Truescale Badab War Kill Team

[Brother Dallo]

Hi folks,

 

After looking at Apologist's Truescale thread, I was inspired to have a go myself.

 

Firstly a bit of background. I, like many others, am a hobby butterfly and I find I have many started projects, but few completed ones. To this end, I'm hoping that the small scale of Kill Team means that I can actually finish this project.

 

A while back, I got a big Marines joblot which included some Red Scorpion pads. I thought this would be a good opportunity to make use of them along with some other cool bits I'd been holding onto.

 

My end goal is to make two opposing Kill Team forces and include a few different Chapters.

 

For the Loyalists, I've got the parts to make a seven marine team comprised of five Red Scorpions and two Novamarines. 

 

Here is the WIP of the first Novamarine. It's a bit rough around the edges but I like how it's looking so far.

 

 

I also got a Red Scorpion Terminator pad in the joblot, so I thought I'd have a go at making a Truescale Terminator from the Gravis Captain model.

 

This is where it's at so far. I'm glad I'm only making one of these as I'm making it up as I go along. :p

 

 

 

Still a good way to go with this one, which will likely include some gap filling with Greenstuff and doing something to mask the gut plate.

 

C&C Welcome.

 

Dallo

[Umbra Pretium]

Nice work! Looking forward to seeing where this goes!

[Sergeant Centurion]

Nice work, one of the best true scales i see in my life. Terminator looks amazing. My only complain, and dont take it seriusly, the reinforced plates in legs cut the fell of traditional astartes for me, but, the remove of the gorget and the extra knee pad compensate that for me. I follow this for more.

[Brother Dallo]

Thank you both for the kind words, they’re a great motivation for this project.

 

Sergeant Centurion, if you’re a fan of Truescale, B&C has some very talented members here who have hobby logs showcasing their models. Doghouse and Apologist, just to name a few. I’ve certainly taken a lot of inspiration from them and others.

 

Thank you for your comments about the leg armour. I will say that the photo above is still very much a work in progress. Having said that, I’m probably going to keep the additional armour plates on the thighs as removing them cleanly would be beyond my abilities and I’m happy to justify their existence as minor variations in style between different Forgeworlds. Look at the amount of variation in Mk VII plate to see what I mean.

 

I’ve drafted up two lists for my loyalists, one for regular games and one at 125 points for Elites games.

 

Tactical Sgt with Combi Weapon

Tactical Gunner with Missile Launcher

Tactical Gunner with special weapon (will magnetise)

Four Tactical Marines

 

98/100 points

 

For Elites I’ll add a Terminator with lightning claws and drop the special weapon to a Grav gun to spare the final point needed to get 125/125 points.

 

For the eventual opposing force, I’m undecided between taking a reasonably similar Space Marine force (but mix up the special/heavy weapons) or use the Chaos list. The Chaos list has the advantage that I can drop a few Marines to take some cultists to represent the Tyrant’s Legion or just some Marines with Chainswords, but I don’t want to make one side hugely more competitive than the other.

 

I’d appreciate your thoughts on which is a better idea.

 

C&C welcome.

 

Dallo

[ShotgunFacelift]

Great work with the terminator conversion.

how does the back look with the vents of the normal terminator torso?

[Brother Dallo]

Thanks ShotgugunFaceLift.

 

As I'm using the Gravis Captain model, who has a cloak, there's a bit of a gap which the cloak normally covers. Luckily, I've found a donor to fill in the gap.

 

 

To differentiate the Gravis plate further, I'm in the process of trimming down some of the more obvious differences and will aim to smooth out any gaps with a little greenstuff, but I've been making decent progress just using my scalpel and clippers.

 

Similar work goes into turning the Primaris armour into Mk VII.

 

 

Here you see the unaltered leg on the left and a partially removed one on the right. Still a bit to clean up.

