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[MaxMini.eu]

 MaxMini.eu » The workshop » Painting & modelling
 WIP stormtrooper

[MrMoustaffa]

Just got some of the WWII German heads and the new greatcoat legs, and couldn't resist seeing how they look together, so I decided to make myself some IG stormtroopers that didn't look like complete garbage 

Anyways, here's what I've come up with. Sorry for no painted pics yet, as I'm still getting started with the hobby aspect and will be getting my paints together soon. Say hello to "sarge"



This guy has got parts from roughly 8 different kits, so bear with me as this is going to sound a little crazy. The head is the German WWII max mini head, and the legs are obviously the new greatcoat legs (which are awesome by the way). The torso came from the Cadian command pack, the laspistol is from the cadian shock toops kit, and the radio pack on his back is from the Catachan jungle fighter's box. His left arm with the chainsword is from some old GW commissar I believe, and the shoulderpad with the skull comes in the Leman Russ and chimera kits. That bit of wiring you see is a 32mm guitar string that I superglued in place.



I'm really happy with how he turned out, as it took longer for me to find the bitz that looked good with him than it did to put him together. Now that I've got a good idea for the look I'm using from here, the rest will come along much quicker. I'll probably have a couple of ones with hellguns done as soon as my laser rifles from victoria mini's comes in. I may try and slap together a melta or plasma gunner though in the meantime... Let me know if you guys like this, and if people are interested, I may turn this into a little WIP blog.

And finally, some extra pics. Sorry for the crummy lighting, most of these are taken from my hobby table with my cell phone, which only has a 4 megapixel camera in it.

Here's one with a better view of his chainsword and shoulderguard.


...and a size comparison to a normal GW sarge. This may be the color scheme I end up using for my main army, I'm not sure yet.


And finally, a better pic of his "power pack" and how the cable was run. I literally just super glued a half inch length of guitar string from the pistol to the pack. I may end up adding an extended barrel or a scope to the pistol or something to make it look cooler, but I'm not sure yet.


Any tips, tricks, or criticism you have that can help me get better at this would be greatly appreciated. I really love converting up unique models for my armies, and every little tip helps!

[lone dirty dog]

Over all love this it looks good and great use of parts, great idea and different from the normal conversions nice job.

Now a couple of things (well you did ask )the commissar arm does not match up with the pistol arm, the cuff is larger and thicker than the normal Cadian arms.

The next thing is the guitar wire ditch the stuff it does not bend well and you get unnatural bends in it when you try ( because it is to stiff ) go to http://zinge.co.uk/ and get some of his wire cables softer metal so bend naturally.

Other than those 2 small points top job, if you are any good with GS maybe sculpt some kind of com to the helmet just to 40k it up a bit other wise all is good.

Cant wait to see it painted. 

[MrMoustaffa]

Over all love this it looks good and great use of parts, great idea and different from the normal conversions nice job.

Now a couple of things (well you did ask )the commissar arm does not match up with the pistol arm, the cuff is larger and thicker than the normal Cadian arms.

The next thing is the guitar wire ditch the stuff it does not bend well and you get unnatural bends in it when you try ( because it is to stiff ) go to http://zinge.co.uk/ and get some of his wire cables softer metal so bend naturally.

Other than those 2 small points top job, if you are any good with GS maybe sculpt some kind of com to the helmet just to 40k it up a bit other wise all is good.

Cant wait to see it painted. 

I've always wanted to give greenstuff a try, but our store is always out of it. I wanted to use it on the commissar arm to help make the two more uniform, but I'm not really sure what to do there.

Also, thanks for the idea on using the soft metal for wiring. I actually just got the rifle arms that I needed last night and made some more guys. I'm going to go back and change the way they're done to use the slings that came on them as powercables instead (I was clipping them off anyways)and we'll see how they look.

I'll try and get some more pics up of some the other troopers by tonight. Some look awesome, and some need some more work, but thankfully, they all have superglue on them, so I can always take stuff off and rearrange it.

[lone dirty dog]

I gather you mean victoria lamb minis  if you do I think the straps might look a bit thin IMHO, you can get some cheap deals with GS on ebay.

Have a go with it and roll it till it is uniformed before you start, get some clay shapers from an art store helps with smoothing and shaping 

Look forward to seeing more keep it coming 

[MrMoustaffa]

Yep, you were right, the straps were way too short to use... Oh well, guess the guitar string stays... for now. I'll do some looking around and see what I can find, although it could take a while.

In other news, I really wish there was a way to spoiler these pictures or something so I can make them smaller. That way it doesn't take a week just to load up the first page...

Anyways, here's the boys so far. Got 8 done, now I'm waiting on more melta guns and trying to figure out what I'm going to do with the last set of legs.


Some came out really well, like this "medic" (aka scrub #4)...


Others still need some work, like this melta gunner...


Aside from the first melta gunner though, they look really good. The only problem the melta guy has is he looks like an orangutan with his comically long arms. If I can fix him, these guys will look awesome when they're painted up on the tabletop. I'll throw in some more pics of some of the better guys I threw together. These lasguns are from victoria lamb, by the way, everything else is either max mini or GW.

2nd Sarge, didn't have a snazzy chainsword for him, so I decided to just use a tank commander arm and make it look like he's motioning guys foward.


Random scrub#1 "vox operator"


Random scrub #2 "vox operator"


Random srub #3 "medic"


And as a little bonus, here's the regiment's bagpiper, to keep spirits up (counts as officer of the fleet)I saw this on the victoria lamb site and just couldn't pass it up. Looks great with the greatcoat legs


Hoping to pick up some paint tomorrow, although I'll have to mess around a bit before I settle on a scheme with some cheaper figures I have, as I really don't want to screw these guys up. With resin, metal, and plastic all on the same fig, I'm really nervous to try and strip anything, so better get it right the first time!

[lone dirty dog]

Nice job although I have to say I have seen these all ready    over on Dakka Dakka I was reading replies to the Vic page and saw some feedback which reminded me of these, so I clicked on the name and the gallery pics and hey presto 

Great job and are looking great love the tanker arm works really well, now go get the paint.    as for the straps told you so 

[jimjimjimmyjim]

I think the dude with the bag pipes is a nice touch

Where did you get the bits from?

[lone dirty dog]

I think the dude with the bag pipes is a nice touch

Where did you get the bits from?

Victoria lamb minis 

[MrMoustaffa]

Nice job although I have to say I have seen these all ready    over on Dakka Dakka I was reading replies to the Vic page and saw some feedback which reminded me of these, so I clicked on the name and the gallery pics and hey presto 

Great job and are looking great love the tanker arm works really well, now go get the paint.    as for the straps told you so 

Yeah I use the same name for all the forums I'm on. I think I managed to upload them first on DakkaDakka, but I can't really remember 

As for paint, gotta learn how to paint first, so it'll be a bit, haha. I hate waiting too, but after I paint a few test ones, I'll start working on these guys. Hope to have painted pics up as soon as I can get them done. I've got a few ideas for paint schemes, but I'm not sold on any particular one yet. My main soldiers colors will be Red, Gold, Black, and gunmetal for weapons. However, I don't think that paint scheme will work too well on these guys, anyone have suggestions? I was thinking about a dark grey trenchcoat/uniform, with black armor, and either gold or red trim along armor pieces. Helmets will probably be black as well, and emblems (like the eagles) will probably be gunmetal.

In hindsight, probably shouldn't have shown all of them at once before I was ready to paint them. D'oh well. 

[SirTainly]

These look great, especially the yelling guy with the chainsword.