Gelida: Revisiting some old conversions

Into the frozen wastes!

Recently, a group of talented hobbyists gathered to play the first in a series of events set on the frigid death world Gelida. Created by Cody Taylor (magos_buer on Instagram), Gelida is a long forgotten Imperial world that plunged into an ice age sometime around the time of the Great Crusade. Some of its bravest inhabitants venture into the snow-swept wastes in robotic suits, searching for supplies to keep the planet’s few Hive-cities functioning. In the last few months, our Instagram feeds have been filled with all manner of awesome snow-covered mechs and warriors in heavy duty harsh-weather gear for the Gelida events (#gelida40k). Some of the creations from Rougefalcon5 really caught our eye, particularly a few models created from the Imperial Guard Scion kit. They reminded us of some models we converted years back (here, here, and here), soon after the blog started, just as we were venturing into the world of Inq28. Looking through our model cases, we found them as we left them unpainted and unfinished. In honor of Gelida, we decided to modify the models to fit within the setting and send them out to some of the people involved in the games!

One of the original scion conversions (left), next to two modified for Gelida.

One of the original scion conversions (left), next to two modified for Gelida.

The stock scion models actually fit the theme of Gelida quite well, as they have really thick and bulky boots, pants, and gloves, alongside a breastplate that could house all manner of elements to keep the wearer warm. When first converting the scions, I added a lot of additional equipment to the models as well, including bedrolls, backpacks, canteens, and knives, which also fits with the survival theme. Since I used bare, unhelmeted heads for the original conversions, I decided I needed to add something that could help keep their faces warm. Using green stuff, I sculpted scarves, along with heavy fur-lined hoods that they could deploy if necessary. The last thing I did was modify their boots slightly, adding a little hooked protrusion to the toe. This was inspired off of old Finnish boots from the Winter War era, which had such modifications so that they could easily attach skis to their boots, something that fit right in with Gelida.

The primary new addition to the scion models was the inclusion of hoods, as well as modifying their boots slightly.

A detailed shot of the hoods that were added to the scion models.

While the scions are quite large, they still look frail next to this Death Guard.

A scale shot, from left to right: a converted FW Elysian, two converted scions, a converted Delaque ganger, and a converted Primaris Space marine (Death Guard).

Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to take part in any of the Gelida events in person (at least not the initial ones), but it has been really inspiring to see what people have been building for it. Towards that end, it was great to be able to revisit a few old models and update them for the setting! The models have since been sent out to some of the Gelida participants. Perhaps with a little luck, they will make it into one of the upcoming games!

- Adam Wier