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Looking good! Love the conversions - they are very dynamic.

many much thanks guys!

Got round to getting some more CF guys done:


Karlos Banderos-Assantos-Alamontanos
Heavy Bolter specialist


Martinez
The Steely-Eyed missile-man

An interesting experiment in heavy weapon specialists.

The ML was intended as a close-to-rtb01 in plastics as I could and uses the ML from the mk4 set. Allbeit reposed at-ease.
This is the first mini in this group that actually uses one of the new mk6 helmets actually on his head, the rest either carried or alternatives helmets altogether, and on this one, I find it makes him look a little smaller, nicely emphasizing the absurd hugeness of the weapon, I mean who uses mag-loaded rocketlaunchers, seriously! MAD! but great and also pure 80's cheese. I added a couple of spares on the belt (to reference the old kit) and did those in appropriately 80's cartoon rocket colours...
I could not find reference of or honestly remember the RT era symbol for the missile specialist so I just used the contemporary astartes devastator logo instead and freehanded a yellow one on with some added weathering for added detail. I also added a boltpistol as a backup too because, missiles tend to run out fast on rynns world (ohhh, too soon? )
yup, he does have mismatched arms, but if I'd not have mentioned it, would you honestly have noticed?


The heavybolter takes the conversion in the opposite direction. He uses a primaris marine as a base (phobos torso on intercessor legs) to make the heavy bolter seem a little less ubsurdly large and somehow more man-portable. (well, space-marine portable...)
as aforementioned the conversion is the same as one I did on the spacesharks but this time using beakie head and pads, as well as shaved shins to round out the look.
I went for the sternguard heavy bolter for the ease of conversion and went to town on the extra mag-boxes (using a spare on the belt and the sternguard backpack) and a backup boltpistol.
again, the casings are anvil shotgun shells.
note the heavy bolter specialist badge on his pad, just as promised tauist!
I know its quite 3rd edition looking with this bolter and that, but I love that asthetic. It just looks so brutally uncompromising...




this primaris conversion was good practice for the characters to come...






Nope, I've already said too much. You'll just have to wait and see

osjclatchford, exceptional. These are great man and loving your explanation and thought process you've added in, great work

well thanks Baz! thats very much appreciated!

anyway...

what could this mean then..?

hmm, no clues regarding the backpack then?
well.
wait and see, it'll reveal itself in time I'm sure...


anyway, got three more selby 151st infantrymen done today:



I decided to do spence with his watchcap in green to differ from clint's dark one from before.
I wanted clint to look dark and moody as the stealthiest and darkest operative of the team. spence is much more no-nonsense front and centre kinda guy. for a bit of brightness and to have him tie in with col. sumner's bullpup boltgun, I did the stock of the shotty in synthetic green to add a bit of tacticool feel to him. I feel it makes the weapon seem more modern and less oldskool. remember, I used these shotguns with wooden stocks on my 39th sappers so I fancied a bit of distance between the two forces but perhaps a suggestion of a shared ancestry of kit.


Ford is a much more allround standard-issue looking member of the crew.
I wanted him thus so its why he has such a standard pose, providing cover for the others as they advance.
for a bit of character I decided the badge on his backpack should be a smiley. because why not?
In truth I'm not happy at all as to how the arms have failed to line up as well as they did prior to painting. I dont know what happened there but perhaps I had more bluetack between the arm and shoulder than I realised... nevermind done know.
I'll never stop noticing it but there it is. but then, there's always one mini in a squad you're never 100% with.
if this is it then I can deal with it! LOL


Not much to say about O'neill other that somewhere between underccoating and finish he's lost his cigarette somewhere.
ah, well perhaps he's in the process of reloading or reaching for the blade at his belt...
just have to use your imagination...


so, still three more of these to go and a couple of real characters for the crimson fists to get done to finish these two current projects off.

but worry ye not, I've another inquisitor on the go, this time ordo malleus and a whole new bunch of armed bastards hailing from the Eoforwich system, soon to grace the thread with their presence...

so, yeah.
it never ends, but I mean that in the best possible way of course!

The shotgunner is my favourite

Working on some DKoK now? If so, can't wait!

