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 Pyroalchi wrote:
I don't know if it has already been mentioned, but the VsKfz 617 from Meng has a very 40k Imperial Guard vibe. 1/35, but could be a nice proxy for a CRASSUS or to kitbash a superheavy
http://www.meng-model.com/en/contents/66/158.html

I did exactly that, some 10 years ago with a previous plastic kit of the vehicle.

Apologies for the awful picture, I haven't taken it out in forever so the ancient photobucket uploads are all I have at hand.

To add to the Meng/World War Toons talk - I just finished adding some 40k-ness to their French somua s35 kit, and thought I'd post some pics as its kinda relevant to this thread:





I've had some resin tank tracks in my bits box for years (from Zinge I think), and they fit perfectly on this. Rest of the parts are mainly left overs from the Skorpius Dunerider/Disintegrator kit.

That's kawaii

Kawaii and awesome! Good call on replacing the tracks, I've have a few of these myself and while the kit is of nice quality, the tracks aren't, they tear and snap all too easily.

Well i bit the Billet in 2 1:35 wespe models from tamaya,
Three it through the scale calc aswell comes in a Rad longer , higher but less broad then a chimera, intend to Run it as a Griffin or basilisk.
Should probably Post endproduct if it worked out.

Hmmm, yeah 1:35 is big...but a Wespe was very small, so I can see that working out okay-ish.

Maybe modify the gun slightly so you can slip in/on/off a barrel to change it from Griffon to Basilisk and back and forth?

That's awesome, Nicky.

 Elbows wrote:
Hmmm, yeah 1:35 is big...but a Wespe was very small, so I can see that working out okay-ish.

Maybe modify the gun slightly so you can slip in/on/off a barrel to change it from Griffon to Basilisk and back and forth?

Nice idea on that, i mostly want to Spike it up a bit, and even if it turns out too large for a griffon i then also can get a better grasp at the weapon in it, aka 10.5 howitzer at 1:35 which if it fits well might aswell will stand in for my earthshakers.

Measurement wise, it's about a 1 cm smaller on the front but about 1 cm larger then a chimera so nobody will really care mostliekly.
More concered with the plastic quality and where i get the crew for it, probably have to kitbash some aswell.

this is the endresult:



What I learnt from it:

The 1:35 Wespe from Tamaya is too smallish for a Basilisk, well the gun is, but as suspected the howitzer makes for a rather nice selfpropelled arty piece and the size beeing less broad then a chimera but a bit longer and higher makes for a nice wannabee griffon imo.
Secondly: since this is a 10.5 cm howitzer we can learn the following, if you'd were to find a 1:35 10.5 CM LeiFH you'd have a good alternative to FW field artillery.
Thirdly: Tamaya quality as expected, is 1.A
Fourth: I need more spikes and corpses and other bitz,
Fifth: i can't wait to find more such interesting vehicle alternatives.

Nice! Looks like it would be easy to extend the gun with plastic tubing if it really bugs you but it seems well within the boundaries of what a basilisk should be. No one would mistake it for something else.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Nice! Looks like it would be easy to extend the gun with plastic tubing if it really bugs you but it seems well within the boundaries of what a basilisk should be. No one would mistake it for something else.

it's less the length, which fits btw, but rather the calibre, however atm i like the size because it allows me to "downdeclare them" into griffons for my 31.st. or up declare them into a basilisk.

Did much the same with a Wespe model for my guard, though the model wasn't Tamiya and the tracks were *individual* pieces that I just didn't have the patience to put together (like 100+ tread units per side). Unfortunately, haven't found replacement treads yet, but may see if e-bay has some loose tamiya replacements I can use to finish the model off now.

Also, really like the modifications on the "toon" tank. I bought the Panther kit and out of the box it makes a nice Leman Russ tank, but I had avoided the Sherman kit because it looked too rounded. Nice to see what a modded up one (even though that's the French tank, think a similar job for the Sherman would work) to look more like a proper imperial tank - reminiscent of a pic from the old Rogue Trader rulebook.

