Converted Vindicator, Summer time!

One year of law school is now under my belt. The last term was busy, and while it has been 4 months since my last blog post, it has not been four months since I last worked on something for my Space Wolves. I have assembled most of an 1850 point army, including this:

Leman Russ found the STC for the tank bearing his name, and damnit, my army is going to include one! And there it is, in converted form. I wanted a Leman Russ tank and a vindicator in the army, and this covers the both of them.

The siege shield, cannon, and vent at the back are from the Vindicator sprue (thanks ebay). The hull is from the old Leman Russ kit. No idea if the new kit would result in any difference.

Looking back, this conversion would have been fairly easy if I had known what I would be doing before I did it. As it happened, I put the Russ together, and then did the converting work. Made things more difficult, and next time around I would do things in reverse (proper) order.

I tried doing a rope on the side of the tank, similar to Night Runner's wolf tooth necklaces.  You can see his excellent tutorial here.

I managed the rope. The teeth were beyond the patience level I was currently possessed of. Instead I took the rune from the bottom of the storm shield in the Wolf Pack kit. Note: make sure the surface you roll out the rope on is completely clean. Any bit of debris that is picked up is hard to get off.

Basecoating the army will soon commence. Priming is done (except on the vindicator).

I plan to post my thoughts on 'counts as' models sometime next week. My vindicator is counts as, and so I wanted to say a few things on where I think the line between acceptable and not acceptable for using such models is.

Sternguard Conversions, Fists are seeing progress

I've spent the past week and a half working on many of the tanks for my Imperial Fists.  Three rhinos, one razorback, two speeders and my landraider have been basecoated and washed. Scratch that. I just looked over at the painting table and realized the razorback just needs highlights, the details, and the tracks painted up before it's finished. Well, mostly finished. I may weather them a bit.

Pictures are being taken for the WIP post, but I won't put them up just yet. Instead, here are some photos of my Sternguard squad! These still have a little ways to go before they're ready for paint. The bolters need bigger magazines, and possibly straps and scopes. Even once assembly is finished, they'll be staying on a shelf for a while (except to come out for games). I want to leave them, along with my terminator squad, until after I've refined my painting technique and the painting process I'm using for this army.


Most of the squad:

Here is the sergeant:

 

Here is one of my combi-melta veterans:

Regular veteran:

And another angle:

And the last one I have a decent photo for:

Helmets: space wolves pack (two per box) (thank-you ebay)

Torsos: Tactical squad box (one per box) (thank-you again ebay)

Metal shoulder pads with Imperial fist symbol:  Bitz pack from GW

Other shoulder pads: Command Squad box, tactical box


For larger magazines, I'll be using the pintle-mounted bolters that come with Space Marine vehicles. I'll be taking the straps from Black Reach marines, or using plastic card.

Librarian Conversion

This model was originally put together to go with the Imperial Fists successor chapter I had been working on. His look is a bit different from the standard librarian, and this fits with the background I developed for the chapter. As I still plan on doing that successor chapter, I won't go into what that background is just yet. That project will have to wait!

The legs and head are from the Dark Angels veterans models, I believe, while the torso is from the Space Marine Commander box. His staff is part power axe, with the winged skull coming from I think a command squad sprue, and the skull at the bottom is from a Vampire Counts box of skeletons.

I wanted him to look like he was advancing confidently and unstoppably towards some foe, either getting ready to hit it with a psychic power, or stopping the psychic attacks of a Chaos sorcerer.

Land Raider ready for paint!

Here is the Land Raider for my Imperial Fists army. It has seen some slight conversion work, has been primed, and will shortly come under assault from a paint brush!

Of note are the Forge World Terminator door upgrades, as well the statue and engraving I have added to each side. You can also see how all four hatches have coins glued in place. The Terminator doors, as well as Redeemer Cannons and twin-linked lascannons, are magnetized so that I can easily switch between Land Raider variants. When I want a Redeemer, the guns go up front and the doors go in the rear hatches. When I want a God Pattern 'raider, the doors go up front with the lascannons in the back.

Both of the add ons are from the Bastion kit. They were part of the relief sculptures that could be put in the wall mounted turrets in place of the heavy bolters. I used clippers to cut them out and then a file to smooth out the edges. The Imperial Fist/Crimson Fists icons behind the Terminator doors are from the Drop Pod kit.

And here is a shot showing the magnets. The mounts I used for the coins came with the Land Raider kit.

My plan is to paint the Terminator doors and statues with a marble effect. How exactly that effect is achieved is something I don't know. Hopefully I'll manage achieve a decent measure of success. I'd hate to put to waste all the effort of cutting that saint statue out with a lousy paint job!