Horus Hersy Jaxom's Astartes Corner: Magnetized Aggressor 07/05/25

[jaxom]

The Grim Black Speed Paint arrived, so I did more work on the Death Guard. It went on the top of bases, then normal black for the base rims. Touched up up the Pallid Wych Flesh and added should decals. Hit them with Gloss Varnish:

 

 

 

Then the magic of oil washes:

 

 

 

Going to give it a while to really dry before varnishing again and doing the eyes. Maybe work on the Assault Intercessors, maybe build more Necrons. We'll see where the hobby-inspiration fairy takes me.

 

[jaxom]

Indomitus Eradicator converted to heavy melta rifle with some bits from the Aggressor kit. 

 

 

 

I'll do step-pics/how-to with the next one.

[jaxom]

H'kay, bits are from the Indomitus ETB Eradicators and from the multi-part Aggressor kit.

 

First up, glue any parts together that form the back.

 

Personally, I don't like how the hood(?) messes up the classic Astartes silhouette so I remove it. The cut should be made right above the rim for the power pack.

 

A little cleaning with a scraper and you get a nice, straight back.

 

From there, assemble the mini as per instructions. The only thing is, I snip the piece off the bottom of the neck so I can position it once I get a sense for where the body motion will be.

 

"This is where the fun begins." Take a flame canister from the Aggressor kit and shave down the bit which will face upwards.

 

Shave down the nub on the side of the power pack.

 

Shove some poster tac into the back of the flame canister, dry fit it against the side of the power pack, add more poster tac if it's too loose, then glue it onto the side.

 

It's fine if there's some tac sticking out, because it's not visible unless you're looking up the dude's pants.

 

Now, if I weren't super lazy then I'd use green stuff to make nice looking cabling. Instead I went with okay looking cabling. Dry fit Aggressor cabling until you find some that works okay then glue it to the ammunition canister.

 

Take some more cabling and trim it to fit the gap. Glue that in place with some big globs of glue to fill in any awkward joins.

 

And there you go: Heavy Melta Rifle.

 

 

[Boc]

Holy crap that is outstanding vision to be able to bash that together to look like it's out of a kit. Well done!

[jaxom]

Multimelta time!

 

And a happy little purity seal where the join was not as neat as I wanted.

[jaxom]

Heavy vs not melta rifles is no longer an issue, but I did need to convert another multimelta for the second set of three Eradicators... and I don't have any melta bits for conversion with the supplies on hand. Here's what I had:

 

 

Rough idea of what I wanted

 

Which came together okay

 

And then some plastic glue and bitz to close some gaps

 

If it's good enough to give Devastating Wounds and Anti-Infantry to combi-bolters, it's good enough for a... combi-melta-flamer?

[Firedrake Cordova]

Melta-flamer combi weapon? I see you're embracing your inner Salamander  

[jaxom]

 

Melta-flamer combi weapon? I see you're embracing your inner Salamander  

I do love me some fire. If I weren't all in on my own Chapter, the Salamanders would definitely be a top pick.

 

I'm currently going through some of my backlog in preparation of prime rattlecan season. Part of that includes an ebay snipe of Infernus Marines from right before the box kit was announced. Of course, since they were first shown I knew that they needed different heads so grabbed some Infiltrator heads while I was on ebay.

 

 

Shaved off antenna and smoothed the area for most, but kept it for the Sergeant and Veteran.

 

 

I swear I will do no conversion work on the upcoming Bladeguard, but the (Emperor's) spirit came upon me and...

 

 

 

 

[jaxom]

Tried out using the airbrush to put down the armour color. I tried two different things. Some had Basilicanum Grey on the Leadbelcher rattlecan primer and the others didn't. Then I hit them all with a zenithal of Leadbelcher pot (it's lighter than the rattlecan). Last was Seraphim Sephia. I started out with it straight from the bottle and then ended up mixing in some medium.

 

With:

 

 

Without:

 

 

 

 

I need to use more medium. I'm trying to get them more like

 

[jaxom]

I finished the Eradicators and they ended up okay.

