The Moriya Forge Fane - General Project Log

[MoriyaSchism]

This thread will serve as a repository for all the random projects I have in mind and items from my backlog. I have a pretty sizable backlog of various miniatures from multiple Imperial and Xenos factions along with some Horus Heresy stuff.

My current backlog:

-25 Kriegers, 3 old plastic Sentinels and a Chimera APC

-Tyranids from the Leviathan and Typhon boxes
-Necrons from the Indomitus box

-Various Space Marine kits (Mostly Tacticus Primaris bodies with old classic Marine bits)

-Striking Scorpions, Howling Banshees, Guardians and multiple Eldar vehicles
-Two Imperial Agents kill teams
-5 Grey Knights Terminators, Vortimer Pattern Land Raider Redeemer and Razorback

-5 Terminator Librarians
-Blackstone Fortress

The general idea for this thread will be trying to capture the style of the Imperial Armour books and 3rd/4th Edition. I will be exploring things from the setting's past and trying to put my own spin on things. In terms of scale I will be aiming for Primaris scale across all projects (Horus Heresy included). I will be using Primaris, Tortuga and modern Chaos Space Marine bodies to achieve that scale. I will be doing kill teams for the Badab War as part of this thread too. 

 

I will be starting out with an Ordo Malleus force featuring the Grey Knights and Exorcists. 

 

The first model of this project will be a Purgation squad Justicar with a custom Psybolter. He is the recreation of the old Realm of Chaos Grey Knights beakie from my avatar and will be wearing a modified version of Aegis Mark 6 power armour. I was thinking of giving him a Paragon bolter but I thought it would look too small when compared to the rest of the squad. I made his rifle, pauldron and powerpack last night. Still converting his body and arms. 

[Procrastinate]

All sounds very interesting, look forward to seeing more

[space wolf]

Oh, now this will be interesting. Looking forward to seeing more!

[Dr_Ruminahui]

That's a really neat and effective gun conversion - other than perhaps a few missing rivets at the front end, when its painted I'm sure it will look like it was modelled that way rather than a conversion... which in my mind is a sign of conversion job well done.

[MoriyaSchism]

39 minutes ago, Dr_Ruminahui said:

That's a really neat and effective gun conversion - other than perhaps a few missing rivets at the front end, when its painted I'm sure it will look like it was modelled that way rather than a conversion... which in my mind is a sign of conversion job well done.

All the putty was sanded flat and the join between all three materials is seamless. I was thinking of leaving the rivets off the front end of the gun because the older Psycannons usually didn't have rivets, but I was in the process of getting some glass beads to re-add rivets to some of the Plague Marines I cleaned up so I'll think about it. On the other side of the gun I repurposed the battery from the Adrastus Bolt Caliver into one of those sideways mounted scopes you usually see on some of the older metal Marine models like one of the Tyrannic War Veterans and the original metal Psycannon gunner. It's a bit hard to see, but I glued a lens from a spare bolt carbine scope that was laying around. 

Still working on the body. I picked the Hellblaster Sergeant from the Dark Imperium box as the base. Ended up carving off both of his pauldrons, cleaning the Primaris bits off his legs and removing the pectoral plate/Imperialis from his chest. I'll post an image of that once I pass over it with some milliput and extra bits.

 

[MoriyaSchism]

I finished the body. It took longer than I expected because I kept adding to it. Working on it was rather satisfying, I really enjoy modifying Primaris models to fit my vision of what a Space Marine should be. Might sort out some of the minor imperfections before priming, but he's pretty much done. Carving off the pauldrons was the most annoying part. The psychic hood was a last minute addition because I wanted to keep the unique Grey Knights silhouette. Also ended up extending the original Hellblaster ammo pouch to match the weapon he'll be carrying. 

 

[batu]

Exciting project. Keep us in the loop!

[MoriyaSchism]

I started another side project. This time it's a character from the Badab War and one of my favourite chapters. By some miracle I got my hands on a Captain Centos model without paying a fortune for it and I'm converting him to Captain Zhrukal Androcles. 

