Curse of the Alabaster: Arbites assemble!

Into the breach...

Having finished assembling the first two arbites with shotguns, I was excited to start building a few more for the Alabaster project.  For the others, I wanted to create some different weapons suitable for long-term operations, while maintaining the compact nature seen with the shotguns. Additionally, I was interested in exploring the idea of giving the different team members unique specializations; after all, the team was formed from members of Adeptus Arbites precincts all over the planet.



First up was a close-quarters specialist that would serve as the leader of the squad. Not wanting to break the aesthetic of squad, I decided not to give her any additional close combat weapons outside of the combat daggers that the others have. She would carry a heavy caliber revolver (Tronsvasse .44) as her primary weapon. Fortunately, I was able to find a suitable revolver for the model without resorting to a complicated conversion. The revolver used was taken from a model in Corvus Belli’s Infinity range, specifically Captain Roger Van Zant. Corvus Belli does an admirable job of creating smaller, more believably-scaled firearms. The revolver is still a little on the large side, but I like to think of it as something akin to Dirty Harry’s Smith & Wesson Model 29 (something to inspire a little fear in criminals, ha ha). Due to the revolver’s size, the converted holster was mounted under the Arbite’s arm with an attachment point on her body armor.

The sergeant has a large caliber revolver in place of a rifle.

Giving her such a large revolver, I knew that I had to add a holster for it, and settled on having it braced at her side.

Despite her revolver, she still has a trusty sidearm, this one an automatic.

Following the close-quarters specialist, I wanted to build a field medic. No team on such a protracted mission would be fit without one! There is not too much to differentiate the medic from the other members of the unit save an additional pouch containing medical necessities. For a primary weapon, I decided on a small las carbine, perfect for medium and short range firefights. I converted the weapon from one of the Death Korp Grenadier hellguns; substantially shortening the barrel, forward grip, and the receiver. I replaced the rifle’s original scope with iron sights and used greenstuff to sculpt a small powercell.

I took special effort to make his lasgun very short, something that would not get in his way when in the field.

I added a few extra pouches for medical supplies.

I really like the model's pose, carefully stalking though derelict hive sinks.

For the final squad member, I wanted some form of a sniper. After a little thought, I realized that with some subtle changes I could modify one of my earlier Imperial Guard snipers into an Arbitrator of the Adeptus Arbites!

I did not need to do too much work to get the sniper to fit with the other Arbites. 

Her rifle was modified to have solid rounds, and look a lot like an M14.

With these last three models, I believe that I have finished the group, a small but elite and heavily armed group of Adeptus Arbites.  While 5 models is not a lot, it will allow each to be allotted more points when designing their rules (using Migsula’s Dozen system).  I will have to be careful how the points are spent, because at the end of the day, they are still just humans (so no increasing Toughness).  Now I just have to think about painting them...

The entire group!

-Adam Wier