Infernal Hellhound (Custom Superheavy)

[Valdore]

Well, it's been a while since I've done anything warhammer wise, life's been a bit of a pain. However, what better way of easing back into things than by converting a custom superheavy to bring myself up to six of them! I shall be carrying on with the fortress at some point soon, now that the weather has picked up again I have no reason not to paint it!

But first, the superheavy. It is based on the stormlord hull, open at the back, though not for troops. It will have either four sponsons or extra armour, no option of two sponsons. Sponsons will be armed with heavy flamers or some oher flame variant only, no lascannons on them. Not certain about a hull mount yet, but probably more flame and the main weapon will be a flame cannon, probably along the lines of the titan one, and I'm looking at butchering a titan arm for the actual weapon.

This is a tank that has been designed with close quarters urban combat in mind, it isn't a multipurpose tank, although the ferocity of it's main weapon often leaves tank crews burnt to a crisp inside their vehicles. It's main purpose is burning out infantry pockets. The main weapon clears the route ahead, whilst the side sponsons burn out any resistance to the sides.

It is based on the stormlord pattern to provide room for the main fueltanks, early variants used an enclosed compartment, but found they were lacking enough fuel for prolonged engagements, to combat this, they looked to the hellhounds for inspiration. Thus was born the infernal hellhounds as they are affectionately known. There is also a built in system to combine the fuel from all the onboard weapons into one source for the main weapon. It means the other weapons can't be used for a short while after, but the increased fuel isn't all consumed in the projected flame, leaving enough on the ground for it to burn for some time afterwards, causing a major hazard to troops. The weapon itself becomes more potent due to this extra unburnt fuel, it coats infantry and tanks alike, which then burnfor a time afterwards, making it more deadly.

With such a huge fuel tank on the back, however, it is very vulnerable, counting as open-topped. Furthermore, due to the fuel itself, it is extremely volatile. So if it should blow up, then it rolls at +2 on the catastrophic damage table.

As for construction, as mentioned, it will be based on the stormlord chassis, the main gun will likely be converted from a warhound flame arm, if it is a good size fit. I'm looking at the land raider Prometheus upgrade sprue for the sponson weapons, to give them a beefier feel, and one of the FW fuel/water tank scenery pieces for the main fuel tank. If there is extra room in the back, then spare hellhounds tanks will fill it, and spare tanks from the back of the superheavy tracks will be attached to the sponsons.

So far, I have got one track section constructed, and am working inthe armour panels so that they are interchangeable with sponsons. And they're working pretty well so far.


Pretty much a carbon copy of my latest blog post, I'll be tracking this one on this topic and on the blog though.

[person person]

Nice, I think the FW fuel tank is a great idea for the fuel tank, of course, if there's room.

Good Luck!

[Valdore]

If need be, I'll make room for it

[Valdore]

Ok, I've now finished both track sections:

[Photos are hyperlink thumbnails, click to see the full image]

[URL=http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d139/JCspeedy/Warhammer%2040k%20Apocalypse/Infernal%20Hellhound/?action=view&current=Tracks.jpg][/URL]

And since these photos, have down the lower chassis. I've also dry-fitted various parts of the stormlords weapon cowling, seeing what I might use for the flame cannon. It actually looks like I may go with the whole cowling, rather than just a part of it, though I need to check again with the forgeworld piece. On top of that, I need to check the fit of the fuel tank for the back, hence I'm waiting before gluing any of the top in place. Don't want to glue it in and then have to modify it . . . I've done that far too many times before!

There is also another little feature of this superheavy, and I wish I'd figured it out sooner. I've finally gotten around to figuring out an easy way of making exchangeable sponsons and armour plates. The trick is to take the side piece of the armour, and get rid of those useful lugs that normally line it up. You don't really need them anyway! A pair of snips will do the job fine, but it might help to file it down afterwards, personally I didn't bother. Next you place the top piece in place, apply minimal glue to the top of the side section, where the two would touch (dry-fit it first, just so you know what the hell I'm on about!) then carefully slide it into position, making sure to line the two edges up as neatly as you can. Now, you have to be a bit quick here, as some glue will inevitably leak out and start to fuse it to the tracks, so after a short while, maybe a minute or two, prise it off gently, trying not to weaken the bond between the two pieces. Then rest it on a right-angle object, side of a desk works well, to keep the angle good. After a while, you can put it back on the track section without much fear of it sticking there! The joy is that as the vehicle is normally upright during play, the top lug is enough to keep the armour in place, no magnets necessary!