 

The weapon I picked out used to be the Black Templar Castellan's combi-flamer. I'm thinking of removing the hose to make the combi-melta conversion look a bit different than the original bit. The auto bolt rifle is getting replaced once I slice off the stock and original hand. Also got rid of the cape because I thought it was too fancy for a no-nonsense chapter like the Star Phantoms. 

This is a mock up image of the backpack conversion I'm going to try next. He is the Captain of a Devastator company and I wanted him to have some sort of miniaturized Signum. I also picked out one of the bits from the Ravenwing Knights box to have some sort of loose connection to the Dark Angels, but it's totally not related to the Dark Angels it's actually a depiction of the Imperator Mortifex. Trying to figure out a solution for the Iron Halo he has, it will probably be mounted on the back of his helmet similar to the Iron Halo on the Bladeguard Ancient. I will probably update again soon. Any feedback or criticism is welcome. 

[MetalFingers]

Keen to see more from this project! Amazingly precise modelling work so far. 

[MoriyaSchism]

He's pretty much done. I just need to make a helmet with a crown style Iron Halo. It will probably be a Mark 7 or 8. The miniature Signum is turned in the same direction as his head, I imagine it's linked to the auto-senses in his helmet kind of like a helicopter gunner's camera. 

 

Both antennas on the Signum were harvested from a Phobos Infiltrator, the thin antenna came from the headset of a Phobos Lieutenant (Shadowspear). The muzzle on the multi-melta came from one of the new Horus Heresy meltaguns. 

 

On 9/9/2025 at 11:33 PM, MetalFingers said:

Keen to see more from this project! Amazingly precise modelling work so far. 

Thanks. It's fiddly work but it's really satisfying. Slowly working on a batch of converted Primaris Marines, the most tedious parts to deal with are the ball things on the legs. 

Edited September 12, 2025 by MoriyaSchism

[MoriyaSchism]

It has been a while since I updated this thread, but here's an update I made in my War of the False Primarch thread. 

 

53 minutes ago, MoriyaSchism said:

Another update. I worked more on the weapons for the Vigilants. 

This image includes all the weapons I've finished earlier and some of the new weapon swaps. The axe from the Blanche Black Templar Castellan is for the Executioner, I had no real use for it and it seemed like a perfect fit for one of the more brutal sons of Dorn. It will be paired with a Tigrus pattern bolt pistol. 

 

The second bolt pistol belongs to the Iron Snake and it was made out of leftover heavy bolt pistol and bolter rifle bits from the other Primaris models I cut up combined with a bolt pistol from the Blood Claws set that had its front snipped off. I also scraped off the rail at the top to re-create the classic bolt pistol's ejection port. I was thinking of swapping the magazine as well, but I'm not so sure now. I also cut off the accessories that were present on the original Blood Claw arm and I replaced it with a vial I made out of a loose Space Marine Marksman's Honours around with the bullet tip cut off. It represents one of the vials of Ithakan seawater they usually carry on missions. 

 

This was the most frustrating part because there isn't a single Primaris miniature out there with a left hand holding a grenade I had to build one of my own. It's made out of the hand clutching the bolt carbine magazine from the Riever kit and one of the frag grenades from a Necromunda Enforcer kit. I'm quite pleased with this hand swap. It's a bit rough but it shouldn't be visible when primed. I just need to finish the Hoplite style power sword for the Iron Snake and I'll be done with all the weapons for this kill team. 

 

I'm looking for some feedback on some of the weapon conversions or feedback in general. I think I slightly messed up on the weapon swap for the Tigrus pattern bolt pistol, some of the detail seems softer around the hand. The glue I used was Tamiya extra thin cement. How do you guys usually do weapon swaps that aren't complete hand swaps? With the Tigrus bolt pistol I left a bit of the frame from the previous weapon and I tried to bond it with the bolt pistol but I think that bit melted too quickly and it spilled a bit over the hand. The original weapon on the hand was a Primaris Grey Hunter plasma pistol. 

