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Hey there! This thread will be dedicated to one of my small side projects I want to share with you and hopefully get some feedback on. The goal is to create one or more squads of Imperial Navy Armsmen using Games workshop parts as well as some bits from online sellers. The idea for this project came while I was flicking through google images of customised Imperial Guard armies. I wanted to challenge myself with this project to try and come up new ideas for what can be done with GW Cadian box sets. I decided to avoid the standard out-of-the-box assembly and paintjob, as I want to try out different styles and find new combinations of parts to make a truly unique looking squad/army.

I decided to base the conversion around distinct, iconic head conversion bits and go from there to complete the look. CPmodels offers some great head choices that can really help to create a unique look for your army. I decided to pick up several packs of heads and was very pleased to see the great quality of the casts when they arrived. To further customise the conventional cadian set, I decided to order some fatigue legs from Madrobot miniatures. I was trying to make the suits of the armsmen look like they could withstand the vacuum of space in case of a (rather likely) hull breach in a voidship batle. The quality on the custom legs was also magnificent, as you can surely tell from the pictures. Another final conversion to set the miniatures apart from standard Cadians was the conversion of the Lasguns to Autoguns. I like to argue that laser weapons might not be as efficient in the vacuum of space, which is why conventional slugthrowers are still relatively widespread among armsmen sqauds, but mostly I just did it for rule of cool

Spoiler contains images of all of the 10 armsman on their own, including the senior armsman / sergeant.









For the paintjob I will take inspiration from official 40k Navy armsmen miniatures, meaning blue flight suit and metallic armor plates. The Autoguns will get a red casing and metallic details. I'm still on the fence for visor colors. Glossy black, yellow, pink or blue could fit, but I'll have to experiment to find out which colour is best for the look I'm going for.
I'd love to get your feedback on what I've managed to build so far! See ya later!

Its a good start and I look forward to seeing them painted! I would recommend having a look at Anvil Industries Void Armour torsos if you are after some more options.

If you are going to regularly update the thread then shall I move it to the Painting and Modelling Blogs section?

Hi ingtaer! Thanks for commenting! I've seen the torsos you mentioned already, they look great! Maybe I'll order some for future conversions, seeing as I still have 24 heads of 2 different variants stockpiled!
Oh yeah sorry, I mixed up the sections, I meant to put it there! Thanks very much!

Cool, it is moved.
I used the Anvil ones for my own naval armsman and really like the effect and atmosphere they give.

 ingtaer wrote:

I used the Anvil ones for my own naval armsman and really like the effect and atmosphere they give.

Just checked them out, they look really cool! The Admech Helmets fit really well with the torsos! Also really like your boarding party with shields and swords!

Hello again!

Pic heavy update incoming: the 10 man armsmen sqaud is now done! without much ado, lets get right to the pictures! That's what you're here for after all, aren't you

















































Finally, a group shot of all 10 together:



Be glad to hear your thoughts on them!
I might add more to this thread if I decide to convert another set of 10 guys with different bits

I think that they came out spectacularly! The colors are nice and seem like they would fit in well on a spaceship or in the depths of space (space!)

And i like the red for the weapons. The whole conversion is a good one, it's very... elegant? if that's the right word

@amazingturtles Thanks for the nice words, glad you like them!

These are some fantastic kitbashes, clean and clear on what they are, great paintjob and memorable! I'd love to see the armsmen with shotguns and shields at somepoint!

Thanks Wezex! Haha we'll see, maybe I'll actually take this project further, but a kitbash as you mentioned would be a rather expensive endeavour, seeing as I'd need a box of cadians, a set each of 10 legs, heads and shields as well as 2 boxes of SM scouts Oh well, maybe one day? Thanks for looking

Aye, they came up very nicely indeed. Also a fan of the old school red lasguns, it makes me feel nostalgic.

Thanks ingtaer! Nice to see you checked back on this thread! Glad you like them!

Looking good. Another plus vote from me for having red weapons

Totally deserve to be a legit playable army, that could get you a noce couple of fun scenarios, best doubled with some battlefleet!

I could have sworn I commented here already. Bloomin' Warp magicks...

I love the concept and execution of these Armsmen, they look really nice. Extra points for the CP Models heads, always good to see some out of the box thinking with parts!

I tried to make some using Anvil Industry parts but they ended up TOO hard core (!) so they got pressed into service with my Guard instead. They'll probably crop up around here at some point..


Keep up the great work, mate.

