Dr. Ruminahui's renegade guard (previously leman russ to defiler conversion)

[sitnam]

In my head I was thinking of mutated tendrils spiraling around the barrels. I'm also terrible at greenstuff so that might be easier said then done, and honestly the build now looks great.

[Pearson73]

Wow this is really just phenomenal, hope you're feeling happy with how it´s shaping up.

 

The flail is very well done, and the arm holding the eye is fantastically creepy. All the details with the muscles and flesh around the tracks are super cool too.

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

Toothpick maw is the best feature although it is a great model in general. 

[Xenith]

Amazing work, getting real Konflict '47 vibes:

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks for all the compliments - I'm glad that everyone seems to like my abomination.

 

About the tongue, I don't think I'll try giving it taste buds - I don't think my green stuff skills are up to that small level of detail, and in any event I don't think its necessary.  Hopefully I can pull off a tongue like look through paint alone.  And, ultimately, if I don't like it I can leave it off - its one of the few bits that I haven't yet fixed in place to permit easier painting.

 

@Brother Christopher, I'm sorry too about missing your last opportunity to give feedback before it was done.  You make a good point about the claws - they are kind of weedy (the are probably the weakest part of this build), which is particularly noticeable when, as you note, the claws in the official defiler model are probably the best (and most iconic) part of that model.   While I did consider other claws (such as Ghazguls), I dismissed them as bringing more expense than I was willing to spend on this build.  I hadn't thought of building some sort of armature around the tyranid claw (or a mechanical replacement) and am not sure how that would of worked in the space I had available for it - certainly, anything of that sort would require a repositioning of the arms and likely beefing them up (or finding a thicker replacement) so that they better matched (and looked like they could actually support) a built up claw.  So, I guess I'm willing to accept the claws I did produce as good enough for the look I want while also seeing that they could be better with different parts - and without some vision as to what the replacement might be, I'm not inclined to mess with it.

 

@Gnasher, thanks for the glowing compliments.  I wouldn't consider my modeling skills "top" though - for that you should check out Brother Christopher's plastic thunderhawk and YanntheMad's nightmare fuel (or Blackadder's titan if you want to look at truly insane levels of skill).  I think its more accurate to say they were adequate for what I set about doing, as chaos is fortunately very forgiving of not having everything strait and even - I don't think I could achieve similar results with an imperial, tau or eldar project, which require much more precision and neatness.

 

@Norman Paperman, there is still a chance that there will be no tongue, if the painted model looks better without out it.  As for the cable with the head, the other side is busy enough I think, so I'll save it for some potential future project.

 

@sitnam, thanks for "fleshing out" (pun intended) what you envisioned with the gun barrel.  That's not a bad idea, but I think the front of the thing is busy and crowded enough as it is, so I'll be leaving it be.

 

@Ace Debonair, @TheArtilleryman, @Pearson73 and @Deus_Ex_Machina, thanks for the compliments!  Glad you like it - its always interesting to hear what particular details attract different people's attention and appreciation.

 

@Xenith, yeah, they do kind of look similar - I imagine because they are both trying to follow the "crab aesthetic".  That's a cool model - love how they have also caught the soviet WW2 vibe.

 

 

I thought you guys might be interested in some of the photos I took while trying to decide on the "face" of the model, before I settled on the creepy eye-holding arm.

I've already shared pictures of the 2 rhino "face" plates, so I won't post those again, but here are some of the other things I looked at:

 

A single giant eyeball:

 

 

Multiple eyes in a chaos pattern

 

 

Multiple eyes in a more random pattern

 

 

I also tried a couple of action figure heads to try doing a 3d "melty face" effect with - the idea was to glue the face on, then green stuff it pressing its way into the armor as if trying to escape the tank.

 

The first was from some unknown action figure - found it in a field decades ago and its been in my bits box since.  It would have needed to have been cut down.

 

 

The second is from an action figure I specifically bought from the dollar store for this project - it was the smallest head I could find with an open mouth.

 

 

Here's the action figure its from:

 

 

Ultimately, I discounted both of them as options as they were really too big for the space I had - they didn't give me enough room to do the greenstuff work for the stretching armor effect I wanted.

