Some Death Guard Reinforcements

Tactical detachments in the XIVth Legion often operate in dense terrain and hostile war zones. These heavy support squads are an example of a well armed addition that can dramatically increase the firepower of an infantry detachment. Often armed with flak missiles, squads such as these can provide some defence against enemy fliers, however should additional flier defence be required then a Whirlwind Hyperios like the one shown can be added to the formation to make it a viable threat against all but the heaviest of fliers.

These death guard heavy support/havoc marines are from the old plastic chaos space marine kit from 1990. I've liberated them from their old units, and combined them into a more concentrated group of heavy weapons. As well as the ones shown here, I have some more recent fan-made metal ones, including another two missile launcher bases and a heavy bolter base, so a total of six missile launcher bases and one heavy bolter base.

The hyperios is an old plastic rhino with three bits of sprue glued together and stuck on. I also shaved off the top hatches and bolters that were on the roof. I was a little heavy handed when I did this, and it looks a little flat on the top. I think if I did it again I would just trim off the bolters, and leave the hatches on there purely for extra detail.

The sprue looked a little too much like sprue when I glued it on there, so I painted the red stripe on the front of the launchers to help break up the outline a little.

The front of the launcher is painted black with no detail. I thought about drilling some holes, but my smallest drill bit is 1mm and I thought that might be a little bit too big. Plus I find it very difficult to drill holes in straight lines, and didn't really want to risk messing it up and having to make another one.

So my Death Guard force now has some additional support.
A total of six heavy weapon stands means I can take the Havoc upgrade twice for plague marine armies. I can also add some nice flier defence and shooting ability to my Tactical Detachments in 30k games.
The Hyperios will be very handy in 30k games. I can attach it to an infantry detachment and garrison the formation forwards, and it will provide a nice anti-air bubble where I will most likely need it. It can also be added to more mobile formations like mechanised Tactical detachments, Terminators in heavy transports, predator squadrons or medusa squadrons to increase their firepower and provide some mobile air defence.
Looking at the list of units that they can attach to, I really need more than one of these, so will make up some more. If I do a total of four then I can field them as a formation of normal whirlwinds, break them up into individual hyperios' and distribute them through the army, and count them as contagion engines in the plague marine list (presumably they are armed with shorter ranged chemical missiles if this is the case!). So I'd better do up another three!

But that's it for now; a few more shooty units added to the army.