INQ28: Militarum Tempestus Scion Conversion - Part 3

One shot, one kill.

Inspired by how well converting my first two Inquisitorial storm troopers went, I set out to assemble a third. Having already assembled two with hot-shot lasrifles, I decided to try something a little different for the third storm trooper. While I was initially scheming to convert some form of special weapon (melta, plasma, or volleygun), my plans were postponed when I came across my collection of Elysian Drop Troops weapons from Forge World. Amongst them was an awesome and compact sniper rifle that I decided would make a welcome addition to any Inquisitor’s retinue. Like the majority of the Elysian weapons, the sniper rifle has a bullpup design, placing the action of the rifle behind the trigger group, taking the place of a traditional stock, thus giving it its condensed look.

INQ28: Militarum Tempestus Scion Conversion - Part 2

As the Emperor protects, so must we.

After having so much fun converting the first INQ28 Militarum Tempestus storm trooper, I knew I had to get to work on converting a second. For the second stormtrooper I wanted to maintain the same modified hot-shot lasrifle, but this time have the rifle shouldered like it was getting ready to be fired. Adding the stock to the hot-shot lasrifle proved to be a lot trickier this time around and required a lot more cutting and greenstuffing to situate everything properly.

INQ28: Converting a Militarum Tempestus Scion

To feel pain or fear or grief is to allow myself a luxury I cannot afford.

Only a week after the release of the Militarum Tempestus Scions, we have already seen a surge of activity around the blogosphere involving the kit. They are particularly well suited for Inquisitorial operatives; both Jeff Vader and Henry South have excellent examples of this.  Wanting to experiment with the kit myself, I picked up a box and set to work. Now that I have actually seen the components of the kit, I am even more impressed than ever with Dave Thomas’s work. He paid a lot of attention to detailing the hands of the models. I was particularly impressed that he thought to model one of the Scions hands such that the operator’s trigger finger is not on the trigger of the weapon! Their fighting knives are also really neat. I particularly like that they are simple straight blades and that they have a fully enclosed finger choil (kind of like a karambit, ha ha).

Militarum Tempestus: Plastic storm troopers finally arrive!

There are no miracles, only men.

Rumors have been circulating on the internet for years that Games Workshop has been working on a unit of plastic Imperial Guard storm troopers. I always looked at these rumors with a cautious optimism. The caution born from many false leads and the disappointment of not getting them when the Imperial Guard rolled into the 5th edition with steel treads and the stomp of standard-issue boots. But it was hard to not get excited about each of the rumors, because more so than for any other army in the 40k universe, the Guard are something that we can all relate to. Flesh and blood of men and women trying to survive the brutal dictatorship of the Imperium and the continual assaults from virtually any imaginable horror. Afterall, there are no miracles, only men (a line that has always stuck with me, from John Bergin’s ambient industrial rock soundtrack for Dan Abnett’s seminal novel Traitor General). But with the release of this week’s White Dwarf magazine, all of that uncertainty is gone. Plastic storm troopers are finally being released next week along with a supplemental codex, Militarum Tempestus, detailing an entire army composed of storm troopers (renamed Scions)! Now seems like as good a time as any to discuss the new plastics and consider them in light of the earlier versions of storm troopers (and to find my 30-40 metal storm troopers and prepare them for battle, he he).