A few more Rogue Trader era/Slaves to Darkness conversions

 I am still in the process of sorting out my Rogue Trader era Chaos Space Marines into their respective armies. I am looking to revisit my Rogue Trader Traitor Legion project which I started way back in 2015/2016 (well, in 1988 if we want to go way back!).

The idea is to have a 10,000 point army list for each of the nine Traitor Legions taken from the Slaves to Darkness and Lost and the Damned books, including the Chaos Terminator list from White Dwarf number 116, as well as additional tank rule entries (Vindicator, Sabre, etc). This might seem overly ambitious, but by the time one adds 3,000 points of Daemons, at least a 1,000 points of Terminators, and a few tanks (750 points for a Land Raider!), then you're quite way there already!

Anyway, as I am tinkering with things, but alas not painting, I thought I would share some of the conversions I am doing as I go. There aren't major conversions, but they are done to add some of the more usual weapons from the army lists to miniatures, or to just add a variety to the army's look. I am also adding milliput to all of the bases to give them a little texture and a less flat feel.

Enjoy :)

Chaos Renegade Character with Displacer Cannon!
In the Heavy Weapon Charts for characters it's is possible to equip characters with all sorts of Heavy Weapons. One of the weapons you rarely see outside Eldar forces is the D-Cannon, so I thought it might be nice to see one. I used the gun section from the RT404 Eldar  D-Cannon set, and drilled and pinned to his hands. 

Chaos Renegade Character with a Grenade Launcher.
Again, not a standard issue weapon but this weapon was part of the Chaos Renegade Heavy Weapons releases, so I thought it would be nice to include one.

Rear view.
I added a spare loyalist Space Marine pack pack with cloak to give that extra bit of style. I think it goes well with his visor shades!

Chaos Renegade Character with a Heavy Webber.
Citadel never made a Heavy Webber model, so at the time I converted this one from the old metal Las-Cannon, and two plastic should pads from the 'Strike Force' box set. It was originally wielded by a Loyalist Space Marine character, which I have now paint stripped, and so, with a little modification, I decided to recycle it into a Traitor Legion.

This a simple head swap conversion, swapping the skull helmet head for a Flesh Hound head.

Another head swap, again swapping the skull helmet, but this time replacing it with a plastic undead horse head. I have also added a Juggernaut equipment lance in place of a backpack for use as a standard bearer.

Rear view (although the standard looks a little bend, something I didn't notice whilst photographing).

Chaplain with Daemon or Chaos weapon.
This is a Loyalist Chaplain miniature, but unfortunately the thin sword he had snapped off. So I replaced it by drilling and pinning a Chaos Terminator Captain's  Daemon Sword in it's place. I also added the Chaos backpack to give him that extra Chaotic look.
I plan to use him as a Major Hero Chaplain in the Word Bearer Legion, although arming him with a Daemon Sword would push his points value up to 996 points!

A Medic conversion with Chaos Weapon.
Again a broken old model, this time a Chainsword missing, which I replaced with a plastic Skaven blade from the Warhammer Regiments box set.

A second broken Medic, again missing a Chainsword and again with a Fantasy Regiments Skaven blade.

A head swap Character, using one of the skull helmet/heads from one of the head swaps above. I have added a Juggernaut equipment Chaos Sword in replacement of a backpack.

Rear view.

Not much of a conversion really, I have just moved the renegades legs a little to give the impression of movement, and added another Juggernaut equipment lance.

Rear view.

A simple arm swap for a Chaos Terminator Captain.
I just swapped his bolter and Daemon Sword for Lightning Claws. As with all my intention for all my Terminators, I have placed him on a Citadel 32mm base, which I think gives them a little bit more room. I have never thought the 25mm bases suited them, but also considered the 40mm bases a little too large for Rogue Trader era Terminators.

Emperor's Children Possessee.
Not really much of a conversion, but I wanted to show what I plan for Traitor Legion Possessees. This is just a normal Slaaneshi Renegade, with a  Juggernaut equipment sword on his back. I have mounted him on a 40mm round base, and built up the milliput a little, to give him that extra battlefield presence. I have used the Slaaneshi miniature which is closest to the one in the illustration in the Emperor's Children army list entry in Slaves to Darkness.

Rear view showing the Juggernaut equipment sword.

Head swapped and reposed Slaaneshi riding beast. I have several of these without heads, and so plan to add undead plastic horse skulls from the Skeleton Army box set, and then use the mounts for officers.

Not a conversion at all! I just waned to show what he looks like on a slightly built up 32mm base. With a little milliput and on the bigger bases they do have a greater battlefield presence and really brings out the relative size in relation to power armour.

Bombots.
These are just a pair of Paranoia range bots which I have had for years, and thought that they would work nicely.

Next update will be more Traitor Legion preparation work.

Rogue Trader era Slaves to Darkness Black Legion/Sons of Horus Officers and conversions.

More Rogue Trader era Slaves to Darkness conversions, this time based on the artwork for the Black Legion army list officers.

