The Conclave

I went on a bit of a bonanza on eBay a couple of weeks ago and purchased myself a set of the ever popular "Insurgents".  I also decided to take a punt on a set of 5 pirates (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PIRATES-5-Figures-Grey-Plastic-54mm-not-painted-/190556685198?pt=Toy_Soldiers&hash=item2c5e10438e#ht_610wt_1139), 6 cyborgs (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CYBORGS-6-Soldiers-54mm-Grey-Plastic-not-painted-/190556686780?pt=Toy_Soldiers&hash=item2c5e1049bc#ht_500wt_1156) and 6 skeletons (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SKELETONS-6-Figures-54mm-Grey-Plastic-not-painted-/190556688758?pt=Toy_Soldiers&hash=item2c5e105176#ht_764wt_1139) by the same manufacturer.  Here's one of each lined up with a converted Slick Devlan model:


The pirates scale up pretty well and will make good scum, or a Rogue Trader's crew.  Bizarrely, the skeletons are larger than people (must be the bones of ogres!), but I have plans to convert them into either daemons or some xenos creatures.  The cyborgs too are enormous, but why wouldn't the Adeptus Mechanicus implant people with bionics to improve them over normal men?  I think I may snip off an arm or two for use as bionics as well.

For a little over £5 a box, these guys really are worth it to fill up a board with NPCs. 

Ruaridh

Those skeletons realy suit an idea I had for my "cult of hidden knowlege" as tekekenitikaly controlled statues (see here. (http://i.usatoday.net/life/gallery/2011/l110427_potter/hp4-soldierpg-horizontal.jpg)
EDIT: sorry for the long link
EDIT2: thanks Marco

Quote from: Inquisitor Octavian Lars on July 19, 2011, 05:52:54 PMEDIT: sorry for the long link

Try this instead. (http://i.usatoday.net/life/gallery/2011/l110427_potter/hp4-soldierpg-horizontal.jpg)

Looking forward to seeing what you do with them! The Insurgents are pretty straightforward gangers, there's not a whole lot that needs doing to them, but I'm intregued to see where you take the other ones. Could we get scale snaps of the rest of the pirate set? I'm very curious as to how suitable they are for an upcoming plan...

I've been eyeing up the pirates and cyborgs for a long time now, can't wait to see what you do with them.

Sorry it's taken me a while to update this thread with these photos Rob - it's been a busy couple of weeks!


They're all pretty well spot on in terms of size.  40k weapons will go on easily, and with a wee bit of fiddling, the muskets could be converted to lasguns or shotguns with little trouble I think.

Ruaridh

can't wait to see what you will do with them, they are a little tall but look fine. how is the moulding ???

I'm not sure they are that tall, because Slick is one of the smaller models in the range.
Of course, one solution if it bothers you is to use a thinner base - Heresy does bases about a millimetre thinner than GW does. Also, a lot cheaper, but that normally goes without saying.

There are a couple of serious mould lines, but nothing that can't be tidied up.  The feet on these guys are far better proportioned than on the Insurgents, so I won't have to spend hours trimming them down!

Ruaridh

I have spent a wee bit of time over the last couple of days doing some minor conversion work to one of the pirates to get him into the 41st millennium.  With the simple addition of a head from the Chaos Henchman conversion pack, a knife from one of the IG conversion pack arms and some ProCreate padded flak armour, I think he's ready to be a scummer:


Seems the ProCreate doesn't show up too well... Should be cleared once I have him painted.  I have similar plans for the rest of the pirates.  May be a while before I get there though...

Ruaridh

Looking good!

Cheers

James

That looks excellent...

Dammit, now I want some pirate models!

Thanks to the rugby world cup, I've been having some very early mornings which I have been filling with productivity.  As Wales were pushing South Africa hard, I slapped some paint on my mutant pirate scum.  Not bad for 80 minutes work if I do say so myself!


I've posed him there with another of my NPCs for a better appreciation of scale (the Slick model used previously is a bit on the short side), and doesn't he look grand?

Just have to do something with the other four now!

Ruaridh

Yeah i really like the result youve acheived there with the milliput and the weapon and head swap.

I will be emulating that on my own russian models that i have recently bought. If i could pick something to chance though i would be highlighting the brown of the armour and boots to really make the highlights on the black coat stand out. Black on brown is drab (unless the photo is not doing the paint justice) but highlighting the brown effectively can make it look its drab on purpose, which i assume it is (scummy pirate bastard...)

