Monday, June 8, 2009

Vulcan He'Stan who? Pics of a darker Salamander WIP!









Here are some photos and a brief explanation of what you see in these photos. I will be honest, I am not a big fan of modelling loyalists, but I am a BIG fan of the Salamanders and I happen to have a TON of scaley SM bits and a sweet Salamanders chaplain kit from Chapterhouse studios sitting around ... when suddenly, I got the idea to make something a little different and then it began ... a kind of dark looking Salamander, something of an idea at first.
After hitting the sketchbook for a couple days, I came up with something I was happy with and started working.
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THE HEAD: This is one of the heads that came with the Khorne Lord on Juggernaught Fantasy kit and is a finely modelled head with awesome horns. This makes me either think of a Salamanderish army that has fallen to Chaos or of the old Black Dragons Space Marines from the Codex Astartes books, in any case it just seemed to fit.
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THE BODY and CROZIUM: The body and crozium are part of a spectacular kit put together by the good people at Chapterhouse Studios to represent a Salamanders chaplain. I am not sure if this is something they had in mind, but I felt like if I was to make a darker, 'counts as He'Stan' figure, it would need to be something different from 'a treasure seeking forgefather' So I decided (and don't hold me to this fluff) that this guy would be the Apostle of the Dragon, a sort of religious figure for a chapter that sees flame as something holy. The Chapter tactics usually brought by Vulcan could be called 'Litanies of Flame' or something similar, but anyway, on with the post.
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THE BACKPACK and CLOAK: These are simply a melding of the Chaos Space Marine Sorc backpack and a cloak from a Dark Elf Corsair. I will use greenstuff to cover up the cutting and make it look like the cloak hangs down from the shoulders on either side of the pack, but I thought the dragon backpack was more than appropriate.
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THE BASE: The base is a bunch of greenstuff I have modelled to look like cracked lava, topped with a metal dragon skull that I bought in a bitz box on Ebay. I have 5 of them, but I don't know where they are from. I figured this was about the most lively and dramatic base I could give this guy and I really like how it looks so far.
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THE QUESTIONS: Now I am left with a bunch of questions for my next modelling session with this mini. Do I say that he must breathe fire and just add another arm or do I find some way of modelling a crazy fire-shooting arm? If so, do I do that or do I give him a little servitor holding an ornate looking flamer (that I just so happen to have)? So I give him a Chapterhouse studio Salamander shoulderpad with their symbol on it and use it for this darker second founding or possibly corrupt chapter, or do I find some other motif for this army? Do I model my standard Marines from loyalist models or Chaos or a mix of parts?
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I have already gotten a few suggestions, like modelling my flamer wielding Marines with firebreathing heads (thanks Thomas!), but I am open to anything at this moment, so fire away!

1 comment:

  1. Not that it matters, but the skull on the base came from a Man O War, Dark Elf Black Ark. Nice Conversion!

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