Monday 25 March 2019

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.

32 comments:

  1. The 3/4 shot of the captain is definitely his golden angle, He really turned up nice. The conversions on this band are really subtle and discrete because of the rigud theme but they really make the gang coherent and hence realistic (you get what I mean).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know what you mean about that 3/4 shot JB - it nicely shows off the bolter and the hanging strap. I've got a couple more conversions planned for this lot and then I'll get down to gaming with them!

      Delete
  2. Nice work. That captain looks like he's hankering to crack somebody's skull!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think that's a view shared by many in law enforcement!!

      Delete
  3. Love the variety of the conversions!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Tom! When they're all mixed in with some standard helmeted guys, it's nice to have the variety.

      Delete
  4. I am loving how you put these together. Finally some other angles of the captain so I can get a decent look at it. It's a well painted satisfactorily unique visually cohesive force that you can get on the table, an achievement we all can all envy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think I tend to default to front on catalogue style photographs, and as JB said, maybe that's not the captain's best angle! I think I could possibly field a small 2nd edition army of Arbites (3 small squads). Not to be sniffed at!

      Delete
  5. Great conversions. Interesting choice to go helmetless for some of them but it seems to work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kym. I've got 12 other helmeted troopers, so I reckon having a few without is fine ;)

      Delete
    2. It's more than fine, I just meant in the sense you can't imagine Judge Dredd taking off his helmet and these guys are obviously based on him.

      Delete
    3. Oh absolutely, Dredd should never be seen without his helmet!

      Delete
  6. Can't think of anything witty to say....is good Jon.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Amazing conversions as usual, great way to take two identical minis and make them individuals with just one part swap.

    I'd never realised before how close the arms on those shotgun toting Arbites are to the old plastic arms for Space Marines either.

    I'm currently taking my own sweet time to convert a load of cheaply aquired Warzone Bauhaus troops into an Arbites squad, hopefully with pictures when they're completed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Carmine. Head swaps are great for adding variation for minimal work.

      As for the plastic arms - there's a note on Jes Goodwin's concept sketches for the v1 Adeptus Arbites that reads "plastic marine arms"...!

      Delete
    2. Ah, such a sly old fox, that JG, but he can't fool me!

      Delete
    3. It's interesting. It always makes me wonder if there were plans to make armless metal bodies to go with the plastic arms (like so many of the models from that era).

      Delete
  8. Excellent work as always. My favorite of this bunch is the sniper conversion, probably because I love the underlying figure so much! Always fun to see what can be done with it.

    It would have been fun if the new Necromunda had reused some of the old house guns, but I guess that ship has sailed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That aiming Van Saar is one of my favourites too. Funnily enough, I wasn't 100% sold on the Van Saar when they came out in 1995, but I think they've aged really well.

      Delete
    2. Same for me, they seemed a bit goofy back in '96 when I got into GW, and I think some of that is that green paint job they were always featured in. With a modern desaturated blue grey they would have looked a lot better... (not that the beards and mullets helped much)

      Delete
    3. I think it was the green suits that did it really. I've seen them in grey and sandy colours and the beards look fine!

      Delete
  9. Looking great! The head swap there adds a nice bit of variety, and that Captain is a seriously impressive Conversion. Anyone who thinks that sounds simple has clearly never done an involved Conversion with metal Models. He looks sort of like Jason Statham once painted, which is pretty badass. The Shock Maul looked a bit cheesy in the bare metal, but painted up really nicely as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! There's no doubt that converting metal takes more brute force than plastic, but I think it behaves in a much more predictable way. It was a long drag to get him built nonetheless!

      You're the second person to point out the likeness to Jason Statham too!! That's the casting for the film sorted then ;)

      Delete
    2. I feel like I've always had a bit of an affinity for plastic, always felt it easier to work with. But I can totally understand the preference for metal as well.

      Delete
    3. Old habits die hard I guess! I so use plastic of course, but metal is definitely the material of choice :)

      Delete
  10. It's difficult to come up with something original to say about these after all the comments that I agree with, so I will reiterate that I really like the rarely seen "space cop" colour scheme on these.

    Quality work Axiom!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks cheetor! I'm absolutely in awe of your own black-clad space police. Glad you like my slightly brighter colour scheme :)

      Delete
  11. Everything has been said by now, but I still have to say that your work is inspirational. Making conversions on an Arbites theme is not that easy, as you have some uniform constraints, but you solved every issue perfectly, I'm impressed. Wonderful work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Suber! Really glad you like them. I've pretty much exhausted my ideas for Arbites with the last couple I'm making though :D

      Delete
  12. Really nice work axiom - from conception to execution.

    ReplyDelete