NEW Heavy Mortar Design - 01-17-2010

Guten Tagge! I know the my initial Post indicated that the next Post would include more "painted" Veteran Squads & my Command Squad, but I had to put them on a short hiatius. They will be coming very soon!

There are two reasons for this delay. One: I have found an even less expensive (and more swiftly mass-produced) way to construct Imperial Heavy Mortars using gun carriages that look even more realistic (in my opinion) than the (nearly) all-wood design I've already produced (see photo in the previous Post). Two: Borrowing heavily from a very well-thought-out and detailed "infantry-towed light anti-tank gun carriage" idea from another member of the Imperial Guard Message Board ("Dreadpirate" to be precise), I decided to try my hand at making some of my own Autocannon Heavy Weapon Teams using scratchbuilt/converted gun carriages intended to make the weapons appear as reasonable facsimiles of German WWII Pak 37 (37 mm) or Pak 38 (50 mm) Light Anti-Tank Guns.

Here is a photo of the actual Forge World Imperial Heavy Mortar:And now, here's MY new design (to replace the wooden one):

I think it's pretty close to the original in overall appearance (certainly close enough for gaming purposes, anyway...). Once it's painted, I think it will look much better than my previous "wooden" design...it's certainly less difficult to build than that one was. It is also much less expensive. Using a single piece of PVC piping, two wooden dowels, two plastic toys (a cannon and a mortar) ten pennies (weights, placed inside the barrel of the toy mortar to balance the gun) and a little bit of Green Stuff, I can build my own Imperial Heavy Mortars for only about two bucks a model!

I'm going to build three batteries of three Heavy Mortars each (they're "Elites" choices for a Death Korps of Krieg Imperial Guard Army), which will end up running me less than twenty bucks! Granted, we're not talking anywhere NEAR the level of detail you'd find in ANY Forge World model...that's obvious. But if Forge World would charge you $180.00 for nine (albeit highly-detailed) Heavy Mortars, when you could put the same volume of artillery fire on the tabletop (using less-detailed models) for only $18.00 - a TENTH of the Forge World price - then I ask you...what would YOU do?

Next up: Heavy Weapon Team Gun Carriages!

- Colonel Hessler