Black Like My Soul

[Sception]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I'm excited to try it, and will have pictures up as soon as they're ready.

 

Oh, just for the record, here's how I've been painting the cityfight bases on this newer batch (I'm pretty sure the terminators were done in a similar way):

 

- textured paint over any bare surfaces

- watered down green/grey base coat

- large patches of watered down olive green & warmer brown

- overbrush dark grey

- highlight light grey

- metal bits painted ruddy orange (I mixed mechite with a bright P3 orange)

- metal bits brushed with dark silver, lightly brushed with brighter silver

- the one marine helmet was painted individually, but left deliberately drab to avoid distracting from the model.

- water down devlan mud wash

- black rim

- touch up model with black & silver.... lots of touching up was needed, maybe I'll do bases first in the future.

 

I'm very happy with the bases - the green & brown give them some tonal variety, the grey drybrushes & mud wash bring it all together despite the variety of basing methods used (resin bits, slate, sand, textured paint), the rusted metal effect came out looking pretty good. It has a nice cityfight look, and the lighter color contrasts well with the darker models without distracting from them. On that note, I think maybe the black trim might have been a mistake, and I might paint a darker grey over it instead, but other then that, yeah.

 

Whelp, I didn't get the bits primed today, but I did get them prepped & magnetized. It's a lot of bits, actually - two bolters, two plasmaguns, two meltaguns, two flamers; one of each icon but tzeentch (I already painted & magnetized the tzeentch banner back when I did the termies), and six different arm options for the champ - bolter, bolt pistol, plasma pistol, chainsword, power sword, and power fist.Yup. It's a lot of little pieces, making me think it won't all be done until the weekend.

[Sception]

Well, the little magnet bits are still in progress, and should be done sometime this weekend at which point this unit will be officially done. At that point I will be taking a short break from painting marine squads to work on something more interesting - not painting, but a conversion project! Inspired by Zyl's thread (and the realization that my own poverty will probably prevent me from picking up the new starter set), I've decided to tackle the job of converting my FW black legion dread (the only forgeworld model I own) into a proper Hellbrute.

 

The goals for the project are to make it bigger and more mutated, and since I'm reworking it anyway to take the opportunity to use magnets for swappable arms and alignment. So the first step was getting the magnets in place & building in some extensions at the midpoints, shoulders, & ankles both to make it larger and to provide space for daemonic mutation greenstuff work.

 

And that's pretty much what I got done today, along with starting work on a butcher cannon (I was going to go with ammo drums a la Totgenboren's Decimater kitbash, but ended up sticking with the belt feed that was already on the heavy bolter arm I started with) and a power fist (the dread close combat weapon bit snapped while I was ripping the already glued model apart, so I figured I might as well lay the groundwork for something a bit more beefy). I may end up going with a monster claw instead of the standard dread power fist, but I do like the way the dreadnought leg is working as an arm. I left the heavy flamer built into the torso. I can't imagine not taking that option, so I don't feel compelled to make it swappable via magnets.

 

This is probably going to be my default configuration - undivided, butcher cannon, power fist, & heavy flamer, though I do plan to eventually work up heavy flamer and add'l power fist arms, and the banner pole fits the icons I'm using for my CSM squads, so any alignment will be available. I also put magnets in at the waist, so I could break it down for easier transportation.

 

Anyway, pics so far:

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/helbrute21_zps822422ce.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/helbrute22_zps09c0d99e.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/helbrute23_zps70a154ee.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/helbrute24_zps647eb52e.jpg

 

At this point, it's ready for greenstuff work, which I'll start after I've finished the remaining bits for the CSM squad I've been painting.

[zyl-]

That's gonna look great!

 

big friggin magnets, bro

[Brother Ambroz]

Does look like you're off to a great start but I agree with zyl, those magnets are HUGE!

[Sception]

Yup. and they're big for a couple reasons, actually. First, while I've never had any trouble with human infantry models, I've had difficulty with smaller magnets on larger models - particularly tyranids - in the past, and I didn't want to have any issues here. Also, the magnets are serving multiple rolls - they're holding the model together & allowing for some pose-ability, but they're also serving as the skeleton for the brute's extended size, and will be supporting the greenstuff I'll be using for daemonic/organic mutation to bulk the model out some.

