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Warhammer 40K: Dark Eldar Army

May 16, 2013 by holojacob 9 Comments

Presenting my Warhammer 40K Dark Eldar army.

While not being quite as filled with conversions as my other armies, I did enjoy painting this army quite a bit. I’m not a very good painter, but a simple layered drybrush technique served me quite well with this army. I’m particularly happy with how the Incubi capes came out.
As for conversions, I had fun coming up with some substitutes for what was available at the time. Remember this guy?

While a nutty model, it just wasn’t my style. Instead of using the stock model, my kabal had a captured Hive Tyrant and Wraithlord under their command.

The Hive Tyrant used the old-old metal kit. I added some mechanical bits and guns to make it seem like the Dark Eldar had it under control somehow, and also to represent the Talos’ guns. I remember reading a passage in the old codex where Dark Eldar would even capture Tyranid Genestealers, so I figured going a step further made sense. As for why it has screaming faces coming out of it … the old Talos fluff had something in it where victims became a part of it. You can see a guy stuck at the bottom of the turret in the original model. So, yeah, screaming faces on a Hive Tyrant. Not my best idea, but I think it looks cool. 🙂
For the heads, I cut Dark Eldar warrior faces off and molded them to the Hive Tyrant with green stuff. I also added Space Marine missile launcher parts to its legs to give it “thrusters” so it could, with a little imagination, hover around.

The other Talos in my Dark Eldar army is more straightforward. Talos and Eldar Wraithlord stats aren’t too far removed, so I figured a captured and mutilated Wraithlord would work pretty well. I even threw in one of the original Talos arms. The scars are a simple green stuff sculpt.

I also had fun making the sybarites to lead the huge mobs of Warriors. This one is my favorite. The double-blade uses a gun grip with two knife blades glued on to the sides.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.

Warhammer 40K: Chaos Daemons Tzeentch Pink Horror Conversions

May 2, 2013 by holojacob Leave a Comment

Presenting my Warhammer 40K Chaos Daemons Tzeentch Pink Horror Conversions.

Modeling the Tzeentch pink horrors was the best part of making this army. Every model is unique.

With the plenty of Chaos spawn and space marine parts at my disposal, along with plenty of green stuff, I let my imagination run wild. Wherever possible, I tried to emphasize how this weird, chaotic flesh was bursting out of the space marines. The best part is, no matter how crazy the conversion, it felt right at home in a Chaos Daemons army. I had a lot a fun making these guys.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.

Warhammer 40K: Chaos Daemons Tzeentch Herald Conversions

May 2, 2013 by holojacob Leave a Comment

Presenting my Warhammer 40K Chaos Daemons Tzeentch Herald Conversions.

With the chaotic nature of a Chaos Daemons army, it’s hard to go wrong with something absolutely crazy. My Tzeentch heralds are no exception to this. Two of the heralds are basically a lot of spare bits stuck into a central glob of green stuff. Really, nothing too special there in terms of modeling. However, Smiley is a different story.

In order to make Smiley, I started with a rough frame built from pieces of sprue. I then began layering green stuff on top of that until I had the outline of a very chaotic face. Since this is a Tzeentch herald, I decided to add plenty of guns to the model to represent the model’s arcane firepower. It’s teeth are bolters, and its eyes are lascannon barrels. The weapons on the sides came from a dreadnought.
If nothing else, he/she/it certainly gets a lot of comments from my fellow gamers.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.

Warhammer 40K: Chaos Daemons Army

May 2, 2013 by holojacob 4 Comments

Presenting my Warhammer 40K “count as” Chaos Daemons Tzeentch army, with 95% conversions.

My Chaos Daemons army is easily the craziest modeling project I’ve ever embarked upon. All but one model in the entire army have some sort of conversion work, and many involved extensive conversions. The theme behind the army is a space marine force gone horribly wrong. It’s what happens to space marines when they pass their expiration dates. I wanted the chaotic elements to look like they were exploding out of space marine armor, which involved a lot of Chaos spawn kits, as well as a friend’s Dark Angels army.
Yes, that’s right. I purchased a friend’s Dark Angels army for the sole purpose of mutilating them beyond recognition. After dunking them in Pine-Sol, I began plucking off limbs and cutting them up with a hobby saw. Mix in copious amounts of green stuff, and you can clearly see the results.

chaos daemon count as khorne bloodletters 2 — We are well armed!

