Heraclite's Hobby Thread

[Heraclite]

Depending on where you're based, there's plenty of old vanguard veterans squads for sale on vinted in Europe right now, for about 20€ per squad of five. That's how I got mine. You just have to hope they're not strongly glued. For the ones I got, detaching the weapons was easy enough, but I had to really destroy the torsos to pry away the jump packs and the heads.

 

As for the shoulder pads, I had to drill away the arms glued inside to reuse them. But I also experimented with oyumaru moulds for details and most of them turned out quite nice (the first tries were okay, but the last ones are definitely better as I get the hang of it)

 

I'm having second thoughts about the head for my chaplain. I had initially shaved the upper part of my last reiver helmet to make it look a bit less like a reiver helmet and more like a proper skull, but it kinda looks off.

 

I'm torn between using a suitably dour face from the original captain with relic shield (I think) or the reiver helmet but with added rivets made from a press mould of one of the vanguard vet legs.

 

It looks a bit rough but I guess I'll have to prime it to see what it looks like in a uniform colour.

 

In other news, the old ETB intercessor that was meant to wait for a future project just got turned into a heavy flamer marine for a future sternguard squad...

 

 

And while I was at it I also snapped a pic of the missile launcher marine with his new fancy backpack 

[space wolf]

I personally like the skull head. I just think chaplains are too full of zelous hate to show their true face. Of course, having a bare head and putting skull-like face paint on him would be pretty cool. Google search "Chaplaim" from the comic "Spawn."

 

As for the jump packs, thanks for the tip, you make a good point. Im in the USA but im sure there are many floating around.

 

Edited September 3 by space wolf

[Heraclite]

3 hours ago, space wolf said:

Google search "Chaplaim" from the comic "Spawn."

Ooh! I like that! I may even try using a head with a flat top as there were a few pictures where he had hair! Thanks for the inspiration 

[Brother Christopher]

So, you're continuing the Emperor's work! I've given up on similar conversions but it's awesome to see others fix GW's work. I like the heavy flamer guy. Also, the DIY studs on the chaplain's helmet are a great addition. My vote goes for the helmeted version. The stern guy is also a great pick but, personally, I've always liked my chaplains with their helmets. If you decide to go with the bare head (which works well with the pose), make sure to still use the helmet and strap it onto his belt. 

[Heraclite]

On 8/23/2026 at 10:04 PM, Heraclite said:

Since I don't have a bomb squig I also tried to kitbash a count as in the form of a base with 2 grots, one with combat weapons, one holding a grenade and a snotling pulling a box of ammo on top of which I added some sprue made dynamite. All three are glued to an empty sprue for priming so I didn't take a picture. But it should represent a bomb squig rather well.

And now for the finished picture of this grot suicide squad

[space wolf]

These little gobos are pure charm!

[Heraclite]

On 9/3/2026 at 9:33 AM, Brother Christopher said:

So, you're continuing the Emperor's work! I've given up on similar conversions but it's awesome to see others fix GW's work. I like the heavy flamer guy. Also, the DIY studs on the chaplain's helmet are a great addition. My vote goes for the helmeted version. The stern guy is also a great pick but, personally, I've always liked my chaplains with their helmets. If you decide to go with the bare head (which works well with the pose), make sure to still use the helmet and strap it onto his belt. 

I added a few more studs on the skull helm and l think I like it better like that. I'll still reserve my judgment until it's primed as it's not easily readable with the 2 tones of plastic.

 

If it looks right he'll get the helm, if it's slightly subpar I'll give him a skull face paint and the helm on his belt

 

[Heraclite]

The last chancers are getting closer to completion with the addition of Ox

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

He turned out great!  Really looking forward to seeing the whole squad together.

[space wolf]

19 hours ago, Heraclite said:

The last chancers are getting closer to completion with the addition of Ox

 

Screams, "I aint got time to bleed!"

[Heraclite]

7 hours ago, Dr_Ruminahui said:

He turned out great!  Really looking forward to seeing the whole squad together.

It shouldn't take too long, I vowed them for the 12 month of hobby challenge and only have scope and animal to do. I already started on scope, he should be done by the end of the week, and animal surely next week.

[Heraclite]

The last chancers are finally done. For now it's just scope as animal's base is still drying. I'll take pictures in the afternoon.

 

[Heraclite]

And last but not least is Animal to round out the last chancers. I painted him as an Afriel strain.

 

And the complete last chancers 

[space wolf]

What neat team you have here! Is the name something in lore, or did you come up with that?