Thanks. He's my favourite too, so far!

And no. Not kreigsmen. Kinda got the trench guard theme covered with my engineers and that.
No, this upcoming group will be clad in carapace and brimming in 3rd edition references and will be hard as nails, of course... hint, It's what that backpack is going on...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Decided I couldnt stand the arm position on ford so I've adjusted the join so that the hand on the foregrip is back where I had it prior to undercoating.

You guys probably wont even notice the change but then I'm sure you're not as ocd about these things as I am (remembering the pocket fiasco with the 39th infantrymen).

anyway, still not perfect but a damn sight better now.
I mean, before, his index and middle finger were past the end of the foregrip.
now they are siuated right onthe end of it.
his thumb is still floating off into thin air but, you know what? shucks, its done now and is as it was prior to paint if nothing else! LOL

That backpack is for stormtroopers isn’t it? The first metal sculpts have the same style! I love mine, got them off a decent chap around here somewhere…

He sounds like quite a stand up guy.

Not the sort of bloke who sells all his 3rd edition stormtroopers to a fellow guard hobbyist and then waits two or so years just to send 60 or more quid on kits and bits to recreate the design of said classic metal minis in five savagely converted plastic and resin minis... In the new official gw approved scale for guardsmen of course...

Not at all.

Still, I'm sure he's the sort of guy who relishes the fact that said metal stormtroopers went to a good home, got a great paintjob and didn't break the buyers wallet, and most of all, snookered any would be scalpers on eBay from taking the piss out of any other pleasant hobbyist wanting to add some third edition chunkiness to their ever expanding guard army...






* gold star to the gentleman who remembers the 3rd ed st backpacks.

Fantastic updates, awesome looking guard.

More very cool guardmen, Spence is my favourite
Looking forward to seeing your take on the stormtroopers, I wish they brought out a modernised version of them...

Love the guardsmen and the Elysian-style rifles

 Guardling wrote:
More very cool guardmen, Spence is my favourite
Looking forward to seeing your take on the stormtroopers, I wish they brought out a modernised version of them...

Like these? Not quite everyone’s cup of tea I imagine, but nice to have the parts.

https://madrobotminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=19&products_id=635

Yeah, thanks guys...

Ragsta's on the right track here:

Strike at zero hour, With overwhelming firepower...

First of the new stormtroopers done.


As you can see I have indeed used the new madrobot irdoni heads, arms and weapons on the body of a nucadian kasrkin.
specifically the demo-trooper torso variant as this armour is the best mondern analogue to the classic ST armour. I mean, just look at it? its clearly heavy duty stuff but its still guard issue. cloth covered flexible flak-jacket type armour.
I personally can't stand the aesthetic of the scion minis, what the hell was that amour about eh? no, I love me some 3rd ed goodness and this is firmly where this conversion was going.
For a bit of distiction I decided to paint the carapace plates (his helm, backplates and gauntlets) in the armour colours used on my filey 42nd and Eoforwich 39th, but do all the chest armour and extra plates in in the darkangels green amour (caliban green in new money?) that I've been doing on my Selby 151st.
Although intended to go with my Selby troops, which are also based on the nucadians, I figured I should show a mix of amours to enforce visuals of the whole up-amoured nature of a stormtrooper.
Also, 3rd edition stormtrooper colurschemes tended to feature matching camo on the arms, legs and bedrolls, so I figured that the good ol' Eoforwich Peadot could come back to the fore on these, leaving the shin/leg armour rig the perfect place to utilise the grey scheme used on all troops of the Eoforwich system, but also including the darker grey on the kneepads, as on the selby boys.
The vest itself (you know, the bit visible under the armour but over the top of the legs), was done in the simple two-tone green camo as on the 151st.
A choice made necessary by the fact that original ST's did not have these type of fatigues on.
Another thing that had to be changed on the fly was, as I'd used the steel-legion-drab that I usually do the gaiters for the selby guys on the main camo, I figured I could simply do the gaiters in death-korps-drab instead, doing the front shin 'plates' as the soft dark-angels-green armour as on the chest.
when building him, there were obvious 3rd edition refenences that just had to be there (alongside the irdoni heads, arms and guns of course) these being; the oldcadian waterbottle, the bullets on his shoulder (taken from the deathwatch sprue), classic big third-ed grenades (from the nowold sternguard kit), the big holstered pistol (from the heavy intercessor kit) and the converted DKOK backpacks you've seen already as WIP.

the pose is based on this peice of art:

I've managed that nicely I feel...

