WIP - Ordos Xenos Valkyrie

My Ordos Xenos army was in need of a bit of transportation. Among other things, I chose a Valkyrie. Before I could get too far into the assembly or painting I had to complete the cockpit and crew bay first.

I began by priming the interior in black and followed that up with a heavy dry brushing of Army Painter gun metal. After that all had tried I applied a couple of coats of AK Interactive's Heavy Chipping fluid with my airbrush.

A coat of Tamiya Deck Tan was applied over that.

Using a damp stiff bristle brush I wore away the deck tan in areas of high wear.

After the details were painted I flowed it all up with an oil wash.

The cockpit was painted prior to being assembled.

More to come soon!

Kroot Mercenary

The Kroot Mercenary I started for my Ordos Xenos army is done! I'm quite happy with how he turned out. I tried to get a wood grain look on the stock. It doesn't look to bad to the eye but the close up takes a little away from it.

WIP - Kroot Mercenary

I've seen some pretty imaginative conversions using the humble Kroot. Their role of mercenaries in the 40k universe make them an ideal candidate for such work.

In my case I needed an Acolyte for my Ordos Xenos army. I happened to have a large bag of Kroot lying around that I picked up for a dollar at the local gaming store's annual Gamer's Garage Sale. I added several bits from my guard and a spare bolter. The carapace armor on his torso, and his knee pads were sculpted using pro-create. I also used pro-create to sculpt his had wrapped around the front of the bolter. I used micro beads for the snaps on his shoulder straps and polystyrene rod for the bolter shells on his lapel.

I thought that blending the bolter with the Kroot rifle would be a little more in keeping with the theme. Once everything had been assembled as shown above I thought it needed a few more tweaks. I removed the stock scope, added a couple of Picatinny rails and a scope from polystyrene. The sling is greenstuff.

After the rifle was complete I new I had to fix that head of his. I trimmed off his quills, drilled holes into the top and replaced the quills with ones made of polystyrene rod sharpened to a point.

Pictures of the finished model coming soon!

Ork Hunter

The first member of my Ordos Xenos Inquisitorial retinue is finished. I also took the time to complete a display base for him as I intend to take him around to the next round of model shows. He was created by combining some Victoria Miniatures legs with a Maxmini head and torso and Games Workshop arms, auto-gun, and scabbard along with a lot of green stuff.

I completed a couple of changes to him since my last post. Here you can see that he received a Mohawk. After some deliberation I also decided that he needed rolled up sleeves so I rolled out some green stuff and added those too.

After the sleeves had set,I put his pauldrons back in place and finished painting him using mostly Army Painter and Tamiya acrylics. 

I really wanted to create a nice display for this model but I didn't want him tied down to it. It was designed so that the 25mm base in the center would magnetize into the display but could be easily removed for game play.

I debated for a while about what type of base design I wanted, jungle, alien, industrial. Whatever it was it would have to applicable to the rest of my upcoming Ordo Xenos/Deathwatch Army. I finally settled on an industrial/ship deck theme which would apply well to a Space Hulk type feel. 

The display itself was crafted from a discarded dice box, some polystyrene and a casting of an Inquisition icon.

Not only is there a magnet on the top of the display, but also one inside so that the figure can be placed inside the safety of the dice box during transport.

The display was primed in black the top and the icon were dry brushed in a 1:1 mix of Army Painter gun metal and flat black. Army Painter and craft paints were used to finish out the icon. Gold and bronze were used for the 'I', Red and Valejo Hot Orange for the inside of the 'I', various off white craft paints for the skull, and a wash of soft tone to bring it all together.

The edge of the step was masked off and primed black again, and yellow hazard stripes were airbrushed on. Airbrush is the only way I've found to get a yellow worth a damn.

The hazard stripes were aged with a sponging of flat black and gun metal. After the display and base were done the figure was pined and added to the base.

Previous Posts

WIP - Catachan Ork Hunter

WIP - Custom Deathwatch Iron Hand

I've been a bit unproductive this month, but one thing I have been working on is a couple of Deathwatch Kill Team members to add to my Xenos Inquisitor Warband. I ordered the Deathwatch accessory pack from Games Workshop. The pack comes with 10 Deathwatch bolters, heads, and pauldrons. It's a bit pricey but I bought the one and can always make a casting of a pauldron if needed.

This Iron Hand has come together quite nicely.

I started with sculpting an Inquisition 'I' on the helmet.

Using some spare Mechanicus and Knight bits I modified the power pack. The bolts are cut from hex rods.

The lower portions of the legs are from legionary legs from Kromlech. The small skull on the right knee pad came from the back of the power pack. His right leg is lifted to set atop a slain tyranid head.

The bionic right leg is a combination of styrene tubes and rod as well as solder wire and a spherical bead for the hip joint. I also used a little bit of cable I made with my greenstuff tentacle maker.

The metal Deathwatch pauldron sets atop a modified bionic arm from Anvil Industries. I used some styrene to make a Clan Raukaan emblem for the left knee.

 I used styrene to sculpt an Iron Hand emblem for the right pauldron.

Tada!

WIP - Catachan Ork Hunter - Update

I got a little more work done this afternoon. My Catachan Ork hunter now has hair and a couple of souvenir Ork teeth hanging from his right shoulder guard.

WIP - Catachan Ork Hunter

This was a rather productive weekend. One of the things I was able to work on the Catachan Ork Hunter for my Inquisitorial Retinue. I reworked the shoulders adding armour to each side, one with an Inquisition icon cut out of aluminum sheet. I repositioned the rifle sling, and swapped out the ork axe with a less obtrusive sword & scabbard. I replaced the handle with a carved Ork tooth. I threw in an obligatory purity seal for good measure.

I still plan on adding some Ork tooth jewelry, and some hair.

WIP - Inquisitorial Retinue

Never satisfied with working on one project at a time, I've decided to start building an Inquisitorial Retinue. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I've decided to return to building my retinue. Quite some time back I completed my Inquisition Chimera.

I have settled on building an Ordos Xenos retinue. I like the idea of including a couple of Xenos models and xenos tech. I also plan on making more than one inquisitor and perhaps a few extra henchmen so that I can swap between Ordos based on game play. 

 In addition to the Chimera I have also completed a Ministorum Priest. I will definitely be rebasing him at some point and may even do some remodeling.

A Primaris Psyker is under construction using the Chaos Cultist box set. I will definitely be reworking this one to some extent.

I plan on including two Sisters of Battle and a Witch Hunter. I haven't decided if I'll be doing any modification to these models yet.

My first major conversion piece has been a Catachan Veteran Ork Hunter. He's still a work in progress as I let the green stuff set. He's outfitted with a weapon from an old citadel weapon sprue and his trophy ork axe. I plan on continuing the shirt sleeve on the right shoulder, cleaning up the left, adding some hair, a necklace of ork teeth, and perhaps an ork skull shoulder guard.

I'll be throwing in a Kroot warrior and may be converting a couple of Vostroyan snipers as well. 

Ministorum Priest Conversion

This conversion was accomplished using a Chaos Cultist. The head is from Maxmini. I created the staff using some styrene rod, the tip of a glue applicator, and a the Forgeworld icon shown below.

The head of the staff was created by molding and casting two copies of the Forgeworld Inquisition icon. They were then trimmed down to the icon only and glued back to back. The purity seals are also green stuff.

The book is green stuff sandwiched between styrene. The strap around the book is more green stuff and the skull was scraped off another model with a razor blade then applied to the book.

The censor, robes, and a good portion of the right arm are green stuff.

The original model used was the cultist pictured in the lower left of the box artwork shown below.