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Wow your Custodes are insane looking. Looking foward to seeing more.

Hng. I love them. I wanna do a similar thing, but make Pre Heresy Sanguinary guard, which are essentially the same as the terminators... Only RED. And I don't know about the weapons, but what I want to know is what kit did you get the tufts from? I absolutely love them! As in the little top knot-esue things at the top of all of them. : D

That's a good kit bash though I'm no fan of kit bashing at all.

Thanks a lot, people! Just my luck that FW decided to release "real" Cataphractii Terminators just now

Anyway, with my recipe, at least I won't have to sell a kidney to own a squad of these

@ Gonnondorf: Those topknots all came from the regular Ork Boyz: The kit has a head with a topknot that is easily cut off. Other great sources for topknots: Chaos Space Marine heads, Warriors of Chaos (they even have them as separate parts), Chaos Marauders (again, there's one head with a topknot) and some of the SW heads.

Hope this helps!

Alright, time for an update on my Custodes in general and my - improvised - Cataphractii squad in particular:

For one, I finally buckled up and converted the Deathwing sergeant into yet another Custodes Terminator wearing Cataphract armour. Here you go:









Again, a fairly easy conversion: I replaced the Terminator’s torso front with a piece from the Venerable Dreadnought kit. The right arm is a regular Terminator’s upper arm combined with a Chaos Lord’s Lightning claw. The result resembles the clawed gauntlets present in the HH artwork. The pauldrons are shinguards from loyal Dreadnoughts. I also added all kinds of purity seals, a topknot and a couple of other bitz.

Here’s a look at the whole “Cataphractii Squad” so far:



While these may not look as “official” as the new FW models, I am still reasonably pleased with the squad. I think they’ll end up looking rather nice once painted. And those Deathwing Terminators were in the box anyway, so the squad came at basically no extra cost!

Let’s wind up this post with two rather simple conversions, also for my Custodes:



The first model is a standard bearer for my squad of Custodes wearing Astartes pattern power armour. I converted this guy from the Dark Angel wielding a Plasma Gun (the gun itself was squirreled away for some future project, of course).

And then there’s the DA Company Master. With a simple head swap, he now looks like this:



Quite an imposing Legio Custodes Shield Captain, don’t you think? While these two models aren’t finished yet, I guess you can see where they are headed.

I am still far from fed-up with the Dark Vengeance models, quite the contrary: Thanks to the models I will be able to considerably bolster the ranks of both my Traitor Guard and Custodes. As as you can see, the models lend themselves rather nicely to conversions with a bit of thought (and decisive cutting…).

As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Some of those terminator conversions beggar belief, amazing work.

Those sisters of silence are terrific, they look exactly likt the artwork. Looking forward to seeing more!

i really like that standard bearer! great work, as always!

Thanks a lot, guys! Glad you like them!

That Termie conversion with the power sword is freaking awesome.

Excellet work

D

Thanks, evildrcheese!

With two squads of Custodes completed, I decided it was time to add a commander to lead them into battle. I really enjoy building characters for my armies, and the Custodes with their extremely ornate armour lend themselves rather nicely to converting impressive commanders. However, I decided to start with something pretty straightforward.

Fortunately, I still had the Space Marine Commander from the AOBR boxed set lying around (kindly sponsored by cousin Andy), and I really like the model, so I got to work on him. Here’s the result:



The model is a very easy conversion, if you can call it a conversion at all: I just added a different sword (from the Grey Knights in power armour), a CSM backpack and a wing from the Dark Angels veteran sprue. I did consider changing the head and/or Bolter for a while, but unfortunately the model had a few rough spots, probably due to a casting mishap, so going all out on the conversion would have created all kinds of new problems. Still, I am quite pleased with the model’s composition, so I was okay with basically leaving it as it was.

