I've decided to start a blog for my humble conversions of warhammer 40K vehicles that I've made over the years.  When fishing for ideas on google, I would often end up on richly detailed blogs with pictures of in-progress work ; a wonderful source of inspiration. Making a small blog of my own,  I can give back to the community and hopefully give out some ideas to other guys looking for ideas themselves...

Most of my vehicle modifications endeavours arose of the wish to modify G-W`s base kits. 1- to have something different and 2- To improve on all those mass-produced cost-effective plastic models... The basic Leman Russ particularly, I din't like.

  The oldest wish for my own conversions come form my days playing Necromunda. One of the books, me and my brother bought, "Battle in the underhive" had a wonderfull arbites 6-weeled vehicle based on an imperial Chimera complete with dozer blade (to bulldoze people!) and grilled driver viewing port. I did eventually make my own altough it was a bit different.

I'll start by showing one of my "Bradly" Chimera. I'v always liked the look of the real world American M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle Badley images. I've made 2 of these for my renegade Imperial guard. I've used the older kits that include a sprue with tank accessories like the track guards I used as side armor. I managed to use almost exclusively stuff from the kit, not going much in my bits bin... Like most convertors, I use lots and lots of styrene plasticard,  mostly the evergreen brand http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/ and of course, I use green stuff a lot!!

I've omited the outer-most side armour plate so that the wheels and tracks are clearly visible and made the track not loop up all the way "WW1 style".

I've always hated that mostly all G.W. Imperial tanks have that side armor skirt that goes down almost to the ground. I know it`s for that "WW1" look again, but not only does it hide the wheels and tracks, the tanks most distinctive feature, but also, I can't imagine a tank with a suspension system with barely 2-3 inches of travel doing any kind of off-roading...  Sadly with the newest Chimera plastic kits, I couldn't do that conversion anymore because the tracks now glue directly to the side units and no wheels are included in the kit.

I've lots of stowage on the exterior as to represent my tank crews placing all their gear on the outside. The tank accessory sprue is perfect for this.  Like the Bradley, it has an Autocanon and missile system on an off-center turret. The chimera is ideal for this conversion. The stowage on the turret comes from a Leman Russ. I think it would look great even on an almost-stock chimera.

 I've used the inside of the back door as the engine grill. I sanded the bottom of a cupola for the driver`s hatch. That way I could place it real flush on the right side of hull That I think gives a more credible and modern look to the chimera. I've always loved slightly asymmetric designs like the bradley and indeed the chimera

Part of one of the side arrmor (containing the engine exhaust).

Again, stowage near the back door like the Bradley.

With the door opened... I used steel wire and drilled holes in plastic to allow the door to open and close... I like to add interior detail when I can. There's not much inside though ; just some side benches.








So there you have. It`s one of my chimeras. I hope you like it. It`s not a hard conversion to make  (if you have an older style chimera kit)

I will shortly add more pictures of other vehicles from my renegade Imperial guard.. I also have in-progress work of some vehicles for Necromunda Ash Wastes. This will give a more interesting look with the unpainted green stuff and plasticard.