I don’t like the grenade launcher that comes in the Cadian boxed set because it looks like something knocked together out of 8-inch PVC pipe for a Halloween costume. However, it’s a very useful bit because the arms can be used for other special weapons, and the grenade launcher itself contributes two important parts to the sentry gun from Stupid Bitz Tricks #2.

One other weapon that I dislike intensely is the Space Marine scout shotgun, which looks funny to me. I also don’t use the bolt pistols and swords with my scouts because I’m not a big fan of the whole “charge each other with oversized powered cutlery” tactical approach, and I’d rather have as many ranged weapons as possible. My scouts also carry bolters and a heavy bolter because they look more like elite commandos that way, which leaves me with a lot of unused shotguns and bolt pistols.

The bolt pistols have targeters and barrel extensions that are useful for conversions, and I also like the ammunition cassettes on Terminator storm bolters. Since there will usually be 2-3 storm bolters left over from a box of Terminators, the ammo cassettes aren’t a hard bit to source. I used those 3 bitz items to prototype a grenade launcher to replace the originals.

This is the result, shown along with the flamer and SAW conversions for scale:

Construction

The photos below show the bitz used and their configuration. (Click on the photos to view them at full size.)

Design

The left hand was shaved off the scout shotgun completely, and that area of the shotgun was also shaved down flush with the rest of the shotgun body. I sliced off everything directly behind the shotgun’s top rail and sanded it flat. The original shotgun barrels were also sliced off completely.

I sliced off the barrel of a scout bolt pistol, making sure to include the little tube above the barrel, and glued that to the front of the shotgun body. I also sliced off the little “flange” at the bottom of the bolt pistol’s magazine and set it aside.

I went through my collection of surplus storm bolters, and settled on one that had a “half-hopper” style box magazine rather than the giant double cassette or the twin banana-style magazines, then carefully cut the magazine off. I had to shave off a little bit of excess, and I also removed some details from the top front and rear of the magazine. This was then glued to the bottom of the shotgun body where the left hand used to be, and the flange from the bolt pistol magazine was glued to the side of the shotgun, above where the magazine meets the shotgun body.

I also sliced off a bolt pistol targeter and mounted it to the left side of the rail on top of the shotgun. (I like offset sights, and it visually balances out the magazine.)

I used the normal grenade launcher left arm with this conversion, and the only change I made to it was to shave off the little peg that fits into the hole on the normal grenade launcher, as the converted grenade launcher doesn’t have a hole for it.

Conclusions

It’s not a particularly exciting conversion visually, but it’s more in proportion with the other converted weapons, and more importantly, it doesn’t annoy my aesthetic sense as much as the original grenade launcher does. I’m also not sure if I like it with that left arm, and I might try using an open left hand with one of the other arms instead, like with the flamer.

I think I’ll be looking through my bitz box for additional detailing to put on the thing, especially on the flat sides. I’ll see how it looks painted first, though.