Hydra Conversion - with punisher cannons! (1)

Hey everyone, after a crazy holiday period at work, i have finally had time to do some modelling and subsequent blogging.  Since Venerable and I are both heading to the X-Legion 1750 point tournament in February i have realised i need to seriously get on with the building of the remaining units i need for my army.  most obviously lacking were four Hydra Flak Tanks.  while i already had two, the hulls were shared with my two Manticores meaning i couldn't use both at the same time.   this had to be sorted.

the motivation for the way I've built my Hydras is partly financial (they only cost about £28 to build, including shipping) and partly because i love the forge world punisher cannons and just wanted to use some on a tank!

today I'm going to do a step by step guide on the construction of the hydra hulls.  this hull conversion is very simple and can actually be used for a variety of converted tanks including Manticores, variant Chimeras, and maybe even Deathstrikes. 

the first step is to build the chimera kit to this point.

 then take the top part of the hull and saw the triangular sections off.  it is very important that the cuts are as straight as possible and completely level.  stick these in their usual place on the hull.

now cut a section of thick plasticard to form the base of the roof. glue it down at the same time as gluing on the rear door.  don't use the inside part of the door, and make sure you cut or file the inside of the door flat before you glue it.

the next step is a little more fiddly.  the three vertical side parts of the roof section have now been added.  make sure the angles at the front are 45 degrees or the tank will look slightly odd.  the small sections of square tubing are there for strength.  while using tabs of very thin plasticard works for smaller builds (see the next part of this conversion guide), i find this technique useful for larger areas.

the sloping plate at the front of the roof has now been added.  this was made simply by gluing a piece of the chimera kit to a section of plasticard.  this is optional, as a piece of plsaticard would do fine.

the roof is slightly more complex.  start by cutting two sections of plasticard to fit.  one is simply plain white 1mm plasticard, the other is textured.  glue them together.

using a drill, make a small hole where you want the turret to swivel.  enlarge it to the same size as whatever magnet you are using using a craft knife.  to do this simply twist the knife in the hole until enough is scraped off.  you can see the magnet next to the hole.

on the underside of the roof, stick a small section of plasticard over the hole and glue the magnet in place.  the roof can now be glued on.

and that's it! obviously details like stowage and smoke launchers can be added to taste.

next week I'll go through the construction of the turret.   comments are, as always, most welcome.