Ragsta

I like the head swap, but the fatigue pants look too light for navy armsmen; I imagine them with more armor padding of some sort, and shotguns rather than lasgun, but I know that’s hard to come by with GW unless you find it 3rd party. The basing could be more like decks on a ship, I suggest something like necromunda bases.

Love the paint job. Looks like it's clean and effective, but not too much effort.


Can you talk about what colours / tekkers you used?

Thanks for all the kind feedback you guys!

Maréchal des Logis Walter I would say yes, but the thing is, I'm glad they don't get too much attention. When GW produces something new, it's mostly monopose models with very few options. This is probably why I often gravitate towards the lesser known factions in the fluff because then, I get to be creative with conversions like these. Look at the Arbites for example. I made my own army and had a lot of fun building and painting it, but I would never buy the Palatine Enforcers (or whatever they're called) because I don't want to have the same exact minis as everyone else and see the same three sculpts everywhere. It would be cool if the Voidsmen got a codex however, I agree. Maybe a Codex of the Imperial Navy in general, with armsmen making up the bulk of the troops? I imagined the might be useful in games of rogue trader (I was inspired by dreadquill publishing an their fantastic conversions for this RPG) so I created this squad.

Ragsta Sounds interesting, will browse your gallery for them! And CP models does have some amazing alternative heads for guard conversions. I bought 2 sets each of three different helmet variants to make several different 10-man squads

Big Mac The fatigues are meant to be light. I imagined these voidsmen being hired by some rogue trader dynasty aboard a smaller vessel. They are expendable soldiers (like everyone in the 40k universe) and only get the bare minimum of equipment. Meaning a semi void-capable, lightly armored suit with a limited air supply, a sealed helmet and nothing more than cheap autoguns. These are not elite troops, they are cannon fodder. Also, I don't care much for the necromunda bases. I prefer the look of these gravelly, rusty ones, as they blend in on many different surfaces.

Good Old Murray Haha sure, but you'll be surprised. It's actually just some light blue I mixed myself, that was washed with Asurmen Blue wash after it had dried. Nothing more. Not too much effort, indeed

 FeistyRips wrote:


Good Old Murray Haha sure, but you'll be surprised. It's actually just some light blue I mixed myself, that was washed with Asurmen Blue wash after it had dried. Nothing more. Not too much effort, indeed

Thanks! I think I need to get some of the new GW paints...

Good Old Murray wrote:
Thanks! I think I need to get some of the new GW paints...

I didn't think I needed washes before I got them, but they are incredibly useful. They improved my painting by making my shading much smoother and also they sped up the whole process of painting. So yeah, I would definately recommend buying some! I don't have much experience with the newest technical or contrast paints, however.

Between this and your tigers, I think you have some really fun armies to put on the table.

Are you going to fill this out with a lot of flyer based vehicles?

 416_SpaceWolves wrote:
Between this and your tigers, I think you have some really fun armies to put on the table.

Are you going to fill this out with a lot of flyer based vehicles?

Yeah, and they're very different, which helps me not get bored! Hmmmm.... I don't know what I'll do next. Tbh this squad was more of a one-off, to try something new and have some fun converting! This thread was meant for some fun one-off cadian conversions with alternate heads, and doing more would mean starting up another army.... But you're right, a few Aquila Landers or Arvus Lighters would make this very flavourful! Who knows, maybe I'll pick up where I left off at some point...

 FeistyRips wrote:

 416_SpaceWolves wrote:
Between this and your tigers, I think you have some really fun armies to put on the table.

Are you going to fill this out with a lot of flyer based vehicles?

Yeah, and they're very different, which helps me not get bored! Hmmmm.... I don't know what I'll do next. Tbh this squad was more of a one-off, to try something new and have some fun converting! This thread was meant for some fun one-off cadian conversions with alternate heads, and doing more would mean starting up another army.... But you're right, a few Aquila Landers or Arvus Lighters would make this very flavourful! Who knows, maybe I'll pick up where I left off at some point...

Yes, what's dpne still be here and if you ever fancy digging it further, you'll have a sample and place to start already! As an addition I'd also see some kinds of heavy weapons such as sentries/machineguns. IRL they are useful within tight areas to block corners and corridors so that could be a logicl addition to a potential army.

