Just brilliant! I wanted to field a Squat army!! but, wait!!!,,, even though the rulebook (& Codex Imperialis) displayed them as one of the major races of the 40k universe, in the reality they were already wiped out from the system (as I later bitterly found out). Bummer!!!
During the years I have played with the idea of resurrecting this race back to battlefields but since so far there haven't really been good miniatures to convert them from! Until very recently… (although Johan has done very inspiring conversion before me here)
I was browsing through GW's site and there they were! Dwarf Iron Breakers!!! seriously perfect candidates for my long time dream of fielding a army of these stunty diehards!
Iron Breaker bodies and heads combined with hands, guns and accessories from Space Marine Scouts All very simple and all very effective! and easy too!!!
So one test-mini turned into a squad and now Im aiming for a small battle force to play with my mates at work (yes, we have active WH-gaming group there!). Im thinking of using Space Marine or maybe even Space Wolves rules for them, so at least another tactical squad and a command squad… and a Ancestor (dreadnought) then few Trikes (attack bikes) and Hearthguard (terminators) and…. you get the point.
OK I got to admit that this all started as a joke, a bit of fun to got my attention back to painting miniatures again, but as soon as I started I realized that this was lot more than a joke. So the story of the Lost League started to evolve…
Very simple paint job - airbrush for the blueish-grey base coat (Tamiya paints) and GW paints for the rest. I was tempted to paint the bolter casings red just for the old times sake, but then I thought that the Squats are retro enough alone so I went for the black. I painted the sleeves orange to give some colour and it actually works pretty well with the highly restricted palette.
Hope you guys like them too.
UPDATE [3.30.2014]
Added some color to the bolter casings!
You beauty. Ive not seen a squat conversion that ive actually liked until now. So so cool. Do you remember that tracked battle tank thing that was in the epic game for squats? maybe a Khorne Lord of Skulls? The possibilitys are endless! Cant wait to see more.
ReplyDeleteOh yes!
DeleteShould do that when the army reaches the "epic point";)
These are inspired!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely fantastic :)
ReplyDeleteGreat work :D
ReplyDeleteGood job! I was thinking Space Wolf rules for an allied squad or two using the same kit bash. It's not stealing, it's being inspired! ;-)
ReplyDeleteFeel free to be inspired!
ReplyDeleteI would love to see people creating their own versions of Squats using same parts as I have done, It would be a great honour for me really ;)
There may be some "lead time" - I have rather a lot of existing projects queued up, and there may be some . . . "marital disharmony" caused if I buy too many more things without finishing some projects!
DeleteHehe, feel you bro ;)
DeleteOh yeah! These are much more fun than Ultramarines!
ReplyDeleteLove the colour of their armour and the contrasting orange sleeves. Looking forward to seeing how you create the ancestor and the exo-armoured unit...making me feel giddy:-)
PDH
These guys are awesome :D
ReplyDeleteYay! They look great Mikko!
ReplyDeleteJobs a good ´un.
Awesome! I've been thinking of doing a squats army with the new dwarves + bits. Are those SM scout arms or did you cobble them together from multiple pieces?
ReplyDeleteThese are great!
ReplyDeleteI already had a Necromunda gang of Squats (made using old dwarf heads on old Ork bodies) but these new Dwarfs had me tempted to make more.
I'd been waiting for someone else to try it and you're the first that I've seen do it. I'd been mostly looking at the Longbeards box, but I think you're right to go for this one, so thanks also for that.
You say the Scout arms worked well without much/any adjustment? That's interesting, since matching up arms (with a gun across chest) was a problem for my previous conversions. Presumably the meltagun required some conversion, though for Space Wolves I guess you can model BP + CCW anyway.
I was thinking of using the original Dwarf arms, but I'd need to get hold of a box to see how that's likely to turn out.
Scout arms were easy to work with, they are obviusly too long but with some clever shortening at the wrists you could easily get good fit. One trick is to cut pieces away from the torso
ReplyDeleteto allow the boltguns to fit close to the chest but you need to be extra carefull only to remove material from the areas that will eventually be covered by the boltguns;)
Personally I wouldn't recommend of using the dwarf arms because they are covered in chainmail + the hands do not look like they're squeezing triggers at all:(
Space Marine arms are good alternatives too...
Thanks for the clarification.
DeleteThe hands aren't a problem - I was planning on using guns with space marine hands attached, to join to the dwarf arms at the wrist. I hadn't realised about the chainmail, but they have chainmail skirts, so I guess I'll need to do something about that anyway. Maybe just paint it a different colour or fill it with putty.
By the way, I like the red bolters. I think a bit more colour was needed and it's a nice middle ground between old style bright red bolters and new darker colour schemes.
These are really good, and I like the subdued paint scheme. As a former Squat player (as in the old school actually had their own rules Squats), this is really inspiring. Too bad I don't have the slightest clue where my old army is, I had all the exo armor figures, the trikes, the whole lot. I need to dig around and see where they might be. Interested if I find any? I doubt I will though.
ReplyDeleteThe old Squat models were so cool!
ReplyDeleteBut they are thing of the past. This project is about creating something new;)
Terrific force. Maybe a time for me to add a small "Space Wolves" allied contingent to my Guard.
ReplyDeleteI still have plastic Squats, trikes & exo armour in a box. The old plastics would work as Scouts while copying your guys as full marines. Hmmmm. Plenty of ideas.
Did you have to trim the metal beards or anything to get the scout bolters to sit across the chest?
ReplyDeleteNvm found answer in comments
ReplyDelete