 

Finally, here's a shot of what I'm expecting the Terminator (code name: Mr Tickles) to look like when he's done. There's a lot of blutack involved at this stage so the pose isn't perfect yet, but he's turning out to be a bit of a big lad.

 

 

I want to fix the gut plate, add a belt buckle and probably replace the loin cloth.

 

Cheers.

 

Dallo

[Fajita Fan]

Mr Tickles? 

[Brother Dallo]

Hi folks,

 

My copy of Badab War arrived from eBay today and I've been enjoying reading through it for some fluff inspiration.

 

 

I haven't been idle since my last update and I've been testing out some poses of marines for both Kill Teams.

 

This is a rough "sketch" of what I'm aiming for with my Loyalist Sergeant. He'll likely be a Red Scorpion, but I only had a Novamarine shoulder pad to hand when I was tacking him together.

 

 

Nothing is glued, so the pose can be changed, but I like how he's looking so far. I intend to make a strap for the Combi-Melta out of brass etch "sprue", which has served me well in the past for gun and shield straps.

 

I'm a fan of this head, which comes from a Warlord Games sprue I got years ago. I like that it's thin enough that you might actually be able to fit it into a Marine helmet, which helps to add to the feel that Marines are really tall.

 

I was originally planning to use a Combi-Melta from the Sternguard kit, but in the end I went with the chunkier Combi-Melta from the multi-part Captain set.

 

I didn't have a right handed open hand, so I used a left handed one and moved the thumb to the other hand. I don't think it's overly noticeable. 

 

C&C Welcome.

 

Dallo

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Great looking conversions so far!

[Shovellovin]

Looking good! I really dig that Loyalist sergeant that you're working on.

 

As far as the Badab books go, I too recently read them. They're excellent. If you can, track down the second Badab book.

[Brother Dallo]

Thanks Shovellovin. I had a look for Badab War part 2 on eBay, but the last one went for over £100, so I'll wait to see if I can find any at a more reasonable price.

 

Just a quick update today to show you the current state of my Secessionists.

 

 

From left to right:

 

Astral Claws Gunner, Tiger Claws Standard bearer, Astral Claws Tactical Marine and Lamentors Sgt.

 

For those who are curious, the standard is from the Graveguard kit, with the bat wings trimmed off. I'm hoping that a larger surface will make the freehand easier, but that remains to be seen.

 

The Lamenter is going to be a bit of a test to see if I can freehand the checkers and Chapter badge. If so, I may make a full team of them.

 

C&C Welcome.

 

Dallo

[Umbra Pretium]

Nice work! I'm excited to see how they look painted - especially the Lamentor.

[Brother Dallo]

Thanks Umbra Pretium, it may be a while before I get around to painting, but I hope you'll think it was worth the wait.

 

It recently occurred to me that I have the bits to take a stab at truescale Scouts (or at least one) for my Red Scorpion Kill Team.

 

 

Here's where I'm at currently. In terms of size, both the "power armour" and the scout armour have roughly the same torso height (when measured from belt buckle to head) and if the Goliath legs were in less of a squat, the model would stand a good bit taller. That said, there are fluff reasons for a Scout to be shorter than a full Battle Brother, so the appearance of a height discrepancy (even if it's a bit of an optical illusion) doesn't overly bother me.

 

Current plan for this guy is a regular bolter mook and if this conversion turns out ok, I may make another with Bolt Pistol and CCW. I'm not too sure how to paint the camo cloaks as the Red Scorpions disdain covert tactics. In terms of modelling, I like the cloak as it covers the rear of the armour, so I don't need to worry about it.

 

I'd also appreciate some guidance on company and squad markings. From what I've seen from my research, the yellow trim is a part of their colour scheme and not an indication of company. Most models have a number on their knee which I believe indicates company or squad number, but I'm not sure which. Sergeants appear to have a white helmet. Does that sound about right?

 

Cheers.

 

Dallo

[Brother Dallo]

Evening folks.

 

Today I was working on making a Marine which could conceivably also be used as a Sternguard Veteran. The base model is the Primaris Lieutenant with power sword from Dark Imperium.

