Recently, I made the decision to step back from Warhammer as a game, but not as a hobby. I barely played as it was, and have actually spent more time modeling or painting than playing... and even when I did play, it was a solo game like Journeys in Middle Earth, Four Against Darkness, or making crews for Five Parsecs From Home. What does all of that have to do with this? I had started to convert an extra Primaris Neophyte for my burgeoning Black Templar army, before setting the project aside from game fatigue.
I just came back to it the other day, and boy he had potential. The base model is a Primaris Reaver, a very cool model that sadly doesn't quite have a place in the current Space Marine army of 9th edition 40k (that's a while 'nother post). The new Neophytes recalled the older Scout models in design so I felt it was a good starting point and went to trying to recreate the piping that ran along the front of the armor. I drilled some holes and unsuccessfully tried to get some guitar wire in there, and looked up greenstuff rollers which are all the rage and allegedly great for pipes and hoses. Out of time, money, and energy, however, I let it sit.
Now, while there are not any in-progress shots, I will show you what I came up with. I looked at my bits box, the base model, the really cool neophyte arms that came with a cool boltgun, and had at it. What we have is something that definitely could exist in the grim darkness of the far future, but does deviate from the usual designs (in a good way, if I do say so myself).
Here we have a beefy dude, well-equipped and ready for war! I stuck some brass rod and plastic tubing in those holes to resemble antennae, and picked one of my favorite heads to come out of recent Space Marine kits. While I was building, I was thinking: what does he do? What's his specialty? What sort of gear does he keep on him? I decided that, while this would actually make a good Neophyte in my own opinion, he was a seasoned warrior used to stalking about in the shadows. A camo tarp doubles as cover and a sleeping roll, and a cool set of binoculars helps with the recon. His armor is minimal, and packs the obvious power pack: either indicating he has some smaller, efficient power source or none at all, using his armor for protection but not augmentation.
Oh yeah, look at his majesty! And that is what goes through my head as I do conversions. Sometimes they are simple part swaps, other times you find yourself scratch-building things. So what is his purpose, now that he is built? Ostensibly, he is just for a fun, a modeling exercise... but, of course, I did promise that this blog will include game rules, didn't I? Stay tuned!