 

Anyway, I'm happy with the choice I settled on, but thought you might want to see what I also looked at to get there.

 

The process also left me with the ability to do an anime-haired demon prince should I ever buy another model:

 

Edited June 19 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Not sure if you guys are as interested in the painting as the build, and I don't normally post pics of my WIP painting, but am painting these in case you are.

 

 

This one is kind of an overall view - done all of the flesh except the legs and from eye stalk, done the central hull except for some edge highlighting, and figured out what I'm doing on the side - the purple there at the moment is really rough and basically just for me to see if it would work (it does), it will be cleaned up and the rest of the side will be dark purple like the central hull with the same edge highlighting.

 

 

Here's a picture showing the finished bits of the central hull, including the chained chaos star (well, almost done - the edges nearest the hatch still need highlighting, which will happen after I finish the flesh.

 

 

When painting models, I often hit kind of an "uncanny valley" when blocking out the main colours where it just seems to look worse and worse to me.  This is especially the case when I am struggling with how (or whether) to do something, as I was in this case with the purple chaos star on the side.  As its the detail work that I enjoy, I got myself out of that by painting the flail - plus, the above photo shows the mouth I gave it, which I don't think is in any of my other pictures.

 

 

This isn't the best WIP picture, but here are my WIP renegade guard, showing how the dark purple armour is the connecting piece with the tank.  I see my defiler as kind of the link between these guys and my chaos space marines, with the guard tank in their dark purple and the added on elements in the lighter purple of my marines.  Not sure if the renegade force will ultimately go anywhere such that I give them any tanks of their own, but this should give me the space aesthetically if I do.

Edited June 24 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Brother Christopher]

All of this is good enough for WIP photos; it gives a nice overview of the direction you're heading.

 

It's great to see this project coming along so quickly and nicely. I'm very curious how the final 'product' will turn out.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Looking fantastic!

[Antarius]

This is super cool! I was a bit skeptical at first, since the tyranids have such a strong visual identity, but I really think you managed to make it it's own, very chaosy, thing.

[WAR]

Great job so far! 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks, @Brother Christopher, @Brother-Chaplain Kage, @Antarius and @WAR.

 

Despite it being a long weekend (Canada Day), that didn't mean as much painting time as I would normally have as I was busy from 9-4 all 3 days.  Luckily, I knew that ahead of time, so focused on painting in the evenings during the week, so was able to able to make good progress.

 

So, here is where the bulk of my work is - I finished this side of it (I'm considering the mouth part of the centre, so it isn't yet done). I guess this is the moment of truth for whether I'm successfully diluted its tyranidyness.

 

 

So, this gives a pretty good view of what the finished model will be like.

 

Some other details that I finished:

 

One of my 2 eye clusters (well, I have 3, but one has wandered off somehow)

 

 

The reaper autocannon (missing the fleshade wash on the skulls so they are a bit darker and richer than here)

 

 

And the fleshy bits on the underside of the track and legs.

 

 

I'm guessing I have 2-3 weeks of work left on it.

Edited July 2 by Dr_Ruminahui

[PHS]

Looking good so far, definitely chaotic rather than tyranidy 

[Brother Christopher]

Well, it's a good thing that you find the time to work on this, despite the setbacks. And the chaos star on the side turned out really, really well. I'm very impressed - you've picked what appears to be the right colour for it to be subtle, yet clearly distinct. The way it flows on the sponson housing is great, too. I feel a bit too silly for linking this that much.

[Crusader Reborn]

Cool ideas, while I refrain from sullying my brushes with the taint of chaos, it's good to someone having fun with a project. 

I like the balsa cut leg shielding 

[lokkorex]

Wow, that's all I can say!

[Dr_Ruminahui]

@PHS - thanks!  I'm really happy I pulled that off.

 

@Brother Christopher - I certainly appreciate you liking this as much as you do.  And thanks on the complements regarding the chaos star - I'm super happy with how it worked out.  As you'll see below, didn't do quite as nice of job on the star on the other side (as I did a different format that didn't "flow" as well on the side of the tank), but it still works.