One of the many lovely things about the old Slaves to Darkness book is the artwork. Anyone who has looked through the book will have noticed many of the illustrations are similar to many of the miniatures which Citadel produced at the time. In the case of the 40k sections of the book, some of the artwork is linked to Citadel's 40k miniatures range.

One of the armies I am assembling is a Horus Heresy era Sons of Horus army using the Black Legion army list provided in Slaves to Darkness. However, looking at the army list entries I noticed that some of the lower ranking officers artwork was not based on 40k miniatures, but fantasy ones.

So I decided to see if I could match the fantasy miniatures to the 40k illustrations in the list. I did this easily by looking through the late 1980s Chaos Warrior ranges and finding the right miniatures. The main determining factor were the heads, matching the style of the helmets to miniatures with the same helmet in the illustration. After that, I just converted the miniatures, removing fantasy weapons, adding chaos backpacks and bolt guns, and swapping an arm in one instance. I have not gone for 100% conversions, but close. With the same helmets in the artwork and on the miniatures, I think the end result ties the two in nicely.

Enjoy :)

The Black Legion/Sons of Horus army list.

Lieutenant Commander and Captain.
Both of these officers artwork are actually based on two Chaos Renegade miniatures, so these were easy to replicate, with no conversions, just a few bits added to milliput enhanced bases.

Lieutenant.
This officer was a Chaos Warrior originally holding a halberd. I had a spare Chaos renegade arm, and so just swapped the arms over, and removed the shield boss from the left arm. I was originally going to do a head swap with another Chaos Renegade miniature which has a similar bolt gun with chain blade in the illustration. However the angle of the Chaos Warriors head and left arm meant that it might be damaged too much if I tried.

Librarian.
Simple weapon swap and addition of a chaos backpack.

Medic
Again another weapon swap and addition of chaos backpack. I love the squared off looking horns on the helmet.

Chaplain.
Weapon swap and backpack. I might add a blade to the bolt gun from the RTB01 Space Marines box set (which is where the bolt gun came from) at a later date.

Techmarine.
This a Slaaneshi Chaos Warrior miniature. I just added the backpack and removed the shield boss. I was going to remove the sword and add Spawn-goads to each hand, as per the illustration. However, I like the sword too much, and you can equip Techmarine with Chaos Weapons (well, the Chaos ones anyway!). So it stayed.

Next update will be more conversions. I've been converting heavy weapon troopers and Sergeants, amongst other things.

A few Rogue Trader era Slaves to Darkness conversions.

 Continuing with my grand sorting out of my Rogue Trader era Horus Heresy miniatures, I have been converting a few as a I go.

Enjoy :)

Chaos Renegade officer mounted on a Chaos Steed.
Personalities in the Slaves to Darkness Black Legion Army list are allowed to be mounted on Chaos Steeds for 32 points. I had a spare C13 range horse used for the Jaek and Helwud miniatures, and thought it would fit the miniature nicely.

The Emperors Children Lieutenant Commander illustration is similar to a Slaaneshi renegade which was produced at the time. I can never be sure if the miniatures were inspired by the artwork, or visa versa, although I recall reading somewhere (sorry, can't remember where!) that it was often a bit of both.

So, I decided to convert up the Slaaneshi miniature to fit. It only required a hand swap and drilling/pinning, but it's a nice idea. I am planning to use the miniatures which are similar to the illustrations for all of the officers of the three army lists included in Slaves to Darkness. Several of the Black Legion ones are based on Chaos Warrior miniatures which I have and will convert up soon.

Flamers!
Although I have a lot of Chaos Backpacks, I want to make sure that not only I don't run out, but that I can use any spare ones on regular Mark VI Marines in order to 'Chaos' them. In addition, I think it would be nice to break up the look of all of the backpacks with other things. In that vein, I have taken the flamer miniature on the left, and modelled a few fuel tubes on the backs of them. I could have just used modern GW ones, but I wanted to keep with that old school style.

Two more flamer marines.
The fuel tanks are made from bits of old tube and plasti-card. I have green stuffed some tentacles over them to make it look less bare, and to fit in with the tentacled look of the miniature.

LE101 Chaos Renegade Marine.
I purchased himfrom e-Bay, with his tentacled arm missing. So I added a RT01 Space Marine Power Fist instead. He needs a backpack glueing on, which I forgot to do. 

Milliput!!!
I am going to require a lot of milliput for bases, and someone was selling a whole case for £28. That's 10 packs! LOL

Next update will be more conversions and basing. I am not getting around to painting at the moment, so contenting myself with organising, basing, and converting. I am also renovating the house, so that (and work) is taking a lot of my time!

A little bit of Rogue Trader Dreadnought basing (with added robots!) .

 I'm still not getting around to any painting, but I am spending some spare time sorting things out. I have so many different things to do, but I keep being drawn back to Rogue Trader era Horus Heresy. I did start on this a few years ago (2015 to 2016!), but a series of painting problems and other distractions moved my attention away.

