3d printing, converting and painting Astra Militarum artillery tanks: Basilisk, Wyvern

Continuing the Astra Militarum tank backlog, here's the remaining artillery tanks. These have big, and I mean really big, guns, so the small magnetized gun mounts could not hold them. I had to devise a different method. Follow most steps from the support tank article.

Tank bodies

As above, but no gun mount magnetized base.

Basilisk

The Basilisk gun is ridiculously large; surely not overcompensating for anything. In the end, I settled on a rectangular chariot base.

Either the STL was incomplete or I messed up something, but I couldn't fit the blast shield on. I glued a bit of sprue at the end of the base, and used that to lift it high enough to be glued unto the gun mount.

Paint as previously.

The artillery platform looked kind of empty, so I painted some crew separately.

Pin the gun crew to the platform.

Wyvern

I cobbled together some compatible parts to form this turret. The underside is also a flat surface, so same size category as the Basilisk gun platform. I tried out Muzzle burn (Contrast) and it is a lot more flashy than the old variant.

Add some crew. I mistakenly glued together the first turret backwards i.e. with the open side to the front. Well, that sounds like something the Imperial Guard would do. Add some spotters for flare.

Magnetization

I first glued a piece of magnetic sheet to the gun mount and the underside of the platform. It didn't hold at all.

A friend found some industrial 2-part epoxy glue, and I used it with these bigger magnets. I put on a lot, and the magnets would slowly drift apart, hence the rubber bands.

Using the same glue, I affixed steel plates to the underside of the artillery platforms.

Finally, these hold. Still prone to slide off during quick movements, but a lot better than anything I could come up with before.

Finished!