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Really love the way the champion looks likes he's slowly advancing into battle.

The homage to the space crusade missile launcher is just ace!

Thanks for the kind words and constructive criticism, everyone!

@ pfibp: Oh, I am actually fine with the lettering being the wrong way around. I mean, sure, it's a little strange, but I believe trying to get rid of it would probably only make it look worse. As it stands, it's just an idiosyncratic little touch, and I rather like that I am also far too lazy to do anything about it, to tell the truth

@ bigfish: Ha, even though it's a kitbashed army, it's still far from a cheap solution. But you're probably right: The stuff released by FW will turn out to be even more expensive

@ Knightley: While it's actually a homage to the old RT era RTB01 rocket launcher, the one from Space Crusade one was a simpler knockoff of that design. And I used parts from that to build something resembling the RTB01 weapon -- it's a bit complicated, if you think about it too much

Once again, I return to this thread after a longer absence. But I do have something new to show you, even though it's only a kitbash

Back when the plastic Sternguard kit came out, I picked it up mainly to always have some suitably blinged out Space Marine parts on hand But of course, there was also the prospect of being able to use some of these bitz to build new Custodes.

Anyway, after quite a bit of deliberation, I sat down today and built another Custodes character. I give you Chief-Custodian Constantin Valdor, Captain-General of the Legio Custodes:







Even though it's only a Space Marine based kitbash, I believe most of the visual cues are there to make the model a reasonable approximation of the artwork for Valdor. While most conversions have him running forward, however, this one is clearly more static, resembling his appearance on the cover of "The Unremembered Empire".

Anyway, let me know what you think!

I was excited to see this thread bumped, and I was not disappointed

love your work. great conversions!

Thanks, guys! I realise it may not be the biggest update in the world, but I am rather pleased with the conversion, if I do say so myself

The precision cutting has really made that Guardian Spear look awesome.

Great work.

I like the idea of your Custodes being less uniform than they are portrayed in the HH art. Lends itself to the 40k setting and the fact that they are very individualistic warriors.

Great kit bash, man! He will be the grandmaster of bling-bling when he's coloured!

I love the blending between bolt pistol and glaive. They actually look like they are meant to be one piece

Young Logan

Thanks a lot, guys!

@ Medium of Death: Haha, let me put it this way: Uniformity definitely isn't my chief concern with these, what with the (official) Custodes artwork varying wildly between sources: Sometimes the same kind of Custodian is wearing different armour in the very same picture! That said, I'll be trying to have all the fun I can get with these before FW swoops in with their own Custodes, making them uniform (see their treatment of the Cataphractii) and rendering my models utterly obsolete

@ Logan: You better believe it

@ Young_Logan: Haha, yeah: Those guardian spear parts fitting together so well was a combination of unbelievable luck and some deft cutting on my part -- at least when compared to my usual, sloppy standard

He's looking really great ! I especially love the Guardian Spear kitbash : looks really convincing !

So, once again, it's been a while since the last update, but this project is still alive! In fact, with the Horus Heresy book dealing with Prospero now supposedly slated for an early 2016 release, I have been provided with a definite deadline: I have the rest of 2015 to finish this small army, until the official FW Custodes and Sisters of Silence hit. Afterwards, I doubt anyone will look at my conversions twice

So, what do I have:

First up, I completed the last models for my squad of Custodes in older marks of Astartes power armour:

The Mk II guy has been finished, and I am really rather happy with him now:



I've also finished the banner on the squad's standard bearer, courtesy of the Imperial Knight kit:





And the last model for the squad has finally been built: Check out "Mr. Mk IV"



So here's the second, unpainted half of the squad, with marks I, II, IV and two generically pre heresy looking guys:



And I have finally managed to build a fifth model for my Sisters of Silence squad:



While I was at it, I also spiced up the squad's standard bearer a bit:





Here's the finished Sisters of Silence squad, basically ready to be painted:



As always, let me know what you think!

This is really nice! Your work is exceptional - as always!

*nudge* http://maxmini.eu/conversion-bits/head-swaps/steam-nobles-heads-bits

So, with the shiny new Custodes release, I find myself drawn back to this thread after what feels like an eternity:

Now GW's new "official" models have basically rendered the kitbashes posted earlier in this thread mostly redundant. I am still pretty proud of those older models, but there's really no fooling myself: The scale difference alone is enought to disqualify them at this point That being said, I am still rather pleased with how close I came to some of the new "official" designs when I built the models ages ago:





The one part of the old army I might actually be able to salvage are my Sisters of Silence conversions, as they still look rather similar to the new models:





From left to right, one of my kitbashed Sisters from way back when, another kitbashed Sister with one of the new "official" heads spliced in, and one of the actual new models.

As for the Custodians themselves, when I saw the new Custodes models in the latest issue of WD and also discovered some really sweet ideas over on Eberious' thread, I just felt the urgent need to work on some of the new models -- fortunately enough, this was an easy plan to indulge, as I still had the mostly untouched Custodes sprues from The Burning of Prospero at hand. So I made these, in order to get it out of my system:



The guy on the right was actually completed quite a bit earlier, back when The Burning of Prospero was released. He was heavily based on the character Aquillon from "The First Heretic":



The standard bearer was heavily inspired by Eberious' aforementioned thread: I wanted to make the pose look a bit more heroic and exciting, while also making sure the guy actually had a weapon (other than one of those flimsy Custodes daggers) in his off hand:



And the Shield Captain is a conversion I have wanted to do ever since first seeing the new models: I really liked the idea of having an officer hold his ornate helmet in the crook of his arm. It really took some doing to make it happen, especially when it came to adding the helmet plume, but I am rather happy with the outcome:



One thing I did on all of the models was to replace their clunky sentinel blades with GK Nemesis psi swords. I realise that the sentinel blades are a really close match for some of the classic Custodes artwork, but they are also very clunky and unwieldy. And with the Custodes themselves so much beefier in model form, I felt they needed a bit of a visual counterpoint.

For now, I don't see this as a fully fledged new army project or anything. A Custodes "warband", almost like an INQ28 warband, might be fun, though: Just a couple of Custodians, some Sisters of Silence, and maybe a retainer or two? One of their armoury thralls (who gets to reload the Guardian Spears, as described in "The Master of Mankind")? We'll see. If nothing else, this thread has now been brought up to speed, so yeah

As always, let me know what you think!

Nice! Look forward to where this will go, especially since the GW codex is now out.

Cheers, Iliu! Don't expect an army, though -- I already have enough unpainted plastic as it stands

Slap some inquisition stuff on your kitbash custodes, give them a second life as some badass bodyguards.

Great stuff, KS - and Whaley has already typed what I was going to suggest. Either that or paint them as a closely-aligned chapter of Astartes, something like Deathwatch-style Marines that work alongside the Custodes, or a group of Fists (or Fists-and-successors) honour guard that work alongside the Custodes...

Cheers, guys!

Just to clarify, though: While I am probably going to treat these guys as a warband-/retinue-like mini project, it'll still be a proper Custodes retinue, i.e. real, actual Custodians.

That being said, they could still play a role in the INQ28 setting -- not to spoil an excellent novel, but "Carrion Throne" had some pretty sweet ideas on that account. As did the old Dark Magenta sourcebook on Terra as an Inquisitor adventurescape.

Fun fact, however, especially in the light of Azazel's comment: My DIY Space Marine chapter, the Golden Legion, is actually both an IF successor chapter and styles itself as an Astartes force inspired by the Legio Custodes, at least in some respects. There are several reasons for the hubris, but that's a story for another day...