144 - Chimera Conversion Time

I'm alive still - just suffering with lack of time through work etc. But I have still had a bit of hobby time. I bought myself a couple of Chimera conversion kits a while back and decided that if I didn't have the motivation for painting stuff I could at least build the tanks that are still boxed.

So I grabbed the spare Chimera kit I had and set about using the conversion kit. It's a Pegasus (?) conversion kit that I got from eBay (can't remember the name of the seller sorry) and it consists of a turret, top hatch and rear section.

UPDATE: The kit used to be called the Pegasus but is in fact now called the Capricorn Pattern. It was purchased directly from Blood and Skulls Industry (machinator248 on ebay) and I had to message machinator directly. I hope this update helps.

Basically, I built up the chimera as normal but then didn't add the rear troop section as the kit would take care of this. There is also a hatch pitch that will fill the round hole at the top of the tank.

This is the rear troop section. It uses the guide lines on the Chimera track housings to fit in, the same as the original piece. There was little bit of manipulating required, mainly straightening out the rear prong sections. The hatch on the top will be filled using the original Chimera's top hatch.

I decided that I didn't want to use the turret as it's a little bit weedy so dug out my ForgeWorld Autocannon turret instead. Unfortunately the FW turret's guide pin is a bout a quarter of the size of the hole on the roof piece. Out came the saw and I carefully removed the guide pin from the other turret in order for it to be glued to the FW one. I also filed down all of the old style turret hatch mounts so that I can put one of the more modern hatches on here.

The final piece is the rear ramp. Again I'm going with ForgeWorld as their Chimera rear ramp is just too cool not to use! Again there looks like there may be some fitment issues but nothing too serious.

Here are all of the bits laid out nice and neatly. I will of course add some extra stowage etc, and maybe some track guards. I'm not sure if I prefer having a ready made kit to use over the set back conversions that I've done before. It certainly made things easier though.

And here is a picture of my growing completed pile of tanks. The Bombard is lurking there waiting to be primed along with a magnetised Leman Russ which I am planning on doing a quick post about.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for some more partially completed models.