Most of the building is finished, I just need to sculpt a few more arms on the Commissar markers. I also got the tanks glued to the bases. I used 30 minute epoxy for this, as I wanted something a little more supstantial that super glue.
I came up with a heavy flamer for the Salamander Command, they're a multi-melta from the plastic Squat Trikes. I reworked the barrels a little bit to look more flamer-ish.
The Baneblades are all done as well. They got twin heavy bolter sponsons, a new heavy bolter in hull turret, and new lascannon barrels that made them match the Leman Russ more.
The Stormhammers all got their heavy bolter turrets as well. They weren't too bad once I drilled out the old barrel.
Finally, here's more first pass on the color scheme. Thoughts? I was shooting for something suitably 90s GW. It's not to the level of the Eldar, more a tabletop level I think.
Still working on the conversions. The fish eyes came in so most of the tanks got them glued on. I still need to make some hatch plugs for some Salamanders and the Baneblade but that's mostly done. I also finished the Commissar plugs aside from sculpting the arms on them.
The Salamander Scouts got their autocannons this week. I ended up hacking apart a Chimerax turret, brass wire and a plastic tube that I drilled out to make the muzzle. One turret got me two autocannons. I'm still thinking on the Command, I think I'm going to try and make a heavy flamer like the Hellhound's cannon out of plastic.
The Exterminators got muzzles for their twin autocannons as well. I drilled out a plastic tube and cut away a small bit down the side so I could fit them side-by-side. They came out all right I think.
While I can appreciate the access 3D printers have brought to this hobby (and Epic in particular) my heart still yearns for a time when if you needed a unit that wasn't commercially available you converted it. You see conversions less and less these days, so I thought I'd try a little challenge: finish a 3k army without any 3d printing or custom casting shortcuts. We'll see how this goes, but I'd like to finish this up before NEAT this year (normally held at the end of June, but still tentative given the world right now).
For the army I went with Imperial Guard, specifically Minervans using the old SM/TL models. I thought it was fitting to use models that are pushing 25–30 years old as it adds to the nostalgia factor for me. Minervans also offer plenty of opportunities for easier conversions what with all the vehicle variants.
I didn't do anything special for the Manticores, aside from snipping off the wrecking ball on the back of their launcher. I have some 1/8" diameter adhesive fish eyes coming, they're used to make lures but I think they'll work out great as hatches. I plan to put a hatch on each one on the right hand side, as this will be useful for my Commissar characters (see below).
The Salamander Scouts and Command are the most intensive conversions in this army, the back compartment was made out of plasticard square tubing and strips, filed and cut at different angles. The autocannons are nearly done, but I'm still trying to think of something for the heavy flamers aside from a plasticard build. These will get the hatches as well.
The Exterminators just got some brass wire as autocannons, I'm going to try and put some muzzle details on the end. I doubt putty will stick to them so I'll likely try heating up and bending some thin plasticard strips. You can see my plans for Commissars here, I'm making plugs that I'll be able to move around. When a vehicle doesn't need a Commissar I'll just have some hatch plugs to put in their place.
Finally, the only change I made to the Shadowswords was to use Squat heavy bolters for the sponsons. Not too bad, but then I realized I had to do 12 of them for the Storm Hammers… You can also see my Supreme Commander dude there as well, I need to sculpt his arms still.
I haven't felt much like painting this year so I needed something different to kickstart myself back into it. I started Defender X for Monsterpocalypse a couple of weeks back and finished him up this weekend. I tried painting him last year but wasn't a fan of how the purple was coming out. After a bit of ink and contrast paint mixing I got something that I was happy with, here's the result.
