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Hello and welcome to this thread everyone! Here, I will be posting pictures of one of my recently started 40k projects: a force of Adeptus Arbites!
What you can expect to see here is customized and converted miniatures, using mostly GW kits with some 3rd party bitz added in to set them apart. I wont be getting any of the orginal 2nd edition pewter miniatures because they are hard to come by, rather expensive, and they don't lend themselves well to conversions. Instead, I'll be using space marine scouts with 3rd party heads as my standard troops and go from there. Units-wise, I'l be taking ideas from the BOLS Arbites mini-dex and other fanmade rulesets to have a rough guideline of where I want to go. This means you'll be seeing representations of the classic Arbites units, reimagined and recreated with some newer bitz from more recent kits.

I'll be making squads of Enforcers with shotguns, boltguns, shock mauls, riot shields etc, but also create custom vehicles like Arbites sentinels, Chimeras, Rhinos, Black Marias and some sort of replacement for the now unavailable Repressor models. I even found a good source for Cyber Mastiffs which I will post on soon.
I hope some of you are interested in how I go about building my collection. I'd love to get some input and inspiration from the forums and I hope I can give some inspiration back. I'd be glad to see you stop by every now and then to see what I've come up with

There are some exceptionally good 3rd party resin Arbites available (though not particularly cheap). Curious to see what you do with this.

Likewise, love me some Arbites.

Hey there!

Today I’ll start off by showing you a basic squad I’ve finished recently. It’s a 5-man squad of Enforcers with Boltguns. As you can probably tell, these were created using the legs, torsos, arms and guns from the space marine scout box. The heads come from a third party seller however. You can buy them from Maxmini.eu and they’re called “Space Police Heads”. They have an incredible level of detail and are a joy to paint using washes. I kid you not, tilting the minis backwards actually lets you look into their nostrils, that’s how detailed they are.





For the paintjob I tried to go for something a little simpler and quicker, because frankly I’m tired of painting and highlighting every single detail, as I used to do on my Ultramarines. Hence, all the textiles on these are just basecoated grey and then washed with Nuln oil. I sometimes use edge highlighting, but much more sparingly so I don’t waste time painting details nobody will ever get to see. All in all, they still look detailed enough and their color scheme is much more cohesive and less cartoony than my last army, so I’m very happy with this recipe.





I use edge highlighting around the black armor plates, but also on the red Boltgun casing and the visors of the helmets. Certain metallic parts are also edge highlighted. The red and blue provide a stark contrast but the red is subdued enough not to detract from the overall look of the mini. The faces on the miniatures are basecoated with Bleached Bone and then two coats of ogryn flesh wash do all the work for me. The amazing detail picks up the wash very well and brings out the facial features.





The bases were textured using some mixed construction sand and PVA glue. The next day, they were first coated in thinned down Abbadon Black and given time to dry. When ready, an uneven layer of grey is applied on top, followed by a light drybrush with white. After this, certain spots are stippled with a dark rust brown. Within these spots, highlights with brown-orange mixtures or even pure orange are added to give the impression of different rust textures. To finish off the base, its trim is cleaned up with Abaddon Black.





The recipe is pretty straightforward, so there’s not much left to say. The aquilas on the chestplate and boltgun are basecoated white and finished off with a blue wash. As a final touch, the coat of arms of the precinct is painted onto the left pauldron. In this case, a bend of Khorne red on an ulthuan grey background.





Finally, let’s take a look at the whole 5-man squad together:



This squad will be extended to full size eventually, but first I want to show you some 5 man squads with other loadouts like shotguns etc…
I_m very much looking forward to your comments and showing you some more stuff in the following posts! Hope you enjoy this and leave me some C&C! Until next time!

Back with some more pictures!
This time, let's take a look at the promised Cyber Mastiffs:



What I wanna show you today is a pack of 4 Cyber Mastiffs, along with a heavy weapons specialist to go with my enforcer squad.



This Enforcer is equipped with a missile launcher to support the regular troops with some heavy firepower and lend some armor piercing capability to the squad. The missile launcher was taken from the SM sniper scout box, while the left arm was converted using a pointing scout hand and an arm from the scout biker box. The head comes from the same set as the others I used on the Enforcers.
Paint-wise, the same recipe was used as on the other Enforcers I already posted.



I added a set of missiles to the back of the armor, suggesting the troopers carry their own ammunition reserves. I’ll keep this theme going with the other specialist weapon troopers. Also, I decided to pick out the Krak missile head in green to make it stand out from the others a little more.