I now want to make a serious effort to sort out what is an immense project and one which will take time just to sort out the miniatures. The armies involved will be Ultramarines for the loyalists, as they seem the classic Rogue Trader era Horus Heresy Imperial forces from the artwork of the time, and the blue is nice. They will be organised using the standard Spaced Marine list from the time.
For the forces of Horus, I will be fielding an army of each of the three army lists in Slaves to Darkness (with the Black Legion being painted in their Sons of Horus colours), and two armies from the two Renegade lists in The Lost and the Damned. But more on this at a later date.

For now I have been paint stripping and reassembling my Dreadnoughts. The Ultramarines will be able to field eight Dreadnoughts, consisting of three Contemptor (Chuck) Class, three Furibundus (Fury), and two Deredeo (Eddy).
The Traitor Legions have four of the old metal Dreadnoughts, and one large plastic Chaos Dreadnought from Space Crusade. I have rebased all the Dreadnoughts on 60mm round bases as I think it looks better, gives them more room, and actually gives them more of a battlefield presence.

Enjoy. :)

Eight Imperial Dreadnoughts.
I have added some milliput to the bases to make it look more like a battlefield and less like a bowling green.

Three Furibundus (Fury) class.

Two Deredeo (Eddy) class.

Three Contemptor (Chuck) Class.

Four Chaos Dreadnoughts.
One of them I have already painted for my World Eaters some years ago.

I re-positioned this Chaos Dreadnought to give it a look of hunting its prey.

Chaos Dreadnought from Space Crusade.
I wanted one of these for the fun of having one. Its pretty large and armed very differently from the other Dreadnoughts, but I will probably use it as a 'counts as'  a Chaos Furibundus.

I also paint stripped, reassembled and rebased my Cataphract  Robot Maniple. These are on 50mm round bases.

In addition to all that, I have finally got around to framing my old 1987 Rogue Trader poster. I had this on my wall for years after buying it in a now long gone model shop in Worthing named 'The Crazy Dwarf'. The poster has spent the last 25+ years folded up in a box.
I need to tinker a bit with the frame, I need to put some black edging on the sides of the poster.
I discussed this poster, and another 1980s poster, in a blog update a few years ago:
http://goblinlee.blogspot.com/2015/10/1980s-warhammer-posters.html

Another view. It is currently handing in the spare room where my painting table is. I am renovating the house, so the wall is a bit of a mess!

The next update might just be some painted miniatures finally!
...or maybe something I've glued together again (not my fingers though!).

TA1 Golgoth, Lord of Balrogs.

 ..an arcane Daemon from an earlier age... 

I'm still not getting enough time to do some serious painting, but I have been sorting through miniatures, and decided to paint an old Daemon which has been lurking in the shadows of my windowsill: Golgoth, Lord of Balrogs.

Golgoth is a Greater Demon miniature from Citadel, released in 1984 as part of Tony Ackland's Arcane Monstrosities range. The range was released in 1984 (the Orc Catapult released in 1983), and was largely sculpted by Tony Ackland, although Chas Elliot sculpted the Chaos Battering Ram. Golgoth was only released for a few years before being replaced by the TA1 A-Angor Demon King.

The miniature itself, well, isn't miniatures really! Just like the rest of the range, he is quite large (the clue to this is in the ranges title really) being 13cm long, 8cm tall, and 10cm wide. Being made of the old lead mix he is quite heavy. The advert (see below) had the old 'For advanced modellers only' symbol on it, and whilst it's is not complicated to assemble in itself, drilling and pinning of the wings is advisable. The sculpting is very much what you would expect of the time, being good and full of character, but not as crisp as perhaps the contemporary GW miniatures. This is something I don't have a problem with.

When it came to painting I wanted Golgoth to have a dark aspect of the shadows. It would have been easy to just paint him black, but that would have been too flat. After a black undercoat, I lightly dry brushed more prominent areas in a mid red, and then less so with orange. I didn't want Golgoth to look too red, is was just to stop him from looking too flat by bringing out some of the detail. It was a very basic paint job, but something which I wanted to do. I didn't want an overcomplicated look to keep in with the idea of him from shadows. In the same vein, I kept his eyes, mouth, and claws black, to suggest a creature of the abyss rather than burning infernal flames of Hell. 

Enjoy :)

The original advert.

Golgoth advancing.
I have kept the base basic and plain for the time being, only painting on the Citadel Agrellan Earth. This is because Golgoth will end up as part of one of the Slaves to Darkness Daemon Legions, and I haven't quite decided on how to decorate the bases yet.

Left hand side.

Front view.

Rear view.
Look at the size of the solid lead wings!

Head details.
I think he has a slightly cat look to him.

Tail detail.
It looks a little like a scorpion tail.

Scale photograph, with a Citadel Bloodletter on a 25mm square base for comparison.

Next update might be some Chaos Renegades, as I have been sorting through those, as well as my Daemon Legions.