DISQUS

Azzy · 1 year ago

Thanks, BraSco, I've yet to get a drop pod, and it's good to know about these sort of issues before starting a model--no matter how careful you try to be, it's easy to miss the little details. I also love the advice on painting in sections (something I forgot to do with my trukks in my enthusiasm to put them together).

Would you guys consider doing this sort of thing for other GW kits? Even those of us with experience could learn a bit from the experience and advice of others.

BrassScorpion · 1 year ago

I would be happy to continue to provide this kind of content. It's nice to see there's a demand for it. Articles like this don't generate a lot of feedback in the way of comments, but I know from my experience at the game store that there are a lot of people looking for assistance with modeling and painting. Siince all of them can't necessarily get assistance at a store, online hobby forums are another way to help fellow hobbyists. Thanks for your support on this type of hobby topic.

Culial · 1 year ago

Getting assistance at a store...yeah...

My FLGS has 5-6 Pods...none of the doors close...

Thanks for this guide, Pay Day is fast approaching and I feel some Pods will be coming my way...

Bigdogsteel · 1 year ago

I love the detail of the corkscrew on the turbo fan!

bookmunkie · 1 year ago

Wasn't the Games Workshop one that's been online for a couple weeks pretty thorough? I don't have Space Marines, so I haven't read over it. Here's the link: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/artic...

BrassScorpion · 1 year ago

Yes, the GW guide is good and I posted about it here on BoLS as soon as it appeared: http://belloflostsouls.blogspot.com/2008/10/dro...

Nevertheless, I thought it was worth offering my own take on the topic and focusing specifically on the errors that seem to be all too frequent for people building this model. Besides paying extra attention to special problem areas, I also found it a bit easier to complete this model in a slightly different manner than described in the GW guide. This article (hopefully) here gives people some additional insight and assistance.

rockdeity · 1 year ago

yeah, this is way better than the GW version. I used it for my first and was unsatisfied so looked for other people's thoughts. I found in some posts that doing all the seats as one part before attaching as Brass suggested is way easier and probably most importantly... filing the bottoms of the doors is key. I was glad to know that's all I had to do to fix the doors. I think it is pretty much guaranteed that some or all of your doors will not close properly if you don't do that. Big ups, Brass. Thanks.

bighatdino · 1 year ago

The instructions for the pod, and the new format landspeeder, are kind of shoddy and don't really make it especially clear what's needs to go where in some cases. It wasn't even clear that you needed to build the entire central section first - I ended up having to clip some of the floor-mount off so that I could slot it all in. It was that or treat it as my Dreadnought pod :P

Space Machines · 1 year ago

When have instructions ever been useful? The Baneblade was next to impossible without the White Dwarf assembly article!

Drop Pod instructions look good - I'll be using them alongside the GW web guide when I get round to opening mine!

KellyJ · 1 year ago

Of course you could also just skip the interior and glue the doors shut.
You then get lots of bits that would be good for conersions...like using the harness bits on Ork Boyz to create a foundation for a Storm-Boyz conversion.
The center console could make an interesting foundation as an Ork engine on a Battlewagon conversion
I bet a Rhino hatch would fit nice and snug on top of that roof fan...allowing you to mount the Storm-Bolter externally.
Them deathwind launchers could fit nicely on Predator Sponsons to make a unique Whirlwind...or any other missile launcher (mount it on the bottom of a Land speeder to make a Typhoon without the silly wing-pods.

Besides, having all them doors open on the table would create alot of interference issues when dropping multiple pods into a small area (enemy deployment zones, using multiple pods to build a wall between nasties and your troops trying to hold an objective, etc). It also allows you to use the Pod as a generic between troops or a dreadnought without having to play along with what the interior setup is.
Also, if the open door extends over the table edge does that mean your Pod scattered off the table upon arrival???

Simple solution...glue the doors shut and have fun with all the new bits you just got.

