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I'm trying to add some trench rails to my chimeras, however, as anyone with this kit will know, the entire back section is essentially a giant door with pneumatic rams on either side.

I was wondering if anyone had attempted to do something similar with this kit and if so, how they got around the back door taking up the whole rear portion of the hull. I've got 4 basilisks that I am ripping apart and turning into separate Earthshaker gun platforms and chimera(esque) vehicles which are not an issue, as I am just making the entire rear compartment and am just making the rear door smaller. However, with the pre-existing chimera models (already built), I don't really want to have to try and take them to bits and make a new rear section just so I can add the rails.

Thanks for your help

Oooo that's a tricky one. The only thing I can think of is to build a cover over the rear portion of the tracks and somehow mount the trench rails there instead?

I'd imagine you'll need to build some extra support struts for the rails as they aren't going to sit too nicely over the tracks, however you build the covers. I can't see the pieces at the moment to check as FW is down for the count.

I'm actually making my own trench rails (still WIP):



The rails fit well on the Russ when I have added on the extra engine component to the rear which is pretty much the same as the FW version, except made for a few pence out of card and glue

Top strut is 1.5 inches, and I think the bottom one is either 2 or 2.5 inches long. About 1 inch in height.

I have an opinion here.
Its need vrs want. If your chimera needs to have trench rails to be more effective in its enviroment, then it is still tactically sound to give it to them. As with most real life Infantry fighting vehicles, there is still a hinged door on the back of the chimera for crew to disembark from, so not being able to drop the ramp should affect nothing in game terms.
Modeling wise , I love this idea. Maybe you should add a couple of plasticard Locking/ Retaining add ons part way up the back to show the ramp is secured and re-enforced to handle th addition wieght of the rails.
I'm looking forward to seeing the final product.

Cool stuff.

I'm just wondering. What do trench rails actualy do?

Trench rails allow vehicles to drive over the top of trenches with less chance of the vehicle falling into the trench.

I don't think they do anything in-game though.

And there I thought it was so they could rock on them when firing the big guns!


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But I'd be wrong...

That may well be part of it, I thought they were for crossing trenches for the most part

I did mention I was wrong

That would be a seriosly long Chimera!

Don't know if anyone else is interested in making rails, but this is quite a good tutorial and I happen to have the kit it talks about

I trench rails were originally designed as a reaction to the Germans widening their trenches to stop the British tanks from driving straight over the top. The extra length stopped the tank just dropping into the trench.

I *think* Trench Rails are also supposed to allow the tanks to climb the steep sides of trenches/craters/whatever without flipping over backwards quite so easily.

They also lengthened the tanks significantly rather than build tank rails, which is quite cool

Are the tanks completely finished (painted etc?)

Could you just dremel off the pneumatic pistons and flatten the wreckage out with green stuff, to give you a solid, flat back panel with a door in the middle?

The trench rails only look odd if the back looks like it's a giant hatch. Remove the 'hatch' parts and make the 'door' the exit, and the trench rails can go anywhere...

They are already built and painted, which makes it quite hard to get in there with tools (also don't have a dremel, which makes it harder ). Though I was planning on repainting them at some point anyway, so I don't mind about ruining the paintwork.

I want to try and preserve as much of the original back as possible though. I may end up deconstructing the back plate, cutting out a section to make the back door thinner and then remounting it. A fair bit of work but I think it will be worth it.