Imperial Armour: Chimera Project v2 001

A couple months ago I posted about using one Chimera hull for many different vehicles. Courtney Hollyoake, who runs the Cadian127th blog, asked me about it and I decided to repeat the conversion and document it.

I started by assembling the main hull of the Chimera. Using a chisel blade, I scraped off the guide lines and drive hub that are exposed.

Next I got all the bits for the crew compartment ready. The compartment hull is made from .030 sheet styrene. The deck plate is a piece of double diamond plate sheet styrene from I don't remember what company. I know I got it on clearance at Hobby Lobby about 4 years back...

The deck is 50mm x 56mm, the diamond plate 48mm x 55mm. The sides are each 28mm x 55mm, and the front of the compartment is 14mm x 50mm. The slot for the Autocannon was cut before the compartment was assembled.

Detailing the compartment I used bits from the Razorback and Rhino kits, as well as from the Imperial vehicle accessory sprue. Floral wire bent to shape provided power lines and grab handles. The comm pack is from Mad Robot Miniatures. A lasccarbine hangs next to left of the Autocannon gunner, Each crewman has a couple frag grenades as well. In the dead space under the Autocannon I placed a toolbox. On top is a copy of the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer and another lascarbine. The Autocannon mount is 1/8" styrene rod.

Even with a few vehicle accessory sprues I didn't have a turret ring. I used an extra Rhino hatch and modified it so the Heavy Stubber fit.

Here's the finished scout tank. The crew and Autocannon are all loose to facilitate painting the model easier.

Mr. Hollyoake also informed me that FW no longer produces the Salamander, so I hope this helps anyone who wants this tank in their army.

Cheers,

CJ

UPDATE: I forgot to include where I got the idea for this build: Black Gobbo. Remember that?

Throwback Thursday: The Chimera Project

Once upon a time I had a couple of Basilisks come to me and their Earthshakers stripped for terrain purposes. They were both in a state of disrepair and I sought to use the empty hulls as a basis for a modular Chimera. So I cleaned the hulls up and set to work.

Please forgive me the image quality, these are nine years old.

Firstly I build up a standard transport variant. It turned out alright, especially seen next to the standard kit.

Just the module that fit the hull.

Next I built up a Salamander Scout variant. Every one of those deck details is a bit of screen cut up and individually placed. The crew was pinned into place after being painted.

The modified hulls. I ended up making a Trojan variant as well, but will leave that for another post.

I've been going through my photobucket and I have a few things that will make for good throwback articles. Sucks though its mostly models I lost in the churn. C'est la vie, eh?

Cheers,

CJ