Some detail work on the ML targeter (Sorry for the blurry Image!)



The first cyber mastiff I built. For those of you wondering/looking to get one themselves: It’s a “K9 Attack Dog” from the tabletop game Wildwest Exodus (WWX). They come in sets of 2, and they have an amazing level of detail. Because of this and the large amount of pronounced edges on the models, they are very easy to paint.
The second mastiff in the pack was a little more work. If you checked the website, you will have noticed that, straight out of the box, the K9ADs come with two different heads. While the head on the first one is perfect for representing a cyber mastiff as seen in the artwork, the second one is very odd, having only one eye and huge jaws:



I didn’t really like the look of this one. While it is a great design, I felt it doesn’t fit with the other attack dog or the rest of my army. So I started converting again. I recreated the first head with greenstuff and replaced the other one. Here’s what I ended up with:





The finished second cyber mastiff. While the body is quite different, the head ties the two models together and makes them look more like a cohesive unit.



The third mastiff, created from the second box I ordered. The models are pretty much monopose, so I figured I’d have to break up the poses somehow lest they look boring. For tht purpose, I tilted the head a bit to the side to change the look at least a little.
The paintjob on these minis is very simple. After a basecoat of Ironbreaker has dried, a generous amount of Nuln oil wash is applied to the whole mini. After that has dried as well, the entire model is drybrushed very lightly with Ironbreaker. Finally, some glowing effects were added to the eyes and the model was based like the others.



The fourth and last of the mastiffs. Again, I had to do a headswap on this one. However, that enabled me to change the pose a little again by turning the head to the left, as if the dog had found some prey. Finally let’s take another look at the pack as a whole:



I’m very happy with how these Cyber Mastiffs turned out and I can’t recommend these miniatures enough. The scale is perfect for 40k, making for some, large, intimidating metallic hounds to hunt down your prey with. The detail is great and takes the wash very well. I almost wanna say they painted themselves! Using the sleeker, more doglike head, you can create something that is very faithful to the original 40k artwork. So if you still need some nice hounds, you might wanna check them out!

That’s it for now. More stuff to follow in the next update! Until next time!

Hello again! Time for some more pictures of my Arbites force! Today, I want to show you my dedicated Sniper Squad!



The Adeptus Arbites ferociously punishes unlawful behavior and criminal acts to uphold the law of the God-Emperor. Usually, the combined might of Enforcers, Judges and the mechanized division of an Arbites precinct is enough to quell any sort of rebellion or uprising. Sometimes however, it is more efficient to eliminate key targets with a surgical strike, thus disorganizing criminal groups before they reach critical mass. For this purpose, an Arbites precinct entertains a special cadre of highly skilled veteran troopers called Mortiurges. Organized into dedicated kill squads, these cold-blooded assassins are often tasked with the quick and merciless execution of anyone threatening to contravene high Imperial law.
Mortiurges are singled out from the rest of the precinct, both by nature of their work as snipers or front line infiltrators, as well as their grim duties. Should the need arise, these dreaded specialists may be called upon to keep other law-enforcers in check.

Let’s take a look at Mortiurge nr. 1:



The miniatures used for this squad were a box of SM sniper scouts as well as some heads from Maxmini.eu. I decided to use the heads with rebreathers for the Mortiurges mostly, because it makes them look more sinister and gives them an air of anonymity. Also, it’s kind of fitting because they operate at the very front lines and might be required to enter dangerous battlezones with toxic fumes or fungal spores, which necessitates the use of air filtration.



I once again used the paint scheme described in the previous posts. This time however, I had to come up with a paint scheme for the camo cloaks as well. I decided on a Mechanicus standard grey basecoat. On top of that, I added Codex grey rectangles to simulate a kind of brick pattern as urban camo. After the paint had dried, I applied a layer of Nuln oil wash.



The second member of the squad. He features more of an advancing pose, having lowered his precision laser rifle and yelling some sort of order or warning to his squadmates.



This trooper does not have a camo cloak. This reveals the power pack on his back, which supplies his laser rifle with power. On his left leg, you can see him carrying a small backup power cell.



Mortiurge nr. 3 of the squad, again in an aiming pose. This one is standing up and also wearing a camo cloak.



In this shot you can see the camo cloak with the brick pattern. This mini doesn’t have a rebreather, so we get to enjoy his frowny face.