 

@Crusader Reborn - glad you like the leg shields!  To me, they are a big part of what makes the model fit in with my other chaos marine models, despite the hull being a different colour.  Not sure what you mean by "balsa cut", though - these are made of plasticard cut with an exacto knife, for the most part.  And where your brushes may be unsullied, you are already tainted by chaos just by looking at this thread. 

 

@lokkorex - thanks!

 

As you might have guessed with my last post being 3 weeks ago, life happened.  Had a really stressful and busy week at work the week before last, and between that, some other general stress, and really struggling with the stripes on this side, I didn't make a whole lot of progress until this past week.  That said, when it started to come together, it came together pretty quickly.

 

So, I finished the side I was struggling with:

 

 

And the front:

 

 

And the back:

 

 

Which included finishing the mouth.  Tongue isn't yet glued in place - there's a final technique I need to practice and, if it works, I'll do it and glue the tongue in place.  I should have that all done this weekend.

 

 

Finally, some details of and around the front eye stalk -

 

The face I sculpted into the front plate - not bad.

 

 

A close up on the eye - I'm really happy how that turned out.

 

 

Anyway, next pictures you'll see of it should be the finished deal, and probably this weekend or early next week.  Just have the final work on the tongue, the turret, the 2 turret hatches, the 2 hatch gun options and the havoc launcher left.

Edited July 25 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Does anyone need anything that needs defiling?  Because I have just the unit to do that, now.

 

In other words, my defiler is now done (well - almost - I'll get into that).

 

First, here are all the painted magnetised options - 2 hatches, 2 weapon options for the armed hatch (combi bolter and combi weapon),, 2x lascannon, 2 heavy bolter, reaper autocannon, 2x eye plates and the flail.

 

 

Then some pictures of the various options grouped together into "variants"

 

Flail variant:

 

Havoc variant - I suspect this is mostly what I will field, with havoc launcher, lascannons and combi-bolter:

 

Heavy flamer variant:

 

And some just other assorted pictures:

 

Flail from the side:

 

Havoc from the side

 

Note, I decided to go without the tongue - I tried working on a technique using a hot glue gun) to create droopy saliva between it and the sponson but that didn't work (I didn't work on the technique on the model, so didn't mess anything up).  Then, looking at it both with and without the tongue, I decided the model was busy enough without out it and looked better if I left it off.

 

The back

 

The other side

 

The "almost done" bit is that I learned that the eye plates don't actually fit on the left side sponson - when I twisted the side plate to fit the legs, I must have warped the sponson such that the plates are now too big to fit.  This is only an issue for the reaper autocannon build (where the sponsons have the eye plates on them and the gun is on the front), which I am unlikely to field, but it will bug me until I fix it.  Not sure if I will try to cut down of the eyeplates to fit (only need to take about 1mm off the top or bottom) or build a new one - probably the later, as they are easy to build and paint.

 

Anyway, its the end of a rather amazing journey of discovery and development in terms of my own skills as a modeller.  I want to thank you all once again for all your comments, advice and criticism - they both helped me keep going through the hurdles of the construction, and helped me produce a better model overall.

 

[TheArtilleryman]

This is insanely good. Can’t begin to describe how good. Can’t believe you even magnetised all the options as well. Genius stuff. I hope you vowed this for the Call to Arms because of the conversion competition.

[PHS]

Loved seeing this thing come together. Such a wild idea, completely unique 

it really is the stuff of nightmares 

 

 

[Brother Christopher]

On 7/25/2024 at 6:17 PM, Dr_Ruminahui said:

As you'll see below, didn't do quite as nice of job on the star on the other side (as I did a different format that didn't "flow" as well on the side of the tank), but it still works.

 

Looks alright to me!

 

1 hour ago, TheArtilleryman said:

Can’t believe you even magnetised all the options as well. Genius stuff.

 

I agree with @TheArtilleryman. That's going the extra mile; I hope that you'll resolve the issue with eye plates. I'm sure it's a minor thing (that you probably shouldn't think about) but I also imagine that I know what you're feeling.

 

4 hours ago, Dr_Ruminahui said:

Anyway, its the end of a rather amazing journey of discovery and development in terms of my own skills as a modeller.  I want to thank you all once again for all your comments, advice and criticism - they both helped me keep going through the hurdles of the construction, and helped me produce a better model overall.

