Space Marine Upcycling

My kid loves Space Marines, and there's no around it - they are cool. We've been searching through old trash boxes and found 30+ broken, badly painted marines. Some back from 2nd edition. We've been removing as much paint as possible. 

Now I'll convert at force with whatever bits I have from other auction job lots.

Devastators 

We need some devastators with big guns. I had a bunch of devastator weapons from some trades and will try and work them on the old 2nd edtition monopose marines. There's som size difference and it'll need a bunch of greenstuff to fit (and connect the wires to backpacks). 

Simple greenstuff connections. Most importantly is that there's a visble elbow armor, that will stand out when painted and washed. 

This guy was pretty maimed on the right side. Made a wire from the backpack to the helmet, will hide up this area good. 

Command Squad and HQ

I want one of each of the command and HQ choices, all the classics. So I've converted up a chaplain (cut a mace, to make it flat like the crozius).  

The command squad options so far is a company commander with a powerfist, cool helmet, banner and plasma pistol. Also made a champion (saw it listed on a real HQ box), a dude with a shield and a power sword. 

The librarian turned out really nice. Game him a power axe (that's pretty 90s classic) and a storm bolter - cause those are cool. Added some scrolls from bit box and added a book to his back, glued on a tooth pick as a 'banner' pole.

For the chaplain I've used a chaos spacemarine skull helmet. I've removed the chaos star and is left with a nice skull helmet. Found an iron halo for his backpack and a ton of purity seals for one side of him (to add some color to a black armor). 

We had 3 broken Terminators in the box. I found some terminator bits with better weapons and a resin power hammer from a anvil industry goodie bag. One have power claw and bolter. Assault Cannon and power fist. Thunder hammer and storm shield. 

I didn't have loose terminator shoulders, so did some cutting on their regular arms, to save the shoulders. Reworked a shoulder pad in green stuff for the right size. 

Instead of building the entire force (as I often do with projects), I base coated these first couple dudes. Will paint them and then move on to the next ones. These are mostly for toys and playing with. There's not really any rules in mind when working. 

I'm really excited about bringing life to some very old miniatures, all gotten as part of other lots or trades. A nice conversion project. And painting old 2nd edition monopose marines (my first ever miniatures) is awesome. 

Fantasy - Elementals

 I love elementals and always have. It is a perfect and classic fantasy monsters. Having backed all manner of kickstarters over the years, I also have a lot of different elemental miniatures. So here's a collection of some of them, big ones. All these are from the Blacklist Miniatures Fantasy Series 1 KS. 

Most of the Blacklist elementals are made in transluscent plastic, which makes for some quick paint work on them. A layers of matt varnish first, so a wash will stick to it. 

The fire elemental had some sepia wash and red wash. Then I drybrushed it (very lightly) with black. The based is made with dead grass and then it's painted black closest to the elemental, to give the look of burned grass. The eyes were picked out with yellow. 

The shambling mound / swamp elemental. Base coated green, drybrushed different lighter greens. Then I used some basing materials to add 'living' plants on it. The based is given a lot of life with tufts. I used an old broom to make the reed. 

The little dude fits well with the shambling mound. The living little tree is from Dreadball Extreme from Mantic Games. Base coated brown, drybrushed different browns and had flock added to the back. 

The ice elemental is cast in clear blue resing and is a limited edition thing from Kings of War: Vanguard kickstarter. I backed it mostly for the miniatures, sold off a bunch of it and ended with free miniatures. I matt varnished it and gave it glue wash. Then I added snow flock to his back. 

The small ice golem is from an old Mantic game - some elemental chess that I've forgotten the name of. The miniatures were dirt cheap. He's base coated dark blue and drubrushed light blue to white. 

Both are perfect for Frostgrave.

The water elemental is simple washed with a blue, then it's been drybrushed lightly with white (hard to see in photos from shine) on the back, so it looks a bit like foam on him. 

There's a lot of great earth elementals out there, I don't think this is a very good one. I painted him in different browns and some chunks to loke as stones. Then I added a lot of flock and tufts to him, like he's just been pulled from the ground. That saves the miniature and gives it some much needed detail.

It's pretty tough to paint air. ... The miniature is pretty well done though. I picked out the eyes and then gave the entire thing a sepia wash. It works quite well and it brings out the swirlyness of the sculpt. 

If you enjoy all manner of miniature blogging, follow some of the social media. I try to use all of them differently. You can find them on linktree. Also considere giving a look on Guilders: A Life In Shadows, a skirmish campaign game I'm working on. 

Terrain: Overview of the 3'x3' city

This is kind of a summary post. I've finished up a full 3'x3' board of painted city terrain. This areas is what Guilders: A Life In Shadows is written for, so it's a nice accomplishment to actually getting around to finishing it. Now it's all just about getting more clutter, more life and variation onto it. 

Here's a youtube video going over the different stuff. 

I have collected all the different blog posts about this project on this page right here: Fantasy City Board hub. 

When doing terrain I always take lots of photos and write step-by-step guides for it. My style is always simple and cheap techniques for huge upgrades. 

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Slugde: Shock Troopers and Cannon

Time for some more Sludge. For Sludge I got myself one box of Wargames Atlantic french ww1 troops, because it had so many masked heads. I also got a buch of Napoleonics (for hats) and Perry knights for armor. 

Shock Troopers

Shock Troopers are cool elite troops. They don't have bayonettes, they have melee weapons for storming trenches and can equip greanades. I decided to give them bear skin hats (and masks) to show their elite status. 

They have more armor than regular line infantry. I used Perry knight bodies (armor on torso and legs), but used a knife to could the leg armor into pants. The shock troopers are not fully armored. 

I assebled them with a mix of close combat weapons and carbine rifles. They carry the other set as gear. 

Cloaks added as on all the army with toilet paper / super glue. 

For story in the army, I've made sergeants on the command bases for the Line Infantry. These guys have the same gear as the Shock Troopers, to show that these can be put in command of line infantry. I used the ww1 frech sergent bodies for these (same defence as line infantry, so no armor plating on these). 

I made the hats/helmets/masks. Cut the helmet part of the ww1 head (so only the mask and brim remain). Cut face of a french napoleon soldier. Glue together. 

I went with the same color scheme for these. Yellow, grey, black, red. Heavy wash and drybrush. So all seems dirty, dusty, muddy. 

Artillery

I was gifted two cool little pieces of cannon. 3d resin prints, but not fitting the style of the first guy who got them. So they were passed to me. I made the crew from bits I had. Some ww1 sergeant bodies, some napoleonic bodies (the command frame had a carpenter in apron). Found some suitable bits in the bit box. Small axes, hammers, torch, made that 'clean the cannon' thing from a spear and a bit of greenstuff. Made cannon balls with green stuff and did some hand switching. 

The metal masks, whatever they are, are also from the ww1 french. Don't know what it's meant to be. Haven't seen them in real life. 

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If you want to try Sludge, then go and check it out from Wargames Vault. Blaster also contains all manner of other cool stuff. 

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