OK, so with the flurry of activity these last few months to get my Tyranid Army up to snuff for the Locara Tournement.. I had this brainstorm. And it was based upon the ease in which I repainted my entire Crimson Fists army, which was an all-RTB01 style army, into Pre heresy Night Lords. I never thought it would be so fast and easy to do, and so I now have the opportunity to do the same with another of my armies, the Squats.
First off, my Squats were built in '03 when I was still a GW staff member. I had wanted to make a non power armor army that wasn't imperial, and I had just finished painting the Gamesday Cadians for the store. I had some Tyranid bits left over from HiveFleet Tankbrushicus, my first Nid army, and some left over Cadians that Nick graciously let me hang on to. So my original thought was going to make a Genestealer Cult army, and use the then-new Lost and the Damned army list, I was pretty excited.
I went into the store early with my bits, and went to cut the flash from my bits, when Adam Minivan asks what I am doing, I tell him, and he tosses me dwarf bits and says, as a joke, that I should do Squats instead, since I had just acquired an Epic Squat army from someone. Everyone laughs at this point, so I just assemble a guy, to go along with the joke.. and he looked awesome! Many bits orders later, and hundreds of hours, and my Squat 40k army was born. I then played the army to death, taking it to staff GT's and regular GT's, where I won best presentation twice. Problem was, I had painted it to match my Epic army, which was catachan green and desert yellow. I have always regretted not painting them in one of the original Stronghold Colors.
Now I can, knowing that it isnt that bad really, having redone my Night Lords. In my research of the various color schemes, I hit upon a fan conversion of the 2nd ed Squat army list, which was in the old 40k Compendium that was done in 3rd ed style, and lo and behold, I see rhinos. In the list, and in some original artwork.. I had never owned the old list, so had no idea they used rhinos. Not only that, it lists that Squats only used artillery and super heavies, no tanks. This puts kind of a damper on my 2 leman russes doesnt it?
So , If I am going to be repainting them anyways, why not reorganize and rebuild to make them good and proper! My existing 2 Chimeras I will turn into Thunderfires (no not the marine weapon, Squat Thunderfires in epic were the anti aircraft units, and predate SM thunderfires by 15 years) by ordering from forgeworld the Thudd Gun emplacement, and putting it on the back, to make hydras. My existing 2 leman russes I will turn into Medusas. Less armor, but giant guns is pretty Squattish, and they are artillery, so it fits better.
For Chimeras, I will use rhinos. Old Rhinos to boot, since to space dwarves, something that is 700 years old is "newfangled" I will cover the side doors in plasticard, and make a large squat symbol in plasticard, make a rear ramp, to fit in with the chimera stats of rear doors, and either bits order multilasers, or make Graviton gun 'counts-as' multilasers for where the stormbolters usually sit. the front of the rhinos will be beefed up with plasticard and rivetting, plus hull mounted weapon.
My basilisk right now will need to donate its gun breach to the second medusa, but I will find parts and make it into a Colossus eventually. Especially since it is the largest mortar in the imperium, and is named after an Epic Squat vehicle, a variant of the Leviathan mobile command centre.
Vendetta.. Well, I have ordered the FW Hades Breaching Drill, which if I can figure out a way to give it deployable twin linked lascannons, will be mounted on a large oval base and basically 'fly' by going underground and popping back up. if this doest work out, I might just use it as the command chimera, the one that digs the tunnel that all my other vehicles use to arrive to the battlefield.
Anyhoo, that is my grand plan, and I'd like to finish by May if possible, if not, by July for the Game Summit Tournament.
