon are converted with these barrels instead because they look 100% better than the original and they are much better than the marine assault cannon.

MauleedlovesYakeface wrote:As for the Burst Cannon talk.

It is not ok for the Imperium to use Alien Tech. If you do you are going against the Imperium and will be burned.

For those of you that say "but there are so many for the Tau!" It does not make it right. I have extra assault cannons from the Black Templar box set. I believe they are out there. You just have to look.

Your logic is just making my brains hurt. If that is on a Tau vehicle, its a Tau weapon and yes, would be alien. BUT The fact that its on an Imperial vehicle, and is being a counts as assault cannon, oddly enough, its an assault cannon. There for, its not alien and no fires are needed.
As for someone that seems to know everything about everything, I think you need to post some REAL pictures of YOUR work. That way your "advice" will be more welcomed. Its hard for people to take criticism from a guy that has absolutely no pics of his work done.

Mui bueno! Feedback!

Something wasn't sitting right with me about the cannon arm last night, and that's what it is... it sticks out too far. I think I know how to solve the issue, and hopefully it'll look halfway decent too...

As far as the whole "wouldn't use alien tech" argument... sure, they don't use alien tech, what person in the employ of the Imperium would? That's why burst cannons aren't listed in the SM codex... anyone playing vs SM can accurately surmise that if there's a gun with multiple barrels, it's probably an Assault Cannon (I goofed in my original description of them).
Why are there two cannons? Volume of fire. The Assault Cannon has a huge volume of fire... given the limited resources that the techmarines of the Scythes' battle company have, they could only produce the same volume of fire using two "smaller" cannons, instead of one normal assault cannon... there's my fluff for it.

I really enjoy the positive feedback - I found a way to improve my work in alot of these replies.
Can't wait to get them into action, and really see a difference in the finished product.
I'll try and get some better pics up - so the dry brushing can be seen.

So the list is as follows, in no particular order....
1. re-seat the cannons - add some bulk to the mounting.
2. armor-plate the IC Dread
3. file down the mold lines on the burst cannons
4. paint assault cannons differently to distinguish barrels from everything else.

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions - good stuff.

And for the record... it's not a water-cooled drill

Those are some good updates. I bet it will look even cooler when your finished. I didnt think of that earlier. The back of those guns to blend in a bit being the same color as the dred.

Well, for tonight's show we have the following....

This was the offending bit..the round shoulder mounting plate/disc thingee... so I cut and filed it away... thereby reducing the protrusion of the weapon to be attached..


And here's a side view of the new gun mount.


And finally, the front view... with a much reduced profile... I'm happy with the improvements.
Guns re-painted, tho I couldn't get the deep grooves out of the center of the front barrel plates... that's a project for another day.


Updated the Ironclad too - someone suggested adding wiring, which I thought was great. It's nothing uber-impressive, but a welcome suggestion, and a great addition.



I'm happy with the results... thanks for all the suggestions - I still have lots more work to do.

Oh... and my reward for a night's worth of model-bashing...

nothing

Actually, you can, as an Imperial player of any stripe, grab xenos bits and glue them to your model provided:
You have the manual dexterity to do so
You possess the bits and model in question
You possess sufficient glue
You feel like doing so.
You can even apply your own fluff to your creation, explaining its role in the 40k universe and exactly what rules apply to it (existing wargear rules are most preferable, but one's opponents are the final arbiters of which rules should probably be used).

The image (and text) above your post, MLY, proves these statements true. Nothing you say can or will change this. You are not the arbiter of all that is 40k. You are neither Alpha, nor Omega. You're just another person, attempting (vainly) to force your beliefs on another.

If you've nothing nice to say... you're probably on Dakka.

Original models are pretty spiffy. I do agree that the drill arm could be more pronounced (instead of a stump with attached drill, an ambulatory spar with attached drill would be preferable.) But it's painted so, it is what it is.

MauleedlovesYakeface wrote:Well Rico it is pretty simple.

I'd go to a place that sells or trades bits and I'd get an Assault cannon or cannons from the Speeder. I'd use that one.

As for the drill I'd find a barrel to put on the back of the dread and put H2O on the barrel.

Or I'd do the easy thing and buy the drill from Forge World. If I didn't have the money I'd look at this site and look for a way to make an arm.

I think a FW would be the best bet because it's already made and looks great.

After looking at the models once again I will say that this guys does a good job of putting combat damage on the models. I think he should practice with gyeing things together and getting better seems as suggested earlier. The right arm really needs to be fixed.

I again recomment dry brushing this model and then painting in the battle damage. I also still think the drill is too big for going into flesh vice big Nids.

The thing about converting is creating something because you either do not want/are able to buy the real part or because you do not like the real part and wish to create your own. There are probably more reasons, but for me these are the main ones. I am making a scout kill-team out of Catachan parts and Kroot carapace armor. I don't really go for the current scout models, plus my scout kill-team will have more character than the "vanilla" scouts.

Just go to the painting and modeling forum... You'll see a bunch of "I didn't like..." or "I wanted to create my own..." in the threads and it's people's creativity at work. Sure, Akula could just pick up the Ironclad boxed set. Sure, I could make the generic Belial if I wanted with the SB and power sword found in the DA vet box. But why? I personally think the bandwagon has a bit too much weight, so I challenge myself to create equal-if-not-better models that are unique.