 

 

I've put some base layers on him quickly, but there's still a good bit left to do. As it stands, it's just a coat of Mechanicus Standard Grey and some contrast paints to get some colours blocked in.

 

To add a bit of variety, I decided to make MK VIII Errant armour for this Marine. It meant that I could leave the ankle hemispheres as they are and instead would focus effort on converting the torso. I cut the vent from a MK VIII front plate from the old Tactical Marines box and used it to replace the winged skull. I then used a bit of greenstuff to fill in the gap in the gorget, so it was a pretty simple conversion. I also trimmed down the thigh armour plates and replaced them with a variety of pouches.

 

All in all, I'm pretty happy with how he's turning out and I hope to get some more painting done soon.

 

C&C Welcome.

 

Dallo

[Brother Dallo]

Hi folks,

 

It's been a while since I've updated this thread, but the Back to Badab thread and a few others have got me thinking about my Badab stuff again.

 

Currently I'm working on my truescale scout.

 

 

Pretty happy with how he turned out. Sorry the photo quality isn't amazing. I'm considering getting a second daylight bub lamp to improve the photo quality.

 

I'm considering painting him up as a test model for some Mantis Warriors. I've just ordered some 3D printed shoulder pads for them from eBay, so you may see them soon.

 

Dallo

[Ryltar Thamior]

i'd thought there'd be a notable size disparity between the scout torso and the goliath legs based on the earlier shot, but the one you've just posted doesn't seem too far removed. Massive, massive thighs, though :P 

[Brother Dallo]

I ended up trimming down the height of the waist of the Goliath legs and while I think it looks better, I’m not convinced that I’m happy with it yet. I’ll sleep on it and see how I feel.

 

I guess Mantis Warrior Scouts don’t skip leg day. :p

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

Dallo

[Brother Dallo]

So the Mantis Warrior shoulder pads arrived today and I thought I'd post up a quick review.

 

I got these from a seller (cjemmerson) on eBay for £5 posted.

 

The 3D print quality is great, certainly no issues with lines as far as I can tell.

 

 

The eagle-eyed among you may notice that the shoulder pad looks slightly different from the shape of a regular marine pad.

 

 

It's about 1mm bigger than a normal Marine pad. I'm not sure if this was a deliberate choice, but it's worth knowing before you buy.

 

I was really happy with the overall quality of these. They arrived like this and took maybe 30 seconds to clean up with a pair of clippers. The "sprue" is well designed and I didn't have any issues removing them.

 

 

Here's a quick "sketch" of a Marine with the two shoulder pads. I'll leave it up to you whether you think the size difference is noticeable when assembled as part of a miniature.

 

 

For 40p per shoulder pad (and £1 postage), I'm pretty happy with these. 

 

Do let me know if this review has inspired you to get a set or two. 

 

Dallo

[Naryn]

Ooh, very cool. If I didn't use the Chapter Champion pads on my Mantis Warriors, I's definitely get some of those.

[Brother Dallo]

Humanity has always looked skyward for its true path.

We stood at the edge of destruction and would have fallen if not for the might of the God Emperor and his Angels of Death.

Forged in blood, tempered in battle, we are the living weapons of humanity.

The Space Marines

 

[Brother Dallo]

Evening folks,

 

I've been working on making a dedicated photo setup for my models to improve the image quality.

 

I started out with some spare wood in the garage and made a basic frame.

 

 

I've set up two lamps with daylight bulbs to act as light sources.

 

 

I drape a black pillow case over the frame to act as the backdrop.

 

Finally, here's a test photo I took.

 

 

It's not strictly Badab War related, but I didn't have anything painted enough to be worth taking a photo of.

 

I'm pretty happy with this as the setup (apart from the lamps) was all made from stuff I had lying around the house.

 

Hopefully this is inspiration for someone to make up a photo area for themselves.

 

Dallo