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Hey folks, been out of the game a while and I'm not too familiar with the current catalogue of minis/sprues. With that in mind, I'm working on an IG army and it seems that there's never enough plasma guns or meltas. Always the same grenade launchers and flamers. :(

What's the most practical/economical way of getting them? Sorry if this is the wrong subforum..

Bitzorder sites, now that GW has stopped running theirs

I have had the same problem as you but it's quiet easy to get round it.
Either:

Bitz sites- this is the cheaper option but are often out of stock.

GW website- they still do some bits and luckily meltas and plasma guns can still be bought, however they are more expensive and metal. I think the weapons have IG hands, it doens't really bother me ( I will resculpt the hands off if neccesary) but you might want to check.

Here's the GW site for 'em, they're both in stock and it's not a bad price for what you get.
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat180005&prodId=prod1400031&rootCatGameStyle=
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat180005&prodId=prod1400024&rootCatGameStyle=

Note that these are the old SM Special Weapon blister weapons, and therefore have a Marine hand molded to the weapon's grip.

Hmmm..the hands don't look too bad. Might not be noticable given GW's scale goofiness. Thanks!

Plama guns are fairly easy to convert from the modern plastic plasma pistols. Any SM player should have alot of those around. Sadly I have no camera to show off the result, so I'll have to describe it. Also, this isn't my idea originally, but can't remember where I got it from.

Just cut off the handgrip off the pistol, as well as part behind the "plasma coil" on the top of the pistol, but leave a little bit there just so the coil is capped from both ends. Then find a spare lasgun and cut off everything in front of the ammo clip (or power cell, or whatever you want to call it). Also, trim off a bit on the top, starting by that little circular button on the side of the gun, just above the trigger. Trim off enough so that the plamsa coil from your pistol is in line with the top of the rear sights. (Also, I recommend you remove that stupid integral scope bit from the lasgun entirely)

It may take a few tries to get right, so remember that lasguns are generally more expendable than the pistols.


EDIT: There's actually an article here at Dakka for doing this. Have a look at: http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Converting_Plasma_Guns

The only difference is that i used a lasgun instead of a flamer. The cuts on the plasma pistol are exactly what I used, I also found that you can use the rear end of the pistol as a replacement "power cell" for my lasgun conversion.

You can build your own meltaguns. It takes very little skill and they are very possible to massproduce. There are two identifying parts of the melta gun, both easily crafted in greenstuff by using the not-in-the-least-patented "sausage method". This guide probably makes a lot more sense if you have a proper meltagun to look at while you read.

The most important part is the nozzle with the four horisontal vents on each side. Make a long thin smooth roll of greenstuff, let it harden a little, maybe an hour. This will be made into a long sausage of nozzles. Carve the vents along the roll using a fine modelling tool, or lacking that any thin sewing needle. Carve the set of slits with several repetitions, and place the slits on the opposite sides at matching intervals. This can be easier if you use a thin felt-pen or a knife to mark where one nozzle starts and one ends. Let the roll harden overnight. Use a sharp knife to slice it into separate nozzles. If you are a beginner to greenstuff like I was when I discovered this tecnique you will probably find a third to half of the nozzles to be good enough to model with. The rest will have to go to building your industrial terrain. My first evenings work on one experimental sausage gave me nine useable nozzles, and I am not at all skilled with greenstuff.

The second identifying part of the melta gun is the small canister that contains ammo. It is even easier to do than the nozzle. Start with a thinner sausage of greenstuff. Let it harden overnight. Mark out where each canister ends/begins. Then apply a thin band near each end of every canister. These bands can be easily created by newspaper cut into really thin strips and dipped in watered down pva glue. Wrap it around the greenstuff sausage, take a few extra turns if you want thicker bands. If you make sure all overlaps end up at the same side of the sausage, it will be easier to mask them when you glue the canister to a model. This wrapping can indeed be done with a thin strip of greenstuff as well. I just like newspaper strips. Once the wrapped bands are dry (or hardened) slice that sausage!

Once you have the nozzle and the canister you need a gun-body to add them to. The tinier you have managed to model your greenstuff parts, the smaller weapon-body they look OK on. You will have an abundance of lasguns, so try to model small enough to fit on them. Cut away any traces of a traditional magazine. Replace most of the old nozzle with your melta nozzle, leave a short bit as a distance between nozzle and body. Glue the canister to the right side of the gun, you might have to cut some frizzle away from the body to make the fit closer. Presto, easily recogniceable meltagun!

To create a multi melta just take a few canisters and a few nozzles and add them together in clever ways. To make a combi melta you don't even need the canister, since they are one shot weapons.