Last but not least, I converted a big boy Mortiurge who is equipped with a Stalker pattern boltgun. If you are interested in how I made this Boltgun variant, you can check out my article here on DakkaDakka on that topic via this link: https://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Stalker_Pattern_Boltgun_Tutorial



A look down the barrel of the Stalker Pattern Boltgun. You don’t want to be at the receiving end of this!



A back view of the trooper, again showing the pattern on the cloak and the other side of the Stalker Bolter. I really like the pose of these scout legs, resting his foot on some rubble.
Now it’s time to take a look at the whole squad together. Note I added the missile launcher Enforcer to the squad for the pictures. Technically he belongs here, as he came in the same box!



That’s all the pictures I have for now! But there’s still stuff to come, so keep your eyes peeled!
If any of you are interested in modeling techniques and just happen to wonder how I do my Bolter barrels, I recommend you check out this link: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/764651.page
It features a video tutorial and an explanation of how I drill out Bolter barrels and any barrels in general. If that made you curious, feel free to check it out and leave some feedback there for me!
Thanks for looking, until next time!

Great job on that flamer. Another very exciting and well executed concept from you, FeistyRips!

Are those custom built shipping containers as well?

 416_SpaceWolves wrote:
Great job on that flamer. Another very exciting and well executed concept from you, FeistyRips!

Are those custom built shipping containers as well?

Thanks 416_SpaceWolves! Well spotted, they are! I'm planning to make a how-to-build thread on them! Got everything documented and ready but need to do a writeup for it still!

Looking pretty amazing so far. If there's one Imperium army that GW needs to show some love to it's the Adeptus Arbites. You've done a good job of it so far.

As you've shown Space Marine Scouts make a good base for the army. GW don't seem to want to show the Adeptus Arbites any love in Necromunda, so stuff like this keeps the concept alive.

El Torro wrote:
Looking pretty amazing so far. If there's one Imperium army that GW needs to show some love to it's the Adeptus Arbites. You've done a good job of it so far.

As you've shown Space Marine Scouts make a good base for the army. GW don't seem to want to show the Adeptus Arbites any love in Necromunda, so stuff like this keeps the concept alive.

Thanks El Torro! Arbites are a very cool part of the lore but seem to have fallen a little on the wayside. However, this gives me the opportunity to indulge in some creative conversions

Hello there! It's been a long time!

As with the rest of my Ultramarines army, I really want to get my finished Arbites stuff uploaded here on Dakka. In an effort to get all this done, I took pictures of much of my collection all at once, so I can upload images even when I'm not at my house where my minis are stored. Today, I want to show you something I finished quite a while ago. As you may have seen in the first post, I already have an Adeptus Arbites Sentinel, and that is exactly what I wanna show you tonight So without further ado, let's get to the pictures



The model was built from a standard Sentinel kit, but I added a few tweaks here and there because I felt it needed some adaptations for the use in crowded Hive Cities such as Necromunda. As you can tell, I removed the top rollover cage and replaced it with a front screen. This part is a bit I made myself with cardboard, superglue and some mesh. After the piece was finished, I used "Instamould" to create a mould of the part. This way, I can easily recreate it and make multiples if I ever decide to make more sentinels The front is supposed to look like a ballistic screen with some mesh attached on top to provide additional protection from thrown objects. This is supposed to be reminiscent of the mesh protective screen seen on some contemporary police/riot control vehicles.



The main armament mount was magnetized and I decided to go for a Heavy Bolter, as this seems very fluffy for the Arbites and also the stocky design feels like a good choice for battles in cramped & confined spaces. The Heavy Bolter came from a set of CSM I believe. It was slightly modified to fit, the chaos details were removed, and a magnet as well as a box magazine were added.



Moving on to the back of the vehicle. As you can see, I also changed the back around a bit. I figured the tall twin exhausts were detrimental to fighting in cramped spaces, so I decided to reposition them. I went with a sideways placement reminiscent of the Forge World Elysian Drop Sentinel because I really like the style of that vehicle.
Also, the vehicles searchlight was reconfigured to attach to the right side of the Sentinel because I thought it would make more sense to have it next to the main gun.



Furthermore, a round headrest was added and some details were sculpted with greenstuff onto the top surface of the engine to cover up where I had removed the twin exhausts.



