"We're gonna need a bigger thunderhawk..." converting primaris carcharadons

[Lord Borak]

Wow. The force looks great. It's amazing how uniformed they look from such an eclectic variety of parts.

[Malika]

Impressive force!

[osjclatchford]

thanks guys.

yeah. that was the whole thing with these. 

wanted to give the army a sense of age.
also wanted to get a colourscheme thats actually pretty varied in application but uniform as a whole. so a model with black shins would have grey knees and grey waist plates and vise versa.
same with the faces, a model with a white faceplate can go darker elsewhere and vise versa.
one of the more subtle parts of this is the use of the skavenblight dinge as a base on some parts (elbows and ankle joints are ALL this colour but faceplates, kneepads and shins etc will get picked out in this) to create a subtle difference and a mid-way between the mechanicus standard grey and the black parts certainly helps.
although sometimes i'd break this rule and follow where my muse took me. not to the point of a model standing out too much but the spirit of the induvidual model will come through in the paint and the brush sometimes
it also helps that all the highlighting and weathering (scratches and chips) across the two greys and the black are the same set of highlights. 

dawnstone, admingrey, white extreme dot highlights on the mechanicus based parts.
mechanicus grey before these three on the skavenblight based parts and skavenblight then mechanicus before these three on the black parts.
confused?  I hope not...

anyway, this ties it together and makes it look not only like it belongs as one suit not a collection of disparate parts but also more lived in...

the end product aims to create a uniformity int he squad/army but a sense of character and induviduality between the models. each one is like a questing space knight in bespoke armour. it fits the overal theme but is interpreted everso differently by the tech-magos that made it.
not to mention the idea of replacement parts that would be added/changed over the years of service etc...

I kept the idea of this 'different parts, different colours' with the centurions. I wanted these to evoke the level of venerability you'd ususally associate with terminators. and to show its a suit with a fully suited marine inside it. hence the different heads to show the different marks of armour inside the cent-suits...

however all the scout and phobos armour is painted exactly the same to suggest that these armour's are more standard issue and less bespoke and venerated, and of a newer age to the full astartes armour. 
the characterisation on the scouts is done almost exclusively by the faces and via the specialised kit and poses alone, but purely the kit and poses on the phobos guys... I wanted a clean rtb01 aspect to these anyway so that actually worked in my favour that these guys are less overt and more covert looking in the end...

[horizon]

Cool army. 

[osjclatchford]

thanks horizon.

I'm not quite done yet it seems...

so this one was a little side project that came from me musing on the second edition plastics that came with the orks vs bloodangels starter from '93.

I've fond memories of the monopose etb marines of this era, having painted more than my fair share over the years. not only as bronze statues either! LOL
Its no lie to say I've a certain degree of happy familiarity with the specific pose of the models and I just felt that I had to include a proper 're-make' of one of these to go with the truescale sharks.
having little to no funds to spend I looked at what primaris/marine bitz stock I had to play with... not much in truth.

I did have a single primaris torso left-over so I started there.
the gun is the actual classic etb 2nd ed and had to be this one, as far as I was concerned. I chose this one as, not only the mk of bolter, but also the specific grip of the left hand on the gun itself, is part of what makes the model a true reference to the prototype.
I used 3rd ed arms as I could think of no primaris arms that could give the arms the same 'held to the chest' pose as easily. nor did I have any that looked even close.
I twisted their position very gently to get the pose as close as I could yet slightly angled up on the left to give but a smidgeon of life to the otherwise overly static nature of the pose.
likewise Ive done the same with the head (which is another deathwatch mk8 lid), cocking the angle everso slightly to give a bit of character to him.
the backpack is the same mk4 as I used on the other 2nd ed guys (the one with many small holes) as its a perfect 'modern analogue' of the original.
An interesting (?) thing regarding the hands. the old second ed plastics had rather chunky fingers and handplates. with the advent of the 3rd edition stuff, these had been scaled down to point where there is quite a noticealble difference between the two. (not sure why, marines should have big clunky gloves that could crush a man's head with a tiny squeeze) however the primaris stuff is again scaled back up some. meaning that the new primaris hands are actually closer to the 2nd ed pastics than the 3rd edition ones are. however the difference between the primaris and either of the 2nd and 3rd is actually a very close, meaning that a third edition or second edition hand will look odd against each other but less noticable against a primaris one? confused? LOL nevermind...
so yeah I swapped the hand on the 3rd ed arm (right) with a primaris hand so it looks better against the left one...

