I wanted to add a flamer to my converted Imperial Guard squad, but the standard flamer is much too heavy-looking next to the carbines and squad automatic weapons from Stupid Bitz Tricks #4. I wanted something a bit smaller and more Aliensy in style, so I raided my long-suffering bitz box again.

I found a Space Marine flamer, the front half of a Cadian flamer that was cut up to make the smartgun-style heavy stubber in Stupid Bitz Tricks #3, grenade launcher right arms, and some open-handed Cadian left arms. This is the result:

This flamer is smaller and shorter than the normal backpack flamer, and fits in better with the armament of the rest of the squad. The backpack flamer therefore got promoted to a heavy flamer, and certainly looks the part next to the converted flamer:

This conversion is pretty easy, and looks different.

Construction

The photos below show the bitz used and where they go. (Click on the photos to view them at full size.)

Design

The barrels and muzzle of the Space Marine flamer were sliced off where the front handgrip ends. Next, the grip section of the Space Marine flamer was sliced off immediately behind the fuel tank and tubing. The grenade launcher arm was also sliced up so that only the grenade launcher handgrip and the rear section of the grenade launcher remained, and the flamer was glued to that. Next, I sliced off the barrels of the Cadian flamer and shaved the back of the muzzle flat. The muzzle was then glued directly to the front of the Space Marine flamer, completing the weapon.

The hand on the left Cadian flamer arm was sliced off at the wrist, and the same operation was performed on the open-handed left arm. The open left hand was then glued to the wrist of the Cadian flamer arm. That’s all there really is to it.

Conclusions

This flamer fits in nicely with the rest of my converted weapons, although I wish the constituent flamer bits were just a little bit smaller. I also need to clean up some more flash and fuzz from this figure–it’s amazing how many flaws and goofs the camera can pick up!

I plan to use the normal backpack flamers as heavy flamers, because the word “heavy”, when applied to flamers, says to me “shoots more flaming liquid a longer distance”, and not necessarily “bigger than a regular flamer”. Because the much larger backpack fuel tank and the beefier wand definitely do suggest exactly that, it’s perfect for a heavy flamer. It also looks nice next to the bulky heavy stubber.

The converted flamers with the smaller tanks will be gas flamers like the ones in Aliens, and I’m toying with the idea of further differentiating the standard gas flamers and the heavy flamers by having the gas flamers act like jet/spray weapons, while the heavy flamers have a longer-duration incendiary effect represented by placing and removing flame markers that last until the end of the turn.

I think the next time I do this conversion, I’m gonna try making the muzzle shorter and bringing the length of the weapon down a little more.

I made two more changes to the weapon that made me a lot happier with it visually: I popped off the muzzle and shortened it further, then shaved off the “hook” on the top of the flamer. These changes made it look noticeably smaller, and removing the “hook” made it look less like a Space Marine flamer. Here are the updated photos:

I’m much happier with it now. Yeah, there’s another carbine conversion and another SAW conversion in these photos–I have 5 carbines, 2 SAWs, a flamer, and a squad leader finished now.