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.

Hey guys and gals, I've restarted work on my truescale marine squad. Initially, these guys were going to be NPCs and on the spot substitute characters in my now defunct Deathwatch RPG campaign. My idea was to have a squad of PC/NPC models with stats that new players could use or even existing players who just wanted a change. I tried making a variety of chapters in the bunch but always had many more Space Wolves since I had (at that time) a rather large Space Wolf army and lots of bits. I was working on my Inquisitor (also in the pic) and I got to thinking about how to redo the models as a GK paladin squad along with Draigo as allies for my IG. I've got some truescale GK models as well but I wanted the deathwatch guys to be playable as well WYSIWIG in case the opponent isn't interested in trying out house rules (like dropping force weapons and aegis for sternguard ammo or swapping preferred enemy from Daemons to Xenos). I had a few builds in the squad that I thought looked cool (like the powerfist space wolf or spear and storm shield ultramarine) but that don't actually have rules in the Paladin squad entry... so I decided to change them up a bit to make them legal. Here is what the guys looked like before; as always, feel free to click on the pic link to go to the larger zoomable dakka image gallery.



From L to R: Ultramarine Champion with force spear and storm shield, Exorcist Librarian with Daemonhammer and stormbolter, Dark Angel Apothecary with Power Weapon/Stormbolter, Inquisitor Rex, Space Wolf with stalker bolter and powerfist, and Space Wolf Devastator with Plasma Cannon (with alternate Heavy Bolter Space wolf not pictured).

I'd obviously have some issues using them WYSIWIG in 40k as Paladins so I tweaked the Ultramarine (-Storm Shield, +Storm Bolter) and Space Wolf (-Powerfist/Bolter, +thunderhammer/Stormbolter) into legality. The exorcist librarian got the warding stave simply for visual variety (although I don't like the rules and cost).





And the gratuitous infinity style butt shot...



I also added the Iron Hands Devastator (counts as paladin with psycannon) and decided to convert one more fig to use as Draigo. For Draigo, I tried converting Sgt. Lorenzo from Space Hulk as much as my limited talents would allow. I'm not entirely happy with his shoulder pads (they're huge compared to the other marines) and his waist is a bit high but overall it's not a bad job for just trimming and puttying up some gaps (sculpting is beyond me).

Love a good true scale project. These are shaping up nicely

Sadly, this will be the extent of the project. While I'd love to do a whole army, I haven't bought a GW kit in years and my selection of core bits (legs and torsos) is getting slim. I used my last set of spare terminator legs on the Iron Hands devastator. I do however have another squad of just Space Wolves that I did finish for the RPG campaign a while back.

I guess combined with the actual GK truescales I did it could amount to an army but the Wolves (true to their nature) would not be WYSIWIG.

I recently got a Horus figure so decided to convert him into a space wolf for two reasons. The first is that he is the final "renown" progression of my SW Deathwatch Devastator RPG character (terminator armor, relic axe, and assault cannon). I did my NPCs and PC for my (defunct) Deathwatch campaign as truescale marines since they actually play in that game like marines in the various novels (as opposed to only slightly better like in normal 40k). Since my "normal" marines use terminator bits as standard to bulk them up to the size they *should* be, I have always had an issue with how to incorporate Tactical Dreadnought Armor into the lineup. Terminator armor models in 40k are just as bad "truescale" compared with power armor as power armor is compared with normal humans. I may be biased but my first introduction to 40k was with my 3rd edition Blood Angels and this cover always symbolized what terminator armor *should* look like as it meshed with what I was reading in the fluff as well.



When I saw the Horus figure, I thought that I may have found my solution.and the second is that I'd like to have a Lord of War to put onto the table when facing another now that they're "standard" in "normal" 40k games. I magnetized his left arm to allow swaps between the two modes (RPG character and 40k counts as Horus). I also swapped out his mace with a giant two headed axe as it felt more Vylka as well as scraped off the reptilian pupils from the various eye of horus symbols. After painting, I plan on putting small space wolf decals on the larger "eyes" and just use the smaller ones as buttons and/or seals. Finally, I added a few wolfie style bits like the horn and a ceremonial knife.







