INQ28: Militarum Tempestus Scion Conversion - Part 3

One shot, one kill.

Inspired by how well converting my first two Inquisitorial storm troopers went, I set out to assemble a third. Having already assembled two with hot-shot lasrifles, I decided to try something a little different for the third storm trooper. While I was initially scheming to convert some form of special weapon (melta, plasma, or volleygun), my plans were postponed when I came across my collection of Elysian Drop Troops weapons from Forge World. Amongst them was an awesome and compact sniper rifle that I decided would make a welcome addition to any Inquisitor’s retinue. Like the majority of the Elysian weapons, the sniper rifle has a bullpup design, placing the action of the rifle behind the trigger group, taking the place of a traditional stock, thus giving it its condensed look.

From top to bottom: hotshot lasgun, Elysian sniper rifle, and Catachan lasgun.  As you can see the Catachan rifle is simply massive!

While I was really excited to equip one of the storm troopers with the sniper rifle, I was a little unsure how easily it could be substituted for one of the Scion’s hot-shot lasrifles. Due to so much of the Elysian rifles being located within the back stock region, the lack of presculpted arms surrounding the rifle posed a problem. This issue is rarely encountered with GW models because so many of their models’ weapons do not have stocks, or they are not tightly shouldered in a firing position, allowing for relatively simple weapon swapping. Despite this issue, after a fair amount of cutting and repositioning of the arm/hand I properly positioned the rifle. After removing part of the sniper rifle’s stock, I was able to use the trigger group and grip of the hot-shot lasrifle. With the rifle positioned, I filled in the gaps with greenstuff and added back the rifle’s magazine. I resculpted the storm trooper’s trigger finger to be off the trigger because he was not going to be in a firing stance (Firing a sniper rifle from the hip? Surely not!). I was also able to trim the Scion’s left hand off the foregrip of his hot-shot lasrifle such that it could be used to hold the newly positioned sniper rifle.

Getting the sniper rifle to attach properly to the arm required a lot of cutting, followed by a considerable amount of greenstuff work to fill in any gaps and sculpt his finger.

For the storm trooper’s backpack, I made use of the medical backpack from the plastic Catachan command squad. After trimming off the bonesaw and the little medical Caduceus symbol I was able to glue it to the stormtrooper’s back. I fashioned straps for the backpack out of greenstuff and some of the little equipment belts that came with the Scions.

The sniper's backpack is crafted from one of the backpacks in the Catachan command squad.

After finishing the rifle, the model came together really quickly. Notice the beret head from the Catachan command squad.

While trimming up the medical backpack from the Catachan command squad I was reminded of the beret-wearing Catachan head from the kit. After finding it, I decided that it would fit very nicely in place of the standard bereted heads in the Scion kit (and the guy’s head has a suitably grim expression without resorting to yelling!). With some greenstuff I was able to give him a neck and a collar, ensuring that the head fit seamlessly with the rest of the model.

The Cataphractii combi-weapons are surprisingly small and look to be an ideal starting place for making special weapons. 

Now that the third storm trooper is finished, I need to look back into converting a special weapon or two. Currently the smallest melta/plasma weaponry I have found are from the combi-weapons from the Cataphractii/Tartaros terminators from Forge World. Surprisingly they are notably smaller than all of their other counterparts. The combi-plasma addition for instance is slightly smaller than even the standard plastic plasma pistol! As such, I am strongly considering using the Cataphractii/Tartaros combi-weapons as a foundation to build the storm trooper special weapons. If it is as straightforward as I think it might be, expect to see another Inquisitorial storm trooper in the coming weeks! Any comments or suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

- Adam Wier