Steel Legion Medusa Completed

Its taken 6 months. As there is little time tonight here are some pictures of it.

Steel Legion Medusa Progress

Finally some progress. Life gets in the way of hobby time. So does work. What else gets in the way of 40k?

Still a bit of a way to go with the Forgeworld Medusa but the final shape of the mini is now clear at least to me. Hopefully it will still be playable when the revised Imperial Guard Codex comes out next year.

Back to the Imperial Guard

Finally the Steel Legion army has been finished as far as troops go. There are 2 platoons with 2 squads each plus one squad of veterans making 3 troops choices. To support this there are 4 heavy weapons squads, one of lascannons, two of missile launchers and one of mortars and 2 commissars. Conversions have given meltaguns and heavy flamers to some of the command squads. It comes to 1086 points so far. No tanks shown but there are also 2 chimeras, one bane wolf and a Demolisher to support with a medusa cannon on the work bench.

The new Inquisition codex also gives excellent opportunities to boost an IG collection with some harder stuff. Its looking good for the IG at the moment.

Armageddon Steel Legion Medusa progress and update

Painting of the Armageddon pattern Medusa has been split into sub assemblies. Here is the first - the cannon its chassis and the floor pan. Next to do is the remainder of the interior and then the exterior before final assembly. Progress has been slow due to the amount of detail and life in general. Anyway now its beginning to take shape.

Making Track Hangers

Part of the Medusa detailing madness has been a desire to make track hangers as shown in the Forgeworld Imperial Armour Masterclass. The problem is brass strip. Where to get some. They suggest waste runners from photo etched sheets from Forgeworld. Not convenient if you do not possess any. This morning between sleeping and awakening the answer popped into my mind. A common material soft but reasonably strong metal, the aluminium used in soft drinks cans. Just cut some out with a pair of scissors and there are easy track hangers.

Armageddon Pattern Medusa Progress

Detailing and assembling almost finished as can be seen in pics. Nothing is fixed in place yet. There has been a bit of detailing madness induced by the Forgeworld Imperial Armour Masterclass volume 1. The cabin rear door/ramp has been hinged so will open and close when the mini is finished. After all there is so much detail in the interior it would be a pity to seal it up in a completed model, on the other hand fixing it open asks for damage to the model.  Likewise the heavy stubber rotates and elevates. The commander figure has his left arm magnetised to allow alteration of position, and he may be attached to the roof of the cabin by a magnet. The remaining detail issue is how to make the hooks to hang spare tracks from the cabin roof as seen in IAM vol 1. Also the question of what the commander should be holding in his left hand is not yet resolved. Should it be binoculars of perhaps a beverage?

One irritation remains is that there is a slight bit of warping or the front of the cabin so that it does not fit the hull seamlessly. Interestingly it appears that Forgeworld also had this problem as the IAM images of their Medusa also show this casting flaw.

Armageddon Pattern Medusa from Forgeworld

Progress here. The fit of the resin components is in some senses excellent and in others amazingly bad. Here are some images of the mini which will be created as several sub assemblies for painting and then finally assembled and detailed.

Sub assemblies allows the tracks to be painted before attaching - something that I find easier than painting them insitu. Can you spot where the fit of the components is amazingly bad?

The medusa cannon barrel is far too wide for the aperture in the cabin top. Some work is needed there.

Progress with the Steel Legion Forgeworld Armageddon Pattern Medusa

This mini is proving to be a bit of a challenge. There are at least 4 components that require realignment to fit together snugly. The cabin floor pan shown in the last post as warped has been cured by a bit of lego and some elastic bands to hold it into its correct shape. The Roof of the medusa cabin, resin floor and detail inserts for the cab wall all require a good bit of work to make them all align.
The instructions, if that is the appropriate word for them, that come with this expensive kit are somewhat minimal and that's an exaggeration.

One thing that Forgeworld could do is provide better assembly instructions. A few bits of paper should not cut into profits much.

Anyway here are the components cleaned of the mouldings/flashings. Some careful trimming and assembly of the components is still required to ensure that the will fit snugly.

 Fortunately the Imperial Armour Masterclass volume one illustrates the painting and assembly of one of these minis, which makes it an invaluable aid.

Armageddon Pattern Medusa Bits from Forgeworld

One thing about the Forgeworld range is that the components often come attached to multiple bits of resin flashing. A bit of warping of the components is also not unusual. So here are the resin bits as supplied by Forgeworld before the cleanup. The floor pan of the Medusa has warped sides and the and the armoured room has a massive bit of flashing attached at as ever a strategically vulnerable part of the component. Anyway off to work with the saw, vise and sandpaper, to sort things out. These Forgeworld conversion kits are not for the faint hearted.