He's got a little bit of tiny head syndrome going on but I just couldn't find a way of nicely and easily incorporating wolf style hair onto the horus head without sculpting (which I can't do well). That said.. the original art inspiration also had that so I'm not disappointed by it in the end. If I ever rebooted the deathwatch campaign, I'd play him as is. For 40k games, the force counts as Draigo (my Sergeant Lorzeno coversion as a deathwatch sergeant), 5 paladins (the rest of the squad), and Horus (my space wolf Deathwatch captain in TDA).

I finally got a bit more progress done on my truescale primarchs and marines after taking a few months off to pick up some kits in trades as well as put some more thought into what I want from the army.

The idea that I settled on is that I'd like to make a very small model count "movie marines" truescale Space Wolf force to field alongside my Imperial Guard. The inspiration for this was pretty much a 50/50 split between my old Deathwatch truescale squad (that started as all Space Wolves as I had plenty of left over bits for them) as well as the Blood of Asaheim novel by Chris Wraight. In that novel, a single small pack of Vlyka Fenryka is sent to assist in the defense of a world in peril. I had hoped to recreate that type of feel for my small (<1000pts) battle forged force which would take precedence over making the army "tournament worthy" in any way. As a battleforged army, I fully expect it to relatively suck compared with more efficient builds. Finally, due to the heroic nature of the force, I hope to be able to enforce the old codex rule for the Space Wolves where no one is armed exactly the same as anyone else. I'm not sure if I'll be able to pull that off but we'll see.

I'll start with the man in charge of this force, my Horus-counts-as-Logan Grimnar. I really dislike the idea of him riding in Santa's Sleigh so I decided to try and incorporate the scenic FW base into the model as the basis for the "stormrider" chariot version of Logan. My Horus model has a magnetized right arm so I can use him as a "Horus" stand in for apoc games with the correct talon as well as normally a Logan model. The wolves are on 40mm bases because I plan to make this army somewhat modular and I needed to have them be able to move onto other bases. Here is Logan both with and without his wolves. Logan is currently just blue tack'ed onto his smaller 40mm base.









If I'm using Logan without his chariot, I plan to place the thunderwolves two per base as pictured above and to use them as a mated pair of thunderwolves counts as WGBL on thunderwolf model with the bolt pistol traded out for a storm shield (modeled on the Logan wolves as attached to their "harness".

That's it for tonight but if anyone wants a sneak peak of tomorrow's post, feel free to check out my gallery. I'll be going over my Iron Priest Ferrus Manus conversion and the rules I hope to use with him.

Now we move onto Ferrus and his conversion. I decided to convert him with the wolf cloak that the new Logan model has which presented a few problems with his servo harness. I had to add a few bits underneath along with a few more on top as I couldn't fit the backpack along with the cloak without him almost looking humpback. I then added a few more wolfie bits like the horn and various totems. The model I received in a trade had a few of the small pturges broken so I couldn't put them all on his shoulders as Ferrus would have. I converted his codpiece pturges to a wolf pelt and added the unbroken pturges I had to his back instead. My plan for his arms and head is to use decals to add tribal tattoos to add character. As a devotee of the Iron Wolf, he has cut all the normally copious hair you'd see on a Vlyka Fenryka as it may interfere with the delicate machine spirits he ministers to... hair nets are for other Astartes! My backstory is that the Iron Priest is both battle brother and blood brother to the Wolf Lord (my Horus/Logan) so I used some similar bits to kit him out.







After converting the model, I tried to see how he would fit mechanically into the army and came up with two options. The first is straight out of the space wolf codex and would add my converted Ferrus onto a Thunderwolf base to give him the extra 2nd wound that characterizes my "heroic" marine force. I'm not particularly happy with this as I'd really prefer having a 2 wound Master of the Forge HQ but there is no such option outside of the Space Marine codex unfortunately. The other option is to try and use a special character to better represent the massive frame that Ferrus has compared with other even truescaled models. Unfortunately, there are no GW proper Techmarine special characters and the only ones I found were from Forgeworld. Luckily, there is a very good option available in the free Badab Character Update file on the Forgeworld site in the character of Vaylund Cal.

