This particular conversion has been a long time coming but I’ve been a bit distracted lately. This is a rebuild of the stock Vulkan He’stan into something a bit better than the existing skipping rope pose.

I knew that this being a regular scale conversion I wanted to use the existing model as a base to work from, because despite the pose it still has many nice features. I began by cutting away the bulk of the body (after making a mold of the loin cloth so I could restore it later). I attempted this cutting away with a dremmel kit, but in the end I settled on using a pillar drill and an 8mm drill bit just for the sake of saving time. With the release of Finecast I guess we aren’t going to see so many difficulties working with white metal anymore, and that’s something I’m quite thankful for. At first I only removed the lower legs (see an early WiP here) but after much dry fitting I ended up also removing shoulder pads to give me more freedom with the pose. I remove the pads with a pair of clippers but I would advise anyone using clippers on metal not to use the GW brand as they simply aren’t strong enough (I’ve had a pair of GW clippers snap and nearly take my eye out a few years back).

Before I removed the shoulder pads I made a mold of each to help me rebuild the cloak and the way it drapes over the shoulders. The stubby blade on the spear was removed and replaced with a GK plastic blade. The rest is largely self explanatory. The pose itself was largely inspired by this piece of John Blanche artwork.

This particular character conversion was done for a client’s (forum username Roleplayer) Blood Raven army. You can follow his immense Blood Raven Project Blog here. The conversion is mine but the paintjob is by the client and I think you’ll agree it’s top notch.

This particular Blood Raven character will count as Vulkan He’stan. Overall he came together really well in the end. I had to resculpt the cloak to get it right, and the addition of power cabling, studs and accessories has really helped complete the model. I left the pads and belt buckle plain, to allow for painted iconography of the client’s choice (personal heraldry I would assume, because he’s at least a Captain in rank).

I first converted a fist mounted weapon, but have since removed it to be done again, as I didn’t feel it was good enough. The cloak originally came from a Chaos Terminator Lord with lots of filling in to make it less raggedy. I really like the way the official Vulkan model’s cloak drapes over his shoulders and so replicated it here. The raven is just a fantasy bit I picked up from bitzbox.co.uk on a whim. The backpack has been converted from bits from a couple of thunder hammers.

Originally I had planned to have the entire backside of the cloak made from bird feathers, but due to the thickness of the cloak already I changed this to have just a few decorative feathers.The torso was based off of a Mark VIII chest with the eagle detail (behind the head) taken from the Assault on Black Reach captain model. The legs came from a veteran model and the tip of his spear from a White Scars biker sword. The flamer gauntlet is simply a converted power fist, stripped down and re-modelled.

Work in Progress pics

I used the official Vulkan miniature as the design base for this conversion but I want to re-pose it (as well as true scale it). I tried to give him the striding pose shown in the artwork in the codex but I wanted the arms posed differently because when arms are positioned across the chest to much of the model is obscured from view. Originally was going to use a Nemesis Force Weapon as the spear but it just looked like I couldn’t be bothered to do it right and had gone for the simplest option. We couldn’t be having any of that, so I went a different route.

The handle of the spear came from a thunder hammer (as did the attached hand) with the shaft made from plasticard rod. The spear tip came from the Assault on Black Reach Captain model (bought one specially). It’s a slightly different sword design that means the blade works brilliantly as a spear tip.

The guantlet was converted from a veteran powerfist, that was slightly smaller than the usual plastic power fists and on a scaled up model doesn’t look so much like one. Find a similar version done in plastic here.

The pose took a lot of fiddling to get right. You have to keep dry testing it until you find something that works. The cloak was the hardest part of the mini to create and  was a definitely learning experience. I’d recommend doing cloaks as a separate part of any model unless you want to make life harder than it should be. I built it up slowly, first the basic shape and try to get a smooth finish and then the scales where added literally one at a time (not something I’d recommend). I’ve tried to convey a sense of the wind blowing from behind him in the direction of his aim, hence the shape of the collar.

I decided to leave off the icon on the back pack, as it’s one of the elements of the official model I dislike.