Conversion ideas for Assault troops

[Brother_Byhlli]

Hail, brothers!

 

I'm about to start putting together my Blood Angels force and opened my account by buying up a box each of Sanguinary Guard, Death Company and the standard Assault Squad.

 

My force as planned will include Honour Guard, Death Company, Vanguard Veterans and Assault Squads. (I'm still hoping for feedback on my army list, but haven't been given any responses - list can be found here if you fancy giving it a quick critique.)

 

I'm looking for some measure of conversion that could be used across the army which will tie them in together, but I'm lacking in inspiration. My previous experience with conversion has always been Fantasy-based and that's not the most useful in terms of finding models or Bitz that I can use for my Blood Angels army.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts?

[glayvin34]

You could try fantasy weapons, space marines with hammers, spears, flails, etc. look really cool.

 

You could also try having two of the same weapons, two chainswords with a holstered bolt pistol or something like that. I have two dudes in an assault squad that both have dual bolt pistols with bayonets, I call them the gunslingers. I painted both of their bolt pistols gold (except for the clip), and gave them the same shoulderpad from the Sanguinary Guard kit, it makes it looks like they did something together, got the same honor and were rewarded with the pistols and shoulderpads.

 

For individuals, you can just give them fun wargear that doesn't have a game effect, like giving them a several combat blades attached to their belts or ankles, or a ring of grenades around one leg or both.

 

And, of course, vary the legs as much as you can. Just because they have a jump pack doesn't mean they can't have a wide stance.

[Brother Nathan]

also are you doing blood angels or a sucessor? some of the sucessors have some strange habits etc that you can play on, such as blood drinking, trashed armour etc... oh and bling always works... though if your looking for a theme, try picking a company as some of them have a few details you can play on, such as the 5th co deamon banes(some of my characters have dead deaomons on their bases and my captain has the sheild thingy off the dreadknight.

[JMac]

Your measure of conversion could just come from extra bits from the box sets you bought. The Sang. Guard and Death Co. box are both have great bits for conversions for all marines. You can take some fancy shoulder pads and helmets to put on your normal assault marines.

 

Also, it seems your list is mostly DoA based, so all models will have jump packs. I remember seeing a thread awhile back of a guy who modeled all his jump units either on flying bases or raised them up off the base with a sculpted rock or such. (I searched for the thread but failed to find it, sorry! I'll keep looking)

[glayvin34]

Oh, also, I've been meaning to make a tut for this but I'm lazy.

 

Blood Angles Blood Droplets for almost no money:

 

-Take a 2" piece of thread (or human hair if you're REALLY broke) and stick 1" of it to a piece of tape.

-Dip the tip of the non-taped end (about 2 mm or 1/8") of it in white glue, then stick the piece of tape on the edge of your desk or something so that the thread points down and doesn't touch anything while drying.

-Repeat the previous step three or four times.

 

You now have a droplet-shaped bit that can either be dangled from something or cut in half and placed directly onto an armor plate. My favorite use for this is to cut it in half and then trim the top of the droplet so it's pointy. Then place it in the center of an aquila you already have, like a BT chest plate (after you cut the sword out of the center). Blood Angels Chapter symbol for less than a cent!

[Brother Chris]

All bare-headed. there are lots of the long-haired 'pretty boy' BA heads in the SG and DC box. Then there are any number of fantasy heads, some of the SW would work. It would avoid the 'gold or yellow' helmet issue.

 

Another linking theme might be to steal the tabards from BT or the monks habits from DA, both of which can look good in BA colours.

[Brother_Byhlli]

I was considering going through Forgeworld for some old armour styles. I could use *some* bare heads, but unfortunately I like the older armour variant helmets more than I like the bare heads. Definitely up for using some heads from other sources, though - I have a whole bunch kicking around from my days of Fantasy. I assume that the Blood Angels (I'm not planning on creating a successor chapter) would still be using power armour back to... what, Mk.V? Mk.IV at a push? I'd absolutely love some properly old-style armour on my models. Then the question comes up of whether I should mix armour throughout squads, or keep each squad wearing a particular type of armour. Thoughts on this would be appreciated.

 

Interesting idea to use old Fantasy weapons, too, except that they aren't representative of chain weapons. I could use some for power weapons, but I have very few of them in the army.

 

Is there a problem with giving Assault Marines two chainswords with a holstered bolt pistol? How does that affect WYSIWYG? I think you could get some obscenely good poses using multiple weapons of the same kind. Similarly for two bolt pistols (in fact, two bolt pistols has the exact same in-game effect as one bolt pistol and one chainsword - one pistol attack and an extra close-combat attack).

 

I'm also definitely interested in basing the models a little more elaborately than I have previously. I'd anticipate a mix of "flying" and "posing" models, though I'm also wary of how that would affect me in pure gaming terms - it makes the models significantly harder to hide behind terrain if they're an additional inch off the table. I'll look into options for this.

 

So far as using bits from various kits to kit-bash into squads, that was my original plan. I just haven't quite worked out which bits I'd use for which squads. Too many different parts!

[Brother_Byhlli]

Oh, additional: I was already thinking desperately of a way to steal the Dark Angel robes, or something similar. I love them. I think I need to look through the Games Workshop catalogue to find options. Is anyone aware of anything similar to the DA robes but different enough to not be an obvious DA rip-off?

[Brother Nathan]

blood angels, bein good artificers still got lots of the older suits knocking around. personally i would go for a mix of all different armour types and weapons etc. as for the ccws goes if it works ashetically go for it. if you look at the ccws description in the rule book it dosent have to be chainswords, clubs and knives work too... actually i rember the catchens had hollow knives filled with mercuary that counted as powerweapons... and any any weapon in the hands of a space marine would hurt, look up angry marines;)

and buy the dark angels vets box. robes are great, and the dark angel symbols are easily removed or even turned into blood angel symbols. ive mixed into my angels and as long as you dont go ott with them they wont look out of place. though if your still worried, maby keep them to vets or honour guard...

i would also just say take a good look through all the marine boxed sets. if at any point you want bikers look at the dark angel ones. and some of the chaos stuff is good for older looking marks of armour. wolves might be good for lightening claws and othe bits(though i would trade for those) black templars looks to have plenty of nice bits etc...

[Brother_Byhlli]

Thanks again for advice. I'm looking into a bunch of the things you suggested. Cheers!

[Ranwulf]

Chainaxes.

 

From Forgeworld or Khorne Berzerkers. Which by the way give some good legs.

 

Ran

[Nemesor]

As a First Founding Chapter with lots of totally unique equipment, and an armory rivaled only by Iron Hands and Salamanders, it's pretty reasonable to say that they might even have a few bits of Mk I in their armory somewhere. Everything else, no doubt they'd have a few complete suits, and plenty of partials scattered throughout the Chapter.

 

I always saw it as oldest Chapters having the most old armour, with newer guys being outfitted generally with stuff that's manufactured for them, so Mk VI, VII and VIII.

 

Look in C:SM if you have it at pages 18 and 19. That's just ONE company of the Ultramarines, and yet you can see almost every battle brother uses some piece of older armour, even if it's just a power pack.

 

Given how many times the Ultras divided, and retained that amount of relic armour, I'd say it's likely you could see even more ancient suits in a Chapter with fewer successors such as the BA.

[Guest ShinKosh]

Im doing my own Blood Angels based army right now and for the SG I'm using a mix of the basic assault squad box and the power armoured Grey Knights. Everyone has jumpjacks, wrist mounted bolters and massive 2 handed killing sticks. So far the look ok I think, I think its better than power nipples but I know some people like thier finest troops to have a six pack. Of ceramite :lol: