Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I've always loved the look of steampunk, and while granted I haven't delved into the genre that much (I think my experience is simply watching Trigun and seeing steampunk pictures and interpretations online) I am interested in bringing the idea into 40k and a modelling project. I have yet to do any converting, working with greenstuff, or custom modelling whatsoever, so I figure that I may try my hand out at dong a few models. I'm sure a steampunk army has been attempted numerous times and I was curious as to peoples thoughts on which army lends itself best to this type of interpretation? I was thinking that Orks and Imperial guard could probably work best in steampunk varients but wanted to know what's been attempted and if anyone has advice for me or knows off the top of their head conversions that have been done already that would be good for inspiration.

I'm not neccissarily talking about building an army that I would be tournament legal as I'm not much of a gamer. I'm thinking more of something I can build for show, and maybe play some friendly games with if it comes to that.

So are there any other steampunk fans that care to weigh in on what they've seen or what would work well as a conversion army?

Steampunk is really bland and played out. Don't do this and you'll be happier with your army down the road.

If you want to give it a go, why not?

There are a few steam punk armies out there, I have a plog I am watching here on dakka where someone is making steam punk SM.

They are replacing the backpacks with boilers with little smoke stacks etc. Think they are also adding external braces and cogs to the arms and legs to give that steam punk look of primitive-ness.

With orks it would be difficult to tell them apart from other orks given the ramshackle way all their tech is (unless you were really amazing at converting and scratch building and had a really clear vision and design).

IG might be OK, but unless you were doing a tank regiment, or a heavily mechanised guard, there is not all that much that you can do in the way of steam punk that I can think off the top of my head.

MasterSlowPoke wrote:Steampunk is really bland and played out. Don't do this and you'll be happier with your army down the road.

Well... it really doesn't matter to me how many people have done it. I'm interested in creating it so I have something I feel I did a good job on and looks nice on the self. If others have done it a lot then that would only make this goal easier to accomplish. I appreciate the advice and if I was worried about the reaction of "Oh, another steampunk army" then I'd definately take that to heart, but as its more of a personal project, I'm not too worried

@SilverMK2
I understand your point for the orks. My rational behind them was actually that they had such ramshackle tech, that it would be a lot easier to ad in gears and pistons galore (plus the idea of victorian looking orks with monocles and top hats was just too funny!)

Yeah for IG I was thinking a bit more of a mech army and outfitting their various tanks and walkers with a more Steam Punk look. My concern with using marines is that the tanks and Dreds tend to look so blocky, I just wasn't sure how I'd be able to change them to look less like a dark bleak future, and more in the steam punk style.

Thanks for pointing out the SM blog I did a quick search after I make the orignal post and took a look at it. Some very nice work there! I'll definately keep watching it for updates!

Anything looks better with cogs, bass and polished wood! Go ahead I think it could be awesome.

For inspiration: This is a classic steampunk converted ork stompa http://www.coolminiornot.com/167594

I'm currently building a genestealer cultist army and I happened to build my last two models in a pretty steampunk/pulp look. (Check the last bunch of pics in the thread linked in my sig, it's ze Doctor) And I got all inspired. Now I'm researching different strange ways to build mechanical wonder wings for my infantry to represent gargoyles.

A very challenging and novel army to steampunk would be eldar. They are so sleek and stringent, so I think the victorian ideals of self control etc would work very well as inspiration for their tech and look.

I've never been a huge fan of Steam Punk but I would definitely be interested in this for the sake of the modelling aspect! Wheres that subscribe button...

I imagine this would be tough. But it'd look cool if done right. Although more of a fantasy type of setting, you might want to check out the PC game Arcanum for inspiration. They had a somewhat steampunk setting going while still having the various fantasy races (orcs included). I would love to see some orcs with a monocle and a trench coat kind of look.

@Mellon Thanks for the link, that looks incredible! And the Eldar would actually be an interesting way to go! I've always liked their warwalkers and it may be an interesting starting point to try and make steam versions of them... hmm! Between the SM, Eldar, and Ork ideas it may be difficult to settle on an army to go with. Ultimately I think I may try and convert some regular orks just for the fun of it. Maybe I'll use it as a starting point to give myself a bit of experience using green stuff. I don't think it would be too hard to do...

Why not?

SilverMK2 wrote:
With orks it would be difficult to tell them apart from other orks given the ramshackle way all their tech is (unless you were really amazing at converting and scratch building and had a really clear vision and design).

Very much agreed and after looking at the link mellon posted, I have to agree even more. Ork steampunk just looks like Ork... Orkiness.

Eldar are an interesting choice... our stuff seems a bit too streamlined and "artistically" bumpy to effectively steam punk but I would be curious to see the results.

