Tripod Conversions for "All Quiet on the Martian Front"

By Tom Burgess:

A "Grenadier" Tripod converetd from a standard Scout Tripod and some leftover Black Dust Launchers from the Assault Tripod kit.

Some of my closest gaming friends and I have really been enjoying Alien Dungeon’s “All Quite on the Martin Front.”  Unfortunately we did not get on the Kickstarter and so were not on the early releases of many of the new items. So we were limited to just the Assault and Scout tripods initially.

But since the basic tripods are offered in plastic, they are VERYconvertible and so I embarked on a project to make Grenadiers and a Slaver to support my Scout and Assault tripods. My first effort was focused on the Grenadier tripod.


The most significant characteristic of the Grenadier tripod is that it is smaller like the Scout Tripod,  but with even shorter legs and a slower speed and then it would need twin missile launchers of some sort.  To these requirements I self imposed the limitation of using only parts/pieces from the so that the end product would still be a 100% Alien Dungeon model.

The first step was to shorten the legs.

Normal Tripod plastic leg.

Cut out the upper "tube" section of the leg.

Drill a hole in the lower leg to insert a pin and do the same to the upper part of the leg. I used a paper clip as a "pin."

Reattach the lower leg portion to the "hip" where the pin holes were drilled.

The next step was to shorten the feelers.

Cut out the middle portion of the feeler.

Drill a hole in the upper portion of the feeler and insert the lower portion back into it.

Once the legs and feelers are shortened, assemble the lower part of the tripod.

"Shortened" lower tripod.

Next I worked on the launchers. To make these I took unused "Black Dust" launchers from assault tripods. I simply cut off the lower "drum" portion and then opened up the end to make it look more like a muzzle.



Black Dust Launcher trimmed down for use as a missile launcher.

To make the brackets to attach the missile to the tripod's head I trimmed down some "Green Gas" ammo mounts from Assault tripods and drilled holes in to add pins (again clipped paperclips).

The brackets were then glued to the lower part of a scout tripod head.

The two missile launchers were then glued to these brackets. Note I mounted the "missle tubes" with the flared (muzzle on the Black Dust laucher) to the rear.  It gave the model a kind of a Recoiless Rifle look that I liked. I aslo used a bit of green stuff at this point to make the new open muzzles more rounded and to smooth togther some attachment areas elsewhere,

So here's the completed and painted Grenadier Tripod converted from a standard Scout Tripod and a few leftover Assault Tripod bits.


These are my two Grenadier Tripod conversions and a standard Scout Tripod for comparison.

Slave/Scientist Tripod conversion. I say "Slaver" or "Scientist" as I think this model could serve equally well as either based on what I wanted for a given game. To make this conversion the legs and feelers were shortened as with the Grenadier conversion. I then added a leftover Scout Tripod "targeter" to the left side of the tripod body and then added a the middle section that I cut away from one of the feelers to the right side of the head to make a sort of an attenna (to control all those lobottons and drones).

Here's the finished Slave/Scientist conversion. You can see the antennae on the right side of the dome better here. Also note that I added the drum that I cut away from the Black Dust Launchers above and stuck them on the side of the tripod's "waist" here.

Here is the Slaver/Scientist conversion along side of a standard Assault Tripod for comparison.

Its only plastic! You can do a lot with it so let your imagination run wild and make your own customized tripods. You'll have a lot of fun and you'll save a bit of money. A stock model Grenadier Tripod cost $22 and a stock Slave Tripod cost $25. But if you convert them from the all plastic Scout Tripod, a Grenadier only coast about $11.67 and to plastic Assault Tripod converted into a Slaver/Scientist cost about $13.33. So just about a 50% savings can be had by going the conversion route if you're up to the modeling challenge.

Next up? A Dominator Tripod!!!

Tom has been playing wargames since the late 70’s, and Flames of War since 2007. He maintains a gaming website www.battlevault.com for the BattleVault Gamers of Kentuckiana and posts and moderates WWPD as Iron-Tom.