the legs, clearly, started out life as terminator legs. These ones are from the dark angels set.
These were chosen as I had no primaris legs left and the pose of these terminator legs has that similar braced/stoic pose I was after.
I also liked the knee and shin-stud details it has too...
The idea of using these was a new experiance to me but, before primaris, these were always the legs of choice for truescalers.
Although I've used the tartaros termie legs on the mk6 conversion I've never used the regular termie legs thus before, so in some ways it was fun to have a go at doing this style of conversion.
I can see now why so many truescalers breathed a collective sigh of relief when the primaris came out LOL
As I can also see it would take quite a bit of work to get them to look 100% right and I'd certainly not want to do a whole squad that way...
So, no I did not bother fillng in all the leg joins between all the ribbed sections on the thighs and calves with greenstuff because, not only am I too lazy to put that much effort in for one model, but I think it would take away more than it adds.
I actually rather like the extra sense of detail and texture it gives the model as it is.
I've no terminators in the force to directly compare it to and even if I did, so many of my marines have differing details and armour mark stylings to them anyway, leading me to feel that this detail is forgivable as simply a bespoke set of armour that has features in common with terminator armour.
yes it does take it away a bit from the original idea but, meh, whatayagonnado..?

look, to me power armour is power armour, its all interchangable and it comes down to what looks bad-ass before anything else.
If you're doing a rigid, specific themeatic or timeline based thing, like 30k legions or whatever then; yeah, stick to what it would be, full suits of specific mark of armour in squads and companies.
but thats not needed with a 40k setting as the armour is often already centuries old and can often end up comprising of several miss-matched components from all sorts of mks of armour...
As Ive mentioned before; with a force like the space-sharks, who are a fleet based chapter, they spend untold centuries on the eternal hunt for heresy, the result often being that each induvidual marine often has his own style and specific design features native to the artificer/magos that work on and design it. much like the personal heraldry and armour of knights...

Anyway, I digress.
The holster and ammo pocket were a must as you know I cant resist this kinda stuff, plus the 'original' model that inspired this conversion has similar levels of kit on it.

Well, in truth I'd say I got this one +/- close enough for me in the end:
obvious as to what I'm referencing, but not too static or boring as to look out of place with the rest of the sharkers I've done.

its all really down to that specific bolter component and and the arm pose that makes it anything like the 2nd ed model that inspired it, in truth.
The rest is pretty generic and could be any other marine really. but yeah, anyway, good enough for me...

well, good enough for a model made out of left-over scraps anyhow...

so what next then?

well after getting hold of a primaris body, a second edition heavy bolter of course!

as you can see I've done my best to replicate the 'on-the-shoulder' boom-box heavy bolter as best I could without dipping too far into the realms of absurdety or the overall gawkiness the original 2nd ed heavies had.
unfortunately I was too slow on the uptake to grab any of the FW rt/2nd-ed inspired heavies they did (in the same on-the-shoulder style) before they spazzed-out and changed them all for those wrist breaking absurd under-slung from-the-hip jobbies they use currently. sigh...
so I figured, I'm a man with an extensive bitzbox and years in the hobby, do it my way; which is just the wrong way.... but cheaper!
I started with a sm missile-launcher and simply sawed it down grafted a heavy bolter onto it (valkerie sprue one I believe).
I extended it to fit the length of the missile launcher that was there (using a bit of a centurion hb bodywork) and decided to put the magazine (ork shoota mag assembly) on the front but slightly on the left of the gun rather than simply below as on the 2nd ed (fw did this on their version too) it keeps the gun from looking too cumbersome and yet retains the oldskool nature of it. 
I like how the marine's right hand is slightly obscured a bit by the mag assembly, its like it doubles as a handguard and makes the gun look more intergrated and less 'slapped-on-top'.
thats also why I left the cables/hoses on the bottom. I feel it matches the hoses on the bottom of the regular devastator's HB this way...
the spare mags are simply from the ork boyz sprue and the head is another dw one, this time the one with the eye-lens on, suggesting a targeting system.
mk4 backpack because, yeah it screams second ed...

rather pleased at this one too tbh. cant quite believe it doesn't look as absurd as it should. actually fits alongside the other one I did quite well.
As if this is an older, bulkier, almost experimental version of the weapon and the hip-held belt/box-mag loaded 3rd edition one is the natural successor...

...and, no, I've no idea why I put a door knocker on it either...

