Pre-heresy conversion Pt. 2

All right! After a long week it's time for the second installment of the conversion! Leaving off from where we were last, we need to clean all of the warp filth from the legs, arms, shoulders and weapons.

Now is also the right time to gather basing material. For these conversion troops I'm using an urban theme. Here is a look at the stuff below-

These are all pieces of plaster molds of urban building rubble and random crap, but all good for the look I'll be shooting for. Also the fact that most of this stuff is made of terrain plaster, it's easy to break up. Now keep in mind that my experience in this sort of basing is limited to Flames of war 15 mm stuff, but it's all the same in theory, so we'll see how I do.

Now comes the real "work" if you will. I have spent a good bit of time researching this project by looking up artists renditions of the different legions usually found on the book covers of the Heresy series, other hobbyists work random depictions and so on. What you generally find is that no one is truly "accurate" when it comes to the Mk patterns of the pre-heresy armor. You will see all kinds of goofy stuff in pictures, for instance a beaky appears on the back side of the cover of Prospero Burns. Mk VI in pre-heresy... I don't think so, but ultimately this works in the hobbyists favor in that we have artistic license as long as we try to keep the "flavor" of the Pre-heresy. My shoulder pads will be the biggest offender here, but, The ones I'm using will allow for an easier heraldry application. And quite frankly, if you find people are criticizing your  interpretation, tell them to go drink a bolter round.

Now I begin to gather together the pieces I initially want for each marine. below is an example of what I may end up using for the Night Lords.

As I work along I try to imagine what the Marine is doing in combat to find the right limbs and weapon combos, This step for me changes constantly, so I like to use thumb tack or poster tack to get an idea of what I'm working to, like pictured below.

This just gives me the rough draft opportunity, to see what poses i can play with. Take close look at the marine in the center, with the chain sword, he is going to change! I don't like how he is turning out, and I want something more "Epic" if you will. It was at this point that I decided that he would be my Luna Wolf. Can I get a "Luprical!" up in dis house? Any way the first step to creating an "Iconic" figure was to go after another modification to the helm. Something that would really stand out. A horsehair crest. And here's how I did it:

With Green stuff made a thin brick about 5/8ths of an inch long by 1/8ths tall. Then I stuck it onto the very end of my plain 'ol exacto knife to form the horse shoe shape. Turns out that this is the perfect arc for the size of the helmets. I used a flat sculpting tool to flatten all sides while still adhered to the end of the knife. I let it dry for about 12 hours, popped it off the knife and scored it for texture.

Next I requisitioned a frag grenade from a trooper and cut a piece at the first notch. This will become the crest "hilt".

Now I have glued the "hilt" to the top of the helmet.

And BAM! We have an Iconic helmet! now I'm getting excited! Next I start on bases, You can see below that I slapped together a 4 piece base using elmer's glue for the large pieces. Two pieces are below to give the base some height and at the same time tilting a slab. 

For the rubble I use kitty litter. What I do is take "unused" kitty litter and put it in a sandwich baggie. I then use a spoon to crush it down to "scale". I'll then separate half of the crushed litter to an opposite corner of the bag and crush that down again. then you just shake the two sizes back together giving you a very nice size variation. now I add Elmers glue again to all of the spaces and crack where I want rubble. I then just dip the base down into the baggie and there you have it, instant urban rubble. Let that stand and dry for an hour and then wash over the base with a 50/50 mix of elmer's and water to seal the base. Now to add our legs!

After the base has dried, I super glue the legs on, looking for the best possible pose.

This is a behind shot of the same base. And below you can see that I have legged all my bases.

If you look closely you will see that I do have some plastic scraps on the bases as well. What I do is use a lighter to heat them up and deform them on a table edge to make them look like broken and melted beams. plasicard I-beams work well for this, I just didn't have any at the time, so i improvised. I also replace torsos with thumb tack to further work out poses. Now remember that Luna Wolf from earlier? Below is a reminder...

Here he makes another pre-pose appearance along with a yet to be named on the left and The Night Lords legs on the right.

Here is the mighty Astartes again, but I just don't want those arms, so I'm going to swap arms for a truly awesome pose! In the mean time we need to take a quick look at modifying backpacks.

This is really easy. Cut off nozzles. cut away Extra "taint" , Glue nozzlesback on. pretty cut and dry. The right is before, the left after. Here's another type-

You may want to use a little green stuff, but not too shabby on its own!. So now with some backpacks ready and the Arms I want,  I assemble The Luna Wolf.

Charging into battle This company Captain will be know to me as Garviel Loken.

                                                   NAME THE BOOK COVER!


Thank you all for reading! Any questions, Feel free to ask. Part 3 coming soon! In it we will look at little mods to make each Legion represented look unique before we move to the painting !

The Emperor Protects!
-JOHN

Presenting March's Mad Hobbyist & Something To Hang Your Hat On

I'm proud to announce Cameron, the proprietor of Rust and the City, as this month's Mad Hobbyist!  Since he created his blog last year, I have looked forward each week to stopping over and seeing all of the great projects he's working on.  There has been a progression to what Cameron has been putting together and it's been a true pleasure to follow along and see his skills as a hobbyist grow.

He hasn't been keeping hush about his methods either, among the great WIP's and galleries he's posted, Cameron has also produced a collection of excellent full-picture tutorials.  One of my favorites is his tutorial on adding rust and weathering to terrain pieces.  More often than not, terrain gets overlooked, not to mention given the care it deserves, so it is even more exciting to see a hobbyist taking the time to do it right.

Cameron's chaos renegades and Plague Marines are projects he's worked on since he first started showing off his creations on his blog.  In the beginning his conversions were relatively simple, the mixing of chaos bitz and Guardsmen.  But as time has gone on his models have become increasingly complex, first with the additions of wire, and then even creating his own sculpts from green stuff.

It is Cameron's green stuff modeling that I really take my hat off to.  When done right, Nurgle sculpts look amazing, and his offerings definitely hit the mark.  Green stuff modeling opens up a whole other world of possibilities when it comes to creating a great conversion and it shows with his Nurgle Marines.

Once again, congratulations to Cameron and the great work he does at Rust and the City!  Keep up the great hobby!

As for me, my hobby has slowed a bit as of late.  Getting a 40k league up and running and taking over the local 40k tournaments at my hobby store 31st Century Games & Hobbies have taken up a majority of my time.

Still these projects are extremely rewarding and I'm glad I have the opportunity to support hobby gaming at my local store.  Here's a sneak peek at some of the promotional materials that will be available after the tournament next month on April 7th.

More information will be forthcoming in the days ahead and I'll be sure to share it as it becomes available!

As for the work that I've been putting in for the upcoming 40k tournaments, here's a look at a couple of trophies that first and second place will receive.

In addition to taking home a trophy, winners will be awarded a nice little windfall of store credit for use at 31st Century.  If you'll be in the KC Metro area on the weekend of the 7th, drop by with a 1,500 point force and take a shot at first place or just come and hang out!