JohnOSpencer · 1 year ago

Most people treat the doors as show only. There is no hard and fast rules for how to treat them. It's up to you and your opponent to decide how to treat them. If they are off table, you can't go out that side seems to be the most logical choice for your specific example.

BrassScorpion · 1 year ago

I would absolutely agree with this. Articulation and functionality on parts of models is just for fun and for show and normally does not factor into or have an effect upon actual game play. The rules are the same whether or not you glue your doors shut and there's no obligation to open them even if they are not glued shut any more than you have to open doors on Rhinos, Land Raiders, Devil Fish, etc.

FabricatorGeneral · 1 year ago

WHAT?! I usually disembark within 2" of my now 10" pie-plate-style lander. Makes for great flexibility if I botch/nail the scatter :P

Crimsonfistsfan · 1 year ago

The rule book says measure from the hull of the vech. So your 10" pie plate is really about 5" to 6"

JohnOSpencer · 1 year ago

Yeah, that would be a no-no. As Crimsonfistsfan said, you have to deploy from the hull. Deploying within' 2" from the door would make the Drop Pods a bit too good.

Silverblade · 1 year ago

I'd argue that it's actually more important in 5th Ed, cause with the doors open you'd probably be able to trace a line of fire to a model beyond it, whereas with the doors shut you'd deny the line of fire. If you left the doors shut you'd have to allow your opponent to trace LOS through it as if it was open anyway. (otherwise your marines have just plummeted planetside in a large tin can they cannot get out of!) I'd also argue that without the doors open, the access point is blocked and no models can disembark. Only because the doors are specifically designed to open in this case, and I know you can argue against it because a Rhino has side hatches that don't open - but that's just my take on it.

UltramarineFan · 1 year ago

We had an apocalypse game where there wre quite a few drop pods bunched together I think it was five or six and we had no trouble just put the doors onto each other. The doors can be moved over freely so it's actually only the main part of the pod that interfears in any way.

Herald of Nurgle · 1 year ago

Good to know for when I get my 3 Dreadclaws converted =P
The snake is a lie!

Azzy · 1 year ago

I have had it with these m*****f****** snakes on this m*****f****** cake!

BrassScorpion · 1 year ago

Let's have a peek at some pics of those Dreadclaw conversions when you're done.
Chaos conversions = goodness!

Thierry · 1 year ago

I just dropped this thing off. Thanks for the explanation. I was so upset I did not even take the time to check those nasty harnesses.

Lord · 1 year ago

Out of interest, they allow ramming with vehicles, surely they should do the same with Drop Pods? or just fill one with explosives.....

Also, excellent article. What is the name of your chapter, Brass Scorpion? it should be interesting to watch its creation. Is your plan to deepstrike the tacticals, and teleport the termies?

BrassScorpion · 1 year ago

Remember, ramming is a special form of tank shock and so can only be performed by vehicles labeled "Tank" in the rules. If the word "tank" does not appear in the rules for a given vehicle in the appropriate Codex, it can't ram.

I don't game too much these days but I always build my armies with the appropriate Codex and a bit of gaming in mind. My plan is to use Land Raiders and Deep Striking for Terminators. I plan to have a regular Land Raider, a Land Raider Crusader and Redeemer as well. Tacticals will ride in Rhinos or Drop Pods, small elite squads in Razorbacks, Sternguard in a Drop Pod. Drop Pods are also great for Dreadnoughts and I will have a number of those thanks to the Black Reach starter set, so I expect to Drop Pod a Dreadnought or two now and again as well.

Lord · 1 year ago

I was just saying that it would be cool if a drop pod could ram, and GW made rules for it. I can easily see a frightened guard squad awaiting the SM army, which is charging across. Then suddenly a guy looks up, sees the drop pod, and the squad scatters. Except for one guy, who is to slow.....

anyway, it would be cool. I mean why would a drop pod purposely miss an enemy squad?

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squighound · 1 year ago

That would be sooooo cool! worth while getting a drop pod even!