[Lord Borak]

Great conversions and some serious nostalgic awesomeness as well!!

Ork Ammo clips are a god send. I used loads of them on my 54mm Inquisitor stuff!!

[osjclatchford]

thanks lord B!
the ork mags are indeed so great for this and inquis scale!
its real good how they match the bolter sickle-mag but heavy-bolter mag-size!

I probably should have put some strapping or webbing to show how they're connected to the belt and all that but got lazy in the end. still, they work ok nonetheless...

[Ragsta]

The tributes to 2nd edition Marines made me all glassy eyed!  They look excellent.

Yep, the Primaris legs in themselves make embiggening Marines wonderfully easier.

Also, the converted Scout helmets you’ve created are excellent and original 

[osjclatchford]

thanks ragsta, I felt the same as I finished painting them! silly old wargamers eh? we're nothing but huge piles of sentiment and plastic sprue held together with superglue, greenstuff and nostalgia!

anyway...

coming soon...

[osjclatchford]

So here:

is the first of five heavy intercessor conversions.

yeah I know, you're probably thinking, "hey Latchford, we thought you said that the heavy intercessors are too expensive, and you've no job and can't waste money on them? whats with the u-turn you weak-willed, capitulatory cowson!? LIES!"

and, yes, if I'd, just gone and bought them, you'd be right to say so.

However, I've recently had a hell of a good run of luck selling some second ed guardsmen and plastic marines and bitz on ebay and its ended up paying for them twice over! madness that six or so stripped guardsmen and an old oop servo skull got me the forty quid I needed to get some heavy intercessors!
you, know, despite my previous rantings, £8 a model really aint bad at all and, as I say, I feel like I've got these for nothing anyway as its +/- a straight swap for old crap sitting languishing in my bitzbox.

so anyway. heavy intercessors.
I fell in love with these as soon as gw teased them what seems like an age ago now...
chunky-assed badboys in heavy armour ready to bring the pain. clearly the intended successors to the classic terminator models. that. got. me. thinking.

As I've done my intercessors so that they could potentially be fielded as either intercessors or truescale tactical marines, its seemed only logical that I should do something similar with these. time to bring in some terminator essence...
The backpack was the first thing to go.
Its good that one of the things I disike the most when painting marines is doing the backpacks and also its too much of a visual tie to regular marines that gravis armour has a big-ass backpack on it.
The terminator back plate was the obvious choice to add the right degree of terminator silhouette without distracting from the overall awesomeness of the heavy intercessor's gravis frame.
took a bit of fudging but Ive found an easy quick method to do it (its all in the pdf tutorial I've written in link at the bottom), meaning the whole squad could be done this way creating a nice solid unified look.
for the head I chose the centurion one.
It has just the right amount of terminator flavours to look right yet just enough difference to look like its own thing.
I used the terminator pads as they have a nice sleek, smooth look that is still a tiny bit bigger than the pads that come with the heavy intercessors, making them much more imposing. I attatched them a littler higher, too hiding the obviousness of the conversion of splicing the two torso parts together.
The rifle was was too good to alter more than the different box-mag (I just like these ones) and the addition of the chain bayonet made from a mk3 chainsword.
I love the fact that the gravis marines still have two handed rifles, unlike terminator's goofy one-handed stormbolter and power/chain fist combo.
I've always felt thats a bit of a design cop-out that has been out of date since third edition.
they had the opportunity to update the design but doggedly stuck at it for years and years...
These guns simply make more sense to me, and in continuity with my regular-bolter armed intercessors, the heavy bolt-rifle looks appropriately huge enough against a regular bolter to be more impressive and to just make sense on the gravis armour marines.
this way, if fielding them as heavy intercessors they are fine and as truescale terminators you could say counts-as stormbolter/chainfist? I dunno, it matters not to me as I'm no gamer these days, but I figured I'd mention it in case any of you are intrigued by the idea and want to make your own.
Of course, you could just as easily use the terminator arms on these models and even the heads.
this pdf I made:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/jcfw0wtem9up3mv/OSJC+Primaris+Terminator+Tutorial.pdf/file
covers these and other aspects of the conversion.

Oh yeah, I added the chest-rig details from the deathwatch sprue and the pockets Ive chosen for the guys in this squad are left-overs from the palanite enforcer sprue. cos they're kinda big but are nicely detailed, unlike the boring bigass-cube-pockets that come on the sprue. the palante ones are a little sleeker, making placement easier but they still look big enough for the model.

