A How To, by Jitsu: Turning Heavy Bolters into Assault Cannons

This is a tutorial I did for some friends back in the day. For meta reasons, Assault Cannon Razorbacks were very popular, like 6-8 per army popular. Assault Cannon bits did not come with the kit though, and were hard to come by. And so I did this conversion for my roommate, and documented it so I could share the process with you.

Start with a Razorback Heavy Bolter. Note that this will work for almost any Heavy Bolter, though you may need slightly smaller materials.

Next, cut off the barrel and barrel detailing.

Next you will need two different sizes of plastic rod. For each cannon cut five sections of the larder rod and one section of the smaller. Each of the larger rods should be as close to the same size as you can manage, and the smaller one should be a bit shorter.

Glue down a bit of tube to some paper, this is going to act as a guide of sorts. Glue all the rods together as pictured, with the smallest rod in the centre for spacing. Try not to glue anything to the tube.

Repeat until you have enough cannons.

Using a dremel, file, or sandpaper, sand the ends flat. If you had trouble lining the rods up evenly when gluing them together, this step will fix that.

Using your pinvise, drill out the center.

Drill out the stock of the Heavy Bolter too.

Glue small lengths of paper clip into the holes drilled in the cannons.

Mix and flatten a little bit of green stuff, let it cure and then cut into a rectangle. Pure green stuff is best for this, as we want it to be flexible after curing.

Cut that rectangle into equal sized strips.

Carefully glue just the tip of the gs strip to the cannon as shown.

Now glue the rest of the strip on all the way around.

Repeat the process for the second strips.

Now you are ready to glue the cannons on.

Next we build the frame, cut two sections of square rod and glue on as pictured.

Now cut short sections of the larger rod used earlier, and glue on to the front of the frame. 

The finished product.

The conversion next to a GW original, pretty close isn't it?

Now, Assault Cannon Razorbacks are not as in demand as they once were, but I will do more tutorials for more modern conversions of necessity if people ask.