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 run a Deathwatch rpg for some friends and decided to convert a 40k model for everybody's characters. It's an insane endeavor, but I really enjoy building things. I got most of my parts from ebay, because it's a great resource for buying exactly the right parts. Not all the parts have arrived yet, but that never stops me from starting work.

Here are the first few models, WIP. We've been playing for almost 3 years now and everyone is Rank 6 (out of a possible 8) which means each character is a pretty unique and beautiful unkillable death machine. I didn't use the standard Deathwatch campaign setting and instead made an entire sector of my own. Because I like to create stuff. It's called the Darion Sector (I posted some background info on it here if you want to read up on it. There's still a lot of transcribing I have to do. I'm old fashioned, I write with a pen on paper most of the time.

This is Brother Yusuf. He is a tactical marine of a custom chapter of space marines called the Aeonic Legion. He is the last known survivor of his chapter. His weapons were all manufactured locally by planets with access to Golden Age Technology. I used Anvil Industries guns to represent his unique equipment. The body and legs might be from other third party manufacturers or forgeworld, I can't remember I bought them a long time ago.



Here is my work in progress job on Yusuf's unique pattern stormbolter. His chapter trappings were his weapons. I decided to call this the Cerberus pattern. His bolter in the above pictures is called the Xerces pattern.






This is Brother Claudius, an Ultramarine Apothecary (also known as the saviour of the party. "Oh god, I'm down to just 2 wounds! I'm gonna die! Claudius!" *runs over to administer apothecary magic* "You heal 19 wounds." "That's one wound in excess of what I lost." "Then you're back up to max. You're welcome."). I'm still waiting on his master-crafted plasma gun to arrive and I have to figure out how and where to attach his Tyrannic War veteran chainsword.





This is Brother-Chaplain Matthias of the Black Templars. He started his career as an assault marine. I will probably make two models for this character, the one below and another in powered armor with a jump pack so that the player has options. We've also made rules for his unique relic - a two-handed crozius arcanum. I'm using a Grey Knight force halberd as the basis of the weapon (the haft and hand holding it, at least. The actual head of the crozius will probably be made of at least 5 other model parts. Pics of that once I start on it. I can't remember who I bought the skull heads from. Puppetswar? Anvil Industries? Anyway, this is what I have so far.




These are just the 1st three models. There's 4 more to make. A Space Wolf Forgemaster, a Ravenguard Devastator, A Grey Knight Interceptor, and a Blood Angels librarian. Questions, comments, and critiques always welcome. Thanks for looking and have a great day!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And of course there always has to be a beautiful and unique snowflake player who can't play the same game that everyone else is. This is Brother-Interceptor Camino Veritas of the Grey Knights. He is modeled with a Relic Weapon that he was charged to recover in the beginning of the campaign that he's only now getting around to find. So I've made his model with it in hand so I can hold it over his head that he hasn't gotten it yet. This is another character that I have to make two models for, because after he decided that he absolutely had to get the terminator armor, then he decided he'd rather have some other armor.

I finished building the Apothecary, the Ultramarine Claudius. He is armed with a Relic Plasma gun of terrifying death-dealing-ness. I may or may not add a chainsword somewhere on his person, possibly bolted to his backpack somewheres, but I haven't really decided yet. I would have to construct the hilt of the weapon from scratch as there doesn't seem to be any uncarried chainswords in the space marine line.










as always, comments and questions welcome. Thanks for looking! Cheers.

So I did some work on some NPC models. First one up is a champion from a custom chapter I call the Centurions. This was the original color scheme for this chapter, but as you will see from the model I made, I'm going to have to modify it a bit to fit the custom armor parts.


The Centurions are descended from the Ultramarines but with significant diversion from their progenitor's organization. The Centurions venerate their assault marines and have adopted a particular style of fighting where their assault squads wield mighty swords and shields into combat. This Veteran, called Brother Spurius Geta, excels at his chapter's particular fighting style, but lieu of deploying via jump pack he fights on foot, typically reaching the battlefield via drop pod. I'm still waiting on a custom shoulder pad (from our own Spartacusbob), but aside from that the build is all but done. I just have to add some detail on the hand holding the shield so it actually looks like he is holding the shield and not like it's magnetized to the back of his wrist.










Comments always welcome. Thanks for looking!

They all look really good, but I think Spurius Geta would look better if his shield was rotated 90 degrees.

Thanks for the feedback, Shredsmore. I was thinking about that, but in his current pose he is supposed to look as though he can use the shield as a weapon. You can punch with it like that and it's easier to manipulate when held that way. Straight up and down the shield looks too passive to me.

Really cool models, in particular the last one. I will keep an eye out.

Thanks, Sageheart!

