Wargames Gallery: Salamanders Contemptor Onslaught

The Iron Warriors look on grimly as the Salamanders' contemptor enters firing mode on the unit in front of him - there are no reactions left to be executed other than to stand there and take the shots. 

All Your Bases Are Belong To

Alpharius' base is fairly unique amongst the Primarchs. Plenty of the show dead bodies, and the results of their actions. Some are static and show staircases, or in the case of Dorn viewing a battlefield stoically. For Alpharius, he is in the midst of dispatching an unlucky foe (unlucky, because I'm assuming that he didn't see Alpharius coming. If he did, and charged, then he was going to be outgunned as a bolt pistol was probably never going to do the trick ... the bolt pistol lies on the ground next to this marine).

The first image (above) shows how the scenic base all slots together. It too me a little while to figure this out as I was rotating the smaller base around to see which rocks were supposed to slot in to each other. I thought I had it right, but there was a gap at one point in the circumference. 

Slightly perplexed, I decided to instead dry fit the unfortunate marine to the base. The knee of the marine turns out to occupy the slight gap in the circumference and fill in the scenic base. I hope this tip helps someone out! Regardless, the correct orientation can be seen above. 

For the marine on the floor, my original thought was to make this guy in to another Alpha Legion marine. I was going to do this by swapping shoulder pads, or perhaps a different helmet. The sculpt of this marine meant that this would be tough to do. Both the shoulder pads and the head are sculpted together with other parts. Hence, I have opted here to keep the original sculpt intact as it simply makes more sense that way. Plus it retains everything in their original condition. 

About the only this that I did with the base was to score it (picture above). Here, I've simply taken my modelling knife and etched a grid pattern on the bottom of it. The reason for doing this is to ensure better bonding when glued to the citadel base. Other than that, the base is now assembled. 

Alpha Legion Contemptor #2, Face-On

A few people asked me to post a different angle of one of my Alpha Legion contemptors. Hence, today's post is a simple image of my second Alpha Legion contemptor dreadnought, but this time, in a face-on view point (so that you're looking down the barrel of his Space Wolf true claw!). 

I still need to do a bit of work on his sword arm, but otherwise, this is the almost complete beast as he stands.

(My other Alpha Legion contemptor is linked here).

Alpha Legion Contemptor #2

Following hot on the heels of another converted Alpha Legion contemptor, comes this second addition to the talon. This particular beast has a true claw with integrated heavy flamer, plus an eldar wraith sword in the right hand that he's decided to make use of (because if xenos weapons are good enough for Alpharius, then he wouldn't mind him using such a sword either, right?). 

The base is from Scibor and offsets the resin contemptor very nicely. The overall pose is one of a running dreadnought, where only one the the feet (the right one, nearest the camera in the image) is attached to the base. The left arm is outstretched as if flaming the area in front of him, whilst the sword arm is being brought up, in readiness to strike out at the enemies of the Emperor. Or enemies of the Warmaster. Or both. Or neither. Hey, its the Alpha Legion, we're all confused.

Contemptor fist with Sword

A small conversion project that will ultimately go alongside the true claw conversion for the other contemptor fist. This time, its a contemptor arm coupled with a wraithsword.

The main issue with making this conversion was the desire to have the blade almost in line with the arm. This resulted in a steep angle between the fist and the chassis of the arm. To accommodate this and fix it in to position, one of the skull embossed "knuckles" of the fist was removed and the fist pinned at the wrist such that the pin angles upward in to the chassis of the arm. The overall effect is not a bad one as the blade is well proportioned to the contemptor model. I'll post a full contemptor picture in due course.

Alpha Legion Contemptor

For the Emperor! Hydra Dominatus!

Alpharius fell early on in the Great Crusade whilst waging righteous war against foul xenos. Or Imperial traitors. We're not sure. Luckily, Apothecary Alpharius was on hand to save Alpharius. With the aid of Alpharius and Tech Marine Alpharius, Alpharius was interred in to the sarcophagus of a Legion Contemptor. Always loyal, Alpharius volunteered to field test new weapons that were recovered by Alpharius on a different battlefield. Reverse engineered, these weapons were fitted to Alpharius' chassis by Alpharius. Alpharius now strides the battlefield targeting Space Wolf and Thousand Sons alike on Alpharius' orders. For the Emperor. Hydra Dominatus.

Parts:

Torso, Right Shoulder, Left Calf, Feet = Alpha Legion Contemptor.

Left Shoulder, Right Calf, Legs, Groin, Knees = Emperor's Children Contemptor.

Weapons = Necron Tesla Destructors from the Annihilation Barge set. 

Missiles, Head = boxed set from Forge World.

Base = scratch built (see yesterday's post). 

Magnets (for the weapons) drilled in place as well.

Constructed Kheres

Just a small update today: the first Kheres cannon has been constructed.

It was fiddly getting the tubes in place, but otherwise fine. I've not glued the arms in place as I haven't quite decided whether to articulate them with brass rods and magnets, or select a pose and just roll with it. I think I might go for the latter.

Unboxing a Kheres Contemptor Cannon

I've given in to temptation and an now the owner of a contemptor dreadnought from Forge World. One of the weapons that I've selected is the Kheres. Today, I wanted to show what the bits looked like right out of the box (pictured below).

What is clear from these bits is that getting the orientation of the rods for the cannon in the correct sense is important. They are not symmetric: they must be inserted in the main body of the cannon so that the fit. At the other end, they are symmetric and will slot in to the terminus of the cannon nicely, but even so it looks fiddly to say the least.