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So the C96 is a very neat old steampunky gun, it was popular back in its day among officers who wanted a powerful firearm, much like 40K's bolt pistol. I was thinking about modeling a few sergeants with bolt pistols and was wondering how a C96 that fired bolts would look...

I would love comments and criticism on this, as this is just at the planning stages and the design is subject to change.

Bolt pistol on the left, C96 on the right, and hybrid in the middle.

Assuming you're talking about the middle one, I think it looks pretty good, suitably bulked up in the mag and barrel for 40k but keeping the original look. I can see it fitting with most IG ranges quite easily, and certainly better than slapping a SM pistol on a guardsman's arm.

Well... the barrel would need to increase nearly three-fold times in size (C96 is a 7.62mm, a bolt is 19.05mm, being .75 caliber), and thus the magazine would lose 2/3ds of its capacity (so it's down to 3, 4 rounds in the magazine, if standard), and that wooden grip would probably need to be replaced with something a little more sturdy.

So taking that into account, while the look of the gun could be maintained pretty much as-is, if you want to consider the practical application of it, it'd be a fairly useless weapon. Looks-wise, though, it'd be fine, just bulked up a bit.

practical application of it, it'd be a fairly useless weapon.

So... 40k in a nutshell.

Well... sort of.

I mean, the lasgun is far from useless. It is, in fact, superior to a modern assault rifle in every way and would be an infantryman's dream, were they to suddenly exist.

The only super-useless weapons in 40K are the tanks, but only because they are designed under the auspices that no one's tank technology progressed after 1945.

 Psienesis wrote:
Well... sort of.

I mean, the lasgun is far from useless. It is, in fact, superior to a modern assault rifle in every way and would be an infantryman's dream, were they to suddenly exist.

The only super-useless weapons in 40K are the tanks, but only because they are designed under the auspices that no one's tank technology progressed after 1945.

but except for the lasgun, every weapon GW has ever designed has been ludicrously designed. The macro calibres mean that they can only ever hold about 4 round in a magazine, you end up with ejection ports in very odd places compared to where you might expect a receiver and don't get me started on those horrible wrist mounted storm bolters with the magazines jammed in the side willy nilly.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@OP - its a nice idea. There are a few long barelled slender looking laspistols out there that might make a good basis. Just remember that someone weilding such a weapon must always shoot first

Maybe bolter magazines have some super advanced technology that allows loads of shells to fit in only a small magazine? Who knows?
I think that the pistol looks fine. It could be larger, but it looks nice.

They are described a being "double-column", and so pack twice as many bullets as you would expect (if you assume a single bullet stacked one on top of another), but also only pack 8 rounds to the mag in a bolt-pistol, 24 to 30 (varies by source) for a boltgun.

Woah, lots of feedback here, thanks all.

I'll try whipping one up tonight maybe, I was wondering about the design aesthetics a bit. But yeah my idea was for a small bolt pistol for an IG sergeant or two, cool though the marine version is its not suited to shooting first

I like it a lot, if my men didnt love plasma pistols so much id definately consider it. Id love to put those old stocks on that pistol (at one point they thought semi automatic pistols with huge stocks on them would be the future, thankfully this didnt get past ww1) and give it that nice archaic feel.

Its a game, looks cool? good enough for me!

Cut the poor Brit modelers some slack they probably never held or used a real gun

You know, I've never before noticed just how much a bolt pistol already looks like a broomhandle mauser until you put them side by side like that.

I wonder if that's a deliberate reference.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
You know, I've never before noticed just how much a bolt pistol already looks like a broomhandle mauser until you put them side by side like that.

I wonder if that's a deliberate reference.

It does? Maybe GW should sue the owner of Star Wars since their pistols were based on a c96 design http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080626152913/starwars/images/7/7b/Dl-44.jpg

Um... the broomhandle mauser is the common name for the Mauser Construcktion 96. Star Wars is not involved beyond the fact that Han Solo's pistol is also based on the C96.

Believe it or not, derivatives of the same root need not be related.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Um... the broomhandle mauser is the common name for the Mauser Construcktion 96. Star Wars is not involved beyond the fact that Han Solo's pistol is also based on the C96.

Believe it or not, derivatives of the same root need not be related.

I was making fun of GW's IP rights bullying..

 Furyou Miko wrote:
You know, I've never before noticed just how much a bolt pistol already looks like a broomhandle mauser until you put them side by side like that.

I wonder if that's a deliberate reference.

Everybody thinks the good old Broomhandle is badass - it was pretty much the first successful auto-loader ever produced and is about as steampunk as you can get without a Webly .455.

My only suggestion would be to cut down the barrel to keep that iconic snub nosed look bolters have.

 Mr Nobody wrote:
My only suggestion would be to cut down the barrel to keep that iconic snub nosed look bolters have.

I was thinking that, not too much though because the C96 was always a long barreled pistol, most likely this model of bolt pistol would probably take different (smaller) ammunition then the SM versions. Likely the smaller bolts would not be as stable in flight, needing a longer barrel to maintain accuracy until the rocket motor kicks in.

 mad_eddy_13 wrote:

 Mr Nobody wrote:
My only suggestion would be to cut down the barrel to keep that iconic snub nosed look bolters have.

I was thinking that, not too much though because the C96 was always a long barreled pistol, most likely this model of bolt pistol would probably take different (smaller) ammunition then the SM versions. Likely the smaller bolts would not be as stable in flight, needing a longer barrel to maintain accuracy until the rocket motor kicks in.

That makes sense.

No! Nothing in 40k is allowed to make sense!

 Psienesis wrote:
Well... sort of.

I mean, the lasgun is far from useless. It is, in fact, superior to a modern assault rifle in every way and would be an infantryman's dream, were they to suddenly exist.

The only super-useless weapons in 40K are the tanks, but only because they are designed under the auspices that no one's tank technology progressed after 1945.

Very few tanks had sponson weaponry in 1945. Sponson weaponry became a thing of the past pretty much after Africa.