But really, this post isn't about how cute my foundling kitten is. No, I've had a horrible case of conjunctivitis for the last week (bad enough that I missed three and a half days of work that I could ill afford) that pretty well prevented me from painting; or doing much of anything requiring sight, for that matter.Now that I'm better, I'm raring to make up for lost time. A month or so ago I ordered the Iron Hands tactical squad from GW. I'm not making Iron Hands, but I wanted to use the bionic bits as prosthetics for the Marines Cruor Dexter and I needed another tactical squad anyway. I am imagining them as having been nearly destroyed in a Dark Eldar retaliatory sneak attack, and I wanted some way to show that they were war-weary and hardened without resorting to battle damage, which I am in general not a huge fan of (although, to be fair, I have seen some excellent Imperial Fists that have nearly changed my mind).
Why Dark Eldar? Well, assuming that they actually do get a new Codex, there are sure to be plenty of DE armies sprouting up for me to get destroyed by... I mean... blow off the table. Also, it's an excuse to paint up Dark Eldar prisoners as objectives.
Ooh la la. Hopefully they cast up some new ones, too. I know there's a gag there about objectifying women, but I digress.For those of you who haven't seen the Iron Hands tactical squad, it's a regular plastic Tactical Squad plus a blister with some metal Iron Hands pauldrons (9 for your basic troops, and onefit for a Sergeant, all useless to me), 2 torso fronts of dubious bionic-ness, 2 bionic right arms with bolters, 2 bionic left arms in generic "Here, hold this bolter!" pose, 1 bionic left arm brandishing a thunderhammer (which, after a quick glance at the Codex, I won't actually be able to use on anything but an Assault or Vanguard Sergeant), 5 funky bionic heads, and 2 sets of cybernetic legs. It's really not a bad buy, considering it was only $15 more than a regular Tactical Squad. Considering the price increase it's an even better buy now- a Tac Squad is up to $37.25 from GW DIrect, but the Iron Hands squad is still only $45.
Anyway... I needed more. Considering the pieces I could use (arms, torso fronts, heads, legs) I only had enough bits to make 13 Marines with prosthetics, and that's stretching it awful thin with only 1 bit per marine.
Frank Zappa being the mother of invention, I decided to try to split the cyber-legs in two and combine them with plastic tactical legs thereby doubling my pleasure hardship and doubling my fun heartache.
Lacking any real modelling skill, I had to position the plastic feet on chips of rock bulked up with greenstuff to keep the models from leeeeening way over.
I'm happy to say that I am not too disheartened by the results. I'm pretty sure these guys with the bionic legs will stand head and shoulders above the rest...
...literally.
That's a really good idea about using the Iron Hands. Might have to steal that one... And yes, I was suckered in by the cute kitten... ^_^
ReplyDeleteSplitting the bionic legs makes a lot of sense to me and I think they look fine. That's a great way to get more out of the Iron Hands box. I'm really interested in seeing more of how you represent your guys as having battled the Dark Eldar, it sounds like a cool theme for your army.
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