The left side of the vehicle. Looking at the pictures, I will probably have to clean up the red markings on that side



In case you were wondering, the base was flocked with a mix of different things. When I convert stuff, I always keep the clippings and little flakes that come off in a separate container. This is great for basing stuff for Necromunda. You just put some PVA glue down, lightly sprinkle some of your mixed clippings on, and then fill in the rest with mixed construction sand or something like that. This adds some very nice variation and visual interest to the base. If you add rust to certain areas, you can really create the impression that metal junk was just left on the ground for ages.
Now, let’s move on to the Sentinel’s armaments. Like I said, the main gun mount is magnetized. Here are all the weapons options I have for the Sentinel so far:









One of my personal favourites, a twin linked Heavy Stubber in the image below. I think this weapon just screams Necromunda:



I also converted a Leman Russ pintle-mounted Heavy Stubber for the Sentinel. I think it works really well with the smaller vehicle:



Next up are two weapon options I haven’t gotten around to finishing yet, a Heavy Flamer and a CCW:





Ok, that’s all I have for tonight. I do have some more Arbites stuff I will be showing off here though, so stay tuned if you are interested in that sort of thing Also, I have some fluff written for this Sentinel variant, and I will share it here soon as well. Hope you guys enjoyed. Until next time!

That’s a great looking sentinel, it’s funny how the sentinel reads like a crimson fist but the arbites don’t! Great work

Dude, I just realized that's the colour scheme I've been trying to make for my Arbiters.

Is it just black with blue edge highlights? Ah I see now Nuln over grey base coat with blue edging.

I shall have to try that.

I'm surprised i didn't notice this one before, you've got robo-doggies! Heck yeah.

Also the sentinels are good

Lovely! Great work

gobert thanks for the nice words! Maybe the difference in appearance is due to the fact that I photographed them with my new phone in person, they look a lot darker and less blue.

Kayback not quite! The cloth is grey with a black wash, but the armor is just plain black with a night blue edge highlight

amazingturtles & Stevefaminethanks for the kind words!

Nice thanks.

Hello there!

As promised, I got some fluff for the Sentinel here to show you. Sort of a description of the custom Sentinel variant that I made up to go along with it. Hope you enjoy:



Antax Pattern Sentinel



"The Antax Pattern Sentinel is a special adaptation of the staple Sentinel STC that is widely used by the Astra Militarum in countless warzones all over the galaxy. Functionally, it is very similar to the standard variant, and the two designs share interchangeable parts which allow for quick and easy field repair. But while the standard issue walker is optimized for open battlefield use, the Antax Pattern Sentinel excels in close quarter encounters.
Initially designed to offer maximum manoeuvrability in confined locations such as space station corridors or the lower levels of hive cities, the Antax Pattern’s compact frame allows it to be deployed anywhere alongside infantry with virtually no risk of getting it stuck in a dead end or without fire support.
The Antax Pattern’s exhaust is directed sideways to reduce the overall height of the walker, allowing it to squeeze through low corridors and ambush unsuspecting targets. The standard issue Multilaser was exchanged for a more compact Heavy Bolter, which allows for quick turns and easier aiming while rounding corners. The chassis was remodeled and streamlined, and a total 10% weight reduction was achieved by dropping some of the unnecessary components. This ensured that the vehicle feels more nimble during operation and makes more efficient use of the sentinel’s stock engine. The walker’s lighter cockpit has improved sideways visibility while still offering maximum frontal protection against small arms fire and shrapnel. The front screen is made of highly durable ballistic glass, with an additional wire mesh protector on top. For optimal visibility in low-light conditions, the Antax Pattern also comes equipped with a powerful searchlight.
Given all these benefits, it is not surprising that the Antax Pattern Sentinel has seen widespread use in all of the Vidar Sector, especially in crowded hive cities, on penal worlds, space stations and defence platforms. The Forge World Antax itself has stationed hundreds of these vehicles throughout its manufactorium complexes. Equipment and armour is customizable, with options for smoke or tear gas grenade launchers as well as additional armoured skirts to protect the vulnerable hydraulics. While the box-fed Heavy Bolter is the most requested armament, the Antax Pattern Sentinel is also available with a run-of-the-mill Multilaser, an Autocannon, a Heavy Flamer, a Rotary Cannon or several different variants of Heavy Stubber. Antax even devised a high-powered water cannon designed for non-lethal riot suppression, which has yet to reach double-digit sales numbers."

These are awesome, I'm so into the Judge Dredd vibe.

How did I miss this army?

Love the Arbites, and great use of scouts.

Awesome work, especially the sentinel! I had a go at converting SM Scouts to Arbites back in the day, I might have to give it another go...

