Hello all. First, let me say thanks for the inspiration to TheHauptmann. The original idea is his. Second, I was wondering what you guys think about the offset Area Denial Node. Like the hammerhead turret? Of course it isn't finished, but I'm still drawn on the offset turret and the way it was shown in White Dwarf. What do you guys think?

I have to say, I love that Ion Cannon. What materials did you use to make it?

As for the node, I don't know if the offset looks as good as the one that has it on either side. It gives it a more balanced feel. Logically, considering that it would probably have one hell of a kick, it would also literally balance it out as well. just my thoughts.

On that note, I do like the ammo feed you have showing for it.

I think with the double railguns it's a little too unbalanced. Maybe if you were to bulk up the turret casemate a little or something...

On the other hand, the ion cannon looks very sharp. Big enough to look nice and threatening without toppling over into the 'giant brick' aesthetic of the Imperium.

The bottom circled part is going to get beefed up some and detailed out in a Tauish sort of way. As for recoil? Railguns have no recoil due to nature of it's firing mechanism. They are in development now actually. It magnetically throws a slug down the barrel. No propellant so no recoil. The one GW made is with a skyray turret, of which I had one that you can obviously see was consumed by the ion cannon turret.

There is another thought I had to mount the railguns in the center of the turret and it looked to me like it was up too high. I am going to work on this one and see where it goes and maybe make another with the guns centered. The railgun sprues aren't hard to come by, the skyray's are. Good and bad, buy a skyray and you get a hammerhead gun sprue with it, bad, I don't need another fish chasis. Off to ebay I go.

Grrrr!!!!! I knew some one was going to say that.

It pushes mass forward, therefore it is pushing backward as well. Newton's Third Law. Basic physics. If the ammunition has mass then the gun MUST have recoil.

As for the aesthetics. the ion cannon looks great, much better than GW's. I have never been fond of the double railgun turret but I would either beef up the mounting so that the guns don't dominate it so much, or try mounting the guns horizontally, one on top of the other instead of vertically side by side.

I was watching future weapons on the military channel and they were covering it. So, all things being what they are, it's still a game. The plan was to beef up the round base part of the turret and add some "tech" to the flat pie plate looking pieces. That whole assembly rotates. As for the double railgun, it's an actual tau item. It's on the apoc site. Twin linked railgun that turns into a destroyer weapon if more than one is fired at a single target.

In any case, the recoil would have to be less than a standard gunpowder propelled weapon. Tau being so technologically advance I'm sure there's a damper system in there somewhere to compensate. It'll look better I imagine when I get some more added to it.

~C