When painting the model, I went for the trademark Custodes colours of Red and Gold, with some elements in Silver and Vallejo Halcon Turquoise thrown into the mix for contrast. Take a look:







The sword was painted in turquoise as well, to show it is some kind of Relic blade. I am not perfectly happy with the result yet (the highlights are a bit too subtle), but to tell you the truth, this model was a bit of a test run for a top secret HQ model I’ll reveal to you somewhere along the line…





I painted the model’s hair in grey to show the commander is a grizzled veteran. So meet my first Shield Captain:



Shield Captain Fennias Andronicus, “The Old Lion”

One of the commanding officers of the Lionsguard, Fennias Andronicus is a veteran of the Legio Custodes: Many are his honorary titles and names, and they cover every inch of the inside of his master crafted armour. Called “The Old Lion”, Shield Captain Andronicus’ age and experience make him a skilled and levelheaded tactician, yet his name is also synonymous with heroism and prowess in combat. When the Legio has to face an enemy on the field of battle, Andronicus leads from the front, relic blade in hand, and becomes and instrument of the Emperor’s wrath.


You may already have seen my WIP Custodes officer converted from the DA Company Master in my last update, and given my history of building scores of HQ models, there’ll be quite a few more characters for my Custodes force. However, with this first HQ selection completed, I now have a small but legally playable Custodes army…at least in theory:



As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

i gotta say, this is one of the most pleasing armies to the eyeballs. great work sir.

Just a small update for today, just to show you that this project is still alive

I already told you about my idea to add one model for each power armour pattern to my squad of Custodes in Astartes power armour. Thanks to the fantastic ideas for converting Pre-Heresy armour over at Mywargame.com, I was able to kitbash a Custodes in Mk. I pattern armour. Take a look:







The model is basically a kitbash, using a couple of different (Chaos) Space Marine parts and a Cadian head. While this guy may not be 100% accurate, I am rather fond of him. And putting him together took me only a couple of minutes! He also looks quite a bit less dorky than I imagined he would

C&C welcome, as always!

Oo he really looks like that old style armor, I like it a lot

Thunder Armour looks cool

That Space Marine Commander looks great!

Love what you've done to do the arly armour as well, great work as ever.

D

Thanks, people!

I am rather pleased with him, if I do say so myself...

In all fairness, the guys at Mywargame.com did a far more involved conversion, using GS and lots of cutting, but my quick recipe works well enough for me.

Liking how the custodes are coming out!

Loving the Thunder Armour!

Subscribed! Looking forward to the next piece of eye candy. I am putting together a custom force using similar pieces. I've been out of the hobby for so long I'm scared to commit to anything. I originally got into the hobby for the modeling/painting aspect but I'm very interested in playing. I usually build models that look cool but with wysiwyg I'm concerned about my builds.

Your conversions are very chracterful and look better than the FW models; the FW models are all identical and have no character.

Thanks a lot, guys!

@ Fallen_Veteran: If you're afraid of committing to a larger project, my advice would be to just start small: Build an INQ28 warband, a Necromunda gang or a Bloodbowl team: Something that can be finished in a foreseeable timeframe. Or you could just build one test squad for a 40k army, something that really interests you from a modelling/painting standpoint. That's how I started my Custodes, and look where this has gotten me
As for the WYSIWYG problem: While there may not be a right answer to this, I usually find that people who are rather laidback about the hobby tend to prefer cool-looking models over legal ones The important thing is that you tell your opponent what the model can do and that its equipment doesn't magically change midway through a game. If that much is guaranteed, most players will be rather relaxed about letting you use models that are not strictly WYSIWYG.

@ Boringstuff: Aw shucks, that's awfully nice of you to say, mate!

love the models in here!

In particular it's great to see some sister's of silence

 Sageheart wrote:
In particular it's great to see some sister's of silence

In that case, I have good news for you But I am getting ahead of myself:

I’ve been doing very little painting for a while. Maybe it’s because these last few weeks have been rather stressful, maybe it’s the weather, but somehow I just didn’t feel all that inspired to paint. On the other hand, this means I had more time for a couple of conversion projects, so I sat down to build some new recruits for my small Legio Custodes force.

Kitbashing more Custodes is always really relaxing, because even though the goal I set for myself is rather special (make it look at least reasonably close to the official artwork while only using readily available GW plastic parts), it’s really all about creativity: I love to find out how all those Marine parts can be recombined and altered to make them look like something the Legio Custodes would be equipped with. Plus the very ornate look of the Custodes means I really get to go all out on those models! So what do I have to show for my troubles?