So consider you don't even need arvis lighters per se.
Even if you don't do more of the troops, you could probably make a landing detachment easily by taking
aradia madellan (the psyker primaris from blackstone)
rogue trader woman with the 2 nice pistols from the same
a fleet officer conversion (similar digs to the troops but just ..nicer?
a pair of crusaders (I would buy a van saar necrokit to get the two "clear energy" shields and then put them with axes, even though that's not crusadery, it could count as, and they would be an anti-boarding element that (thinking of the old 20,000 leagues fight with the squid) hacks up boarders. In fact, I think its not efficient, but it would be narrative as hell.
10 man squad security, done, awesome!
tvalkyrie and vendetta, a total of 2 multirockets, 7 lascannon, 4 heavy bolter of fleet officer guided munitions if they get in trouble. That's a fairly elite away team with a few bodies to throw in as redshirts!

The bubblehead guy in here did a pretty awesome deepsace inquisitor with the van saar models, too, so perhaps the away team is supervised/led by an inquisitor.

That would be a pretty solid support/psyker/flyer detachment to soup in to a larger gaurd army, and you have my envy!

Maréchal des Logis Walter A very similar thought went through my head when I had completed them as well. I was thinking of something along the lines of Heavy Bolters to defend corners and bulkheads. Maybe even wheeled weapons platforms so the guns can quickly be transported to the intended location? Or, come to think of it, how about some point defense guns integral to a large voidships interior? I could try creating opened hatches on the bases with the sentry turrets extended, and add some voidsmen as operators/defenders to the guns? That might be very cool and different as well..... damn you Maréchal for giving me too many ideas! just kidding, thanks for your input and the nice words!

Dukeofstuff That sounds like a solid and very flavourful army! You guys are all giving me great inspiring ideas! I am really tempted to try some of them out now! Thanks for the kind words, too!

 FeistyRips wrote:
Maréchal des Logis Walter A very similar thought went through my head when I had completed them as well. I was thinking of something along the lines of Heavy Bolters to defend corners and bulkheads. Maybe even wheeled weapons platforms so the guns can quickly be transported to the intended location? Or, come to think of it, how about some point defense guns integral to a large voidships interior? I could try creating opened hatches on the bases with the sentry turrets extended, and add some voidsmen as operators/defenders to the guns? That might be very cool and different as well..... damn you Maréchal for giving me too many ideas! just kidding, thanks for your input and the nice words!

Dukeofstuff That sounds like a solid and very flavourful army! You guys are all giving me great inspiring ideas! I am really tempted to try some of them out now! Thanks for the kind words, too!

You welcome comrade! As far as wheeled platforms you might want to check out the old rapiers games had back in the days where i didn't even you what warhammer 40000 was, or why not old napoleonian guns if it doesn't look to fancy? I really love this kind of army and if I could I'd gladly have got one such, so I'm quite inspired as well! Though for the time being I can't even get to start painting or play the least game and wasting all my money on guns and ammo leave sme only a tight budget that doesn't really allow kitbashing an army.

This is great stuff. They look really distinct from standard Guardsmen despite sharing a big chunk of the same kit.

Thank you DarkHound, glad you like the kitbash!

Hello there! This thread is back!

In case you were wondering, I have decided to repurpose and rename this blog, since I want to post some other random stuff in here apart from the promised Voidsmen. Don’t worry because I DO have some more Voidsmen in the pipeline as well, with all parts I need already at home. However, I still have some other projects that I want to show off here on Dakka, so from now on, here will be my place to do this. From now on, all random projects that do not fit into any of my specific army threads will be posted in here. Just to give you a little teaser, there will be converted Catachans, 40k zombies, some crossovers with other franchises (e.g. Gundam, already WIP), the odd DnD mini I paint up for the occasional sessions with our friends, as well as anything else that strikes my fancy or that I can’t keep myself from buying on impulse I hope you will enjoy the stuff that’s coming and I’m looking forward to your input on all this

Now, with all that out of the way, do not think I will leave you hanging in this post without any pictures! Heck no! Today, I want to show you a mini I finished years ago, but never showed off here, but only on instagram. However, with this thread repurposed, I figured, why not share this with you guys on here as well. So without further ado, let’s start with the inspiration for this project:



I came across this amazing artwork by “TheMaestroNoob” from DeviantArt on google and decided I had to do a conversion to make a similar model for my 40k collection. Here’s what I ended up with:



The basis for this guy was a heroclix miniature. However, to appropriate the Chief for the 41st millenium, I had to make some major modifications to his armor. The legs were removed and completely replaced with legs from a regular SM kit. I also added the obligatory pauldrons and a backpack/power plant to his armor to make it look bulkier and as if parts had been taken from a Space Marine armory.



