Mammoth 15mm conversion draws closer to completion!

My T-Rex is slowly getting bigger! Yes, the awesome, fearsome Mech I've been converting for my Gruntz and Tomorrow's War armies is growing up. The problem I had with the arms being waaaayy too small (thus giving this predator the T-Rex look!) has gone away. Thanks in no small part to my friend Chris Foster and his extensive collection of everything Warhammer 40K, I was able to secure some Space Marine Dreadnought arms to give this Mammoth a new outlook on life.

First the old arms laying side by side with the new arms:

You can see how the arm on the left has a slightly modified gatling cannon on it. Chris had slapped on a gun from an old Mechwarrior Clix model onto it, and I thought it looked like what I wanted, so I kept it.

After a few changes to the missile arm, adding some plasticard and a washer to distance the arm from the shoulders, here is how things are looking so far:

A closer version of the missiles. I shaved the tops and backs off these guys, gluing them together, and I pinned them into the arm after cutting off the Close Combat claw. A bit of plasticard rod sloppily covered in putty completes the top:

So of COURSE I had to see how it all fits together!

The dorsal mount is off a Reaper CAV model, the Mastodon.

The arms aren't so puny any more, are they?!

The chin gun, not shown here, is from this Nightshade's dorsal gun:

I am not 100% what to do with the hollowed out scoops on the left and right side of the Mammoth's cockpit. Originally those were for mini-gatlings so anti-personnel defense, but I think I will fill them in and make them look like sensors or some such.

Adventures in 15mm conversions

I posted my journey into 15mm Sci-Fi as a preface for this post.

I used to play Heavy Gear before it changed scales (and I really enjoyed it, which is more than I can say of the new Blitz rules). And with 15mm becoming my new thing, I decided my forces needed a good sized mech of some type, and so I found my old Mammoth strider model.

It is SUPPOSED to look like this...

Sadly, I lost the weapons, but hey, I had the bulk of the beast!  So I started shopping on Reaper Mini's website in the CAV section, and I was quite proud of myself for some of my finds. Let me show you what I found:

Missile arms from the Specter:

Gatling arms from the Rhino:

The astute among you might notice that the shoulders are even similar, so yea, I was quite excited for these to arrive. There is nothing like waiting...

...and finding out the parts you ordered won't really work :(  From this angle, the Gatling arm doesnt look too bad:

But from this angle, well, this just aint right:

Even from the front, it just doesnt balance well:

Well, crap. There goes that. Sure, I can fore go the dweeby missile arm and just use both gatlings, but heck, every Mech needs a good Anti-Tank Missile, right?  I'm really bummed out, and need to start exploring more options. Man, I wish I could find those missing Mammoth arms right about now...