Nicky, that Meng Somua looks ideal for some 40Kifying, nice work. I actually have one of those and one of the Char Bis on the way to me. Looks like I should be able to make them work for Guard somehow then


EDIT: Dang it, Meng came out with a Churchill too?? That feels like it will have great potential too!! For goodness sake... *Looks for wallet*

Deleted.

 Elbows wrote:
No offense to anyone here, but the best (and honestly only use I can agree with) for the Meng Toon Tanks is as the gobbo-tankette things (grot tanks?). They're perfect for that. I don't think they really fit anything else, even with modification. I've been tempted to buy a bunch and make a silly tankery-inspired game for my niece and nephew though...so...we all have bad ideas sometimes.

There's an upcoming churchill that might be big enough to be useful. It's still chunky but due to having a lot fewer rounded corners than some earlier ww2 tanks it ends up looking a bit more 40k-chunky than pure toy chunky. My personal tolerances for goofiness might just be higher. I already have a pile of bronekorpus tanks that need some assembly and plasticard so I'm not necessarily looking for a main tank option anyway.

I'm having a hard time finding good comparison pictures for some things, though, because it's really difficult to tell the approximate dimensions of these tanks from a picture of them alone due to their proportions. I'm also having a hard time finding any pictures of an assembled char b1 but that might just be because the kit is very new.

Rosebuddy wrote:
I'm having a hard time finding good comparison pictures for some things, though, because it's really difficult to tell the approximate dimensions of these tanks from a picture of them alone due to their proportions. I'm also having a hard time finding any pictures of an assembled char b1 but that might just be because the kit is very new.

Not finished yet. (because im going to convert the crap out of it.)

I only learned about World War Toons kits thanks to this thread, and got a bunch to convert into Grot tanks (2 Shermans, 1 Stuart, 1 38T). I'm pleasantly surprised - the cartoony chunkiness of the models makes them much more useful for 40K than other historical kits, and they're cheap enough to experiment with. Incidentally, I also got a Char 2b, planning to turn it into something Imperial. The dimensions are not ideal - height and length are fine, but it's quite narrow. I decided to turn it into a Hellhound proxy:





It wasn't hard to magnetize and weapon swap, but I had to find another 1/48 tank hatch for the commander.

If you bisect the body up the middle and add a spacer to widen it's profile I think it would be solid. Right now, it's side profile is good but foot print and head on are lacking.

 Red Corsair wrote:
If you bisect the body up the middle and add a spacer to widen it's profile I think it would be solid. Right now, it's side profile is good but foot print and head on are lacking.

Bisecting a model, reassembling it and making it look good is a non-trivial operation.

I'd recommend adding stowage and such to the sides instead.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 Red Corsair wrote:
If you bisect the body up the middle and add a spacer to widen it's profile I think it would be solid. Right now, it's side profile is good but foot print and head on are lacking.

Bisecting a model, reassembling it and making it look good is a non-trivial operation.

I'd recommend adding stowage and such to the sides instead.

Well thats the rub. You cover the shoddy part with stowage when you bisect it and add a bit of armor to the front. The turret and stowage on the back will hide most of it. You can even remove the front, use a larger front piece made from card stock and reglue the old front centered.

Bisecting the tank won't be easy, but I'd say it's possible. The top of the hull is asymmetrical, so you'd have to cut around some of the detail as well as the turret mounting, and the shape is fairly irregular, which means it'll be a bit of work to make plasticard spacers. The bottom of the hull is simpler, but also fairly solid, so you'll need a decent saw. I obviously didn't find it worth the trouble, but my 40K opponents are fairly tolerant. I just might make a cardboard template to mark the Hellhound footprint to preempt disagreements.

 Red Corsair wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 Red Corsair wrote:
If you bisect the body up the middle and add a spacer to widen it's profile I think it would be solid. Right now, it's side profile is good but foot print and head on are lacking.

Bisecting a model, reassembling it and making it look good is a non-trivial operation.

I'd recommend adding stowage and such to the sides instead.