 

The magnets themselves are from free sample packs included with orders from AmazingMagnets.com, where I typically order 1/16 x 1/32 disk magnets and 1/16 x 1/16 and 3/32 x 3/32 rod magnets for infantry models.

 

 

EDIT: due to my brother's upcoming marriage, this project is currently on hiatus, but I will be updating again, probably in the latter half of October. I'll likely be starting from scratch with an updated color scheme - I still like the eyes, but the rest isn't really working for me.

[Sception]

I've been away from this project a while, for a number of personal & work reasons, and because I don't want to get too committed before I have access to the new book, and also... well, there was a Painting Black Legion thread a while back, and my stuff was utterly put to shame by, well, everything else in there.

 

Now, I may not be the best painter around, and I certainly don't expect to be painting up to Subtle Discord's standard any time soon, but the situation was beyond tolerable. I can do better, even if only a little better.

 

For a while I considered going completely back to the drawing board, but the things I tried did not work out, so instead I've tried to just take what I was already doing and improve upon it a little. I darkened the armor with another layer of black wash, added some edge highlights (I was hoping to avoid this, but sadly it seems to be necessary with black armor), and tried to add some depth to the metal trim, particularly around the rivets, with some additional brown & black washes & picked out highlights.

 

And while I like the purple, I think what I've been doing was maybe a bit too strong, so I painted over the purple stuff with the new less saturated purple/grey slaaneshi tones. I also used the lighter one for the highest edge highlight to tie things together, and I also ditched the red wires, using my edge highlight grey/purples instead, and I painted over the black rim on the base, so that the base as a whole would contrast more with the figure.

 

Here's a before and after comparison: the figure on the left is what I had before, the figure on the right is with the changes. It's not a major difference, but hopefully it's at least a slight improvement, so that I can carry my head a bit higher when I bring these guys to the table. Any feedback before I go back to update the rest of the squad would be appreciated.

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csm05_zps41c03270.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csm06_zpse1fffd83.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csm07_zps4e0bed83.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csm08_zps518ccf45.jpg

 

 

My personal stuff isn't going to clear up until mid October, but then I should be back on a regular hobby schedule. I did end up finding someone to split a starter box with me. Among other things, it will mean some nice chosen and cultists to work on. It also means the magnetized FW dread has been put far, far back on the back burner. I'll get back to it eventually, but the starter box hellbrute will be done before it.

[Iron Sage]

They look simply magnificent!

[Sception]

The one on the left is the old scheme, the one on the right is ever so slightly updated new scheme. Is it an improvement? Are there other slight changes you would recommend that wouldn't require too much additional painting skill that I might try before I go back update the rest of the squad?

[Danny Cyanide]

I think the new scheme is an improvement! My only suggestion is that I think you could go a little less heavy on the black/brown around the rivets! Great work!

[Sception]

Alrighty. So. With weddings and work crunches out of the way, I can finally get back to working on this project.

 

Since my last update, I've picked up the new codex, and split a dark vengeance box with a marine player at the local store. I decided to throw together a tentative starter list, just to guide my choices of what to paint and make sure I have something I can put on the field and play within a reasonable time. Not win with, necessarily, but at least something that looks cool and can actually be used in a game. The book & starter box have wiped out my discretionary funds, and I'm a stickler for wysiwyg, so that limits my options slightly, though I am willing to do conversion work. Anyway, here's the tentative target army:

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/army01_zpsd9bbe6c9.jpg

 

Chaos Lord; vets, power sword, aura

 

10 CSMs; vets, champ with power sword

- inc. 2x plasma rifle & extra CCW, 4x bolter, 3x BP/CCW

 

10 CSMs; vets, champ with power sword

- inc. 2x melta & extra CCW, 4x bolter, 3x BP&CCW

- rhino

 

20 Cultists; champ with shotgun

- inc. 1x flamer, 1x stubber, 8x autogun, 9x autopistol

 

Helbrute; reaper, flamer

 

Defiler

 

Total: around 960, 970ish. I've still got a few points left over to tool with specific upgrades.

 

The general plan is to run the lord, plasmamarines, cultists, and walkers as a blob, while the meltas in the rhino move up the flank. If I need someone to hold a backfield objective, then the plasmas can do that, and the lord can just chill with the cultists. Rough suggestions for list adjustments are appreciated, and individual comments follow below.