If nothing more than a proof of concept I think it works, and creates a design that is clearly heavily inspired by the third edition era guard but feels more like the natural evolution of visuals that the current nucadians are from their earlier 2000's predecessors.
mostly thats down to the madrobot parts, but also all the bits I've chosen have clearly hammered-home the image too.
The bomb-vest is also a major feature that I'll need to replicate on any and all further conversions. so FYI I'm on the hunt for more of those for the rest of my kasrkin asap!


here he is next to one of the nucadians I've recently been converting.
Yup, suitably bigger but not absurdly so.

still if you want a laugh, here's a shot of him next ot one of his metal predecessors prior to painting...

LOL... what a joke the old proportions look now, eh?

more soon I hope, as soon as I can get hold of an actual box of kasrkin (I bought this guy as a single mini on ebay as a test peice) and also I'll need more of those bomb-vest to complete the look...

sigh... this is going to cost a fortune isnt it... ;D

Just keep on chipping away at the bitz aquisitions, sooner or later you'll have enough for what you planned for.. Although, if these torsos only come one per a box of 10, its going to take a while..

He looks fab by the way!

thanks.

to be honest I'm still not 100% sold on it.

I thought it was the camo making it looked cluttered? so I ditchhed it for plain tan-brown

yeah, it is better but, as I say not 100% sold on him.

Perhaps I'm just done with green-brown-grey combo I've been at for so long...

I've something more colourful in mind as well but as I say, not totally sure yet...
time will truly tell when I get my mits on a box of kasrkin and get kitbashing...

Nice work on the storm trooper!
I don't think there's to much difference between camo and plain pattern, although at first glance it very difficult to differentiate between him and your "regular" troops

What does make him weird in my eyes is that he's not in Inquisition colours haha

Ha! Yeah the old red and black became the go to colour for the classic stormtroopers once the kasrkin and then the scions kit supplanted them as standard stormtroopers.

Fyi, I've got hold of the kasrkin at last. Had a play about and decided that it's not enough just to use the bomb vest to make them look 3rd ed inspired. The neck/collar area is still missing that iconic look...
As such I've started the butchering of a perfectly serviceable plastic kit and the always exciting, injection of anvil industry parts to seal the deal!

Also, it turns out I oddly prefer the kasrkin hellguns over the madrobot classic style, mostly due to the chunk of them over the sleeked-down madrobot ones.
Those are very visually 3rd ed but the scale seems more on par with fw resins. Think elysian or dkok lasguns. It's the mag that shows this most. They feel like they'd be perfect if printed just 10% bigger than they are, if you know what I mean? I bought these as cast not prints so, yeah. I guess I'll use them on something else...

However the resultant mess of parts I have on the go is actually a damn good mix between the two styles, all the best of both worlds, 3rd ed and kasrkin all in one. But you'll have to wait till I've got one done and dusted to see for yourself...

I love that stormtrooper, mate. Great use of bits, and an excellent homage to that nice piece of art. The current Scions don’t do it for me.

I need to get those old metals into a game now…

The new Cadians, I find, are pretty much a perfect update. Looking forward to your further conversions.

thanks guys.

In truth, I've not been motivated enough to get anything else painted of late.

In fact I've still a Crimson Fist character I'm more than half way through painting at the min just sitting there waiting.
but with good reason.

I've been using my hobby time one these:


97th scions, 3rd battallion, Currently seconded to the Selby 151st infantry division, Eoforwich system

so as you can see I've reworked my previous attempt at kasrkin based stormtroopers.
As aforementioned. Ive dug into my anvil bits and gone for the tried and tested OSJC method of doing carapace armour, anvil's heavy torso.
these with the madrobot heads and the dkok backpacks are the perfect mix to get that 3rd ed look I wanted.
It has been mentioned that my initial scion currently looked rather too similar to my regular troops.
In hindsight I tend to agree.
For one, the colours are overly cluttered, which I will fix on these, but its the lack of shoulder pauldrons (although faithfull to 3rd ed) that reduce the overall uparmoured look they need, this as well as the overly slimline madrobot hellguns also hinder the look of an elite trooper in carapace armour.

well no longer.
I decided that what was needed was a firm blend of the kasrkin and 3rd ed st's with a little flavour of the scions added in for good measure. all the best bits that make them chunky-bad-assed sons-of-bitches that are armed to the teeth and taking no prisoners.

for those willing to replicate these, I can say that, unless otherwise stated below, all minis use grenades taken from the vanguard marines kit, waterbottles are from the old cadian minis (but catachan infantry/command kits have a ideal ones), holsters and pockets come from heavy intercessor, infiltrator and regular intercessor kits hith and yon with some pockets actually being from the kasrkin kit itself.
The backpacks are made from dkok packs with the canister trimmed from the bottom and the trio of canisters on the 'bar' made from plasticard rod and glued on.


The first mini I decided to do in this new style was this guy, loosly based off of this artwork:

I started by trimming away the existing torso just past the belt and grafted the anvil one in place. just as I'd do on all the others.
this has actually resulted in an even taller stature to the minis. yes even taller than the kasrkin are already, but its fine. I mean look at them, they're not really strange looking or oddly proportioned at all.
the only trouble it brings is having to remove existing pockets/nades and kit and replacing with alternatives to hide the uglier joins etc...
but thats kinda my jam so I had no trouble there...
I chose the radio operator arms for the cool at ease pose and simply whittled a cigar from 1.5mm styrene rod and glued this in between the fingers onthe right hand.
the hellgun uses a magazine from an old cadian kantral lasgun in place of the wires, the cables being something I've always disliked on stormtroopers.
This does two things, makes conversions like these a doddle and also gives a nod back to the old 3rd ed hellguns, which were also mag-loaded, yet preserves the ultra high-tech looking hellgun aesthetics which I decided I preferred for the added chunk it gives the mini.
The tiny knife on the chest was lifted from a catachan' arm.


Next up was this guy wielding a 'judge-pump' from the new arbites kill-team kit.
I simply had to have this shotgun (or similar at least; scout, deathwatch or breacher's kits have similar for those interested) in order to replicate the shotgun guy in this classic stormtrooper art:

yes, a bit of a struggle to get on kasrkin arms but I managed by using the flamer arms and some gs to join the handplate on the left arm back onto the wrist properly.
aded details include the shells on the chest (from the new ork snaggas I think?) and the stun grenade from the palanite enforcers kit.


next up I wanted a demolitions expert.
This guy uses the medic at ease rifle arm (shaved clean of its logo) and the meltabomb wielding arm is one of the plasma gun support arms.
Aside the meltabomb, he also includes the 'special' grenade bandolier from the dkok kit and some dynamite charges on his belt which are actually musket powder charges taken from the empire handgunners kit.
I feel he looks suitably encumbered and burdened... although with glorious purpose, I'm sure...


Next up was a gunner/specialist.
Its no surprise to anyone here that I love grenade-launchers and the arbites 'justice launcher' is no exception.
It's just so damned chunky and brutal looking, hell it looks like it fell out of one of the quake games!
again, a cowson to graft onto the kasrkin arms, but I managed it with a set of plasmagun arms and, as with the judge-pump, greenstuff on the left hand join/backplate.
added kit includes the grenade shells from the long-suffering atalan jackals kit (not visible on this shot), a facemask from the old cadian command set (one of the new kasrkin ones would have done, I suppose, but it would have neede more work than I desired) and this was an experiment to cover one of the annoying shouty heads that I'm never a fan of and it worked so well he made it into the squad!
the final addition was his custom backpack, again from the atalan jackals kit.
I chose this for its slightly bigger appearance to suggest that its loaded with 'nades and the obvious aliens reference of the stubby shotty, tucked in the back, "for close encounters".
All I did to it was shave off the gsc logo and add on the canisters/bar, albeit slightly askew to show where the shotgun had displaced it somewhat when tucked in.


finally a squad of ultimate bad-asses needs a real hard-as-nails leader.
I chose to use the medic body (well, legs I suppose ) and pocket opening arm and then use the scions jacket with a radio hand taken from the nucadian set. I felt it looks like he's either just got it out or is putting it back.
to further seal the deal on the command nature of the figure, I opted to add the medals from the dkok kit...

yes, there's still a ton of cleanup, general tidying and bases to finish before painting begins but its a hell of a start...

finally some scions I'm happy with...

more soon...

