Manticore Conversion

[Valdore]

Ok, so this afternoon I was at a loss of what to do, didn't feel like painting, didn't feel like doing much at all really, so I fired up Google Sketchup and had a go at designing something I've been thinking on for a while, my chimera to manticore conversion. After taking a while to get the hull dimensions as close as I could, I played around with a few ideas, mostly based on the Russian 9P31 Strela-1, I was planning on going down the forgeworld style route, but just couldn't get a design to look right. Eventually I came up with something passable and started work building it. A few hours later and I have what I think is a passable manticore, still needs a little work, but hey.

I've used the four missiles from my 2 valkyrie kits, the launch rails are magnetised so the missiles just pull off for storage, transport, and ammo tracking. The actual missile rack pivots on magnets at the base of the pylon into a travelling position and a battle position. The rack also pulls of nicely for transport. The base is glued onto the chassis and needs some greenstuff to fill in gaps etc. I'm planning on trying a hydra as well at some point which will use the same base.

So, the pictures:

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d139/JCspeedy/Warhammer%2040k%20Imperial%20Guard/Stray%20Dogs%20Company/th_mant1.jpg (http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d139/JCspeedy/Warhammer%2040k%20Imperial%20Guard/Stray%20Dogs%20Company/?action=view&current=mant1.jpg)
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d139/JCspeedy/Warhammer%2040k%20Imperial%20Guard/Stray%20Dogs%20Company/th_mant2.jpg (http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d139/JCspeedy/Warhammer%2040k%20Imperial%20Guard/Stray%20Dogs%20Company/?action=view&current=mant2.jpg)
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d139/JCspeedy/Warhammer%2040k%20Imperial%20Guard/Stray%20Dogs%20Company/th_mant5.jpg (http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d139/JCspeedy/Warhammer%2040k%20Imperial%20Guard/Stray%20Dogs%20Company/?action=view&current=mant5.jpg)
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d139/JCspeedy/Warhammer%2040k%20Imperial%20Guard/Stray%20Dogs%20Company/th_mant6.jpg (http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d139/JCspeedy/Warhammer%2040k%20Imperial%20Guard/Stray%20Dogs%20Company/?action=view&current=mant6.jpg)

As always, C&C please!

[TSINI]

i like the simplicity, but just to pick a little hole in it, these are just hellstrikes, what you could do, perhaps, is model on some extra bits onto the missiles, maybe use mortars or missiles leftover from IG heavy weapon squads, make them look like clusterbomb missiles to beter fit the manticore rules


also, i didnt understand this bit on the end


I'm planning on trying a manticore as well at some point which will use the same base.


did you mean a hydra or something?

[Valdore]

i like the simplicity, but just to pick a little hole in it, these are just hellstrikes, what you could do, perhaps, is model on some extra bits onto the missiles, maybe use mortars or missiles leftover from IG heavy weapon squads, make them look like clusterbomb missiles to beter fit the manticore rules


also, i didnt understand this bit on the end


did you mean a hydra or something?

Ok, awesome idea at the start there, might think about that, though cluster bombs tend to hold the clusters internally, I could add some scorelines onto the missiles as if they were panels that would separate midflight releasing the clusters inside . . . I'll think on that :D

As to the last comment, thanks for pointing that out, I did indeed mean hydra. That's probably the glue getting to me :) About to edit it.

[TSINI]

hehe, yeah, i felt like that after spending the day building 2 valkyries... high as a kite

if not scorelines, maybe re-modelling the tip of the rocket, umm, off the top of my head im thinking simply slice off the front "bullet" point, and replace with 3 missile tips (BUT you'd need 12 of them, so thats pretty much a silly idea)

just trying to think of simple solutions

ah well, i'm sure it won't matter that much

very good choice on the manticore by the way, i'm looking into one myself, the destructive power it can fire puts the deathstrike to shame!

[person person]

Awesome, simple, yet effective.

[Valdore]

very good choice on the manticore by the way, i'm looking into one myself, the destructive power it can fire puts the deathstrike to shame!

well, one of the roles it's going to be fielded as is a monolith buster ;)

However, I was looking at the deathstrike the other day, and I think I misjudged it. Given that you role for the radius rather than the diameter, so it's minimum blast radius is going to be 4" making it 8" across, no cover, and vehicles always hit at Str 10. I'm going to have to proxy it at some point, but it'll be interesting to see if it could actually be useful. Just did the math on it, minimum blast of a deathstrike is 16 square inches, maximum is 36. However, one benefit of it is that you are a lot more likely to get multiple squads with it, as the manticore is an ordnance barrage and so follows the barrage rules for the 3 templates you can get.

Till then however, I agree with you, manticore all the way :D I plan on trying it out sometime in the next couple of days.

[TSINI]

well, one of the roles it's going to be fielded as is a monolith buster ;)

However, I was looking at the deathstrike the other day, and I think I misjudged it. Given that you role for the radius rather than the diameter, so it's minimum blast radius is going to be 4" making it 8" across, no cover, and vehicles always hit at Str 10. I'm going to have to proxy it at some point, but it'll be interesting to see if it could actually be useful. Just did the math on it, minimum blast of a deathstrike is 16 square inches, maximum is 36. However, one benefit of it is that you are a lot more likely to get multiple squads with it, as the manticore is an ordnance barrage and so follows the barrage rules for the 3 templates you can get.

Till then however, I agree with you, manticore all the way :D I plan on trying it out sometime in the next couple of days.

problem with the deathstrike is its unreliable, in the last apoc game i played, it didnt even get to fire the whole game.

compare that to the manticore, which can fire 4 times, and with 3 templates each time (which can't be that far off the deathstrike for size ,especially when you add all 4 shots together) and due to it being barrage, enemy models don't get cover save :D

[Valdore]

yup, hence why I'm going to use the manticore a lot more often than a deathstrike :p

[Hephesto]

Magnetizing it was sheer brilliance, no more pesky record keeping just use your eyes.

[Valdore]

;)

When I say magnetised, they're also only half-magnetised, the rails have three magnets underneath, I probably could have got away with the large one in the centre, however using another two small ones helps make sure they stay on and helps them line up when putting them on as well. On the missiles themselves, they just have two lengths of paperclip (those massive ones), at the junctions of the missile and fin. The magnets are strong enough that the metal is enough, it's a lot easier than trying to glue magnets in there and it doesn't detract from the missile itself either.

[Slann]

cool , looks pretty good .