Hello again! I’m back with some pictures! I noticed I still have some stuff I never showed you guys properly! Thanks ArgyleAlligator, Kid_Kyoto and Maskirovka_Man for your nice comments! Let’s get right to the interesting stuff. You probably remember the first squad of Enforcers I posted earlier on. You know, these guys:



However, I’ve been working on an addition to this squad in the meantime. Taking inspiration from the original GW pewter miniatures and old codices or supplements, I decided to create a specialist trooper with a grenade launcher for this squad. Here he is:



This guy was made like the rest of the squad, using a SM scout body and a Maxmini “Space Police” head, this time with a rebreather. Only difference here is his left arm and weapon were taken from the Cadian Shock Troops sprue. I drilled out the GL barrel using my tried and true “X-Acto-drilling” technique.



The right arm is a normal SM Boltgun arm, with the GL attached. The left arm had to be converted using some greenstuff. I fixed the pauldron and added a vambrace with a tiny skull to blend the left arm in with the right one. Other than that, the pose already worked really well, despite the Cadian arms not being made for the SM scout bodies.



I added some extra detail to the back of the miniature by giving it a spare GL drum mag in a pouch (also sourced from the Cadians sprue) as well as some smaller pouches from the SM scout set.



So here’s the guy with the rest of his squadmates:



I figured I’d attach him to this squad since the range of the GL would synergize well with the similar range of the Boltguns of the other members. Alright, that’s it for this squad. I’m calling them “done” for now, although I will not rule out the possibility of me bumping the squad up to ten members at some later stage I still have some more stuff to show you, however: I also made a second squad of Enforcers as well, but with a different loadout. Again, taking inspiration from the classic GW minis, I equipped this squad with shotguns. Let’s check them out! Starting off with the sergeant:



This guy has a shotgun left arm taken from the SM scout bikers kit, and his gesturing arm was made from a Bolt pistol arm, with the hand swapped for one taken from the scout sniper sergeant. If you’re like me, you can probably picture this guy covering an entrance to an occupied building, yelling orders to his advancing squad mates and giving everyone an asserting pat on the back in passing



All shotguns have both barrels drilled out, as that seems to have been the case in GW’s own artwork. Realistically, the lower “barrel” was probably meant to be the tube magazine storing the ammo. Ah well, looks cooler like that IMO



Alright, moving on to some regular troopers:





Enforcer 2:





Enforcer 3:







And number 4:







Okay, so let’s take a look at the second squad as a whole:



I gotta say, I really like how the shotgun Enforcers came out. They look so cool with the Maxmini helmets But wait! There’s still one more thing to show you! Seeing as the first squad had received a specialist, it’s only fair to add one to this squad as well, right? In keeping with the squad’s close ranged nature, I decided to add a flamer trooper to them. Here he is:



This guy received a regular SM tac squad flamer and a helmet with rebreather. Law enforcement in the 41st millenium is definitely not beyond torching up a whole hab block if there’s even a slight chance of some criminals hiding inside, which is why this project doesn’t have to shy away from incorporating heavy firepower into the army.



The flamer works really well with the model’s size. Shame these don’t come in the SM scout box right away, huh? All I had to do was add an open-palm hand to his left arm to hold the flamer. Easy-peasy



I added a spare promethium fuel canister to the mini’s belt to show he lugs around some extra ammo just in case.



Okay, so let’s take a look at the squad again, this time with all 6 members together:



And that’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed the stuff I showed you and I am looking forward to your comments and feedback. Until next time

Looking good, I love the blue edge lining.

Nice work on them arbites, keep the coming!

Space Police!
Very cool, looking forward to seeing some characters, and riot gear.

Thanks for all the feedback guys, I'm glad you like them! PaddyMick: Yeah, you're absolutely right. What this army is missing is some Enforcers with riot shields and shock mauls I had planned to do at least 5 of them, but I got distracted by other projects. I will have to see what I tackle next. Also, characters will be very high on my to-do list for this army. I really wanna do a Judge with the coat from the tempestus scions command squad. Also, I have a very exciting special character planned. Parts for him are already in the mail but got delayed unfortunately. I will let you guys know when the stuff arrives. Thank you all for checking this out!

Great arbiters! The riot shield guys will work great with these..

Cracking update FeistyRips! The special weapons guys sound like they took a bit of work but they came out great

You know back in 2002 tim huckelberry (GW USA) wrote up a complete arbites codex for 3rd ed based on the WD #169 article on the arbites rules including the updated rules in citadel journal #12 (1995) under the title "the penal legions"

GW never release the official version they were working on, so tim released his. i have a PDF copy. it is pretty neat-

shock mauls, riot shields, webbers, water cannons etc...