I also drilled out the tiny barrels of his two machine pistols (a loadout I used to go ham with in Halo 3) and added a purity seal to tie him in more with the story of the 40k universe. The idea behind his backstory is that he somehow survived all the millenia since 2553 A.D. in cryostasis.



With this mini, I sort of imagined what would happen if MC became lost in the warp after the end of Halo 3 in his cryo pod aboard the “Forward unto Dawn” and was only rediscovered in the 41st millenium and taken in by the Inquisition as a sanctioned archeotech artifact. But more on his backstory later



The head was removed and repositioned at a straight, forward facing angle. Then, I painted the whole armor Catachan green. After that had dried, I drybrushed it with a lighter shade of the same colour, before applying a wash to bring it all back down to the olive drab again. Nice and simple, quick highlight which really picks up the detail on the Heroclix mini parts and saved me a lot of time. The machine pistols were painted black and drybrushed with a dark grey. The visor was painted in Dwarf Bronze, then washed with Agrax Earthshade, then drybrushed back up again to a shinier finish.



I then decided to add some more detail and visual contrast by adding freehand markings to his armor. I painted the UNSC logo on his left pauldron (a throwback to his former allegiance, as well as a nod to regular Space Marine’s pauldrons with their chapter insignia) and an Inquisition icon on his right pauldron. I also added his callsign “117” to his right knee guard.



I really enjoyed this project and slammed through it because I really loved the idea and wanted to see it through to completion. I’m pretty happy with the result considering how quick and sloppy the paintjob was. I’m not really sure what to do with this guy for now, but I guess if I ever get around to assembling my own Inquisitorial retinue, that’s definitely where he’s going. While his appearance in the 41st millenium is definitely more than just a stretch, I think he would make for a cool, gimmicky character for such a squad. However, I would also then have to find somebody to play INQ28 with, which would be very difficult where I’m living Ah well, we’ll see. Anyways, I’d be very interested to read your thoughts and feedback on the conversion and paintjob of this guy.
But before you leave, there’s more! Like I said, I still want to share some background/fluff with you that I wrote for this guy. Now, please keep in mind, I am by no means an author, my knowledge of the intricacies and inner workings of the IOM are limited at best, and I’m not a native english speaker, either. Still, I hope you enjoy the short piece of fluff I am about to share with you. Please do not hesitate to let me know your thoughts on my writing and if there are any blatant errors (apart from the highly unlikely shoehorning in of a character from a completely different franchise into the 41st millenium by means of a ridiculously long disappearance into the warp) or other things I could improve upon. Before I leave you with this short text, let me thank you for checking this out! I look forward to your replies and will definitely keep you updated here with new projects. Until next time!





Sanctioned Archeotech-Artifact S-117 "John"

As the Space Hulk designated Y-290L071 emerged from the Warp in the far reaches of the Scarus Sector, a reconnaissance fleet was promptly dispatched to investigate. It arrived at the Hulk to find a Black Ship, belonging to one Inquisitor Desilvo of the elusive Ordo Originatus already on site. The Inquisitor made it clear that the Hulk contained something very valuable to him and he requisitioned a platoon of boarding troopers to secure his access.

A quickly formed recon team encountered no resistance when they entered the comparatively small Hulk, much to their surprise. Somehow the metal colossus had endured the Warp without falling victim to daemonic taint or xenos infestation. It had to have been created as about a dozen ships of imperial and xenos origins had been fused together by the Immaterium. Among those ships, the recon team discovered the wreck of a mysterious vessel of human origin. The entire prow of the ship was missing, though it remained unclear whether the damage had been caused by the Warp itself or some sort of ship-based energy weapon. The boarding party was able to identify the ship's name "Forward Unto Dawn", however that did not shed any more light on the age of the vessel or its manufacturer.

Inquisitor Desilvo's target was a cryo bay inside the mysterious ship. Once the crew had secured access to it, he boarded the Space Hulk and entered the bay by himself, demanding to be left undisturbed at his task. The members of the boarding party were eager to oblige and guarded the bulkhead, until a sharp crack forced them to react. Storming inside the bay, they found the Inquisitor had teleported off the ship, only leaving behind some warped metal and an empty cryo chamber.

Inquisitor Desilvo had carefully planned his escape with the artifact recovered from the ancient ship. His Navigators had plotted a route out of the sector and were awaiting his return.

Just as the Inquisitor's ship disappeared into the Warp, an explosion tore a large chunk out of the Space Hulk. Recordings later revealed a highly corrupted artificial intelligence had engaged the self destruct systems of the "Forward Unto Dawn", obliterating the ship and taking out all of the boarding crew members with it.