With my Pig Iron heads arriving and with Mord donating a ton of bits (well, technically it was a trade!), I've started my latest offensive: to create some *real* Harakoni Warhawks, not just the light recon variants!

The Pig Iron bits feature closed helmets and various sci-fi looking backpacks. They're all metal, which makes converting a little harder, but it does give some weight to the model (something I always like - it just feels better, not to mention the balance is usually improved, as well).

My first idea was to combine Space Marine Scout legs with Cadian torsos and Pig Iron heads. Some experimenting showed the legs being way out of proportion for the rather finely manufactured Pig Iron heads (for those who have experience with it, think Forgeworld scale - it's the supposed to be GW scale, but it's in fact a bit smaller).

Considering I still have a bunch of Cadian legs lying around, I settled for those and a ton of greenstuff. Needless to say these minis will take a while.

Without further ado, stage one. I say stage one, because the minis have in fact by now evolved beyond this point (but it's sucky weather outside and I'm feeling like crap, so I'll make more pics later ). These guys have a minimal amount of GS: they'll have more padding (think Elysian) on the upper legs and arms, as well as knee- and elbow pads. And not to forget: tubes running from their helmets to their backpacks!



Note the padding coming from under the shoulderpads on the left guy. The guy on the right has since been fitted out with a new left arm. And they both have shortened lasguns, as per standard droptrooper equipment protocol (I guess the longer barrels get in the way, huh?).

These guys have Scout shotguns. Rather large, but they do get the point across (I like them better than the subtle FW shotguns, actually).



I'll post an update, soon! Comments are appreciated (and I mean that - this is all very much WIP and your constructive criticism will be taken into account)!

Alright, managed to get some pics in.

This guy is almost there. He just needs some elbow caps and basing.



The other needs padding and caps, but the tubing turned out awesome. I used guitar string (D string, for the non-musical-handicapped). It looks awesome, but it's a total b*tch to apply. Oh, and note the new arm (Cadian command box!).

Nice to see those pig iron heads in use - they look great (better in many ways than the FW harakoni - especially with the wire and GS). The shotguns look good (they are a bit big - but all GW weaponry is way out of scale anyway). The tubing looks superb - I'll have to try that out for my hellguns (if you try before me - tell me how it works ).

My only criticism is that I would like to see the harakoni using a bullpup, lascarbine (I know you've shortened them - I just love the forgeworld version). You've got me thinking how this could be achieved with a normal cadian lasgun (goes off to investgate... )

Great work and looking forward to seeing these on the table.

Laney

Thanks Laney!

If you do figure out how to do bullpups, let me know. I'd love to use 'em (even though the Harakoni fluff specifically states the design I'm using right now - you're confused with the Elysians!).

Yeah, the shotguns are a tad on the big side... but you gotta admit it's got an undeniable badass factor: "I SAID GET DOWN!"

I'm considering an alternative use of the tubing, over the shoulders instead of under the arms. As you can see I have no problem with using all kinds of gear configurations in the same army (I love diversity), so no harm to be done.

Yeah - you're dead right it was the elysians I was thinking of. Come to think of it these guys look even more like the image of the harakoni in the old codex with those helmets - I'm going to have a play with this tonight - if I get time!

Cheers Laney

Sure...go ahead & tempt an Old Man into going out & spending what little $S he has on YET MORE MINIS! Thanks for the excuse.
VERY COOL STUFF!

Oh, man. I absolutely LOVE the guitar string respirators. Without them the helms are alright, but just seem a bit strange (maybe better after painting) with with the GS and wire additions they look like they belong (and just jumped out of a heavy lifter). Not sure on the knee padding though, but to be honest I cant really see that all to well.

Wow! This is a great conversion.

DUDE! You took the bits we traded to a WHOLE new level! Amazing work! The guitar string is GENIUS... it hits the spot. Do not worry about the shotguns... When I saw the model I actually 'gulped'... "Poor bastard who steps in front of THAT guy!" They are very subtle... then again, I think very ORKISH! WAAAGH! The GS work looks VERY good.

Thanks for sharing!

Arachas - no joy on my own conversion - but I found this cool tutorial you might like using tau parts (I don't have any to test at the minute...

http://paintpotprocrastinator.blogspot.com/2009/06/bitzbox-bullpup-las-carbines-tutorial.html

Cheers Laney

^_^ love the comments.,

@Prius: what specifically makes you stop and think about the kneepadding? The fact that my GS skills need some work? Or do you have concept-based concerns?

GSed the sitting dude. Here we go:




But dang it, does this take a lot of time.

Great job!!

WOW! Great job on the pads man!

Excellent green stuff work on the pads, it bulks out the Cadian models very well. Whilst I like the Kasrkin models, they seem extremely heavy. Your models provide an extremely fine balance between the two.