Another distraction: Steel Legion

Hey guys!

Well, I’m sure a lot of you can relate: there are just too many different project ideas swirling around in your head, inspired by pretty much everything around you, and as always, you just have limited time.
Right now, Warhammer Fantasy, Star Wars (I’m playing Star Wars Outlaws again… what a fantastic game), Samurai, and of course my 18mm Austrians are all fighting for my attention. 
And what do I do? I start a totally stupid Warhammer 40K project.  

Against my better judgment, I’m actually pretty hyped about the latest Armageddon trailer that Games Workshop recently released.
I’ve always thought the Steel Legion was cool, so I was, like most of the online fanbase, pretty disappointed not to see them in the trailer.
I should mention that I know practically nothing about 40K; I just find the setting really interesting and pretty cool.  

I think the old metal figures for the Steel Legion are beautiful, but I don’t feel like spending hundreds of euros on used miniatures on eBay... So I dug out a few leftover pieces from my Cadia army from 2015 (which I’d already sold) and started doing a bit of converting.

Maybe this is a good time to tell you how much I hate the new Cadian figures by GW. I’d really love to like them, because all the new building options, the tons of individual parts, and so on… That’s really great.
But I think the models are just incredibly ugly. Such weird proportions and facial expressions, strange poses… And did I mention the proportions? Just look at those tiny heads!

But whatever, you can still find plenty of the old ones on eBay. I’ve always thought those were cool, and to this day, they’re way better than the new ones. But back to my new conversion!

Of course, the heads had to be replaced first, and after a quick search online, I decided on the ones from Reptilian Overlord.

However, I made a few changes:

Of course, the Imperial Army’s skull-and-wings emblem belongs on the helmet. Besides, I didn’t really like the goggles—they were way too different from the original... Good thing I know my way around ZBrush, because the changes were done in half an hour, and after another two hours, I had a whole bunch of heads to work with. 

Other than that, I didn't change much. I just had to sculpt the gloves and a hose for the gas mask. And there you have it: a Steel Legionnaire! Good enough for me. The coat could and should be a little longer, but I think that will be way too time consuming... So I will leave it like it is for now. 

Maybe the head should be a little bigger, but I am not sure about that yet.  

Here's the finished conversion: 

 

 

And after that, and thanks to the quick drying time of Tamya Quick Type, I also managed to paint the figure today! 

I am quite pleased with it, and it was soo fast. Basically there are just four colours on this figure. Black, this warm beige, leather brown and grey trousers. Okay and some metal, but that's it! I used a lot of contrast paints though, not sure I will continue with this method. But it's even quicker, so maybe not too bad!

Sorry for the image quality, Lightroom does not work today... Not sure why.  

 

And with that I will go to sleep now! Not sure when or if I will continue to work on this project any time soon, but it was a LOT of fun :D And so fast! I think I still have a Leman Russ in a box somewhere... 

All the best

Lucas 

First colour scheme test for the next spearmen unit

It's been a while since my last update, but painting the remaining Ellyrian Reavers is pretty time consuming... And I had quite a lot of work related suff lately that kept me from painting more.

But next to the slow progress on the Ellyrian Reavers, I managed to do a first test for my next spearmen unit (or basically the first if you don't count the Lothern Seaguard).

I sculpted the shield in ZBrush, again copied from the Uniforms and Heraldry book, and also changed the heads to 3D sculpted ones that I did a few months prior. Also, I had to sculpt some hair at the back. 

I am not sure about the shield colour to be honest, but I will paint a few more to see them as a unit... Maybe it works better then. The colours are also from the Uniforms book, so it should work in theory.

But right now I have to increase my 18mm Austrian army quite a bit for our new campaign that will start veeeeery soon, so no time for Warhammer right now!

I will post about that topic soon I think :) 

All the best

Lucas