Edited April 10 by MoriyaSchism

[MetalFingers]

This modelling work is impressive as hell, will be following along. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Honestly, the hand looks fine to me. Tamiya Extra Thin isn't super-aggressive, so if it "spills", it normally just makes the plastic shiny rather than eating the detail, in my experience.

[MoriyaSchism]

Thanks for all the replies. I did a bit more work last night. 

 

Just now, MoriyaSchism said:

De-wolfed the Blood Claw and Grey Hunter bodies. I trimmed the wolf skull on the Imperialis by cutting the wolf snout off right under nose cavity on the original design and attempted to create a new nose with the tip of a needle. To my eye it looks good, I might work more on it. The Crux Terminatus on the Executioner's chest is a belt buckle from an old set of Grey Knight Terminator legs, the original wolf skull was carefully scraped off working from the center on both sides until the Crux fit into the gap. I completed the build on the xiphos for the Iron Snake. It's made out of a Cataphractii Terminator power sword hilt and a High Elf sword.

 

The sword is meant to be a Greek xiphos. It's about the same size as the power swords present in the Space Wolf kits and the Tactical Squad just slightly less bulky. I need to fill in the gap between the blade and the hilt with some putty and make a power node to make it a proper power weapon. I originally wanted to give the Iron Snake a spear but decided against it because he's part of a close quarters strike team. 

[MoriyaSchism]

Converted 10 Tech-Thralls from the AdMech battle group box into Poxwalkers/Plague Zombies using the contents of my bits box and random clippings from the Plaguemarines I turned into Imperial Space Marines. I don't collect Chaos and these were built for someone else. These were mostly made without any putty, just plastic cement and some melted sprue pieces.  My only motivation was to get rid of the Tech-Thralls and now I don't know what to do with the other 10 as I dislike the zombie-like poses on the models. If I could trade the other 10 for a handful of classic Space Marine weapons, power packs or helmets I'd do it. 

 

 

Added to the backlog:

Eye of Terror AdMech Battalion Box

1 Thallax Cohort 

2 Castellax Battle-automata

1 Triaros APC

 

[Nagashsnee]

The mech pox walkers are fantastic, cool concept great execution! 

[MoriyaSchism]

My hand has finally recovered from my previous hobby injury so I'm back with another miniature that has been collecting dust in my grey pile for quite some time. It's the snap-fit Ballistus Dreadnought. While I don't really like the Redemptor pattern of Dreadnought (I think they are too big for what they are meant to represent and replace), the Ballistus had a loadout of weapons that reminded me of classic Dreadnoughts so I decided I would get a conversion kit for it. 

This is the first step of the conversion. The conversion kit I purchased is no longer available because of a C&D notice from GW and I had to modify some parts because it was designed for multi-part Redemptor Dreadnoughts. Replacing the chin and the front armour plates took a ton of cutting, around 80% of the armour on the front was destroyed in the process. The two chin-mounted storm bolters were removed with a razor saw, the empty slots will be filled with a spotlight and a larger scale storm bolter that will represent the two heavy bolters you usually see on the Deredeo Dreadnought. The next step will be replacing the lower leg armour plates and sarcophagus with resin conversion parts. I need to replace the exhaust ports and reactor covers on the back too. 

He will be joining my Wormwood Sons as a Deredeo Dreadnought proxy. The standard Ballistus main armaments will represent the missile launcher and the Arachnus lascannon battery.  I've managed to cut off the iconography from the original model as bits for future conversions, the sarcophacus cover on the original model had a really nice Caputmori icon that I wanted to preserve. 

 

On 4/18/2026 at 11:52 AM, Nagashsnee said:

The mech pox walkers are fantastic, cool concept great execution! 

Thanks. I got frustrated trying to build them out of the box and I decided to do something different. 

