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Okay, for the last month I've been building a heresy Raven Guard army (just because I don't already have enough damn projects on the go... ), and I've been kitbashing various character models to go with it. As usual for me, some of the conversions are copied from other folk (usually with the odd modification or two) and some are my own ideas. I think I'll post my progress here, because I'm liking how the army is shaping up so far!

I picked up a heresy army box when it first released last year, but I've only just got round to building things. I'm using all of the mk6 troops for the Raven Guard army, plus the Spartan, and I've also picked up a couple of vehicles and a few more contemptor dreads, the idea being to have two Raven Guard dreads and then the other two dreads, plus the cataphractii terminators, forming the beginnings of an Alpha Legion force - but that's going to be down the line a bit.

I don't have Corax yet (holy f*** are primarchs expensive!) but I've got some dark furies (holy f*** forgeworld troops are even more expensive!) and I'm intending to add some Mor Deythan at a later date.

I still have two tactical squads and a five man veteran unit to kitbash, but here are pics of what I have so far, anyway:

And next for the character models I've already completed. First up is a kitbash of the box praetor with some lightning claws and primaris Raven Guard bits. It's a pretty much identical copy of @kieran_plastik on twitter. I think I'm going to say he's Agapito Nev when he's completed. I'm hoping Branne Nev and his raptors will get models some day, which is probably more realistic than his brother getting a model, so Agapito he is.

Next up is a conversion originally by joni (@Walrustaco), also on twitter, of Nykona Sharrowkyn, plus a simple conversion of a moritat with volkite serpentas. I wasn't sure exatly what parts were used for Nykona in the original conversion, but I think I got pretty close, though I changed the swords to ones I thought were more appropriate for duel weilding and duelling with. The Moritat is just because I think they're a cool concept that fit the Raven Guard really well.

And finally (for now) a champion originally by Ickicho on Reddit, and a second conversion of Nykona with more lore accurate swords (I believe they're supposed to be gladii). The Nykona conversion was done just because I think in the books he doesn't have a jump pack, or at least not for the larger part of his appearances. I might eventually turn this Nykona into a full diorama, with him stalking Lucius the Eternal, ready to kill him - at least temporarily!

I'm in the middle of kitbashing an apothecary/primus medicae as well as a librarian, so I'll post them soon once they're finished. Then it'll be on to the tactical squads, veterans, contemptors and tanks. And, after that, painting! Loads of black paint incoming! Hooray!

Nice work!

I do love me some Raven Guard, especially MKVI Heresy era.

Please can you tell me what your thinking was RE extending the arms of the box Praetor conversion?

Thanks!

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:
Please can you tell me what your thinking was RE extending the arms of the box Praetor conversion?

So, I did it because I needed to bridge the gap between the elbow and the glove, and thought that I had to widen the forearm as I didn't like how skinny it looked on the original conversion. But in the process I realised that if I just cut the forearm off either the praetor arm or the claw arm entirely and attached it like that, the hand would reach beyond the end of the glove and into the talons themselves. But there are only three talons on the chooser of the fallen claws (four with the 'thumb') and they are angled unrealistically for a real hand, so I reasoned they must be robotic talons, with the hands actually fully encased inside the 'palm' section. Hence why I extended it slightly... Now you point it out, though, I might have taken it too far. What do you think?

Honestly, I'm not sure.

You mention the placement of the hands, and where they should fit inside the arm/Lightning claw. I wonder if there is a canon answer? Just like with Power Fists, I never know exactly where the model's "real hand" should be, be it right at the tip of the fist or more withdrawn, and the situation was made more difficult with heroic proprtions and sometimes wonky anatomy.

I guess as long as it looks cool, it passes the test. And your dudes certainly do

Thanks! I appreciate it

 CancelledApocalypse wrote:
Thanks!

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:
Please can you tell me what your thinking was RE extending the arms of the box Praetor conversion?

So, I did it because I needed to bridge the gap between the elbow and the glove, and thought that I had to widen the forearm as I didn't like how skinny it looked on the original conversion. But in the process I realised that if I just cut the forearm off either the praetor arm or the claw arm entirely and attached it like that, the hand would reach beyond the end of the glove and into the talons themselves. But there are only three talons on the chooser of the fallen claws (four with the 'thumb') and they are angled unrealistically for a real hand, so I reasoned they must be robotic talons, with the hands actually fully encased inside the 'palm' section. Hence why I extended it slightly... Now you point it out, though, I might have taken it too far. What do you think?

I'm liking your conversions so far!

Although, I must admit that I did think the Praetor conversion looked a bit odd at first. I think the forearms may be a tiny bit too long, but I also know from experience that the stock forearms are rather skinny compared to power first/claws so it's a hard one to balance.

Yeah, the more I look at it, the more it stands out. Might be difficult to fix at this point as I primed it just before posting the pic... :/

Thanks for the nice comment and the feedback, though!

More kitbashed character models incoming!