I purchased 3 daemon princes for this army. The wings went to my Tyranids so that I could have flying hive tyrants. That left me with a lot of spare daemon arms with really cool weapons. But what to do with them? I decided to use them as Khorne bloodletters. The imagery of these giant arms growing out of space marine halves is pretty ridiculous, so it suits me just fine.

chaos daemon count as nurgle plaguebearers — Count as Nurgle Plaguebearers

The Nurgle plaguebearers were the simpliest conversions. I used mostly-whole space marines with some green slimy tendrils coming out and green fluid leaking out of the armor. And there they were. A pack of plaguebearers. Nothing to it.

chaos daemon count as tzeentch flamers — Count as Tzeentch Flamers

With all the Chaos spawn kits I went through, I had a lot of spawn torsos I wasn’t using. I put the torsos on top of inverted Space Marine jump packs and build them into my Tzeentch flamers. Ridiculous, I know, but that’s just how I roll with this army.

chaos daemon count as tzeentch screamers — Count as Tzeentch Screamers

My Tzeentch screamers were made with the stock Tzeentch pink horror kits, minus the arms and legs. The only tricky parts here were drilling the holes for the flying bases and filing down a few knobs on the models where the legs are supposed to attach.
But, my favorite parts of the army are the Tzeentch Heralds and the Tzeentch Pink Horrors. I had a lot of fun coming up with some really crazy conversions.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.

Warhammer 40K: Space Wolves Wolf Guard Conversions

April 28, 2013 by holojacob Leave a Comment

Presenting my Warhammer 40K “count as” Space Wolves wolf guard conversions.

The wolf guard conversions form the meat of this army, and they take a lot of forms. The large size of the terminator bases, as well as the models themselves, presented a lot of opportunities for some really dynamic poses and interesting bases. I used two Imperial Guard Cadian shock troop kits for victims, and tried to put in a lot of variety.
I modeled most of this army over a friend’s house while he worked on his Blood Angels. A few times, I showed him what I was working on.
***
“Do you think this is too extreme?” I asked.
He looked up at my latest creation and burst out laughing.
“Too much?”
He shook his head. “Naaahhhhh.”
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.

Warhammer 40K: Space Wolves Vindicator Conversions

April 28, 2013 by holojacob Leave a Comment

Presenting my Warhammer 40K “count as” Space Wolves vindicator conversions.

What do you get when you cross 3 Space Marine vindicator kits, spare Cadians, a lot of green stuff, and an overactive imagination? Something like this!
Each vindicator kit comes with a cannon shell. I took one, built up a plume of green stuff, and attached it to the cannon. That gave one of the vindicators a nice, “I’m firing!!!” action pose. On another shell, I used a Chaos spawn tentacle and had it grab hold from the back of the vindicator. I also added various blue glowy things oozing their way out of the vehicle, reinforcing the sense that not all was as it seems with these machines. And just because that wasn’t ridiculous enough, I added some poor victims being pulled in and eaten.
As usual, I had a big glob of green stuff left over. So I put it to good use. The grotesque “ball” is not attached to the vehicle. It’s one of my objective markers for this army, which normally gets some interesting comments from fellow players.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.

Warhammer 40K: Space Wolves Dreadnought Conversion

April 27, 2013 by holojacob Leave a Comment

Presenting my Warhammer 40K “count as” Space Wolves dreadnought conversion.

This dreadnought conversion was actually a little trickier than it looks. The model is mostly stock, except the feet were adjusted slightly to allow it to stop on a poor Cadian. Getting the angle right proved difficult, given the lack of mobility in the stock model. Green stuff and Chaos Spawn parts went into the blue glowy growths. The Cadian on fire was easy enough to make with a big blob of green stuff and some simple sculpting to make it look … at least a little bit … like a burning fire.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.

Warhammer 40K: Space Wolves Army

April 27, 2013 by holojacob 2 Comments

Presenting my Warhammer 40K “count as” Space Wolves terminator army.

I’ve loved terminators for about as long as I’ve loved Warhammer 40K, and I always had this itch to do an all-terminator army. When the 5th Edition Space Wolves codex came out in 2009, I picked it up and was immediately drawn to the customization options with Wolf Guard. Since taking Logan Grimnar made Wolf Guard count as troops, I knew what I had to do next … start buying terminator kits!
The army consists of 2 Space Marine terminator kits, 2 Chaos Space Marine terminator kits, the Space Hulk terminators, and a Chaos terminator lord all put into a blender with Chaos spawn parts. It was a blast to put together!
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.

Warhammer 40K: Tyranid Tervigon Conversion

April 26, 2013 by holojacob 6 Comments

Presenting my Warhammer 40K Tyranid Tervigon conversion, with vomited termagants.

tyranid tervigon conversion 1 — Blaargh!

tyranid tervigon conversion 5 — Another poor space marine bleeding out.

tyranid tervigon conversion 4 — More termagants!

