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I really like the idea of portable weaponry for my guard soldiers. I would like most of my heavy weapon teams to wield something that appears to be movable. Most of the heavy weapons that are placed on the tripods look like they would be too heavy to be hauled by two wimpy guardsmen. So my missile launchers are shoulder mounted and I would like to make should mounted lascannons.

I got a good idea from another project blog about how to do that. http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?75970-Togari-88th-Traitor-Guard-of-Nurgle
The guy used old, rogue trader era shoulder mounted lascannons and adjusted them with plastic tubing to resemble current lascannons. Those bits being very rare and expensive, I wanted to convert missile launchers into lascannons.

So here is how far I have gotten:





I am relatively happy with how the barrel looks like, but I would like to make the back end of it more "energy weapon" looking. So does anyone have any ideas about what I can add to the back end to make it look like an energy weapon? The battery for the tripod lascannon is way too big and doesn't look particularly good. Any suggestions are appreciated.

You could cut some rectangles of plasticard in 2 sizes, one a couple of mm smaller than the other, drill a missile launcher sized hole in one end and thread them on alternately to make a transformer/heatsink hanging from the back end.

I would give the guy a backpack an make tons of cables leading from the pack to the cannon.

I second the backback and cabling but play around with it and see what you like.

Drew14 wrote:I would give the guy a backpack an make tons of cables leading from the pack to the cannon.

I have been doing that with my homebrew plasma and hellguns using a chopped up vox box. Like this guy:




I'm not sure if that would fit with the missile launcher. I guess I might just need to hack it up even more than usual.

I think a shoulder mounted design is a great idea. I second the idea of a cable running to some kind of power pack (the voxcaster is a good start) on his back, or running to a power pack being carried by another trooper. I used bass guitar for the cables on my lascannons.

I'm pretty sure I used an E string (the largest on a 4 string bass), but a G or D string (the smaller strings) might be more appropriate for your use.

Yup, the back end needs some technogubbins, plus cables leading down to a giant battery on the ground, along the lines of the IG tripod lascannon. Fluffwise it makes sense that a shoulder-mounted lascannon would simply shift as much weight as possible away from the firer, but otherwise be much the same as the standard weapon. A battery backpack would look cool but fluffwise doesn't help the weight problem - unless a second dude has the battery backpack?

If you want a smoother look try Flat Wound bass strings, they aren't as textured but look more realistic. Run a wash over it very quickly and you'll still see the ridges fine but will look more like you'd actually expect for that.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/rogue-bulk-.045-nickel-round-wound-bass-strings/120164000000000

$5 for three .045 bass strings (G). They ship pretty fast. Just for all that is holy... do not put those strings on a bass... Rogue products.... *shudder*