So I decided my Emperor’s Knuckles Space Marine army (Squats, AKA spess dorfs) needed another HQ choice to go with the terminators I made.  My original plan was to get another 2nd edition plastic terminator sergeant and bling it out to make a captain, but then I came across this fellow:

This is a 1st edition Space Hulk Terminator Librarian from the Genestealer expansion.  Being plastic was a plus, as converting it was a breeze.  I didn’t even really need to shorten the legs by that much since the model is a fair bit smaller than the current terminator armored figs anyway.  The arms were another story, as they seemed to have been sculpted in a larger proportion than the legs, so I had to relocate them as well.  I got the dwarf parts from this guy:

Unfortunately, Finecast, despite being fragile when you drop it, is actually pretty hard to cut into if you want to do an extensive mod like this.  I ended up having to cut off the bits of the guy I wanted in larger chunks with a sprue cutter before whittling out what I could with a hobby knife and finally breaking out the dremel tool to get to the finer points.  Freeing up the beard from the pistol was a chore in itself.  I wanted to keep the geared hammer and replace the axe head of the force weapon as well as a few of the runic pouches, charms and random bits from the backpack.  Here’s how he came out.

And here he is with the terminator squad.  Due to librarians wearing blue armor and my characters having little red toboggans, he came out looking a bit reminiscent of Papa Smurf.

I’ll take some better pictures later, but here’s the first of five terminator armor clad squats for my Emperor’s Knuckles space marine army.  I have a standard power armor squat and a Dark Vengeance terminator in the pic for scale reference.  The squat terminators are made from the second edition plastic terminators with the thigh from the legs chopped down and the shoulders dropped a bit.  A single power armor pauldron was used to close the faceplate.  While not being that much shorter overall than a standard terminator figure, they do make it seem as if the wearer wouldn’t be that tall due to the lowered arms and hidden face.

I thought I would be done with this template by now, but parts are getting very difficult.  The vanes on the front fins went through several revisions (mainly the little humps they connect to) before I found one that had a good balance between simplicity and looking the part.  Now the weapons for the upper turret, the underside weapons and antennae and the undercarriage detail are giving me hell.  I also have to take breaks on this to finish my articles and build various print & play games to review, so its going to be another week or two before this thing is finalized.

The paper version is on the right in both pics.  The model in the left is a plastic kit I assembled and painted that I’m using for reference.

Slowly working my way through painting 23 ork grots/gretchin/snotlings/runtz/whydotheyhavesomanydifferentnames.  I don’t even play orks or plan on using them as allies ever, so I’ll probably sell them once I’m done.  Thinking about auctioning them off for charity.  I usually do something for Toys for Tots every year, so I’ll probably donate the proceeds to that.  Heh, “Grots for Tots”, anyone?

Anyway, this little guy is mostly right off the sprue from the kit, minus the extra bits from the base.  I drilled out the barrel of the big pistol and swapped out the whackin’ stick for the pointing hand.  The base is covered with various grenades, a promethium tank, a small bomb and a meltabomb on a timer currently at  0:03.  The gretchin is pointing at his wonderful find of ‘splodey ‘tings and calling out for his buddies to come look.  I like making scenes that tell a story.

I do need to get a better camera for macro shots (between papercrafting and gaming its about all I shoot).  This was hell to get a steady shot from a borrowed Sanyo X1400.  I’m thinking of picking up a Cannon Elph.

So here’s the work I’ve got done on making a paper Eldar Wave Serpent today.  There is still a lot of work left, but the basic shape is done.  The engine intakes need to be adjusted to look properly round from all angles, then the paneling detail around the edges and the vents behind will be worked into the engines.  The troop compartment is done, as is about half of the underside.  I still have no clue how I’m going to go about making the weapons options for the turret.  Flat weapons wouldn’t work for something this large, though rounded tubes would make the bright lances look more like long barreled lascannons.  Oh well, I’ll figure something out.  I should have the intake vents and the engines finished tomorrow.  If all goes well, the kit will be online before I leave for the beach this weekend.

I took some leftover space marine bits and a plastic ork gretchin miniature and kitbashed them together to make this guy.  The head had the rounded part of the neck filed flat and the back section drilled out to fit the grethin’s neck.  Two holes were drilled in the sides and I carved the ears off of one of the plastic gretchin heads and glued them in.  The chainsword had the middle section removed and was drilled and pinned together to replace the metal pipe the grethin was holding.  The space marine bolt pistol was an easy swap since I just had to remove the big pistol upper half and could keep the same hand and handle.  The backpack was a pain since I has to cut off the lower two exhaust ports, chop out the middle and fuse the left half to the right side.  A little bit of sanding and a lot of liquid greenstuff helped.  I drilled a hole in the underside of the pack as well as on the gretchin so I could mount it on his back.  I added the frag grenade to his belt and modified his feet to fit the sloped terrain I made for the base.  This little guy is now my favorite kitbashed miniature I’ve made.

Here’s my paint job for The Red Gobbo.  A friend over at the local game shop gave me this figure a few weeks ago.  I discovered that Gobbo here goes for $40 to $60 online, and the mini I was given was in perfect condition in the box.  I told the guy who gave it to me and he lets me keep it anyway provided I don’t plan on selling it.

Phantom Capsule is a papercraft minis game developed by Little Roller Papercraft.  The players take control of a CRADLE, which is a type of mecha used to defend cities from horrible creatures spawned from other dimensions intent on devouring the city’s perpetual reactor.  I’ve been building a copy of the game to test out and review for a homebrew games article I’m writing for Games Magazine.  You can download the rules and all the pieces required to play here:

http://littleroller.blogspot.com/p/play-phantom-capsule.html

Oh, and this is great background music to have playing during a game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5xfIcR4-tA

The Purplecrons now have a MONOLITH.  Well, sort of.  It’s paper.  Twelve sheets, to be exact.  Three more and I could have built a ‘friggin Thunderhawk.  So many sub-assemblies and layers.  Took quite a bit of ink to print out the swatches to match the paint colors too.

Closeup of all dem deathmarks.  I first tried out the color scheme for the army on one of them, and it sold me on it.

The plain Necron lord with Rez orb was an interesting piece to build.  I never do seem to get any good photos of the sculpting work on the cloak.

a shot showing the regular necron warriors.  Painting 32 of these guys was an effort.  8 points of white, 18 points of silver, 7 points of green, 2 shade washes and 2 spots of black were applied to each figure.

The auction is still up on ebay right now.  Please feel free to bid on it.

I’ve had these finished for a while now, but broke them out last night for some photos.  T-Pain (Short for Talos Pain Engine) works amazingly well with my allied Wraithlord.  Larry here usually bites the dust after he and his wracks burninate a squad, but Anthanaz and T-Pain are amazing in 6th ed.  Need a bastion smashed?  Warlord wrecked?  Dominate a daemon prince?  They’re up for it.