Marshal Tigurus Gruldin's as-yet-unnamed Crusade

[Marshal Gruldin]

Good evening all,

 

I am fairly new to the hobby, having only just truly begun back in July of this year. I had an interest as a kid, and my grandparents did actually buy me the Black Templars/Dark Eldar starter box in '99 (though, suprisingly enough, I never knew it was BT until after I'd decided on BT and then found the old box in some of my stuff in storage, lol). I have about 2500+ points accumulated, and have now begun winning a few games at the 1500-200 point range with the addition of my new LRC and a second Land Speeder.

 

However, I have begun looking for ways to expand my army and attempt new lists, but without spending too much money, as I have been off and on unemployed for the past year and a half, was just married in July, and just found last night that my wife is now pregnant. Yay (that's like 75% happiness, 25% freaking out).

 

So, I decided, after reading many BT players talking about how awesome the Techmarine is as a CC addition to Crusader squads, to bring along one of my own. However, I didn't feel like spending $20 on a metal model and then having to wait for it to arrive. So instead, I am attempting my first true conversion (since I don't think converting Termie Lightning Claws to work on PA models really counts), using just bits that I already have. I used the Dev Sergeant pack, and some Techmarine bits I had left over from vehicle sprues for the body, and a BT axe from the chapter upgrade sprue, and stuck a bolter on an arm and glued it up. I drilled some holes in the pack and stuck paperclips in and wire-framed the basic shape I want.

 

However, I'm unsure as to where to go from here. I need some techy bits (on the extremely cheap) to flesh out the arms before I attempt to GS the arms (as I am a newb with GS, and that is horribly evident in my work, and the stuff is expensive...). Can anyone recommend any bits I could find for cheap at a hardware store or something that I could look into?

 

Also, I'm looking for some C&C on my (obviously amateur) GS job on adding a Psychic Hood to my Grey Knight Hero ally. It was honestly kind of an afterthought as I was playing with some leftover GS, and I didn't expect I'd like it... but after messing around with it a bit, I kind like it, though I know it's not perfect. The front of the hood seems too thick, and the whole thing seems rather too tight for a hood. Also, I don't much care for the dip in the hood, but I suppose that would make it more realistic of a fabric hood, considering there is a dip in the armor there between the top of the head and that bit of armor that sticks up from his back.

 

Anyways, enough wall of text from me.... pictures:

 

(Apologies for the crappiness/largeness, these were taken with my phone and unedited prior to upload, no card reader available, so I can't use my Nikon, and I lost my lightbox in my recent move)

 

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/techmarine01.jpg

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/techmarine02.jpg

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/techmarine03.jpg

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/techmarine04.jpg

 

 

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/greyknight01.jpg

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/greyknight02.jpg

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/greyknight03.jpg

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/greyknight04.jpg

[jerryrich]

for the armitures on the backpack you could use some plastic rod or pipe. I have to be cheap because i have an accountant/ wife so i learned to take apart all kinds of old stuff, like pens and mechanical pencils, OLD thrift store electronics & broken kids toys ( you would be amaized waht cool lookin parts you can find in an old computer/ toaster/ coffee pot/ TV/ etc.). for about 2 dollars or a few minutes scrounging in a basement/ garage you can probably find all the stuff you could ever need.

[Marshal Gruldin]

Thanks for the suggestions, jerryrich. I haven't gotten around to trying them yet, Techmarine kinda got put on the backburner now I've given up on lists using him for the time being. But... I did Simple Green a bunch of my models, and have been repainting/remodeling. I decided my EC needed a bit of an upgrade, and here are the results of my second attempt at using GS. I kinda failed, and let it dry out too much before I attempted to work in details, and so... there really are no details... any suggestions for how to liven up the cloak (aside from scrapping/redoing it)?

 

And no, I'm not finished painting. Still some detail work to be done, and I need to make my first attempt at highlighting. I also need to find one of those micro pens or whatever they are that you use for lettering, I need to write his name, Keltin, on the scroll-work on the shield.

 

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/EC01.jpg

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/EC02.jpg

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/EC03.jpg

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/EC04.jpg

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/EC05.jpg

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/EC06.jpg

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/EC07.jpg

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/EC08.jpg

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/EC09.jpg

http://www.timgraves.info/imagehost/EC10.jpg

 

C&C is much appreciated =D

 

(Mods, if the pics are still too big, please let me know so I can downsize them further. Thanks.)