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Hi all!

I've started up my conversion work for my inquisition project again, and am a bit starved for any official GW resources out here. So I've been thinking of trying to spin a few transports out of models from my local model shop - so far, I've been eyeing up some Tamiya WW2 german halftracks, but there are also a few other odds and sods that have caught my eye.

Does anyone have any wisdom for when it comes to converting other stuff to 40k, specifically what scales to look for? I'm also really tempted to grab a few bits and bobs for customizing actual characters, and maybe a few heavier field guns/self-propelled guns for my renegades and heretics. Again, what is a good kinda size to look for?

Thanks for looking, and really appreciate any feedback I might get!

Officially the scale is 1/56 for 28mm models thought the weapons look really weedy and it really depends on the kit. Worth looking at Warlord games website as their Bolt Action range is made for 28mm models and you can see how different kits scale against each other.

Keep in mind that scales are always wonky. With 40K, the heroic scaling of things means that normally 1/48 scale vehicles "look" best alongside 40K vehicles/game components. However, some companies 1/48 is different from others. 1/56mm is "proper" 25/28mm and will often look quite small. Keep in mind historical vehicles will have accurate weapons, so a 37mm cannon will be the barrel size of, say, a heavy stubber. You may want to use a lot of GW bits to help the vehicles look the part. I'm all for kitbashing, but as a military history nut, nothing bugs me more than historical vehicles slapped onto the table with very little modification.

If I look across the table and immediately identify your "Ork Battlewagon" as an early war Stug with the short 75mm gun on it...it definitely stands out really strongly. I always recommend people to look around for some weird gak that most of us haven't seen. Interwar tanks built by the French or random tanks from the 1950's that few of us have seen, etc. The British are pretty good for bizarre, almost 40K-esque designs.

It's also going to depend a lot on the individual tank chassis for whether or not it's size appropriate.

A 1/35 matilda is about the size of a 40k chimera for example.
1 1/35 Konigstiger is about 3x larger (it's a mahoosive tank).

There are also quite a few third party companies who will make "ww2 style but it's sci-fi" models in 40k scale. If you're looking for not-Rhinos or not-Tauroxes, that might be the best value.

What would you say is your main interest? Saving money per vehicle; making a personalized/unique army; or incorporating a specific historical theme or object that you happen to like?

Cheers for the input, fellas!

Don't worry! I plan on converting whatever I purchase up suitably - I've managed to get my grubby MIT's on the space marine part of my bits collection, so they'll be suitably boltered and aquilla'ed up.

Useful note about smaller tanks Vs hulking German panzer behemoths. Might be an idea to grab something to get a notion of size, no?

My main reason is twofold - firstly, GW plastics cost waaaaay too much out here, but equally, I just want a bit of a challenge! I really like early 20th century armour design, and think it suits the 40k aesthetic really nicely.

Speaking of the Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251 (say it quickly and loudly), the 1/48 scale is the right length as the Chimera, but needs some widening up. The 1/35 is the exact opposite. Good width, but too long (250 might work better). I personally use 1/48 scale, as 1/35 is too big.

Here is my take. You can see it has been widened about 10mm to each side. And it could use thicker tires and wider tracks too. I also added some plasticard to make it look bulkier, and of course, a ton of bits I found around.


The general rule I use is that I always measure the vehicle I want to replace and then calculate the size of the scale model, and when building and converting, I try to stay as close to the original model as possible. Generally accepted size difference for conversions is 1".

Nice job!
I'd never taken the differences in size into account, thanks for the idea! I will deffo see if I can keep an eye out for a Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251! I really like what you've done with yours!