 

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/lord01_zps6b421b54.jpg

 

Here's the dark vengeance chaos lord, and he is stunning. I intend to use this guy as a cheapish lord for smaller games, or potentially a secondary HQ in mid size games. I'm not sure how to equip him, though. The sword has to stay, so that means power sword or murder sword, but I'm not sure if the latter's really worth it. The plasma pistol is sort of terrible, but it looks really awesome, so I'm torn on whether to replace it or not. I'm also worried about enemies with 2+ saves, and have been considering giving him a power axe in place of the pistol, so he has a choice of melee weapons. But maybe I'll just go sword & pistol, because again the point of this guy is to be cheap? Mostly I'm trying to figure out weapons loadout, so I can do any necessary conversion work before priming. Suggestions greatly appreciated, here.

 

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csm09_zps5481f81b.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csm10_zps0f4d9537.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/rhino01_zpse8926dd2.jpg

 

Alright, marine squads & rhino. Champions & special weapons are magnetized, and I'm going to be doing some magnet work on the rhino so I can add some options in larger games. The partially painted squad are the same guys from earlier in the thread, about midway through the process of updating them to the revised color scheme. I've ditched the icon bearer due to changes in the icon rules in the new book - instead of having one in every squad, I might do a couple for the army.

 

I'm using vets instead of a mark for fluff reasons, and to save points I'm reserving the 'supergrit' loadout for special weapons & icons (I'll have to do some conversion work to represent it). Regular grunts are going to be a mix of bolters & BP/CCW, but not both on the same guys. Right now I'm thinking 2 supergrit special weapons, the champ who's supergrit by default, four bolters, and 3 BP/CCW in a squad of ten, which should give them some respectable firepower while still having the edge on most other basic infantry in close combat, particularly with the vets upgrade against marines. I will do a couple regular supergrit marines later to use as points filler options, but this is what I'm thinking for now.

 

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/cult01_zps0339d6d8.jpg

 

Heres the DV cultists. Very nice models, and varying up their colors should keep the repeat models from being too noticeable. The squad layout in the army list is a bit wonky, simply due to this being how the cultists come in the starter box. Thankfully, the rifle upgrade is made on an individual model basis, so I can clump them up as one blob of 20 without offending my wysiwyg sensibilities. I have a guard friend I should be able to steal a laspistol or autopistol from to replace the axe on the secondary champion so he blends in as a normal dude a bit better.

 

Eventually I'll be picking up some more DV cultists from ebay or bits sites so I can run a more sensible squad loadout, but I'm tapped out at the moment, so for now it is what it is.

 

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/helbrute01_zpsd2028d49.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/helbrute02_zpsa1595dfb.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/helbrute03_zpsfed9a37b.jpg

 

With the acquisition of a Dark Vengeance box, the helbrute conversion from earlier in the thread has been put on indefinite hold. I just love the new model so much more. I've given him a fancy base, I sawed off the multimelta arm in favor of giving him a magnetized shoulder, so I can attach the reaper autocannon from the previous conversion. I also added a flamer to the fist, and yes, had I realized that maw was already supposed to be a flamer, I wouldn't have bothered. still, I don't mind how it's looking now, and it will be a bit more clear for my opponents, so it's all good. There's some extra work that needs to be done - more greenstuff to make the shoulder work & blend the flamer into the fist arm, and some magnets on the shoulders or somewhere to provide anchor points for options that might be added in the future (dirgecaster, maybe havoc launchers).

 

I'm not too impressed with the helbrute's rules. However, the model's too awesome to languish in a bits box, so it's getting some special treatment here. Plus, the second walker will complement the defiler.

 

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/defiler01_zps93978497.jpg

 

Yes, the defiler. Since it was first introduced, I've loved the defiler as an iconic Black Legion seige engine, so I had to include one in my starter list, even if rules-wise I really should be painting up a squad of havocs and a defense line before these walkers. Anyway, this particular Defiler has a long and storied history that I won't burden you with. Suffice to say, by the time it returned to me, most of its legs had busted off, it's spikes were broken & lost, the additional CCWEP that used to be on there was gone, armor plating on the legs was missing, and it's icon was broken, and this is on top of me having assembled it 'wrong' when I first purchased it on the day the model was released (I preferred the hull mounted in the middle of the chasis instead of the front). And this is the only of my defilers to return to me - the other two are long gone.

