The Oppo: Bonehead's Lost, Damned and in all likelihood Disappointed

[Bonehead]

Thanks both of you, I appreciate it a ton. Please do nick as many ideas as you like, Tallarn. I think the spikes and stars are the only original ones- everything else I stole off someone else somewhere along the way. Seems only right they should be passed on.

The thing about the Vraks lists I remember most is the random leadership values. God knows how I'll deal with that.

[Gnasher]

The spikes & stars do a really good job of homogenising these tanks so that they really feel like they are from the same darstardly outfit of the Emperor's fallen, nice one, like it!

 

I can only say these boyz need some taxis to get them around the battlefield, that or reissue boots to the poor buggers!

[Gnasher]

 

The spikes & stars do a really good job of homogenising these tanks so that they really feel like they are from the same darstardly outfit of the Emperor's fallen, nice one, like it!

 

I can only say these boyz need some taxis to get them around the battlefield, that or reissue boots to the poor buggers!

 

& they need spike & stars too! Perhaps one of those stars on an icon bearer as well to tie infantry & tanks together?

[Bonehead]

Tell you what Gnasher, that's a properly good idea. That's definitely happening. Thanks for the nice words too buddy!

Meanwhile, I've been somewhat busy. I mean, what else do you do when you've ordered parts for 60 troops except build them?

Therefore, here's lascannon team #1 and a new sergeant.

Pretty happy with the lascannon gunner. Getting his hands to fit was a total pain, but he came out alright in the end; The one hand bracing the gun for firing while the other one holds the trigger looks pretty decent. Failed to get a good shot of it though;  no problem you'll not have to wait long to see it again. The binoculars guy is less good, but he's good enough. The rifle's a little annoyingly far away from the body but it's pretty hard to find good arm poses on VM models that I haven't used before.

The sergeant now, him I'm very happy with. I was working towards a totally different pose, but I had second thoughts. Then I found that the choice of arms I'd gone with to make a heavy bolter gunner had left me with a pair of odd spares that just worked together, with some trimming. I lost the left hand after trimming it off to reposition it- damn grey carpet- but this isn't my first rodeo so I have a bunch of spares from Anvil. Bit of trimming here and there and bosh. I think I'm going with 'lost other weapon in melee' as the excuse. I'm really pleased because this is the leg pose of the 5 different ones you get in a set from VM that I like the least and always have to be most inventive to get a good pose with, and I've got away with it again.

I also found a bit of time to give the cultist drummer wierdo a slung shotgun. The good Doctor was right, he needed a touch of 40k about him. The perverse thrill you can get from imagining vintage model purists recoil in disgust as you drill a hole in a 35-year old piece of metal never gets old. For the record, he was a horrible cast, with more than a mil of mould-slip. Should have been melted back down and recast.

I like the pile of bodies- it represents untapped potential. And more offended vintage nerds.

Finally a shot of the day's output from a moderately different angle, and I'm out of here. Forgot to order enough crouching legs so it's back to the VM website.

 

[Bonehead]

Few quick shots of some more cultist I knocked together today. Did a couple of simple jobs on the old regiment of renown red redemption guys, and then got some head swaps in to more closely tie the heresy miniatures tunnel cultists to the citadel cultists. It's looking like I might get somewhere around 22, maybe 25 guys for the Khorne cult, which is pretty decent.

The tunnel cultists need a little green stuff at the shoulders, but it should be a totally easy job. And yes, the one guy needs a new left hand with a gun, and the other lad's long pole will be cut down so that instead of a spear he has a two-handed axe. Holsters and grenades for both and boom, they're 40k-ified.

Meanwhile, I've green-stuffed over the chainmail armour sections on the red redemptionists, so now they just look like they're wearing extra cult raiment of some kind over their robes. Should provide a suitable alternative surface to paint in the blue/green.

Height-wise, they fit the existing redemptionists pretty well.

Alright, that's enough for today

[Bonehead]

Bosh! More 2nd ed cultists have been blended with the Heresy miniatures tunnel cultists to make the khorne cult. I'm tempted to make 24 of them because that's a multiple of 8. If I did, I'd need three more. I'll keep looking out for good models round and about. I could just buy three more tunnel cultists, of course, they do come in threes.

