Thinking about 3rd party products

by | Feb 26, 2013

Ok, I've been all over the map with my articles lately, so expect some more repeats soon, I'm working on one about the Astral Claws chapter organisation now, along with a post of some of my own personal army fluff. Expect another article about my Death Guard too, along with a post on making zombies/cultists.

This update is about a few 3rd party products I'm eyeing. I wanted to write about this after my post on hobby malaise, because honestly, 3rd party and out of production bits are some of the main reasons I enjoy building armies. For my Astral Claws I went primarily to eBay for out of production tanks and minis, and supplemented with some Forge World shoulder pads and IC's. For my CSM I have 2 Blight Drones and a Daemon Prince converted from an Inquisitor model, who's supposed to be Mortarion. There's also my Land Raider Proteus with them. I haven't found any worthwhile 'Nid parts.

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Color scheme may change a bit

For my Dark Angels, I bought the Chapterhouse Angels of Death doors and put them on my Land Raider Crusader. I just got another one from the Space Marine Megaforce, but I wanted something special for it. I looked around at FW bits, but their DA doors left me uninspired. Instead, I think I'll be using some of the DA icons from the DA upgrade sprue on the doors, and then installing this:
Which is an extension kit that, in my opinion, greatly improves the Land Raider. This will give me 2 custom Land Raiders to go with my Deathwing. That army is a whole other project though, as I am going to repaint them from a death guard scheme to the Angels of Vengance. I may do a custom Samael on a 3rd party speeder to represent my 2nd company master. I havent decided which yet, but my FLGS sells one.

How about my Blood Angels successor Lamenters? Well next month I plan to buy them a Storm Raven, so I will also be purchasing the following:


This extension kit makes the Storm Raven look bulkier and more capable of transporting marines. In my opinion, it makes the Stormraven into the baddass 40k-scale Thunderhawk it deserves to be. The Stormeagle is another good option for a decent looking 'Raven stand-in.


I had considered buying a Rhino upgrade kit, but I've enjoyed my plasticard Rhino conversion and am planning to make a mould of the smoke stack I built and replicating it with epoxy. I'll do a post on that later :).


I'm definitely going to pick up these armored doors for the Drop Pod, as the Pod I have been working on is either going to transport Sternguard or an Venerable Dreadnought, both passengers I'd imagine would merit extra protection. Mostly, I just like making my vehicles look customized. Haven't doe anything special with my Stormtalons and I'm kind of regretting it. I saw a great conversion with the missile launchers underslung recently.

There's one last thing I've been thinking about lately. I really think you need the mobility of a bike to maximize the awesomeness of the Conversion Beamer. As a result, I'm considering picking up:

 
Should make a decent Master of the Forge shoulder pad.
Hey look, a conversion beamer!

It would let me build 1 Valthex on a bike, and then I could convert another mini into a Dark Angels Techmarine, since I hear they're pretty nifty. I'll still need another for a foot techmarine for the DA, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I'm also looking at picking up some bits for plasticard experiments and possibly for some future projects (i.e I'd like to buy some tank turrets I can use with OOP rhinos from ebay, because I want a Baal Predator and another Pred for my Lamenters). Actually, that reminds me: idea - since all of these armies have primarily older STC patterns of equipment, I should get the Lamenters a Contemptor to be a counts-as Furioso. I'd also like to do a Librarian Dread and a Death Company Dread for them. Ahem, anyway:

Perfect treads for some custom tanks

Hey look, a jetbike

And the turret in question