Chaos Stunt BikeRs

One of the favourite elements of my new display board is a big unit of Chaos Bikes. They are in a variety of trick poses. But, even more interesting is that they MOVE! 

I literally built the new display board to feature these bikes. The turntable is made up from a lazy Susan, steel pie pan, and a little motor.

The bikes themselves are heavily converted and customized. There are two bikes doing wheelies. One is doing a stoppie. Another is a Greater Possessed on a bike. Another is sitting on the handlebars facing forward. One biker is sitting side-saddle. The unit champion is another Greater Possessed on bike and his head has LED lights and he is holding balloons.

My two favourites are the biker doing a handstand, and the biker riding backwards. The backwards rider was particularly interesting because he would have blocked the bike combi-bolter, so he’s holding a storm bolter in his hand instead.

When I field the unit, I also include the heavily-converted Motor tricycle. That one has the rock band and in-game acts as a bike with an Icon of Excess.

I equipped them all with astartes chainswords to maximize their volume of attacks. But, that occupies all their free hands. I was advised to equip the unit with 3 meltaguns (2 meltaguns and a Combi-melta). To model the meltaguns, I installed them on the front of the bikes between the combi-bolter and I think it looks pretty sharp!

Mobile Circus Tents: Converted Dreadclaw Drop Pods

If you don’t want to come to the circus, the CIRCUS WILL COME FOR YOU!!

I converted two “loyalist” drop pods into Dreadclaw Drop Pods. And the colour scheme thematically fits with my circus/clown-themed army: They are painted to resemble circus tents! Imagine units of murderous clowns streaming out of these drop pods when they descend into combat!

I was advised to get some Dreadclaw Drop Pods. They are handy for protecting relatively fragile Chaos Space Marine units or a Contemptor Dreadnought from early shooting. And then these pods can zip around the board getting objectives, flying over enemies effectively “bombing” them, or ramming into enemy models. 

There are several guides online for converting standard drop pods into Dreadclaws. I used this one.

I bought some second-hand drop pods, broke them apart, trimmed the “legs” as suggested, and then put them back together. I did have to adjust the trims a little, and even file off some detail so they would fit upside-down. 

I’m quite happy with the colour scheme. I decided I wanted to mimic the striped walls of a circus tent. I used a “poor man’s airbrush” technique: I blocked out the stripes using painting tape and used different colours of rattle-can spray paint. Spraying like this made for really crisp lines, and even colouring on these big, flat, surfaces.

As with most of my models, I wanted to add LEDs. Instead of wiring everything myself, I got a little lazy and bought small strings of LED Christmas lights from a dollar store. I have 5 lights coming out of the bottom, and as many as I could shove into the top. I used some clear kitchen caulking as a medium to unify the upper beam a bit. I meant to avoid soldering, but the battery case didn’t fit in the drop pod, so I cut it off and soldered in a smaller battery holder. 

Apparently, tournament rules are that the “doors” or “petals” of drop pods must remain in the closed position. I have glued 4 of the 5 doors closed. The 5th can open so I can replace the battery and flip the on/off switch.

And I liked the first one so much, I decided to build a second with the OPPOSITE colour pattern. The second has white legs instead.