 

 

I also did three more. I then started on painting the five primed Assault Intercessors from *checks previous posts* February 2023?!?! Ahem. That actually makes a lot of sense as I basically didn't do any meaningful physical hobby work from June 2023 to September 2024. Anyway.... I decided to paint them without the airbrush. I like the control I get using a brush with contrast paint and wash over the metallic base layer. I used a bit of medium and water with Basilicanum Grey for a wash and then put down Seraphim Sepia. It's funny seeing the technique works so well helped to reinvigorate my joy in painting my little plastic dudes. 

 

 

It's hard to get the lighting right for photos with a metal base coat. Here's the Sergeant, with more done:

 

 

The question I have is: what color should I paint the sword's cross guard? I would usually use gold, but it's right next to the Imperialis and I don't want the two to blur together. Any advice?

 

 

[ZeroWolf]

Hmm maybe a red like you used on the main body of the melta weapons would work? Feel free to disregard if you think it doesn't work 

[jaxom]

2 hours ago, ZeroWolf said:

Hmm maybe a red like you used on the main body of the melta weapons would work? Feel free to disregard if you think it doesn't work 

That's an excellent idea and it will match the chainsword casings for the rest of the squad!

[jaxom]

Not the finished product, but close as only decals are left:

 

 

 

[ZeroWolf]

These look really good. Love the texture you've given to the armour 

[Pearson73]

I agree, the metal armour is really nicely done. The red of the weapon casings is the perfect complement.

[jaxom]

Very excited about being almost done with painting this most Venerable brother. Just need to add decals, and then he'll be posted in the 12 Month Challenge thread and the Hall's Dreadnought thread.

 

[jaxom]

A search for bases led into a whole thing and I ended working on the Captain of the 8th Company. I've long known he and his honor guard (Sanguinary Guard) would use Stormcast components so it was interesting to finally sit down with what I had to see what happened. There's going to be a lot of mixing and matching to make the Stormcast parts go farther and because my Chapter doesn't have the resources to replace entire suits of relic armour. Previous Captain gets a powerfist through the torso? Yeah, that's not getting fixed.

 

For the Captain, I decided to use a normal Marine chest. I really like the Imperialis ("the symbol of loyalty, unbroken"), so that meant fancy legs and arms.

 

The starting bits:

 

Step one: remove stuff from the left leg.

 

 

Step two: remove hip thingies.

 

 

Step three: remove crotch.

 

 

Step four: trim any additional bits of the bits.

 

 

Step 5: dry fit and trim, and then again, and again... enter fugue state of this until you come out the other side with a decent fit and maybe a slight change in plans.

 

 

Step 6: hammer time!

 

 

 

[Naryn]

Really excited to see more of that guy!

[jaxom]

A lil' update:

 

 

And I'm going to have to do some putty work to fill in the back.

 

[jaxom]

Sometimes I feel like a bloody plastic surgeon. A little nip, a little tuck, etc.

 

 

Slap on the booty plate and hip hangers.

 

 

And now the problem(?)

 

 

 

I kind of feel like the hammer head is too far out? Opinions?

[Firedrake Cordova]

Looking at the Deatchwatch Thunder Hammer, the hand is in contact with the bottom of the head. If you're concerned about positioning, maybe you could use that as a reference?

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I was thinking the same (though, without any reference).  It also looks like a fairly easy fix - just cut the shaft off just above the hand, decide whether you want to cut off end cap from the bit you cut off and reapply it, then attach the head... fortunately, the hand creates a break in the shaft so that you don't have to worry about the grip lining up or other such fiddliness.

 

Another thing, though not necessarily a problem, is that the lion head gives the model a bit more of a AoS vibe - if that's a problem, you might want to swap it for a more traditionally 40K shaped pad.

Edited April 7 by Dr_Ruminahui

[jaxom]

Now with shortened haft:

 

 

@Dr_Ruminahui, thank you for the advice about the AoS look. I know "Sigmarines" can be decisive, but I've always like the lion and lightning bolt thing they've got going on. For awhile I had an idea of a Custodes Terminator force made by converting the old Retributor models. I also like how the pauldrons flair out more from under the jump pack. I think it will help once the helmet is in place.

[BadgersinHills]

Excellent work. I really like the jump pack captain.

[jaxom]

How to get six bodies from three Prosecutors and five Assault Intercessors:

 

 

 

A lot of careful scalpel work, trimming, and dry fitting. Once it's mostly good to go, then fill any gaps with epoxy.