Here's the ones that are (largely) finished so far, give or take the odd head and arm:

As you can see, the heads have been swapped between them somewhat. The headless guy in centre left is a fanatic era redemptionist; currently blessed with a big chainsaw and a 2nd ed cultist head, which I did after taking the photos.

I think I'm going to end up taking several more tunnel cultists' heads off and giving them gw cultist heads, mostly because there's a fair bit of repetition among the cultist models I have, as you can see in the photo below. As I've said, I just don't like having any identical models. The fairly limited number of cultist sculpts means it's probably going to be time to break out some VM bare arm sculpts and start chopping pretty drastically.

I've grouped together the repeated sculpts and there's only seven, and that includes three pairs of very close variations. So, soon it'll be hacksaw surgery time. Mwahahahahaha etc.

As I said, these idiots' exclusively close-in armament makes them the default khorne cult; I did buy a few sets of VM's bare arms with close combat weapons to spread amongst these guys and the cawdor gangers and hopefully they'll mix in nicely and require minimum green stuff. With luck I should get a suitable variety of frenzied poses. I'm also thinking to add in a couple more of those Maxmini heads with more obvious mutations. They generally have belligerent expressions, that should fit in.

Made some more traitor guard too, but haven't finished them (not pouches, knives etc) so didn't bother photoing them yet.

It's been a fun, productive little burst so far though.

[Tallarn Commander]

It looks like you have your work cut out for you. 

 

I rather like Maxmini. As you know they have lot of nice bitz. For my Nostroman 9th I especially like the Toxic Guardsman and Desert Dweller heads.

 

 

Blood for the Blood God!

[Bonehead]

Thanks for the encouragement, commander. Always nice to get a recommendation, too.

Anyway, here's another quick update with some mostly finished traitor guard.

Both jobs a bit too busy for painting at the moment, but I'm finding a minute here and there to build things- mostly while waiting for the damn remote work VPN to come back online, which seems pretty commonplace these days.

I'm not building squads as such, more just sort of waiting until I get an idea for a decent pose and then putting it together. Pretty pleased with the left-handed guy: as I put the heavy bolter trooper together I realised that the right hand I'd removed from the VM arm I'd used was about a perfect shape to be placed under a rifle barrel. The only problem was it was filled up with a lasgun, so that got trimmed away. First I drilled a hole between the thumb and fingers, and then I cut away the remaining resin until just the delicate hand itself remained. It came out so well that I was very glad to realise I have another four HB troopers to build. Four more potential left-handed troopers is how I see that. Hopefully each liberated hand will inspire a pose as it arrives.

Bases need some sand and maybe a bit more irregular debris, and the troopers need a few more pouches and grenades, but they're coming along nicely.

I'm going to try and do a few more action poses than the typical either shooting or advancing duology that these all essentially boil down to, as well; from posing my earlier action shots at WW I've learned how much more fun they are to look at, and how much more dynamism they give a collection when they're in a higher proportion. I'm going to try for at least a couple of reloading troops- god knows if I can manage that for a shotgunner. I think I'm underserved in terms of 'blokes pointing at things of interest' as well as 'troops peeking round corners/holding position by doorways' and probably a few others too- but some suggestions would be very welcome.

I'm also going to see if I can get some tau hands as well- adding some mutated hands in a decent number of models should help reinforce the various unmasked gargoyle faces in making clear the Mari regiments' fallen status.

I've only got two redemptionists left, on the cultists' side: I'm waiting for some tentacles I've ordered from a random 3rd party company and hopefully those will make them memorable. Once theye're done the more god-specific cultists should have a higher proportion of mutations, I think. More horrible and impractical ones too. The traitor guard are far more favoured disciples of the gods: the cultists are desperados and fools.

Anyway, enough waffle. Laters, yeah?

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Liking your most recent batch of ex-guardsmen - they look great.

 

Forgot to respond to your September 12 post with the cultists, but I think the guy holding the bolt pistol in the air should really have a smaller pistol - yes, 40K guns as a rule are comically large, but that pose really calls attention to the pistol being bigger than his torso.

Edited September 26 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Tallarn Commander]

I agree. Most of my Renegades and Heretics use autopistols I converted from plastic IG lasguns.

