Project: Black Reach

[Bannus]

Terminator Sergeants

They have one problem though: the sergeant head. 3 of the same head on all seargeants will look odd! May i suggest putting the seargent head not on the seargeant body 3 times. Mix it upp, one of the bare heads with a normal sb guy and maybe one with the assault cannon. This will keep the force from looking like 3 cloned squads.

Swordbrother mentioned a very valid point (and limitation) of the Blackreach set - lack of variety.

Here is how you can mix things up - particularly with the Terminators:

By mixing the Blackreach Terminator Bitz with the Dark Angels Terminator bitz and standard Terminator bitz, you can add a fair amount of variety to these otherwise "cloned" models:

Here, I mix a standard Blackreach torso front with a standard Terminator torso rear and the legs from the Dark Angels Chapter upgrade sprue:


The Blackreach bitzs fit interchangably with the other Terminator bitz with absolutely no modifications!


Here, I employ them in the opposite manner - I use a standard Terminator torso and head combined with the Blackreach Terminator body.
Again, zero modifications are needed for this "conversion".







Here is one "upgraded" Sergeant. Only the banner and torso back were bitz ordered. The rest of the bitz used were from the either the Blackreach or Dark Angels upgrade sprue.


Here is the other "upgraded" Sergeant with just a banner, torso front and head from the standard Terminator kit.



Here are three Sergeants side-by-side for comparison. Not a huge amount of difference, but - then again - there isn't a lot more difference if you used the more expensive Terminator kits either.

[StratoKhan]

I'm really enjoying seeing all of this. I think that a Black Reach set is an absolutely excellent start into the hobby for anyone that's interested in Marines.

 

And your thread simply emphasises this point. When I eventually get a set for myself I'm going to make sure I refer to your work.

[Bannus]

Belial on a Budget: Building the army commander

In order for this army to be legal, it needs to be led by Belial - the Captain of the Deathwing. So I needed to build him too.

The Dark Angels sprues provide a wealth of bitz that can be used to make the formitable Captain of the Deathwing. All that is needed is just a few more bitz added and a bit of imagination and a Captain is born....







Unlike the Sergeants - who each use some of the Deathwing bitz - Belial uses them all...and then some.

The Dark Angels upgrade sprue already provides two arms, a pair of legs, shoulderpads and other accessories like shields and icons - so it didn't take much else to get him built.

From my bitz purchases, I utilized a complete Terminator torso and a basic Marine head to form the body of the Commander. For his backbanner, I carefully sliced one of the Captain banners from the Blackreach set. I added a small "plinth" of scrap plastic (cut from the sprue) on which I glued the banner to directly. The top of the banner was removed and replaced by a Dark Angels specific one. A dangling DA icon on a chain helped set the banner off.

I turned one of the DA Terminator pads around (the one with the winged broken sword) to serve as his "Captain's rank" and one of the other shoulderpads to portray his personal Heraldry. I added a shield to the front of the left pad so it wasn't obvious that it had been turned around backwards. :devil:

Another small raid on my bitz box produced a DA icon from the Captain box set to add a little more bling to Belial.


Here is a pick of Belial with his Sergeants:


Believe it or not, all of these Marines models were built using only two complete Terminator torsos, three banners and one head from the normal Terminator bitz. An extra head and a small icon from the Captain kit added to what the Blackreach set and Chapter upgrade sprues already provided to give each model a bit of distinctiveness.

++Edit++

Oh, I forgot to give a new running total: $108.75.

[Swordbrother]

Great update! U did achieve more than enough variation with the sergeants. And Belial is very nice especially like the banner mind if i nick that for my Belial? (got the parts!) I have one idea tough to bling him up further, try the helmet wings (from DA upgrade pack) on the back of the torso. Could look nice and would differentiate him further from the sergeants.

 

Like this:

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/9518/p1010151f.jpg

(Tell me if should remove the image, dont want to spam in your thread!)

 

 

Keep it up, this army is gonna be sweet I can feel it in my bones!

;)

[Bannus]

Those wings look great. I tried positioning them as you have them pictured - but they seem to crowd the banner too much (as it is a bit larger than the standard ones). But I will keet that idea in mind for a future project.

[Bannus]

OK. After a brief pause (my hobby area was usurped by furniture during the days surrounding Thanksgiving), back to the project...

