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Hi, hope someone can help.

Currently building a Dark Elf Army for 8th Edition Warhammer Fantasy and obviously want lots of lovely bolt throwers. However, any official GW models on eBay go for silly money.

Does anyone know of a good alternative model for the Reaper Bolt Thrower.

Cheers

The go for approx £20 each, which is not unreasonable.
There are plenty there.

I don't use the word Reaper though, just Bolt Thrower. It links me to the older 5th edition ones, which I actually prefer.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

Excuse the ignorance but aren't the cheaper ones repeater bolt throwers not reapers. They seem to be different

They are all the same. Both High Elves and Dark Elves had 'Repeater Bolt Throwers', then they seperated them into the Eagle Claw and Reaper for clarity.

You could use any of them for your artillery in official tournament, including the very small wheeled bolt thrower from 3rd edition:


These ones are my favourite, they look simple functional and less busy, though I replaced the crew with plastic warriors to modernise them:


by the time these models were released they were officially 'Reaper Bolt Throwers', through the model hadnt in actuality changed. They are a newer sculpt of an existing unit, not a new unit:

Can't you just glue some spikes on an Eagle Claw? I mean, that's the way I'd do it.

Still needs to buy a bolt thrower, Eagle claws are no cheaper.

Doing an ebay search, they cost about the same, in so much as they all vary in the same price range. Sop patiently and you will get the model you want at a reasonable price.

Thanks for the help.

I have ordered a metal '5th Ed' repeater off eBay.

I'm sure it won't be the last.

cheers

One is not sufficient really. I would buy at least one more, or two if you want a powerful battery. Three is enough for pretty much any size army, and two is a fairly usual deployment.

If you don't have other 5rth editon Dark elf models clip the heads off the crew and replace them with helmets from later editions. that one change will modernise them sufficiently to fit in with the rest of your army.

Also the 5th edition bolt thrower does have issues, the ammo racks are solid blocks with no ammunition slots. Its more like a block with spikes at the front. Tip: paint a line in black connecting the bolt heads and round to the top, do not highlight it in any way, but give an edge highlight to the surrounding metal. This will make it look more like an ammo magazine. These were simpler models from simpler times, less detail but the detail that is there is good. You will find 5th edition bolt throwers will hold up well alongside 8th edition models.

 Just Tony wrote:
Can't you just glue some spikes on an Eagle Claw? I mean, that's the way I'd do it.

Its what I am doing to mine.