 

However, I do have a few Militia troopers with giant bolt pistols that are to big for them. I really should go back and give them smaller pistols.

 

For example, Private Zhan, 3rd from the bottom right in this photo has such a pistol.

 

 

[Gnasher]

Dude, get that icon bearer built & get some paints on those lucky lads that still have their boots!

 

Oh & they still need a taxi(s), it's gone last orders!

 

Looking forward to seeing the cultists too

Edited September 27 by Gnasher
spelling

[Bonehead]

 

Liking your most recent batch of ex-guardsmen - they look great.

 

Forgot to respond to your September 12 post with the cultists, but I think the guy holding the bolt pistol in the air should really have a smaller pistol - yes, 40K guns as a rule are comically large, but that pose really calls attention to the pistol being bigger than his torso.

You're right, of course, and the Commander agreeing seals it. It's annoying though, I don't have any smaller bolt pistols (apart from RT ones that are just kind of tiny). And it's tricky trying to designate squad leaders without giving them shiny guns. They aren't worth anything better than a bolt pistol, and I don't want him holding two melee weapons, I need a gun to reinforce the 40k-ness. This is going to take a little thinking.

Thanks for the encouragement Gnasher, but you'll have to wait for paint- going to be very busy for a couple of weeks yet. The icon bearer will turn up when I get a flash of inspiration for the pose- but you can be sure there'll be a rusty metal eight-pointed star involved.

As for the transport, I've been thinking about that. I want these guys to have a heavy infantry feel, so giving them chimeras or similar doesn't feel right- plus it's expensive, which I can't pretend isn't also a factor. On the other hand I have been itching to convert a taurox. I'm wondering if I couldn't get some bits to turn a couple of those into plain trucks- 5-ton troop carrier analogues. Not terribly concerned about how rules-legal they are, they might look pretty cool. The thing is, tanks are wider than trucks, so maybe tauroxes are too big.

For the moment it's just going to be more troop building- and cultist building, obviously.

 

[Gnasher]

Or a Cargo-8?

 

[Bonehead]

It's not a terrible idea, I'll definitely say that. But again, it's a damn big model. I might get one, and get a taurox, and see if I can maybe combine them somehow into a more conventional truck. But honestly the wheels aren't very good for a conventional truck- I'd more likely get the wheels off of a necromunda tauros. In fact, that model could feasibly just supply the entire chassis. Just putting one next to a russ shows that the chassis is long enough:

And the wheels are more than big enough for conventional truck wheels. They're almost up to this guy's shoulders:

Could I potentially just drop a taurox on to this wheelbase? Hmm. Maybe. It's a pretty expensive way to carry on though.

I am thinking about getting a couple more tauroses and modifying them to be the smaller variant with only one rear axle and a big flame thrower on top. If two of those got converted, then that would give me eight truck wheels- enough for one taurox, probably. But if a squadron of three got converted, that would be twelve wheels. Two sets of steering wheels up front, and two doubled sets at the back. Easy enough to make up a chassis out of plastic i-beams. Three tauroses is well over a hundred quid though.

And I've also been thinking about having a go at scratch-building a truck that looks like the big oshkosh ones that the us army use. I think they look really cool. A 40k-ified one of those would make a good troop transport truck. That might be better than a taurox. Maybe the taurox would make a better trailer-pulling type of truck- a tank transporter. It makes sense for the military design to be a particular version of a common stc. But the RT guard are the mechanised force, so it would be for them.

Man, I'm chasing these thoughts round in circles...

This is going to have to wait until I've done a bunch of other stuff. Got tons of models to paint before I go buying any more. I have rough riders from the VM kickstarter that need building and painting- and I also have rough riders for my RT guard that need building and painting too. Gonna have to do some chimeras for them as well. Not to mention they also have two basilisks and two converted russes as well as a macharius to finish building and then paint. And there's more cultists and traitor guard to do as well. And I want to start getting inventively wierd with the cultists after this lot. So far we have a horde of fifty-odd robed desperate fools. I want the khorne cult to have suitably martial mutations, the nurglists to be all disease-riddled and bloated, and the tzeenchians to just look completely mad. There's only twenty five-ish of all of these so it shouldn't be a terrible burden to convert a high proportion into mutants. Theoretically.

