2020 Christmas Astra Militarum Countdown: Day 2

For the second day of Christmas, I've pieced together something a little more defensive and less mobile.

Phoenix Company is mostly a ground force in the original UFO: Aftermath canon, but they're also avid users of collapsible machine guns. While I'd love to re-create that here (and might do that in the future), an automated sentry gun seemed more appropriate for repelling whatever creatures crawl out of the Bioamass.

The pockets on the chest and arm are from some old ICM 'weapons and accessories' kits, and the cloth belt piece is from some old 40k kit. I later removed that cloth from the model, since it stuck out too much.

The soldier had to use a normal guardsman torso, but I couldn't cover it up with the arms due to the pose - instead, I've added pouches and other minor pieces to try and bulk up the front, making the flak gear look slightly more combat-amour-like.

The gun is a standard Heavy Bolter turret that I've added more assorted bitz to, intending to make it into a proper automated weapon. The arm holding onto the side is from one of the Cadian flamethrower operators.

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The boxes on the base are a minor detail, made from one of the normal ammo boxes and some scrap parts. I didn't want to connect it to the gun itself, since I liked the idea of having them strewn about like they had been scavenged.

A lot of the parts used here were taken from various Tamiya tank kits, mostly smaller details on the front of the weapon and the extended barrel.

The rear of the gun was modified to look like a last-minute tweak without being too impractical - after all, Phoenix Company in canon are reliant on their own R&D teams.

The backpack - a standard Spellcrow one - required some extra pieces underneath to fit properly. Since the operator here is unarmed, it made sense to choose one that had a knife and a few grenades, especially since grenades in UFO are completely viable as a trooper's only weapon.