 

I've been fixing it up, and there's some more fixing to do. I'll be returning it to default equipment with a reaper ripped from one of my terminator conversions and a heavy flamer, probably mounted on the upraised talon. I'm actually really liking the way its turning out, with some gribbly claws, chaos knight shields in place of the missing leg armor & spikes, and a search light in place of the normal head. I'll probably save this beast for last, at least in terms of the starter army, there's tons of models waiting in the wings after I finish them.

 

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/ifrit01_zps9f18a7b7.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/spawn01_zps0f87fc24.jpg

 

Here's some supplemental models for the starter force. The first is a final fantasy ifrit toy I picked up back when I played at a non-gw store to represent a generic greater daemon. I'll be using it to represent daemon princes elevated by the gifts chart until I can afford a new plastic daemon prince model. I'm not sure if I'll ever use Ifrit, because the obligatory daemon prince for spawn results is the next thing on my purchase list, and I'll probably be able to afford it before I have the starter army painted, anyway. As with Ifrit, the spawn are there for chart results, although eventually I'll get some more so I can actually field a unit as well, since they aren't so bad these days.

 

 

---------------------------------------

 

The above aren't the only things I've been working on, here's some other stuff I've been noodling around with since my last update:

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/abaddon05_zpsc9e484c0.jpg

 

While Abby and the icon bearer from before aren't part of the starter army, I am in the process of updating them to revised color scheme. They're both about half way done.

 

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/ravager01_zpsc8bb6177.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/ravager02_zps395f8e8a.jpg

 

And here's my in progress Lord Ravager conversion - a Khornate Chaos Lord with the axe of blind fury based on an old games day model of Archaon on Foot. I don't like the way the backpack vents poking through the cloak look, so I'll be removing them and dremmeling room to attach a possessed backpack over the cloak instead. I'll also be giving him a bolt pistol hand, and adding a pommel or skull or tassle to the bottom of the axe. I'll keep the shield to represent a sigil, and add some heavy magnets to hold his torso together, so that one day I'll be able to rig up a juggernaut for him to ride.

 

 

I've also ripped the arms off several of my terminators, and I'll be ordering some additional arms & shoulders from bits orders and some heavier magnets to attach them with. They're not in the starter list, but they're probably the first thing I'll work on after its done, doing the magnetization work & updating their paint jobs to match my current models. There will be pictures when I eventually get around to them.

 

 

 

So, yeah, I'm back to work on this thing. Hopefully you'll be seeing another update within the week. My current expected painting order is:

 

- finish first 10 CSMs

- chaos lord

- remaining CSMs

- Hellbrute

- 10 cultists

- rhino

- 10 more cultists

- defiler

- spawn & prince

 

but the lord might get pushed back if I can't settle on a particular gear set for him before I finish updating the first 10 CSMs.

[Dammeron]

Gorgeous work here, Mal. I like the way you've kept the conversions elegant and aesthetically consistent. I do love to see a well unified army :D

[Rain]

Wow really good work all around. For some reason I didn't think you much of a painter (I suppose you seemed like the "gamer" type more-so than modeller) but I really like your army, the old style Eye of Horus combined with the flat black BL scheme looks really unique and striking.

[Sception]

Don't confuse forum discussion with table behavior! The kind of gaming that I find enjoyable to play on the table with actual minis against actual people, and the kind of army I find rewarding to collect and paint, is not the same as the kind of gaming I find interesting to discuss with strangers in a mostly text based online medium.

 

And while I'll complain vociferously about rules elements I think are poorly designed or poorly balanced, and would prefer if all options in the codex were competitive, I don't personally play in a competitive environment, and you shouldn't be too surprised if you see me railing against something in one thread while throwing it into an army list in the next thread over.

 

Otherwise, thanks for the compliments. It's always great to hear some encouragement, and it helps keep me moving towards the next step. Should have some more progress posted within the week, even if it is just some more steps towards updating the marines I already started painting.

 

 

Edit: what luck, getting my project back in order just as a new Call of Chaos starts up! I'm planning to get that whole starter army done, but I know I'm about as slow a painter as they come, so I'll start with by aiming for just the second squad of ten chaos marines and the Lord. Here's a copy of my pledge:

 

Gods of Chaos hear my call!

 

I Malisteen hereby pledge my soul, my allegiance, and that of my troops, to Chaos Eternal.

 

I swear to you that I will paint and present one Chaos Lord and one unit of 10 Chaos Space Marines of The Black Legion, before January 18th, 2013.