 

 

[Gnasher]

 

Could I potentially just drop a taurox on to this wheelbase? Hmm. Maybe. It's a pretty expensive way to carry on though.

 

Why not just use a Taurox wheeled conversion set? Victoria do a 4 wheeled set & Blood & Skulls have several including half track options. B&S wheeled kits are 11 quid & the half track options are about 14 quid, much cheaper than mashing 2 kits together, but maybe not as much fun as a kitbash! Probably better rules wise as well.

 

Taurox tank transporter sounds rad.

 

I know what you mean about piles of models in the backlog, I'm in the same boat with loads of unmade stuff on the list.

 

Looking forward to see what you come up with next.

 

TTFN

 

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I think one of the 3rd party wheeled tautox conversion kits is probably your best bet - barring that, maybe some straight historical models like those from Tamiya? (though those may be too large)

 

As for the huge squad leader bolt pistol connundrum, I can see how that can be a problem, specifically if you are intent on using that particular model with a squad leader.  Some possible solutions:

 

1.  Accept the model as is, and embrace your inner huge gun fetishist.

 

2.  See if you can scrounge up a smaller bolt pistol - I know some of the actual guard bolt pistols are a bit smaller than the marine ones.  Or a 2nd ed bolt pistol, while bulkier, isn't as "tall" and might look smaller.

 

3.  Give him a chain sword instead - chain swords could be a different way of differentiating squad leaders, as traditionally the only Guard models who got them were typically officer and NCOs.

 

4.  Reattaching the hand so he's holding it at a different angel - it might not look so big if the large "flat" of the gun wasn't on the same plane as the front of the model.

 

5.  Use a different model where the same pistol isn't as noticeably huge - I think this guys pose is definitely a compounding factor, as it draws attention to the gun.

 

Anyway, things to think about.

 

[Bonehead]

I had an epiphany.

I can just cut down a pistol so it's smaller, but still recogniseable. Should be pretty simple, I mean I've been doing it on all these autoguns this entire time.

Anyway, I had to go and get some stuff from the DIY shop this week and while I was there I managed to pick up something properly useful:

Satisfyingly full up. Damn camera hasn't got any better in the last week.

Meanwhile, a nice little package turned up from a company called Fenris Games that I'd been recommended:

Didin't realise just how big some of these were. Most aren't really useable. I'll have to try the other company I was recommended, CheckPoint minis. Never heard of them before either, but they look like they might be promising.

Anyway, I've already started in on my first tentacled cultist conversion. Progress shots soon...

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Trust you to chose the one option I don't list - its like you are trying to spite me.   More seriously, I hope it works and look forward to the results.

 

Nice snag on the tackle/hobby box - it can be so satisfying getting everything stowed away neatly in an organized and easily accessible way.

 

Like your new tentacles, though that one big one is tank sized.  In terms of further such acquisitions, you might want to ask @Tallarn Commander where he got the ones he used on his dark apostle's base.  I'm not too familiar with 3rd party bits, but possible GW sources include the possessed kit (you get a few extras, but they are kind of large), the accursed cultists (some nice mutations in there, but I don't think there are extras so you might be "wasting" models by removing their limbs) and the spawn kit (lots of them in there of appropriate sizes, downside is they are mostly pseudopods and the kit itself doesn't have much detail and the spawn model is pretty ugly).  There is also the old chaos mutations sprue that used to be in old (like 3rd ed) chaos marines boxes, but those are probably hard to find these days.

Edited October 3 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Tallarn Commander]

Sadly, the tentacled model came from Mini Wargaming’s Kickstarter. So I don’t think they are available as a regular purchase yet: https://gamefound.com/en/projects/miniwargaming/ravaged-star

 

 

I have heard good things about Greenstuff Word’s “tentacle maker” though. It looks like it’s currently on sale at about $13: https://www.greenstuffworld.com/en/roll-maker/69-roll-maker-tube-wire-machine.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqJX4veBVKcxKruVSWIIgo5DNsL42rimHsVb-PPwj70A2kY74xr

 

 

I love using Greenstuff World. They have all sorts of fun stuff including a plastic box of tiny Chaos icons for $7. Just search for “Chaos” on their website and you will pull up all sorts of nifty and somewhat affordable blitz. They are in Spain so their items take about 3 weeks to reach me here in the US.