Painting Block - revisited and unlocked

A month or so ago some of these minis were pictured in this pose when painting block was blogged. Hopefully the picture shows that painting block has been over come. Don't know how however. Base coats on the Ogryns, Saint Celestine finished, the bases for the Seraphims sorted, the paint scheme on the grey blue chimera progressing to Steel Legion and the Steel Legion flamer mini progressing with base coats and 2 arms created from plastic minis and in addition a new steel Legion mini to complete the Steel Legion veterans. Only 2 more missile launcher teams to be recruited (via ebay since GW have ditched the Steel Legion) to complete the planned Steel Legion army. It will comprise an HQ squad with 2 platoons of 2 squads each with 2 heavy support squads for each platoon. And as a third troops choice a squad of veterans with an autocannon. For heavy support there is a Demolisher and for fast attack a single Bane Wolf plus 2 Chimera transports. obviously the armoured support needs to be expanded. Requires a bit of thought. Suggestions welcomed.   

GW discontinues Mordian Iron Guard, Steel Legion, and Valhallans

Mordian Iron Guard no more, Steel Legion no more, Valhallans no more.

The BOLs form and Darius have flagged the fact that the GW have discontinued the only minis for these Imperial Guard Regiments. It seems to be part of their move away from metal minis, although the Sister of Battle are still on sale as are the Vostroyan and the Rough Riders. So metal is not completely out yet although it is clearly destined. Cadians and Catachian have also lost any metal minis although their plastic replacements must now be the mainstay of the Imperial Guard. This has created a great deal of disappointment. Here the Mordian Iron Guard sculpts were loved, if they reappeared as plastics or fine casts that would be great but it is unlikely given GW history. The available IG armies have been diminished by the disappearance of these 3 legendary sets of minis. The prices of used minis have gone through the roof on ebay. Is GW planning to release more and different IG regiments. Hopefully the withdrawal of these classic and excellent minis is a signal that this is in the pipeline.

Where are the rumoured Sisters of Battle? 

Steel Legion Meltaguns

The starting mini for the meltagunner conversion is the same as for the flamer. The arms are again converted from Empire Militia spares. The tricky bit to source are the meltaguns. GW sells metal meltaguns as bitz. They are scaled for Space Marines and so look a bit bulky in the hands of the Steel Legion. Alternatively a meltagun could be scratch built. One of the meltaguns was in fact scratch built using the vented mussel of a space marine melta but ultimately this was too much like hard work for the subsequent conversions. The Death Korps of Kreig weapons set from Forgeworld suppplies an appropriately scaled if expensive alternative and so were used for the remaining 2 conversions.

Steel Legion Heavy Flamer Conversion

The starting point for this conversion is the Steel Legion Sergeant that is not waving an Ork head. That is this one here to the left. The laspistol arm is detachable. The chain sword arm needs to be sawn off at the shoulder and the blanket roll on the back needs to be cut off and the residue sanded away. Removing the blanket roll is probably the hardest work. Next the flamer/heavy flamer is probably best created from the plastic Cadian set. Glue the flamer fuel tanks on his back. This is why the blanket roll needs removing. Then cut the Cadian arm off at the wrist leaving the hand holding on to the flamer. Now for the arms. The easiest right arm is the plastic sword holding arm from the empire militia box set, the arm with a dagger strapped to it. The left arm comes as several bits. The Cadian hand that holds the grenade launcher or flamer works for this, plus the left shoulder of the empire militia bowman. After that depending on the post the 2 bits of left arm may need an extension to reach out far enough to hold the flamer. The easiest way to do this is drill holes on the ends of both arm bits for a bit of paper clip to hold the ends far enough apart. Once the glue has dried and the arm with linking paperclip bit bent to the needed shape, fill in the gap with green stuff. And that's it. The  flamers shown here are heavy flamer conversions but the process for a flamer conversion would be identical.

 

Steel Legion conversions - Guide to converting metal minis

If you have been following this blog for a bit you will have seen that several conversions for metal Steel Legion minis have been tried. Now that the Steel Legion troops choices are almost finished it seems appropriate to pull together all the conversions. So here they are, firstly all together.


Converting metal minis is a dauntless task but can be done without major use of power tools. One key choice before attempting any conversion is the selection of the mini to convert. Ideally it should have an open stance and if weapon changes are to be part of the conversion then ideally both arms should be clear of the torso and easily detachable. Next a source of replacement arms or other limbs in plastic should be sourced before conversion is attempted, otherwise headache ensues.

The simplest conversions above are the Officer , the sniper, and the lascannon team.

The Officer had an ornament added to the top of his helmet, along with a comm aeriel to the side of his helmet and two small skull-heads to his trench coat to depict a senior officer.

Likewise the sniper conversion required a minimal modification with the removal of the original lasrifle barrel, the addition of a longer gun a barrel, from one of the original lone trader plastic lasrifles and the addition of a sight from the flash guard from a plastic Cadian lasrifle.

The lascannon team was slightly more complex as the chassis of the lascannon was modified to allow the addition of large balloon tyres from redundant space marine bikes. The axles and other chassis modifications were derived from the plastic Cadian mortar team mortar stand. Any connections were green stuffed, as were the hub caps.

That's all for now but the more complex conversions will be explained in future posts, that's 5 sergeants, 3 meltagunners, 2 heavy flamers and an autocannon and mortars.

