Converting Recon Marines and Chaplain Dreadnoughts

Just a quick post to show some building / converting I have done over the past two weeks: A small squad of Recon Marines with Nemesis Bolters, ready to be painted as a part of a small Raven Guard allied detachment for my Horus Heresy Blood Angels. And two Castra Ferrum Dreadnought, both of them the venerable Chaplain Dreadnought sculpt from ForgeWorld.

Pict 1469: Raven Guard Recon Marines (Conversion)

Pict 1470: Raven Guard Recon Marines (Conversion)

I had quite a few ideas floating around in my head after last month's campaign day. But one that just had to be done was to convert some Recon Marines with Nemesis Bolters. They do seem quite useful in the game and just look great! I plan to paint them as a small Raven Guard allied detachment – a small part of the shattered legion that lend their skills in forward deployment to my Blood Angels.
The models were converted using the plastic Mk VI marines. I removed some detail on the chest armour and replaced it with detailing reminicent of the Raven Guard Dark Furies. The cloaks are made with Green Stuff – at fist only the rough shape before attaching the backpack. Once that had cured I added smaller whisps of Green Stuff to the edges to make them look less uniform and lastly texturing them with a layer of Vallejo Plastic Putty roughly stippled on to hide some of the seams that I could not iron out. The Nemesis Bolters use parts of the Grey Knight's Interceptor backpacks – using the longer teleporter rods to extend the barrels and the shorter ones to create a sight on top.

Pict 1471: Mk IV Chaplain Dreadnoughts (WIP)

Whilst converting I also worked on this pair of Chaplain Dreadnoughts. Both of them are eBay rescues and one of them was in a somewhat sorry state. The one with Lascannon will be part of my Howling Griffons to represent Chaplain Dreadnought Armand Titus that was part of force that participated in the Badab War. The other one had a bit more surgery done to make it fit in more with my Heresy Blood Angels, most notably I used a Dremel to make space for one of the Forge World Mk IV Blood Angels helmets. I really enjoyed posing these two. Whilst the boxy frame can feel a bit clumsy I'm very happy with what I came up with – one of them braced on a rock to surveil the battlefield, the other leaning forward to get ready for close combat. I plan to paint at least one of them for this year's Dreadtober. Will I manage to paint both of them?

Meltas for all the Blood Angels

In the past few weeks, I was quite productive and finished up another set of Horus Heresy Blood Angels. With these under my belt, I also got around to some more Howling Griffons, that lay around for about a year.

Pict 1454: Blood Angels Melta Support Squad

Pict 1455: Blood Angels Melta Support Squad

Pict 1456: Blood Angels Melta Support Squad

I did not quite finish these Blood Angels in time for last week's Campaign day, but they were far enough to see play. After three amazing games, my mind was fired up with new ideas for my Heresy marines. And I really wanted to finish the Melta Support Squad, the Rhino and the two characters. Doing the highlighting took some time, especially glazing the red armour, but I'm very happy to have done it now. I love the way the heat bloom looks on the squad's Melta guns.

Pict 1457: Blood Angels Rhino

Pict 1458: Blood Angels Rhino

Pict 1459: Blood Angels Rhino

Pict 1460: Blood Angels Rhino

The Support Squad also got their dedicated transport of a Rhino. Again using the Mars pattern but with the ForgeWorld Icon on one side and an additional icon on the back hatch. The big flat panels of the vehicle really lend themselves to weathering such as scratches. Really god fun to paint up!

Pict 1461: Blood Angels Moritat and Boarding Marine

Pict 1462: Blood Angels Moritat and Boarding Marine

The Moritat did get to do a bit in Zone Mortalis, winning me one game by running down the enemy Warlord. They even improved over the games, since there was a character experience system in place. I was originally not perfectly happy with the pose, especially the sword is quite hidden. But theay have grown on me and I can't wait to use them in some more games.
The Boarding Marine came out great as well. I painted them up to fit into my Breacher squad but I guess they will see litte time on the gaming table. It's really a shame that there is no regular way to kit out a Breacher squad with melee weapons.

Pict 1463: Howling Griffons Veterans purging a Zone Mortalis

Pict 1464: Howling Griffons Veterans

After finishing the Blood Angels, I got right onto another set of Space Marines and finished up six more Howling Griffons that I started last October. I said back then, that the highlights should not take long. And in fact I managed to do it during the course of a morning – only about a year later... Nevertheless, I'm very happy with the way they came out. They are a bit rougher than the Blood Angels – perfectly fitting for smaller games set during the Badab War!

Pict 1465: Blood Angels Kharybdis Assault Claw (WIP)

One last thing, the campaign day inspired me to do, was to stick together this Kharybdis Assault Claw. Its a massive beast, weighing in at pretty much exactly one kilogram of ForgeWorld resin! I purchased the Kharybdis used and took it apart at the start of the year. And having now put it together and even started basecoating it, I'm super happy with it and can't wait to get it to th tabletop once more. (Of course it saw about five minutes of game time before getting shot out of the sky...)