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Hi guys I'm currently kit bashing a vindi together out of scrap tanks and bitz from various ebay auctions. I was just looking for a few opinions from your good selves on alterations or improvements I could make to my current offering.


Personally I think the gun needs a little more work to distinguish it from a simple turret swap with a leman. But how about you? What do you think it needs? ( be nice now. )

Do you plan to run it with a siege shield? If not, would your usual opponents mind ignoring them for game purposes? For me, at least, nothing says "I'M A VINDICATOR, " like a big old dozer blade out front. If I see that and a big bore gun of some sort, I'll assume it's a vindi, whether the gun is mounted on a turret up top or poking out the front.

You can always label it

I agree with getting a dozer blade. You can also make the gun barrel even bigger.

Good point, do you think an imperial guard dozer may do it?
I just think if I was to use the SM Vindi blade it would obscure the details on the front a bit too much.

As for my opponents, short version, I have none. At the moment I'm just enjoying getting into the hobby again. Would like to play again (last time was 2nd Ed) just not right now.

@Ghoma - I was thinking about maybe taking the end off the barrel to give it a shorter stubbier look what do you think to that?

Id say mounting a "pointing" guy on top or possibly one with binoculars would add some flavor to it. But yea, a Vindicator is all about the massive shield in front. Weather you use them or not thats just part of those things

What do you think guys? I feel its a bit out of place. I may try to scratch build a FW repressor shield instead, thoughts?

It does look out of place. The vindicator has its gun offset, and yours is bang down the middle. Id say give a scratch build a try. Youve already got the template for what you need

I'll look into knocking up a repressor shield then, see how that looks first and go from there. Thanks for the input everyone.

It has been awhile since i read and built my vindicators but i seem to recall the following:

- Vindicator doesnt come with seige shield , ofc we can buy them ( so i was thinking whether to leave it off , but then it looks weird :'P )

- Vindicator is short ranged. Perhaps shorten the barrow while increasing the circumference of it? Also buffing the turret might work as well

Cheers Luna, I was thinking of changing the barrel by modelling camo netting on it what do you think. The other option was add some kind of piping to the outside, the bore wouldn't look any different but the it would be chunkier.

As for the turret I'll probably add some plasticard plating to it. Possible some extra armour to the rest of chassis as well.

My mental image of a vindicator is actually of a bulldog. low center of gravity , wide and very buffed and rugget.
Not a tank , but rather a giant canon that can move ( lol )

Haha, awesome image. In honour of that image I think i'll name my real vindi Churchill, lol

Perhaps have the dozer blade extended out farther in front of the tank. It covers up all the nice stuff on the front so even a little farther would make it look better and add character I think.

I hate the siege shields GW makes for their Vindis. They don't make any sense. The only reason real armored vehicles carry dozer blades (and I was an armored combat engineer) is to USE them as bulldozers. Usually tearing down enemy berms or filling in trenches (with or without the enemies still in them)
That said I do like the game advantage the siege shields offer, so I'm making "counts as" siege shields based on the unditching rollers used on WWII half tracks. These rollers actually were intended for better cross country mobility as they let you roll over obstacles.
And since I play Blood Angels my Vindis get spoilers :-)

Nice .

thanks for that post, it is definitely interesting and helpful to hear it from the man himself.

I never thought about the dozers that way.


Sounds like a deffrolla

Not to get off topic, but personally I dont like the way the model deffrollas TBH. It just doesnt seem like it would really cause that much damage. Youd think that after the first impact, that once it started rolling over say, A TANK, it would just roll and only scratch and maybe break a lamp off.

When I get around to it, Im going to make mine some form of holy crap thats deadly type contraption. IVe thought like powered hedge clippers for one design across the front. Now THAT would cause some damage to a vehicle. Originally I wanted to do a big ol Vplow with some added spikes and whatnot, but then I realized it would just look like a fancy ram





OT, I think Luna might be onto something with shortening the barrel. It does seem a big long for such a short range weapon. But then again if you pull off the sheild it might not need a shorter barrel.

yeah, deffrollas should be spikier and creepier looking. Have you made any the way you want yet?