Steel Legion Veterans

The Steel Legion Veterans are completed except for the 2 remaining squad members to be recruited. Probably they will be a lasrifleman and a grenade launcher guardsman. The question to be resolved is where to get them from. There is ebay, but sometimes the prices are crazy, with prices higher that the GamesWorkshop and then there is the GamesWorkshop. Steel Legion minis are still available there in the collectors section. Again pricey for single minis but the original 10 man box set is still available for £20.50p. This includes a grenade launcher (£6.15) individually, sergeant (£6.15) individually , and a missile launcher team (£10.50) individually, plus 6 lasriflemen. The pricing does not make much sense but it could make more sense to splash out on the box and sell the remnants on ebay.

On a different note, how many conversions are in the squad so far - answer 5.
The sergeant, the autocannon gunner, the auto cannon, the heavy flamer and the meltagun.

Steel Legion Veterans

Progress has been slow for many reasons including some fiddly conversions particulartly as all the minis and at least original metal steel legion torsos and legs. The veteran squad at the moment comprised 8 minis. An autocannon team, a heavy flamer, a melta gun, a sergeant and 3 lasrifle men. There are 2 minis to acquire. One must be a lasrifle man and one may have another special weapon, but which from a flamer, a sniper rifle, a plasma gun, or another meltagun. There is no easy answer. With and antocannon the squad has reasonable long range fire power and with the heavy flamer, excellent short range fire power. Is the solution another meltagun, or a plasma gun? Transport wise should it be a Chimera or equivalent from the Forgeworld Krieg range or a Valkyrie?

Valkyrie                                      Krieg Centaur

The colour scheme has been finalised with light bleached bone webbing and dark red helmets and rebreather masks to distinguish them from the other steel legion squads.


Here they are so far, none are actually completed.

Steel Legion Veterans 1st Squad

The first Steel Legion veteran squad has only just commenced. There are 6 minis available. A missile launcher team, 3 riflemen and a sergeant. Adding 2 veterans squads to the existing 2 Steel Legion platoons will give the Steel Legion army 4 troops choices and extra assault and heavy weapons. It will also allow the Steel Legion IG army to ally with the Sisters of Battle with minimal but hard hitting troops choices (2 veterna squads when finished) allowing the maximum allied  points to be spent on long range artillery of some sort, which the sisters tend to be short of.

Adding a heavy flamer to the veterans squads gives a squad with 2 heavy weapons, which sound good, so the second heavy flamer steel legion conversion is underway. The mini for this conversion is the vanilla sergeant from the Steel Legion boxed set, which by the way can still be bought from GW for around £20 (UK), including p&p. No need to pay crazy ebay prices for 10 Steel Legion. Last weekend a used boxed set of 10 standard vanilla steel Legion went  on ebay at auction including p&p for £25. Why, when GW are still selling them?

Back to the conversion. this requires one vanilla sergeant with detachable laspistol arm and attached chainsword other arm. To fit the heavy flamer simply saw off the chainsword arm (GW saw recommended) and remove the bedroll and water bottle from the back of the mini (GW clippers and emery boards from where they are cheapest). Next the heavy flamer and 2 replacement arms need to be constructed.

Here is the start position after removal of surplus bits :  

Steel Legion Mortar Battery Finished!

Finally done and sheltering behind the remains of Osgiliath. Where next with the Steel Legion - perhaps some veterans. The question is how to distinguish them from the standard Steel Legion minis given the difficulty sculpting metal figures.

What is done and What is not done

Its near the end of 2012. So here it was thought that there should be a review of what had been completed. This thought was initiated by a review of posts being viewed yesterday. One from the list was titled project pipeline:- here  This was a post in 2011. And there has been little progress with the three projects mentioned therein.

But there has been progress elsewhere. 2012 has been the year when the Grey Knights project's shape took form and the Sisters of Battle and the Steel Legion projects came close to completion. Ideas in planning include an Ogre Warhammer army and a 40k minimal, veteran artillery allied army for the Sisters of Battle, more terminators for the Grey Knights, and some tweaks to the Steel Legion to add more special and assault weapons, plus of course the 3 projects still in the pipeline, and then there are still the Space Hulk minis to paint. Ideas come faster that the time available to paint, as ever.

Have a good 2013 when it comes and thanks for reading this blog.

Steel Legion Mortars Progress

Getting there, but not done yet. Much effort has been spent on bits of Osgiliath on these bases. The standing Mortar loader is missing his left hand as it is glued to the mortar shell at the moment. That dark blob at the base of the shell. This time of year makes progress slow.

Once the mortars are completed the only remaining steel Legion minis here at the moment are a half squad of troops, perhaps to be promoted to veterans - but how to differentiate from non veterans in an easy way. There is also another recently acquired via ebay sergeant that is intended to be converted to another heavy flamer trooper. BTW a basic original box of 10 steel legion on the GW site is still competitively priced at at £20.50. Don't pay crazy ebay prices for steel legion.