HW Team Gun Carriages - 01-17-2010

Kudos once again to "Dreadpirate", fellow member of the Imperial Guard Message Board, whose excellent, highly-detailed work on his Imperial Guard Army's Heavy Weapon Teams (using converted Heavy Weapon carriages for their Autocannons) has inspired me to try my hand at building my own version.
Here are some pictures of the original Forge World Death Korps of Krieg Autocannon Heavy Weapons Teams, interspaced with pictures of my OWN version mounted on a gun carriage (for comparison):

Now, mine are still unpainted (and, OBVIOUSLY) nowhere NEAR as finely detailed as the ones "Dreadpirate" has built - the frames that my gun carriages use are made from toy cannons. However, I do think they convey pretty much the same general "look" (I wanted mine to resemble (roughly) German WWII Pak 37 (37 mm) or Pak 38 (50 mm) Anti-Tank Guns, since those appearance and style of those weapons fit the "German" theme of my Death Korps of Krieg army so well). Because of the way I am constructing and painting them (I'm keeping the Heavy Weapon barrel pieces SEPARATE from the carriages; i.e., I'm NOT gluing them to the carriage frame), they will have one very significant advantage over other similar models seen in other Imperial Guard armies. THESE Heavy Weapon Teams will have INTERCHANGEABLE WEAPON MOUNTS.

If I expect to need be able to pop Rhinos, Trukks and lots of other lightly-armored transport vehicles during a particular game, I'll mount Autocannons on them.

If I expect to face lots of heavy tanks or Monstrous Creatures, I'll switch them out with Lascannons.

If I'm facing a (mostly) horde army with lots of (fairly) lightly-armored troops, then the Missile Launchers (and, eventually, Heavy Bolters) come out to play.

If I'm going to be fighting in urban terrain or have limited line-of-sight (like in a Cities of Death game, for example), I'll switch to Mortars.

In effect, this will give EACH of the Heavy Weapons Teams in my army access to ALL FIVE different types of Heavy Weapons, as dictated by the tactical situation in a given game. This way, I don't have to build FIVE DIFFERENT SETS of Heavy Weapons Teams with FIVE DIFFERENT WEAPONS glued to each of them, in order to achieve the same level of firepower and tactical flexibility - and it will cost me a HELL of a lot less!

"What's that? You're using a 'Nidzilla army? OK, hold on a second..." (grabs the Army List, jots town a couple changes, switches out all of the Autocannons for Lascannons) "OK, bring it on...let's see your Carnifex Broods shrug off EIGHTEEN Lascannon shots! Can you say, BRING IT DOWN? I knew you could..."

"So you and your Orks wanna play Cities of Death, huh? Hmmm...LOTS of Ork Mobs...limited LOS...less Vehicles...lots of Cover Saves...low Armor Saves...yeah, no problem..." (switches out Autocannons for Mortars) "Yeah, you'll be sayin' 'WAAAAAAAGH!' in a minute, all right...as you run screaming for cover from about EIGHTEEN Mortar barrages!" (looks for the biggest Ork Mob his Company Commander can see) "Can you say, FIRE ON MY TARGET? Heh, Heh, Heh..."

Next up: Painted Pics of the Company Command Squad (Veterans with Plasmaguns in Carapace Armor, with a Medic and the Company Commander, Colonel Hessler himself)! Maybe I'll even be able to put up pics of his MP3-player-carrying Command Chimera (IF I can manage to get it painted as well by the next time I Post, that is)...

- Colonel Hessler