 

And it was a great please to join you on this journey. You've made an excellent model that is - no offence - very much in the spirit of conversions from the olden days. The (almost) finished model is really amazing and you should be properly proud of it. The fact that you managed to finish it in such a short time frame is even more inspiring. It looks distinctly chaosy; the mix of organic and mechanical bits is spot on. All the eyes are properly messed up, too (in a good, chaosy way).

 

Kudos, as people used to say a couple of years ago!

 

4 hours ago, Dr_Ruminahui said:

Does anyone need anything that needs defiling?

[Pearson73]

Ace work my friend. Those colours really pop and the highlights on the leg plating give it a real classic feel.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

@TheArtilleryman - Thanks you!  It just made sense to magnetize the options - really, the work entailed was really the smallest part of this project, and if I was going to put this amount of effort into it to me it made sense to try to future proof it for future options were my current preferred loadout (havoc launcher, lascannons, combi-bolter) may no longer be optimal.  And yes, I vowed and completed it as part of Call to Arms (my first, and to date only, completed vow) - hopefully I make it into the final selection so folks can vote on whether it should get Master of the Forge.

 

@PHS - Thanks!  I'm really happy with how darn right creepy it turned out - now that its painted, its lost a lot of its goofiness from its thin arms and now is just up-and-up nightmare fuel.

 

@Brother Christopher - Thanks for all your kind words - both above and through out the build.  The eye plate issue is easily fixed - its more just the annoyance of thinking you are done but, wait, there's this one more thing. And yeah, as I think we've discussed before, my painting style does in many ways channel an "old school" vibe, which fortunately seems to have worked really well for this model - and I'm flattered to have my conversion work compared with the excellent conversion work of yore.  From my end, doesn't feel like such a quick project, for while I started this thread this year I think I've been working on the build for about 9 months - so it feels really good to get it done.  And on a related note, what in particular do you need defiling and how might you want it defiled?  

 

@Pearson73 - Thank you!  The vibrant colours are largely down to the florescent purple airbrush paint I used both as part of my mix (with GW's Genestealer Purple) for the medium purple used on the leg shields and hull decorations and as a wash on the flesh.  Its been a big part of the look of my army as a whole, so I'm really happy I stumbled upon it when I started it back at beginning of 8th ed.

 

 

I think I'll rename this thread, and continue posting my conversion and painting work here for the broader B&C community to see.  Next up are some traitor guard to keep my "Defiler formerly known as Leman Russ" company, which is my next Call to Arms vow.  Basically, they are mostly a kit bash of the Chaos Renegade and Krieg Guardsmen killteams, with the Blackstone Fortress traitor guard and a few models based off of cadians and catachans thrown in to get me to 3 full squads of 10.

 

 

The other 14 models (which includes most of those using Krieg bodies) will follow after Call to Arms is over - as I had started to paint them prior to the event and therefore they can't be vowed.

 

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Got some work on my traitor guard, blocking in their armour, flesh, shirts, pants, and the black base for the metals.  Just need to do the various cloths, leathers, woods and the actual metals, plus touch ups, before I can proceed to the brown wash over the fatigues and leathers.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

 

For those who are curious, I've now fielded my defiler twice - click below for my brief battle reports for those games.

 

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Finished the first few models of my renegade guard - here is a picture of them with the defiler to help show how those 2 elements of my army fit together.

 

 

Sorry about the colours being so weirdly desaturated - my 15-year-old digital camera stopped working properly, and haven't gotten the hang of getting good photos out of my phone yet.

 

This is actually an interesting combination of figures and conversions - the two on the left are blackstone fortress minis with arm swaps, the 2 in the middle are kriegmen legs/torsos with Blooded (killteam traitor guard) heads and torso fronts (back one also has traitor arms and trophy rack), then right two are fairly stock - one is cadian with catachan arms, head and radio and the last one is all Blooded parts.  The Enforcer (the chaos commissar) is also stock.

 

It also shows the mix of uniform colours I used - a variety of tans, greys and greens - but the differences are pretty muted by the common dark brown wash, but I still feel that, even if not immediately obvious, it helps give them a more motley look.

Edited August 22 by Dr_Ruminahui