I also promise to provide a project update, at least twice per month.

 

You can follow my progress here: Black Like My Soul, a Black Legion Painting Log, starting on Page 2.

 

~ Malisteen

[Sception]

~ October, Update 1 ~

 

First update: some preparatory modeling work on the lord.

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/lord02_zps7606f355.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/lord03_zps9f789b15.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/lord04_zps59433a9c.jpg

 

First I very carefully cut its awesome looking plasma pistol away and put it into deep storage for some distant future day when plasma pistols are worth fielding. In its place I added a belt-fed bolt pistol from the CSM sprue, mutated up a bit with some greenstuff. I also based him up on a mid size base. I hate when a model is all hanging out over its base, and this let me build up the base with some cork, resin, & brass bits. This guy's ready for priming now, along with the next unit of space marines.

 

Next update should actually have some painting to show.

[Jackel]

Nice work! Both on the stuff you've painted so far and the conversions. I especially like the 'Eye of Horus' that you've done on the shoulderpads.

 

Looking forward to the next update. :)

[Killax]

Nice stuff Mali!

 

Brotha got a soul!

[Sception]

Thanks.

 

Also, while it isn't modeling or painting related, there is another little project I've been working on lately - a little program I'm writing for the DSi Petit Computer tool. It's not much to look at, but I figured some of you might find it interesting.

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/CSMref01_zpsce488edd.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/CSMref02_zpsae592624.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/CSMref03_zpsbbd42ffa.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/CSMref04_zpsea411415.jpg

 

So far, it lets me view the entire boon table, enter in a d66 result to jump to a specific boon, or it can randomly generate a boon for me. It's also got summaries of the main faction rules (champion of chaos, veterans of the last war, the marks, etc), and the chaos warlord traits table - which can be viewed to select a trait or it can randomly generate one. I'm currently adding in the chaos psychic powers, and after that I'll be adding in the rulebook psychic powers and warlord traits as well so it can generate any of them. Later I'll throw in stat lines of chaos models and weapons as well, and maybe a general use die roller. When I'm done, it will be a nice little pocket reference for in game personal use.

 

If people are interested, I'll throw up the finished version when its done (minus actual rules text & stat values, you'd have to re-enter that yourself to avoid copyright issues).

[Sception]

~ October, Update 1I ~

 

Second update: some base coat work

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/lord05.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/lord06.jpg

 

I had meant to do a bit more before my second update, but I may be losing power for a few days due to an upcoming storm, and I didn't want to miss the second update for October.

 

Anyway, this guy's a beast to paint. Just a ton of details and different areas to try and work into a coherent whole. It's nothing like coherent yet, but there's a long way yet to go on this one, so I'm not worried.

[Killax]

Nice WIP!

 

To bad your other photo's seem to have lost in the Warp :wub:

[Sception]

blargh, not again....

 

OK. Should be fixed now.

[Dark Apostle Thirst]

That is a truly excellent Lord, it's good I can see it :tu:

[Sception]

~ October, Update III ~

 

Third update: More progress on the Dark Vengeance Lord. I'd say the last pics showed him about 1/3 done, while this set is closer to 2/3 done. Hopefully I'll be able to have him finished by the next update.

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/lord07.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/lord08.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/lord09.jpg

[Sception]

~ November, Update I ~

 

Fourth update: Lord's done. Trying to edge highlight the black armor around the jagged metal trim was a pain. Also, I keep getting a glossy highlight reflection right in the middle of the darkest shadow on the cloak, despite using my non-glossiest black and mattest of matt spray overcoats. Still, I'm pretty happy with him overall. The DV lord is a fantastic model. Shame 'power armored infantry lord with some kind of sword' is such a poor choice in our list.

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/lord10.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/lord11.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/lord12.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/lord13.jpg

[Sception]

~ November, Update II ~

Yes, I'm cheating slightly. The painting shown below was done in November, a couple weeks ago, actually, but I was working on a video update that didn't really pan out, and forgot that I hadn't posted the photos themselves when they were done. So...

 

Fifth Update. It's been a while since I last updated, partially because of personal reasons, partially because I was trying my hand at making a video demonstrating my painting scheme (didn't turn out well, but I'm trying again), mostly because after I finished the lord I figured I had some time to play a bit of Skyrim, and of course it's not possible to play a bit of Skyrim.

