Reinforcements at Precinct 47 - Adeptus Arbites

In a few weeks time a few of us from my gaming group will be starting up a new mini Necromunda campaign whilst some of the other folks run a Warhammer 30k / Horus Heresy campaign.

I've decided to dust off my Adeptus Arbites/Enforcers using the Venator rules from White Dwarf. Selecting a team wearing mesh armour and armoured undersuits, toting shotguns and bolters is a pretty good approximation. I already had a good number of Arbiters painted, but had only really used them as NPCs and had never used them in a campaign. It was also a good opportunity to round out my groups and add in some specialists and characters.

So far I've painted five new models which line up with modern Necromunda rules and weapons. These include a new Captain, sniper specialist and three troopers.

All of the figures have been painted up to match my earlier Adeptus Arbites - a standard grey uniform with white helmets and blue accents.

An unmodified trooper from 1992 on the left. The 1990 trooper has been given a new head taken from a Confrontation bounty hunter.

Comparison of a previously painted 1990 helmeted trooper next to the converted one.

I used the helmeted head from another 1992 trooper to convert a Van Saar ganger into a sniper trooper.

The head used on the shotgun trooper is from a Rogue Trader Imperial Guardsman.

I selected a Van Saar ganger as it met my pose requirements, and also shared a lot of characteristics to the Adeptus Arbites models in terms of bulk and the characteristic ridged pads. I added the helmeted head, lasgun barrel from a RT plastic gun, and sculpted the groin armour and belt. The large right shoulder pad was made from a cut down space marine pad with a press mould copy of the winged fist symbol. Its not perfect, but once painted I think it gives the right effect.

Although there are differences in the armour, these can be easily be explained away by different specialisms/roles.

The final figure I made for the group was a new Captain. Whilst I like the 1992 pointing eagle-hatted Adeptus Arbite Champion, his shotgun isn't really what I wanted my leader to be equipped with. Nothing says 'Imperial rule' better than a boltgun, and I wanted my Captain to be armed with this iconic and effective weapon.

The figure is converted primarily from three different figures. The original Jes Goodwin champion, a space marine veteran captain, and a Wolf Scout sergeant. 

I clipped away the original Adeptus Arbites left leg and replaced it with the bionic leg from the space marine captain. Similarly, the extravagant helmeted head was removed and replace with the space marine captain's head. I cut away the right arm and replace it with the boltgun hand from the wolf scout sergeant. Finally, I repositioned the left arm and added a shock maul from the 2000s Specialist Games Enforcer's weapons sprue.

In case that sounds simple, it was a long and frustrating process. Not least because my original reassembly gave the captain shoulders nearly as wide as he is tall. I took some advice and slimmed his shoulders down so he might actually be able to go through doors, and although it was a big chunk of re-work, it was definitely worth doing.

I painted up the Captain in the same colour scheme as his troopers, giving him a slick black coat to go over the top.

Part of the shoulder pad symbol was cast from a press mould, and them blended with the original.

All in all, whilst I might have done some of the conversion work a little different, I'm pretty happy with the final result.

I've got a few more figures on the workbench at the moment, so am hoping to also finish those off before we start the new campaign.