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Hey guys,

I'd heard that the cheapest way to get some Meltaguns for IG was to get the £6 Meltagun pack from GW. So I ordered one and have tried to work with them but I can't seem to get them to fit (doesn't help that they're so comically huge on Guardsmen).
I heard that GL arms were a good arm to use but I can't get the hand anywhere close to where the grip should be without the gun being blocked by his torso. After a few tries with various arms I decided I should ask Dakka if there's any consensus on which arms to use or perhaps some advice on what to do before I've ruined all my weapon arms.

If you chop the shoulder stock off, they fit a lot better.

I used Catachans and matched them up with the arm that has the stock fit into the crook of the elbow.

I just spent the cash and got 3 Commad Squad kits and extra legs, bodies, heads from a bits dealer (although you could also just buy a squad kit too).
The command squad kit has a pre-molded Melta gun with arms along with Plasma guns banners, and command type figures.
Was able to make 3 Melta guys, 3 Plasma Guys, and 3 Grenade guys to kit out 3 different Vet squads.
I then used the rest of the bits to make a Platoon Commander, Company Commander, Lord Comissar, and 2 chump Commisars (for platoon squads).
I also had enough parts left over to bbuild 4 flamer guys to create a neet little Platoon Command Squad with a commander and 4 flamers...a nice scoring unit (why does everyone forget the Platoon "Commander" is a Troop???) that can jump out of a Vendetta on turn 5 and torch a unit holding an objective for the win.
It may seem expensive, but the amount of models you can create (especially the unique things like Commanders and Commisars that are normally $25-30 finecrap) is well worth it.

It helped that I was doing an IG conversion army using different heads and bodies so what i really needed was all the arms and legs and guns leaving me plenty of bits to trade off later too.

@dkellyj: That's nice but not what he asked. He asked how to use the meltaguns he already purchased.

 pretre wrote:
@dkellyj: That's nice but not what he asked. He asked how to use the meltaguns he already purchased.

Actually, what he asked was:
"After a few tries with various arms I decided I should ask Dakka if there's any consensus on which arms to use or perhaps some advice on what to do before I've ruined all my weapon arms."

My suggestion stands. The Command kit has IG type Melta and Plasma weapons that already are built and require zero chopping and converting to make them fit on any standard troop body.
And if you only want those weapon arms...check the bitz dealers for that specific part.

But, for the sake of argument, if he wants to use the specific melta guns he has (unless he can trade then to a SM player in exchange for that guy buying him a couple of IG kits) then another way to do it would be to chop up the lasgun itself and make your own melta style gun like so:

Since he has the melta guns he could chop off the melta tip and glue that to the end of the Lasgun body.

dkellyj wrote:
Actually, what he asked was:
"After a few tries with various arms I decided I should ask Dakka if there's any consensus on which arms to use or perhaps some advice on what to do before I've ruined all my weapon arms."

And right before that he lists how he bought the metal meltas. He's asking what arms go with the metal meltas.

Thanks for the suggestions thus far guys, I really appreciate it.
I'm gonna have another crack at fitting these MG's onto some other weapon arms in a bit, I'll make sure to try the things you guys have suggested.

As for the point regarding getting the Meltaguns from some CCS kits; before I got the resin Meltaguns I searched for command squad bits on ebay but couldn't find any MG's at a reasonable price. I don't know any reliable bitz dealers in the UK other than a few on ebay so getting some from GW seemed like the best idea (and it helps that I want these Guardsmen done soon). If I can't make these MG's fit or look reasonable on my Guardsmen then I'll get back to hunting for CCS ones, but I haven't lost faith yet .

PM me if the cutting off the stocks doesn't work. I've done a bunch, so I can get you some pics of what I've done with them.

Right then, I've been working like crazy and it's taken me a while but I've fitted them all.
I found the best arms for slicing the original weapon off were the GL and Sniper Rifle, both from the CCS kit, as they had the arms facing away from the torso. That's all the Meltaguns I'm gonna need for a while so thank you both for your help.
Cutting off the stocks worked great BTW, thanks for that Pretre.

No problem! Any pics?

I guess I could take some pictures if you're interested, if I do take some though it'll have to be tomorrow as lighting conditions in my house at night aren't ideal.
But yeah it sounds like fun.

All right then I've taken some pictures of my handy work. Hope the pictures aren't too big.

This one is the first I made using the GL arms from the CCS kit, the handle arm is for the GL in the normal infantry kit. With the angle of his hand the handle is somewhat crooked but serviceable (I'll just say it got bent during battle and he's having to make do).


For this one I used the same GL weapon arm but the handle is for the flamer in the infantry kit. Here the handle looks just about perfect though there's an obvious gap between the torso and arm round the back, but the gap is small enough that filling it with GS will be no problem.


I made this one using the Sniper arms from the Cadian CCS and took the hand holding the weapon from the HWS sprue. I was surprised at how good this came out and with no obvious problems.


This last one is my favorite and will clearly stand out from the rest of the army. For this I cut the Catachan CCS Power Fist at the elbow and glued the MG on. Then I applied some more parts to it like a cut down voxcaster and something for him to carry.

Well that's all of them, I had no need for the last resin MG. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse at my work and my slightly twisted mind .

Those look great! Good job.

As has been shown, they really look good/fit well using the grenade launcher or flamer arms. The guns are massive and it makes a lot more sense to support them that way.

My Leonidans(converted catachans) heft those suckers one handed.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, number two has some mold line issues that need to be addresses.

Yeah I saw that mold line immediately when I viewed the picture, that camera is really good at picking up details like that. Naturally I raced to fix it as soon as I noticed.
Also love the idea of some guys showing how bad-ass they are by lifting and firing MGs one handed, gotta try that some day.