 

Anyway, started work on the batch of chaos marines I'm doing for my second pledge. Promised 10, there's twelve in the batch started (primed black, overbrushed battlegrey, any empty base areas covered in astrogranite), and a 13th that I'm prepping for the second attempt at a painting vid. Progress will be slow through December and pick up in January, but I'll still hit the minimum 2 updates a month, and they'll still be done on schedule.

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/csm11.jpg

[Sception]

Non Call-of-Chaos based update!

 

Alright, so many have complained about the new HQs, the Dark Apostle and the Warpsmith - calling them "half hearted copies of loyalist options", or "completely outclassed by lords & sorcerers at any concievable job" or even "poorly conceived additions that bring nothing meaningful to the table, squandering good design space". Heck, I've called them that.

 

Of course, that doesn't mean I don't want to have some! Weedle & Zubat may be lousy pokemon, but you still need them to fill out your pokedex. Gotta catch'em all, right? And besides, I don't think the warpsmith is that bad, and the apostle can always be run as a chaos lord with a black mace.

 

So anyway, here's my initial conversion work for these options:

 

 

Savion the Accursed, Dark Apostle of the Black Legion

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/apostle01.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/apostle02.jpg

 

The apostle is obviously the chosen champ from the dark vengeance box - and I'm hardly the first person to use that model as such. Didn't even have to do much, just swap the backpack for one from another chosen model (the apostle doesn't have a bolter, after all), and add a bit from the CSM sprue to represent the sigil. I stuck 'im on a bigger base (all my heroes are on 40mm bases or larger, to give more modeling room & let them stand out a bit), and might add a bit more to the base (skulls, barbed wire, etc), but otherwise he's ready for painting. Which I'm sure I'll get around to. Some day.

 

Next up is the Warpsmith. I had intended to convert my old Mojo model into a warpsmith. However, the codex warpsmith lacked anything equivalent to old Mojo's Kai gun, and Mojo's power armor didn't really match the fleshmetal that the Warpsmith is supposed to wear. And I wasn't sure how I was going to do the mechatendrils. Still, despite liking the design of the new model, I knew how terrible finecast could be, especially on a model with so much detail, so there was no way I was going to buy it.

 

 

Mojo Jokaero, Warpsmith of the Black Legion

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/warpsmith01.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/warpsmith02.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/warpsmith03.jpg

 

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z142/Malisteen/Black%20Legion/warpsmith04.jpg

 

But then someone got it for me as a gift, thinking that my only objection to it was the price, not the material itself. And you know what? My fears were totally justified. It didn't seem terrible enough to return it on the sprues, but once assembly was underway it became obvious that bubbles and mold issues left it difficult to assemble, with much lost detail & nearly every rivet ruined (most of them have been scraped off at this point). I DO NOT RECOMMEND PURCHASING THIS MODEL.

 

But I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I set to work, trimming away damaged detail & filling obnoxious gaps with greenstuff. To preserve some of my original plan, I brought in the head from my old Mojo Jojo model. The raised arm holding the axe was far too tiny next to mojo's obnoxiously large noggin, so I swapped it out for a furry beast guy arm from a D&D mini, which is better proportioned with the head, and works with the whole chimp thing. In the process I replaced the shaft of the axe with some brass wire - doesn't look as cool, but shouldn't warp or break like I feared the finecast would. I didn't replace the other arm, since it was down and more obscured, making it less obviously a problem and more difficult to reach anyway, and besides - it's more obviously artificial. If the proportions of it start bugging me, I'll replace it later.

 

I did take the opportunity to swap the pistol out for a flamer, as I figure I'll give this guy the artifact flamer when I'm running him. It brings back some of the old Mojo's anti-meq shooting, and if I were overly concerned about points efficiency in a particular game, he probably wouldn't make it to the table anyway. I'll probably give him the Mark of Khorne, since it seems the best fit for his personality. Yeah, he's a super genius who comes up with overcomplicated plans, but whenever he gets worked up, or finds himself with a bit of power, he tends to fly into a brute physical rage (ref: the movie, or that episode he convinced the Professor to give him superpowers), and most of his inventions are designed just to destroy things or blow them up anyway.

 

He still needs some more minor gap & bubble filling, but other then that, he's ready for painting. Working on a new incarnation of Mojo also inspired me to start work on another project, but that's not ready to show yet (and with the painting work still to do, may not be ready for some time).