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I have in my possession the Space Marines from a couple AoBR sets from a momentary weakness when I actually considered playing them. (It's embarassing. My friends are still referring to me as "the space marine player" ) Anyway, in some attempt to completely remove the idea of ever trying to do anything with them, and hopefully redeem myself in their eyes, I'm trying to convert them into Grey Knights. Always ready to chomp off a larger bite than I can chew, I ran into the problem with the power fist. It's on the same hand on all of them and it's huge compared with the regular one, and there's no good way to cut it down and maintain any detail whatsoever. I have a test with me just ignoring it and throwing the storm bolter on the back of it anyway. It's not that it looks bad, its just that it doesn't look that good. Anyway, picture below; please let me know if it looks viable or if I gotta do something about it. It's just blue tac-ed together right now other than the ammo box on the bolter itself, so I can pull it apart at will.

Thanks.

Sword (Im assuming you were planning that anyways) and a bunch of scroll type things... then when you paint it make sure it has that writing type stuff that outlines alot of the Grey Knight armour! Those would be the most odvious things I think

It is pretty obvious that it's still a power fist, though possibly when it was finished and painted it would look better.

What about replacing it with a normal space marines hand or would that now be too small?

you could try filing the top of the powerfist down to make a flat lower recess - then try filing down the bottom of the storm bolter a little so it sits in the recess you just created.

also remove the ammo box and try using a bandolier/belt of bullets hanging from the gun.

that should stop it from looking too bulky.

in fact i like that idea so much i might go buy some termies just do this.

hope that helps

@ Vlad: I like the idea of filing down the powerfist to kind of "build" the gun into the fist. If I could do that far enough, I might be able to excuse the fist just saying it's part of the storm bolter arm and not an actual fist itself. As far as the ammo box goes, I like keeping that on there because that is one of the few elements staying similar to the real grey knight. There is no reason why I couldn't file down the side of the fist as well to build it in a bit too. Let me know if you start this up, I'd love to see how you'd do it.

@ Caffeine: I thought about that, but I haven't had a chance to compare scale on them. Of course, I also don't have any space marines with hands that aren't already holding bolters, so I'm kind of at a loss there, though it might give me enough inspiration to try using one as a guide to greenstuff a hand from.

I hope to have some time tonight to play around with it more and see if I can get his arm where I like it. I greenstuffed out a test sword blade last night as well that should be cured up today by the time I get home. I'll have to see how that turned out. Hopefully more pics to come.

Normal Marine arms would be too small.

One other option might be to mount the stormbolter on the back of the right arm, and convert the powerfist into some sort of Nemesis variant.

Maybe (and this is a big maybe... might look rubbish) lop off the fingers, and add a sword blade protruding from the end of what's left of the hand.

cool idea, the sword/powerfist would look awsome if done well

insaniak wrote:Normal Marine arms would be too small.

One other option might be to mount the stormbolter on the back of the right arm, and convert the powerfist into some sort of Nemesis variant.

Maybe (and this is a big maybe... might look rubbish) lop off the fingers, and add a sword blade protruding from the end of what's left of the hand.

This idea fills me with joy. I'm imagining something along the lines of a D&D soulknife character, or something along the lines of this:



But all glowy and stuff. I agree that it could easily look like rubbish, but it is definately something I'm going to look into. I'll see if I can come up with a mock-up tonight.


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Here's what I got so far. I'm not very impressed.




Couple immediate thoughts: Should maybe be a couple inches shorter. It looks long and unwieldly. I'm also thinking that maybe I need to make it less flat and make it look more round to get more of some sort of energy beam effect. Perhaps I could turn it into some sort of katar, but that runs the risk of looking too much like lightning claws.

very nice idea on the hand blade

couple of thoughts on the blade/hand variant: try a blade half that size, roman gladius-esque might be more ideal. maybe check out Assassin's Creed - similar weapon (except on the inside of the arm);
the idea of the blade was to be an extension of the arm so it would be used in a punching motion - so a blade too long just be a hindrance, me thinks!

also how about using some plasticard to get the main blade shape - add a bit of gs to give it a more 3d shape (if thats what you want). then use another piece of plasticard to create the little box/sheath on the arm (use gs to fill the sides in or so). that should give you the hard edges required and should keep it a bit simpler (less sculpting needed)

[I still need to finish painting my 2000pt empire army up before i venture back into purchasing some models newer than 2004 - so i may not be able to show you my version for a little bit]

am quite interested in seeing what the overall models look like - keep the WIP pics coming!

Vlad

Plasticard would be much easier for the blade itself.

I think part of the problem so far though is that the hand as a whole is little bulbous. It would possibly work better if the mounting for it was more flush with the fist.

you coujld make the powerfist into a chainfist kinda thing but with a normal blade?

If you can pull it off, the helmet could use a bit narrowing down so the nose bridge is virtually non-existent - that's a bit of work but it would make the conversion that much better. Most people look at the face of models first thing (natural reaction).

HolyCause wrote:If you can pull it off, the helmet could use a bit narrowing down so the nose bridge is virtually non-existent - that's a bit of work but it would make the conversion that much better. Most people look at the face of models first thing (natural reaction).

Yeah, I took a second look at it and I agree with you there. I was putting off finishing the face until last, so that I could spend more time on it and have a WYSIWYG model in the meantime. Also planning on getting a tiny drill bit and putting the holes in the mask to look more like the pewter ones.

insaniak wrote:I think part of the problem so far though is that the hand as a whole is little bulbous. It would possibly work better if the mounting for it was more flush with the fist.

