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| Beastmen Renegades by Tony Ackland (from Slaves to Darkness). |
Following my initial trio of beastmen, here are the remaining figures needed to fill my 6-strong squad rolled up for my Chaos Champion's retinue. This time the trio also includes the squad's heavy weapon, giving my warband it's only significant firepower!
The first of this group is a hulking bruiser of a beastman made from one of the early space marine scouts. Like the previous figures, the conversion is essentially a head and foot swap (beast parts from yet another RT beastman with combat weapons), with some sculpting to conceal the joins.
I also added a little narc stick by gluing a short length of paperclip into a hole I drilled in the corner of his mouth. The eyepatch is a little nod back to the original scout (who also sports an eyepatch).
The squad's heavy weapon is supposed to be a heavy bolter, but I elected to use the Chainsaw Warrior with reaper cannon as the base for the model. It allows me to be a little more flexible as to which weapon it could represent across a couple of different games.
I carefully cut the Chainsaw Warrior's head away to retain the head-mounted sight, and tried to bulk up the legs with additional armour and a support frame to avoid the figure looking too top-heavy.
I'm pretty pleased with the resulting figure - it has a nice sense of weight and motion I think.
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| Oops! Just realised I didn't paint the pistol in his left holster - I'll go back and rectify that! |
The final figure of this group is my favourite of the lot. I wanted to try and evoke a little of the imagery of the 40k beastmen pictured in Tony Ackland's illustration from Slaves to Darkness (see above). I felt the best way of doing this was to recreate a visor in homage to the visors, goggles and sights that Tony's beastmen are festooned with.
Once again, this is a Rogue Trader Imperial Guardsman (with a lasgun that will count as an autogun). I did the same recipe head and leg swap, just adding a wrap-around visor in addition to the other details.
Given that this guy looks like he fancies himself to be a little more stylish than his fellows, I decided to give him white fur and a mirrored red finish to his natty visor.
As a group, I think they really give the impression of being 100% Rogue Trader. They're sufficiently full of menace to easily be renegades, but can also happily join up with Imperial forces as they have no overt chaotic imagery.
I think making these has been one of my favourite projects for some time, and I can't wait to add some more to the squad.
Read more about this warband
Part 1 - Creating the Warband
Part 2 - Ratling Renegades
Part 3 - Renegade Inquisitor
Part 4 - Beastmen
What a unit!
ReplyDeleteLove the visor and the leg supports.
Cheers! I am pretty self-satisfied with the visor, I have to say :D
DeleteBrilliant conversions and you have succeeded in making them look like the RT ones should have.
ReplyDeleteThat's great to hear - exactly what I was aiming for!
DeleteSuch good builds! I'm really liking the colour palette too.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much! I'm really fond of that particular grey I have to say. I hadn't used it with red until I started the warband though.
DeleteThat Chainsaw warrior conversion might just be my favorite 'Rogue trader' conversion ever!!
ReplyDeleteThat's high praise! As folks have said, he's a bit over-sized in a standard RT Guard squad, but all bets are off when he's got a goat head ;)
DeleteThis squad is nothing short of beautiful. Your conversion skills are masterful. The heavy weapon and albino beast are just gorgeous examples. What a unit!
ReplyDeleteThere's something immensely satisfying about making a figure that never actually got produced. I'm really pleased everyone seems to like these boys as much as I do!
DeleteNice work they look great!
ReplyDeleteThanks Simon!
DeleteAny words I can come up with are simply such an understatement. Glorious work (again!)
ReplyDeleteThanks Suber!
DeleteWow these guys are absolutely awesome!! I love them!
ReplyDeleteGlad you like them :)
DeleteGreat work!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kym!
DeleteI really like that with those new guys, the group has different body types which is essential I think to offset the uniforms.
ReplyDeleteIt's fantastic and suitably ambiguous to make them either chaotic or loyal I think.
I think that lack of uniformity was key really. If they were all parade-perfect with identical gear, a lot of the impact would be lost. Having a smug sleek guy with a visor in the same group as a muscle-bound, one-eyed smoker reinforces that ill-disciplined nature.
DeleteI actually think I prefer these slightly ambiguous versions than if I'd gone full Imperial or chaos. Thanks JB!
These minis look fantastic. As always I am impressed with the care and thoughtfulness you put into the conversions. Keep'em coming, this is my inspiration!
ReplyDeleteThanks Stephen. I sometimes think I spend too long thinking about which figures and parts to use for conversions. Sounds like you think it's a worthwhile process though!
DeleteLess is always more and those little green stuff additions contribute so much to the end result. Nice work!
ReplyDeleteThanks very much!
DeleteYou are an artist with the green stuff. The beastmen look amazing.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about an artist! I'm in awe of anyone who can sculpt full figures in proportion! More of a back-street scrawler perhaps ;) Thanks!
DeleteThis is a great piece of work. You've really harnessed the genericness of the Rogue Trader human armour designs – they're so under-designed by today's standards that as soon as you switch the head for a non-human one you struggle to identify the miniature! Really clever work.
ReplyDeleteThanks Curis. It really helps that there was variation within the RT Imperial Guard figures as well - everything from huge over-sized shoulder pads to Vietnam-style fatigues. There's a lot to be thankful for!!
DeleteWow mate, just wow! I wish GW had made more of these back in the day that look just like this. So impressed, really.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dai! In an ideal world there would have been 15 different vintage figures I could have selected from! I've enjoyed filling the gap though.
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