The Lichborne - Homebrew Legionary Kill Team

[Volgon]

Hey all! Have been a lurker mostly, updating my thread in the WIP forum, but was invited by @Dr_Ruminahui to post here (I didn't want to double up threads in case it was against the forum rules), so here I am! This project is primarily of the Kill Team variety (Legionaries specifically), but I have done conversion work branching into other game systems (I have a few characters representing the warband's leaders that could be used in 40k, for example). I'll be porting my work here a bit at a time, and will keep updating whenever I have something new to share. To start with, let me post my tester Marine to show off the basis of the color scheme:

 

This is the first thing I've ever hand painted, and I'm super proud of the way it came out! I wasn't very happy with him after applying an oil wash but it has grown on me. I skipped out on some steps and rushed others, because I really just wanted to get a good look at an end result, so future testers will have more work put into details and color separation.

 

Onto the real meat and potatoes, my conversions! I try to make every conversion unique, trying to infuse some level of personality/character into each one. I'll start off with some generic operatives, my Gunners. I tried to have a few unified themes for this trio: combi-weapons (not completely WYSIWYG for Kill Team, but I planned on painting the various non bolter parts different colors from the bolter section to hopefully make it obvious what type of weapon it is. Think hazard stripes on the melta gun casing, bright red on the flamer casing, and plasma has its obvious coils), CSM Havoc bodies, and Anvilus-pattern backpacks.

 

Melta Gunner:

My favorite of the three. The gun is from the Chaos Terminator Lord/Sorcerer box and is such a cool piece, I had to use it.

Spoiler

 

Plasma Gunner:

My second favorite, with a pose I'm really happy with!

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Flamer Gunner:

I made the mistake of gluing the knife arm, so I know it's going to be a real pain to paint now that I've done my tester Live and learn!

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That's it for now, let me know what you think!

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Glad to see you make your way over here - excellent work!

[Volgon]

16 hours ago, Dr_Ruminahui said:

Glad to see you make your way over here - excellent work!

 

Glad to be here! Don't have to wait long for a second update, here's the second completed tester:

 

 

I am super stoked about the lenses, I think they came out super well. I was somehow able to paint just the lens and left the recesses black which adds a ton of definition to a very small area. I also tried to highlight more this go round: I did the black, some of the blue, silvers, and brown. Not sure how noticeable it is for colors other than the black but it's there. Lastly, I added a bit of blood spatter on the chainsword to make it pop more. My weapon schemes leave a lot to be desired at the moment (truth be told I just haven't though about them that much, they are a bit of a bore to do once I'm closing in on the end) so I think the red is a nice splash of color and visceral weathering that matches the rest of the paintjob.

[Volgon]

  

Hey all, nothing new painted since the last update but I should be getting back at it soon. I got the trio of Gunners primed over the weekend, just waiting for that motivation to kick in Here's a few more of my conversions, the Heavy Gunners. I had two themes I was trying to go for with these guys: one was "big guns, big armor" and the other was trying to go for 3 different holding stances: underarm, over the shoulder, and rifle style.

 

Heavy Bolter:

For a long time I was stuck on the weapon. I like the Eradicator melta rifles (which forms the basis of the weapon conversion), but could never get over the fact that the barrel was too distinctly melta (obviously!), so I just had to come up with something different. I came up with what you see here: it looks ridiculous, and ridiculously cool.

Spoiler

 

Reaper Chaincannon:

This guy is a conversion that actually hasn't changed a ton since its inception. I knew from the get-go I wanted him to be the "big guy" of the Kill Team. I envisioned him in the lore to be the tall, hulking member of the squad. I knew the body of the Havoc Champion was perfect for this (the Havocs are also my favorite style of armor out of both loyalists and traitor forces). I also REALLY like the Chaincannon I made up for him. The chained barrel isn't something that would actually work, but rule of cool won out.

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Missile Launcher:

I had a LOT of trouble over a long period of time trying to think up something for my ML gunner. I was stuck in a rut because I really wanted to make use of all 5 bodies from the Havoc kit. Unfortunately that last body (the one that GW depicts on the box art holding the Reaper Chaincannon) lacks any sort of dynamism or personality, so nothing I came up with ever worked for me. I finally cut ties with the idea of using the Havoc body wholesale and was able to come up with this conversion by merging a normal Chaos Marine body (the one used by GW's depiction of the Butcher operative from the Legionary kill team) with the pieces of the 5th Havoc that I actually liked (the torso, the hip armor, and the plated tabard). It ended up being one of my favorites of the entire team!

