Converting "Age of Sigmar" Stormcasts to Space Marines

[DanforthLaertes]

As detailed in this thread, I bought the Age of Sigmar boxed set and have used the Stormcast models to make some Marines. There are many pictures in that thread, with more being added.

 

The use of these models to make Marines seems a bit of a no-brainer - although some work and thought does need to go into them. Here, in no particular order, are my thoughts and hard-won knowledge on the subject. Others should feel free to chime in with their own views!

 

Size & Scale

 

http://www.batcave.co.uk/aos/aostermiecomp.jpg

 

As can be seen, the Stormcasts are a good head taller than a Terminator - although the blocky rear torso of the Terminator does raise them up. This makes the Stormcasts a suitable base for "Truescale" Marines. The models are generally speaking large - Terminator arms and weapons work very well with them, although if you use regular Marine arms those can also work (but don't mix the two on the same model). Standard Marine heads work very well in terms of scale - the additional height of the Stormcasts make the resulting models look more "heroic" as they are "more heads" tall.

 

Do not leave the existing Stormcast heads in place - they have a lovely "golden death mask" aesthetic, but they are too small to work as Marines in my view.

 

Style & Aesthetics

 

Standard Marine helmets (in my view) look good with the Stormcasts - but others prefer fancier helmets; the "knightly" ones from the Grey Knights or decorative ones from specific chapters work very well. The style of the Stormcasts' armor is a sculpted musculature - so they work very well as Blood Angels. The Stormcasts' shoulder pads are quite a different design from Marines', but they can work well. You can also cut them off (see below). The models are sculpted to look very much like powered armor - there is even a sort of ribbed undersuit visible between some joints.

 

Iconography

 

The Stormcasts have three main pieces of iconography - the lightning bolt, the hammer, and the lion head. Unless your chapter uses all of these, you will have to remove some or all of them. The hammers are found mostly on the shoulder pads and can be relatively easily sanded off. There are other hammers (often as belt icons) and these can also be removed or covered with purity seals etc. Lightning bolts are similarly placed - but these can often be explained away as either merely decorative flourishes or as the Emperor's personal symbol during the Wars of Unification. The lion heads are shoulder pads, belt buckles and designs on vambraces. These can be removed if you desire, usually by replacing the pad or arm, or trimming off the buckle. Of course, if your army is Salamanders, Hammers of the Emperor, White Scars, Lightning Marines, Lions of the Imperium etc. etc. you will have to remove less of these icons!

 

Backpacks

 

The backpack is iconic for Marines, and I recommend the use of them - even if you are counting the models as Terminators. The standard plastic backpack fits very well on the back of the model - a small ball of Green Stuff allows it to be superglued in place, or you could pin it. The best position I have found is for the two "balls" to rest on the rear flange of the shoulder pads. If you are pinning it in place, the smaller hole (just above the hole for the plug on the back of the Marine torso) is a good place to set the pin, and you can drill into the natural valley at the fork of the inverted-Y formed by the upper plates of the Stormcast's rear armor. That lines up very well.

 

Arms & Weapons

 

The Stormcasts in the boxed set come with a shield attached to a hand and forearm - the elbow pad is very similar to a Marine or Terminator pad. You can simply not make any cuts on the left arm (or cut distal of the elbow pad on a Stormcast from somewhere other than the boxed set) and fit a new forearm in place. This can come from Terminators or Marines. Lightning claws fit very well, as do Grey Knight weapons of various types (and the forearm-mounted Stormbolter looks fantastic). When using those weapons and some particular arms, it might be best to remove the Stormcast elbow and use the Marine one - you will have to make that judgment for each model. As I say; the elbows are similar so you won't notice much difference - the benefit to keeping the Marine elbow is that sometimes the weapon overlaps or interacts with it.

 

When attaching Terminator arms, you leave as much of the hoses in place as you can - these often easily fit under the Stormcast shoulder pads and look very suitable.

 

Heads and Helmets

 

When fitting Marine helmets, you will likely need to cut off the locator plug or at least shave it down - the neck socket on the Stormcasts is often too small. You will also perhaps need to shave the lower corners of the helmet and / or trim the gorget of the Stormcast's armor. Do a dry fit to make sure - if you do not, you might find yourself limited to an unnatural or a fixed pose with the head. You will likely need to use some Green Stuff to fill in the socket and superglue the helmet in place.

 

If you cut the locator plug off a helmet completely, it fits very nicely on a thigh, looking like it is hanging from the Marine's belt.

