Thursday, January 21, 2010

Sentinel Conversion Project

Now that i have a large force completely painted and ready to play even Apoc sized battles, its time to start a conversion project and put real time in on each model it produces.

Given how much fun Apoc is i wanted to give myself more toys to play with in future battles, especially if they end up being larger battles allowing me to field more then 3500-4000 points.  The problem is that most of the Imperial Guard formations require crazy amounts of particular models, many of which would never see the light of a normal 40k table.



The formations that stick out to me, not considering my poor bank account:
1. Emperor's Fist Leman Russ Squadrons/Battalion.  A cheap but useful formation that allows your russes to ignore crew shaken results.  Easily one of the more manageable to purchase and still use in normal 40k, but also kinda boring and while its my opinion that the Apoc Formation "Squadron" is different then the codex "Squadron" some might argue against it.

2. Imperial Shield Company.  I can already do this one, and its probably a good overall formation thanks to its 3 assets.

3. Hellstorm Squadron.  Another of the actually feasible formations, its pretty good too but overall not that tactically interesting.

4. Armageddon Stompa Hunters.  This one i like, i like it a lot... 10 Armoured Sentinels is cheap points wise, and while not super cheap model wise isnt to bad.  Not only are the rules it provides good, with its +1 to armour pen rolls and ability to double tap their guns against a single foe, but they provide some interesting tactical options.  For instance, imagine 10 Lascannons (str 10 essentially thanks to their +1), double tapping on a superheavy, who you used Precision strike on (everyone hits that model on a 2+), while supported by Steel Eagle (they gain tank hunter, which brings them to str 11 essentially going into the armor pen roll).  Thats some serious damage output for very low points....

Or you could give them plasma cannons instead, their skill juices them to Str 8 against vehicles which means you have a chance against anything, str 9 with Steel Eagle making them lascannons.  But you don't need precision strike because their blasts now, not to mention that this makes them vastly more effective against elite infantry.

5. Rough Rider Company.  I love this formation, its so not Guard in thats its all about assault.  But the fact is it rocks, again the formation is super cheap points wise.  In exchange you get a super valuable unit that flank marchs itself in to contest objectives your guns have cleared.  If there are enemies near by the Riders gain skilled rider to handle any terrain bits, and if within 6" of the command squad gain furious charge and +2 attacks on the charge.  Combine the above with the Hunting Lance rules and you can quickly see why this formation would be very deadly.

The biggest issue with this formation is the number of models required.  I would love to convert up some rough riders on scout bikes, its a common conversion but its common because it looks about 100x better then  the standard guard on horseback.  so you need 30 of them minimum, at 12 bucks a biker, your talking 360 bucks just for the bikers to start the conversions.....ouch.

6. Heavy Weapons Company.  Good lord this would cause damage to anyone. Twin Link all 36 teams onto a single target within LOS of the command team....its similar to the Armageddon stompas in its role.  Of course you did read that right?  36 heavy weapons teams.....good lord thats a lot of teams to own, paint, assemble, buy.....

7. Steel Fury, already have this formation and love it.


so with all that considered i have decided to convert up a Stompa Hunter Formation.  But i have never been a huge fan of the sentinel model, the new one is leagues better then the old one but still its very...lame.






























So the plan is to convert them heavily, generally speaking i want to go for a mech/powerloader look.  With the pilot at least partially exposed.  Im fairly certain i can utilize standard sentinel legs plus some added bits to beef them up and not look so chicken walker ish.  The arms i want to be humanoid and holding the guns so perhaps the tau suit arms will work with some modification of course.  Chest wise im a little lost, nothing sprouts to mind so something tells me their going to be highly modified versions of something.


sadly i recently traded away two of my Tau Broadside suits i had converted a long time back, not only are the tau bits helpful but i had converted them with sentinel legs....which would also be very helpful.



More on this as i get beyond the conceptual stage, but let me know if you have ideas for a chest.

8 comments:

  1. Have you thought about using Choppas? The plastic deathkoptas from AoBR are dirt cheap online, and are about the right size for sentinels--they'd take a bit of love to fit in properly with your army, but it sounds like you're willing to commit some time. If done right, they could lend a ton of character to your force.

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  2. Eladar War Walkers have a bit of an open faced, see the pilot, kind of thing going on. Because of their aesthetics it would take a good bit of conversion to make them look 'not Eldar' enough though.

    Good luck, I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

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  3. Check these out for another alternative:
    http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n418/MrBigMr/Wayland/wcg-walker-1.jpg

    More information on the conversion in the original thread:
    http://z11.invisionfree.com/Work_In_Progress/index.php?showtopic=15048

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  4. thanks folks those are some good ideas!

    the second one there from you Rob is kinda the basic thing im going for, more compact and boxy looking though. I believe that is also made from a lot of none GW bits so we'll see.

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  5. I don't mean to self publicise but I've just completed this http://needmoretanks.blogspot.com/2010/01/get-away-from-her-you-nid.html

    I thought as you were looking for ideas for an open cab you might like how I'd done mine. The frame is the basic frame roof of a sentinal, with a little chopping and changing.

    I'd also like to thank your friend Warhammer 39,999 for the links he posted. I'm doing a small Aliens theme combat patrol force, and the link he provided showed me some cool ideas (plus an awesome miniatures website I hadn't previously heard of!) Though I have to say I think the walker looks more like something from Avatar than Aliens. That isn't a bad thing though...

    Good luck with your project, I eagerly await seeing your progress :oD

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  6. @Ginge

    Very cool man i like it, the design im going for i wanted to be a little bit smaller but you gave me a great idea. Perhaps ill do something similar but instead ill chop the cab going downward and use a pair of standing guard legs instead of the sitting pilot legs.

    now if my darn hobby store would hurry up and get a sentinel restocked i could get started....

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  7. I did consider using a basic guardsman though that was more to do with the arms. However when I realised I couldn't realistically position the arms like the power loader (movement would leave the controls out of reach) I went with the sentinal pilot.

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  8. This may sound strange but what if you use a marine skimmer? Keep everything from the pelvis down on the walker, Hack the back off just behind the cockpit on the skimmer, build up the passenger side with a weapon mount inside there, and attach to the walker legs so the cockpit is centered over top of the legs. Use some of the bars around the pilot. The walker engine could be attached like normal at the back. You could even carve out one of the engine thrusters so it would attach on the bottom to the walker "ball" attachment at the pelvis. With a little creativity it could be similar to the old walker but a little more angry looking.

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