And when I run my kill-team of scouts, I truly hope that some douche isn't going to say "You can't have xenos armor on an Imperium kill-team". Fluff-wise, the dreadnought isn't going to get a few nearby marines to tear off the Burst Cannon of the downed Crisis suit and weld it onto his arm. It could just be a different pattern of Assault Cannon, perhaps pre-heresy, and the Dreadnought is one ancient hunk of metal.

I fail to see how this is being such a problem... They look fine to me right now, and with a few touch ups on the Ironclad, the pair can be damn impressive models.

Rico..

MauleedlovesYakeface wrote:Again with Burst Cannons.

It does not matter that the Burst Cannon makes a perfect Assault Cannon. As a SM player or any body playing the Imperium you can not take a weapon from another army and use it. It's basic fluff. They call it XENO for a reason.

Sigh.

Real life =/= fluff.

Akula isn't putting a Str 5 AP 5 Tau Burst Cannon on an Imperial Dreadnought. He's putting a Str 6 AP 4 Assault Cannon represented by a Tau Burst Cannon on his Imperial Dreadnought, and everyone but you thinks it's fine. The DA have the only Human Jetbike known to man. Around the heresy-era, or even before, Jetbikes were probably the new black. Point? Technology ebbs; it improves, it grows old, it gets replaced, it improves, lather rinse repeat. Perhaps two four-barrel guns weren't an efficient use of power, or weighed too much, or any manner of things after being used on a battlefield.

I'd hate to scroll through more threads on this forum and see you bits-Naziing. "No! you CAN'T use an Empire Standard for your 40k Army! The fluff! The fluff! How will you explain using such an ancient standard from a different galaxy and time period?"/troll.

Rico.

MauleedlovesYakeface wrote:Again with Burst Cannons.

It does not matter that the Burst Cannon makes a perfect Assault Cannon. As a SM player or any body playing the Imperium you can not take a weapon from another army and use it. It's basic fluff. They call it XENO for a reason.

Now I posted a pic that you can make with plastic card and still get an assault cannon with out it looking like a Tau bit. Just glueing on a Tau weapon doesn't make it what you want it to be. You have to modify it so that it DOESN'T look like you are an Ork player putting different things on your vehicles.

So again. Here is a pic to fix this problem and it's pretty easy to do. If I wasn't out to sea I'd make this for you and mail it to you.

Oh something else you can do is cut an assault cannon off of the right arm and glue it to the left arm.

Why are you so grumpy?
I can accept criticism, as well as anyone else can... but I don't accept people who are entirely close-minded, and see any deviation from their opionions as wrong, and unnacceptable.

For someone who has such an intolerance to non-canon stuff, why do you have picture of a female space marine in your gallery?
They don't exist as far as canon goes - and it's definitely not an adeptus sororitas...

Thank you for the diagram of the assault cannon - perhaps I'll get to work on something like that after doing some prototyping with the concept.

Rico and Ryzo are right see what I'm getting at here... there could be a hundred explanations as to why it looks the way it does... I gave one example earlier. I wanted to see what I could do with the vanilla AOBR dreadnoughts... to give them weapon loadouts I actually use... which I've done.
I've still got work to do on them... I'm gonna look around for some sort of articulated armature for the drill - that's what I orignally wanted, but it was a nightmare to put into practice... it was like elmer's glue and cotton-balls.
Armor plating is in the works too... scoured the bits, and I have some old gun shield from SM bikes and such; so those will be chopped and added to the model for more armor plating - probably tonight.
The both need some detail painting done - sarcophogus mostly... but that'll get done soon enough as well.
Tomorrow is my big project.. final assembly of the Whirlwind mod for the rhino.
The feedback here has just been really great - everyone has lots of good points, and suggestions... I've been very pleased with the results from the feedback I've put into practice... thanks again everyone!

***You need another coat of yellow and/or a different manufacturer's yellow. It may be the pic but that yellow looks REALLY washed out. Citadel, Vallejo, and Warmachine's company (forget the name) make good colors. It will make a 1000% difference as mom would say.


And finally, the front view... with a much reduced profile... I'm happy with the improvements.
Guns re-painted, tho I couldn't get the deep grooves out of the center of the front barrel plates... that's a project for another day.

****Now dot the ends of those barrels with a black dot to represent the mouth of the gun barrel.


Finally ignore MauleedlovesYakface. This is a conversion. His statements are not applicable in this context.

Frazzled wrote:
***You need another coat of yellow and/or a different manufacturer's yellow. It may be the pic but that yellow looks REALLY washed out. Citadel, Vallejo, and Warmachine's company (forget the name) make good colors. It will make a 1000% difference as mom would say.

****Now dot the ends of those barrels with a black dot to represent the mouth of the gun barrel.

#1 It's Golden Yellow...striaght from GW... I think it may be the camera and lighting. The incandescent bulb no doubt fiddles with the colors a bit. I'll get something with a more pure light, and hopefully the colors will come out a bit. I do, however, need to do a coat of Sunburst Yellow.

#2 That's what I forgot to do! I'll get that done tonight... should be too hard. Now that you mention it, I think I might heat up a pin or thumbtack, and puit small indentations in the ends of the barrels too.

1. Gotcha. Mayhaps just another coat (or nothing is needed). I may be being oicky. UI like yellow on certain minis but it always seems to take five coats befiore its properly yellow for my taste.

2. Try one pin. If easy great (but i'd still darken the end) if not fdon't worry about and just darken. Should take five minutes, including coffee break.