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Mephiston conversion based on 2nd edition artwork.


jimbo1701

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Hi folks,

 

Been a while since I posted here but I thought this project was worthwhile sharing. I'm fanatical about Space Marines  but first amongst equals are of course Blood Angels. They were my first army back in the day of second edition and have always been my first love in 40K. Amongst my armiesmy Blood Angels are the largest, comprising around 160 models including the entire 5th company. With the advent of the new codex the army has undergone a massive revamp (no pun intended), with me replacing almost half the battle company with new parts from the new kits. However, I always had one project I wanted to undertake should they not produce a new mephiston sculpt, and that was making a conversion based on (in my opinion) the iconic artwork of mephiston from second edition. For those not familiar, this is the one:

 

http://wh40kart.im/_images/55f23df0973cb99be07f6da10da7f049.jpg

 

When compared to the mephi model, this chap is obviously much more dynamic, with the cloak flowing, head repositioned, right arm sans pistol and raised and left sword arm lowered. I had oriinally thought about using astorath as a basis for the conversion, but then along came the sanguinary priest model and I knew I had to use that as the basis for the conversion.

 

So, effectively what I did was chop mephis head off, removed the right arm at the shoulder and painstakingly cut out the entire of mephis legs while leaving the cloak intact. The head was replaced with one of the new fanged sergeant heads, and guitar wire used to attach the psychic hood cables to his head. In the case of the right side I replaced the entirity of the cable with guitar wire, the left only the part inside the hood. I later GS sculpted some hair to flow in the direction of the wind blowing the cloak. I also decided that as well as a BA backpack he needed a banner to later have his heraldry displayed on.

 

As for the cloak, I heated the finecast in warm water and made it appear to be flowing more towards the right as if blown in the wind. Between removing the legs and heating the cloak it did split a bit so I had to fill the gaps with GS. The legs were replaced with a painstakingly shaved down set of legs from the priest model. I was tempted to try and seal up the gap at the front and make it more like the original image, but decided I quite liked it with the parting and so saved myself a job. The left arm was repositioned using a bit of generic space marine elbow and greenstuff. Likewise, pretty much the same was done for the right, with the hand modified to look like mephi is about to lick the blood (to be added later using techincal paints) from his fingertip, with the plasma pistol presumably holstered. Aside from all this, a bit more filling and GS work and voila, here he is just about ready for spraying:
 

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t286/jimbo1701/IMAG0406_zps7xvrawak.jpg

 

I'm really happy with how he turned out so far and am going to inspect him a couple of times prior to spraying to make sure I have no outstanding issues. I may also just use a bit of abaddon black over the GS areas to check they're smooth prior to spraying. So what do you guys think? Comments and crits appreciated as always. Cheers.

Hi olis, really considered it for a long time both to make it more like the picture and make it look different from a sanguimary priest. Problem is that I'm terrible at sculpting smooth flat surfaces and that both sides of the robe flow outwards so I'd have to chop a lot off before filling to make it look right. I figure it's just mephi wearing his Sunday bests. ;)

 

I also considered sculpting the syringes but figured mephi had taken some time out from his haemi-roids for now and thus lost a bit of strength/toughness and a few wounds!

Man is that a great conversion. Looks really awesome. I thought those legs would be perfect for Mephiston. Turns out they are! Can you add this to my Special Characters Conversions Thread here: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/300271-post-blood-angel-special-character-conversions

 

My only critique would be the hair. It's tough to tell since its green, but something looks off about it to me. Maybe it's that it doesn't look like it's coming out of his head and more stuck to the side of it? I don't know, maybe I'm crazy. In any case amazing job.

Hi guys thanks again for the comments. I've decided to go ahead and add some paint to him having done some liquid gs work to various places. Once he's got some base coats on it should be easier to tell what's what with him and I'll add him to the character blog. Will post a pic tonight. Cheers.

I feel the mini needs a microphone in his right hand. Looks like a black metal vocalist.

 

Brilliant, hadn't spotted that before. Oh well, if Orks can have Goffik rokkerz...

 

Here's as much as I'm gonna be able to get done today, just a few basecoats in places to get the idea. Cheers.

 

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t286/jimbo1701/IMAG0406_zpspt5vo7lu.jpg

Hi guys, thanks for the kind words. Some minor progress, almost finished basecoats and started washing. Hoping at this rate he'll be done by the end of the weekend, at which point I'll take some better photos and add him to the other thread. Cheers.

 

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t286/jimbo1701/Mobile%20Uploads/IMAG0408_zpsd9tlquyj.jpg

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