Easy and Quick Stalker Pattern Bolter Conversion

[IVIilitarus]

WYSIWYG enthusiasts were probably disappointed upon finding out that the Deathwatch Kill Team kit comes with 1 Stalker Pattern bolter per 5 marines. A little ridiculous considering that any number of the squad can take these weapons. The problem gets worse when you realise that the Stalker Patter Bolter is a special weapon with a fairly distinct design, so you can't really just represent it with a scoped bolter like those found in Sternguard Veteran kits, or by gluing the scopes from the tactical squad kit to a regular bolter. The key here is that Stalker Pattern Bolters are not only characterised by advanced optics/scopes, but they also have an integrated sound/light suppressor. Visually, they have a longer, tube-shaped barrel than standard boltguns.

 

This tutorial is a very simple conversion that lets you add the suppressor component to the end of a boltgun with minimal hassle. You can set the length you want and add it quickly without need for glue. It can also be adapted for other weapons like sniper rifles or lasguns.

 

This conversion is fairly simple. The most important ingredients are Evergreen 224 1/8" or 32mm styrene tubing and scopes or scoped boltguns. The rest should be readily available at your hobby workstation. The Evergreen 224 is readily found online or in train hobby stores.

 

All you need are the little separate scopes that come with the Tactical Squad kit and Evergreen 224 1/8"/32mm styrene tubing. And ruler, side cutter, toothpicks, pliers and a permanent marker. Oh and a pin vise with a 1.5mm and 2mm drill bit. You should have most of these lying around somewhere except for maybe the Evergreen 224 and the scopes. The scopes you get from the tactical squad kit or can buy from 3rd party sites like Anvil Industries.  If you have some kind of electric saw or cutter, then you can just skip the toothpick, side cutters and pliers and make things much simpler.

 

1. Measure out the length of barrel you want and mark the length on the tubing with the marker.

 

2. Shove your toothpick into the hole in the tube. Smack it with your cutters to get it a bit deeper if you want. The reason we do this is if you simply cut into the tube with sidecutters, you pinch the end you cut shut and have to re-open it and it'll be cracked and it'll look bad. The toothpick helps hold the shape.

 

3. Do not cut all the way through, but score a reasonably deep cut around the tubing with the toothpick inside it.

 

4. When it's deep enough, pull the toothpick out and snap it off with your pliers.

 

5. Sand as necessary.

 

6. Now use your drill and a hobby knife to widen the whole you've made.

 

7. When the hole is wide enough, you can simply shove it onto the muzzle of a bolter. It holds on its own. No glue or cutting the muzzle off necessary.

 

8. Stick the scope on top.

 

You can skip steps 2-4 if you have some kind of electric cutter or you're good with a knife.

 

Great things about this conversion:

 

1. It looks like the real thing basically.

 

2. You get to decide on the length of the barrel.

 

3. You can skip drilling your bolters because the tubing is hollow.

 

4. It's cheap and mostly uses things you already have lying around.

 

5. You can adapt it to other weapons as well. Convert your own long-las? Extend scout sniper barrels? Add suppressors to other weapons?

 

Cons about this conversion:

 

1. It's a pain in the ass to do it for 10 marines using the toothpick-pliers-sidecutter method (this is what I did). If you have a good sharp knife or a saw or cutter, you'll save yourself a lot of grief.

 

Results below:

 

http://i.imgur.com/kIxaejA.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/XhzNZV5.jpg

[Brother Sefiel]

Greetings

 

That's a creditable job, but I will continue to use bolters with scopes simply because:

 

all of my scoped bolters represent stalkers

 

and

 

the reason I started adding scopes to my bolters in the first place was to represent stalkers back when you could take individual Deathwatch members as squad upgrades.

[Major_Gilbear]

It's much easier if you put the plastic tube on a flat surface, "roll" it with the cutting edge of a knife blade, and then snap where it's scored.

 

Saves you the need for fancy tools and toothpick fandangles, and is *way* faster and easier. More accurate too, when you get your eye in.

 

Additionally, I would also suggest using some slivers of plasticard to detail the suppressor - not only does this make it look closer to the official ones, it's an easy thing to do that makes that conversion look better,