[Heraclite]

It's an old kit from I think the late 90's or early 00's. They're Schaeffer's last chancers. It's a special unit of imperial guard from the 13th penal legion. They had their entry in the 3rd ed imperial guard codex with their names and the crimes that got them into the penal legion in the first place. They also did some novels about them, the characters in the novels don't seem to be the ones from the minis though. I didn't read the novels but there's a basic summary on lexicanum and in the novels one of the characters is an Afriel strain (gene modified guardsmen made with the DNA of various heroes, including lord solar macharius for example. Their regiments always show great successes but are plagued with very bad luck and everything eventually comes falling down).

[space wolf]

I knew they sounded familiar! Thank you!

[Heraclite]

That's a wrap on another productive week end. I managed to finish my terminator librarian.

 

It was quite fun experimenting with contrast medium and regular paints to paint all the etched details in the armour and the book

 

 

Posting the pictures I just noticed I forgot to highlight the black on the storm bolter...will have to remedy that tonight!

[space wolf]

Definitely pulled off the lightning effect. Really adds to the model. Well done!

[Heraclite]

Last week was spent mostly building

 

With the eldar guardians from the combat patrol magazine I built a count as blades of khaine kill team.

 

The prophet can represent either a banshee or a dire avenger exarch.

 

I gave powerswords to two female bodies to use as banshees, chain swords for the count as scorpions and regular guardians to count as dire avenger

 

Then I went on to build a legionaries kill team with the chaos space marines from combat patrol

 

I magnetised the champion to have the possibility to give him every weapon

 

 

I gave the gunner a multi melta but also the backpack from the etb plague marines, this way he can be played as a plasma gunner too

 

I made the balefire acolyte using an open hand cut off from a primaris marine a long time ago

 

As I don't have a double handed power axe, the butcher operative got dual wielding chainswords instead

 

 

Since most specialists are combat oriented, I made the basic warriors operatives as bolter guys

 

 

This one got a spare death guard head, ideal for the mark of nurgle rule

 

 

The anointed operative was given a claw from the chaos spawn kit

 

 

The icon bearer is also a basic holter dude

 

 

The missile launcher got a hand holding a missile from the havocs kit.

 

 

 

And last is the shrive talon operative, made with the blade from the chaos space marine kit and a repurposed reiver blade 

[space wolf]

You have been busy! Love the little touches youve put on all your CSM. What warband are they going to be?

[Heraclite]

As I want to try painting them quick and I like hazard stripes, I was thinking of making them Iron warriors

[Brother Christopher]

Great looking Chaos dudes. I'm not familiar with their range so I can't realy appreciate the extent of the work you put into these but they're great. Iron Warriors are a nice scheme, too. 

 

I'm also sold on the count-as solutions for your Eldar. Did you paint Eldar before?

[space wolf]

I do LOVE the Iron Warriors, most underrated CSM

[Heraclite]

On 9/21/2026 at 10:47 AM, Brother Christopher said:

Great looking Chaos dudes. I'm not familiar with their range so I can't realy appreciate the extent of the work you put into these but they're great. Iron Warriors are a nice scheme, too. 

 

I'm also sold on the count-as solutions for your Eldar. Did you paint Eldar before?

Actually it wasn't that much work. The hardest part was drilling the holes for the magnets on the champion, mainly because my electric hand drill doesn't fit my larger 2mm drill bits and I had to finish with my bare hands, otherwise it was just some pretty straightforward kitbashing with a few easy cuts here and there.

 

I only painted two eldar guardians with my youngest kid with colours she chose herself. But she agreed it didn't look serious enough and we settled on Biel tan after reviewing the different options of official craftworlds. I plan on trying apothecary white contrast paint to do the heavy lifting and will try to make it work from there. But I don't really know yet when I will work on them

Edited September 23 by Heraclite

[Heraclite]

After showing my wife the fun "porcelain" marines from meowmarines on Instagram, she thought they were far prettier than my regular minis and told me that she would display one on her desk if I made her one.

 

I had a spare freebie infernus marine laying around that was just perfect for this project!

 

As my wife has Portuguese origins, I adapted the porcelain style to incorporate some classic Portuguese motifs. Thankfully I had a tablecloth with all those motifs to use as reference while painting!

 

 

 

The left thigh armor got a pair of Minho dancers

 

 

The left pauldron disolays the Gallo do Barcelos

 

The right pauldron shows the heart or Viana (corazon de Viana), the emblem of Viana do Castelo, the city of origin of my wife's family. 

 

The right thigh armor shows a lisbon streetcar

 

 

The right kneepad displays a floral motif while the greaves shows two sardines

 

The left leg was used for the emblem of Portugal as shown on their flag 

 

And as a cheeky reference to Portugal's greatest export, a nice 7 on the backpack

Edited September 28 by Heraclite