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Need help sourcing alternatives for squat army


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Hi folks,

 

I have a crazy project planned for later this year that I need some help with. It's a squat army that's a bit different from the norm. I've always loved squats since the days of epic and was sad to see them go. As the chances if a return are unlikely, I wanted to make a counts as army. As these chaps are supposed to be warriors, I figured either orks, guard or marines would best represent them. Guard fit well, but they don't have a lot of the elements I would like such as the ability to represent tunnellers and different classes of flyer with a hover mode. Also, the thought of converting massed legions of them is daunting. Tempestus scions were a decent option though, as I think the taurox and carapace armour fit them well. Orks just didn't seem to work as they are just too poor at shooting and again too numerous.

 

Eventually I decided iron hands would be a decent fit. Drop pods as tunnellers, iwnd and fnp plus atsknf to represent their stubborn nature. High strength and toughness fit well, and the ws and bs can be explained by this force being the elite guard of the warlord, as can the improved armour. The high initiative is the only thing I wasn't happy with, but it seems a decent trade off. Below is what I've decided upon for a 2000 point army, in the format of codex entry, unit it represents, how I'd model it.

 

Captain, warlord, dwarf irondrake with banner

Librarian, ancestor lord, irondrake with banner

Command squad, hearth guard, irondrakes with various

Vanguard veterans, berserkers, irondrakes with hammers, axes and shields

Dreadnought, robot, castellax

Terminators, exo armour squats, ?????

Tactical marines, warriors irondrakes

Drop pods, termites, 3rd party company

2x storm talon, gyrocopters, ?????

Bikes squad, guild bikes and trikes, ?????

Storm raven, overlord airship, ?????

Devastatiors, thunderers, irondrakes using cannons

Thunder fire, thudd gun, fw quad mortar

 

So that's the plan and on the surface it seems decent. The irondrake kit should provide most of what I need with some conversion work with spare bolters. The real issues :

Exo armour, for which I will have the weapons but need the main body

Bikes and trikes

Gyrocopters - anyone know of any toys that fit the bill?

Overlord - again, any toys or models that would be a good base conversion?

 

I'm very much open to suggestions on how to bring this all together. I would hope to buy all the parts and start on the project at the same time rather than piecemeal, again hopefully towards the end of the year. I think it will be a nice modern revamp of squats with better armour but just need to address these last elements before I can plan properly. All help and feedback much appreciated. Cheers.

It's an interesting idea, I think C:SM IH could well work although I'd be inclined to stick to Scouts for my basic warriors as you still get higher than average T and FNP, but don't have to explain the higher WS/BS. Plus Carapace armour is probably more appropriate for your basic Squat trooper, and that way Power armour could be saved for your veteran units which again feels more fluffy?

Check out Hasslefree's Grymn range. They have a variety of models, normal troopers, specialist weapons, power armor and walkers. Really nice models too.

 

The only thing they don't have is a flyer. Since GW introduced fliers into 40k there are some aftermarket alternatives now though that might fit the look of the Grymn (From the top of my head: Link 1, Link 2, Link3, Dust might have some interesting models as well).

thanks for the replies chaps.

 

@SCL scouts would be ideal I agree, but the problem is I wouldn't be able to use drop pods (termites) as dedicated transports for them. I suppose there is an argument for having just the heavier armoured elites use drop pods and have lighter armour warriors just deploy as per scouts.

 

@durus thanks for the links. not quite convinced about the grymmaa they're a bit too sci fi compared to the more rugged look of the wfb models. the puppetswar dragobfly is perfect though, thanks very much. just need some ideas for the ovwrlord, exo armour and bikes now.

Add an axial battle cannon to a storm Talon, lower the tail plane to a standard tail rather than a Y tail and add a much bigger wing - and you have your Iron Eagle.

 

Use Long Beards / Hammerers armoured bodies with Ironbreaker heads, with PA shoulder pads and wrist mounted weapons from the sanguinary guard or GK for the exo-armoured models.

 

Bikes - I'd use Dwarf artillery crew bodies on scout bikes with extended front forks a la Fat Ble's Whit Scars marines...

Hemal, thanks for the input. Amy links to fat ble bikers? I checked out the long beards and hey look to be less armoured than the irondrakes so I might use them the other way around. A storm talon conversion would be a good backup if all else fails but I'd have to try and convert round fan engines and keep the same armament that the talon has for rules purposes.

 

Thanks to everyone for your help btw, i hope it all comes together.

Hemal, thanks for the input. Amy links to fat ble bikers? I checked out the long beards and hey look to be less armoured than the irondrakes so I might use them the other way around. A storm talon conversion would be a good backup if all else fails but I'd have to try and convert round fan engines and keep the same armament that the talon has for rules purposes.

 

Thanks to everyone for your help btw, i hope it all comes together.

 

I woudl suggest that the best source of round engines are little ducted air cooling fans or maybe turbines from an appropriately scaled jet fighter kit

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Freewing-64MM-Ducted-FAN-Electric-RC-Airplane-JET-EDF-/400521754892?pt=UK_ToysGames_RadioControlled_JN&hash=item5d40f4f90c

 

And as for the choppers - we have in house experts at this..

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/280334-some-bits-and-pieces-from-my-da-army/

  • 2 weeks later...

I'm starting one too using the new dwarfs

check out Spiky Rat Pack blog

he used the sm scout arms and it's quite working

 

if you are interested, I can MP you my idea cause I was under the impression that the bearded guys were out of topic here



and there too

http://spacedwarfsonline.freeforums.org/

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