Tuesday 28 January 2020

The Hunter in the Shadows - Venator Sniper

With a new Necromunda campaign due to start in about 2 weeks, I've had to acknowledge that I won't have time to get the Helmawr gang finished in time. They'll just have to sit on ice for a while, and instead I can add a handful of new figures to the Venators. I've worked out that with the Venator ogryn, I only really need another 3 figures to have a viable gang with plenty of options.


One of my favourite specialists in any gang is the long ranged shooter - that guy armed with the high powered rifle and a selection of scopes who can pick of opposing fighters at range.



My Venators currently are exclusively equipped with mid-short range weaponry, so it was high time I added a sniper into the mix.

This guy is built from the legs of a Rogue Trader Imperial Guardsman, the upper torso of the Dungeonquest elf and modern plastic Skitarii arms. I think the sight comes from a FW accessory pack.


I spliced the IG legs with the elf's torso after snipping away the original arms. Then it was a simple case of fixing the new arms and filling the gaps. I also added a couple of new pouches and reworked the combat knife as a small axe using a small scrap of plasticard. The mask was sculpted over the top of the elf's original face.


I painted him up in a little bit of a rush, but I think he looks OK against his team-mates.


You might be able to see from the painted pics that I reworked and enlarged the mask's nose as I wasn't happy with it from my first attempt!



I think all in all he works OK and fits in well enough with the rest of the crew!


29 comments:

  1. Great figure, and quite a conversion. Aside from the skitari gun he looks like an original figure.

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    1. Thanks! Wouldn't that be great if Citadel had produced a couple of armless Venators to use with plastic arms like the other Confrontation gangs?

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    2. If we are wish-listing, why not wish for the figures to be more available generally? ;)

      But yes, it would have been great, and then you could have an even bigger gang. Although on the other hand, then you would not make great conversions like this one.

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    3. I guess we could make lists as long as our arms really! There's always more I'd love to have been made, but after reconsidering, I'd settle for a period caryatid model :D

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  2. Another amazing member for this awesome gang!
    It's a testament to your conversion skill that you can draw parts from multiple ranges and eras of the hobby and make them look totally cohesive.

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    1. Thanks very much! I love that part of the process - scouring the catalogues for just the right part - whether it was produced in 1987 or 2017!

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  3. I've only just discovered your stuff, and am instantly hooked!
    I'm comparatively new to the hobby, I've only been doing it for about 5 or 6 years, but I do dabble lightly in conversions, and I just love how well you convert and kitbash with a mix of modern plastic and older metal sculpts!

    I'd really like to try a few conversions similar to your's, and I wondered where you get your older warhammer miniatures from. Do you get them all in one place, or just wherever you can find them?

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    1. Thanks very much! Really glad you like the figures. Seeing converted figures is probably my favourite part of the hobby :)

      There's plenty of older figures in circulation - ebay is the best option if you search for 1980s or Rogue Trader figures. There are a couple of Facebook groups too - try the Oldhammer Trading group (for late 1980s-early 1990s) or Middlehammer Trading group (for mid-1990s to early 2000s).

      The Stuff of Legends Citadel pages and Collecting Citadel Miniatures Wiki are great resources for researching figures too. Good luck!

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  4. Man, you are on fire. Once again you nailed it. The feel is perfect, it looks totally part of the band. Wonderful job

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  5. I'm echoing the others when I say it's a perfect fit. I'm always impressed with the vision people exhibit when they hack together a bunch of different model bits and some green stuff to get an amazing build like this. Do you see a fig and get inspired? Or hunt through your figs looking for the 'right bum to use' or what? Is there a process?

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    1. Thanks! I guess I approach converting one of two ways. The first is spontaneous- literally hunting through my figures to find a head or arm that will work. I tend to do this when there's no particular theme I'm working to.

      The second approach (and probably the way I use most often) is when I'm making a figure that stylistically matches to something else, like this Venator. Then I spend time looking for specific elements in catalogues and places like Stuff of Legends. I often source specific figures from ebay or trade groups for a particular conversion. I try to mock-up an image to see if the conversion will work before committing to a cut too!

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  6. Interesting. How do you do the image mockups? Photoshop some cropped images together?

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    1. Pretty much exactly that - I use Paint to grab images from catalogues and mockup a figure.

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  7. Your ability to take such different miniatures and jam them together so well is just amazing!

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    1. Thanks very much! I think the key is to try and disguise the join. With this guy the rifle across his waist, added pouches and the axe all help to blur the join line. Hopefully the figure looks more integrated as a result.

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  8. Really atmospheric & high-class work again!

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  9. The orange alone makes the color scheme just work! Without the orange the whole scheme would've bordered on the dull side. But here they look great!

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    1. I absolutely agree. I envisaged the orange as being a clan thing almost.

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  10. Feel like the Skitarii gun really adds to the lovely old-school feel and look of this one. Every gang should have a long ranged specialist, else who's going to keep their larders full of Necro-varmints? :)

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    1. Thanks Dai. I'm in full agreement, a long-range sniper is essential!

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