Mark 4 Squad Assembled

A new Mark 4 Space Marine armour squad today -- one that I've literally only just assembled in the precious little free time that I have these days. The squad is entirely constructed from parts in the Mark 4 space marine kit with the exception of the sergeant. For the sergeant, he sports a head taken from the grey knights range, a back pack from the chaos space marine range (because it is from Anvilus, of course).

The base topper beneath the feet of the sergeant comes from Anvil Industry -- they're a nice way to mark out some of the more important characters in a squad. All of the squad are posed in a way that I wanted to communicate "activity" by. Many are looking down the sights of their bolt guns. Those that are not appear to be looking at something very in particular in a different direction. All have grenades attached and bolt pistols stowed (from both space marines and chaos space marine parts) and ready for deployment as well. And there is a legion vexilla on the guy who has been silly by removing his helmet. Plus a forge world shoulder pad that I had left over from another project that I wanted to use up!

These will ultimately be painted in Alpha Legion colours and will complement my other miniatures that I've already assembled and been using. Explicitly, I bought them to ensure I could field bigger and more squads of tactical marines. 

Headhunter with Heavy Bolter

Following on from yesterday's squad leader for my Headhunters, today is the Heavy Bolter toting squad member.

Now, for this marine, remember that the heavy bolter automatically comes with suspensors to offset the "heavy" setting. Hence he can run and shoot normally. 

For this marine, I wanted a heavy bolter that was a bit different to what is normally seen on the table top. This is because the rounds being fired will be bane strike, and the suspensors will probably make the heavy bolter fairly unique in the armour.

The light coloured parts are resin from the Forge World upgrade kit for the headhunters. The heavy bolter itself is from the Blood Angels range, with the front end being from the chaos space marine upgrade set. The backpack is clearly grey knights. The legs are regular space marines. Overall, this is a miniature that looks very unique and helps communicate the diverse weapon (perhaps illegal tech) that the Alpha Legion likes to use. 

There's a bit of finishing off to do here yet. Clearly the armpit requires greenstuff (you can see the conversion work with a paperclip pin in the armpit of this photo), and the cables need bending in to place at the rear of the heavy bolter. But otherwise, this is a miniature that I think is looking very nice already, even if it is a bit of a work in progress. Indeed, the pose is the marine effortlessly lifting the heavy bolter up to a more eye / line of sight level (which I wanted in there to suggest the suspensors at least). The chaos space marine gargoyle head is just the icing on the cake really for me. It fits very well and gives a certain baroque feel to the weapon which fits with what I wanted for the theme of this conversion. 

Headhunter Prime

A little bit of conversion work today -- a headhunter prime to add to my collection for the 30k Alpha Legion.

Although the headhunters are an odd choice in some ways, they are actually really fluffy, and can be very effective in certain Alpha Legion builds. For this model though, I wanted something this might communicate the arrogance (or martial hubris) of the Alpha Legion. Hence, the combi-bolter has been angled at the wrist to give a different orientation to the weapon. Meanwhile the power weapon is trailing behind him in a suggestion of charging in to combat and about to unleash on an unsuspecting target.

Clearly, there are a variety of bits used here, including not least one of the newer plastic bases from Games Workshop. The head of the miniature is from the chaos space marine raptors set which I think fits in very nicely with the Alpha Legion (their armour marks and use is always confusing). The backpack is a grey knights teleportation device (the power weapon is also grey knights). The idea being that I might use these in conjunction with Dynat's deep strike granting ability -- this ties in with an army theme of using stolen, advanced, or reverse engineered tech. Meanwhile the legs are from Khorne Berserkers! What can I say? I just liked the pose. The resin (lighter bits) are from the head hunters upgrade release from Forge World. What do you think - does it communicate the martial hubris and sneakiness of the Alphas well enough?

Autilon Skorr Conversion

One of the problems with miniatures produced and available only through official conventions is that they're rare. A corresponding issue is that when they appear on e-Bay, they are invariably incredibly expensive to purchase. 

Autilon Skorr is one such example of this type of issue.

I really like the rules associated with the miniature and wanted to run it in one of my 30k Alpha Legion army lists. So, without wanting to expend a vast amount of cash on an e-Bay purchase for the miniature, I decided to create my own.

