Squad Scalprum Minor Build To-Done

 Drilling and Slicing My Way Through October 

It still counts as a monthly goal even if the arc of kitbashing stretches from 1999 to present day, right?

Being a fan of low hanging fruit here at the 1st Legion headquarters, I am tagging my first hobby season goal of Dreadtober with the big build (minor) completion of my Devastator Squad for the WH40K 2nd Edition army challenge this month.  There is quite a bit of conversion and modeling work in these five marines so I’m going to take it as a goal completion for this month even if one of the models was converted 20 years ago. Follow along after the jump if you want to hear about the deceptive amount of drilling and kit bashing contained in this months army challenge goal…

First up was brother Behtor and brother Zadakial.  Brother Bethor was painted a fantastic shade of glossy dark green from many years ago when I first purchased these marines.  However due to a recent trade away of some completed 2nd edition squads in order to compete my fantastic epic force, I am out of the push to fit Bolters that should attach to the model.  I cut off the open palm of a second edition gun support arm and glued it where the push to fit peg for the left hand should be. Then I cut a 6th edition plastic Bolter with a gun hand attached at the grip and joined it at the right wrist to give him a weapon and hand that doesn’t quite copy his squad mates but does evoke the same feel while also giving the model a bit of individuality to compliment the rest of this non-standard squad.  

Brother Bethor obviously enjoys carrying his Bolter at a jauntier angle than his squadmates.

2nd edition lascannons were so long the autofocus on my phone zeroed in on the tip of the barrel instead of the marine leaving Zadakial a little blurry in this photo.

The next model was brother Zadakial who is the real gem of this months project.  He is a genuine 2nd edition devastator marine featuring reinforced greaves and other sharp details from the first run of specifically modeled devastator marines.  This mini and his heavy weapon came unpainted in a large and generous gifting of vintage space marines from an old gaming buddy. He is armed on the right with a period perfect pewter lascannon and his left arm is a third edition both pistol arm. I love the narrative idea of a devastator marine making long range shots with his lascannon and while waiting for it to charge he’s blazing away with his bolt pistol killing scarab swarms or nurglings that are closing in.  To attach the plastic arm and shoulder pad I’ve started drilling and pinning the arm to the torso to prevent the inevitable superglue bond only breakage that would occur later, and like all my modeling techniques I’m about 25 years late to this innovation.

Brother Joash is my real "cheat" of the month being a multi-part 3rd edition space marine.

The multi-melta is a Franken-weapon that was my first conversion work in WH40K way back in '99. There was no multi-melta armed marine at that time that you could purchase but I was desperate for that anti-tank power. I took a RT era multi-melta and cut off what I later realized were the handles for the RTB01 marines arms, then I sliced the 3rd edition missile tube off the arm and shoulder pad it came molded to. Sliding the tube back a little, I turned the multi-melta on it's side and glued it to the firing hand, shoulder pauldron, and missile launcher tube. Without the tube it was too short for a shoulder weapon, but with the tube it was taller than the marine aiming it. Considering it was my first conversion and I was pretty young, I judged it good enough and threw some base coats in it's direction and boom, it served in my army for the last 20 years. When I was putting together the forces for this challenge I had a period appropriate missile launcher, heavy bolter and lascannon, so as I scanned through my forces this giant hybrid jumped out and I applied the law of averages: 1st edition plus 3rd edition divided by two equals 2nd edition! It will be fun to finally fully paint a marine that has played a roll in many of my armies. Before I bough the new plastic Devastators kit a few years ago, Brother Joash had served as the multi-melta armed marine that rode in the 4th squads razorback for a long time.

This metal plastic kitbash hybrid is two heads taller than a marine when you stand it on end, how this weapon was ever going to fit in that razorback with all those bayonet armed squad mates is a puzzle only the future can solve...

Thanks for following along with another incredibly long post about only a few miniatures and helping me cross the first goal off the list.  If there's a contest out there where you win by saying as much as possible about a handful of models someone please let me know, I think I could be a contender...

Brother Ephaseus is a classic Mark VII armor marine that was packaged in blisters along with the metal special weapons marines in the 2nd and 3rd edition.  His blister pack mate armed with a meltagun appeared in last month's Squad Zanthor.