It is still a little bulbous. I think I'm going to pop off the arm mount and then file down the fist some more to make it more imbedded looking. More hard angles will definitely help. What do you guy's think of a tapered point (like a 'V') versus a broadsword style tip (more like a diamond shape)?

Vlad-X7 wrote:couple of thoughts on the blade/hand variant: try a blade half that size, roman gladius-esque might be more ideal. maybe check out Assassin's Creed - similar weapon (except on the inside of the arm);
the idea of the blade was to be an extension of the arm so it would be used in a punching motion - so a blade too long just be a hindrance, me thinks!

also how about using some plasticard to get the main blade shape - add a bit of gs to give it a more 3d shape (if thats what you want). then use another piece of plasticard to create the little box/sheath on the arm (use gs to fill the sides in or so). that should give you the hard edges required and should keep it a bit simpler (less sculpting needed)

I was previously thinking that I wanted it to be thicker in the center, but now that I think about it, it might not be so bad to keep it completely thin, especially if its going to be more of a punching weapon. I'll work on it some more tonight if I have some time and see what I end up with.

As long as you have the torsos and the storm bolters, why not just get the bitz from the demonhunters of the psyblades and psycannon arms and just file off the psycannons?

you would have a better-looking shoulder, and you'd have less problems than if you made a new part...

That is a brilliant idea. The only problem is that it looks like the NFW bits that GW sells are for power armor GK, not Termies. Granted, when it comes time to deal with my AoBR Tac Squads, that looks like it'll be the way to go. I want to keep the left and right shoulders looking as similar as possible, otherwise I would just get the psycannons alone and convert those. I guess I could use psycannon arms for each shoulder and just chop them off at the elbow for the right arm, but if I'm going to do that, I'd go the less painful way and ebay the plastic termies and use the money from that to buy full on real ones.

Good point. Still, you could probably cut a weapon off at the hand and glue/greenstuff it on.

a cheaper (if you ahve the parts, tho slightly harder) way of producing the NFW would be to use brass rod (drilled through the hand) and plasticard for the blade - stick part of a plasma pistol on it to give you the "power pack" plus a little GS - example simple but effective, plus you can create as many as you want for pittance!

i also thought if you wanted to still do the hand mounted storm bolter you could file the hand as i mentioned before:

you could try filing the top of the powerfist down to make a flat lower recess - then try filing down the bottom of the storm bolter a little so it sits in the recess you just created.

in addition maybe try filing the side of the hand for the ammo box to sit in as well - thus a more integrated system (as well as the hand losing bulk) - then maybe filing the top enough so only the barrels are left - add a little detail if wanted with GS/plasticard to make a more low profile and more integrated weapon. This method, however, involves a lot of filing and almost ruining a storm bolter if it goes wrong...

sorry about my repeated posting in this thread - the idea of redoing some normal termies into some unique looking GK is just awesome - i think it's jealousy of your awesome ideas that i keep spamming the thread with my inane ones... oh well

any more photos of the project?

Vlad

Unfortunately, no new pictures to show. It was a crazy weekend for me. Hopefully I'll have something to show tonight or tomorrow at the latest.

Well, in all the hustle and bustle of the weekend, I managed to misplace my power fist that I'd been cutting down on. The good news is that I can't find my greenstuff either, so I'm sure they're in the same place. I ended up cutting up a new one (hey, I'm converting them all eventually anyway, right?) and I started over from scratch. I went back to the original idea of imbedding the storm bolter in the power fist with the intention of it just being an oversized stormbolter gauntlet thingy (TM). Also shown, lacking a proper weapon, he is wielding his Nemesis Force Pushpin OF DOOOOOM!! I'm thinking about using the brass rod/plasticard method now. I just need to come up with some of the rod. I imagine I'll make a trip to the hobby shop later this week.


I also filed off the chest emblem with preperation to add something a little more daemonhuntery there. I might see if I can find a small book bit or something to put in it's place. I filed down the nose a bit, and I'm going to greenstuff on a collar similar to what the GKPAs have.

Because this isn't too much of an update, I've put some other slightly off topic WIPs below:



This is the sergeant for the termies. Making him fit in was much easier than the regulars because all I had to do was side mount the clip on the bolter and then put it on his wrist. I feel the scale on this guy's bolter works really well when compared with the real ones. I'm thinking the other sergeant I have will be converted into an inquisitor in terminator armor for an HQ choice, though I've not gotten anywhere with that just yet.


A real terminator with a greenstuffed psycannon. I would appreciate thoughts on this one. I think I like it myself; its some of my straighter GS work. I'm not exactly an artist with the stuff so anything that doesn't come out looking like an amorphous blob is a victory in my mind.


This is a homemade Exorcist I pieced together and posted in another thread. I've got it lightly spray primered black and now it's ready to be painted.

Hopefully I'll be able to find my greenstuff and get some real work done shortly.

*EDIT* Fixed Picutres

nice one - they're looking good!

think your starting to get it now

This is a converted blackreach termie. I actually kept the power fist (behind the storm shield), and used a sergeant's arm for the thunderhammer arm. The shoulder is greenstuffed, and the head is the usual work a la this guy http://mgc-projects.info/Web_pages/people/Maverike_prime/?page_id=323.




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These are grey knights converted from AOBR marines .

I've been converting counts-as Gks for a while for when i could take them as allies for my main space marine force, I don't appear to have photographs of all of them, and some have progressed since their taking.



I have at least another one I've made since then, which I used a chainfist for but cut away the chain part and modelled a storm bolter in it's place so the fist looked like some form of large magazine system with the bolter underslung.