One of the features of Autilon Skorr is the power axe. For this, I followed my terminator conversion and attached a chaos space marine terminator axe to a space marine commander chainsword arm -- the one with the angled wrist. 

For the other arm, I decided against the command rod style of implement, and went for a power dagger in an inverse grip (essentially a grey knights power weapon that has been trimmed down to a shooter length). 

Shoulder pads are the Alpha Legion specific icon and the legion centurion, whilst the torso and backpack comes from the space marine range.

Legs are extended for a true scale marine (see the green stuff in the thighs), and the helmet is a cut down chaos warriors one. Since Skorr comes with a lion-esque helm for the original miniature, I wanted one here that was suitably intimidating, and thought the chaos warrior range was not a bad idea for this … and perhaps foreshadowing the Alpha's fall to chaos (or at least, some of them at any rate -- because goodness knows how many of them are loyal, traitor, or anything in-between). 

The base topper comes from Anvil Industry for the curious. And that's about it!

Alpha Legion Melta Support Squad

Combining aspects of Gun-Kata with posed special weapons, this is an Alpha Legion support squad armed with meltaguns. Now, in an environment dominated by Armoured Ceramite, there's probably little reason to take Meltaguns. Unless you're encountering zero meltaguns, in which case you've probably saved points by not taking the armoured ceramite upgrade. In which case, here's my meltaguns coming to make friends. With extra melta bombs just for fun.

Although the bases need some work and attention yet, the squad is essentially complete, including arduous (near hobby-mojo-killing levels of truescale leg conversions).

Alpha Legion Heavy Support Squad

I finally finished assembling a small squad of five Alpha Legion heavy support marines with missile launchers. 

As with my initial test models of these men, they're toting Eldar missile launchers. The reason for this is that I see this particular Alpha Legion splinter group as having zero tolerance for not making use of anything and everything that they come across. Therefore, isolated and away from central command structures, they actively use everything that they can land their hands on - including Xenos technology, just like their Primarch, Alpharius is observed to. 

Each of the space marines is a true scale interpretation -- they have had their legs lengthened by an extension to the thighs, as will almost every marine in this army. This gives them extra height. For the squad sergeant, I've used terminator legs rather than regular marines to make him look more sturdy. In addition, I've attempted to model some high-tech binoculars in his hands as well.

All of the marines in addition to the main conversions are extensive kit bases from a variety of sources. These include not just Forge World parts, but also Eldar, space marines, chaos space marines, grey knights, dark angels and others. 

I'm looking forward to painting these guys up using the air compressor!

Legion Assault Squad Marine Conversion

Another day, another conversion. This time, its an assault squad member. Unlike most of my other space marines, the assault squad will not be featuring true scale legs. I feel this is unnecessary for this squad given its dynamic nature and huge range of poses that I'm going to undertake for it.

The parts are as follows:

Forge World: Torso, right arm
Khorne Berserkers: Legs
Grey Knights: Helmet
Maxmini: Jump pack
Space marines: left arm, bolt pistol, shoulder pads
Eldar: right hand, sword
Base: 32mm

Despite such a wide array of bits being used, the overall aesthetic is certainly one of a legionary, and will make a good complement for the growing 30k forces that I'm assembling. The 32mm base is something that I can whole heartedly recommend to other space marine fans. With miniatures of this scale and with such a large, dominant jump pack, the large bases allow a range of positions and poses to be readily modelled and offset with a quality scenic base.

Alpha Legion: Dynamic Heavy Support

A new model just recently completed for my growing Alpha Legion forces. For this model, I wanted to communicate a certain level of dynamism that is not ordinarily seen in a heavy support trooper. Hence I decided early on that this model would be posed to be firing his bolt pistol side arm, rather than his heavy support weapon. We don't get to see this kind of thing often enough in my opinion: a trooper who is flexible and has the presence of mind to remember that he actually has a side arm and knows exactly how to use it on the move. This, if nothing else, screams Alpha Legion to me. 

The heavy weapon itself is interesting. For this, I've used an Eldar missile launcher to represent a regular missile launcher. The weapon is mounted on a chaos space marine heavy bolter plastic fist in the left hand, slung away from the body to communicate the trooper being in motion. This is helped out by the pose -- the forward foot coming down hard on a ruined tyre and the back foot nearly off the 32mm base that I've used here. Indeed, this model is so off-kilter and off-centre that it had a permanent wobbly model syndrome. I've therefore glued a small coin to the underside of the base to prevent it from toppling over all the time. 

