Horus Hersy Jaxom's Astartes Corner: Converting Heavy Melta Rifles 5/3

[jaxom]

Decided to build a combat squad of Assault Intercessors while I wait for the black speed paint. I have Black Templar bits.... Someday a Primaris squad will go without conversion, but it is not this day.

 

First things first, all good Astartes wear their helmets or they get censor rocks for Sanguinalia. However, the hip piece with the chainsword looked harder to work with. A bit of trimming later:

 

Some dry fitting showed that the escutcheon was getting in the way. I started by cutting it in twain.

 

Some more trimming to get it down to where the arm would work.

 

Another dry fit showed that the sword and arm would obscure the area, so I decided to go ham on shaping it down.

 

And from another angle, plus the pistol grip I added to the empty holster because he's two-handing his sword.

 

Et viola, la belle Astartes sans merci

 

I'm going to add the pauldrons when I build the rest of the squad.

[jaxom]

I built the rest of the squad and made a discovery.

 

 

There were some extra bits on the sprue.

 

 

The build instructions in the Elite Manual talk about the two ways to build the Sergeant, but don't mention at all that you can build a fifth normal Marine. I didn't have to trim the escutcheon down because there was a part meant to go in the same place, but without it 

 

Anyway, here's the Sergeant again, because I am enamored with how he turned out. I kind of hope any future codex does keep someway to make a super sergeant, or I may end up rebasing him and using him a lieutenant.

 

 

 

[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.