Urauloth

Quite a long time ago there was a discussion online (it may even have been on this forum, but I can't find it) about how a number of early WH40k special weapon sculpts started their life as boltguns, the basic frame of which could still be seen in their outline. I think about that sometimes when I look at a meltagun, because they still have a lot of design elements in common. Besides the theoretical of miniature design history (which is a glorious topic and forays into it are more than welcome if anyone has relevant information to share) it suggests the practical of cutting certain features off a boltgun and sticking other stuff onto it to make a new weapon, which is what I'm looking to do here. I believe people have done this before - I vaguely remember meltas being "meta" many editions ago, and people kitbashing them for veteran squads or... something. I think I was playing BFG or Mordheim at the time, though, so it wasn't a trick I picked up. The reason I want to do it now is pretty simple: In a box of Plague Marines, you get one guy who can be built stock with a choice of special weapon, and it's going to get dull if all my gunners are made from the same body. It's possible to cut the tabs and swap quite a few of the stock-build arm/body pairings in the kit, but the gunner is awkward because it's hard to make his weapon line up around the generous proportions of Mortarion's rounder sons. There's a ton of boltguns, though, including several held one-handed and even (a gorgeous component) one slung on strap. That's a cornucopia of posing options if you could turn some of them into other things. So, has anyone done anything like this? How difficult was it? What did you use, and how were the results?

WIP thread for my Plague Marine Kill Team. I'm going to try to get these guys done for the Knives in the Shadows event - I'm not very optimistic about the deadline given how much painting desk time I have at the moment, but I want to give it a shot! Here's the official vow: I, Urauloth, vow to complete one Kill-Team of the Death Guard, to be fully painted and based by the 31st May 2025, and to provide at least minimal fluff/background for them. May Grandfather Nurgle curse me to darkness and ruination* should I fail! Here's how they look prior to rattlecan priming: That's slightly more than the 6 models that make up the Kill Team, because the idea of making Plague Marines in batches of anything other than 7 is viscerally upsetting to me, so I got the the drilling, greenstuff, basing etc sorted for the proper number (plus the Plaguecaster). I'll probably only aim to paint 6 for KitS, though. Fluff-wise, the Wormlance isn't a Vectorium in its own right, but rather a strike force drawn up ad-hoc from members of several fighting in the same warzone, so they won't all have the same colour scheme. I'll probably stick to warbands of the 2nd Company, partly because I want to try taking a crack at the Pallid Hand heraldry and partly because the Ferric Blight the 2nd are infected with is a great excuse to slather everything in rust. Speaking of rust, though, I've accrued a fair bit of it myself: it's been a few years since I did any painting and even longer since I finished a whole model. It'll be great to get back to it! I might have to re-learn some of the fundamentals though, so I'm not sure what my results will be like. * honestly that just sounds like an average Tuesday in the Garden where Nurgle is concerned.

The hazard stripes look terrific. Looking forward to seeing the tanks!

Absolutely love the AdMech team. Already sizing up where to add spikes to the various models as soon as I can get hold of them.

Very sad to hear. He did a great job with WD, I still have a lot of issues from his era. I don't think Warhammer would be what it is without his contribution.

Good roleplaying opportunity, if nothing else! Váfri never liked having the Inquisition near his gear, so I was already thinking he'd voice some kind of suspicion. As for req, that would be nice... but the opsec of making contact with a potentially compromised ship when we could just ghost them seems horrible. Placeholder updated!

95 I'm pretty sure! He was a Dragoon by the name of Cedric Mayes, my great-grandfather was at the Somme with him. Said he was too scared to die after Wintle yelled at him. Wintle's definitely a guy to read up on: at one point he was locked up in the Tower of London for trying to steal a plane so he could keep fighting in France. On topic, though, I think the mechs are... fine? I'd need to see one in person. I want the Lord of Poxes, I'm disappointed (but not surprised) that he's gated behind a battleforce box for the forseeable future. Also nervous about the new DG codex. We still have classic cultists with firearms and grenade launchers right now (which Ash Waste Nomads and Cawdow gangers are a perfect basis for) and I can see us losing cults altogether or getting the default pistol mob on the basis that it's the only thing the sell models of now. Since we don't have access to Militarum Traitoris, that switch would make a lot of conversions useless.