Otherwise its great (now only a bunch more to go lol...) looking forward to seeing how they all turn out. Really keen to see how the cyborg/pirate/insergent mashups go for bionics and so forth. I only have the insergents atm but i am keen to get the pirates now.

im going to work on my insergents tonight. gonna cut all the weapons off and carve out each guys chest and then replace the chest with armour similar to what you have added here (padded flak) and then replace weapons with a las pistol or lasgun (depending on pose) and i think they'll turn out ok.  Ill post the final result later anyway.

thanks for the inspiration


MrMasochist

I've actually already converted those skeletons into a squad of Necrons, of which i am excessivley proud (easily my greatest creations!). I never uploaded pictures of them on here, as i intended on using them for a Dark Magenta article (dave and I used them in a campaign we held), but now so much time has passed, I don't think i remember enough of the campign to make that article. May uploa the pictures on here soon, as it seems a shame not to share work that took me so long to make

(in other news, yes, i'm back somewhat, after a hecic first year of university!)

Now, when I tried to update this thread on Monday, the Conclave died.  This time I've made an offering to the Machine God and have some incense burning, so here's hoping this works...

Still there?

Woo!

As part of my quest to finish all my projects before starting any new ones (failed already, but I did want a new warband for the IGT!), I have revisited my roving band of pirate scum.

With some head swaps, a couple of weapon swaps and a little ProCreate I've transplanted the pirates to the 41st millennium.  Can't recommend these guys enough as mooks for your games.


Painted with Foundation Paints with the quickest of highlights before being smothered with Devlan Mud wash, there's not much technique on show, but for table fillers I think they'll blend in nicely.  Wouldn't want to distract from the PCs after all!

Lastly, an obligatory group shot of the scum that will become known as the Bilge Rotters (Carthax Wiki entry to come!):


Ruaridh

Praise the machine spirit for allowing our forum to survive!

The models looks very good, some real proper disposable minions.

where are you guys finding these, would love an insurgent for my warband.

Quote from: jediknight129 on March 08, 2012, 01:09:33 PM
where are you guys finding these, would love an insurgent for my warband.

Here's (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/INSURGENTS-5-Toy-Soldiers-54mm-plastic-NEW-/300674852745?pt=Toy_Soldiers&hash=item46019e2789#ht_960wt_1197) a current auction for some of the Insurgents on eBay.  They come from Russia - I haven't yet come across a seller based elsewhere.

Ruaridh

They look great. I wasn't sure about the pirates at first, but you've really made them fit the 41st millennium. That last one looks especially good.

I really like the lenses on the gas masks of the insurgents, and that skin tone you've achieved looks fairly disturbing, which translates to great. Might have to pick up a box or two if they're going cheap, as mooks are always in need (though they do suffer from the law of inverse ninjas somewhat).

Lookig forward to seeing what you've done with the rest of the models.

whacked a bid in then saw he had a set on buy it now dammit.

So, I went back to the Russian part of eBay, and found myself some even more impressive grunt models.  I purchased 5 Star Corsairs (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Artmaster-STAR-CORSAIRS-54mm-10-acrylic-paints-brush-Plastic-/200731607499?pt=Toy_Soldiers&hash=item2ebc8941cb#ht_500wt_1029), 4 minotaurs (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Artmaster-MINOTAURS-54mm-10-acrylic-paints-brush-Plastic-/190656557837?pt=Toy_Soldiers&hash=item2c6404330d#ht_500wt_1029) and 5 Polar Troops (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Artmaster-POLAR-SPECIAL-TROOPS-54mm-10-acrylic-paints-brush-Plastic-/190656557836?pt=Toy_Soldiers&hash=item2c6404330c#ht_500wt_1029).  Also available are: Paladins (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Artmaster-PALADINS-54mm-acrylic-paints-brush-Plastic-/190656557842?pt=Toy_Soldiers&hash=item2c64043312#ht_500wt_1029), Centaurs (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Artmaster-CENTAURS-54mm-10-acrylic-paints-brush-Plastic-/190656557844?pt=Toy_Soldiers&hash=item2c64043314#ht_500wt_1029) and Dwarves (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Artmaster-FIGHTING-GNOMES-54mm-10-acrylic-paints-brush-Plastic-/200731607495?pt=Toy_Soldiers&hash=item2ebc8941c7#ht_500wt_1029) (or "Fighting Gnomes" as they're listed!).  Clearly, the Corsairs will make excellent Commissars or troops along the lines of the Terrax Guard and the Polar Troops are simple guardsmen.  The minotaurs I hope to make beastmen from.  These are more pricey than the pirates and insurgent models at about £8 a box, but paints and a brush are included.  The paints are acrylic, but I don't expect too much from them.  I may just be presently surprised however and will give them a trial run.  The brush is more suited to portraits than miniatures though!

