More Heavy Gear and Ultramarine Chaplain

2 new Southern Iguana's completed. One will be attached to and be the forward observer for a Fire Support Cadre. The other will be attached to a Veteran GP Squad, also with forward observer duties.

First up is the Iguana piloted by Specialist A.J. "Knifey" McGee. A.J. is a recon specialist with a background in wet work and black ops both in and out of his Gear. He is known for his use of the knife for the silent kill and that has translated into his usage of the vibro blade for anti-Gear work.

Its hard to see but he has 4 knives. Two sheathed at his hips along with the obvious two in his hands.

I also swapped out the standard Vibro blades for Space Marine combat knives. I felt they looked more vicious and they were also far easier to work with and attach being plastic.

Next up is Trooper Maggie "Hot Lips" Houlihan. Her nickname doesnt describe her social skills but rather the fact that as a forward observer for the Fire Support Cadre her kiss brings hot firey death upon her foes.

Lastly here is another kitbashed IC for my Ultramarines 2nd Company. With this Chaplain I now have the full 2nd Company including all IC's and command squad and they are all in plastic.

As can be seen he is a Jump Chaplain and tags along with the assault squads. He has been in the wars a bit as the mechanical replacement left arm and leg will attest. He is also armed with one of the chapters oldest weapons. A Heresy era plasma pistol. The Chaplain helmet was built following Ron's from "From the Warp" tutorial.

Kitbashing - fun for the whole family

Recently, Ron over at FTW put up a post on converting your independent characters. (http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2011/04/converting-your-independent-characters.html) In it he talked about a number of ways to do this.

I want to talk about my favourite method which is kitbashing. With the plethora of plastics this makes things much easier than it used to be.

Because I am at the stage where my army is fully built I find myself spending much of my time making my IC's looking awesome. I am also on a drive to purge all metal from my Smurfwing army to make it as light and easy to transport as possible.

I enjoy kitbashing as you can get a great look without resorting to too much greenstuff or cutting. I love going through my bits box or perusing bits sites looking for inspiration for my next mini.

Anyways, on to my 3 IC's for my army. Captain, Librarian and Chaplain.

Captain:

First up. Captain Agemman of the First Company. I have previously posted this chap but I am going to explain a bit about how and what I used to build him.

Firstly, he is mostly based off the Chaos Terminator Lord. His legs, torso, arms and cloak come from that kit. Other bits come from: Tactical Marine Box, Venerable Dreadnought box, Dark Angels Veteran upgrade, Space Wolf Terminator box and forgeworld.

Firstly I greenstuffed in all the holes in his cloak to make it less tatty.I then cut away the chaos bits off his legs and replaced them with a DA terminator shoulder shield and a banner top.

Torso was made by cutting up the chaos torso and then cutting and fitting in the front of a venerable dreadnought. Some minor GS was used to make sure they blended into each other.

Apart from that everything is standard. So with a nights worth of cutting and GS I have made a very unique looking IC that looks good and that stands out.

Librarian.

When I saw the new GKT box I just knew I had to use the bits to make a librarian. They came with a ready made Hood for instance. I have also previously posted a model I made to use as a librarian and I admit that I used the arms off that model for the new one.

The majority of the chap is from the  GKT box. However there are bits from the Sanguinary Guard, Assault Terminators and the DA veteran box. There was no cutting involved in making him and only a teeny bit of Greenstuff to cover up some of the GK iconography on the left leg and the hip guards.

Not much work but again, I am left with a unique and good looking librarian who stands out on the table top.

Chaplain

Now this guy is my pride and joy. I am so thrilled with how he came out. He actually has the most GS work done on him, primarily on the helmet. I used one of Rons tutorials for this(http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2010/11/chaplain-skull-helmet-conversion.html)
I learned that this takes a lot of effort for a novice like me so have commissioned him for a second helmet that is going onto another Chaplain that I have planned.

This guy has bits from all over. Torso came from from the Chaos Terminator Lord with the iconography removed and a random skill put in its place. Legs from the GKT kit. Shoulder pads from Forge world. Storm bolter arm from the Terminator Kit. Combat arm from the Chaos Lord kit and the horrifying flail bit from an Empire Flagellant. The skull that makes up his helmet came from one of the new Tomb King Boxes.

I wanted to make him as vicious looking as possible which is why didnt give him a traditional Crozius. This flail makes him look like he is bringing it down onto the bodies of the Emperors Enemies.

So there we go. Three IC's that have been built by kitbashing and looking good. Have a look in your bits box and see what you can come up with.