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I wanted to arm my rough riders and Stormtroopers with meltas and didn't want to go the normal route of ordering either samey metal models or the hard to work with metal guns themselves.

I think the key thing about Meltas is the slotted muzzle and the fuel/ammo cylinder mounted above. I then realised that I am drowning in Tau Fusion Blasters... If only I could combine the two, thought I.

AAaanyway, here is my method for an all-plastic melta for Guard. I've gone with the current GW fluff that meltas are relatively heavy and need stabilizing (a-la the Cain books and the current Cadian metal models), rather than the old style rifle type.

Starting with a standard Guard flamer arm and a Tau Fusion Blaster (I've already trimmed the flamer muzzle off, but you all know what they look like ):



Following on from that trim off a section of the FB muzzle. Unfortunately you can't get 2 melta muzzles off 1 FB due to material losses when sawing, but you only get 1 fuel canister per FB anyway so its not too much of a problem. Be careful to give yourself plenty of space for trimming the small piece back to a square shape. You can see that the remainder piece is a bit different to the bit I will be using for the Melta muzzle due to trimming.

Also shown here is the fuel canister trimmed off.



Now for the tricky bits of removing the flamer hose intake and the top surface of the flamer. Taking your time here is recommended



Here is a shot with the fuel intake repositioned on top of the flamer/melta body. Some further trimming is needed to clean up the join.

Also shown is the fuel canister with a small spacer to raise it off the melta body a bit. I used a random bit of track guard I had kicking about, but any small strip of plastic would do.



Next is the new melta muzzle being attached



As a fuel pipe into the gun I've used a small bit of bent pin. This mates with holes drilled in the fuel intake and the fuel canister.



And the final item.



Here is a quick mock-up with my first modded stormtrooper. Its a bit different to the standard Imperial melta, but not too far away, and it was free due to my bits box so thats always a bonus

Looks pretty hi-tech, it works with your amry pretty well.

(is that another stormtrooper i see here?)

Looks good. Very useful if you have a lot of fusion blasters lying around... which I do... Mwahahaha !

@Ghosty - Its actually the same one from the P&M post. I just swapped arms over

I need to get my rough riders finished before I am allowed to finish the stormtrooper squad

thanks for sharing this. looking pretty good. Good tutorial.

Pretty cool conversion, but I am wondering would the ammo bit be better off on the bottom?

yes defo the ammo should go on the borrom ot it should be on the back with some piping

Tau thighs?

I Like it though, nice idea!

Tau thighs?

I Like it though, nice idea!

@Generalstoner - I guess it could go on the bottom. The standard GW meltas have the fuel canister toward the top of the weapon though, so I extended that idea. I also think that it would look a bit too flamer-like with the canister on the bottom.

@Geordie09 - Yup. Tau legs with some GS work to attach Guard boots and match up with the Cadian torso.

Flinty wrote:@Generalstoner - I guess it could go on the bottom. The standard GW meltas have the fuel canister toward the top of the weapon though, so I extended that idea. I also think that it would look a bit too flamer-like with the canister on the bottom.

@Geordie09 - Yup. Tau legs with some GS work to attach Guard boots and match up with the Cadian torso.

I think that your fuel barrel would look better on the bottom also. It's looks too high tech to follow the regular form factor of a metla-gun, so you should go with whats aesthetically pleasing for your specific pattern of weapon, rather than meeting the existing gun pattern halfway. Not a huge fan of the square barrel either to be honest, but I get that you're trying to make more high tech guard than normal. Honestly, I like the idea of the flamer fuel nozzle staying where it originally is, and then just have the fuel tank for your gun hanging off the back. I think that having it sit behind the top strap would help stabilize it on the model and not make it look quite so forward heavy also while still seeming somewhat bulky.

I think a free and creative conversion is better than buying one! I wish I would have done that with some models

@ Daedalus - Its a fair point, but I did fiddle about with some other forms before settling on this one. When I was doing my Rough Rider counts-as I tried sticking the canister to the unmodified hose intake and it looked a bit weird as seen below:



Please note that the infantry and rough rider versions of the melta are 180 degrees rotated compared to each other.

On the point of being unwieldy, a lot of the fluff supports the idea that melta guns are big heavy things that are difficult to use properly (also backed up by anecdotal evidence in-game that melta weapons always miss right when you really need them to hit ).

If anyone fancies knocking up a modified version of this melta pattern feel free to post it here for comparison

Maybe a little expensive?

Heh, not if you have tau and guard armies. You end up drowning in flamers and fusion blasters

Nice!

What i think would really finish this off would to cut off all the antennae from a vox backpack and throw that on there, it would help balance out the model so it doesnt seem to front heavy