He, a google image search for +steampunk +eldar gives no relevant results on the first five or so pages. Awesome, a new idea :-)

Mr 4 Strings: promise you will post some pics of your early works. And check out some guides for working with greenstuff, youtube is a good source for them. It's not very hard.

MasterSlowPoke wrote:Steampunk is really bland and played out. Don't do this and you'll be happier with your army down the road.

I believe the correct answer to this is...'So's your face!'

@OP

A friend of mine likes his steampunk and so he's converted some of his orks to that extent and they look pretty good. He also has some vostroyans that he's doing the same too, which are also turning out nicely. If you want to do guard it think vostroyans are the way to go (if you dont mind all the russian hats and mustaches) because their guns looks like wood and brass anyway, so its a good start. I've also seen pictures of come conversions that a guy has done for his orks to make them steam-punky floating around on the gallery.

I'll do my best. I'm not the greatest at modeling but I'll post something as long as its not complete rubbish. As it will be my first attempt at doing custom work I don't have high hopes but I think tonight and this weekend will be a lot of research and practice.

@Regwon excuse my ignorance but what would vostroyans be?

@ Mr 4: Imperial Guardsmen modelled off of Czarist Russian forces and Cossacks. The Valhallans are modelled after Soviet forces. You can find Vostroyan models on the GW site in the IG troops section.

Thanks! I'm still new to the hobby so I'm not as familiar with all GW offers.

No problem. One of the first things I did when I got into 40k was to just look at like everything on their site. If you have any friends with codices, ask if you can borrow them! Alternatively troll dakka

Haha yeah! My roommate plays Imperial Guard and collects Cadian foces. I've seen the Catachan but I hadn't realized there was the Vostroyan as well. I actually like the look of them a lot more than the Cadian forces!

Definitly, if I was to play Guard it would be Vostroyan all the way!

Mr 4 Strings wrote:Haha yeah! My roommate plays Imperial Guard and collects Cadian foces. I've seen the Catachan but I hadn't realized there was the Vostroyan as well. I actually like the look of them a lot more than the Cadian forces!

They also cost a lot more, unfortunately

And come in far fewer poses, and have far less equipment for them, sadly. Not too much of a problem if you like converting stuff though.

If you wanted to convert some Cadians, you could look at companies like Pig Iron who sell bits for conversions - there is a list of good places for modelling resources here. A head and weapon swap are fairly simple ways of making a fairly different looking army.

Steampunk eldar just wouldnt work IMO... like tau the eldar only work because they all high tech and curves if you made them steampunk it would just be wrong.

Go for IG or nids if your crazy.

Hm... nids with monocles and top hats...

I can imagine nids, but metallic constructs rather than bioconstructs. That would be pretty easy to steampunk.

Kind of like the look of the Kruthiks in DnD? (They are supposedly reptiles but the minis of them are painted in shiny silver and they look kind of like robot bug things)

Cybernetic Nids (steampunk or not) can look great (they can also look terrible if badly converted). Of course you need some good army fluff to explain them - personally I like the idea that some barking mad human scientist thinks he can breed nids 'safely' to serve the Imperium and can even 'improve' them with cybernetic implants. And the whole project goes so well... at first...

Steampunk Eldar could also be interesting as a modelling challenge. I'd probably go for an army of hi-tech humans (not part of the imperium) who've developed effective but crude imitations of Eldar tech - they won't look like eldar but will count-as eldar codex units.

I was thinking more along the lines of clockwork people/creatures/monsters with pretty varied body shapes (like tyranids). All pistons, gear and stuff. Not neccessarry a skin on top, more like a casing, or armour plates here and there with lots of mechanics visible in the gaps. I wanted it to look a bit as if they had grown out of mehcanical parts of their own volition rather than having been built.

But this is all just in my head of course :-)


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Clang wrote:Cybernetic Nids (steampunk or not) can look great (they can also look terrible if badly converted). Of course you need some good army fluff to explain them - personally I like the idea that some barking mad human scientist thinks he can breed nids 'safely' to serve the Imperium and can even 'improve' them with cybernetic implants. And the whole project goes so well... at first...

One NPC in my current dark heresy campaign is doing exactly this. The best part is that it was one of the player characters who gave me the idea. I tried to soothe their fears by stating "No worries, this previously genestealer infected plantet has since then been terraformed by the adeptus mechanicus." whereupon one player bursts out "By the Emperor! Terraformed mechanicus improved genestealers, we are going to diiiiie!". I rewarded him with some bonus xp for giving me that shiny idea :-)

Steampunk, like all large scale conversions is a high risk. If done correctly it will look incredible, while if done poorly it will look like a bunch of space marines that have guitar wire and watch parts glued to them.