If you wanted to take it a bit further, you could also model battle damage underneath the armour plates, so that should the vehicle be destroyed, and you turn it upside down to represent a wreck, the armour plates can come off and lay about it, and you'll have some nice battle damage underneath to impress everyone! (Wonders about doing that himself!)

So, here is proof of it

[URL=http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d139/JCspeedy/Warhammer%2040k%20Apocalypse/Infernal%20Hellhound/?action=view&current=Tracks_2.jpg][/URL]

[Forge]

Hi Valdore, maybe using two of the plastic kinder eggs for the flamer fuel storage (not the chocolate, that would just be silly on a flamer ). I used one of the larger Kinder easter eggs for a scratchbuilt FW tank and it turned out well. I just added some styrene banding, rivets and bits box pieces, you'll need plastic cement on it though, superglue and PVA did nothing to hold it in place. Looking forward to the results.

[RocketRollRebel]

I love the fluff with this thing. Cant wait to see how it comes out.

[Valdore]

@Forge, Nice idea with the kinder eggs, I'll see what the fit of the FW tank is first, but I'll bear that in mind if I need it

@Rocket, Convincing fluff is half the battle with custom builds, make it convincing and people will be more likely to consider it's use in my experience

Unfortunately the bits didn't arrive yesterday, so it'll be tomorrow before I get a chance to work on it any more, if they've arrived by then

[Valdore]

Ok, so most of the bitz have arrived, unfortunately, it looks like my order somehow didn't actually include the titan arm . . . so that's going to have to wait until I have some more money in my account, which will be several weeks now, my apologies

However, the fuel tank piece has arrived, and I must say, I didn't realise quite how large a terrain piece it is, I'm almost tempted not to use it, and to use it as the full terrain piece, though thankfully, not quite enough! I can still make use of the base for another terrain piece. The model will need some gentle . . . coaxing, to fit the tank on, but I think I can make it look relatively good and clean. The backup pieces I bought were some of the moisture condensers, strangely Star Wars looking things The would also work for the tanks, having two side by side, but they just don't look right when offering them up, so they'll likely be appearing as terrain at some point. And the last two bitz bears no relevance to this project!

So, I shall shortly be having a go at making this fuel tank fit, and in the process, no doubt be butchering the back end of the tank. I'll get some pictures if I'm successful

[Blackadder]

Nice, I think the FW fuel tank is a great idea for the fuel tank, of course, if there's room.

Good Luck!

Great idea. I always thought the GW fuel tanks were a bit lame. It actually took me a few months to accept the FW aux fuel tanks; unexploded bombs as it were but rationalizing that they would be emptied first and jettisoned before battle made them a viable adjunct to the superheavy's detail. I am looking forward to some fresh ideas on this thread.

Edmund Blackadder

Re-reading the fuel tank post I made my fuel tanks out of 1.0"/2.54 cm PVC tubing and added straps and the top from a 'Bic' pen for the filler port on my Armorcast Baneblade rebuild.

[url=http://j.imagehost.org/view/0601/ACBaneblade3][/url]

It might be well to consider scratch building basic components to save money and waiting time on future projects.

Or not,

Shut up Blackadder

[Valdore]

lol, you're speaking to someone who scratchbuilt a titan last year, before accidentally crushing it with a heavy bag, I would have loved to scratchbuild stuff for it, but when there are such good alternatives out there, and I have a bit of money to spare, why not splash out and make something that looks (hopefully) stunning

Oh, and I wasn't talking about the auxiliary fuel tanks, I was talking about this thing:

[url]http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Warhammer_40,000_Terrain/IMPERIAL-WATER-FUEL-TANK.html[/url]




The way I envisage it is similar to the FW pattern hellhounds, though on a superheavy size and with a slightly bigger gun