Man, that's a good idea! I totally overlooked that part! Will probably have to do ammo feeds for the gatling guns, and some sort of batteries for the lascannons, plasma/lightening cannons, and the new 'melta' like weapon.

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Ammo feeds are good these sort of details do enhance a model.

This was an aspect of the forgeworld hydra I never liked it was supposed to be a rapid fire quad autocannon but only had a little ammo drum on each gun which would have been empty after one burst of fire, it needed to have an internal belt feed set up in order to be functional.

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I know what you mean regarding the ammo drums. It's a tricky one, because on one hand the thing needs ammo, but on the other hand you don't want the ammo feed to be too big. I've been thinking about something along the lines of this, but I'll have to play a bit with the design.

In the meantime I've shrunk the gatling cannons slightly (by 10%) because they were sort of entering 'cartoony sized' territory...

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Could some sort of insinuation about feeding or restocking from and internal ammo storage be incorporated.

As MD insinuates the Hydra would burn through an attached 'magazine' in a matter of a short few second burst.

My original idea was that the ammo/batteries (depending on the gun) would be inside the hull of the tank. That would mean that there's no need to add external ammo drums and/or batteries. However, such external units look very cool, as an insinuation of a feeding would in this case mess a bit with the turret's armoured character.

Need to experiment a bit here...

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All said and done these look very nice models already!

It would make sense to have an internal feed system (ammo under armour) as long as the ammo can fit through the turret ring. If not well then mega big box of bullets like in that picture would be the best option.

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I will experiment a bit with the gatling guns turret to see what's possible in that regard.

Current status of the tanks (see picture):
Top: Flamers, Lascannons, APC (no turret), Multi-melta
Bottom: Missile Launchers, Gatling Guns (AA turret), Light Battle Cannon, Plasma Cannons

The other variants I've had need some serious tweaking to be workable so I'm sticking to these ones for the time being. All of the turrets, except the Missile Launcher and AA guns are easily cast as single piece units. The missile and AA turrets have the centre piece and the weapon components separate.

A few details added here and there to those guns and I think the tanks are good to go. Kinda wondering how I would have to 'release' such a kit. Each hull with multiple turret options or keep it simple (AA tank, plasma tank, lascannon tank, etc).

One last thing I would like to do is to design some sponsons that could be added to them, then the whole set should be ready I think. Oh wait...probably a turret with a single autocannon?

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A thought: Do you think that the turret might sit slightly too close to the back of the model or slightly too high up?

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You think? It's a bit of a tricky one. If I move the turrets forward the canopy won't open without hitting some of the weapons (battlecannon and melta turret). Move it lower and some turrets (flamers and missile launchers) won't be able to turn anymore.

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Not sure overlap is an issue. The M1 Abrams, Challenger 2, Leopard 2 and Mercava are real world example of the turret partly covering the driver hatch. It just requires a different style of release.

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-Vaaish

Intriguing! I'm toying with the idea of a canopy that has two 'doors' rather than a single one. It would affer the whole cannon blocking the opening of the canopy a bit. But how far forward would you move the turret then?

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Tough to say. Probably no more than 3mm or the front of the plate the turret sits on now.

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-Vaaish

Here's a test. It does look better. However, this will only work for the more 'conventional' turrets. The missile launcher and flamers will have some issues with turning, unless I place the turrets even higher.

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you could solve that the same way GW does with the whirlwinds by making sure that nothing extends below the bottom of the turret core.

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-Vaaish