Thursday 29 July 2021

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!

9 comments:

  1. Great looking conversions Lee, and remember those models well

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    1. Thank you. I'm quite enjoying sorting through the Legions and converting a few of the miniatures.

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  2. Yep, it look good by there :) Looking forward to see new pics :)

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    1. Thank you. I am already working on a few more.

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  3. Oh mate, these are fantastic. I love the Slaves to Darkness era Chaos minis and I've been working on an Oldhammer Slaanesh force for a while now (champion, sorcerer, warriors, daemonettes and thugs are done, still have the beastmen and Keeper of Secrets to go) and I have a renegade on a riding beast which I need to dig up and paint.

    I managed to find a PDF of Slaves to Darkness and it's bringing back memories of my teenage years LOL! Even though back then I only played 40k I loved the fantasy stuff.

    As far as the art influencing the minis, from what I remember reading a lot of the time the artwork was passed to the sculpting team within hours of being completed, so you were almost guaranteed to see one of the minis you owned in White Dwarf/rulebook artwork.

    If you're interested you can see my Slaanesh stuff here: https://pmpainting.blogspot.com/search/label/slaanesh

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    1. Thank you, glad you liked them. The old Slaves to Darkness miniatures to have a distinctive look and feel to them. I met the artist Ian Miller a few years ago and he was lovely and pleased that people were still so interested in his artwork from the time.

      I noticed some of the Slaaneshi miniatures on your blog, lovely colours. I'm following your blog. :)

      I wasn't sure how closely connected the miniature sculpting and artwork were. I knew that the artists and sculptors were working under the same umbrella, but didn't realise that about their artwork. It was always great to see miniatures which matched the artwork, especially in the Slaves to Darkness.

      What I am starting to do is match up the artwork in the Chaos Renegade army list entries, with miniatures produced at the time. The Emperor's Children Lieutenant Commander is one of the first of many.

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    2. Yay,another follower! I'm having fun with the warband but have to get a move on with it as I started it over a year ago. I think the beastmen will be next.

      I too love the old-school Chaos artwork, it's so original and batshit insane at times. It's also darker than the modern stuff. Citadel's 80s sculpts could be a tad cartoonish but they have tons of character.

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  4. Oh, I love them so much. I believe I should keep some of these somewhere. I like the conversions, can't wait to see them painted!

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    1. Thank you. I have been converting more and will post them in the next few days. I am really enjoying doing it. Also,I am in the middle converting some Slaves to Darkness era Chaos Warriors to match the artwork in the book for the Black Legion army list box entries.

      I might not get around to painting them for a little while, but looking forward to getting at least one or two test miniatures completed.

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