At this point I’ve done quite a run of “Tom fixes a Primaris kit he doesn't like”. The Desolators, obviously, the Invictor Warsuit, the Aggressors and Incursors… Quite aside from my constant tweaking and improving of otherwise acceptable units I just want to do my way. This isn’t that, well, not exactly. I genuinely think the Lieutenant With Combi-weapon is a great model (with a stupid name). I used to be an Ultramarine player when I first started (blindly following the box art without understanding, and then sticking with that choice for many years), and I love this call-back to the Tyrannic War Veterans. However it doesn't really suit my Raven Guard, who don’t often face Tyranids (since I’m the only person I know in this city with a full Tyranid army*). Plus the model kind of gives off psycho killer vibes, rather than sneaky beaky. So, as ever, I made my own.
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| Image Credit: Games Workshop, used without permission for illustrative purposes only. |
Charlie has previously posted about his own take on this model, however where he converted the exsisting model (in part because he already had it in the Leviathan set), I am starting completely from scratch.
*for now...
Decoding The Unit
I started by looking at what the unit is for, for vibes, and what it’s rules are, for equipment, and took this to be a list of requirements for my model. Kit first, as that’s clear and simple.
Firstly he has a combi-weapon. Obvious in the name, if less so looking at the front of the model. GW call it a combi-weapon right now, and they are all treated the same in the rules, but that is recent and to be honest I don’t like it, so I’m sticking with the combi-flamer specifically in the hope the rules go back to being different between them. He also has a pair of combat blades, and phobos armour. Curiously he has no sidearm at all, rendering Charlie's take illegal (nerd screetching intensifies). He’s also covered in grenades like most phobos marines.
Less specifically fixed on the model, and thus more likely to change in other editions, he is supposed to be a loner with a tonne of stealth rules (Infiltrators, Lone Operative, Stealth, Evade and Survive) and his special rule is about marking an objective and making it easier for his allies to wound enemies who are on it.
(Re-)Building The Unit
Body
With all that in mind I decided to start with an Eliminator, for the cool cloak (I also considered the Phobos Captain but I already have one of those in the works and didn’t want them to look too similar). Looking at the poses, the Sergeant, who holds his gun one-handed, seemed the easiest to repose. It also has a monocular in the other hand, perfect for indicating his role as marking out objectives and calling out foes near it to his allies.
I built up the basic body, shaved off and filed down the Eliminator badge, and carved out the tab in the neck that keeps his head aligned so he could take alternative heads. I also slapped on the combat blades and some pouches. I dry fitted some grenades but they didn’t look right to me so I decided they could be in his pouches or perhaps hidden under the cloak.
I don’t like the huge and very-obvious-when-repeated base decorations of the Eliminators, so I dumped it and replaced it with a more modest hero rock. Technically I guess I’m cheating by putting him on a smaller base too, but I’ve never liked my Phobos characters rolling around on huge bases, it just feels wrong to me. Don’t @ me.
Gun
Pretty much anytime I say or think the word gun, I hear my father’s voice in my head saying “it’s not a gun, it’s a rifle”. I don’t think he was imagining something like this though. I got a combi-flamer from eBay from the new Sternguard (I think), but actually once I had it on the bench and was thinking about the character, this lone-wolf target spotter, I changed my mind a bit about what I wanted it to be. I figured the bolter could be about eliminating lone targets quietly, and then the flamer for when everything went bad, to prevent getting mobbed and deter pursuit.
That meant the bolter part needed a silencer (easy) and a scope. The latter is a problem because of the, frankly, stupid magazine layout. However I didn’t want to swap weapons, so I decided to go with an Incursor scope instead, which very clearly has no optics to look down, but could certainly be wired into a helmet for precision aiming, as well as further leaning into the whole target marking aspect. I shaved it down, and trimmed and cleaned a bit of the rail off the top so I could get a clean surface to glue.
I also trimmed off the left hand, and did my best to carve the grip back in (it’s pretty well hidden under the model anyway), and carefully sliced off the right hand and glued in the Eliminator hand instead. It's definitely a chunky weapon to be holding one handed by the pistol grip, but the pose is fairly relaxed, so I don't think it looks too bad. If he was holding it out and pointing it, it would be ridiculous.
Chapter Badge
I hate transfers, and I hate freehand. But this boy does not allow for replacing the shoulder pad with a moulded one. As Brother Sergeant Highway would put it, "Improvise, Adapt, Overcome". So I dug out a brass icon and shaped it onto the shoulder pad, aligning it with where the full pad should be, and allowing it to overlap where the pad was missing.
Once it was thoroughly set, I then trimmed it off in line with the missing chunk that, on the full model, is covered by the camo cloak.
Finishing Touches
With that I dug through my bits box and found him a suitable beaky helmet under a hood, some regular chapter fetishes from the Upgrades and Transfers set, and finally as a fun addition I gave him his own pet raven. This last piece is actually magnetised, rather than glued onto the base, as I thought it very susceptible to getting snapped off.
Done!
And with one paintjob later, I have a completed “Lieutenant With Combi-weapon” that is fully WYSIWYG and fits the overall vibe, but is unique and much more aesthetically suited to my Raven Guard army. I’m not completely set on how I’ll use him lore wise, I’m tempted to count him in my army as a solo infiltrator, rather than an actual ranking Lieutenant, designated with the old Heresy era term "Moritait". If the Raven Guard can’t have weird anti-social loners, who can?
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