Pict captures:


The most pleasing part of the Corsairs and Polar Troops is the numerous pipes/weapon feeds and power packs - it really ties them to the 41st millennium.  I don't think much conversion will be needed to really settle these guys into the Inquisitor universe.  I will probably alter the weapons slightly to make them look more Imperial, but that's about it.

The minotaurs aren't as great as I hoped - they're a bit too square for my liking, and the open mouths look comical rather than intimidating.   The hooves are rather too big too.  Still, with some converting I'm sure I'll get a decent beastman out of one or two of them.

I'm just annoyed that I probably won't get to work on these guys for weeks - however some gentle converting and painting may be perfect for recuperating my soon to be operated on shoulder.  Or at least that's what I keep telling myself!

Ruaridh

I was literally JUST about to post my pics of these models! They arrived in the post this morning, and I got all excited, pic'd them, and uploaded them to photobucket, excited to share these new developments with the rest of the 'clave. Unfortuynately it seems someone beat me to the punch! :p

Still, i've got some pictures of the amusingly named 'battle gnomes' (including a scale pic!) and the 'wizards' and 'knights' sets here (http://www.the-conclave.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1935.0) (alongisde the guardsmen ones you've got there.

Apparently great minds shop alike :p

Time for a small update - I've made a beastman from the minotaur featured in scale shot in my previous post.

I did a small amount of converting, replacing his sword with Malicant's eviscerator, gave him a bag of ork stikkbombs, trimmed his hooves and swapped the horns for a couple of curly numbers.  Oh, and he got an extra finger on each hand to give him the correct number! He was painted quickly, using mainly washes:


I'm moderately happy with the model as an NPC.  I had thought about adding him to my new Xanthite warband, but the model's a little too cartoony for my liking.  I may end up using this chap (http://banelegions.maelstromgames.co.uk/?tag=bnl-007) from the BaneLords range.  Their stuff is seriously good if you haven't checked them out before.

As for the other NPCs in this thread, watch this space...

Ruaridh

Wow, the beastman looks really good, for a moment I was thinking that I was looking at a normal beastman model, it is hard to see that it is a converted 54mm model, an astounding job really.

Looks really good, I can't help but think that a few added syringes digging into him would look great, but still very good :)

How embarrassing: it's been eighteen months since I bought the first batch of these figures, and eight months since I last updated this thread.  I always get distracted by new projects!

Anyhow, I have actually painted the Insurgent models the thread was named after in the first place.  I made a couple of simple changes, not least cutting down those damn clown feet, and painted these guys up fairly basically.  I experimented with a few new skin tones for practice for good measure.


I'll try not to be too tardy with the next update, but as I'm moving house soon, that promise shouldn't be taken too seriously!

Ruaridh

The next group to present are the zombies from the "Hunting for the Zombie" set (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HUNTING-for-the-ZOMBIE-Game-Set-10-figures-54mm-Walls-Ruins-Weapon-/200902567813?pt=Games_US&hash=item2ec6b9e785).  Awesome I know.

Brother_Brimstone has used these guys to make half-zombie characters, so I decided to concentrate on the techier elements of the models and paint them up as cyborgs.  I did a few conversions to the rather lazily designed weapons they were carrying to arm them with some more 41st millennium looking guns.  They also have a nasty surprise for the PCs that may run into them in the future... jump packs!


I see these guys as "elite" goons.  I deliberately didn't give them any insignia as, as they stand, they could be hive scum, Imperial Guard drop troops, traitor guardsmen, a heretek's cadre, or even Inquisitorial shock troops.

Ruaridh

The models and conversions are really good, but that paint job tips them over into really amazing territory. Loads of character and the guy with the axe tilted forward is brilliant!

Elite goons is definitely a good call for those guys with their very ambiguous appearance.

the fluff i came up with for mine(yet to be bought but who doesnt love making fluff?) is they are the remnants of an istvannian(sp) inquisitors experiments to create a new warrior to lead humanity to victory against its many foes. after it appeared he could do a better job he just abandons them to the winds of fate. a small group survives and their one goal is to re acquaint themselves with their creator and then seperate various parts of his anatomy from his body and shove them in his various orrifices