Apart from the helm being from the Grey Knight range, everything else is Forge World. Including the legs which, as can be seen, have been green stuffed to give this marine extra height as part of my drive to have true scale for many of these marines (I probably won't do this with some of them though -- particularly assault marines -- it tends to kill my modelling mojo and just isn't needed on every model to be honest). 

Overall, very pleased with this model! 

Alpha Legion Headhunter

This is the first of my Headhunters that I unboxed yesterday. I'm not sure if this will be the Prime or not, but regardless, I'm very pleased with the result here.

The bits I used are as follows:

Shoulders, Torso, Weapon, Head, Accessories - Headhunters upgrade kit;

Legs - Sternguard Space Marine;

Arms, Base (32mm) - Betrayal at Calth boxed set;

Backpack - Grey Knights;

Base - Cork and bits from a Drop Pod.

The overall impression is a marine who is sinister and serious about his business. I like the way that the combi-bolter looks -- even if I might just use it or count it as a regular bolter to be honest. The backpack gives a clue as to how I might deploy this guy -- by deep strike. This can be achieved via Armillus Dynat for those wondering. Equally, I don't have to deep strike headhunters in the slightest -- infiltration and scouts are an ideal choice for how they can set up.

Alpha Legion Sniper, with Necron Deathmark Rifle

Another day, another completed Alpha Legion sniper with a Necron Deathmark rifle. This one is mounted on one of the bases that was displayed a few days ago. I think the pose and everything else really clicks well here for me. So I won't write much more and will simply leave you with the image.

Completing an Alpha Legion Sniper (or perhaps Mor Deythan)

Not sure if this one is an Alpha Legion reconnaissance marine, or whether it is a Raven Guard Mor Deythan marine. Or arguably, a Mor Deythan marine that is an Alpha Legion marine in disguise. Or Alpharius himself. Yeah - infiltration. It drives you mad.

The marine follows on from my earlier concept piece with a Death Mark necron weapon. This particular variant is in a running pose and features legs and cape from Anvil Industry as well as the almost compulsory Dark Angels head. 

The base for the marine is a sliced up rhino hatch, covered and edged with some fine sand and a little bit of slate here and there. All that's lacking is the left shoulder pad which is on its way…

Sniper Scout Death Mark Concept

Q: What do you get when you mix together a Death Mark sniper rifle with some 40k space marine parts?

A: A model the is playable as both a 30k and 40k space marine sniper scout model that looks pretty unique!

The model is constructed from necron parts (the sniper rifle), Dark Angels (the hooded head), space marines (accessories, back pack), chaos space marines (arms), Grey Knights (torso), and Anvil Industry (legs, cape).

I'll be using him as part of a recon squad for my growing 30k Alpha Legion forces. I think he really fits the bill rather well. In particular, one of my goals for this army was to convert absolutely everything. In line with this, I also wanted them to have a feel of using xenos weapons and reverse-engineering others. Here, I've taken the lead from Alpharius himself who is described as wielding a spear of alien construction. Like others, I've interpreted this as Necron in origin and therefore decided that some of his sons could be similarly equipped!

Legion Vexilla Bearer

With Leadership values being particularly important in Warhammer 30k due to the chance of routing and fleeing off the board, Legion Vexilla are important to take for helping to counter these chances - especially for large squads. Indeed, for my 20 marine strong tactical squad, I will be taking a vexilla along with a few other upgrades.

To model the Vexilla, there are a number of options. Forge World supply parts that attach to the top of the back pack of the space marines. But I was a little bit dissatisfied with this approach. If one examines the front cover of some of the Black Library books (in particular the cover of Sedition's Gate) it is clear that the Alpha Legion has their vexilla carried by marines rather than on their backs. I much prefer this kind of approach since it feels more authentic - to inspire the troops, the legion symbol and history can be hoisted high by the bearer.

For this miniature, I therefore too a chaos space marine icon pole and attached a space marine banner to the top of it. The pose of the miniature certainly suggests that the marine is proudly displaying the banner front and centre and rallying the troops around him against the xenos or other enemy. The conversion is finished off with a bolter conversion, plus parts from space marines, chaos space marines, and grey knights. As with a number of my miniatures for my Alpha Legion army, the legs will be added later once I've converted them to true scale ones.