First up, my apothecary/primus medicae:

Lots of firstborn Dark Angels bits in this one, but I feel the wing motifs work okay. It's going to get more difficult to kitbash heresy characters now GW seem set on moving all of the firstborn minis out of the range. Fortunately, there's still plenty of bits on ebay for the time being, but there may not be by the time I get round to doing my Alpha Legion force...

I also feel like adding a small Space Wolf detachment to my RG army as allies, just for the lore. Anyone know if they play together well on the tabletop?

And next a couple of Librarian/Esoterist kitbashes. Mainly used Grey Knight bits for these (hope the psychic hoods work), with some Dark Angel legs I had lying around:

Lots more to come a bit later...

Another addition to the legiones consularis I thought worked thematically for RG was a vigilator/pathfinder. Every bit, barring the standard MkVI arms, gun and backpack, came from a different kit. The extended barrel came from a primaris eliminator, the legs from the old resin heresy mkvi upgrade kit, the torso front was an extremely old bit I had lying around, back and cape was from the deathwatch veterans kit, shoulder pads from the vanguard veterans and primaris Raven Guard upgrade kit and the antenna was from the sicarian infiltrators. Oh and the head is from the devastators kit.

I'm particularly looking forward to painting this chap

And the last consul kitbash I made was just because I had a load of bits lying around, including a spare Mor Deythan body, so I threw them together to make a Delegatus for use in smaller battles. I gave him a Space Wolf frost blade just for the lulz and maybe to tie in to the aforementioned allied Space Wolf detachment I might add to the army. Not my favourite kitbash, but I thought it would be fun to throw together.

I'll probably fill in the Mor Deythan symbols on the right shoulder pad with green stuff at some point... though maybe I can just leave it? Not sure.

A couple of tactical squads completed and also a couple of contemptors. Barring headswaps and shoulder pads, the tactical squads are pretty much vanilla from the starter box. The wrist of the plasma pistol hand on one of the sergeants was shaved and repositioned slightly, but other than that, very little work done to them. The contemptors are magnetised for ease of weapon and arm swapping.

Working on a techmarine, some elites and (possibly) another commander. We'll see how that goes.

The army is coming on really well Dude! I'm looking forward to seeing it painted. I must make some sort of effort to assemble mine at some point, you're giving me plenty of inspiration.

It's purely a personal aesthetic choice, but I'd remove the rims from the shoulder pads that have them: I love the smooth nature of the rim-less MKVI shoulder pads, and beakie helmets go so well with them

I think I'm gonna start by assembling my FW Outrider squadron, they look so good painted in black. I've had the kit lying around for years, wish me luck!

EDIT: Love your kitbashes, especially the Libby who is spellcasting with its power fist

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:
The army is coming on really well Dude! I'm looking forward to seeing it painted. I must make some sort of effort to assemble mine at some point, you're giving me plenty of inspiration.

It's purely a personal aesthetic choice, but I'd remove the rims from the shoulder pads that have them: I love the smooth nature of the rim-less MKVI shoulder pads, and beakie helmets go so well with them

I think I'm gonna start by assembling my FW Outrider squadron, they look so good painted in black. I've had the kit lying around for years, wish me luck!

EDIT: Love your kitbashes, especially the Libby who is spellcasting with its power fist

Thanks! On the whole, I agree with you about the MkVI shoulder pads, but I do like the rims, too. I'm generally leaving rims on, just because I like a bit of variety (and also shaving off the rims is fiddly and time consuming and I cba, lol). Plus they give me something to paint a different colour other than black.

I've finished the techmarine kitbash, so I'll post a pic of that soon. I've started building tanks (spartan, rhino, sicaran and proteus) and discovered the torsos for the tank gunners work with ordinary legs, and they look quite cool. And, as I have tons of the new MkVI heads going spare, I'm going to make a destroyer squad with them.

Been a while since I updated, but I've been doing lots with my time. First up is the techmarine I promised:

The bits came from all over the place, devastator legs and combi plasma, techmarine rhino turret gunner torso, ravenwing techmarine head, modified techpriest engineseer axe and servo arm, modified Mk6 backpack, kataphron destroyer servo arm, and other bits from other places...

I think it works over all, but I made a bit of a mistake posing the axe arm. It was supposed to rest on the base, but it shifted when I was gluing it so now it's outside the base, which is a bit annoying. Another problem is that to accomodate the servo arms on the backpack, I ended up removing the exhaust vents and couldn't come up with a satisfactory way to add anything like that back in. Still, if you don't think about it too hard, it still looks okay (I think).

EDIT: Oh, and another issue I had was the model looking like it was leaning backwards (poor posing of the torso on the legs on my part), so I had to put a bit of greenstuff under the feet to angle him forward again. I'll cover that up when I do the base decorations during painting.

After that was a big squad of legion mortalis destroyers:

I made these because I think the concept is cool and because I had the tank gunner torsos going spare. Originally, it was only going to be five models in a squad, but it ballooned because I wanted more weapon options (plasma pistol/missile launcher/graviton gun) and once I'd made those, I thought I might as well make a ten man squad with a power fist sergeant, which became twelve so I could have different squad loadouts. Who knows, Maybe I'll make another three later so I can have three five man squads...