Here is another "NPC" model. This is actually a very subtle chaos marine. There's a tech-civil war going on in the background of my campaign and the Adeptus Mechanicus have aligned themselves with the local chapter of Space Marines. The sector has been isolated for millennia inside a warp-nullifying nebula called the Gossamer Veil. The space marine chapter known as the Heralds (another of my own creation) has set itself up as the ruling party, attempting to emulate Ultramar like their Progenitor chapter, the Ultramarines. But the Heralds have been isolated from the Astronomicon for a very long time and their geneseed has become corrupted. In subtle ways the Heralds have twisted the ideas and tenets of the Imperium and have begun the slide towards heresy. A long time ago the Heralds drove off a splinter of Hive Fleet Jormangdr and suffered terrible losses. They thought their chapter was doomed to a slow death until an Inquisitor (the Lady Hapshetsut) came by with a Strike Cruiser full of geneseed of unknown providence. Desperate, the Heralds turned a blind eye to the possibility that this geneseed might be corrupted and have since more than replenished their ranks. Now the Heralds recruit almost exclusively from the aristocracy of the sector and their 13 companies carry the Heraldry of the 13 Houses of Rulership. Their battlecry has become "Our Word is His Will!" totally reversing the origin of veneration. This geneseed indeed came from a corrupt chapter that was supposed to have been annihilated - the Angels Obsidian - and the Heralds now clad their most elite brothers in the jet-black, featureless armor of this heretic band.

The players have come to know these soldiers as the "Black Giants", but it is a misnaming. For they have, up till now, only been seen by non-astartes and the rabble of the Imperium seems them only as monstrous revenants in impenetrable armor. Of course to other space marines, these Black Giants are only other marines, albeit clad in heavy artificer armor and wielding illicit warp-bending alien technology. Armed with ancient stormbolters, "warp-shielded" swords able to withstand the crackling energies of power weapons, and equipped with personal teleporters, the Black Giants have proven considerable foes. To my players' knowledge there is only 7 or them, for they are marked only with bronze numerals. However, I know that there are 9 of them...or at least there were before the characters killed 3. Now there's only 6. They know these marines are changed in that their blood is sallow, their flesh pale, and their teeth have begun to sharpen. All of this is evidence of the touch of warp taint and the party hunts the Black Giants with understandable zeal.

These are the Heralds:

And this is the first of the Black Giants that I have made:










Comments always welcome! Thanks for looking.

Maybe think more about posing? Some of them look a bit ridiculous?

Define "ridiculous" torealis. These are figures of action, not static figure poses. What makes you say they are ridiculous? Do you dislike the poses? Do you think I should make them more dynamic? Less dynamic? What would you suggest I could do to improve these models?

I suppose 'unnatural' would be a more helpful term. Try pulling some of the poses yourself, and think about how they feel. When do you run with two arms outstretched?

I get that you're going for dynamic, and I suppose it could be seen that 'over the top' poses could help communicate that, I just think that you can communicate movement and speed and keep the pose relatively realistic and natural.

I apologise for my first post, I recognise that it wasn't incredibly helpful, hopefully I've explained myself better now.

Thanks, torealis, I appreciate your clarification. I see what you're saying. There's also something to be said for "over the top" as so much of the GW universe is exactly that, but I hear where you're coming from. What you suggest, especially trying to take the poses myself, is really useful advice. Thanks!

I'm coming from a different perspective, I like my models quite purposeful and slow.

If you take a look at my plog, the first model in the first post has a tricky pose that I wanted to get dead on, so I walked up and down stairs loads, working out where my legs were. Also looked at pictures from the net, it all helps.

Looks good, man. I thought about making Deathwatch characters for all my buddies mostly so I could surprise it on them and then use that to be like "So yeah let's start a campaign now yeah huh yeah??!!!?"

I do have to say the shield is just unnatural. Even if he was going to slap someone with the shield, he wouldn't suddenly hold it differently. That's just not how you hold a tower shield and so it looks kind of off.

The intention isn't to slap someone with the shield. He would strike them in the face/neck/torso region with the leading edge of the shield, not the flat side. Also, unless you're fighting in a phalanx, with men to your left and right, that absolutely is the way you wield that shield. You take the weight on your forearm, body block with your shoulder as you move. A shield isn't a static device you hold between yourself and your opponent's sword strikes, it has to be an active defense or it becomes dead weight. And if you're trying to hold a tower shield all with just your hand and wrist you are going to fatigue really fast. At that point you might as well just drop the shield.

Really cool and unique figures you have here. Interested to see where they go. Subscribed.

I agree with the poses mentioned before, in particular with the last model, though I like some of the first model's poses such as the guy with the shield.

When will there be paint?

 Jehan-reznor wrote:
When will there be paint?

"Eventually" is the best answer I've got right now. So many simultaneous projects. But the 16th is next game and I hope to have most player character models fully made by then.