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/C/Charcterupdate.pdf

He's an Iron Hands Captain equivalent with 3 wounds, a built in "bulky" profile, thunderhammer, and servo harness. Statwise, he's exactly where I'd like him to be and is a good companion for Logan Grimnar without overshadowing him. To use him with the force, though, I'd have to take an ally detachment of Codex Marines. I decided to try and convert my Inquisitor Rex retinue and some plastic watchers from Deathwing kits into a squad of tech adept minions using the space marine scout rules to satisfy the troops requirement. I have yet to work on these so there are no pics for them.

Tomorrow I'll cover the troops and elites that I have so far.

I've done a bit of work mainly on the bases and the accompanying thunderwolves rather than on the primarchs themselves in the meantime. I've finished the modeling on the smallest space wolf army (by model count) possible with my Iron Priest (counts as Wolf Lord on a thunderwolf) and two servitors below as well as my conversion of Logan on his sleigh to something that doesn't look like he mugged Santa Claus to get. More pics and info at the blog link in my sig. Enjoy!

I like the idea but I'm not entirely convinced by two wolves hauling a huge 2-ton slab of granite around.

Lol, I agree but they're not supposed to be doing that. He's more like the hunter perched onto a high ledge for a better view directing the thunderwolves to their next target. I'm using the sled rules but it isn't actually a sled but rather a combined model diorama. The wolves aren't phsyically connected to the perch in any way and I've converted their "harnesses" to be shield generators to justify their 4+ invul save (added a stormshield to each). Is there any way I can change the model to make that more obvious?

Fair enough, that sounds pretty awesome once you've explained it. If I was doing it, I would try to help them blend in by having the wolves leaping or running across the same type of rock or ruins; incorporate the ruins into the whole base and have them walking across it too.

My plan is to base it with ballast and snow as well as paint the rocks at the wolves feet (each wolf has a rock there) the same color as the ruins. I admit that it is a bit clunky with the decision to effectively double base the wolves (40mm on the 120mm oval) but I'm trying to stretch those gaming budget dollars. Horus + Logan is an expensive combo! By having the wolves separate, I can double mount them on a 60mm base for another fieldable unit that goes along with Logan on his 40mm base (he is able to come off of that perch). The only other extras I could add would be the dead scenic marines from Ferrus Manus that I'm not using. I've got a few more pics both here in the gallery as well as on the blog to show the stuff from different angles but I'll try and see what else I can rustle up to busy the base more cohesively.

I knew it had been over at least a year since my last real update but I didn't realize it had been actually a bit more than two! With 8th edition spoiling my appetite for 40k games and the dissolution of my previous Deathwatch RPG group (along with the closing of the FLGS we played at!), I just haven't had much motivation to work on my remaining models. I decided to dip my toes back into the model converting/painting scene as a New Year's Resolution and I touched up my "true scale" Blood Angel Deathwatch Captain model that I converted from the Space Hulk Sergeant Lorenzo model below.



I obviously cut off the back of the terminator "hump"/hood which unfortunately was connected to his head without the possibility of removing it easily. I trimmed back the chest to make it a little less bulky and filled in the gaps below the added blood angel head. It's probably not accurate to call it "true scale" as he's a bit chunky but more I guess "heroic" movie marine scale. Here is the initial version I came up with a few years ago:



Recently, I trimmed back his jutting chest a bit more as well as repositioned his right arm as it was visually too low and to the front for my tastes. As with the hump and head above, his right arm was moulded onto the same piece as roughly half his cape so the reposition necessitated some trimming and gap filling to get the bits to flow again. After several years of storage, some of the edges of primer seems to have rubbed off but I wasn't willing to strip and reprime him so I apologize the little white spots that may occasionally crop up. I think I'm finally happy with this bulky up sized space marine character for potential RPG purposes in the future. I'm not sure though if I'll paint him up in my originally planned Deathwatch black colors or as a standard red blood angel instead.

Nice work. It certainly works as heroic scale power armour, it's amazing the difference it makes when you essentially remove the hood and add a backpack.

EDC