Imperial Guard Hydra Flak Tank
This was something that I built about 20 years ago. It feel weird writing that. I found an old archive that had some of this so I thought it was time to start putting this out there again especially since I have a brand spanking new one in my todo pile.
Many years ago a 1/32 scale Wirblewind Anti-Aircraft Tank appeared on my workbench. I had quite a few bits and pieces left over from other 40k projects so I decided it was time to build a Hydra.
The Gun assembly from the Wirblewind is the thing that got me convinced to do this. I looked at the parts on the Spruce and I said to myself that all it really needed to make it a quad mounted long barrel auto cannon is thicker and bigger barrels. So off I went to the hobby store to pick up various sizes of plastic tube and rod. A little cutting, a little gluing and now there is a quad mounted long barrel autocannon. Also If you look on the back of the gun you'll see that I added various tubes and wires. I built these using electric bass strings. A helpful hint for the SF modeler: make friend with somebody who plays electric guitar or bass.
A few things worth noting in this picture. One of the things that I really don't like about most 40k tanks is how the treads are right on the body. It looks like with these tanks it would be a very bone jarring ride. I had hoped that when the Baneblade came out this would start a pattern going away from that but then the Land Raider came out and we were right back were we were before. So what I did was modify the bottom portion of the tread assembly and I substituted wheels from another tank kit. This gave me the open wheel look that I like better. The other thing to note in this picture is the Tread guards. These were stolen from the above mentioned tank kit and where these came up short they were modified using plasticard.
With this top down picture you can see where the Kit's tread guards stop and my modifications start. The other part of interest here is the engine grill. This was very easy to build with screen window mesh and a simple two opening plasicard frame.
Here is a nice shot of the rear of the Hydra. What I have done here is taken an interesting piece out of my bits box, worked it until it was the right size and then fit it on the back.