@Draglide12 - I could pull it out further but to me there is just something fundamentally wrong with the whole look of the vindi dozer on this tank. Thanks for the input.

@BrotherJulian - the unditching rollers sound like a great conversion to do, would love to see your take on them when they are complete.

Btw what are these spoilers you're talking of, my force is an IF successor chapter but is going to use the Blood angel codex as a base, so any info on the dex is useful. I plan to keep all the special rules for the blood angels, so red thirst/black rage is going to be fanatical devotion etc. I have a copy of the codex but just wondered what you meant exactly

@KingCracker & Stompydakka - If you want a cool alternative to deffrollas I think Robot Wars is the place to look, now they really are some big nasty weapons for robot/tank killing

Just blades on the front? A row of low long blades. I've actually seen these used but I can't remember what they're called. Kind of like a plow but without the stuff goin' off to the sides.

I should cut up the turret, offset the gun to match the hole in the bulldozer, and make the turret into a fixed superstructure.

The Vindi is a kind of "assault gun", like an SU-122 or Sturmtiger.

There were also assault guns and SPGs which had the gun in a fixed superstructure extended from the top of the hull.

Maybe for the cannon get the stubby turret from a baneblade, would be perfect if you had a buddy that has one and used that long barreled dinner plate launcher, maybe trade him a few beers or something for the stubby cannon

Thanks guys for all the feedback guys.

Firstly I think I want to keep the turret moveable purely because I want to retain the use of the chassis for either a razorback or rhino. Currently my skills with magnets, plasticard and design aren't at the level I'd be able to create a detachable substructure and still have it look good.

As for the turret length a few people I talked with have suggested this so I've ordered a vindicator cannon and a demolisher cannon from a bits store to play around with.

@KK - thanks for the info on the tanks I looked them both up. The pictures of the Sturmtiger pretty much demanded that I change the barrel I think, lol.

@Tazz - few of my close friend are in the hobby and those that are are not IG players, so alas no swappsies from me, beer or not. Thanks for the suggestion though, I looked at the Baneblade kit and may get one just to tinker with.

Lennysmash wrote:@Draglide12 - I could pull it out further but to me there is just something fundamentally wrong with the whole look of the vindi dozer on this tank. Thanks for the input.

@BrotherJulian - the unditching rollers sound like a great conversion to do, would love to see your take on them when they are complete.

Btw what are these spoilers you're talking of, my force is an IF successor chapter but is going to use the Blood angel codex as a base, so any info on the dex is useful. I plan to keep all the special rules for the blood angels, so red thirst/black rage is going to be fanatical devotion etc. I have a copy of the codex but just wondered what you meant exactly

@KingCracker & Stompydakka - If you want a cool alternative to deffrollas I think Robot Wars is the place to look, now they really are some big nasty weapons for robot/tank killing

The spoilers are my way of modelling the Vindicator as a fast vehicle :-) Haven't built the rollers yet.

Haha, oh those kind of spoilers, I thought you meant there was something in the dex that nerfed BA Vindicators.

BTW those tanks are looking ace, nice use of the dreadnought pieces.

I like the turret coversion, its different

The siege shield does look a bit off as is. If you're up for a bit of chopping, I'd think it might look better if you cut the top part off, down to the level of the viewport maybe, and then extend the cutout for the cannon so that it's more symmetrical. Really liking all the battle damage so far though.

A couple weeks ago I thought about modelling up a ram/dozer blade/deffrolla as a pilot/cowcatcher like from a steam engine, but make all of the vertical pieces out of chainswords. It could be made to look quite nasty, methinks.

As already mentioned the offset cut out is a bit of a prob. Try the IG one or failing that, for something nice and brutal try modelling something like....



As for the barrel, really needs to be a tad shorter though, maybe shorten the barrel and add an extension the back of the turret. Kind of like the ammo store on the back of the SM predator turrets?

Spoiler on a tank...

I think i know what is missing on this vindicator - colour;-)!by the way i think your vin looks great an is ready to paint!

Make the turret look less like a LRMBT turret and more like it should be part of the tank. I agree with KK saying it should be in a fixed position.