Legion Masters of Signal (Sons of Horus/Imperial Fists)

While we’re sorting out the new site and getting it set up how we want it, we’ll be running a few old posts from when we first started Brush and Boltgun as a bit of a #tbt (Throw Back Thursday). Our first, is our post on converting and creating our own Master of Signals for our Warhammer 30,000 armies:

Rob and I both wanted to make Master’s of Signal for our legions. Rob, needing one for his Sons of Horus Rite of War, and me just thinking that it would be fitting for Imperial Fists.

This is the Forge World version of that model, it’s a great model, but it doesn’t really fit either legion. (Whether it’s the paint job or not, I’m not sure – what do you think?)

Rob was the first to start:

Well originally I had no idea that I needed one, and it was only at the end of a victorious battle that I found out it was vital. Luckily, the terminators who would have benefitted were absolute turd and did nothing of use, so I still claim the victory. (Typical traitor! – Mike)

I ordered the MkIV Legion Command Squad Upgrade. (I also used this, but the MKIII equivalent – Mike)

I wanted my Master of Signals to be in a typical Radio Operator pose, pressing two fingers to an earpiece while holding a cup of tea in his other hand. Using the MkIV chaps from Betrayal at Calth left me with a dilemma, they didn’t have cups of tea, or useful arms. Instead I took out the old craft knife and started to carve them up.

For the miniature’s right arm, you’ll need these, its the basic two boltgun arms from Calth. The blunt craft knife is optional. The first thing to do is remove the fingers and thumb from the left hand. (Of the model, kids – Mike) Next you want to cut the fingers so that they are in twos. And finally, the most awkward part, cutting the left hand from the arm. The easiest way I could think of was just cutting straight through the cuff, and cutting that off afterward.

You can now start reassembling the hand with the digits in slightly different places. You’ll need to trim a few bits so that they fit better, but you should be able to get them looking something like this.

With the absence of a ‘mug of tea’ arm, I opted for a power sword, and that was just one of the few straight arms from the same box.

Here we have the Master of Signal undercoated in Abaddon Black, and base coated in Lupercal Green. At the minute I’m brushing on undercoats and base coats because of a new arrival. Usually I’d airbrush or spray (Halfords matt black spray paint is ideal for undercoats) them both on.

Annoyingly, the second arm I made for this guide is better than the one attached to this mini. If anyone wants a pre-built arm like that give me a shout! Painting guide in the next one.

Over to you Mike! (Thanks, Rob!)

As is typical in our friendship, I saw Rob’s and thought. That’s something I can do…

I think it’s fair to say that my conversion was the easier of the two, but I’m very happy with how it turned out. I wanted mine to look very similar to the Forge World model – I love the idea of the Cognis Signum being part of the arm – but I wanted him to be in MKIII which really suits the character of the Imperial Fists.

I dry fit the parts:

The legs and arms are from the Burning of Prospero boxes set. The right hand in this picture is from the Space Marine Devastator set. (Time travelling, hmm? Treachery… – Rob)

I was hunting through my bits box and very luckily came across this little computer part. It’s from the Ravenwing Command Set, and I’m guessing is designed to glue on to someone’s waist. I cut off the pouch that’s attached to it and Voila, I have a cognis signum. The second antenna is from an Imperial Guard vox. After this, I cut space for the cognis signum in his arm, and cut the outstretched palm off carefully with a craft knife. I also pinned the antenna on to give it more support. As you can see I also added shoulder pads and bent the right finger a bit. (The left hand is also from the Devastator box). Now it just needs some cleaning up and painting

 

(He also won this month’s Konversion Kompetition at Games Workshop Liverpool.)

Next time, the competition continues, as we put brush to plastic/resin and crack on.

What do you think of the conversions so far?