New beginnings; cavalry, an elite trooper and a fortess monastery

This month I moved house. Between that and work the modelling was light. Despite this there was some interesting progress…

Cavalry

For my birthday I splurged on 30 of Col. Gravis’s Praetorian Rough Rider conversions, and they are fantastic. If you were thinking of getting some, DO! I can’t stress enough how much I love these and how grateful I am to Col. Gravis for allowing us poor sculptor’s access to them. I also got hold of 30 Marauder horses. The RR kits are sculpted to be mounted on outrider horses. If you have the choice definitely put them on these (WH Outriders/Pistoleers that is). I didn’t think the marauder horses would be much different but they are. I have had to take large chunks off of the saddle to get them to fit. Then I had to add some green stuff to the rider’s legs to get a snug fit.

On the horse I filled off the ‘spiky’ bits, the chaos symbols, part of the reins and added an equipment box from a SM bike.

I also started making up the lances. I wanted them to be over scaled like all the 40k weapons and to look a bit like the original ones. I used copper rods, an elf spear top, plastic card, a WF flag, Gravis’s lance end and a spear tip as the hilt. I started out using plastic tube but I didn’t think they would be strong enough and would end up braking during games, so I changed to copper rods. I am going to paint Gravis’s lance end as the explosive power charge.

I cut off the riders hand and rotated it 90 degrees so I can have him holding the reins. If you are using these kits with the secret weapon heads (also scalped by Col. Gravis) it’s really important to drill out the neck so the head fits in nicely and he doesn’t have a long neck. I always do this whenever I swap any head.

Still a WIP, but I’d like any feedback and comments if you have some.

I have included a few shots of my first attempt at cavalry years back. The bikes are old rouge trader jet bikes. After I finish my new improved cavalry I think I will resurrect a squad of 5 of these old beauties.

  

Elite trooper

I converted this guy from a Kasrkin storm trooper one night this week. I had been looking at this cool praetorian pic (Praetorian Life Guard by jeenhoong on deviantart.com) and just stated hacking up the storm trooper without any real plan. Usually that is a bad thing. In this case however I’m not sure. I’m opening it up to the world- do I do the rest of the squad or retire this guy as a one off? (Keeping in mind that I’m not the most skilled sculptor in the world).

I also have a few Ogryns on the work bench…

Fortress monastery

The last thing I have been playing with is this Blood Angles Fortress Monastery. I started it years ago and actually forgot all about it. I found it again whilst moving and roughly laid out some of the bits. It will fit on two 2x2 foot sections, so I could turn one of them into an army on parade base if I wanted. I had started adding plaster/clay detailing before packing it up. This hooded chap was holding a sword which has broken off.

I will post up more as it progresses.



Advice, recommendations, comments, opinions, observations, criticisms, critiques, or just random remarks will be enjoyed and appreciated. :)