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.

morning all,

I realize there have been many threads on this topic, but everything I found was at least a couple years old. I'm hoping the models/bitz landscape has changed a bit since then. I'm looking for suggestions on how to go about building havocs for my CSM army. the CSM havoc box that GW sells is, frankly, an insult. $10 more than the C:SM devastator box for half as many heavy weapons and the 'privilege' of dealing with finecast. no, thank you. so that leaves me with converting regular CSM, which sounds like fun here are the options I know of.

for autocannons:

- pick up the forgeworld legion AC set. fair price for 5 of them, should fit on standard CSMs, no extra bits required. easy-peasy and no need to look further

for lascannons:

- use C:SM devastator lascannon bits. these go for about $5-6 each (plus tax & shipping) and should fit fine on standard CSMs. to my eye, the aesthetic isn't quite there, though. too obviously loyalist even with some spikey bits tacked on
- pick up a few forgeworld heavy weapon sets. on the plus side, they have a fairly distinct look which makes them stand out. on the minus side, CSM can't use half the weapons in the set and buying four of these sets just to kit out one unit is not cheap.
- pick up OOP single-model lascannon havocs off ebay. not fond of this option as a) I dislike working with metal, b) no guarantees you can even find what you want in the time frame you want and c) prices are up right now for CSM units since the codex is fairly recent.
- convert lascannons out of bits from IG HWT or vehicles. I'd be game to try this, but I haven't found any good tutorials and I'm not sure which bits would be best to start with.

for missile launchers:

- use C:SM devastator missile launcher bits. these also go for about $5 each and should fit fine on CSM bodies. same issue with the devasator lascannon, though: not very chaos-y in appearance
- pick up a pair of forgeworld special weapon packs. two missile launchers in each, plus the arms you need, and the other weapons you get are actually usable by CSMs (could be handy for making combi-weapons). have to choose your CSM backpacks with care or you may have trouble with the back of the launcher colliding with the backpack vents, but otherwise should fit CSMs just fine.
- ebay (same issues as above; not really considering it)

what have I missed? anyone have other suggestions or conversion tutorial links?

cheers

I am also pondering this problem at the time. I haven't found one solution that suits me. But i can add some ideas for autocannons.

autocannons:
- Use IG HWT autocannons. Needs a little conversion but can be used directly, shortened or just the barrel on a chasis of your choise. I have seen some distinc looking ones using grey knight weapons and IG barrels. Some examles( 1, 2 , 3)
- Ork big shootas fit better than expected. Here
- IG heavy stubber from their vehicles. Here
- defiler autocannons (or just their barrels)
- converted chaos marine heavy bolter. Tutorial here.
- wait for anvil industry. They seem to work on some. preview from their facebook

missle launcher
- missle launcher from the normal space marine rhino kit

There are also the forgeworld legion sets of 5 weapons of one type but they are missing the arms that fit(and the grip that is modeled into them)

oh, right... the HK missile. I forgot about that one. the autocannon from anvil does look pretty nice. I'll have to keep an eye out for the finished product. and yeah, I considered the FW legion weapon sets, but lacking the arms is a bit of a deal killer for me. shame, because those lascannons look great.

Yeah. It's sad that they added the arms to the troop sets and not the weapon sets.Forgeworld would probably sell more of those if the arms where part of the sets.
I trust my sculpting skills enought to add some handles of my own but most chaos player don't have that time and/or skill to do that. But I'll probably won't buy them just as a matter of principle

Forge World now offers legion heavy support weapon packs for all of the heavy weapons: LC, ML, MM, PC, AC and HB. 5 weapons per pack.

Peredyne wrote:
Forge World now offers legion heavy support weapon packs for all of the heavy weapons: LC, ML, MM, PC, AC and HB. 5 weapons per pack.

Yes but as already stated without fitting arms so those guns don't come with trigger and holding hands. And as they are attached onto the shoulders you need special arms to wield them. (At least if you attach them like they are supposted to be)

I would make my havocs out of the terminus ultra upgrade packs, it contains lascannons and heavy bolters and I plan to convert the heavy bolters into autocannons.
But dammit those fw models do look very good

huh, interesting idea. any thoughts on how to go about making the arms look right?

If loyalist lascannons are too loyally, you could try use the chaos vehicle sprue to change the tip of the cannon.

There are dragon style gunheads in the vehicle sprue that'd make a normal lascannon look more chaosy!

For the FW autocannons you will have to hack the bottom part of std chaos backpacks for them to fit.
Also the best pose (easiest for everything to fit better) is to have the gun level like on the FW website.