Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So once upon a time, in a game far, far away, Games Workshop started a production line of Guardsmen called the Steel Legion. They came out with a pretty good number of models that covered many of the options that the game offered. However, the Steel Legion, of the planet Armageddon (one of the most important planets in the Imperium some might say) lacked many, many weapons common to everyone else. These included (but were not limited to) flamers, snipers, meltas, mortars, and of course, Autocannons.

Now, not being one to simply abandon all hope in ever seeing these weapons fielded in my force, I set about converting these models over the years. Since Steel Legion are a rather rigid line of pewter miniatures, this hasn't been so easy. When plastic Cadians came out, many Steel Legion players rushed to incorporate Cadian weapons into the Steel Legion force (up until this point, the only Autocannons GW commonly supported were the old "little red wagon" weapons teams with the gunner seated at the gun, and Steel Legion had no seated gunners). I, however was not so thrilled with the Cadian Autocannon. Too large and funky it seemed improbable to use as a crew served weapon (rather as an emplaced weapon), not to mention that using it would be an obvious conversion of Steel Legion Lascannon crewman into a Cadian weapon. So I bade my time without, using my old Cadian Autocannons.

In the rest weeks I finally set to finishing this years long conversion (as most of mine tend to be). Utilizing PVC pipes to build a tripod (reverse to the Cadian type, proper to the real world type) complete with multi-axis joint and mount, a Lascannon gunner, Heavy Bolter feeder, IG vehicle Heavy Stubber, two 25mm round bases and one cavalry base, I built my first three Autocannons.



I then proceeded to paint them in my usual colors and based them.



Reason for the odd bases was that I am not happy with the GW 60mm "scenic" base (more like "can't-place-it-anywhere-and-will-be-hit-by-every-template-on-the-board" base), so I went back to the Missile Launcher team style base with a "scenic attachment." As GW did not supply this model for Steel Legion, I based it off the Missile Launcher base system and converted it to Autocannons use. The 25mm round is the model, with the rest simply acting as filigree. I have used this method for my Heavy Bolters and Lascannons with few qualms, as I keep the gun and loader in base-to-base contact (as the new IG codex has them as a single model.... for some reason) whenever possible. Now this may look odd and just as unpleasant to place, but considering that you do not have to have the gun pointing at the enemy, it makes perching them on ledges that much easier (realistically, I say that they would be "gun humping" or firing from the hip, but that would be rather difficult to model, now wouldn't it?).