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So, in a fit of insanity, I've decided to try out the master of ordnance a bit in the near future. The problem, of course, is getting a model for one. I was going to just use my officer of the fleet (who has now also filled the role of commissar), because he looks like an adviser. Then I saw a model that was sitting in the "dust collection" part of my shelf:



Back in the day, I wanted a standard, so I bought the GW blister pack that came with a standard bearer and a medic. I had absolutely no use for a medic (still don't...), but he came with a lasgun, and I was desperately short on dudes. As such, I converted him up by splicing and attaching a the old improved comms vehicle upgrade, and snipping off the hand/blood pouch. The idea was that I could always use him as a master vox carrier or something. He spent a little bit of time in my army, but was shelved at the soonest ability (interestingly, not long before the standard bearer, who also remains on the shelf unpainted after I decided to convert one of my own after all).

Having already turned this guy into a radio operator, I decided that I'd like to recycle this old model into a dedicated Master of Ordnance. After all of the scratch-building and partial-scratch-building, I was curious to see how easy it would be to do just a regular old conversion.

I'd had some bad experiences attempting to work with metal in the past, but that was then, this was now. Plus, the amount of metal I'd have to work with was small.

With a radio already in his hand, there were only two things I wanted to add. The first was to turn the random thingamagiger in his hand into a range finder/scanner. I could easily remove it from his hand and put it on his belt and attach it to the auspex-looking-thing.

The other thing I wanted was a map. This, of course, would have to be made from greenstuff.

Conversion started with some horrible, ugly work with a wire cutter. A little knifework cleaned it up a bit, leaving me with actually little headache for working with metal.



After this, it was preparing a head. Usually I'd do my crazy head, hair and moustache routine, but this time I wanted him actually shouting into a microphone, and didn't feel particularly inspired, so I just put on one from the infantry sprue. Likewise, a simple, chopped down arm from the cadian sprue put on the left arm. Doing a little cleanup work with GS and adding on some bitz, the process was going smoothly.



After this, it was just cleaning up the collar, and general messing around.

The only thing missing was the map, which I had taken a chunk of my GS and flattened it way out on my desk before the rest of the steps. Now, an hour and a half later, it was cut into a square and smooshed into the hand. The end result wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but I didn't feel like messing with it any more.

The end result came out pretty well, especially for what was just a single greenstuff session.



Then it was a matter of painting it up. This went pretty quickly, and he just went in the color of my regular guardsmen. He's a master of ordnance, not an officer after all. The only thing that I still am not so sure about is the map. I looked at lots of different types of combat maps, and I picked the one I thought would be the easiest to paint. I'm not a big fan of the white map running into the white uniform, but I can't think of what else to do. In any case, it's clearly a map...



... and it's clearly a guy calling in artillery. Done and done.

With this guy complete, I now have all three advisers converted up!



And, of course, the poster:




By popular demand, here's a close-up of the map (remember, it's much smaller in real life):



After some suggestions, I also yellowed the map a bit. I definitely like it better:

Thats impressive love the conversion work you did and the paint job =).

Another Impressive feat of conversion and painting. Hats off again Ailaros. Love the posters as always. The men of Folera always manage to give me a chuckle.

Nice.

Can you post a close up photo of the map?

As always, your work -- especially on faces -- is brilliant! Thanks for posting such ace content!

Thanks.

So, here's a close-up of the map. Remember that this thing is smaller than it looks...



I'm stuck between leaving it as-is, and changing it to a different color scheme. Because the map is white and the uniform is white, the two kind of run into each other, but I'm not all that confident in my ability to make it look like a convincing map in any other palate...

Some gryphonne sepia ought to do the trick.

Some what?

That is an absolutely amazing level of detail on that tiny map. Bravo Sir, Bravo!

Maybe a light wash over just the map would help distinguish it from the uniform (I think that's what Manchu meant too)

One of the Citadel washes -- a "light" brown.

Like so:

Okay, I concocted a wash out of mixing some paints to give the map a more yellow-sienna color. I definitely like this better. Looks more like a map, and is actually at least slightly distinguishable from the uniform (it is actually a bit moreso than shown in the picture).

Looks better.

I wonder if the maps Guardsmen use are as ancient and mysterious to them as the rest of their gear . . .

(((((((7777th POST!)))))))

Nice work as always. I thought the original post was the MOO to be honest, with some kind of laser designator thingy

I think the most impressive bit about your conversions is that you jump onto painting them so quickly afterwards Hope you have fun with the MOO as my one has always done well for me, even against non-horde armies.

Nice work, Ros! The map looks great, definitely needed that wash. Love the poster.

Nice, great detail on the map.

This guy looks really cool. Well done!

That is fantastic. It's characterful even compared to your army's already high standard.

Awesome! I love the freehand on the map

great work i love the originality of your miniatures.great map also.

Once again Aliaros I am impressed by your converting, greenstuffing and painting skills and your imagination in your creations. As a struggling IG army builder your posts are great inspiration for me to keep working at it.

Love the conversion, especially the map. Nice job!

Fantastic as always

Loving the map great work!

Really good convertion, I like the map. I really like how all of your guys are converted, really well done.

Great work on this guy.

He has tons of character.

Ailaros wrote:

And, of course, the poster:

You'd be surprised how many calls for fire end up sounding just like that. lol great work.

Excallent work once again

Another great addition to an army which is full of character. Being an Redleg myself I can really relate to a Forward Observer screwing up another Call For Fire.

Looks nice. Good freehand on the map.

I see lots of pics of your army and I must say it's excellent. The dark skin is really well done and probably the best I've seen.