Let's Go!

Today, an example of a posed marine who will form part of a tactical squad. The inspiration here for the marine is one that is gesticulating to his brothers to come along quick - Let's Go and get stuck in over here!

The conversion is created by combining parts from space marines (torso, bolter), chaos space marines (arms, back pack -- clearly from the Anvilus Forge World, shoulder pad, head), grey knights (left hand) and anvil industry (bolter cartridge conversion).

Overall, I'm pleased with this relatively simple conversion and will be applying some truescale legs a little bit later, along with an Alpha Legion shoulder pad to the left shoulder.

Armillus Dynat

At the recent Forge World Weekender, the model for Armillus Dynat was revealed. I am actually really pleased about this to say the least as it is always deeply unclear if all the named characters will ever get the breath of fresh air (ahem) resin from Forge World.

But on the other hand, I'm a little bit miffed, as I had a good conversion for Dynat on the go.  Here's my attempt so far! I think the Forge World model is superior (obviously), so this model might just be taken apart for spare parts. For the moment though, I thought I'd show him off to the world and see if you like my take on Dynat.

For the model, I've used Dark Angels terminator legs, shaved down and green stuffed over the Angel's iconography. The torso is from Anvil Industry, as it the head. The weapons are from the Grey Knights, whilst the arms are space marines. The right shoulder pad is a chaos space marine one, shaved down so that the chaos symbol is gone, and the left shoulder pad is from Forge World.

The pose of the model that I was gunning for here was one of near-arrogance. At least in a way to encapsulate the Martial Hubris of the Alpha Legion. The power sword is therefore in almost a casual fencing pose, whilst the hammer is readied to deliver the harrowing blow. He also has some grenade accessories ready to deploy. One thing that I think is perhaps missing is an antenna on the back pack. But in hind sight, I'm not so worried about that as I selected a rather high-tech looking back pack from the space marine range to cover the rules for Dynat.

The bald head from Anvil Industry is excellent for Alpha Legion models. I was intending to paint it with a tattoo (as per Extermination's vision of Dynat).

Overall, I think I'm pleased with the way that my model for Dynat looks. That said, I'm not beyond purchasing the real model from Forge World when it is released for sale, as I think that is a great model as well. Maybe I should keep my conversion -- the Alpha's could do with multiple copies of Dynat I feel?

Tartaros Plasma Blaster Terminator

The plasma blaster is one of the nicer options for Tartaros terminators to take. But, not being made of cash and wanting to do some real conversion work, I decided that I didn't want to go for the comparatively small plasma blaster weapon sold by Forge World. Nope. Instead, I wanted a full-scale plasma-cannon! 

The logic behind this choice is not too hard to see. Not only do I think that that Alpha Legion would have access to some of the biggest, most advanced, baddest weapons possible, but they're certainly not shy of deploying novel creations of their own through reverse engineering whatever they please (cf. Corvus Alpha armour). That, and I'm also quietly hoping that the Dark Angels might have their own terminators capable of deploying plasma cannons themselves, which makes stealing them by the Alpha Legion much more credulous. 

The terminator here is a remarkably straight forward conversion. Having learnt my lesson well about haunched shoulders and the curvy bodies that these guys have on my sergeant, I opted for a variant pose for this guy. Rather than having the plasma cannon levelled, he has it up high as if running, or perhaps attacking with his power sword instead of using the plasma weapon. This made the pinning of the plasma cannon from the Dark Angels terminator range much more easy to do.

The power sword arm comes from the grey knights range -- it is one of the long power swords that the knights in normal power armour wield in two hands usually, but this one is wielded one-handedly (because he's a terminator!). The pinning to the Tartaros arm was not too painful either, but I might add just a dab of greenstuff prior to painting to bring it together better.

As can also be seen, I avoided using more of the puppetswar shoulder pads, instead just going for the Tartaros pattern shoulder pads. Clearly this works well for the power sword arm, but it actually works just fine for the plasma cannon arm as well for that matter. 