[Brother Christopher]

While I enjoy most of your work (particularly the modified weapons for your Marines), I particularly in this upgrade/conversion kit. I agree with you on the general feel of Redemptor Dreads and that the ETB 'rifleman' Dread - with the changed arms/weapons' housings - is slightly more reminiscent of the older Castraferrum walkers. I have some plans of my own for my Ballistus that's why discovering your excellent purchase here piqued my interest - since I neither have imagination, nor any skills with graphics editors to help me visualise stuff, I have to rely on others' work.

 

I'm sorry about the work/effort it took to make this kit compatible with the Dreadnought you had but at this stage, it looks perfect. And I kind of think that the hassle you went through was worth it - I absolutely hated assembling my multipart Redemptor. In my opinion, you dodged a bullet there.

Edited May 12 by Brother Christopher

[MoriyaSchism]

Thanks. I'm not much of an artist at the moment, but most of the conversions I've made are based on rough sketches or MS Paint/Other imaging program mockups I've done before assembly. Even just photobashing with the cut tool in any image editor helps quite a bit before you start cutting into expensive resin or plastic. For example this is the drawing I've done with a ruler and a mechanical pencil before I built the rifle for the Grey Knight seen in the opening post.

 

I'm keeping the main armament the same as the default Ballistus as I don't have any other Dreadnought weapons in that scale and they look close enough to the old stuff despite being huge in comparison. Other parts that came with the upgrade set are not show, but they include the classic FW style Castraferrum bird talon feet and the armoured sarcophagus with the robotic replica of a Space Marine's helmet. 

This is the shot of the Sarcophagus from the preview images. Normally on the MPK Redemptor it slots over the sarcophagus easily, but I will need to cut off a few parts to get it to fit on the snapfit. 

Edited May 12 by MoriyaSchism

[MoriyaSchism]

It's nearly done. I didn't work on it for 3 days because I couldn't find the 90mm base with 2 holes in it, searched the whole house looking for it. Found it in the last place I thought to look, the compartment with the rulebook in the Leviathan box.

 

All the cutting, scraping and gap-filling is done. This project felt like an on-going disaster, every day I found some new issue or some new part I had to cut off to make the 3D print parts fit. Gluing the head gave me the most trouble, I had to glue a small girder made out of sprue to get the head to stick out of the gorget and then I had to cut a hole into the remnant of the sarcophagus so everything fits nicely together.  The model is now 90% done and all the upgrade kit parts are glued in place. I've kept the weapons separate for painting later. I didn't glue the Illiastus assault cannon yet, it's meant to represent the two Deredeo heavy bolters. The slot on the left is going to be filled in with a searchlight. 

 

All the parts marked in red and yellow are parts I had to cut off and discard or fill in with milliput. The lower legs and knees had to be completely destroyed to fit the Castraferrum style plates. I've done some work on the back of the Dreadnought too, I had to replace the armour plates shielding the reactor and the exhausts. I feel quite happy with the result. 

[Nagashsnee]

Ah man that looks great, really bringing back memories, the newer dreads just dont hit the same way.

[Brother Christopher]

Yup, that's definitely an improvement. 

 

I think I've never mentioned this before but I'm mightily impressed how tidy all of your conversion work is. It's super neat, almost as if the bits were machined. That's really impressive and - I imagine - extremely useful at later stages.

[MoriyaSchism]

 Thanks.

 

9 hours ago, Nagashsnee said:

Ah man that looks great, really bringing back memories, the newer dreads just dont hit the same way.

The newer Dreadnoughts have elements I really like but I dislike their size and some of the armour curves. 

 

6 hours ago, Brother Christopher said:

Yup, that's definitely an improvement. 

 

I think I've never mentioned this before but I'm mightily impressed how tidy all of your conversion work is. It's super neat, almost as if the bits were machined. That's really impressive and - I imagine - extremely useful at later stages.

The initial idea was to just sand and carve until I got the desired shape or a flat surface, but it turned out some parts of the model are entirely hollow. There wasn't enough material this time around. Going to add a gun camera and ejection chute onto the assault cannon, call it done after that.