Well thats the rub. You cover the shoddy part with stowage when you bisect it and add a bit of armor to the front. The turret and stowage on the back will hide most of it. You can even remove the front, use a larger front piece made from card stock and reglue the old front centered.

In true hellhound fashion strap a boatload if barrels to the sides. One melts strike and boom.

 Theophony wrote:

 Red Corsair wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 Red Corsair wrote:
If you bisect the body up the middle and add a spacer to widen it's profile I think it would be solid. Right now, it's side profile is good but foot print and head on are lacking.

Bisecting a model, reassembling it and making it look good is a non-trivial operation.

I'd recommend adding stowage and such to the sides instead.

Well thats the rub. You cover the shoddy part with stowage when you bisect it and add a bit of armor to the front. The turret and stowage on the back will hide most of it. You can even remove the front, use a larger front piece made from card stock and reglue the old front centered.

In true hellhound fashion strap a boatload if barrels to the sides. One melts strike and boom.

Anyone knows where to get a ton of barrels the right size?
For cheap?
Making my char 2B into russ with conqueror cannon, with cannon being in hull not turret. But the Renault's tank would make great hellhound (looks like 1st ed epic hellhound)

Tamiya makes kits in 1/32 and 1/48 both are great. Tamiya and Italiari have great stowage kits too.

probably best to measure the barrels you want to replicate and use PVC tubing of the right size to make one if you want cheap

I never liked the idea to use the original oversized barrels and also GW replaces them on newer model kits for more realistic versions

but polystyrene plastic tubes can be found online and make nice barrels in the original size

I do love the alternate modelling and kitbashing. Interesting shots of the char. as stated earlier, easiest would be side stowage to widen the tank. maybe the side skirt armour could be extended out from tracks ( ...and also side stowage )

I find greatest control with disecting models when using a plastic scriber - i have a tamiya one and you can cut around near anything with vehicle models.

i am using some meng toon tanks as leman russ alternatives. the german king tiger or tiger 2 model is one of the largest toon tanks. I have the kv2 as well i am slowly making a looted wagon. barrel swaps and front gun mount is easy. i not bother with side sponsons for these. images attached for scaling purposes.





any issues with images, chalk up to miniscule posts and massive lurks. the shots are in my dakka gallery.

Here's my painted Char, for anyone who's interested:



I didn't end up packing it with stowage or spaced armor, but it's an option for those who want a closer match. It would be a shame about those side panels, as they are perfectly 40K (in that they are WW1-ish).

The whole kit has been fun to build and convert. The only weakness, as mentioned, is the rubber tracks. I'd sprayed them with Leadbelcher to put them on in the end, but you need to stretch them so much that the paint flaked off in places and I had to paint over. I'd say you're better off painting them after assembly, or, where possible, replacing them with resin or plastic.

 AceXT wrote:
Here's my painted Char, for anyone who's interested:

Spoiler:

I didn't end up packing it with stowage or spaced armor, but it's an option for those who want a closer match. It would be a shame about those side panels, as they are perfectly 40K (in that they are WW1-ish).

The whole kit has been fun to build and convert. The only weakness, as mentioned, is the rubber tracks. I'd sprayed them with Leadbelcher to put them on in the end, but you need to stretch them so much that the paint flaked off in places and I had to paint over. I'd say you're better off painting them after assembly, or, where possible, replacing them with resin or plastic.

That just looks amazing. Fantastic work. I always admired the World War Toons tanks..... but never picked one up, thought about it though. Now, seeing them with 40K weapons and bits.... oh my that could be a slippery slope!

Although the leadbelcher flaked when you stretched the tracks to get them on, the spray paint didn't damage the rubber? Did you prime the tracks? I've seen spray cans damage vinyl tracks before, I think do to an additive in the rattlecans.

Thanks! I sprayed the Leadbelcher straight onto the tracks, and it was fine - good adhesion, no damage. I had to pull one end of the track pretty hard, so it's no surprise the paint flaked off at that spot, but the remaining 90% or so stayed on. I'd say it's safe to use GW sprays on these. The only damage to vinyl I ever had was with enamel-based AK Interactive weathering products.