Kitbashing up some Inquisitorial Stormtroopers?

[allegedlynerdy]

Hey all,

 

I've been working on my inquisition army, and I am using the old metal inquisitorial stormtroopers. However, I can't bring myself to cut them up to give them other special weapons, and they're in short supply regardless. Does anyone have any suggestions for kitbashing some up?

 

[Ranulf]

http://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1499/56/1499560131108.jpg

 

Theses guys right? Still the best Stormtroopers to my mind.

 

Some starting options for kitbashing:

 

Torso: Torso 1, Torso 2, Torso 3

 

Legs: Legs 1

 

Arms: Arms 1 

 

Heads are the tricky part - I like these guys from Pig Iron to fill the role: System Scavangers

 

-Ran

[Ryltar Thamior]

oh wow, i love the old storm troopers! Definitely manages the 'special forces' SAS sorta vibe par excellence!

But yeah, can definitely understand your pain at the prospect of performing gun-surgery upon 'em. 

One option would be to wait for GW to get arond to putting them up on the 'made to order' cycle and taking it from there. But I understand that that's uh ... not reeaally gonna work if you need these in the near future. 

Looking at that pic Ranulf's posted, I'd suggest  that repositioned Scout legs might work reasonably well with a  bit of reworking on the boots to get the gaiters. 

Arms might be rather difficult, as they lack the OTT shoulder-pads of just about all modern (armoured) Imperial figures. But they *also* have hte various wrist-mounted buttons and suchlike, so simple cloth-covered arms proobably won't cut it. I guess you could use Scion arms [if you didn't mind the difference in wrist-mounted functionality], and just make such alterations as are necessary at teh shoulder, then covering the resultant de-pad-ification with bandoliers of ammunition and other gear [it's something that appears quite common on the old metal miniatures, so shouldn't look too out of place]. Another possiblity in the same vein would be Orlock arms or perhaps some of the neophyte hybrid range [the gloved hands especially] - again, with joins covered with gear, and shouldepads removed as and where apparent. 

You may find yourself 'rebuilding' the vambrace-tech to be more aesthetically similar to the original miniatures - something which, on hte scions at least, shouldn't be *too* difficult, as you're simply cutting in to make a recess, and hten adding a number of buttons or whatever to taste. 

One potential advantage to using particular kits like the aforementioned Scion arms and to a lesser extent the neophyte hybrids is that they may come iwth special weapons already mounted. 

That leaves torsos and heads. 

Now, the positive thing about  the torso is that most of the front will be covered by a great honking plasmagun or whatever. And the back is, again, obscurated with stowage. Meaning you could just about use any torso you like, provided you can construct a gorget-ish neck around the top [not sure if gorget's the right word, but you get what i mean]. Something that just sprang to mind might be cut-down backs of Marine torsos - as they'd have the rim neckguard built in, and would only require carving off the power-pack mounting, which could then be greenstuff'd or otherwise obscured.

The back-mounted stowage will be rather difficult to precisely replicaate, as i can't think off-hand of any kits that have anything *directly* like it [FW Cadian ones are more .. canvassy and wider; while Death Korps i don't have any to hand on, but again look more like regular infantry]... but it's possible that you may find some of the back-packs in the Catachan Command box to be serviceable supplements [particularly because at least one of them's got smoke-grenades on it], possibly with the addition of a rolled-up piece of gauze or whatever it is you use to make camo-capes and such on top. 

Given htese are special weapons troops, i'd be tempted to possibly instead go with some of the heavy weapons backpacks from the neophyte hybrids kit - as it'll get you canisters and things that could feasibly represent the ammunition for these specialist armaments, while also covering a reasonable amount of back. Maybe build some stuff onto the top parts with the screen and dials to visually distinguish them [i've noted taht the old-school storm-troopr i'm looking at right now .. which i managed to dig out from somewhere .. appears to have a row of grenades at that height]. 

There *may* be a gap between the weapon mounting and hte torso depending upon posing. If so ... i guess you could either leave it as-is; or you could build a front-plate onto it like the storm trooper sergeant models had. Possibly even simply by cutting stuff away til a flat armoured surface is waht's left. Up to you. You could also do what the Kasrkin models did [i lalso have quite a soft-spot for those .. although not quite as storm troopers in the sense these older miniatures were clearly intended to be!] and have gun-sights, wiring etc. between firearm and torso that'd handily obscure same. 

Heads ... yeah, i'm drawing a bit of a blank there. Part of me suggests just goign the 'easy' route and giving 'em berets coz similar vibe of Elite Special Forcesness [i.e. hte Scions box]. Or, for that matter, a range of characterful bare heads, which you could have a certain amount of fun with [face covered in burns for a plasmagunner, for instance]. 

However, it might be an interesting experiment [in patience as much as anything else] to see how viable it is to cut down a Cadian helmet in certain places to attempt to replicate the blast-visor etc. of the Storm Trooper helmet. Only issue there is .. it's only going ot get you un-gasmasked troops - you'd either have to sculpt your own or look to 3rd party manufacturers for anything else. 

In any case, going off the originals at least, it seems like you can do quite a bit with stowage on the exterior of hte miniature [aagain, scions kit for the bandoliers, possibly various Marine kits for pistol holsters if you can get them without being obviously bolt-pistol containing [for instance the left-handed ones from the Mk.III box]; and whatever you can find for pouches, grenades, and other such things.] with a view to gap-covering, and fixing blemishes on the final miniature. 

[looking at the minis, it's surprising just how many elements from the later Cadian plastics we can spot 'in utero' on these glorious old metals. But I digress]

Now obviously, the third-party approaches Ranulf's suggested are a *lot* easier in terms of time etc. ; but if for whatever reason [aesthetics, enthusiasm for knife-work and a challenge, or GW rules about using only GW sourced miniatures] you want to take on the test of doing it out of GW plastics ... there's a few thoughts for you on how it might be done .

Whatever you wind up doing .. PLEASE POST PICTURES. You've got me all excited about possibly being able to once again hav troops looking like the storm troopers of old [not the uh .. of *older* that the plastics are, arguably :P ] in my various projects :D 
 

[Lucerne]

I'm working on this exact conversion.

 

Scion gas mask head with GS.

Cadian torso with GS.

Cadian legs with skirt cut off, and GS.

Scion arms without the shoulderpad trim.

Third party hellgun.

Make a mold of the old backpacks and glue them to the model.

[Nicodemus Doloroso]

The back-mounted stowage will be rather difficult to precisely replicaate, as i can't think off-hand of any kits that have anything *directly* like it [FW Cadian ones are more .. canvassy and wider; while Death Korps i don't have any to hand on, but again look more like regular infantry]... but it's possible that you may find some of the back-packs in the Catachan Command box to be serviceable supplements [particularly because at least one of them's got smoke-grenades on it], possibly with the addition of a rolled-up piece of gauze or whatever it is you use to make camo-capes and such on top. 

 

 

 

I've tried using DKoK backpacks on Cadians and in my view they look ridiculous. They are way to slim/small and do not fit with the heroic scale at all, sadly. DKoK are fantastic models and I love them to bits, but they are just too different in scale from other 40K Imperial Guard stuff. It would have been cool if at least SOME attempt was made to sculpt them as compatible with 40K stuff but they're so different they might as well be for a whole other game system.

 

Some of the Catachan Command Box backpacks would be solid choices if you're okay with the massive machetes/combat knives on the sides.