So, I have been slowly shipping away on the Opus build. This time around I focused a bit on the rear quarters. As I built the fighters for the Opus the Nephilim the kit came with the options of either wing mounted bolters or missiles, I went for the bolters so had the missile inserts left over. This made me think about building some surface to air missiles (SAM) pods to mount on the rear platforms. So I started the build and after some nights of tinkering I had to pod arrays with 12 missiles in each pod. However, when I tried to mount them were I originally planed to have them they turned out to be to big to fit in the space available without interfering with the flight dec (and I was not about to cut in to the deck for these to).
So I needed to find some were else to put them. I already had some smaller platforms built for the quad autocannons so I tried a quick swap. But these platforms were sticking out to much, which is fine for the smaller quad guns but it looked strange with the SAM's. So I decided to reposition the platforms and move them up and in to get them closer to the hull. While doing this I just put them SAM's on the tower instead of some icaros Las cannons and it really looked cool. It gave the tower a more aggressive look with the two pods on each side of the main battle cannon batteries. Once I relocated the rear platforms I tried the SAM's also in this position and now they looked good there also. So now I do not know if they will be on the tower or the back. The mounts are the universal disk so I can move things around so do not need to decided now.
When working on the back I also came up with the idea of mounting three heavy bolter towers on the back platform to mirror the three turrets that are mounted on each side at the front. Originally I hade the idea to have these on the tower but I could not really find a good position for them. In the end I am really happy the placement. Now I just need to get the towers mounted on the platforms.
