Dr. Ruminahui's assorted conversions (previously renegade guard + defiler)

[Rusted Boltgun]

Those painted fists are hinting of the end result, looking forward to seeing them progress.

That's substantially more cape work than anticipated! Hope you have all the components you need, nothing worse than waiting. 

And you can take comfort that you're making the most of the time in which you can't paint due to the temps.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks, @Firedrake Cordova and @Rusted Boltgun - I had originally had the math right (and therefore had the right number of capes - one box of chaos warriors gets me 34 capes, which is pretty much perfect for the 32 I needed for all of the prerelease box), its just when I previously posted that I got things messed up.  So, while reaslising I was facing a bit more work than I had hoped was a bit disappointing, it wasn't anything more than that.

 

Currently working on my 3 pistol Lord Exhaultant kit bash and pretty happy with it so far - it will also be a Cypher stand in for my CSM army when completed.  Need a head I ordered to come in before I can finish it, though, so I expect I'll have pictures of it to share then.

[BadgersinHills]

Looking great! I really like the capes on the Tormentors and Noise Marines. The EC praetor conversion is well done too.

[W.A.Rorie]

@Dr_Ruminahui Great work

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks, @BadgersinHills and @W.A.Rorie!

 

For those who are interested, I posted a tutorial for my capening method here:

 

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

People seemed to like the tutorial, which is nice.  Other than that, some more EC conversions.

 

First of all, I've almost finished off cape-ing my prerelease army box - just have 2 noise marines and the 2nd tormentor squad's champion.  The champion is awaiting a 5th shoulder pad - I got 4 each of the "1 off" pads, which I am using to differentiate Tormentor squads, so just need 1 more, which I will get when I pick up the combat patrol box.  Fortunately, that's going on preorder next week, so I should have him all down and ready for when Call to Arms 2025 starts in June.

 

Oh, another thing I did was do cords on the back of the 7 or 8 models with 1 skull on their capes, whose pre-existing cord was amputated by my conversion method.  Nothing too exciting, so no photos of that.

 

 

Above are the other 4 tormentors who are currently missing their champion, plus the two bolter guys from the other squad - as you can see, I decided to give the tormentor bolters a barrel extension to make them look a bit fancier and to help visually signal their [Precision] keyword.  Picked up the plasticard this weekend as the store where I buy it is conveniently on the way to visit my parents, whose place I went for dinner on Saturday.

 

 

And these are the 2nd group of 5 models to round out my infractors squad.

 

Currently, they are all in my garage waiting for their primer to dry.  After that, just have to work up the courage to try out my airbrush for the first time on them.

[Firedrake Cordova]

They look great. I like the bolter customisation

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks!  They were super easy to do - hardest part was removing the mussel without cutting off the lugs or cutting my finger, then its just a matter of gluing on 1 cm of thin plasticard tubing.

 

Yet another character conversion:

 

 

I see him as dual use - in my Emperor's Children army he's a 3 pistol Lord Exultant (for the LOLs), and in my Heretic Astartes army he's Cypher (which is why he has a sword on his back, for a tie in to the GW model).   Base model is an AoS Skaventide Lord Terminos. 

 

Here he is with characters from those respective armies:

 

 

EC

 

 

CSM

 

 

Edited May 27 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Firedrake Cordova]

Really like the gunslinger

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Okay, finally got the gumption to get my air brush spraying models for the first time, which I did last weekend.  Certainly not as quick as I expected - I don't think I really saved any time over doing them with a brush.  Did that last weekend, and got the second half of my CtA vow sprayed this WE.

 

Anyway, at least I can say they are now obnoxiously purple.

 

 

There is still a fair bit of white that I didn't get coverage of, so I'll be applying some paint by brush to cover that up.  That will wait until next weekend, though, as I'll need to vow them in CtA first before I do that.

 

Another thing I discovered is that this colour is really hard to photograph - I need a lot light to get their vibrancy to show.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I've finished painting my first post-codex EC unit! (It's also my first model of this year's CtA - just 13 more).  Here's my Lord Kakophonist conversion -its a 30K EC tartaros praetor with a gun swap (from the new noise marines) with the speaker from the chaos vehicle accessory sprue mounted on the back with a bit of plasticard tubing to get it at the right height and angle.

 

 

He is the most obnoxiously coloured model I've ever painted (both the purple and the gold are very bright), but that kind of works for EC.

 

 

Here's a pciture of him beside fome of the CSM characters (though the one on the right is being ported over to my EC to be a Lord Exultant - he was my Lucius kitbash, though only ever got fielded as that twice).  I took this photo both to show how much brighter the new model is, and to show how the forces look side-by-side - close enough, IMHO, to lend from my CSM to my EC as I build my force, I think.

 

The model also served as a proof of concept for the army as a whole, and I will be painting them the same way.  I don't think I will do quartering for the characters like I thought I might, though - the other colours just kind of look muddy and dull next to the purple.  Likewise, I won't be doing the squad capes in GW pinks as I had planned either, for the same reason, and will be working things out.  Need to figure that out, but the leading idea is to do them white with a florescent wash in another colour, like I did my demon HQs hair - here's what blue, orange, red and green look like over the white.  Anyway, something to experiment with.  Also need to figure out how the highlight the armour - I could mix the purple with white, but that may be too desarating, so mixing it with silver might work better.

