Tallarn Desert Raiders Flamer Conversions WIP

 I love my Tallarn Desert Raiders Imperial Guard Army. I will never sell it.

BUT, when GW made these guys, they decided to NOT include flamers or heavy flamers as part of the weapon loadouts.

After many ebay purchases, I have obtained quite a number of Tallarn Desert Raiders. The main box came with a Melta guy, so I have plenty of those. I also have only 2 Plasma guns, a single Grenade Launcher, and assorted heavy weapons.

BUT no flamers! Thus with all my spare time with COVID, I decided to change this with a little ingenuity. I shall explain my process below the pics. I present; 3 flamers & a heavy flamer WIP. I was encouraged by original Ogryn Conversions (here and here but they've since been rebased) and am getting more comfortable with green stuff in general.

Process Regular Flamers:

1. Purchased several flamers + 1 heavy flamer Imperial Guard bitz, including Gas Tank backpacks from ebay (pretty cheap).
2. Took 3 existing melta guns that I had purchased (the red paint job is old), and sawed off the Melta bit.
3. Also had to grind their backs a little bit to remove the head covering ends etc. to make way for the gas tank(s). Not too much is needed if you're cool with a "slouched" diagonal look to the gas tanks.
4. Took 2 flamer gas tanks, and cut them in half, carving them down so that they looked like a single tank backpack. This is to help differentiate the heavy flamer from the regular flamers on the tabletop from a distance.
5. Cut off the flamer "flame" bits from the original flamer arms and glued them onto the end of the cut down melta guns. Now the melta guns looks like flamers
6. Took 1.5mm jeweler's wire which is very flexible, and cut it down to the right length
7. Drilled shallow, roughly 1.5mm holes in the end of the gas tank as well as the bottom of the melta gun. I found the part where the other piping goes in looks logical.
8. Glued the wire into the gas tank and the melta gun
9. Hey Presto! Instant Tallarn Flamer dude

Process Heavy Flamer:

1. This guy was neat because he's actually an older missile launcher guy who was missing his missile launcher arm. I had nothing for him to do...
2. Had to grind down his shoulder a little bit and bend his holding arm, but eventually got it to a good place where it looks like he's holding the Heavy Flamer with both hands. But it's a great look
3. Grind his back a bit to accommodate the flamer tanks.
4. Glue the double gas tanks onto his back. I keep the double tanks since he's "heavy" so will need more gas, and at a distance I'll be able to easy tell he's the heavy. I'm not a HUGE fan of the heavy flamer weapon model, but that's ok. I think it would look better if it were more horizontal instead of vertical.
5. The piping almost fit, but needed a bit of hot bending, and I broke it a bit so will have to fill in with Green Stuff eventually
6. Also, since he's supposed to be holding a missile launcher against his head, I'll need to Green Stuff the side of his head to fill it out a bit. Otherwise it looks a bit flat.
7. Hey Presto! Instant Heavy Tallern Heavy Flamer dude.

Even if I don't use them in 40k which I don't really play, I could play One Page Rules Sci Fi or Kill Team.  These guys will be a great addition. I'll update once I've got the Green Stuff in place, and might have undercoated 'em.

Vendetta, Ogryn Chimera, Tallarn Sentinel Done

Its about time, but I have FINALLY finished the Vendetta, the Ogryn Flamer Turret and the Tallarn Sentinel Scout. I'm really happy with all of them. The Vendetta took a LONG time to do, but the outcome is really good I think. Although I still have to dull coat everything (except the canopy), I figured I'd post since I can now start on the easier stuff for the Tallarn 110th Battlegroup. I didn't bother painting the other weapon loads just yet since I'm only going to use the Vendetta, but when I decide to use 'em I'll finish them off. The priority is to get everything ready in time for the tourney, and so I can start painting something else...

Probably the hardest part of the Vendetta was the camo scheme. I had to highlight and shade each panel by hand. Next time I'll do a spray job (when I get a spray set). Something cool to note, the canopy also has the camo scheme going up onto it. The base is a bit meh, but since it matches the rest of the army, I had to do it. When I start my Black Templar army, I'll start doing better bases.

Had to give 'em the fighter pilot's helmets even if this is an Apache/Blackhawk type attack transport. And I even named them Cougar and Merlin. Maverick and Goose was just lame (and their helmet's weren't as interesting). I have removed the magnetized twin linked lascannon so you can see the names better. You can also see the screws painted onto the turbine fans to show that they are turning, although now that I think about it, they should be a blur right now..... oops.

This shot gives you a good view of the underside. I felt like WW2 British fighters were the way to go, so underside=sky blue, topside=camo. Also get a good shot of the magnetized twin linked lascannons.

Next up is the Sentinel. Quite a nice Forge World model. So now I have 2 scouts, and 2 heavies. These guys will flank along with the Vendetta with the help of the Astropath..

The multilaser is magnetized, so can be pulled off and replaced with a lascannon if I so choose. For now, the multilaser stays..

Forge World did such a nice job of the detail on the driver, that I felt it was necessary to swing his door open so you could see him better. I have no idea why the door is open... Maybe he needed a better look, or perhaps it got blown open by mistake. Either it took some very careful exacto knife work to cut it out and glue it on properly.

And last up is my favourite conversion, the Ogryn Heavy Flamer turret. He came out GREAT, and he can even rotate, as well as be pulled off for easy returning of the chimera to a regular vehicle. I'm still debating whether to give him a hose leading from the gun down into the Chimera, or have some kind of tank next to him, but for now he'll do.

Next up will the rest of the Tallarn troopers to fill out the platoon of 30, the commissar, and the Astropath. After this lot, that should be easy...

Ogryn Mobile Turret

This guy isn't painted yet either, but I figured it was time to get it up and running. Some green stuff and super glue later, and here is the Tallarn Ogryn Chimera Turret.
I needed a way to show that this Chimera had my 5-6 Ogryns in it, so I thought it would look cool if the Chimera didn't have enough room for the turret mechanism so they took out the turret, piled some sandbags, and one of the Ogryns grabs the heavy flamer and uses it. Living turret! And I wanted to make a "turret" that was removable so that if this Chimera was not going to be carrying Ogyrns, we can go back to the original turret.

Anyway here he is. He's even older than the OOP Ogryns I use as my troopers. I think he's first generation! But I got him from a gaming buddy, and his goggles really work with the open top desert look. I was really close to giving him an Afrika Korps style cap, but decided the face material would be enough. The arms and hand of course had to be cut and re-glued so that they were facing the right way. Might also add in a flame thrower hose and tanks after he's properly painted. Also have to remove the heavy flamer tab that was from the Sentinal sprue that the flamer came from. The Chimera body is from the only Chimera I've fully painted so far so I wanted to show it in its glory (pre-painted)