Progress Report

I decided to do a little priming of what I had already assembled before the weather gets too cold.

I recently tried Testors as a primer and find it has many of the good qualities of the GW primer - but at a substantially lower price. Even if you have to buy three cans to get the same amount as one can of GW primer (and the smaller cans are easier to handle as well).

So here is what I have primed so far:

I have also started working on the second Dreadnought for the army:

And just for fun, I tricked out one of the AoBR Captains with some DA accessories:

He doesn't fit into the current planned army, but what the heck....

[Twin .44]

Things are looking up Bannus! Glad to see this project rolling along. I told a few friends about this project recently and quite a few seem to want to do it themselves. Thanks for introducing this idea and keep these models coming along!

[Yogi]

This thread is great.

 

*continues watching*

[AL.]

awesome thread, nice models aswell.

[Artekus]

Amazing stuff man :D

 

Maybe gonna try this one myself... for my ultramarine project :)

[CosmicCreations]

I really like this project, just shows that you dont need all fancy GS work or anything, just use the parts Gamesworkshop gives you..keep it up! cant wait to see them painted :)

[Capt. Lysander]

Wonderful work so far: clear and effective conversions.

[Meatman]

Any more progress? I think this is a wonderful project, keep us updated :D

[Bannus]

Any more progress? I think this is a wonderful project, keep us updated :D

Between Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and the Superbowl, it has been challenging to sit down and make progress on this project. But I believe that things have settled down enough again for me get back to work them.

[DevianID]

Love your Project: Black Reach, looking forward for updates!

 

I actually did something similar with my Blood Ravens, making a 1500 point force from 2 assault on black reach marine sets and some dark angels upgrade frame bits, such as power fists and missile packs, as proof that a tourney capable army can be made with just the figs from black reach. I then won the 1500 pt tourney that I entered them into!

[Bannus]

Well, trying to do any projects around the Holidays is tough. But now that things have calmed down a bit...

Progress Report

Priming the Deathwing:

Here is the second Deathwing Squad assembled and primed:

In order to speed up the eventual painting process, I chose a primer color that would work well for the deepest shade color. I also want to paint my Deathwing to look a little "whiter" than they are currently being portrayed. It seems that with each passing edition, the Deathwing get more "tan" than "white". Testor's Camouflage Gray seemed like an appropriate foundation color to start with for what I intend to paint them.

I originally was going have the two Dreadnoughts be nearly identical, but - as projects go - I changed my mind. I wanted to make one a bit more ornate than the other so I could portray him as a Ven Dread if I ever wanted to. So I clipped a Dark Angel's stormshield off of the attached arm (from the DA upgrade sprues I have) and glued it to the right frontal plate in similar way that GW did their "early" UM Ven Dread. I also added an Ironclad Banner left over from another project I did recently - one more pilfer from the "bitz" that I will note as this project reaches an end.

[AL.]

Im seriously considering getting an AOBR kit to finish my DA's. Insporational stuff, keep it up.

[Razblood]

This has seriously inspired me to do some conversions with my AoBR minis so thank you......time to get chopping <_<

[fearlessgod]

Great thread bannus. I'm really looking forward to your take on the Deathwing (painting wise). I agree that the trend has been more of a bleached bone than white. Your dreadnought looks great as well. This thread shows how simple conversions can make all the difference in the world. Looking forward to seeing more...

 

~fearlessgod~

[Demoulius]

awesome thread ^_^ even though none of my armies are finished this thread makes me want to start one more...

[ferris]

Any updates Bannus? You're doing some great work. I'd like to see what you've done since February.

[Marshal Rohr]

Am I the only one who sort of expected Bannus' left hand to be bionic?

[Dosjetka]

Am I the only one who sort of expected Bannus' left hand to be bionic?

Nope you aren't :P

 

This is a truly great thread and I hope that there will be some updates soon ;)

 

Ludovic

[Bannus]

Any updates Bannus? You're doing some great work. I'd like to see what you've done since February.

Alas, the project (along with many others) has stalled.

 

Long story short: I suddenly/unexpectedly became a foster father to a pair of boys and my hobby/work room has since been converted into a bedroom. So it may be a while before there are any further updates.

 

Sorry, guys.