Alright, in a covert attempt to flood the forum with my contents, I'll slowly add pictures of my kitbashes in most forum sections...
:D
This time it's a mix of WWI German helmets and Grognard bodies.
Plus Raumjaeger weapons.
So, I have this image etched in my mind: the trenchcoat clad, gasmask wearing armies of Wolfenstein, Wolf Brigade, and similar IPs.
The imagery resonates with me, and they perfectly represent the kind of faceless, unrelenting, irredeemable evil guys - who would willingly sell their souls to eldritch horror, or alien invader, or both, for a taste of forbidden power and the chance to truly embody the deranged archetype of "chosen ones".
Grognard gave me the perfect foundation: greatcoat bodies.
WWI Germans provided the big helmets, well scaled for the bigger coated bodies.
Getting gasmask was a bit more complex: a finicky job of cutting them from Grognard heads and splicing them with helmets.
Later attempts were marginally cleaner; these ones were early tries, and they were a bit crude, but I managed to save them with paint, a bit.
Sergeant is also equipped with repositioned Grognard arms, plus a Luger from a WWII Bolt Action kit.
Unexpectedly well scaled, since Grognards are not on the extreme end of heroic scale.
I assembled more, and slapped some paint on some of them, but that's for later.
See you next post.
^_^
Those helmet and mask conversions really look good. I can imagine how painstaking they must have been to achieve. They have a great faceless-evil-mook vibe.
@BS Kitbasher
The biggest problem is, WGA plastic is shiny and tough to cut through.
More or less the same problem with Maelstrom's Edge kits.
Newer models I heated in hot water, so plastic would soften up.
But some gasmasks got a bit marred, and cement only helped so far to fix the gaps.
I'll touch up the five-man squad I assembled, but this grainy picture shows what they looked like - more or less - before applying maxx matt coat.
Great... I like that idea... perfect paintjob...
Woud like to see more...
@Frank Reischmann
I need to paint more, and touch up what I've painted so far.
I have a heavy weapon guy with a gatling gun and a couple regular troopers, too.
I think I would have just taken the lazy way out and used the gasmask heads from WA's WWI German infantry, but your hard work really pays off with the masks. And assembled, they definitely look like something out of Wolfenstein or Hellboy, or that '80s movie The Keep. Great stuff!
@Yronimos Whateley
Thanks!
I tested the WWI heads, both unconverted and converted, and I wasn't sure: they weren't giving the right sci-fi vibe I was looking for.
Grognard gasmasks looked both futuristic and somewhat inhuman, robot or insect-like.
Which was more or less what I was after, to stress the alien nature of the Neo-Axis.
@Berggeit
Thanks!
I'm also building some relatively good guys, so I can pit them against.
It's a lovely idea, one that I've touched on before (in a grim, dark parrallel universe, tens of thousands of years in the future). The stalhelm, gasmask and greatcoat combination is an absolute classic.
@Womble Of Darkness
Thanks.
Execution is what it is, but hopefully, as I keep tidying them up, they should pop more on the table while retaining their grimdark allure.
I'm tempted to steal this idea to make a squad of apocalyptic mutant cyborg-vampire warriors inspired by that guy from those great old '80s Voivod album covers....
The German kit's pickelhaube helms and gasmasks, with those French greatcoats, are a nice start. I might be able to soup up some equivalent to the weird rifle from the submachineguns from the one of the WA kits that include submachineguns, while the Eisenkern stormtrooper kit can supply suitable basic shoulder armor.
The hard part would be getting that creepy ghoul face and long hair captured right.
That, and the spikes... these guys would need lots and lots and lots of '80s spikes and bullet-belts!
Paint them up in black, red, and grey, and then send 'em out to the Death Fields in a thrashing rage to doom-stomp around banging heads and drinking blood, and it could only mean a bad, bad day for some Cannon Fodder....
@Yronimos Whateley
Musings...
Old ork and gretchin minis had no shortage of spikes.
Studs could be made with nail art half-beads.
One could splice ghoul heads from any suitably sized undead kit and German helmets.
Hair, green/grey stuff is usually the go-to answer.
