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for the past couple of weeks I've had this idea in my head to make some kind of vehicle to transport a dread mob as a part of my "WAAAGHn Hundred and First Airborne" list. my first attempt was to adapt the sky talon rules, but that didn't go over so well, too little transport capacity. so now I'm trying to adapt the bomber rules to carry deff dreads. the idea is that the bomber will be using a system called LAPES to drop the dreads right into battle. the current points for the bomber I'm basing it off of is about 400 points, and can transport 20 stormboyz.my question is if the points should be adjusted up or down if the transport capacity changes to having 40 transport slots and having deff dreads take up 6 slots, killa kans take up 3 slots, and mega and meka dreads take up 10 slots.
here's the stats as they stand right now:

LAPES Bomber........TBD pts.
BS= 2 / F= 10 / S= 10 / R =10
Composition: 1 LAPES Bomber

Unit type: Super Heavy Flier

SP: 3

Transport: 40 transport slots, may only transport walkers (see above)

Wargear:
one deff arsenal in nose
four big shootas in port turrets
four big shootas in starboard turrets
one twin linked shoota in rear turret

options:
the LAPES bomber may take one of the following under wing weapons configurations for +60 pts:
6 bombs
4 bombs and 2 grot bombs
6 suppa rockets

so anyone have any input?

You airborne? Also I don't think rockets are the best for a c-130 , as for transport ability I think 40-60 would make sense like a rifle platoon , and every 10 personnel slots is a deff dread , and every 5 for a killa khan , as for deployment I see orks just pushing them out the back of the plane so perhaps a strength 5 rending hit on rear armor ( leg motors ect.)

no I'm not, but my grandpa was with the 82nd. he died a few months after I was born, so I never really got to meet him.the list is kind of a tribute to him.
I like the idea of 60 transport slots with deffs taking 10, kans taking five, and maybe 20 for a mega or meka dread, because that gives me the exact numbers I was looking to transport. now the only question is points cost?

I'm currently with the 82nd , As for points cost I would say in the ballpark of 375-450 because its lightly armed and armoured and lascannons will whip your ass no problem ( love my vendettas ). Sorry bout your Grand father

actually we don't quite have from the horse's mouth that he was in the 82nd, just his old unit patch in a scrapbook next to a picture of him and some other guys all wearing the patch in what looks to be France. grandma told him if he ever decided to fly a plane during the war she would leave him, she'd already had her brother captured by the Germans, and lost a cousin on the Arizona. they didn't see each other during the war, and when they saw each other again he claimed he was a medic on the west coast. however his scrapbook doesn't show any pictures of him in sunny California where he claimed he was. only my mother and I have seen the scrapbook, and she didn't recognize the patch, so I'm the only one in my family who thinks he was in the 82nd.

as far as the bomber, under armored I'll bite, but under armed? the thing has a Deff Arsinal in the nose, that's 3D6 strength 9 AP 3 shots plus D3 super rockets each time it fires. better play it safe and make it 450pts.

Most likly was in operation market garden , as for the bomber - a nose gun has a very limited arc of fire ( 30-40 degrees ) giving that any craft dedicated to taking down aircraft will swipe you pretty well ( *cough vendetta *cough ) so perhaps add some escort craft , Perhaps have the dorsal and ventral guns being strength 6 , and it might have a maximum movement of 24' due to its immense size - An issue I see is lack of fire arcs on the turrets - as for transport capacity it could have something along the grav chute insertion special rule ( but more orky ) so perhaps they take a dangerous Terran test with armour saves allowed , upon disembarking . But with this I would be more worried of what it landed on as it crashed rather then the actual contents in its cargo bay.

well yea of course any dedicated flier killer will take it out in a few turns, but it's job is to swoop in, clear an LZ to drop the dreads off in, then disengage and come back next turn as a ground assault craft. then rinse and repeat. it's a ground assault gunship made to make way for the rest of the unit. also I'm well aware of the awesomeness of vendettas, but they are pretty much the best at what they do in the game, so comparing this to them is unfair. let me run some numbers on the points and I'll get back with what will probably be the final version before playtesting.

alright sorry it took so long, but here's the final pre-playtesting stats:
Ork LAPES Bomber..... 420 pts.
BS= 2 / F= 10/ S=10 / R= 10
composition: 1 LAPES Bomber and any extra dakkajet escorts

unit type: LAPES bomber is a super heavy flyer, dakkajets are fliers

SP: 3 (for LAPES bomber)

transport: the LAPES bomber has 12 transport slots and may only transport the following units taking up the listed transport slots:
1 killa kan= 1 slot
1 deff dread= 2 slots
1 mega or meka dread= 4 slots
these are deployed using the "drop run" rules.

Wargear:
1 deff arsenal in nose
4 big shootas in port turrets
4 big shootas in starboard turret
1 twin linked big shoota in rear turret

Options:
the LAPES bomber may be escorted by up to two dakkajets with any upgrades they may normal receive for the listed price. the bomber and escorts are treated as a unit of vehicles.
the LAPES bomber may have one of the following under wing loadouts for +60 points:
6 bombs
4 bombs and 2 grot bombs
6 suppa rockets

if anyone wants to playtest this feel free to tell me how it does.

I approve of using 'transport slots' that are dedicated to walkers. Reading earlier posts I was going to recommend setting the number of troops, and setting the space intended for dreads since those would take special mag-clamps and whatnot.
Cue parachutes for the dreads. Why go with high tech solutions when something simple works - and can easily be untangled from a walker by shooting a burna at it, hahaha!

Proposal 1: How about keeping a bit of transport space for stormboys? Giving the option to backup the dreads with some green?
Proposal 2: have some bomb options be burna-bomb or inferno types that ignore cover, for the odd drop in wooded terrain held by annoying gits.

Answer to proposal 1: no transport for stormboyz, the other bombers carry them. however this does give me an idea for a formation of 1-3 bombers, blasta bombers, and/or LAPES bombers as well as 0-6 dakkajet escorts. I call it "the market formation" (after my grandpa's possible service in operation market garden)

Answer to proposal 2: once again the answer is no, it's a bad idea to drop firebombs on an area you're about to land in. as it is likely that the fires will still be raging when the dreads land. also LAPES won't work on forested areas because the plane basically skims the ground and pushes the stuff out the back with parachutes. trying to perform a LAPES maneuver in a forested area will not work well. if my orks were to try that the bomber would not be the ones with the firebombs, instead that would be an earlier air stike about an hour before the drop to give the fire time to die down.

thank you for your input though

Thumbs up on the 'market formation'. I wonder if one could make a gardening joke instead, hmmm.

Good point about setting fire to a forest ahead of a drop being a bad idea, yeah... I was just thinking that killa kans and dreads wouldn't mind it nearly so much. (except for occasional ammo cooking, of course) Oh well, there goes my daydream of a forest burning, killer robots from space crashing into it, then emerging from the smoke with shootas blazing and buzzsaws spinning, big laughs bellowing from loudspeakers!

Either way, give your foes some airborne hell!