Better call the exterminator, I think I have Termites - Part 3

As I was organizing the Closet of Doom, my eye fell upon the stack of old-style Chimeras that I'd purchased in preparation for the hose-job GW would be handing down in the form of the new release. The recent batch of rumors about the incoming Chimera and Basilisk kits seems for confirm my fears - Non-standard turret rings, over-simplified track sections, and no upgrade sprue? No thank you. Don't get me wrong, the new kit goes together like a dream in comparison to the old one - the new Hellhound was a joy to put together. However I really feel that the conversion options available with the new kit are significantly reduced when compared to all the fiddly bits the old kit gave us.

I've been kicking around the idea of building a Termite carrier, though what purpose it would serve eluded me. Never one to let practicality stand in the way however, I'm going to press onwards, and at the very least I'll end up with an interesting piece of terrain!

I dug out some old catalog pictures to reacquaint myself with the old model (as sadly all my old Epic models have been sold ages ago). The original model should be reasonably easy to recreate using a couple Chimera kits and some plasticard - I'm thinking that I'll use two sets of sides to make a somewhat elongated track section, and just use plasticard for the superstructure.

I've had some initial discussions with the fellow that runs Ramshackle games to see if I can get just the drill section in order to create my own completely-out-of-the-ground Termite, though I'll admit for $15 I'm just as happy ordering another complete Boring Machine and sawing the drill free. While I'm confident I can make the crew section a reasonable facsimile of the 'emerging' model, I think the drill head itself needs to match exactly for continuity's sake.

It appears that the North American Weather Control Satellite will continue to be set on 'Hoth" for the forseeable future, so I may as well spend the time indoors doing some modeling!