[Brother Christopher]

He's looking great. The gems are great, hypnotisingly beautiful. I like the colour, too. So much that it rekindled doubts re: my project. It seems I haven't set my mind on a particular purple yet.

 

I also think you're right about the paint scheme - there's no need for a quartered livery, the purple and gold work good enough on their own. My only advice/critique is this: I think that the connection between the white pads and the gold trim could use some transition, like a panel-lined wash perhaps, to add more definition. This is something I've been struggling with, too. I find that white and metallics somehow don't go together well.

[Rusted Boltgun]

I also think he's looking really great.

Purple looks like a hard colour to get right and I get your concerns about desaturating by adding white. I actually thought that @Brother Christopher's purple marines have it nailed (admittedly, I use a phone to view the forum, not a nice monitor).

Does it need a darker colour on the base to make the white and purple 'pop'? Or would that dull down the overall effect of your nice bright colours?

The fluoro colours over white look great too!

[Antarius]

Looking good! The green gems are a very nice choice - they provide a nice contrast and focus, without taking the viewer's away from the whole.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks @Brother Christopher, @Rusted Boltgun & @Antarius - glad you like him. 

 

Brother Christopher, I wouldn't doubt about the colour of your purple marines - I agree with Rusted Boltgun in thinking that you've nailed it,  and your purple is much more fitting for a loyalist marine force (IMHO) than the violent magenta of my new EC.  As for the shoulder pad differentiation between the gold and white, its not really a problem on the actual mini, so I don't think I need to fix it - it just shows up when the image is bigger than the mini is. 

 

Rusted Boltgun, I think the tan bases are fine, and will be a bit darker with the sand glued on them (as you can see in my bottom picture).  Even if it weren't, I don't think I would change it - part of my goal with my various slaaneshi forces has been to make each look like their own force and also part of the larger whole.  This is done through the reuse of the same pinks, purples and oranges, all of them (except the demons) having the same red scales symbol, and consistent bases - which means unless I want to rebased 100+ models (I don't), my EC are going to be tan just like the rest them.

 

Antarius (and BC) I'm glad you like the gems - I think I learned how to do nice gems from Prot, though my system is much simpler/faster (and not as nice) as his.  Green gems are kind of a theme for my chaos forces, though they only feature prominantly (so far) in my Demons, as not many gems on the CSM models and none on the knights.  Green is one of my main contrast colours (as you can see with my power weapons), so it makes sense to do the gems that colour.

 

My latest decision point has been deciding how to do my EC squad members capes.  For those who aren't familiar, my chaos space marines capes are in GW pinks washed with the purple I used as my EC's armour colour - click on the numbers for some examples: 1, 2, 3, This allowed me differentiate my squads by cape colour, so I wanted to do something similar with my EC, except I ran into a couple of problems: that the standard GW pinks were too close in colour and looked muddy next to the vibrant armour, and washing them in the armour colour would make them too close in colour and vibrancy.

 

So, as often I do when I can't make up my mind, I tried various options.

 

Here is my first batch:

 

 I tried the guy on the right first - he's a white cape washed in blue florescent paint.  Originally it was lighter, didn't like it, so gave it another wash and liked it less.

 

Second is the same blue wash over GW Baharoth blue rather than white (incidentally, one of my demonette squads has hair painted this way).  I like the colour, but think its too rich against the purple, so not enough contrast.

 

Third is the guy on the left, which is a GW Sotek Green stripe on the white all my other capes are currently.  It then has a thin black wash in the folds.  Not bad, but I'm still not decided.

 

So I did another batch to compare with the last one.

 

 

This time, chronologically they go left to right.  Left guy is the same guy on the left in the photo above.

 

Middle guy was next, with a very rough slaaneshi symbol in Sautek Green just as an example - I also happen to have gotten the middle crescent backwards - it should bend back towards the circle, not towards the front (you would think I've painted enough to know, but apparently not).

 

Left guy is the middle guy above, but with the sides of the cape repainted white, leaving only the central blue stripe.

 

My favourite so far is the last one, though I'm not sure if I'm happy with the width of the central stripe - if I stay with just the central stripe, I think its a bit narrow and I want it somewhat wider (though narrower than the one on the left).  That said, I could also put a slaaneshi symbol (a correct one, this time) over it - in blue on the white potions, and white in the blue portion - it I do that, I think its width is fine.  Just weighing whether I think the effect will be worth the effort.

 

Anwyay, let me know your thoughts.

 

About it being another colour than blue - not on this squad, anyway.  Eventually, I will have multiple squads in different colours (by whatever method I decide on), with the reds and oranges reserved for my noise marines, which means my infractors are going to be blue and (when I have another squad) green.

[Antarius]

I'm not sure about the blue, but I think it will look a lot better when the gold is added; gold is basically yellow/orange and that tends to go well with both turquoise and purple colours ime. I think they'll also form a nice triad (for lack of a better term) and contrast well with each other, without becoming too stark.

In general, I think that's a difficult needle to thread with Slaaneshi stuff. You want it to look somewhat stark and lurid, to get across that it's crazy and off-putting to mere mortals, but at the same time you also want it to actually look good. I think what you're doing should work, though!

[Rusted Boltgun]

I appreciate the 'force consistency' for the bases and gems, the Lord will fit right in with the finished base. 

I like your favourite choice of blue cloak though I would probably have covered the whole cloak as you did in the first round and then called it quits! That said, a different colour band against the white for each squad will really promote that force consistency whilst denoting the squad.