I've spent an unholy amount on bits for these guys, mainly 40k tactical squad legs (the Mk6 legs and a couple Mk4s), but also some devastator legs for the heavies, more of the vehicle gunner torsos, and tons of bolt pistols. Just tons and tons of bolt pistols...

More to follow...

After the destroyers, I decided I wanted some veterans, too:

I still had some of the starter set Mk6 marines and I'd seen a superb conversion of a raven guard marine by ShivaTheTraitor on reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer30k/comments/vuxf7b/first_of_my_raven_guard_fully_complete_with/) that I wanted to shamelessly copy, but wanted to give him a squad to go with. I didn't think he'd fit as a sergeant for a standard tactical squad without extensive kitbashing of the rest of the squad to match the cool feathers, so instead decided to make him a veteran.

I also managed to pick up an incomplete pack of the old forgeworld raven guard veterans that are sadly no longer available through GW, and with lots of other bits, mainly lightning claws and power weapons that I had lying around, I fashioned a ten man squad, half-and-half modified Mk6 marines and veteran torsos and tactical/vanguard legs. There's a couple of lightning claws sets from the dark fury kit, as well as a set from the black templars and even a chaos chosen (in a nod to the raptors).

I have plenty more squads and conversions to add, plus all the vehicles I've built, but I'll do so at a later date.

I decided I didn't have enough plasma in my army (and my life in general), so I've gone for a second tactical support squad with plasma guns. I'm really hoping to add a third (10 man) tactical support squad with volkite at some point, but haven't decided on calivers, or chargers and a rhino, yet.

I also really wanted a seeker squad, so I continued the buying of 40k Mk6 bits on ebay and used the special scoped bolters from the veterans kit as scorpius bolters (and a couple of bolters from the deathwatch veterans kit for sergeants). I still need a few more raven guard shoulder pads to finish these guys off. I also used a much wider range of heads for this unit, including devastators, vanguard vets (including the only non-beaky helmet in my army, lol) and raven guard vets. Basically all the beaky heads I had left lying around...

Next up is tanks...

TANKS!

Simple enough, a Rhino for my veterans (may upgrade them to a drop pod at some point later), a Land Raider Proteus Explorator for destroyers/tactical support squads and a Sicaran for a bit of heavier firepower that still feels speedy, manoeuvrable and suitably Raven Guard.

I still have the Spartan in the starter box to build which I'm going to fill with tartaros terminators. I'd also like to get a couple more rhinos as more dedicated transports for despoilers, tactical and support squads.

I REALLY want a Fire Raptor Gunship, just because it would look so cool in a RG army... but they're so expensive, so that's a very long term wish.

Barring the extra vehicles and adding any extra squads later on, I'm almost at the end of the building section of this army project. There's just one unit left: Mor Deythan.

I love the look of these guys and managed to pick up a few lots of Mor Deythan on ebay for fairly cheap. One lot was fully built and the previous owner had started painting one or two of the models. They all had nemesis bolters for backfield shooting which I love, but I wanted a close up squad, too, so the second and third lot were part (and slightly damaged) lots perfect for converting. I made this into a ten man squad with shotguns, meltaguns and combi meltas. I know the shotguns aren't great in HH, but I thought they looked cool and I can always swap them out, or reduce the squad size if I decide I don't want to use them in actual battles. The shotguns themselves came from the black templars upgrades kit.

And the last of the kitbashing/converting in this project are a couple of captains. One I made from lots of left over bits, including the volkite from the starter set praetor. The second is a smash captain which I made because I still had the jump pack from Edryc Setorax. The other bits (head, thunder hammer, stormshield) are all from the vanguard veteran set on top of a dark fury body.

I threw these two together at the last minute, but I actually really like them both, especially the power sword captain. For some reason, it reminds me of the command marines in Astartes. Hopefully they'll both look good painted.

I'm probably going to start painting this project before completing the Spartan and the terminators - I've already done some priming, as you can tell from the pics, but ran out of chaos black spray mid-veteran squad. Looks like I'm going to have to get a supply of cans in order to prime the entire force!

Do like me some Raven Guard. Great stuff going on here.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Do like me some Raven Guard. Great stuff going on here.

Thanks very much! More to come as soon as I can get some more chaos black spray...

Quick question, guys: I've decided to add the extra volkite support squad, but should I go for chargers and a rhino, or just a gun line of calivers? I feel like the chargers with the rhino is more appropriate for the Raven Guard aesthetic, and chargers may be better for a zone mortalis battle? But then... all those extra S6 AP5 shots from the calivers...

Convince me, someone...

I would mix it up and take the retro think for looks and interest. Rule of cool wins every time.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
I would mix it up and take the retro think for looks and interest. Rule of cool wins every time.

Not sure what you mean?

Chargers and Rhino for looks. More table variety, more painting variety. Granted a gunline might be "better" but I go for the look of the thing.