The rifleman dreads (2x TL autocannons) are one of the simplest, and most point efficient, ways to bring long range supression and anti-transport fire to the tabletop. The lascannon/missile launcher variety is certainly better for cracking tough armor, but it is more expensive and puts out far less shots.
The following is an extremely cost effective solution to bringing riflemen to the table. You can often find packs of three autcannons from $3-$7 if you shop around. So for 3 dreads (think 12 twin-linked S7 AP4 shots per round), $20-$25 + shipping is all it's probably going to cost you. Not bad considering the Forgeworld autocannon arms cost around $11 each.
Per dreadnought you will need:
- 4 IG autocannons with ammo canisters (the ones that are hollow on the inside)
- a hobby knife
- a file
- super glue
- plastic snips
- plasticard
- greenstuff
Step One
The first step is to make some inital cuts. Using a hobby knife or snips, cut at the red lines indicated below.
Step Two
One you have cut, use the file to flatten out the trimmed area. The mounting is not flat, so it will take a little care to make it square.
Step Three
Once both gun mounts are flat, glue them together. Then glue one ammo cannister to one of the autocannons - the one you want on the outside of the dreadnought. Remember that for each set of arms, you will want canisters mounted on opposite sides. This will probably not make a difference given how they are constructed, but you might want to take care to leave the best side on the outside. At this point your guns should look like this.
Step Four
Here is the tricky part. As you can see, because of the way we glued the guns, you have one ammo feed on the outside and one on the inside of the arm. What you need to do now is carefully use your hobby knife to cut the inside aiming ammo feed off. It should be the one you haven't glued a canister to yet. Also cut off the handle to the crank on the gun. Then turn around the ammo feed bit you cut off and attach cannister to it. Now your arms should have the ammo cannisters both on the same side and look like this:
Now, you have some decisions to make. The arms won't fit exactly as they are, so you have options.
A) You can add magnets to the inside so that the arms are easily switchable.
B) You can use plasticard to cut out a circle to fit the posts on the body. This is a bit more laborious and requires taking off a little at a time to ensure a good fit. If not fit correctly, they'll sag noticeably.
Finally, I don't like exposing the space that the backs of the guns show, so I used plasticard and greenstuff to fill in the gaps and cover it up yielding a final-ish product that looks like this:
With a little care and a trip to your bitz box, you may be able to find something to make the outside of the weapon look suitably menacing. Either way, once you're done, you can file down the greenstuff to make a nice eaven covering and voila! You have TL autocannon arms. The approximate time required to make each set of arms is 30 minutes, give or take.
In the end, you will have a guy that looks something similar to this:
If you enjoyed this, don't leave a comment here. Go over to Dave's post and leave comments there. He deserves the accolades for his ingenuity.
