Saturday, April 26, 2014

INQ28: Militarum Tempestus Scion Conversion - Part 2

As the Emperor protects, so must we.
After having so much fun converting the first INQ28 Militarum Tempestus storm trooper, I knew I had to get to work on converting a second. For the second stormtrooper I wanted to maintain the same modified hot-shot lasrifle, but this time have the rifle shouldered like it was getting ready to be fired. Adding the stock to the hot-shot lasrifle proved to be a lot trickier this time around and required a lot more cutting and greenstuffing to situate everything properly.

The shouldered hot-shot lasrifle complete with stock and holographic sight.

In my last post I had expressed my disappointment that the older plastic Cadian heads were not compatible with the Scions. I decided to look into this a little further to see if I could make something work. Fortunately, I have found that they are actually scaled properly, it is just they lack the necks seen on the Scions. Eager for a challenge, I decided to try to model a neck with greenstuff on one of the Cadian heads. After looking through all the plastic Cadian heads at my disposal, I found one of the scarred faces from the Cadian command squad and decided it would make the perfect head for a grizzled Inquisitional veteran. The greenstuffing went so well that I decided to sculpt a collar around the soldier's neck as well.

The extra power source for the storm trooper’s hot-shot lasrifle was removed from his backpack and additional attachment points modeled on with greenstuff. 
The plastic Cadian heads are scaled properly with the new scions, however you need to model on necks if you want them to seat correctly.  
One of the last options I wanted to explore with the model was giving the soldier a holstered sidearm. In order to actually fit the holstered weapon on the model’s waist without looking cluttered I knew I would have to create a pistol much smaller than those typically seen on Warhammer 40k models. I started the conversion by cutting down an Elysian Drop Troop holster and adding the modified grip of a boltgun to substitute for the pistol (I tried my best to style the pistol like a Glock 17). After playing around for awhile trying to fit the holster on the model, I decided I needed to make further modifications to comfortably accommodate the pistol, allowing for the soldier to easily draw the weapon if needed. To do this I trimmed down the armor-plate on his right thigh to make more room for the holster. Next using greenstuff I sculpted a mount for the holster and glued it in place. Finally, I sculpted some additional straps to mount the holster to what remained of the soldier’s armor-plate. The whole pistol turned into a lot more work than I was planning, but overall I am very pleased with the results.

The evolution of the storm trooper’s sidearm. The base of the holser came from the Elysian Drop Troops. Special care was taken to model in a mount for the holster with greenstuff.
The finished holstered sidearm! I crafted the pistol in the likeness of a modern automatic pistol.
Sometime during my work converting the second storm trooper I found out about Migsula’s fantastic Skitarii Praetorians. I was surprised how well their hotshot lasguns could be transformed into boltguns with a few modifications, including a simple magazine change.  Additionally, he brilliantly decided to reposition the shoulder-mounted targeting arrays (officially called monoscopes by GW, ha ha) to face the direction his troopers were looking. A seemingly small modification, but one that went a long way in selling the models. This inspired me to do the same on my new storm trooper and go back and revisit my original one. While modifying the monoscope on my first storm trooper I also decided to replace the massive gem on his beret with a smaller more reserved emblem of a shield (that gem had always bothered me…).

The second storm trooper, ready to wage the Emperor's wars.
I revisited my original storm trooper conversion and repositioned his shoulder-mounted monoscope and replaced the gem on his beret with a shield emblem.  

I recently acquired one of GW’s new Asta Militarum Taurox models. I am considering trying to convert one for my Inquisitorial storm troopers.
With the second storm trooper finished I have started to consider my options for the third. Nothing is definite yet, but I am throwing around the idea of converting a special weapon like a plasma or melta gun. Alternatively, maybe make the sergeant of the squad with a pistol and a drawn combat knife? If anyone has any suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments section.

- Adam Wier

9 comments:

  1. Another great piece mate - you must have crazy patience and wicked eyesight tidying up all those extremely tiny/fiddly pieces.

    Like I think I mentioned on the last one, the additions you make really help sell the add-ons - all those straps and buckles make sense and fit the parts better than just having them hang off the mini like mine and most others would tend to do.

    If you go a drawn combat knife I'd expect to see it wielded backwards (downstroke) a la the Infinity Ariadna Spec Ops model.

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    1. Thank you for the all of the compliments! I have tried hard to integrate everything as naturally as I could. For the past few models I have really been experimenting with my limits of greenstuff work. I have found the most important aspect of working with greenstuff is having patience. I spent a long while playing around with those little straps until I was finally happy with them.

      Also, your thoughts on the drawn combat knife are exactly like what I was envisioning!

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  2. Very nice conversions! Every little detail looks like it's the right place.
    You obviously are quite skilled with greenstuff.

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    1. Thank you for kind words! I have improved leaps and bounds with my greenstuff work over the past two years. I feel much of that can be attributed to lots of practice and starting to use color shapers (probably more of the latter, ha ha).

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  3. Excellent work again! That side arm is ace, and makes one lament that the usual options are so huge in comparison.

    Are you going to do the gun lights?

    Also, your take on the volley gun would be interesting to see...

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    1. Thanks! Yeah, more and more I am considering converting the weapons for lots of my upcoming models. I want to try and convert a melta or plasmagun and cut the size of it down by a significant margin.

      I still am considering trying to make some gun lights. I still have not decided how I will make them (maybe cutting apart some of those plastic Space Marine bolter scopes, ha ha). Any suggestions?

      I feel if I try and make a volley gun I would try and modify it to make it look more like a light machinegun (M249, HK MG4, etc).

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    2. Plastic rod is really my only idea for the gun lights, but you may be able to repurpose some sort of knife handle or similar ribbed tube for part of it.

      Volley gun with more of a light machine gun flavor is exactly what I would like to see, so I hope your ideas come to fruition!

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    3. You could also look at Dreamforge's Eisenkern troops, they have a MG-42 looking LMG, unfortunately it may not be to scale with the Scions, you could also state the volley gun is basically a heavy stubber perhaps.

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    4. That is a good idea about trying to use those Eisenkern trooper weapons. I have been looking towards getting some of the models for a while now to play around with. Their weapons are a lot more grounded in realism than most of what is seen in 40k.

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