Saturday, April 14, 2012

Old School 40k Landspeeder Squadron

Back in the olden days of Warhammer 40k, Games Workshop didn't produce many (if any) vehicles.

They published articles (like this one) to inspire you to create your own.

I know now that creating your own stuff has fallen out of favor with players of 40k (and with GW -- I wonder why?) but it hasn't fallen out of favor with me!

In a couple of weeks, my grandson Matt and I will be teaming up to play in a 40k battle against his dad!  I will be bringing my Land Raiders (one old and one new) to bear in that battle, but I wanted to try to bring a squad of Landspeeders.  

In the past, I've played with a speeder, but I've always used only one.  They are fairly fragile --

-- with armor of 10, so one doesn't last very long...
That's OU812...  I've had him for 20 years, believe it or not...

I would LOVE to be able to buy three of these...
They are sooooo cool!

... BUT I want to see how they play FIRST!

To that end, I went down to my local Dollar Store and I bought 3 travel sized sticks of deodorant and a bag of ballpoint pens.  Total $4.

I went to Hobby Lobby and I bought some small plastic champagne glasses.  24 for $3.

I dug in my cabinet for some plastic spoons -- I'll call that free.

I also busted out some electrical connectors that I used for rocket launchers on my drop pods (I made these out of foam core...) 

So, I drilled and painted and mounted them on the bases of the little cups.  I magnetized the rocket pods so I can take them off, if they get destroyed OR if I need to shave points (+40 each).

Here they are.  They aren't fantastic, but they are serviceable and I will get a chance to play with three 'speeders in a couple of weeks.
They actually look a bit better in person than in this photo...

6 comments:

Desert Scribe said...

I remember seeing that article! I never made one myself, but I remember a local game store selling 1:144 model jets for the purpose of sticking the wings and missiles onto an old deodorant container to make your own landspeeder.

Sean Robson said...

Your drop pods look really good, Jim!
I don't think that scratch building has fallen out of favour with players - lots of people I play with still love to do it, but GW certainly doesn't encourage it anymore. Remember when there were lots of 'how to' articles in White Dwarf? Nowadays, their so-called hobby articles are all about how to assemble plastic GW terrain kits.

Jim said...

@Desert Scribe -- What a cool store to have stocked those... I'm gonna have to go to my local store and look for 144 scale planes... :)
@Sean -- Thanks for the drop pod compliment! A few of my friends tinker with DIY. GW prohibits it, I think, in tournaments. Or maybe its just the FLGS with 40k tables...

I had to dig out my White Dwarfs today, just to reminisce... #95 has the "Grav-Attack" deodorant tank. :) Good times.

Lord Thanatos said...

Haaaa, this is awesome. Speedstick landspeeders. I remember these. At the time they were cutting edge, handbuilding was a sign of elite status. Now, its frowned upon, very low class. Apart from GWs stand, I think players like to pull out the "big guns" and flash store bought vehicles like status symbols.

OU812 looks good! So do the drop pods.

If I ever get around to organizing my armies, I'd love to throw down with you guys. I've got two old school armies; beakie marines and footslogging eldar.

Jim said...

@Thanatos -- We're playing on the 28th. I'm committed to play vs. Brian and Matthew, but my other friends are ripe for the picking! See you Weds!

Jay Exonauts said...

Extremely cool article--and builds Jim. For the life of me, I can't imagine why something like this would be "frowned upon" these days, especially with the growing Maker and craft culture going on.

If I had it my way, I'd have a scratch-built armada!