Primaris Psyker conversion

Today's short post is an ode to the advanced headswap. I've just finished off a Primaris Psyker for the mechanised Guard army I painted back in 8th edition, because sometimes you just fancy a palette cleanser. There were however two issues with using the stock kit. For one, I'm not a huge fan of the default head and collar, even if I recognise that shying away from Imperial weirdness is an act of cowardice. Secondly, both Jeff and Tom have already painted the same mini for their armies, and I didn't like the idea of having triplets running around. I'm a special snowflake, and so are my tiny plastic people.

Enter a spare head from Statuesque Miniatures, some pinning, and some green stuff.

I took a deep breath and snipped off the collar. No going back now. Pinning the head in place and sculpting a neck, the next move was to smooth over the damage to the cuirass and then get a collar and hair bun in place, since the head's original ponytail didn't feel right.

The result, I think, is a salutory reminder that no matter what painting choices we make, changing the silhouette to two identical models makes a huge difference.

That having been said, I did also try to lean into a very different colour scheme to my friends'. I really can't emphasise enough how much I like Jeff's paint job of this mini in particular; his colour choices give the sculpt a realness I really admire, and he's been very clever in his colour choices to make a busy model both readable and pleasant to look at, while also fitting in well with his army.

Jeff's psyker. I could go on about the various little details I like for some time, right down to the grip of her pistol, or the richness of the green. But I shan't.

For my own paintjob, I wanted to emphasise the psyker's status as an outsider, so have used colours that are entirely different to my army's. This also gave me a chance to play around with colours I don't get to use all that often, primarily grey-blues and (despite what the camera may tell you) the turquoise on the sash.

There's elements of the result I like (the skin tone's a base of Vallejo beige brown highlighted up with Citadel Kislev Flesh plus a thin wash of Reikland Fleshshade) and elements I could've done better (the gem on the staff is too uniformly bright; it should be darker towards the top). One could go back and tinker, of course, but since this was a quick, fun break from my bigger projects. Getting obsessive would defeat the purpose. Instead, I've quickly knocked out something satisfyingly, imperfectly, and uniquely my own.

Which, arguably, is somewhat true of the visual atrocity my child self committed back in the Nineties, the first time I painted a Primaris Psyker...

Primaris Colours Psyker.
We all had to start somewhere.