Saturday, April 23, 2011

Hydra Conversion

I spent a while Friday afternoon building this, a Hydra Turret to use for my Imperial Guard.

I have been planning to build a couple Hydra turrets. I have been in the acquisition phase of the build, working to a mental plan. My original plan was to build a twin Gatling gun mount with the gunner in a basket between them. I didn't like any of the baskets I started on. None of them were going to look anything like any other Hydra conversions I had seen. So if the turret was going to be different, I decided to make it really different.
This is still a work in progress but is far enough along to show what it should look like in the end. I thought about It only having one gun and the WYSIWYG Nazis taking exception but it has more barrels so I figure they even out. I am thinking about adding a search radar dome, a tracking radar dish and some other bits. I am debating adding an ammo feed from the back of the column but then I will not be able to elevate and depress the gun. I have eyeballed one of the young master's Avatar toys that has a flexible plastic ammo feed but I can't bring myself to appropriate it for the greater good, yet. I have also been thinking about adding a hunter killer missile to the top of the gun but I need to check if the Hydra can take one. This is really a proof of concept model and I plan to make a tutorial when I build the second one.

Fluff wise I plan to call it a Field Expedient modification. The Catachans needed air defense and The Munitorium had none to issue. So in typical Catachan resourcefulness they took a normal Chimera, some sentinel controls, some borrowed electronics and added a cobbled together Gatling auto cannon. It might not be pretty but it works and that is what counts.

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