First up, I built my fifth and probably last (at least for now) Custodes Terminator. Once again, a Terminator from the Dark Vengeance box formed the base for this model. Take a look:









The left arm of the original model was cut off and replaced with a Chaos Terminator power fist. The DA torso front went into the bitzbox, and I used some (Chaos) Space Marine parts to construct a replacement. As you can see, I decided to equip this guy with a flamer, although I wanted the weapon to look a bit more like one of the “flame lances” Custodes Terminators are equipped with in some of the artwork. So I took a heavy flamer (from the Space Wolves terminators, no less), adding all kinds of bitz for decoration and lenghtening the weapon’s barrels with some plastic pipes from an old model truck kit. The muzzle was further detailed by adding a stylised eagle’s head (from the High Elf Archers). The overall idea for this conversion was once again inspired by Kaaleb Dark’s Custodes over on B&C, btw (he’s been posting new stuff too, so I recommend you check out his thread as well!).

I also build some additional models for Squad Asklepian, my squad of Custodes armoured with Astartes pattern power armour:



I already posted this guy some time ago: The model is based on the DA with Plasmagun from Dark Vengeance. I used the model to build a Custodes standard bearer in older looking power armour. I may have to add some additional “bling” for decoration, though.

Here’s the guy I am really proud of (again, you already saw some rather fuzzy pictures of him): A Custodes wearing MK I "Thunder" pattern power armour:







And finally, what may be my favourite conversions at the moment:

I really wanted to build a small squad of Sisters of Silence to go with my Custodes. I have no idea what I could actually play them as (although Scouts seem a reasonably good idea). Anyway, some time ago, I started fooling around with a couple of Dark Eldar Wyches and some additional bits, and here are the results of that session:





The base model is a Dark Eldar Wych: The legs and most female torsi from that kit are perfect for Sisters of Silence, since they look almost exactly like the artwork in the HH artbooks. If you’re going to convert your own Sisters, you also want to look for arms with puffy sleeves — but there are enough kits with useful bits (the High Elf Archers and some WFB Empire kits are great for this!). And you can splice together almost perfect heads using really old plastic Dark Eldar heads.

I also built a standard bearer, while I was at it:



The standard is yet another part from the High Elf Archers, although I modified it a bit to better fit the artwork (and added a Dark Eldar back banner and an Imperial aquila).

Again, those two were already posted earlier, but I also built a squadleader for the Sisters of Silence very recently:









Again, the model is basically a Dark Eldar Wych with all kinds of bits added on top: I wanted her to look a bit more imosing than her squadmates, so I added a suitably impressive sword and a cloak (which I got in a bitz trade, so I can only guess that it might be from the High Elf White Lions kit). I am really quite pleased with her, to tell you the truth.

And here’s the whole squad so far:



The only downside to these is that they require a prettty diverse assortment of bits, some of them (the old Dark Eldar heads) no longer readily available. Still, I think the results are rather convincing.

The only thing that worries me is that my Custodes army has moved dar beyond the scheduled frame already. But then, it’s just so much fun kitbashing these guys and girls

As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

You've got quite the knack for sneaky conversions don't you Kraut? That Thunder Warrior is superb and those SoS are very nicely done. I'd be more inclined to go easy on the little pointy bits on the SoS legs though. Still look a little Dark Eldarish.

Thanks a lot, Snrub!

 Snrub wrote:
I'd be more inclined to go easy on the little pointy bits on the SoS legs though. Still look a little Dark Eldarish.

I thought so too at first, but they actually have very similar blades at the sides of the knees in the original HH artwork! I may have to shave off the spikes from the legs of the squad leader, though...

Nice looking army so far. And that one Terminator with the lightning claw, would make an excellent Abbaddon

Looking great buddy, I really like the SoS. Great work

could run them as an no jump pack assult squad? maybe?

This is one of my fav plogs at the moment. The kitbashing is just mad so major props for setting the bar high

R

Really impressed by the Sisters of Silence.

D