Such a great use of that cloak bit - probably one of my favorite Guard pieces. From a fellow guard infantry nerd - love all of this! amazing conversions, can't wait to see the stormtroopers painted up.

They look extremely sexy. Please put paint on them.

Very nice stormtroopers!
I think they definitely look a bit meatier than the first one, looking forward to seeing them painted!

Aww yeah! These will look stunning once painted

Great work on those Stormtroopers, different weapona look great. Gives them more of a spec ops vibe.

Great looking stormies. Love the last one too, very true to the originals.

Such nice comments, thanks guys!


Corporal Kowalski of the 97th Scions, 3rd Battallion
yup, it works.
keeping the colourscheme much MUCH less cluttered has resulted in a neater and more succinct version of the stormtroopers I was trying to create.
I kept all the carapace armour the same dark green as my infantry, the only exception being the mollee sections on the chest and back which I simply used the same green camo as on the flack vest and trou.
talking of the trousers, I decided to put the same camo as on the vest and sleeves on them, instead using the knee pad webbing to place the grey in there. As you can see I also put the grey on the packpack's bedroll, at this point I felt the mini had quite a bit less grey than the regular infantry does and, as I'd decided not to use the tan on these, was the ideal place to add more.
I did, however, use the same light green I did the eoforwich 'hard' armour on the canisters on the backpack and this felt fine as I'm also doing the frag grenades this colour on these stormies, so its not out of place or anything and, being green amongst green, not too cuttered.
The mini was starting to look pretty dark so instead of doing the gaiters as armoured panels I elected to simply paint them the same cloth as on my regular selby infantrymen.
This, and the last minute decision to do the wooden stock on the rifle helped to lighten him up a bit.
So glad I did the wooden stock, the gun looks that little bit less sci fi, matching my eoforich system's diespunk theme and its a nice visual sparkle on the mini, showing off a different material to black steel and plastic.
To be honest, it looks kinda like an fg42, which is never a bad thing...
The pockets, packs, holsters and webbing were done in my usual two brown tones I do leather in...
so yeah, one down, four to go!

while I was at it...

sgt Riley, explosive specialist, Selby 151st infantry division
Riley was simply done as I've done my other 151st troopers.
I used the light tan colour on the rank designation pad and I also added a bit of red in there on the grenade to suggest at an AN/M14 incendiary grenade or what-have-you.
His launcher was done in simple battered black/steel finish to make it look its age. I wanted it to look as old as the second edition mini-designs its based off of and as such should look like an old relic of the armoury that riley is too much of a sentimentalist to part from.
Again, as on the commander's bolter, I decided to do the stock in synthetic green (not only to match) but also because it would make sense that something that huge would need a plastic stock to keep the weight down!

I painted these at the same time so that I could visually better feel the differences betwen the infantry and elites. something i'll likely do as I paint the others...

Now, before you ask, here is a pic of the two together:

A perfect way to show off the scale oddities between the cadians and kasrkin.
now, you've got to remember that my tinkering has added slight height to Kowalski but, look at the legs, definately bigger. these models are the same faction and were released within a month of each other.
so yeah, gw is definately a bit hit and miss on the scale these days.
I've got over it though and its not really a problem as, as gaming peices, they are easily distinguishable on the table, the base size helping thus also.

my poor old crimson fist is looking at me half painted in the cabinet and weeping you know...

so, yeah more soon!

Kowalski colorscheme looks spot on from here! Kasrkin next to a nuCad looks almost as if the Kasrkin was an Astartes tier beefcake..

Stormtrooper looks ace!
Looking forward to seeing the rest of them.
Also love Riley's launcher, great conversion