Cloning Tanks Part 2: Artillery

Back from the dentist with a numb jaw today, so that means more tanks. You'll remember these fellows from a post or two ago:

Today we're concerned with the little fellow on the left, the Griffon mortar tank. Nothing wrong with him; Griffon's a fine little tank for the points cost. However we need something to really pound those orks and other monsters into the turf, and his little mortar doesn't quite say "stay out of my deployment zone.  This time taking outlines and measurements for replication was a bit more difficult, as he came from eBay already assembled. I resisted the urge to pull him apart like a wrathful god, and just went with it. Hours of measuring, cutting, glueing, and painting gave us this:

They were made in the same frenzy of building that brought the cloned LR tanks about, and so share some of the same aesthetic; boxy hulls, big, heavy-duty treads, and more stowage and other tanky bits out of the steadily-emptier bits box. In retrospect, the Chimera chassis is so widely used in the Imperial Guard forces I should've built eight or ten of them, but this level of scratchbuilding really takes it out of you. However, I did have the presence of mind to build in one feature the LR clones lacked:

These suckers are modular. The gun assembly slides right out of the tractor section, which grips it tightly without needing to resort to magnets. Now I can make Hydra turrets, Manticore missile racks, even more Chimera hulls if I need them.

I lacked the bits to build a bunch of intricate artillery workings, not to mention crewmen to man the guns, so I just used old paint pots for the breech workings and called it a day. They're hidden by the hull sections anyway, and not so ugly and half-assed looking that they hurt the eye. Honestly I made sure to pack on enough detail on the hull, so even though the guns themselves are rather underwhelming, the model as a whole looks pretty darn good. In fact when they were done, I was genuinely surprised at how well they came out.

In future I'll just look for an inexpensive Chimera hull bit so as to trace them more accurately, but I may just default to the sizing of these to keep things uniform looking. I do like the burlier, more aggressive feel they have over the standard Chim.  I'll definitely keep to the more modular "universal tractor" idea, just to give me room for more interesting builds. Lord knows there are enough Chimera-chassis tanks in the Guard codex. 


In other news, the majority of you have spoken, and the Tyracron will keep his Tau legs. I won't, as someone suggested, change the name to TyraNecroTauCronAnids, as the Tyracrons are supposed to be Void Dragon Necrons, anyway. I've been sketching up some monstrous creature ideas, and it looks like the Carnicron might get a set of EVA-style jaws...