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.

In 2008 I put together a few conversions of Blood Pact troopers inspired by the Gaunt's Ghosts novels by Dan Abnett. At the time I had planned to do some Tanith too, however other projects got in the way and it never happened...until now!



Now there are already models available from GW to represent Tanith guardsmen, but these don't fit with either the cover art by Adrian Smith, or my own vision of how they should look.



Having used Catachan and Cadian parts for the Blood Pact, and with these parts being so common in most guard conversions, I wanted to go for something different and even more unique. This, however, means a lot of sculpting and converting will be involved!

To ease the burden of sculpting somewhat, I have decided to use Elysian legs from Forgeworld for the legs of my guardsmen. They fit the look of the Adrian Smith artwork and are also realistically proportioned, sized and detailed.

Sadly however, this means that most parts from the existing plastic guard ranges become unusable due to sizing issues. This means lasguns, heads and equipment all need to come from other sources. Luckily Forgeworld makes a variety of equipment sets that should come in handy, along with the Elysian equipment that comes with the kits.

So far the plan is to do the Gereon Mission team which includes most of the main characters from the novels and many of my favourites. As artwork for specific characters is in short supply, I'll be making a lot of judgements on appearances based on my own mental image evoked while reading the novels - one thing is for certain, they won't look like the overly scruffy dregs that the metal figures make them seem!

Today I spent some time working on the first test model with an aim to getting a standard equipment loadout and appearance sorted. It's early days yet and plenty is open to change, but I think he's shaping up quite well.



I intend this figure to be either Bonin or Mkoll, hence the scout berret (which will have tanith cap badge added). The muscle definition won't show on the finished figure as he will have a sleaveless uniform jacket and shoulder pads etc over the top. The head is from the Catachan command sprue (the new heads fit much better size wise than the old ones), though the jaw and cheeks etc have been drastically shaved down.

The intended pose has him leaning with back to a wall, knife in hand and waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting enemy - very fitting for Tanith scouts I figured!

More on this project soon as I begin to get all the bits and pieces I need together and continue with the sculpting.

I'm liking it so far...

Subscribed!

S_P

Excellent, just finished the third trilogy recently and looking forward to these.

Always enjoy your work CMDante.

Subscribed! I'm looking forward to this

It's like the music from the opening crawl of a star wars movie just started playing

A Gereon Resistance Killteam has always been on my list of things to do. Can't wait to see your take on them.

/subscribed

Just finished the first trilogy, so I'm kinda psyched for this. Keep it up!

Currently reading the books. This has my attention.

Sounds interesting - subscribed!

Love the books, love the tanith, cant wait to see what you have in mind

Sounds like a great project for someone with your talent.

Cheers// Toby

Loved your blood pact, cannot wait to see what you do with this concept. I was a little confused about the pose until you said "leaning against a wall" and then it clicked together in my head. Perfect.

Great start so far. Looking forward to see more.

Looking forward to this! I never did like the GW ghost models and your sculpting skills should produce a super looking army!

Awesome!

Ok, didn't expect to see this one back on the first page given it disappeared pretty quick!

I have actually made some progress on the test model last week:





I'm very proud of the cap badge - it is truly tiny! I'm in two minds as to whether to add the dagger behind. I know it is part of the badge, but I'm not sure whether it will spoil the look or not.

I've since done more work on the musculature, adding in the neck and starting the armature for the left arm.

Still lots to do though!

Cheers,

Dante

Very impressive sculpting my friend!

Don't let that first Korvidae post make you think people arent interested in your stuff, it's just luck of the draw sometimes!

Plainly, your fans are still here

Did you sculpt the head entirely btw? If so, amazing smooth work, love it!

Amazing progress so far CMDante

MajorTom11 wrote:Did you sculpt the head entirely btw?

CMDante wrote:The head is from the Catachan command sprue (the new heads fit much better size wise than the old ones), though the jaw and cheeks etc have been drastically shaved down.

S_P

Very nice, will watch this project. Glad your starting with Mkoll since he's my favorite Ghost =) ("Why doesn't his chair squeek?")

Space_Potato wrote:Amazing progress so far CMDante

MajorTom11 wrote:Did you sculpt the head entirely btw?

CMDante wrote:The head is from the Catachan command sprue (the new heads fit much better size wise than the old ones), though the jaw and cheeks etc have been drastically shaved down.

S_P

You sure? It's awfully... green

Your skills are impressive. Can't wait to see this progress

Nice. I too am a big tannith fan. I'm subscribing.

Oooh, can't wait to see how this develops!

I like where your heading dante, but I fear that the head is too large.

Fan-bleedin-tastic skills, and it looks perfectly proportioned to me. I initially thought that'd be Meryn, since Mkoll's both bearded, and was never young - But something tells me you've thought this one through

MajorTom11 wrote:

Space_Potato wrote:Amazing progress so far CMDante

MajorTom11 wrote:Did you sculpt the head entirely btw?

CMDante wrote:The head is from the Catachan command sprue (the new heads fit much better size wise than the old ones), though the jaw and cheeks etc have been drastically shaved down.

S_P

You sure? It's awfully... green

I think he shaved down the head and then rebuilt it with green stuff and made the beret.

It'd explain the greenish-ness, plus I recognise that head - you can see it on the plasma gunner here:



S_P

Actually guys, as I said before, the head is from the Catachan command frame. All I did was shave the jaw and mouth down and remove the neck stump and eagle on the beret and add the cap badge - sadly I can't claim it as sculpted by me!

@ Empchild - The head will be fine. It's probably hard for you guys to see from the pics as the sculpt work is just armature mass but I have added the base of the neck in and filled out the right arm a bit now and the head is definitely perfectly proportioned.

I honestly can't find any descriptions for Mkolls appearance that describe his face or tattoos. I recall some mention of a beard but I imagined it being a more groomed goatee style. This certainly fits with artwork from the short comic from an old inferno:

http://www.concept-artist.net/apps/photos/photo?photoid=41730808

Been a busy weekend so nothing new worth showing yet. Hoping to get back into the swing of things tomorrow evening though so expect more progress shots soon.

Thanks again for all the kind words guys, your comments and support are much appreciated.

Cheers,

Dante

Ah, I see - that's a cool little comic, never seen it before. My mental image is based upon the GW conversions from the 3rd ed White Dwarf article: http://redelf.narod.ru/w40k/ig/w40k_ig_gaunt2.html but your dude is lean and mean, which is going to be cool anyway.

I think in my head he's got short hair and a full but well-trimmed beard, but what you're creating there is awesome, so who cares?

Also, something I was wondering - how're you planning on making the armour look? I've seen a few Tanith conversions around on the web, and a lot of them are too chunky, either being Catachan-muscley or Cadian-armoured. I think a pretty simple tunic, a-la Tallarn, is about the most protection they'd have, or maybe something roughly equivalent to current combat armour. What's your plan?

Looking forwards to seeing some more pics,

Cap'n R

The DKoK lasguns that Pariah Zero over at Warseer kindly sent me arrived today so I can begin to move things on a bit again now that the lasgun issue is solved (DKoK lasguns fit perfectly size and scale wise!).

Captain Roderick - yes, totally agree on the armour front. What I plan is for military fatigues (probably sleeveless jackets on all or most) and shoulder and kneepads in the style of the Adrian Smith artwork.

Basically, one side with smooth surfaced shoulder and kneepad and one side with padded leather knee and shoulder pads.

Like this (GD Spain winner by Banshee):



Cheers,

Dante

yowza, that is utterly insane beauty.

I look forward to your models being better than that...

i can't wait to see more of this wip,i love the characters in the books.