Finally, some of you may be wondering why I've opted for a power sword here (rather than a power axe). Let me be honest. This guy will always be the first to die (if I get to select) in any melee. That's because he's served his purpose by firing his plasma blaster once or twice on the way into melee. After that, I'm not firing the plasma and his value is diminished. But more than that, I don't want to be taking on enemy terminators with my terminators regularly. I want to crush weaker specimens if at all possible. That means I don't actually need AP2 that power axes will provide, and can use AP3. It might mean that I can whittle down an otherwise terrifying squad (even for terminators) before the rest of my AP2 weapons start hacking back. Without storm shields, this is not a bad sacrifice in my opinion and shakes up the ordinary paradigm (which is what the Alpha Legion would just love to do in my opinion). 

Shaving Grey Knights

Remind me to not do this again too often. In the pursuit for novel looking torsos for my growing 30k army (and following the maxim of no model left unconverted) I some how got it in to my head that some Grey Knight torsos would look awesome. If only I could shave them down.

And that's exactly what I set out to do. The photo shows the results: 5 Grey Knight power armour torsos that have had their iconography scrubbed out through an exquisitely fine application of both the modelling knife and files. I'm pleased with the result overall here. Although the curvature of the torsos has been affected in places, with a gun slung over them it will hardly be noticeable on the tabletop. But the sheer amount of time and effort that this took: oh my. This is the main reason I really don't want to repeat this exercise again in a hurry.

Space Marine Legion Tactical Squad Member

This space marine is the first of many (well, 20 to be exact) to join my first Legion Tactical Squad. As with all of my space marines that are going in to my new army, he is a conversion.

The parts for him are sourced from Grey Knights (the head), Forge World armour (arms), Anvil Industry (torso, and drum magazine), space marines (back pack) and chaos space marines (the bolter). The pose extols the virtues of the converted bolter to create a pose that suggests an accurately aimed shot at a mid-ranged target. I particularly like the head here. Although it is from Grey Knights and does feature pipework coming out of his skull, the grimace is a particularly interesting one. Moreover, the arms from Forge World create pose that is not typically found amongst regular space marine parts, which is nice. Although I won't be using too many more of the forge world arms in this manner, since I'm going to aim for more of a "gun kata" pose for most of the miniatures in this particular squad. 

Some final touches can already be seen on this marine, including the drilling out of the barrel of the bolt gun itself. I think this is a nice touch to add to all space marines as it really finishes the miniature's pose nicely. Just the shoulder pad left to add. And some true scale converted legs. 

Truescale Meltagunner

This is the final melta gun toting marine for my (minimum sized) Legion Support Squad. As a true scale analogue, I have extended the marine's legs just above the knee joints by a good 3 to 4mm to build in extra height. Additionally, the waist has been raised by adding in some greenstuff filler to give another 1mm or so of extra height. This subtle addition to the height makes all the difference to the final scale of the model.

The bits for the rest of the miniature consist of a blend of chaos space marine, grey knights, and space marine parts -- all plastic in this case. The final marine is a Corvus mark marine -- but Corvus Alpha, rather than true Mk.VI perhaps(!). Overall, I'm pleased with this conversion and the pose has a quantum of dynamism built in to it with the marine seemingly firing the melta gun whilst taking a stride and lowering the bolt pistol for the moment. 

Meltagunner Lobbing Grenades

Adding to the growing squad of melta gunners for my 30k army is this space marine - toting both a melta-gun and lobbing a grenade with the left hand. Again, this army is going to follow the maxim of mo model unconverted, as well as trying to make as many models true scale (regardless of terminator legs) as possible (before it kills me). 

The head of the marine is taken from the chaos space marines range -- it is the Nurgle head with the chaotic extensions removed and filed down to a smooth finish on the left hand side of the image. Indeed, with the head turned to look at where the grenade is being lobbed, the scrubbing away of the gribbly Nurgle bits can hardly be seen. 

The legs are from the regular space marine range, extended a few mm's to something more resembling true scale, and greenstuff at the hips added to the leg extensions. In hindsight, I think green stuffing the knee regions is easier for this kind of conversion, unless one is really wanting to change the angle the hips make with the thighs.  

The torso and arms are from the chaos space marine range. There are plenty of bits from this range which work very well for 30k armies, but you'll notice here that I've shaved off the belt buckle. I'll paint over this with a legion symbol (or at the very minimum a Greek letter) when I'm at that stage. The back pack is from the grey knights range and to represent a marine that might be able to deep strike in to play.