Hydra Conversion - with punisher cannons! (2)

Hi again, and welcome part two of my Hydra Flak Tank conversion guide.  The first part, which deals with the hull, can be found here. This time I'll do a walk through of how to build the turret.

This part involves a lot more in the way of building 3D shapes from scratch and is a little more challenging than the previous section, but it still shouldn't be difficult for anyone who can measure, draw and cut in a straight line!
You can view other SoS conversion guides here.

Begin by cutting out all the shapes which will form part of your 'box', in this case the main body of the turret.   this picture shows one completed turret and all the plain plasticard parts needed to create the basic shape.  The base of the turret is a 3.5cm by 3.5cm square with the corners cut off to form the desired shape.  The top is simply a 3cm by 3.5cm rectangle with the same pattern of corners cut off.  all the side panels are 1.5cm high.  In this case i tried to keep everything as multiples of 0.5cm if possible, but some of the diagonal cuts obviously ended up being more like 1.1cm or 1.6cm.

This actually takes longer than putting the thing together, but it is vital to take your time and measure accurately.  Even cutting 0.5mm too much or too little can have an adverse effect (i got a few wrong here, as you can see later)..  

Before beginning the construction i also cut myself a large number of 'tabs' from 0.1mm plasticard.  do this by cutting a large strip into lots of smaller strips and then folding them in half over the blade of a craft knife.  Each of my turrets used approximately 20 tabs.

These four photos show the construction process.  i took my time sticking each panel on one at a time, ensuring each was supported by tabs on all of its surfaces.  I highly recommend 'liquid poly' glue for this job as you need tiny amounts of glue to be placed very accurately.

Clearly, there are a few small gaps where the diagonal sections don't quite fit together.  If this happens its up to you what to do.  You can either re-cut the shape, fill it with putty, or leave it and let the paint do the cover up.  I'm lazy, i usually choose the last option :)

Now for some details.  Random parts from the new chimera kit or the old Imperial Guard Vehicle Upgrade Sprue are your best bet.  The radar dome is made from the back of a searchlight with the details cut away.  The large drum on the back is from the Forge World punisher cannon set.  Incidentally, because my punisher cannons have their own ammo mounted on the sides, i rationalise that this tank is full of water to cool the barrels. 

Now for the guns themselves.  After cleaning off the usual crappy resin flash and gunk all you need to do is stick the ammo hopper half of the predator heavy bolter to the side of the punisher cannon.  the small hatch on the top of the hopper is also from the chimera kit.  on the other side simply stick a small section of plasticard followed by a magnet to attach the gun to the turret.  (sorry the last pic is sideways, the pic uploader hates me!)

So there we are, four completed Hydra Flak Tanks.  I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, and all four cost me only just over £100.



Later this week I'll be discussing my 1750 point guard list for the upcoming tournament, and starting to build my second Vendetta, so stay tuned :)