I used the trygon kit to build this tervigon. For the “birthing” part of its rules, I decided to show it in a rather unconventional way. My tervigon vomits termagants! I used the Mawloc jaw as a base along with green stuff and half a termagant. I also expanded the throat with green stuff, giving the model a bulge the rest of the termagant could exist in. A glowing, gooey pile with new termagants reinforces this odd premise.
And, of course, I had to throw in a dying space marine. Just because.
The local ultramarines player really didn’t care for my tyranid models … not sure why …
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.

Warhammer 40K: Tyranid Mawloc Conversion

April 25, 2013 by holojacob 3 Comments

Presenting my Warhammer 40K Tyranid Mawloc conversion.

tyranid mawloc conversion 1 — Mawloc smash!

tyranid mawloc conversion 2 — Terror from beneath!

tyranid mawloc conversion 3 — The mawloc enjoys long walks through subterranean passages and playing with its food.

The mawloc is based on the trygon kit, but I heavily modified the head. I used the mawloc mouths and tongues from three trygon kits along with green stuff to form the head. The space marine was easily add by cutting the ends of the tongues, gluing the space marine body in place, and gluing the tips to the space marine.
I wanted the mawloc to look like it had just crashed out of the ground, and so the other space marines are positioned as if they were just flung from the mawloc with impressive force, one of them in two directions at once. After completing conversions to the body, I had green stuff left over.
I couldn’t let it go to waste, so I added a big ribbon of blood between the severed halves of a space marine … because, you know, the model wasn’t far enough over-the-top yet.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.

Warhammer 40K: Tyranid Hive Tyrant Conversions

April 24, 2013 by holojacob Leave a Comment

Presenting my Warhammer 40K Tyranid Hive Tyrant conversions.

tyranid hive tyrant conversion 1 — “Ready or not, here we come!”

tyranid hive tyrant conversion 2 — Making soldiers out of leftovers. It’s the Tyranid way!

With only a few minor modifications, I used a carnifex kit to make this hive tyrant. The most significant change is to the area where the legs and torso meet, where enough material had to be shaved off in order to get the tyrant to stand up straighter. He’s a general! No slouching!
The tyrant guard were easy enough to throw together with tyranid warrior parts and spare carapaces from the carnifex kits. The lash whips are based on ammunition feeds for the larger bioweapons with green stuff and extra spikes on the ends.

tyranid hive tyrant conversion 5 — Winged hive tyrant swoops in!

tyranid hive tyrant conversion 6 — Maybe I took that whole swooping thing a little too far on this one …

This winged hive tyrant is based on a trygon kit. I took one section of the tail out and joined the gap with green stuff to help differentiate it from the trygon in my army. I also left off the side pincers on the head. The wings are from the chaos demon prince kit.

tyranid hive tyrant conversion 7 — Terminators and dreadnoughts are essential parts of a balanced diet, and help young tyrants develop nice, slimy coats.

Even though the model is plastic, it’s positioning is so extreme that the base required a lot of weighting. Those are old school metal terminators.

tyranid hive tyrant conversion 4 — Winged hive tyrant #2!

The second winged hive tyrant has a less extreme pose. Again, I used a trygon kit, shortened the tail, and used demon prince wings. I closed the jaw and added green stuff to fill the gaps, to help give it a different look from the first winged hive tyrant.
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.

Warhammer 40K: Tyranid Broodlord Conversion

April 23, 2013 by holojacob 2 Comments

Presenting my Warhammer 40K Tyranid Broodlord conversion, with freshly sliced space marine.

tyranid broodlord conversion 2 — Here he comes!

tyranid broodlord conversion 6 — The space marine is just starting to slide apart …

This conversion used genestealer and tyranid warrior parts. Only the head and the feet are from the genestealer kit. One genestealer foot came with an extension for slotting into the base. I took that extension and merged it with the rubble to support the broodlord. The other foot and one knee provide additional support against the rubble. Even with the low weight of the plastic parts, the base had to be weighted. I used leftover metal bits underneath the base.
The marine was assembled whole, then sawed apart. I used green stuff to give him an acidic, melting look. I tried to make it look like the broodlord had zipped by, leaving the space marine to slowly slide apart in a cool, anime style.
As with all of my tyranids, the broodlord has no eyes since I am a big fan of the movies Alien and Aliens. In this case, the eyes were covered with a very small amount of green stuff.
The broodlord was my second tyranid model, and it remains one of my favorites. I love that only a little bit of his tail is actually over the base!
Check out the complete list of Warhammer 40K articles here.