[GreenScorpion]

I think tentacles that fit guard/regular human scale can be hard to find, but I agree with the suggestion from @Tallarn Commander as GreenStuff World tends to have some nice things for the hobby. You could also look at their 3d printed stuff like the plants, some could be turned into tentacles with some cutting and greenstuff extension for example (since the parts they have are resin it should be easy enough to convert).

 

And since I haven't posted about it for a while, despite checking your thread while not being logged in, your army is looking great right now. Perhaps it is time for another group shoot with what you have painted right now.

[Bonehead]

Wow, lots happened overnight! First up: Dr Ruminahui, I didn't mean especially to spite you but the idea just struck me as I set out to type the first sentence. I guess you get the spite for free. Having looked at the bolt pistol model itself, I'm dramatically less confident I can meaningfully cut it down that I was though. On the other hand I have a bunch of the older 2nd ed ones, but honestly I just don't like the way they look. I'm still working on it. It's bubbling away in the subconscious, and perhaps in a few days I'll decide something.

As for the various gw kits- I was in WW today, and the cost of them is absolutely ridiculous. Definite no. Plus plastic is harder for me to work with than metal; I never liked it so never developed the skills.

Meanwhile, Tallarn Commander: your dark apostle looks rad as hell. Amazing model. That is all.

I have thought about the green stuff tentacle maker, but I generally try my best to avoid sculpting things from new, because I'm terrible at it. I'm considering it a last resort. I'm going to try the tentacles from CheckPoint first: they have lots and lots to choose from, so I'll probably get a few sets. I might see if they maybe have some nasty-looking claws too, they'd be good for the khorne cult.

Green Scorpion, thanks for the compliments, it's always good to hear. I'll finish the last of the robed cultists and then do a big shoot, including the tanks.

On the subject of vehicles, I grabbed a tauros while in WW. Gonna have a go at the aforementioned small-version conversion, see if it's viable. Not for this army, but that's all been discussed. Gnasher didn't comment this time, but he deserves an update regardless.

Meanwhile, allow me to present the first member of the immortals to be truly blessed by the four winds: Surely he shows that those of true faith are rewarded by the great and mighty? Is this not truly the miracle that we have prayed for, brothers and sisters? We are seen! We are exalted!

Yeah, you go on telling yourself that, mate. Whatever it takes to get you up and in front of the enemy's guns when we need you to be.

 

Ok, so just one robed body to go- another tentacle job, I think. Then basing, then I'll get the last four Immortals and the last weapon team painted, and do the symbols on these and the previous lot at the same time. Then I'll go back and do base rims and any emergency touch-ups on the rest of them and lo! photo time.

Bonus accidental arty shot with more traitor guard in the background:

Perceptive observers will note that there are more of them than last time. All in good time, etc

Cheers everyone! Very pleasantly surprised to find all these comments waiting for me this evening. It's an actual community!

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Just a clarification - that was a joke and I don't actually feel spited.  Sorry the cutting the pistol down isn't working as smoothly as you had hoped - its a good idea if you can get it to work.

 

Like your tentacle cultist - both the tentacle and that funky lasgun really work well with that model.

[Bonehead]

I knew it was a joke, don't worry. But I will actually be aiming for real spite in the future.

In the meanwhile, here's really very mutated sucker no. 2:

I think you can just about see that there's an actual hole front to back on the left side of his torso, so that's going to need filling up, and obviously the lack of a head is going to be a problem in both the short and long term. But the main part of the conersion is done. I'm thinking hard about what head to give him. It's proving a little tricky to pick one. I'm leaning towards trying a maxmini zombie head and sculpting a hood- but time will tell. I'm not much of a sculptor.

 

 

[Bonehead]

Oh, and for the record, the small tauros conversion is working out pretty ok:

[Gnasher]

 

 

 

All I can say is .....

 

 

I'd throw me Y fronts at ya but not sure you'd enjoy that !! That looks ace to my eyes! Top job! As you've posted it here you better stick a star on the side!

Edited October 8 by Gnasher