Steel Legion ... Plastic ?, Found some time to do some modelling

**Brother Argos** · April 16th, 2009 00:51

IG Codex, Argghhh <looks at large pile of cadian boxes> , <considers doing some IG> , <Ponders which force> ...

Cadians ? Done to death, who wants to be the same as everyone else!
Vostroyans ? Character, Cossacks, Hmm possible, but too archaic looking for me and METAL, metal is the bane of conversions.
Catachan ? oh please, Rambo, big arms, BIG ARMS, nah.
Death Korps ? got a good few packs of them, with snapped off gun barrels, resin weak and snaps, expensive, like the look though.

Uhhh oh, just ruled out all the plastics, hmm not good.

Praetorians, Character, Metal, hmm no longer sold on the GW site, ebay, possible rarity appeals
Mordians, Praetorians with caps, prefer Praetorians.
Valhallans, Russians, Look ok, great coats, hmm maybe.
Tallarn, Arabic never moved me.

Steel Legion, hmmm WWII German Paratroopers, that might work, Metal.
Hmm based on Armageddon, would work well with my Salamanders.
Nice artwork too, stylish, and the cool laying down and firing Heavy weapons.

Ok this is working for me. But I want plastics and compatability with the Cadian sprues ... oh damn, time to do some work.

So began an Easter weekend of fun converting, with the intention of making a Cadian soldier into a Steel Legion trooper!

I have got about 85% of the way there so far, just gloves, boots and lightning emblem on shoulder left to green stuff.

Take a look, tell me what you think, anything wrong ?

I used this for inspiration ...

**Mayor Quimby** · April 16th, 2009 07:35

Excellent work, the green stuff coat and all the plastic/plasticard detail are great.
Once you add the gloves (which is a mandatory detail to me) it will be simply perfect... once you prime it, I bet it will be impossible to spot that it is a conversion.

The only thing that worries me is the number of models that you will have to convert... but if you have the guts to do this amount of conversion on more than 100 models, hats off to you sir!

Thank you for sharing, I hope you will start a WIP thread so we can keep track of your progress.

**purplespladge** · April 16th, 2009 10:21

Wow that looks great, its a nice clean conversion plus everything Quimby said ^.

One Question... for the arms did you just file down the cadian shoulder pads till that matched the same level as the arms?

Cant wait to see an army of them.

Spladge P

**Brother Argos** · April 16th, 2009 14:16

The gloves are indeed important, however the hands needed to be cut of the gun first to accomodate the use of the carbine with folding stock from the tank sprue.

My aim eventually will be to cast the components I have made from greenstuff, so I can match and mix them with the plastic cadian components as needed. This will make things much quicker in the long run.

Here is a list of the changes so far: -

Chest: Chest piece was from Vehicle sprue, and was chosen as it did not have any armour on. Channels cut for straps, straps made from plasticard, Ammo Pouches made from plasticard,rebreather made from plasticard with the grooved section being cut from one of the cadian trooper heads, Eagle shaped clasps added finally.

Head : Taken from a Steel Legion trooper (one of the few without a massive mould line), Added gas masking tubing using the "power cabling" from Dragonforge ( WELCOME TO DRAGON FORGE DESIGN ). At some point I need to sculpt the head from scratch so I can mould and cast my own copies without legal issues.

Arms : Cadian Rifle arms, Shoulders shaved down and some small creases added, more work needed to make proper folds, also need to add the lighting strike insignia on the left shoulder.

Hands: Detached from the Cadian rifle arms, rotated slightly, the hand that was part of the gun was carefuly cut off without damaging it, and attached to the arm and therefore allowed the use of a different weapon.

Weapon : Because the Steel Legion are an Armoured Fist unit and as such spend a lot of time in vehicles, they generally use Las-Carbines instead of las-rifles. The normal metal models have carbines (with folding stocks), and I used the Las-Carbine with folding stock from the Tank sprue to represent this. I had to change the way the hands worked to make this happen.

Legs : Cadian legs, trimmed down at the top, Three layers of green stuff to build up the bottom of the coat, final layer applied carefully and smoothly, Coat pleats added last.

Feet : Need to trim the boots back, and then sculpt on the changes to a full knee high boot, also add a small skull in the center at the top as per the 4th edition IG codex image of a steel legion trooper.

Canteen : At the moment I am using a Forgeworld Elysian canteen, however it doesn't fit with the style on the metal models, something else to make from plasticard or Greenstuff.

Knife/Bayonet : Currently a Forgeworld Deathkorps knife, I am happy with this and find it matches the metal steel legion nicely, I have a significant amount of these from my Deathkorps, so might stick with it.

Blanket : Currently taken from a metal Steel Legion trooper, however its going to be sculpted in green stuff so it can be reproduced.

The future ...

Do more converted parts to enable me to use the new Cadian command sprues, and all the old Cadian stuff, and the add-on forgeworld cadian parts.

See if I can make transparent resin goggles ... now that would be cool.

**Brother Argos** · April 17th, 2009 00:51

Ok was a good night tonight, got one of the gloves done, put the lighting flash emblem on the shoulder, and made a folding carbine stock out of wire that looks the same as the one on the tank kit carbine. Pics tomorrow.

**Tsele** · April 17th, 2009 07:47

I like the idea and all of your work... it is inspirational...

Now I have to work on my GSing skills...

**Brother Argos** · April 17th, 2009 08:46

Originally Posted by Tsele

I like the idea and all of your work... it is inspirational...

Now I have to work on my GSing skills...

Best way to work on your skills is to have an existing figure you want to duplicate a part from, and then keep practising till you can do that.

**Brother Argos** · April 17th, 2009 15:16

While looking at the new IG codex, I came to this rough army list .. please bear in mind I am aiming towards an Veteran Armoured Strikeforce.

The following is 1500 pts.

Company Command Squad with Medi Pack & MeltaGun in a Chimera, with Heavy Bolter x 2

Veteran Squad with Meltagun x 2, in a Chimera, with Heavy Bolter x 2
Veteran Squad with Meltagun x 2, in a Chimera, with Heavy Bolter x 2
Veteran Squad In Valkyrie, with Meltagun x 3

3 x Leman Russ, 2 Normal, 1 Punisher
Hydra
Basilisk, Enclosed
Armoured Sentinel with Missile x 3
Valkyrie

**Brother Argos** · April 17th, 2009 22:23

Some Picture Updates ...

Firstly here is an extended version the Folding stock normally found on a Las-Carbine. I hope to model a few of the arms to accept this version.

It took around an hour to make the stock, but I think now I know the "how to" I could do it in about 30 minutes, or possibly cast it in resin?