 

Shoulder Pads

 

You can leave the existing shoulder pads in place (either shaving off the molded detail or leaving it in place) or you can cut them off and replace them. If you decide to cut them off, it is probably easier to assemble the main body of the Stormcast (at least for the boxed-set ones) and then cut them off (the models join together quite oddly at times, and cutting before they are joined together can be tricky). You can use a saw or a good sharp craft knife - the cut is pretty much vertical down through the shoulder. You can then mount Marine or Terminator arms in place, and put Marine or Terminator pads.

 

Unless you particularly want that look, it's probably best to not mix different shoulder pad styles, especially on a single model (I wanted that look!)

 

Belts

 

The belts of the Stormcasts look very much like cloth - you might want to fill them in with a little Green Stuff, but I didn't bother.

 

Accessories

 

Putting Marine helmets, weapons and backpacks on really does make these guys look like Marines - but what absolutely sells it is the addition of accessories and details. Purity seals, grenades, pouches and so forth really make these look like Marines. These can be components glued in place, or (especially in the case of purity seals) made of plasticard and Green Stuff. Chapter-specific iconography works very well too - they are large areas where little details can be added or sculpted in place.

 

Specific Boxed Set Models

 

The best value is the boxed set (containing 17 Stormcasts as well as a whole bunch of Khorne warriors - some of which could certainly be converted to Berserkers! - for only $125 US). That is much cheaper than buying the models separately. So, most conversions will be made using those figures. The above comments apply mostly to the regular Stormcast Liberator models.

 

However, there are specific models in there which require different treatment;

 

The Lord-Celestant is mounted on a Dracoth - a Thunderwolf-sized cat-lizard-thing in armor. He is carrying a big hammer and there are a lot of hammers on the armor of him and the beast. Really, unless you come up with some very strong fluff and / or do a lot of conversion, he is going to have to be used as a Salamander. But, if he is used as a Salamander ... he makes a REALLY good Salamander!

 

The Lord-Relictor is pretty much a Chaplain already - just give the guy a backpack (he even has a skull-head!) and some Marine bits and bobs, and he looks the part. There are some hammer icons you might wish to remove. He is armed with a hammer - but cutting the head off and replacing with an eagle, winged skull, or other suitable detail makes a wonderful Crozius.

 

The Prosecutors were born to make Assault Marines from. The easiest way to make these guys work is to cut off their arms and shoulders completely and simply replace them with Marine arms and pads. You could also leave the pads in place and replace either before or after the elbow if you wish. Assemble the wings as standard and put them in place - you don't need a backpack, although you could put something in place if you wanted (perhaps using the wings to make a sort of Sanguinary Guard jump pack). Two of the Prosecutors have a little helmet crest attached to the wings - you'll want to cut that off (even if you use it - your Marine's head is likely to be in the wrong place to use it without cutting it off and repositioning).

 

You should cut off the heads before you glue the chests in place - this allows you to retain the gorget of the chest armor to place the helmet behind. There isn't a lot of space to put a helmet in, so you might need to trim and file, and certainly dry-fit.

 

These models have a real sense of rapid movement to them, so you will want to plan the position of their arms and heads carefully so they look natural. Also, two of the models (out of three) are identical - but you can get a great variation by using different arms with different positions. The waists of these models are quite open, so a lot of grenades etc. can be put in place.

 

The Liberator-Primes are the unit leaders, and have slightly more dramatic poses. They are also unique. They can be used to make very nice heroes or leaders - but they have more lion iconography than rank-and-file models.

 

The Retributors are harder to use as Marines - I am planning to use them as count-as Centurions, but even that is tricky. They could be used as Thunderhammer Terminators. They have two-handed hammers which look magical rather than mechanical. I am still seeking ideas on how to make them work as well as they can.

 

So, those are my suggestions and knowledge got from the experience of converting. If you have anything else to add, or questions to ask, don't hesitate! I really think Stormcast Eternals can be used as the basis for some really nice Marine armies, and I look forward to seeing many of them!

[mactire]

Nice bit of converting work the minis look the part. Read your fluff in the other link, good work. I look forward to seeing them painted up.

[Ironheaded]

Yes, I'm rather impressed with these models for Tru-Scale Marines.

 

Can you put a standard marine next to both the Terminator and the Sigmarine?

 

I'm trapped with alot of terminator bits, and was just wondering if this would be fun converting.

[Grotsmasha]

[Ironheaded]

Ah yes.. thanks for the image.

 

Sigmarines just scream "Blood Angels", dont they?  and/or Adeptus Custodian

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Impressive.