TSINI · 11 months ago

im sure if you were playing a non-tournament game with some good like-minded friends this wouldnt be a problem at all, we used to make flyers crash into the ground when they got shot down, rolling 3D6 and landing the wreckage that many inches in the direction the flyer is pointing. this made for some fun moments as the aircraft plummeted into squads of men and slow to react tanks.

i think the basic idea was it counted as a battle cannon ordinance blast, to keep the rules simple.

no reason why you couldnt agree on this (if the game was drop pod heavy for example, the dangers to the enemy would be increased)

Brother_Marius · 1 year ago

Thanks so much for this, even with the GW article ANY additional insight is greatly welcome. I've been staring at my pods for a couple weeks now, and been reading the complaints about the issues you addressed (harnesses and the doors), it's good to see you have the fix. Your assembly and paint order is spot on, it's what I ended up with myself (or near enough), and I've been building GW stuff since Rogue Trader.
Thanks BrassScorpion, and thanks BoLS!

Sevej · 1 year ago

Can anyone that has the model assembled measure its height from the bottom to the top fins? I'm in the proccess of making display cabinet, but it'd not be funny if I can't put the drop pod it (since IIRC it's the tallest of the normal models--non titans).

Savark · 1 year ago

I still need a drop pod, say anyone wanna rino for a drop pod? cause imagine the SMBC apocalypse kit in DPs instead of rhinos!

Mooooooo! · 1 year ago

Neat model as all get out, but buying what amounts to a large building on the table that really serves as just a overblown landing mark seems off to me. I'd rather just scratch it out of cardstock and be done with it.

Here is the irony: I am still considering buying one because I can see about a thousand uses for the various bits on non-pod models.

Beat that, Brembridge Scholars!

Parcival · 1 year ago

BrassScorpion, thanks for this hobby article, it's very helpful like all the others you post!

I haven't purchased a Drop Pod yet, but soon will for my Blood Angels. Now as a BA player my Codex allows only to use the storm bolter, but I still have hope that a future Codex will allow to use the Death Wind rockets. I have magnets that are 1 millimeter thick; do you think I could use them to exchange the drop pod's weapon system and still have enough space to have it freely turning?

Horrible Hager · 1 year ago

I am working on my second pod, and yes, you can use the small magnets to change out the weapons. I plan to do that on all of my pods so that I can use whatever strikes my fancy on game day.

Ahriman · 1 year ago

Yeah I for one would definitely like to see some Dread Claw conversions - the SOV 2 book has updates for them - they now count as open topped and it got me thinking if they will count the same for apocalypse?

gsjtitan · 1 year ago

Great tips...probably would have missed the difference in the harnesses without this.

Thanks!

Alan · 1 year ago

I'm just about to build my drop pod, this is definetly going to help because you should have seen the first vehicle/dreadnought i made!
Thanks very much

zaarin7 · 12 months ago

The uniqe harness is on the sprue with one door.

Joe Kopena · 10 months ago

First, this is an excellent article. I just picked up a Drop Pod and this was a big help, and made much more sense than either the printed or online GW directions.

I just wanted to point out two things: To clarify what BrassScorpion is saying, the problem not that the skull harness with round pegs will not fit into the square support pieces. The problem is actually that one of the support walls has round holes for its harness, though it's super super hard to tell that it's not square. To find it, you can do a couple things:

- Take one of the squared pegged harnesses and try it in every support until you find the one that it (surprisingly) won't fit into.
- Look for the support piece that has two very small cables drooping down from the central, thicker cable that connects into the center pylon. The other four supports only have 1 cable hanging in a small loop.

I would also note that people should budget a lot of time for this model. It's more complex than it looks at first glance. The interior harness pieces are fairly fiddly and at least my copy had a fair amount of flash that had to be cleaned off carefully.

In any event, thanks again Brass!

Charlotte_Painting · 4 months ago

Very interesting thanks for the info.