I'm currently in painting hiatus again, as I've run out of spraypaint and need to get a few other paints replaced from dry-out damage (grumble grumble )
so will be a  bit of a while before I can get any more of this squad done but I do have enough done to show some pre-paint WIP shots if you're intersted?

[Lord Borak]

Wow, he look brutal as hell. Love the conversion.

Well done on the sale......... What other 2nd Ed Guard stuff you got kicking about? Asking for a friend. 

[osjclatchford]

thanks man... they have indeed come out as the angriest marines I've done as yet!


i dont suppose the 'friend' is called tom perchance?

Ive some stuff considered rareties these days... see here:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/osjc_latchford/m.html?item=265110743484&hash=item3db9d4e9bc%3Ag%3AA-8AAOSwlwhgaEsJ&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562
also have the spares from the heavy intercessors.

no its not cheap, but just look at what others are charging and you'll see its actually quite fair...
people are still buying it so...

let me know if there are specifics you're after. I may have more not on ebay yet sitting int he bitzbox...
 

[Stormwind]

Stunning work as always!

[osjclatchford]

thanks, man!

anyway, I got hold of some primer, so the next heavy-intercessor in line is done!

This guy is intended as the team's un-official explosive and demolition expert.
again he uses the same termie back and centurion head combo but this time I've used a darkangels termie torso, as it has some rather nice arched vents with extra detail (the skull between the vents) and, the 'neck' is much easier to fit the cent lid in. Also, in truth the darkangel ones were all I could get too!
as I was using the nade throwing arm, I used the slung bolter left-arm and that had the pad already modelled on. as such I decided to use these pads on both sides rather than hack it all apart to change it.
for some exra detail I added studs but, as the domed ones I usually use are a bit too large to fit within the rim neatly, I made some simple flat studs like on my mk4 guy, but this time out of offcut of styrene rod I had laying about in my bitzbox.
I also did the shins too. I feel that, although a nice alternative (and variation is always nice for character), I personally prefer the domed ones, they catch the light nicely in a way these dont, but I will say these look much more brutal and as such more offensive. (just imagine that pad hitting you in the face during a shoulder barge, eesh!)
To enhance the whole 'grenadier' persona somewhat, I've added the triplet of nade shells from the gsc neophytes (the bike ones to be precise), a pair of scout krak grenades and one of the palanite pockets with a grenade already attatched.
as I modelled this bolt-rifle so it doesn't have a chainbayonet I elected to simply add a mk3 chainsword to the dude's belt, along with the raised base, it helps to add a genuine sense of movement to him.
oh, yeah, the big boltershell-trinket is to hide a fudgey join I simply overlooked to gs away when doing the other gs on the model and I lazily couldn't be bothered to mix more up just for that.
I figured this did the job anyway and adds another colour to that part of the model, also rounding out the chest area against the nades on t'other side...

thats two down, three to go...

[osjclatchford]

heres the third one:

This one was originally the reloading pose one, but I felt it was too standard and not 'big' enough to be interesting enough for me to paint it!
So, I decided to add a bit more terminator flavour in in the shape of a tartaros right-hand powerfist.
I shaved a heavy intercessor elbow disc off and grafted it onto the fist's exiting elbow and greenstuffed the reultant ugly join. this, I feel makes it visually look a lotmore integral, like it belongs on the model. a simple addition that does a lot for consistancy of the armour.
the left arm/rifle is the reloading one. for a bit of difference (and to shamelessly make it easier to model) I used a belt feed from a chaos bolter and simply glued where the mag would have gone. the open area on the reloading rifle makes this look perfect. again, like it just belongs there.
I addd the mk3 chainsword bayonet-conversion as I did previously too...
the chest pockets are from the eliminator sprue and the knife came from the intercessor kit.
the pocket on the belt is, again, from the palanite enforcer kit.
the termie back is off a darkangels one and I used the two termie pads with the 'missing' chunks filled in with gs as I did on the first one.
I really like that smooth-pad retro look it gives the model...
As he had a powerfist, I decided on using the lensy centurion head to denote the suggstion that he might be a command figure.
suppose thats why he has the red stripe on the knee too. it doesn't really mean anything but its a nice spot colour and as I'd done the shins in the skavenblight dinge and the knees black on this'un, I figured why not, it need just a little something more...

heres a shot of the first three together:

working again now so not sure when I'll get round to t'others but I will say there are some more interesting ideas among them...