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Thanks for taking a look, and as always feel free to comment!

[Volgon]

I decided I was ready to start working on the kill team itself rather than testers. Picked the melta gunner first: the 3 regular gunners are fairly similar to the regular legionary testers I was doing so didn't have to worry about any new techniques.

 

I am super happy with the result! This was the first time I used the embossed shoulder pad with the symbol and I am very happy with how it came out. It was a little flat at first because I used Bold Titanium White so didn't have any color to highlight up to, but the weathering added some complexity so I think it looks pretty ok. No oil washes this time, I haven't had much success with them, so I want to sit down on some throwaways to work out how to best use them. My oil washes seem to keep separating, leaving some particulates that I have to clean up and not staining the recesses very well, so I think I may be thinning them too much. Will have to work on that.

 

Lastly, I chose a different color to highlight the black. Originally I was using Stormvermin Fur after seeing a result on reddit I really liked. I found it not a very compelling color IRL however. This time I tried a silver and REALLY like the result. It adds a bit of brightness/pop that I think looks great. Also it's in line with the weathered aesthetic; it has a chipped paint look to go along with the mud/dirty weathering. I find it much easier to sell my poor edge highlighting as paint chipping with the silver.

[Volgon]

  

Have started working on the Plasma Gunner today. Took me 2.5 hours just to block in the blue armor and clean up mistakes Trim takes so long! I think I can be more efficient by being less clean when blocking in the blue and to save doing touch ups until all the colors are on so I can do them all at once.

 

Here are some more conversions for the Kill Team, this time the bespoke operatives! These guys are kind of where the whole project got started. Originally I just wanted the bespoke operatives + a leader but the scope expanded to one of each option for every member, so here we are.

 

Butcher:

This is one of the oldest members of my team. This iteration was pretty much set in stone a while ago. I have been going back and forth on the axe arm lately. I do like the over the shoulder look but I have been considering a different arm holding it downward in a loose grip (if I can find such an arm to use) or an arm out to the side (though I don't want to encroach on the look of some other conversions I have which use a similar pose). Either way, I think this conversion really evokes that kind of duellist/challenger personality that I'm going for.

Spoiler

 

Balefire Acolyte:

This guy originally started out as a pretty uninspired conversion using the Aspiring Champion from the Shadowspear box. For a long time I was content with it but over time it gnawed at me that I kind of phoned it in. I came up with this guy and am SUPER pleased with the result. It's pretty much completely unique: I made it from a Sword Brother base with a Chaos torso and Chaos Havoc shin armor (something that I picked up from a Reddit user and have used it pretty extensively since).

Spoiler

 

Anointed:

Pretty simple conversion for this one. I keep these conversions completely free of both fleshy bits (primarily heads and unarmored arms etc) and Chaos mutations for lore reasons, but I liked the idea that no matter what, nobody escapes Chaos. I try to evoke an undead/death knight vibe with this warband so the most logical mutation to me was bones, and the base Chosen mini I used has those in spades. I added a Warp Talon claw that looks like bone claws (very Wolverine) to complete the look.

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Shrivetalon:

Similar to the Balefire Acolyte, the Shrivetalon had an old iteration that I decided to rework for creative reasons. He was my first foray into using Black Templars minis as the basis for some conversions. The reason is pretty simple: I love their gorget/bevor collar piece, same as the Chaos Havocs. I wanted to make him a bit of a trophy taker so I used a shoulder pad with skin on it from the Shrivetalon, and a minor chain aesthetic with the idea that he would hang various bits and bobs from.

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Icon Bearer:

This conversion was what the Shrivetalon was for a long time. After changing direction with the Shrivetalon, I pivoted it into my Icon Bearer. I've had that trophy piece (from Zhufor) for probably a decade and knew I absolutely had to use it here. VERY fiddly though as the pole is extremely skinny and prone to breakage. I managed to pin it into the backpack but I'm certain even a slight knock would snap it in two.

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[Volgon]

Finished up the Plasma Gunner. First time trying a plasma effect and it came out ok but not great. Would like to try it again with some fluorescent paints or contrast paints instead; I think they would be much easier to get a good result from. Nothing else too different from the norm, just working through the more basic guys before moving on to the more exciting operatives.