Váfri He had made a sort of angry peace with the idea that one of the many curs the Inquisition filled its ranks with had betrayed them, but if the alien's words were true, then treachery of an altogether greater scale was driving the knife at their backs. If this 'Orochi' was a traitor from the time when the Wolf King still led the Rout, then stopping whatever vile scheme he had in motion was the only thing that mattered. If they had to take ship aboard a Xenos vessel to do it, then so be it. Eldar corsairs were detestable, but he would not allow a servant of the Great Enemy to succeed simply because he couldn't endure a distasteful method by which a march might be stolen on him. Lucifer had exacted a price in blood from these Eldar, and it would have to suffice. They would make the truce-pact the Xenos demanded. Azadth pre-empted him in expressing these sentiments - rather more directly than Váfri had come to expect from the subtle Mantis Warrior, which he approved of - and left him with little to say except to give his word as pack leader and make the decision official. "Aye, Eldar, we will take passage on your ship. Consider each of us sworn not to raise a hand against the other without good cause. We do not want to know how your witch-machines work, we will bear no secrets of yours away with us. Understand that this pact is made in dire times, under the shadow of a great darkness. You do not need to hear again that betrayal will leave the stars awash in blood."

Really like how the muddied up Catachan green looks. The colour pops without being too bright, and it's just vibrant enough for the weathering to stand out.

Váfri It was, he reflected, really very simple when you stripped it back to its basic elements. He was in this situation because he had commited the most fundamental error, a pup-foolish mistake the Old Ice would have culled him from the pack for: he had failed to heed his instincts' warnings. He knew the Inquisition for a viper's den of snake-tongues and oathbreakers, and he had walked into their midst anyway. "They destroyed the brain." Váfri saw Asterius considering the mannaetu rite, and made the observation aloud without thinking. "They wanted to ensure no one could eat of his memories if his body was found by his kin." It wasn't a particularly astute observation, he knew, but it struck him as evincing the depth of betrayal they faced and the degree of forethought behind it. "Is it him? Is it Skaayn?" He directed the question quite generally, since it was largely rhetorical. "If it is, who or what have we been calling by that name?"

This might actually be the coolest thing they've ever made. I'm sure he'll be insanely expensive and I also hate resin, but I'll make an exception.

Váfri Zedemi had a point: Eldar were strange creatures, but even they wouldn't hoard items in a treasure vault unless they had some value. As he followed the Salamander, it occured to him that what was valuable to the Xenos might not be useful to anyone sane, but it would be a pity to pass up the chance to see what these pirate creatures had accumulated. The Wayseeker's mention of plunder made him grin. "Plunder is the right of a victorious warrior" he said, partly in reply and partly as a simple statement. The fight had done a great deal to improve his disposition, and with the Eldar defeated he bore them no particular ill-will. That would change abruptly in the face of treachery should they try anything underhanded, of course. He was wondering what among the strange and slightly repellant array of alien artefacts might even be worth plundering when he saw the helm the Salamander had found. "Morkai's blood," he swore. "Is that what I think it is, Zidemi?"

Mr Hobby brand plastic glues are excellent but can be a real pain to get in the UK. Mr Cement S is similar to the Tamiya extra thin, while Mr Cement Deluxe is a brush-on goop you can use to fill small gaps as well as sticking things together (that one stinks, however). It's really hard to beat Revell Contacta as a general purpose glue though. I don't think I ever assemble plastic minis without using it somewhere.

Like everything in the Nomad range, I want these to make into swamp-dwelling Nurgle cultists. I feel like my thunder has been stolen a bit on that front though, because they're almost too perfect for that already, especially with the green colour scheme the studio painted them in.

I'm basically late for everything at the moment due to irl busy-ness, but count me as interested as well.